Chapter 165
"Keugh...."
The Martial Alliance Leader groaned painfully from his bed.
Bandages covered his entire body.
The ones wrapped around his right eye were stained red with blood.
A sharp ringing filled his ears.
His bloodshot left eye slowly opened.
With great difficulty, he turned his head.
Through his blurred vision...
He saw Cheon Sohee.
"...Alliance Leader."
"You're awake."
"Where... am I...?"
He tried to force his trembling body upright.
But...
Thud.
"Cough! Cough...!"
"Huff... huff...."
The Alliance Leader coughed up blood and gasped for breath.
Cheon Sohee was lying in another bed nearby.
She turned her gaze back toward the ceiling and spoke quietly.
"You're still being treated."
"Don't try to move."
"And don't even think about going back."
"This lady..."
"That girl..."
"And everyone else..."
"We barely escaped with our lives."
Kim Hyuna lay unconscious beside her.
Dark bruises remained clearly visible around her neck.
Her entire arm was wrapped in bandages.
The Alliance Leader then looked down at himself.
His right arm was gone.
So was one of his legs.
Warm light spread over the severed areas, slowly healing the wounds.
"...So it really was you, Cheon Sohee."
He paused.
"What about Heuk Mujin?"
"What happened to him?"
"He's probably fighting that monster right now."
"If Heuk Mujin hadn't bought us time..."
"I wouldn't have been able to bring you, this girl, or the others here."
The Alliance Leader remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness.
With a single attack...
The Dragon of the End had helplessly crushed everyone who charged at it.
Arms were severed.
Legs were torn off.
Bodies were split in half.
Even those who weren't martial artists had been caught in the destruction.
Some died immediately.
Others lost consciousness.
The Alliance Leader had somehow forced himself back up.
He'd charged again alongside the survivors.
But...
Boring.
With that single word...
The Dragon of the End casually swung its tail through the air.
After that...
His consciousness had gone completely black.
And now he was here.
"The energy remaining in my arm and leg..."
"It doesn't feel like anything from the martial world."
"Where exactly are we?"
"The 30th floor."
"...The 30th floor?"
The Martial Alliance Leader couldn't believe it.
Unlike Players...
Residents of the Tower were restricted from traveling between floors.
They could move within their own floor...
But not across floors.
Even if such travel somehow became possible...
An existence from a higher floor would lose its power upon descending to a lower one.
"Was all of this Heuk Mujin's ability...?"
The Alliance Leader gave a faint smile.
"As expected."
"He really was a Player."
"Wasn't he?"
"You figured it out?"
"Naturally."
"My granddaughter is a Player as well."
"I could tell from the first time I saw him at the Heavenly Demon Cult."
Then...
Someone approached them.
"Oh!"
"You're awake!"
Saintess Fern had just returned after saving another patient.
Sweat covered her forehead from pushing her divine power too hard.
"Phew."
"That's a relief."
"Especially you, old man."
"Your injuries were so severe that you might've died."
She immediately began explaining his condition.
"I tried regenerating your arm and leg..."
"But the residual energy in your wounds keeps rejecting my divine power."
"I don't think regeneration will be possible until that energy completely disappears."
"I'm fine."
The Alliance Leader looked past her.
"What about the others──"
"AAAAAAARGH...!!"
He froze.
He only had to turn his head slightly.
Most of the people being carried outside were drenched in blood.
Even the patients still lying in beds were writhing from the pain of severed limbs.
Some were slowly dying.
Silence fell.
The Alliance Leader's expression became heavy.
His dry lips parted.
"...Are all of them impossible to heal because of that lingering energy?"
Fern couldn't answer.
Because it was true.
Even Sacrifice...
The power called a miracle...
Was helpless against the energy left behind by the Dragon of the End.
Elixirs could only slow the curse-like energy spreading through their bodies.
They couldn't cure it.
Only someone as powerful as the Martial Alliance Leader had enough strength to show actual improvement.
