Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Seong-un turned around.

Every NPC at the village entrance had frozen as though they were broken.

Normally, cheers should've erupted at this point.

The fact that nothing happened meant an Administrator had interfered with Floor 1.

Since Seong-un had finished with EX+, that wasn't surprising.

"Really fascinating."

The same robot he'd met in the Tutorial appeared again.

"What exactly is fascinating?"

Seong-un tilted his head.

"EX+. A grade never granted to anyone before. And someone who just finished the Tutorial reached it. What do you think that means?"

He had finished the Tutorial with EX.

Of course he'd been watching me closely.

Instead of answering, Seong-un shrugged.

"Well, if you don't want to answer, you don't have to."

The Administrator's attitude was different from during the Tutorial.

When Seong-un had chosen Blessing of Odius, the Administrator had been so curious about his reason that it offered a ten-percent discount on every item.

Seong-un expected something similar this time.

"So why did you appear?"

"I thought I'd make you an offer."

"An offer?"

The Administrator grinned and raised one finger.

"If you finish every floor through Floor 10 with this same evaluation, I'll let you freely choose one item from my collection."

It was an outrageously generous offer.

The items possessed by a lower-floor Administrator were limited.

Even so, it had many items more expensive and useful than the Book of the Sword.

But something felt strange.

"What do you gain if I accept?"

It was hard to believe this offer came from simple curiosity.

The Administrator was too cunning for that.

There had to be another reason.

"Gain? More like... entertainment. Though there will be a condition."

"A condition?"

"If you fail to reach the grade I specified even once, I'll take away one of the rewards you've received."

Ah.

So he was targeting Blessing of Odius.

The fact that the Administrator had personally appeared to make this offer meant the title was probably considered a serious threat.

If Seong-un had only cleared with EX, perhaps it wouldn't have cared.

But thanks to the title, he'd jumped straight from EX to EX+.

"Fine."

There was no reason to refuse.

If he intended to fight the Transcendent Races, he needed to become even a little stronger whenever possible.

At that moment, Seong-un's wrist and the Administrator's wrist both glowed faintly.

"With this, the contract is established."

His acceptance had finalized the contract.

If Seong-un cleared everything with EX+, he would win.

If he failed to reach EX+ even once, the Administrator would win.

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Looking forward to it? You're already imagining yourself taking my item?"

The Administrator looked bewildered.

Where did that confidence come from?

After Seong-un left, the Administrator had checked all of his information.

It wanted to see whether he'd obtained some item containing information about EX.

But he appeared no different from an ordinary beginner.

The only unusual thing was that he'd discovered a hidden opportunity inside a small Tower before entering.

"You can stare all you want. You won't find anything."

The Administrator flinched.

"Is that so?"

The precise observation nearly made it lose its poker face.

But it recovered smoothly.

"Yes. I'm no different from an ordinary climber."

The statement indirectly told the Administrator that Seong-un knew exactly what it was thinking.

A crack finally appeared in the Administrator's expression.

"...I'll see how long that confidence lasts."

Seong-un laughed inwardly.

No matter how long it watched, he had no intention of failing.

[Broadcast ended.]

The holographic screen forcibly disappeared.

Choi Byeong-jun had been typing on the holographic keyboard beneath it.

He stared blankly at the empty air for a moment.

Then he exploded.

"Come on! Fuck! I told you to show us the reward!"

EX+.

This was the first time he'd ever heard that such a grade existed.

[Congratulations! **Climber (Republic of Korea - Seoul) has completed Tutorial Mode with an EX evaluation.]

The announcement that someone had finished the Tutorial with EX had been sent to every climber in the world.

[Is the rumor true that the climber who got EX joined the Association?]

-My friend is a scout, and from what he heard, the EX climber joined the Association. Apparently they don't appear on the list anymore.

└LOL so the Association activated Lock?

└Makes sense. Everyone in the world would want an EX-rank climber. Locking them is probably the right call.

└What a waste. If you finished with EX, even America would promise the best possible treatment.

└Yeah. America could offer something Korea couldn't even dream of.

└Why choose the Association then? That's weird.

The Association's intervention had ruined every guild recruitment plan before it even began.

Choi Byeong-jun, a scout from the Hanseong Guild, had started browsing the channels of climbers currently challenging Floor 1 the moment he heard the news.

But as expected from beginners, most of their gameplay was clumsy even with strategy guides.

Whenever Choi Byeong-jun noticed those weaknesses, he immediately switched channels.

Eventually, he stopped on a channel called Meteor.

Found him.

A climber who appeared as a mannequin because the Association had Locked his information.

I'll clear Floor 1 with EX-rank.

Perhaps because of the Lock, the man openly declared that he had finished the Tutorial with EX and then announced he would clear Floor 1 with EX as well.

Then he answered that claim by surpassing EX entirely and achieving EX+.

Choi Byeong-jun had been left speechless.

He had only just learned that EX existed.

And now there was another grade above it?

[Congratulations! **Climber (Republic of Korea - Seoul) has completed Floor 1 of the Tower of Ruin with an EX+ evaluation.]

A short while later, Choi Byeong-jun received the system announcement.

"Damn it... If only the Tower had a recording function."

Nothing inside the Tower could be preserved as video.

That was why strategy guides were shared in text form instead.

Choi Byeong-jun hurried into the Community.

He hadn't been able to record the broadcast.

But more than two hundred viewers had witnessed it with their own eyes.

Someone was bound to rush into the Community and write a post.

"There it is."

His prediction was exactly right.

[I watched EX+ happen with my own eyes!]

-You know what the fuck I just saw?

The post was surprisingly detailed.

The writer apparently had an excellent memory.

