WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 67
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Winter had deepened.
Snow that had melted as soon as it fell now piled above ankle height. As snow covered the frozen rivers and lakes, the line between water and land blurred.
Traveling across the Fields on foot was not easy.
Users without the means to take an Eagle taxi somewhere warm naturally stayed at their own bases, focusing on hunting, production, and repairs.
Boss raids had still come to a halt.
Even Giant Lake was no exception.
People rarely stepped in to sabotage them anymore, but now users themselves seemed to give up on fishing if they thought they had hooked a boss.
The time and effort needed to kill one were a problem, but there was no guarantee they would even manage to fish it up.
And even if they did, the changes brought by another increase in Field Level were an even greater concern.
As a result, nearly three months after winter began, no raid completion notifications had appeared.
Then, at last, one did.
It was from the central Rocky Cliff Field.
It was now the only Area that had not been integrated.
Its Field Level was still far from 100, so some people said it would be easier to raid than the other Areas.
But they were wrong.
Even at a lower level, it was still a bird, making it inherently difficult to raid. There was also little room for users to move around properly.
The first successful raid had been sheer luck, after they covered the place in Lightning Rods and waited for lightning as though performing a rain ritual. Things had not changed much after that.
But this raid was different.
The Eagle Rider squadrons had finally gathered properly and carried out a group raid.
It was the Field's first large-scale aerial battle.
More than twenty Large Eagles and their riders drove the boss through the cliffs.
They took turns attacking. When it fled upward, they pursued it. When it slipped into a gap in the rocks, another squadron blocked the other side.
The recorded video looked quite impressive.
Eagles darted between snow-covered cliffs while riders rained down arrows and throwing spears.
In the end, the boss Eagle fell beneath a secluded cliff, and the hunt was over.
But the participants' reviews were mixed.
-That aerial battle looks badass.
ㄴOnly in the video.
ㄴPeople who did it say they'll never do it again.
ㄴWhy?
ㄴFighting up there was harder than expected. Eagles nearly crashed into each other, people nearly smashed into cliffs, it was a whole mess.
-Is the central Field getting integrated now?
ㄴStill unclear.
ㄴThree Eagles died in the middle of it, and five riders fell.
ㄴWhy did more riders fall than Eagles died?
ㄴGuess their safety harnesses snapped.
-They said they won't catch it like this next time.
ㄴYeah, better to set traps below.
ㄴWill an aerial boss even come down?
ㄴIt's not like it stays up there the whole time.
ㄴThen luring it down would be better.
In the end, the Eagle Rider squadrons' greatest gain was not the reward, but an adjustment to their raiding method.
Just because they could fly did not mean fighting in the sky was advantageous. On the ground, they only needed to watch one direction, but in the air, they had to watch above and below as well.
And the larger an Eagle became, the harder it was for it to turn sharply. In a squadron, they also had to consider one another's flight paths.
Even in this battle, there had been several incidents caused by friendly Eagles getting in one another's way or colliding.
Considering all those major and minor problems, they concluded that the next hunt should focus on setting traps on the ground and luring the boss down.
It would not look cool.
But the chance of dying would be much lower.
‘They did kill it.’
Seo Hajin nodded as he watched the video.
He had been curious, but he still had no intention of going after the Eagle boss.
‘From the looks of it, they'll keep trying. Maybe that Area will reach Level 100 before we return.’
If that happened, the monsters and beasts from that Area would respawn throughout every Area without him needing to go there.
Eagles would become available even in Northern Forest, so he could deal with them then.
In fact, that would be better for hunting ordinary Eagles. Boss respawns would not change much in the original Area.
‘More importantly.’
Other important information continued to appear on social media. Posts, pictures, and videos uploaded by users who had returned home.
As they adapted to the Tower and Awakener society, they gradually sent information to those who remained here.
Most of it was nonsense posts, daily updates, and a little bragging.
Living-room views posted by people who said they now lived in expensive apartments instead of the one-room studios they had lived in before, thanks to incomes they could never have dreamed of in the past.
Pictures of imported cars and luxury watches, the kinds of things people who suddenly came into money tended to buy. The world had apparently not changed all that much.
