Chapter 129: Nightmare, 10th Floor (2)

I took a moment to sort through the confusion in my head, then asked another question.

“What year is it right now?”

“Uh, um... 2033, I think?”

“What month and day?”

“That much, I’m not really sure...”

 Back in the real world, it was still ’32.

So this world seemed to be running roughly a year ahead of reality outside the Tower.

“How did Person123 obtain the Ark? Before clearing which floor did they receive the Tower’s Offer?”

“...Wasn’t it before the eighth floor?”

The men looked at me as though wondering why I would ask something so obvious.

I ignored their reaction and pressed them for a more detailed explanation.

To summarize what the man told me, this was what had happened.

The Person123 of this world had received the Tower’s Offer before entering the eighth floor, just as I had.

The penalty was one forbidden item.

And in exchange, they were offered the Ark.

But unlike me, who had rejected the offer, the Person123 of this world had apparently accepted it.

They spread the Ark over Seoul and then entered the eighth floor, but...

In the end, they failed to clear the eighth floor within the twenty-day time limit.

The Tower’s Curse activated, and 99 percent of humanity was wiped out.

In other words, this was a world where the time limit for Nightmare difficulty had been exceeded.

Put another way—

This was the path where I had failed to clear the eighth floor in time.

‘A parallel world...?’

No.

Maybe it would be more accurate to call it a parallel future.

Something along those lines, at least.

I was finally beginning to understand what was going on, but...

[Kill ‘me’.]

The message that had remained hovering at the edge of my vision like a quest objective this entire time.

Now I understood what those words meant as well.

The Person123 of this world.

The other me.

Find him and kill him?

Was that the clear condition for Floor 10?

I looked toward the Ark again before asking,

“Then why are you people wandering around outside the Ark?”

“...Huh? Well, because we aren’t Ark Residents...”

Growing frustrated, I said,

“I don’t know anything. Just assume I’ve lost my memory.”

“What?”

“Explain everything to me. Start from the moment Person123 deployed the Ark and tell me how the world ended up like this.”

The men were clearly afraid of me, so they continued their explanation without complaint.

And what they told me came as a bit of a shock.

“...Person123 drove everyone out? Out of the Ark?”

As the deadline for clearing the eighth floor drew closer and the Nightmare time limit began bearing down on them,

the entire world had fallen into chaos.

Because Person123 had left the Ark completely open before entering the eighth floor, anyone had been allowed inside.

People from all over the world scrambled desperately toward Seoul, fighting to enter the Ark.

Those who managed to make it inside its range survived, protected from the Tower’s Curse.

But afterward—

When Person123 finally returned after clearing the eighth floor too late,

they either killed or drove out nearly everyone who had taken refuge inside.

Everyone was expelled beyond the Ark’s boundaries except for high-level Climbers, skilled technicians, and a tiny handful of others.

By now, most of the Fallen within Seoul had been dealt with by the Climbers, so the land outside the Ark wasn’t completely uninhabitable.

But with most of humanity gone, there was no way for people to continue living anything resembling a normal life.

Civilization had collapsed completely.

The world had descended into an apocalypse.

That was also why the men’s sense of time had become so vague that they couldn’t even tell me the exact date.

Still unable to understand, I asked,

“Then why the hell did Person123 drive everyone out?”

“That’s... we don’t really know either...”

The man trailed off, as if to say there was no way someone like him could possibly know.

Why would I do something like that?

Was the me from this parallel world different in personality too?

No.

From everything I had heard, the me of this world had behaved no differently from me until he cleared the eighth floor and returned...

“Do you know where I could find Person123?”

The men answered with frightened expressions.

“W-we don’t know anything. Wouldn’t they be inside the Ark?”

Either way, I had to meet the Person123 of this world.

...Only then could I kill him.

Or do whatever else needed to be done.

I sent the two men on their way and headed toward the Ark.

‘Ah.’

Come to think of it—

my face.

Did that mean the face of this world’s me was widely known?

Those men hadn’t recognized me earlier.

Although maybe that was only because it was dark.

I pulled a mask and hat from my Subspace and put them on.

For now, it would be better to keep my face hidden.

Using Air Walk, I approached the enormous Ark.

Sure enough, just as the Demon King had said, Floor 10 really was different.

People capable of holding normal conversations were appearing here.

And rather than feeling like an ordinary floor, the whole structure resembled some kind of hidden-route scenario.

The me of this world—

the man who had become a tyrant instead of humanity’s savior.

Of course, at the end of the day, this was still just another floor I needed to clear.

But...

I couldn’t bring myself to dismiss this world as nothing more than some artificial simulation created by the Tower.

Because according to what the Sage had once told me, the floors within the Tower were worlds that had already perished before being swallowed by it.

...If that was true,

then didn’t that mean this parallel world had genuinely existed at some point?

– Intriguing. So this is how your trial unfolds.

The Demon King’s voice suddenly sounded in my head.

I asked him,

“Demon King, what was the clear condition for your Floor 10? Come on, tell me already.”

– Mine concerned the past.

“...The past?”

– I was sent into a world of the past and required to kill my predecessor. Although, as the Tower always does, it filled the entire ordeal with all manner of filthy tricks.

His predecessor...

Did he mean his father?

“So did you kill him?”

– It was a fierce battle, but naturally, I emerged victorious.

Hmm.

That was the Demon King for you.

Of course, if killing myself really was the only way to clear Floor 10, then I would have no choice but to do it as well.

But...

‘This leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’

Having to kill another version of myself.

I reached the Ark.

I brought my hand toward the golden veil.

It stopped me.

I couldn’t enter.

The Ark could only be entered with the holder’s permission.