"...I led them to their deaths."
His voice sank.
"If I hadn't ordered everyone to charge that monster..."
"They wouldn't have died like dogs."
"And yet..."
"Out of all of them..."
"I'm the one who survived."
He lowered his head.
"Maybe it would've been better if I'd died instead...."
Regret.
No.
Guilt poured out of him.
Then...
Ding!
A mysterious blue window appeared before everyone.
The Martial Alliance Leader.
Cheon Sohee.
Fern.
Even the priests and clergy members nearby.
They stared at it in confusion.
Then...
A deafening impact erupted through the screen beyond the haze of dust.
BOOOOM!
A shockwave swept outward.
The dust cleared.
And there...
Suhyeok and the Dragon of the End were locked in a violent battle.
Everyone could only stare.
"...He can fight that monster evenly...?"
It was only natural for the Martial Alliance Leader to be shocked.
The creature that had crushed him and everyone else without effort...
Was now being given no opening at all.
Every exchange between the two devastated the surroundings.
The Martial Alliance's halls had already been reduced to rubble.
The battlefield had expanded far beyond the Alliance grounds.
Ding!
[Certain permissions are unlocked by the Highest-Level Administrator.]
[Access authority changes from ‘Constellations’ to ‘everyone’.]
[Residents and Players from every floor have entered Channel 1.]
[This broadcast is being transmitted through Upper Administrator ‘Leon’.]
In other words...
The broadcast once visible only to Constellations...
Could now be seen by everyone.
Residents of the Tower.
Players.
And even the Constellations who had originally been watching.
All had been forcibly pulled into the channel.
What the hell is this? How did those guys get in here?
Exactly;;
The Dragon of the End appearing on the 50th floor makes no sense to begin with. Everything happening right now is impossible, so why are you looking for logic?
Fair point ㅇㅇ
Still, if an Administrator allowed this, then the Tower itself must've permitted it too. Even a Highest-Level Administrator can't do something this big completely on their own.
Seriously, what the hell is happening;;
[Countless Constellations in the channel are confused.]
[Several Constellations question how the Dragon of the End is present on the 50th floor.]
The screen changed again.
Now it showed Bong Taesu and Lee Yumi fighting Indura.
BOOOOOOM!!
"Miss Yumi...!"
"I'll hold these tentacles somehow!"
"Use your next attack...!"
"Keugh...!!"
Cheon Sohee watched them.
And remembered the regrets she'd felt before the Martial Alliance Leader woke up.
If only I'd been stronger.
If only I could've resisted that monster a little longer.
Then I wouldn't be lying here like dead weight.
And Suhyeok and those two wouldn't be fighting alone.
But she knew.
Regret changed nothing.
All she could do now...
Was trust them.
Watch them.
Pointless guilt would only become another burden they had to carry.
The Martial Alliance Leader seemed to reach the same conclusion.
To wallow in guilt while someone else was fighting alone on the battlefield...
How dishonorable would that be?
And so...
Everyone in the Tower watched Suhyeok, Bong Taesu, and Lee Yumi fight.
Then...
[A message from Highest-Level Administrator Ruzian is delivered to every existence in the Tower.]
[“Everyone, right now....”]
Meanwhile...
"...Ptooey."
Suhyeok spat out the blood pooled in his mouth.
Then wiped the blood from his lips with his forearm.
Across from him...
Arthur, the Dragon of the End, instantly recovered from all the damage he'd accumulated.
He walked out from among the ruins with a vicious smile.
"Kuhahahahaha!"
"Interesting."
"Very interesting."
"To think a mere Player could stand against me like this."
Arthur tilted his head.
"No."
"Calling you a mere Player would be inaccurate."
"After all..."
"You gave me scars I can never erase."
He pointed toward the numerous rough scars covering his body.
"I still haven't forgotten."
"These scars you left on me on the 40th floor."
"Even now..."