There was even someone who posted pictures of beautiful women who somehow looked like they enjoyed luxury. They did not seem to be dating seriously, since the woman in the pictures changed every time.
Of course, others had different inclinations.
Those who pursued substance rather than extravagance.
One person uploaded a picture claiming they had acquired a military rifle from somewhere, then hurriedly deleted it after comments pointed out that its serial number was visible and told them to grind it off.
Others bought land, or entered unmanaged land to farm it.
The latter might become a problem someday, but the world was so chaotic that it apparently was not being managed for now.
Among those many posts, quite a few people also uploaded accounts and information for those who would go through something similar in the future.
At first, they only posted fragments of their experiences. But as the number of returnees grew, the variety and quality of information gradually changed.
[Required Reading for Those Returning Later]
This latest post was one of those.
It was not short, and the beginning concerned Points.
Points.
The system currency they used could apparently be used in much the same way back home.
It functioned as currency among Awakeners in Tower facilities and user-to-user trades, and some items could not even be acquired with ordinary money.
The advice was not to spend it carelessly just to fulfill other conditions, but to save it whenever possible.
-Is spending Points there the same as here?
ㄴMostly, but prices are different.
ㄴHow different?
ㄴSkill books and equipment are cheaper here, but they have better stuff there. That stuff is way more expensive.
ㄴThen we should save as much as possible.
-Can you buy Points with cash?
ㄴGot a lot of money saved up?
ㄴIt's in my bank account. The banks over there are still running, right?
ㄴNo banks have failed yet, but nearly everything is online now. Only headquarters seem to handle in-person transactions.
ㄴAs long as they haven't failed, whatever.
ㄴYou can exchange cash for Points with other people if you link a bank account to the system, but the fee is 30 percent.
ㄴThat's insanely high.
ㄴYou can meet up and trade in person like a local marketplace deal, but you could get jumped, so not recommended.
ㄴWhat's the cash rate?
ㄴRight now, about 10,000 won per Point. But it keeps rising little by little.
They said the Tower also had skill books, equipment, medicine, and similar items. In many cases, the items available there performed better than those they had seen in the test Area.
-The weird thing is, after the test Area's Field Level went up, the monsters there actually seem stronger than the ones on the Tower's first floor here.
ㄴFor real?
ㄴYeah. At Field Level 100, they're at least five times stronger than the Tower's first floor.
ㄴBut the funny thing is, Tower monsters give more loot and more Points than the monsters there.
ㄴThat's why this place is fucking weird.
ㄴProbably because it's a test server.
However, the person sharing tips said that did not mean they should take the Tower outside lightly. That was only true for the first floor. From the second floor onward, it was a completely different atmosphere.
There was also one more piece of information Seo Hajin could not overlook.
Test Area users who had returned recently were no longer sent back to the place they had been before entering here. Instead, they were sent to the Tower's first-floor area.
-Don't know when it started, but it seems to have changed completely since it keeps happening lately.
ㄴAh. Isn't that dangerous?
ㄴIt's fine if you stay alert.
ㄴBut there's one thing you need to watch out for.
What did they need to watch out for?
The comment thread ended there, but Seo Hajin could guess what followed from another post.
[Be Careful If You See a Rift After Returning]
There were rifts scattered throughout the Tower's first floor, as though space itself had been torn open. Some led outside the Tower, but others led to upper floors.
The problem was that they looked identical.
The writer emphasized that point several times.
‘You need to check the scenery beyond the rift.’
If he saw familiar cities, buildings, people, or other scenery from the hometown he knew beyond a rift, it was likely a path leading outside.
But if he saw unfamiliar scenery such as a forest, Wasteland, or cave, he was not supposed to enter carelessly.
It might not lead outside. It could be a rift to the second floor.
-Can people really mistake them?
ㄴWhen you just returned, your head's a mess. If you see a rift, you might assume it's an exit.
ㄴBut you can see the scenery, right?
ㄴYou can, but sometimes it's blurry, and from a bad angle you can only see part of it.
ㄴSo get close enough to check, but don't enter?
ㄴYeah.
ㄴDoes it suck you in?
ㄴNo. You can even stick in a hand, but not recommended.
-Can't you just come back down if you go to the second floor?
ㄴYou can't.
ㄴWhy?