Choi Byeong-jun let out a short sound of admiration.

"Good summarizing skills."

There were a few weak points.

That couldn't be helped.

I need to verify it myself.

Choi Byeong-jun had been the first viewer to enter Meteor's channel.

He had watched the entire run.

He wouldn't be able to reproduce the Floor 1 reward.

But if he copied the gameplay, perhaps he could reach EX even if EX+ was impossible.

"Huh? Why isn't he here?"

The hut Meteor had visited contained no NPC.

NPCs had fixed activity ranges.

They didn't simply leave their assigned location.

So what was going on?

"What brings you here?"

At that moment, someone entered the hut.

"Ah. Where is the person who lives here?"

"...He's dead."

"What?"

Choi Byeong-jun's face filled with confusion.

Tutorial EX.

Then Tower of Ruin Floor 1 EX+.

The unbelievable back-to-back results threw the entire world into chaos.

Every eye turned toward Seoul, South Korea.

Top rankers wanted to visit the country to see the monstrous rookie's face.

But the Association blocked all of them under the authority of the climber Lock.

"Anyone without Association approval is strictly prohibited from approaching."

Thanks to that, Seong-un was leisurely resting on the sofa in his living room.

"Do you like the apartment?"

Standing before him was Jang Byeong-jun, the head of the Management Team.

"Yes. Thanks to you, I'm living comfortably."

It was a luxury apartment Seong-un couldn't have dreamed of in his previous life.

By the time he'd reached a level where he could've afforded something like this, civilization had already been collapsing for a long time.

Back then, surviving each day had been difficult enough.

We had needed to reach the 50th Floor, but we were too late.

If humanity had stepped onto Floor 50 within the required time, civilization probably wouldn't have collapsed.

This life would be different.

After all, someone who had reached the 80th Floor in his previous life had begun climbing five years earlier.

"EX+... Mr. Seong-un, just what are you?"

That was why Jang Byeong-jun was here instead of at the Association.

Seong-un had cleared Floor 1 with EX+.

Not SSS.

Not EX.

EX+.

The Association had Locked him for protection, but the shockwave caused by EX+ was simply too large.

Calls and requests were currently flooding into the Association from people demanding to see him.

Chairman Choi Hyeok couldn't leave his position because of the work piling up.

So Jang Byeong-jun had come in his place.

He had watched Seong-un's gameplay from the middle onward.

And he had been unable to hide his shock.

How is that the gameplay of a beginner?

This was an era where strategy guides were everywhere, making lower-floor climbing relatively manageable for beginners.

Yet Seong-un's movements were clearly on another level.

"Did you come here just to ask me that?"

"Ah, no. That's not why. The entire world is in an uproar because of this EX+ result."

"Meaning you're here to manage me."

"Yes. I was ordered to eliminate anything that might interfere with your ability to focus on climbing."

Even SS-rank attracted enormous attention.

EX+ needed no explanation.

In some ways, having the Association actively remove distractions was convenient.

"Fine. Then let's start preparing for Floor 2."

Seong-un wrote something on a note and handed it to him.

"What is this?"

"I'm going out for a while. Please obtain the materials written there before I return."

True Sword Guild.

The guild's owner, Sword Saint Pyo Byeong-woo, stared at the new notification in amazement.

"First the Tutorial, and now Floor 1. Those results are absurd."

A climber living in Seoul, South Korea.

Someone important enough for the Association to Lock.

Who was he?

"Impressive. Even you never received SSS or higher on the lower floors, Guild Master."

The one deliberately poking at Pyo Byeong-woo was Lee Ha-yeon.

She was the second-in-command of True Sword Guild and ranked 13th in South Korea.

Pyo Byeong-woo himself was ranked 87th in the world and second in South Korea.

A Sword Saint.

A genius among geniuses who had Awakened with the vanguard and had never once received below S-rank on the lower floors.

Lee Ha-yeon had entered the Tower one year later than him.

Yet she'd still climbed high enough to stand here today.

"Are you making fun of me?"

Pyo Byeong-woo chuckled.

It would be a lie to say he felt no jealousy at all.

But he wasn't childish enough to show it.

"Was it obvious? More importantly, if the Association hadn't Locked him, America would've interfered somehow, right?"

"Probably. I received offers from America too."

Pyo Byeong-woo had finished the Tutorial with S-rank.

Floors 1 through 5 had all been cleared between S+ and SS.

At the time, America had aggressively recruited anyone talented.

Pyo Byeong-woo had received offers too.

They had offered an amount that would've tempted almost anyone.

But he'd wanted to become a climber representing South Korea, so he'd refused.

If he were completely honest, another reason was that he'd lacked competitiveness compared to America's top rankers.

He was second in South Korea.

But once expanded to the world ranking, he fell all the way to 87th.

And of the eighty-six people ahead of him, sixty-five were American climbers.

That was why he had never regretted staying in South Korea.

But this climber was different.

He'd only cleared Floor 1.

Still, his potential had practically already been verified.

America would probably offer unimaginable terms if that was what it took to recruit him.

"Do you think he'll leave?"

"I don't know. But one thing is certain."

"What's certain?"

"His value will skyrocket depending on his future results. Eventually, perhaps even America won't be able to afford him."

Tutorial EX.

Floor 1 EX+.

What if he continued producing overwhelming results on later floors?

At that point, the contract terms wouldn't even be the main issue.

The real focus would be the rewards he obtained.

First-clear rewards.

Since he'd finished with EX, he must've received at least SS-rank skills or items.

If those rewards continued accumulating...

There was no doubt he would reach a realm others couldn't even approach.

We have to do everything possible to make sure he stays in South Korea.

Losing someone like that to another country would be an enormous loss.