WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 172
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The next morning, I woke up and frowned.
I could feel that familiar touch against my cheek again.
“Crystal ball again?”
A red ball was stuck firmly to my cheek.
Warmie was right beside my face again today!
I turned to look at the suitcase beside my bed.
Last night, I’d definitely shoved it deep between my clothes.
I’d even zipped the suitcase up tight.
But now the zipper was open, and the clothes inside were a complete mess.
It must’ve escaped during the night and climbed up here.
I muttered under my breath.
“Why do these damn crystal balls love my cheeks so much?”
First Iing Iing before she hatched, and now Warmie.
Every last one of these crystal balls wanted a piece of my cheeks.
Did they have a cheek fetish?
Well, the world of fetishes was a varied place.
As Longbow Apache, defender of political correctness, I respected all kinds of fetishes!
Anyway!
“You’re here too, Iing Iing. Did you have fun last night?”
“Iing... Iing...”
“Sleeping like a baby.”
Iing Iing was also asleep near my cheek.
Apparently, she’d spent the night flying around London, then come back around dawn to sleep beside me.
She must’ve taken quite a liking to Warmie’s heat during the night, because she was hugging it tight.
She was using Warmie as a hand warmer too.
Anyway, I picked Warmie up.
Warmie felt nice and hot in my hand.
Holding something so warm suddenly made me think of hot, savory soup.
My sister’s soybean paste soup.
“...I want some soybean paste soup.”
Should I go get breakfast first?
I got out of bed.
* * *
After washing up and changing my clothes, I went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
For the record, I was staying at a top-class hotel in London.
The London Conference had booked the entire place to house national leaders and Highest Floor Hunters.
As expected of Asshole Britain’s finest hotel, the breakfast buffet had quite an impressive selection.
Steaks sizzling with juice.
Crispy bacon and plump sausages.
Fluffy scrambled eggs.
Even freshly baked bread and colorful fruit!
I did spot some strange abomination called fish and chips among it all.
But overall, it was a pretty excellent spread.
And yet...
I couldn’t help being disappointed.
“Aaah... Asshole Britain. Is this truly the best your 『fine dining』 has to offer? I had such high hopes for a luxury hotel. And yet your breakfast menu is nothing but Western food. What an un-PC, uneducated selection...!”
“Jiho. What are you suddenly going on about?”
“There’s no soybean paste soup! Soybean paste soup!!! Those damn bastards in Asshole Britain! They’ve prepared a Western breakfast, but no soybean paste soup for an Eastern breakfast?! I’d heard Europe was the home of PC, so I had high hopes. But they have no respect for political correctness...! The British Empire’s time has come! So much for the empire on which the sun never sets!!!”
“Why are you bringing up the British Empire...?”
There was no King Soup.
Not at breakfast!
I’d been denied a Korean’s soul food!
As I trembled with outrage, Choi Yejin clicked her tongue across the table.
“Just eat what they give you, you dumbass. You’re being fucking picky over breakfast. And you call yourself a man...”
“Silence!!! A Korean breakfast must be built on hot, savory soybean paste soup...! To think this noble body must fill its stomach with British cooking, infamous for tasting like shit... O heavens!!! O Primordial Heavenly Venerable!!!”
“Jiho. If it tastes so bad, why did you pile your plate so high...?”
“It’d be a waste to leave it. It’s free food.”
I grumbled as I worked my fork.
You couldn’t leave free food behind. Of course not!
While chewing my steak, I took out my phone and checked the news.
Several headlines caught my eye.
[First Sighting of a Real “Fairy”... Blue Dot’s Undisclosed Party Member Confirmed]
[Rainbow Trails Light Up London’s Night Sky, Videos Filmed by Residents Spread Worldwide]
[“Neither AI nor a Drone”: Academics and Climber Management Agencies Worldwide Shocked by Appearance of “Living Summon”]
[Hunter Gallery’s “Thumbs-Up Iing Iing” Post Passes Ten Million Views... Overseas Users Flock to See It]
Thanks to Iing Iing’s little night outing, she was all over the news worldwide!
I held my phone screen up to Iing Iing, who was nibbling away at a strawberry on the table.
“Iing Iing. Look at this. The whole world’s talking about you. You’re a proper world-class star now!”
“Iing!”
Seeing herself on the screen, Iing Iing puffed out her chest and raised her chin with a smug expression.
The Fairy-Self-Promotion pose.
Well done, Iing Iing.
Go farm every last bit of attention in the world!
As I happily browsed the articles, a slight frown suddenly crossed my face.
“Hmm. How outrageous.”
“What is, Jiho?”
“Why are there more articles about Iing Iing than about me, the first person in human history to clear Floor 50 and earn a hundred million Points?”
No matter how far I scrolled, it was all fairies, fairies, and Thumbs-Up Iing Iing.
The news of my glorious arrival at Floor 51 had been buried far below by Iing Iing’s cuteness!
Damn it.
Was this world really all about looks?