ㄴGoing to an upper floor is one-way.
ㄴThen if you go to the second floor, you can't get outside?
ㄴApparently there are exits on the second floor too, but you have to survive long enough to reach one.
ㄴFinding an exit on the first floor is safest from the start.
They said people could enter and leave the first floor relatively freely. Anyone with the system could enter from anywhere, while leaving was simply inconvenient because they could only do so through a rift.
But it was different from the second floor onward.
Once they went up, they could not return to a lower floor or leave for the outside world. To get back outside, they had to reach an exit on the second floor.
Quite a few people had passed through a rift unprepared and died on the second floor.
Since the second floor had more valuable things than the first, it was only natural that more dangerous and powerful beings would be there.
It had not been confirmed, but some people speculated that some returnees classified as missing had met that fate.
‘Why make them identical rifts?’
Seo Hajin thought.
Was it a kind of trap?
Or did passages leading outside and passages leading to upper floors only look alike because the system considered them the same type?
There was no way to know yet.
What mattered was that he should not enter a rift immediately, but check the scenery beyond it first.
‘There's more information, too.’
The next post said people could encounter foreigners on the Tower's upper floors.
Someone entered a Tower that had appeared in Korea and encountered an Awakener from another country.
Conversely, there also seemed to be cases where people apparently entering from Towers abroad appeared in the same area as Korean users.
Some people speculated that each country's Towers shared their upper floors. They said only people from the same country appeared through the first floor, but that did not seem to apply above it.
Another opinion was that there might be separate rifts leading to Towers in other countries.
Neither explanation had been confirmed yet.
-The first floor is the basic regional tutorial, then the real thing starts above it as a global server, right?
ㄴStill not sure. The second-floor area doesn't seem to be just one place. Some people only met Koreans.
ㄴSo you could cross over into another country's Tower?
ㄴYeah. There are actual rumors that someone passed through a return rift in a foreign Tower and ended up in that country instead of Korea.
ㄴFor real?
ㄴFor now, it's just a rumor with no proof.
-Do you speak English if you meet foreigners in the Tower?
ㄴThe system has automatic translation, but it feels like old AI translation, so the nuances come across kind of vague.
ㄴIs it free?
ㄴNo, you have to buy it. It costs 5,000 Points.
ㄴThat's insanely expensive.
ㄴThat's about 50 million won in cash, but it does handle most languages in the world, even if it's a bit clunky, so it seems worth the price. Without it, you have to deal with foreign languages yourself.
ㄴHmm.
There were also stories that the environment differed by country, or by the rift entered.
For the first floor at least, the Korean Tower had an environment relatively suitable for people to live in. It was almost identical to where they were currently surviving.
But some countries apparently had areas filled with poisonous fog, or areas with nothing but water.
There were also stories about a Tower connected to a mechanical civilization. Pictures were attached of various pieces of equipment, mechanical devices, and items like Mana Batteries that seemed to have come from there.
The components were familiar to Seo Hajin.
There had been quite a few similar pieces among the miscellaneous items from his boxes.
-People talked about the mechanical civilization Tower before.
ㄴThat was speculation back then.
ㄴLooks like lots of pictures are circulating now.
-That looks exactly like the stuff we got from our boxes. Does stuff from there appear here too?
ㄴThat came up before too.
ㄴBut it still isn't confirmed.
ㄴIf even the pictures are similar, isn't it basically confirmed?
ㄴThere could be several similar civilizations.
There were also stories of war.
In some countries, wars broke out over ownership of Towers or the resources around them.
Since a country did not have only one Tower, conflicts like that could happen.
There were conflicts between countries, but also conflicts between governments and Awakener groups.
Some governments tried to control and manage Awakeners, or confiscate what they obtained from the Towers, or extort it in the form of donations.
But they said nothing like that happened in Korea, at least. There had been friction in the past, but Tower monsters had escaped into the world several times, strengthening the Awakeners' position and influence.
‘Our country has plenty of people who won't just bow their heads.’
Ordinary people who would rise up in an emergency and protect themselves and those around them. Perhaps that tendency showed itself more clearly because the world was in chaos.
‘Hmm.’
Were his mother and younger sibling doing well?
He wondered from time to time, but he did not particularly feel like returning immediately.
