Chapter 3
EX-rank clear evaluation.
A score awarded only to someone whose performance surpassed even SSS-rank.
In his previous life, Seong-un had been climbing the 44th Floor when he discovered a memoir left behind by an unknown climber.
Clear information?
For some reason, the memoir contained extremely detailed information about clear evaluations.
It revealed every hidden condition required to achieve EX-rank.
What?!
Seong-un had initially read the memoir with doubt.
Then his eyes widened.
The letters he read disappeared from the page.
At the same time, the information was engraved directly into his mind.
1.
This information is valid only on the climber's first entry. Forming a party is prohibited.
2.
3.
Once an EX-rank or higher result is achieved on a particular floor, EX-rank can no longer be obtained on that floor.
4.
5.
The person who possesses the memoir cannot directly reveal information about EX-rank to others.
6.
The conditions were quite strict.
But thanks to that information, Seong-un had been able to aim for EX-rank starting from the 45th Floor.
The Immortal Heart he obtained later had also been a reward granted because he reached EX-rank.
Of course, he hadn't cleared every floor with an EX evaluation.
The Tower's difficulty was simply too vicious.
His success rate had only been around ten percent.
But this life was different.
If I start getting EX-rank from the lower floors, I should be able to keep earning EX even on the upper floors.
Strangely enough, the information engraved into his mind during his previous life was still there.
That meant that unlike before, he could aim for EX-rank from the very beginning.
Bzzz.
The smartphone on the table vibrated.
[Seo Jae-pil]
The caller was Seo Jae-pil.
Seeing a name he hadn't seen in so long, Seong-un's lips curled upward.
"Hello."
[Hey. What are you doing?]
"Waiting."
[Waiting?]
"Yeah. I can finally enter the Tower."
[Seriously?! You're finally climbing too?]
Seo Jae-pil was a friend who had grown up with Seong-un in the same orphanage.
They had both entered at a young age and fought constantly at first.
But perhaps because they were the same age, they eventually became close.
Jae-pil had received his invitation three years ago and started climbing the Tower.
He had talent, so he joined a large guild and was steadily making progress.
"Yeah."
[Then do you want to join my guild too? Of course you'd have to take a test, but there's no harm in trying.]
"No thanks. I'm not interested."
[Huh? Then you're planning to climb alone?]
"Yeah."
He had no interest in joining a guild.
In his previous life, Seong-un had desperately tried to get into one.
Climbing as a party was far more efficient, after all.
It also made it easier to earn the high clear scores required for good rewards.
But the current Seong-un didn't need their help.
It was true that parties had an advantage when aiming for a good score.
But there was a ceiling.
A party could only receive up to SS-rank.
To earn anything higher, he absolutely had to climb solo.
I hate noisy situations anyway.
Joining a guild would also mean automatically sharing clear information and rewards.
That would create endless trouble.
[You're not seriously planning to rely only on strategy guides, are you?]
"Why wouldn't I?"
[You crazy bastard... I'm telling you, strategy guides alone aren't enough.]
"Whatever. I'm busy right now, so I'll call you later."
[Hey!]
Seong-un ended the call and smiled at the brief conversation with his old friend.
In his previous life, Seo Jae-pil had died one month before Seong-un entered the Tower.
"He was a good guy."
Jae-pil had gathered all kinds of useful information for Seong-un because he believed an invitation might eventually arrive.
Heh. I'm doing pretty well in my guild, you know? I can probably get one guy like you in.
He had even promised to help Seong-un join his guild if an invitation arrived and said he would support him so he could climb quickly.
That was the kind of friend he had been.
Seong-un still remembered how stunned he'd been when the death notice suddenly arrived.
"It won't happen this time."
He wasn't going to stand by and watch like he had before.
[An SS-rank item has appeared! - Seoul, Republic of Korea (Small Tower)]
An SS-rank item had appeared.
Every climber in the world received the notification.
"SS-rank?"
Seo Jae-pil, a member of the large Horus Guild, stared at the notification in shock.
The SS-rank item hadn't appeared inside the main Tower.
It had appeared inside a small Tower, also called an Instant Tower.
Those places normally offered only one to five Gold as bonus rewards even with the highest clear evaluation.
Most climbers didn't even bother looking at them.
And yet an SS-rank item had appeared there?
"Whoa. And it was found in Seoul?"
Ahn Pyeong-ho, Seo Jae-pil's senior in the guild, looked equally shocked.
It was SS-rank.
Only eight items of that grade had appeared since the Tower first emerged.
Now one had been discovered in Seoul, South Korea.
How could anyone not be shocked?
"Who do you think got it?"
Seo Jae-pil had never even seen an S-rank item in person.
He couldn't help feeling envious of whoever had obtained an SS-rank item.
"No idea. Either way, things are going to be crazy for a while."
"Crazy?"
"Nobody usually cares about Instant Towers. But now an SS-rank item came out of one. What do you think that means?"
"...People are going to start swarming Instant Towers?"
"Correct. And there's a high chance this SS-rank item will belong to the Association... It's disappointing in several ways."
"Why?"
Seo Jae-pil tilted his head.
Rewards normally belonged to whoever acquired them first.
Why would the Association get involved?
"You know who clears the most Instant Towers every day, right?"
"The Association."
"Exactly. So there's a good chance one of their people found it. And since that climber belongs to the Association, anything they discover naturally becomes Association property."
"That sucks..."
An SS-rank item, yet the person who discovered it couldn't even use it personally...
"Nothing can be done about it. More importantly, aren't you climbing today?"
Seo Jae-pil had currently reached the 12th Floor.
Thanks to the Horus Guild's full support, he had climbed that far in only one year.
Today was the day he would challenge the 13th Floor.
"Yes! I already talked to my friend, so I'm about to head in."
Seo Jae-pil clenched his fist.
He had prepared thoroughly.
He would definitely succeed.
"What, were you leaving your last words?"
Ahn Pyeong-ho laughed and lightly slapped his shoulder.
"Come on. No. I just called him to calm myself down."
"Right. Don't get too nervous."
"Yes!"
Seventy-two hours.
Seong-un spent that time doing everything he could to become accustomed to his newly acquired Super Sense.
This really is amazing.
His Sense stat had increased to 6 after reaching Level 2.
It was still extremely low.
Even so, his overall senses had become noticeably sharper.
He could even feel faint traces of mana drifting through the air and being carried along by the wind.
He hadn't been able to sense things this clearly even in his previous life.
If E-rank Super Sense was already this powerful, he couldn't imagine what it would become at SS-rank.
