Chapter 19

Chapter 19: No Taking Back a Move

My house.

"There's seriously no answer."

Floor 25, Endless Desert.

I had already burned through three Highest-Grade Magic Stones.

Still no Contribution Points.

No clear either.

[Floor 25, "Endless Desert," is a concept floor with an extremely large area.]

[Long-range attacks from outside the Gate are extremely inefficient.]

The system was clearly giving me a hint.

"You're telling me to go inside myself."

Don't just stick the laser through the Gate.

Enter and hunt personally.

Me?

The Tower seemed desperate to force me inside.

Honestly, I understand.

If I gave someone an EX-rank ability and they refused to climb the Tower, I'd probably get annoyed too.

Truthfully, I had no talent for combat.

More accurately, I had never even tried.

Until now, I'd just pushed a barrel through a Gate and held the trigger.

I'd never thrown myself into a real battle.

Why?

Because it's dangerous.

Sure, I understood why people had expectations for an EX-rank Hunter.

Still, being careful wasn't a bad decision.

Maybe I should just quit all this.

The thought suddenly occurred to me.

I'd already earned enough money to live comfortably forever.

Two S-rank weapons.

Nearly one hundred billion won in cash assets.

And now there were Contribution Points too.

Do I really need to suffer?

Why not abandon the oil business and everything else?

Travel around nearby countries.

Eat good food.

Relax.

That has its own romance.

Just as I was thinking that...

Bzzzt.

My smartphone vibrated.

"Hello?"

· 

Yeah, it's me.

· 

CEO Park.

"What's up?"

· 

I've finished the contract to rent an offshore drilling ship. Exploration will begin soon.

· 

"Oh, that's fast."

· 

We need to move quickly. You should prepare too.

· 

"For what?"

Me?

Hadn't we agreed that CEO Park would handle all the actual work?

- Put in all the money you have.

I went silent.

"...All of it? Why?"

· 

One exploration run costs hundreds of billions. Equipment rental, labor, fuel, permits... it never ends.

· 

"But still, putting in everything is a little..."

- Hey. I already put my entire fortune into this. I maxed out every loan I could get too.

Something suddenly felt very wrong.

"What? Why would you go that far...?"

- Because I trusted what you said.

The call ended.

"...Huh?"

I felt uneasy.

I immediately checked the corporate account.

[F&C Oil Corporate Account]

[Balance: 30,000,000,000 won]

"What?!"

Thirty billion won had just been deposited.

For reference, F&C Oil was the oil company CEO Park and I had established jointly.

That thirty billion was the money he'd just contributed as his share.

This crazy man really did it...

I hadn't expected him to go this far.

He borrowed money and dumped everything into it.

Now I seriously can't back out.

The die was cast.

The game had started.

The money was already on the table.

I couldn't suddenly say I was quitting.

If I did...

CEO Park, I don't think I want to do this anymore.

Now?

Yes.

Then I guess you need to get hurt.

Gasp!

Just imagining it sent a chill down my spine.

I might wake up on a deep-sea fishing boat.

And never touch land again.

That cannot happen!

Let's calculate.

If I put all my money into the oil business...

Including the eighty billion I'd lost because Lee Geonho died, I'd be down almost one hundred sixty billion won.

Divide that by my four-billion-won hourly rate...!

Forty hours!

I'd need to work another forty hours just to break even.

"Haa..."

A sigh escaped me.

The world refuses to leave me alone.

Was it because I was a man worth four billion won an hour?

I decided to postpone my peaceful life.

"Guess I have to go in."

There was no other choice.

I stood in front of the Floor 25 Gate and hardened my resolve.

Fine.

I'll become one.

An oil tycoon!

Friends Capital Office.

"Hyung."

One of the subordinates carefully spoke.

"What?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Why did you go all-in on this? Is there really oil in the East Sea?"

The loan shark remained silent for a moment.

Then he looked out the window.

"I've survived in this business for more than twenty years."

"Yes."

"I've met every kind of bastard imaginable. Scammers. Gamblers. Braggarts. But..."

He lit a cigar and inhaled.

"That kid is different."

"What do you mean?"

"He's hiding something enormous behind that clueless face."

The subordinate tilted his head.

"Isn't that exaggerating?"

"Exaggerating? Remember Kim Jong-un dying?"

"...Yes?"

"That happened right after that kid did something. Lee Jinho, that S-rank Hunter, died too. Then Lee Geonho suddenly became a debtor owing over one hundred billion won. All of it."

The loan shark, Friend, had seen DivineMan's posts on HunVen from early on.

The subordinate's face gradually hardened.

"You're saying he's that extraordinary...?"

"If there's one thing I learned after twenty years in gambling dens and loan-sharking..."

Friend placed his cigar on the ashtray.

"When a game is about to become huge, you feel it in your body first. And whenever I'm around that kid..."

He grinned.

"I always feel it."

"So that's why you invested everything?"

"Yeah. Even borrowed money."