Whenever he lightly thought that they would manage fine on their own, he felt as though he had become cold-blooded.
But another thought often followed. Maybe his mother would not be that sad about his disappearance.
He increasingly resembled his father as he grew older. His mother always told him to visit often, yet whenever he actually did, she could not hide her awkward expression.
‘Hayeon is different, though.’
Hayeon could be a reason.
Family he needed to protect.
But when he considered whether he would accept cancer spreading through his whole body and force an early return for Hayeon's sake, he slowly shook his head.
‘Maybe I really am broken.’
With a faintly bitter smile, he closed the system window and returned to his daily life.
No matter what happened outside, every day in this test Area now passed much the same way.
The Field Level had stagnated.
Monsters respawned at a steady level, and users hunted them for Points and loot.
Fewer people worried about survival every day as they had when they first entered this place.
Most users now knew which hunting grounds and monsters they could handle, and they had learned how to avoid dangerous situations.
More people admitted that they could not manage alone and joined Clans or parties. At the same time, some people, exhausted by group life, left them.
Those who left on their own usually found places with little traffic and built small shelters.
More people barely hunted at all, buying food and Firewood with the Points they had saved and waiting out the time required for the return conditions.
The place where the most such people gathered was the central Rocky Cliff Field.
Since it had not yet been integrated, monsters from other Areas had not crossed over. It also had many cliffs and caves, making it easy to hide.
Some discovered natural caves that had always been there, but quite a few dug directly into the rock themselves.
A cave large enough for one person to live in.
They put a bed and a small stove inside, sometimes adding a wooden door at the entrance.
Since it was still winter, they melted snow for water. They bought most of their food from the marketplace.
It was a lifestyle that would have been impossible in the past.
Back then, food had been too expensive, and Points disappeared quickly even from buying small things.
But things were different now.
As the hunting population increased, meat and ingredients flooded the marketplace.
There were also more processed foods made by users with production skills. If all they wanted was to fill their stomachs, a small number of Points was enough.
Among those, Juggernaut's ramen was famous for its value.
[Anyone Tried Juggernaut Ramen?]
-The taste honestly isn't great.
ㄴYeah, it's not bad exactly, but it's kind of bland.
ㄴIt says spicy, but it isn't that spicy.
ㄴThat stuff like red pepper powder is hard to get.
-But the portions are big and it's cheap.
ㄴIt's decent if you add meat to the broth.
ㄴMushrooms or vegetables work too.
ㄴIf you add all that, anything tastes good.
ㄴIt's cheap. That's all that matters.
ㄴTrue.
-When it's not cold, you can buy shakes and mix them with water. They seem pretty high in calories.
ㄴIt tasted fishy when I mixed it with water.
ㄴTry Mountain Goat Milk.
ㄴWouldn't that taste even fishier?
ㄴI thought so too, but it doesn't.
‘They're still complaining.’
Seo Hajin did not think the ramen he sold tasted that bad. He had also kept improving it since he first started selling it.
Compared to the ramen he had eaten back home, it was naturally lacking.
But he considered it an accomplishment in its own way that he had managed to get it close to that level using only ingredients available here.
‘They found an ore vein while digging a cave?’
His attention had first gone to the ramen discussion, but he came across posts about people who had found ore veins in caves in the central Area.
They had dug in to make shelters and found unexpected ore veins. Iron ore made up most of it, but there also seemed to be copper and lead.
Without facilities or skills to refine it properly, they simply listed the ore itself on the marketplace. The income was modest, but people described it as a welcome source of income when they could not be active outside.
-Should I go to Rocky Cliff too?
ㄴWhy?
ㄴTo mine iron or something. Hunting's rough.
ㄴI don't think it comes out just anywhere. And breaking rocks probably isn't easier than hunting.
ㄴWouldn't it be doable if you had a Mining skill?
ㄴWho knows. Go try it if you do.
People sick of group life.
Or those struggling to survive alone.
One by one, they gathered there and became individual miners.
But the amount they mined in a day was not that great. Swinging a pickaxe required stamina, and they had to be careful not to collapse the rocks.
While some users made modest profits by mining a few chunks of ore from caves each day, somewhere in the north, an entire mountain was being carved away.
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