Sure, I had a handsome face that could keep girls around the world awake at night.
But my face hadn’t been revealed to the general public yet.
Was that why I couldn’t compete in the looks department?
Well, Iing Iing was fucking adorable.
Something like clearing Floor 50 could never beat her charm.
For a moment, the attention whore in me felt a little bitter.
“Iing Iing.”
But the moment she finished her strawberry and rubbed her cheek against my hand, all that bitterness melted away.
Right. It wasn’t just anyone. It was our adorable Iing Iing.
I could afford to be generous.
As we continued eating breakfast...
“Good morning, Hunter Baek Jiho. Is the food to your liking?”
A middle-aged man in a suit approached with a plate.
It was none other than President Jang Daehan.
Since this was a hotel breakfast restaurant rather than an official meeting room, he’d left his bodyguards some distance away.
I generously gestured toward the seat beside me with my chin.
“A presidential nobody is welcome to join us. There’s plenty of room.”
“Calling the president a nobody. Where the fuck did you leave your manners?”
“I don’t want to hear that from someone whose drunken habit is storming the Blue House and grabbing the president by the collar.”
“What? Fuck, where did you hear that?”
“From the president himself...”
“Hahahaha! Don’t mind if I do. Ah, good morning to you too, Miss Fairy.”
“Iing!”
President Jang Daehan smoothly took his seat, and Iing Iing waved to welcome him.
Apparently, meeting him on the plane yesterday had already made them friends.
We were sitting side by side and eating when...
“Jiho! My friend!”
A booming voice came from the restaurant entrance.
I turned and saw a thick head of blond hair swaying.
It was none other than Donald Torumph.
He strode toward us with a plate piled high with bacon and a Diet Coke.
David followed silently behind him.
“Perfect timing! I was just thinking how boring it would be to eat alone!”
Scrape.
Torumph came right over and plopped down beside me without a second thought.
David quietly took the seat next to him.
I stopped cutting my sausage and looked from side to side.
On my left was Jang Daehan, president of King Korea.
On my right was Torumph, the Yankee president.
One seat farther over sat David, the former world number one.
Across the table, my party members stared at us in bewilderment.
‘What the hell?’
Why was I cutting up a sausage while sandwiched between the presidents of South Korea and the United States?
It was a pretty bizarre scene.
Still, something was missing.
“As expected of a Western breakfast, it’s disgustingly greasy...! Some soybean paste soup to cleanse my palate would be wonderful!”
“You and that damn soybean paste soup...”
I missed my sister’s soybean paste soup!
As I whined between the two presidents, people began turning to look at us.
“Who’s that? Who on earth is he, eating with Torumph...?”
“Isn’t that the Hunter called Blue Dot? The first one to clear Floor 50...”
“My God. President Trump actually carried his plate over to join him?!”
“David’s sitting there too, isn’t he? The current and former world number one Hunters at the same table...”
“Is that the fairy that caused all the fuss last night?!”
Torumph joining us had drawn everyone’s attention.
Well, Earth’s head mod was bound to attract a few stares.
It was almost pitiful, watching European officials hover around us for a chance to speak to him.
Like satellites orbiting the Earth.
Anyway, in the middle of that busy breakfast, news played on the large TV mounted on the restaurant wall.
“French authorities described the armed assailants shot dead on the northern outskirts as ‘terror suspects, not monsters’...”
“Footage of monsters appearing near the United States-Canada border is spreading rapidly on social media...”
“The authorities...”
It was news about the monsters appearing all over the real world.
Of course, the authorities were denying it across the board.
But no matter how I looked at them, those were monsters.
I glanced at Torumph and asked.
“Mr. Torumph.”
“Hmm? What is it, Jiho?”
“Is that the start of that ‘Great Cataclysm’ or whatever you mentioned at the Blue House?”
At my question, President Jang Daehan stopped cutting his steak.
He looked toward Torumph.
Before, Torumph would’ve smoothly dodged the question with something like, “I’ll tell you if you become an American.”
But this time was different.
He slowly put down his fork, took a sip of Diet Coke, then spoke with a serious expression.
“Yes. Now that you’ve reached Floor 51, it’s time you knew. It’s the first major item on the agenda at the main session shortly, anyway.”
“Oooh. You’re finally going to tell me?”
“First, let me ask you something. Jiho, why do you think the Tower collects as many Points as there are people every month?”
Torumph had answered my question with another question.
That wasn’t very good conversational manners.
Anyway, I answered.
“Isn’t it just shaking us down?”
“...”
“Or is it tax? Rent? A maintenance fee?”
“A maintenance fee. Surprisingly close to the answer.”
Torumph gestured.
The bodyguards standing some distance away took the hint and formed a perimeter around our table.
As if that weren’t enough, they even used some kind of artifact.
Hummm...
A translucent barrier formed between our table and the rest of the restaurant, blocking out the sound.
Wasn’t this...
A qi barrier?!
That incredibly convenient martial arts technique where you released internal energy to form a shield, block sound, and whatever else you needed!