"They ache whenever I remember that day."
"The humiliation of defeat..."
"That arrogant look in your eyes as you stared down at me...."
Grit.
Arthur ground his teeth.
His murderous aura grew so violent that the surrounding space itself distorted.
Even Suhyeok tensed.
...This is bad.
He had invested every remaining Stat Point into Rank.
Suhyeok already possessed the Rank of a Constellation.
And yet...
Arthur was still overpowering him.
That wasn't all.
[Mythic - Golden Goblin Pendant]
[The user's stats increase in proportion to the amount of Coins spent.]
[Coins spent: 12,500,000]
[Spend additional Coins to maintain the increased stats.]
Suhyeok let out a dry laugh despite himself.
He had already burned through 12.5 million Coins in the brief battle just now.
And barely three minutes had passed.
Still...
The increase in power was incomparable to before.
The boost was so enormous that even Suhyeok was struggling to control it properly.
But that wasn't the biggest problem.
[Due to Out?^@$ @% influence, Title ‘Dragon Slayer’ is restricted.]
Dragon Slayer wasn't the only thing.
Several Traits...
Especially recovery-related Traits...
Had all been restricted.
Arthur grinned.
"That expression..."
"Not bad."
"But we're nowhere near done."
"I have no intention of letting you die easily."
Arthur sensed the presences of Bong Taesu and Lee Yumi fighting far away.
Then...
He even detected Cheon Sohee and Kim Hyuna on another floor.
"Looks like you somehow evacuated the others to the 30th floor."
"But it's all pointless."
"I'll kill every last one of them afterward anyway."
Arthur laughed darkly.
"Because now..."
"I can go to any floor I want."
"Kuhuhuh!"
[The target's entire statement is ‘True’.]
Suhyeok bit down on his lip.
He'd suspected it...
But he hadn't expected Arthur to be able to move freely between floors.
With the Tower already malfunctioning...
Arthur had probably received something from the System and the Outer Gods.
Something that let him completely ignore the Tower's restrictions.
Ding!
[Warning! Trait Plunder cannot be used on this target.]
[This existence has completely escaped the Tower's authority.]
[Through a contract with System, Dragon of the End Arthur Valkheim is afflicted with ‘Curse of the Outer God’.]
So that was it.
Power obtained from an Outer God.
The same reason Lee Seha had transformed into Indura.
"You should save those threats until after you kill me."
"Right now, all you're doing is talking──"
"No."
"No, no."
Arthur shook his head.
"I'm not going to kill you."
"That would be giving you freedom."
"Besides..."
"I made a promise with the System."
He smiled.
"So I came up with something better."
"I'll cut off all four of your limbs."
"Then I'll heal you just enough to keep you conscious."
"And after that..."
"I'll tear apart everyone who knows you."
"Everyone you've ever met."
Arthur's grin widened.
"No."
"I'll kill even the ones who don't know you."
"That seems fairer."
"Better, too."
Ding!
[This floor will be closed due to viral contamination in 10 minutes.]
[Players currently on the 50th floor are advised to move to another floor immediately.]
At the same time...
RUMMMMMMMMMMMMMBLE!!
The earth shook violently.
Arthur's killing intent became tangible.
It spread across the sky...
Taking the shape of an enormous Black Dragon.
Suhyeok tightened his grip around Seong-a.
Then pulled out the pendant.
[Item ‘Golden Goblin Pendant (Unique)’ activates.]
He spoke a single word.
"All in."
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
[User's stats increase approximately tenfold.]
The blue Rank flowing around Suhyeok's body...
Began turning golden.
Then that energy also took form.
A massive Golden Goblin emerged behind him.
RUMMMMMBLE!!
The enormous Rank of the Black Dragon...
And Suhyeok's golden Rank...
Collided.
[Warning! Amount spent exceeds 60,000,000 Coins!]
[Duration: ‘5 minutes’.]
WHOOOOOM.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