Since I had never been granted access, it seemed there was no way for me to get inside.

What a pain.

At this rate, how was I supposed to meet Person123?

If I couldn’t enter the Ark, there was only one other option.

I would have to lure Person123 outside.

‘...Should I cause a scene?’

If I made enough trouble outside the Ark, wouldn’t Person123 eventually come out?

I considered it for a moment, then decided to keep the idea in reserve.

There was no telling how the situation might develop.

I needed to be careful.

If possible, it would be much better to arrange a quiet, one-on-one meeting with Person123.

‘But why did this guy...’

put the Ark here of all places?

If he was going to deploy it somewhere, wouldn’t Yeongdeungpo-gu, where my house was located, have made the most sense as the center?

But this was Gangdong-gu.

Nowhere near there.

Then again, even the house I had first appeared in seemed to belong to a completely different person.

Since this was a parallel world, maybe even the location of my home was different here.

In any case...

For now, I should look around some more.

I rose into the sky again and surveyed the surrounding area.

The city was pitch-black.

Not a single light was on.

The faint golden glow spilling from the Ark’s veil was the only illumination.

Of course, darkness wasn’t a problem for me.

Here and there, I could make out people.

Some looked like vagrants, similar to the two men I had spoken with earlier.

Others stood around buildings as if guarding them.

‘The Fallen.’

Farther away from the Ark, I could also see Fallen wandering through the streets.

I landed on the rooftop of a building and perched on the railing.

I was considering approaching a few more people to gather information when...

something caught my eye.

Far below, in one of the alleys,

a desperate chase was unfolding.

Two people were running from a Fallen.

I moved immediately.

Kicking off the empty air, I reached the ground in a single bound.

The two had been driven into a dead-end alley and were only seconds away from being attacked.

Crunch!

I came down directly on the Fallen’s head.

Its skull burst beneath my foot, killing it instantly.

A Stage 1 Fallen?

I had no idea whether the Fallen in this world were also divided into Stages 1 through 5, but this one had been ridiculously weak.

“E-eek...”

I turned toward the two people huddled on the ground.

A boy and a girl.

Both looked to be around middle-school age.

They stared at me with pure terror in their eyes.

I took a step toward them.

And then—

“P-please spare us, Climber, sir!”

The two suddenly threw themselves flat on the ground and began bowing.

Caught off guard, I said,

“Are you two all right?”

“Please spare us! I’m begging you...! We’re sorry!”

“Calm down. I already took care of the Fallen.”

But looking at them now, I realized the children weren’t afraid of the Fallen anymore.

They were afraid of me.

I kept trying to calm them down.

“Here. Look at this.”

I took a chocolate snack out of my Subspace.

Both of their eyes immediately locked onto it.

“Eat this and calm down a little. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Neither of them could take their eyes off the chocolate in my hand.

After a moment, they cautiously accepted it.

“C-can we really eat this...?”

I nodded.

The boy tore open the wrapper first and began devouring the chocolate bar.

The girl glanced around uncertainly before starting to eat as well.

Both of them looked ravenous.

As though they hadn’t eaten properly in days.

‘Siblings?’

The sight left a bitter feeling in my chest.

So this was what happened when the world ended.

They ate so desperately that I took out several more snacks and gave them some water too.

Only after that did some of their fear toward me finally begin to fade.

I asked,

“What were you two doing all the way out here?”

From what I had seen while surveying the city,

there didn’t appear to be any Fallen in the areas immediately surrounding the Ark.

They only started appearing farther away.

So why were two children wandering around somewhere this dangerous?

The boy hesitated before answering.

“Looking for... food...”

“Food?”

“Yeah. Sometimes, if we search through buildings, we get lucky and find something.”

“There aren’t any Fallen close to the Ark, though. Why take the risk of coming this far out?”

“E-even though it’s dangerous, the outer areas are the only places that haven’t already been picked clean...”

I tilted my head, then asked,

“Does everyone outside the Ark live like this?”

“Huh? Y-yeah...”

Once again, I received the same kind of look the men from earlier had given me.

As though I had asked something bizarrely obvious.

I thought for a moment, then said,

“I came from very far away. I don’t really know how things work around here.”

“Oh...”

The boy studied me for a moment before asking,

“A-are you a Climber, mister?”

“Yeah.”

A trace of fear immediately returned to both of their faces.

Come to think of it, those two men earlier had reacted the same way.

For some reason, people here seemed excessively afraid of Climbers.

I asked,

“Do the Climbers around here abuse their power that badly?”

“...Did you really come from far away? You weren’t living in Seoul?”

“That’s right. I genuinely don’t know anything, so tell me how things are here.”

The boy continued.

“Around here... the Climbers rule over everyone.”

“...The ones inside the Ark?”

“Inside or outside. All of them.”

It wasn’t particularly surprising.

In a world where civilization had completely collapsed, there was no way anything resembling law or public order could still function.

Naturally, the Climbers, with their overwhelming strength, would rise to the top.

“The Climbers inside the Ark—the ones chosen by Person123—are at the very top. And I heard even the Climbers outside the Ark are basically working under them. The outside Climbers treat everyone else like slaves.”

“...Like slaves? What do you mean?”

“They make people farm. If someone refuses to listen, they beat them or kill them... They force people to do all kinds of exhausting work.”

“...”

“W-we actually ran away from the farms. The rations they gave us were barely anything. We were starving all the time, so we figured it would be better to risk avoiding the Fallen and search for food ourselves than die there...”

I let out a quiet sigh.

From everything I had heard so far,

the people living outside the Ark in Seoul really were being treated little differently from slaves.

This was...

It truly had become a world where human dignity had fallen as low as it possibly could.