The subordinate's spine went cold.

"Hyung. Isn't that gambling?"

"It is."

Friend smiled calmly.

"But I'm not betting on that kid."

"Huh?"

"I'm betting on his luck."

The subordinate wanted to ask more.

But after seeing Friend's expression, he closed his mouth.

Absolute confidence.

Whenever Friend looked like this...

He always ended up proving his judgment right.

Tower of Fate, Floor 25.

Endless Desert.

[Entering Tower of Fate Floor 25.]

Sand crunched beneath my feet.

Yellow desert stretched in every direction.

Nothing but sand all the way to the horizon.

"...It's really huge."

I couldn't help muttering.

It felt completely different from merely sticking a weapon barrel through a Gate.

What if I die?

I had bought Tower Knights Squad Leader Gloves for emergencies like this.

Maybe I should have bought armor first.

The accessories helped with toughness too.

But if I'd known this would happen, I probably would've prioritized actual armor.

Tower Knights equipment was PvP-oriented, but it was still D-rank equipment.

That should give decent basic defense against Floor 20 monsters too.

I don't particularly want to test that.

Still, I couldn't stop my heart from pounding.

"Let's... walk."

Whooooosh!

And that was when I learned something.

"Achoo!"

A desert after sunset was freezing.

And the air was full of dust.

Well, technically sand.

Luckily, I'd brought a hoodie and mask.

Anyway, I hugged Laser No. 1 tightly against my body and began walking through the desert.

"I'm counting on you, Laser No. 1."

Without this weapon, I would never have entered the Tower.

Not even if someone killed me.

At the same time.

Somewhere inside the Tower.

Crack!

"Aaagh!"

A massive fist wrapped in flame-like energy smashed forward.

"What the hell is this monster?!"

"Run!"

Blood sprayed into the air every time his fist landed.

"As if I'd let you. Hup!"

Whoooosh!

He drew in a deep breath.

Then punched the empty air.

BOOOOM!

A wave of energy that looked impossible for a human fist erupted toward the fleeing Hunters.

[Low-Rank Soldiers x6 defeated.]

[Contribution Points x600 acquired.]

A man conquering the Tower with nothing but his fists.

Fist frowned at the message.

Low-Rank Soldiers aren't satisfying anymore.

He had searched hunting grounds again and again.

But nearly everyone he found still had the [Low-Rank Soldier] tag.

No taste. No nutrition.

He wanted at least High-Rank Soldiers.

Mid-Rank Soldiers would do.

But what are the odds of running into one?

He occasionally found Mid-Rank Soldiers.

Even those were rare.

Seeing someone with the same [High-Rank Soldier] rank as himself was rare enough to celebrate.

Well, it's only the first day.

Hunting someone of the same rank carried greater risk.

Even so...

Grinding Low-Rank Soldiers isn't satisfying. It's barely worth anything.

Maybe HunVen had some useful information.

People had started posting sightings of Hunters going wild with PvP, or rather PK.

While browsing, one post caught his eye.

[Title: Another Massacre Around Floor 20]

· 

Apparently this time the scale was insane. Witnesses say there were at least several hundred victims. Believed to be the work of one person.

· 

The comments were all similar.

· 

How many times has this happened already?

· 

· 

Is that victim count real? Most Rankers couldn't do that.

· 

· 

That's not a Ranker anymore. That's a natural disaster.

· 

· 

What does it look like?

· 

┗Victims say their vision suddenly turned red, like crimson rain was pouring down. Next thing they knew, they woke up at home.

Fist narrowed his eyes.

Hundreds of victims?

Even conservatively, that implied at least an A-rank Hunter.

Possibly S-rank.

Unless...

He's specialized in slaughtering weaklings.

There were abilities weak in one-on-one fights but excellent against large numbers of weaker opponents.

Fist feared no one in a duel.

But a point competition like this put him at a disadvantage.

This Contribution Point system doesn't care about ability balance at all.

But what could he do?

Awakening itself had never been fair.

Soon Fist's lips curled upward.

No.

This is actually perfect.

A weakling slaughterer?

That sounded like excellent prey.

The more everyone else feared someone, the more valuable defeating them would be.

Crimson Rain, was it? If I kill him, I can jump far ahead.

Fist immediately headed toward the Floor 20 region.

He searched floor after floor.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

All the way through 29.

Nothing.

Why isn't he here?

Fist frowned.

He had searched the entire Floor 20 region.

Only one possibility remained.

Don't tell me he's really on Floor 25.

Floor 25.

Endless Desert.

A concept floor that nearly everyone avoided.

No good prey.

Terrible visibility for ambushes.

Low monster density.

No valuable rare drops.

Once cleared, there was almost no reason to return.

It was like a floor designed only to announce that larger stages would appear later.

Why would someone like that be there?

Why would a Hunter capable of slaughtering hundreds instantly choose that place?

Fist didn't understand.

But...

If he's anywhere, it has to be there.

He headed toward Floor 25.