To think there was even a qi barrier artifact...
They really had artifacts for everything.
Torumph continued.
“Jiho. There’s a wall between the world we live in and the world beyond the Tower.”
“A wall? Like this qi barrier?”
“I don’t know what a qi barrier is... But let’s say it’s roughly like this soundproofing barrier artifact. A dimensional wall. But that wall... is getting thinner.”
Torumph reached out and felt the qi barrier.
Where his hand touched it, the barrier grew thin and faint.
A little of the sound it had blocked began to filter through.
He took his hand away and spoke.
“The Goblins, Orcs, and other creatures appearing around the world are leaking through gaps in the thinning wall.”
“Hmm...”
I looked at the spot on the qi barrier Torumph had just touched.
Only that area had grown faint, letting outside sounds seep in.
“...So this qi barrier represents the dimensional wall. And just like the sound leaking in from outside, monsters from the other dimension are leaking through?”
“Exactly.”
Torumph nodded.
Anyway, this dimensional wall or whatever had grown thinner.
And that was why monsters were appearing.
“And that maintenance fee you mentioned earlier? That’s what the Points we pay the Tower are.”
“What exactly are we paying to maintain?”
“The dimensional wall. Left alone, the ‘wall’ gets a little thinner every month. Like an old embankment slowly worn away by the current, the wall wears down bit by bit.”
Torumph lightly tapped the qi barrier with a finger.
“The Points we currently pay the Tower fill in whatever has worn away each month.”
“Aha. So that’s why we pay every month.”
“And the more people living on a piece of land, the greater the pressure on its wall. That’s why the bill is based on population.”
The dimensional wall wore down every month.
And we were paying for repairs.
That was what the one Point per person was for.
So... it really was a maintenance fee.
“As long as we pay the Points on time, the wall remains intact. But if we fall short...”
Torumph pressed his finger against the qi barrier again.
A little deeper than before.
Pop!
His finger slipped right through the thinning barrier.
“If we can’t fill it in, a hole opens in the wall. And people disappear in proportion to the hole.”
“That’s the ‘vanishing’ the Tower’s notice mentioned.”
“Yes.”
I thought back to the notice that had been engraved in the minds of all humanity when the Tower of Trials first appeared.
[The protection period for intelligent life has ended.]
[The survival test will now begin.]
[A ‘Tower of Trials’ has been created in the capital of every nation.]
[Each nation must pay Points equal to its population every month.]
[If Points cannot be paid, a portion of the population equal to the Point shortfall will vanish.]
[Climb the Tower and prove your worth to survive.]
[A grace period of 100 days will be granted.]
The world’s announcement, forcibly engraved into every human soul.
I still remembered it clearly.
Those mysterious words had appeared in my mind.
Then a black Tower had suddenly torn through the space in Gwanghwamun Square and risen into the sky...
Torumph continued quietly.
“Until now, the wall has worn away at a steady rate. Each country could hold on by paying a fixed amount of Points every month. But... that rate is increasing. Not in any one country. The walls across the entire world are thinning at once.”
Torumph gestured toward the TV with his chin.
“That’s only the beginning. Before long, the entire ‘wall’ will enter a period of rapid thinning.”
“And that’s the Great Cataclysm?”
“Yes. And when it happens, the maintenance fees will soar. Every month, we’ll be charged several times, even dozens of times what we pay now.”
“What if we can’t pay?”
“The wall collapses. People disappear, and things from the other world pour through the holes. Not mere Goblins. The monsters you fought on the High Floors and Highest Floors will start rampaging through the middle of our cities.”
Highest Floor monsters in the middle of a city.
I pictured an Ancient Dragon landing in the heart of Gwanghwamun.
Hmm.
That would be a bit of a problem.
“In the end, we can only hold on as long as we can pay. Though we don’t know how long that will be.”
Torumph put down his can of Coke.
“We’re simply buying time.”
Silence fell over the table.
The Point payments would rise dozens of times over...
Plenty of countries were already buckling under the cost.
If that multiplied by dozens...
“Then once the Great Cataclysm hits, a huge number of people will vanish.”
“Vanish... Heh heh.”
Torumph looked at me with an odd expression.
“Jiho. Do you remember the Tower’s notice exactly?”
“If you can’t pay the Points, people vanish to make up the shortfall... Wasn’t that it?”
“‘A portion of the population’ vanishes.”
“?”
“The Tower never said people would die. It only said this world’s population would decrease.”
It was Jang Daehan who spoke next.
“...Then the people who disappeared because we couldn’t pay the Points...”
“We don’t know. Whether they truly vanished, or crossed over to somewhere beyond the wall. We have no way to check. But some of our scholars believe the latter.”
It sounded like wordplay.
But it was also true that, for seven years, no one had read the notice that way.
If they hadn’t vanished...
If they’d crossed over to somewhere beyond the wall...
Then where were the billions of people who’d disappeared over the past seven years...
Right now?
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