Chapter 131: Nightmare, 10th Floor (4)

Inside the Ark.

A stretch of land ten kilometers in radius—spacious or cramped, depending on how one looked at it—the place people outside sometimes called paradise.

Only the tiny handful personally chosen by Person123 were allowed to live here.

They were, quite literally, the center of this ruined world.

“What? He got his ass kicked?”

Park Dong-hyeon had only just returned to the Ark after partying with a gaggle of women when his subordinate delivered the report, making him frown.

The emergency message had come from Lee Dae-seong’s group, the crew responsible for managing Gangseo District under his jurisdiction.

Some Climber had appeared out of nowhere and was tearing the place apart.

“Where the hell did this bastard come from? How strong is he?”

“They say he caught a sword coated in Aura Blade with his bare hand and crushed it.”

“...Shit. So he’s actually got some strength. What I’m asking is where someone like that came from.”

“Well, they were attacked without warning, so...”

Park Dong-hyeon scratched his head irritably before asking,

“Shin Su-jin?”

“They said it was a man.”

“Figures. That bitch isn’t strong enough to pull off something like that anyway.”

“From what he was saying—something about beating down things that aren’t even human—it sounded like he was angry about how the Non-Climbers are being treated.”

“Yeah?”

Had some high-level Climber who had been keeping his head down all this time finally decided to show himself?

The Climbers who had resisted Seoul’s current order had been purged long ago, but that didn’t necessarily mean every last one of them was gone.

Still, why now?

“Contact the other groups. Tell them to gather.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fuck. Why’d this have to happen in my territory...”

Park Dong-hyeon hurriedly got dressed and prepared to leave.

Nothing like this had happened before, but a problem was still a problem.

And problems had to be dealt with.

People outside the Ark liked to indulge in ridiculous fantasies that those living inside enjoyed Person123’s favor, that they were some kind of chosen Ark Residents.

But Park Dong-hyeon knew perfectly well that he had been chosen by nothing more than luck.

There was certainly a hierarchy among the Ark’s Climbers, but in the end, every one of them stood in essentially the same position.

The great and mighty Person123 had left the Climbers to manage the Non-Climbers however they pleased, almost as though he had washed his hands of the matter entirely.

Even so, there was one thing everyone could more or less infer.

Person123 did not wish the Non-Climbers well.

And that was how the current order had come into being.

Person123 had never once issued anything resembling a direct command, yet the Ark’s Climbers shared an unspoken understanding that this order had to be maintained.

Otherwise, just as Person123 had chosen them on a whim, he might discard them just as casually.

And, of course, there wasn’t a single Climber among them who hated living like a king.

So they had to keep things running smoothly.

Smoothly enough that they would never give Person123 cause for displeasure.

So that they could continue living as Ark Residents for as long as possible.

***

How strong was Person123?

It wasn’t as though I had no basis for guessing.

This world’s Person123 had cleared the Tower through Floor 8.

And apparently, he hadn’t climbed any higher since.

I had already cleared Floor 9, so my Level should have been somewhat higher.

Whether we possessed the same skills and items, though, I couldn’t say.

This world’s Person123 was a version of me who had made different choices.

There could easily be other differences as well.

‘What about the Demon King?’

Whether this world’s Person123 was also living in symbiosis with the Demon King was another question...

The Demon King was the sort of existence that functioned almost like a bug in the system.

And above all—

The me in this world had the Time Stop Ability too, didn’t he?

Otherwise, there was no way he could have reached Floor 8 as Person123 in the first place.

Even so, I had some reason to feel confident.

The fact that this world’s Person123 had been unable to use the Scales on Floor 8 meant he did not possess Radiant Incarnation.

Frankly, I couldn’t imagine him being stronger than me.

Of course, that didn’t mean I lowered my guard even slightly.

The atmosphere here might have been completely different from the other floors, but I was still in the middle of clearing Floor 10.

And Nightmare would never, ever give me an easy Clear.

Was the challenge supposed to be the psychological reluctance of having to kill another version of myself?

On Nightmare difficulty, something like that barely even qualified as an obstacle.

There had to be something more.

Something hidden somewhere.

I had been lost in thought when I lifted my head.

‘They’re here.’

I could sense people approaching.

Before long, several Climbers entered the club.

The strongest among them met my gaze and spoke.

“I’m Park Dong-hyeon. Heard you were looking for me?”

I stopped paying attention to the man sitting beside me, who had been nervously reading the room the entire time, and rose to my feet.

Park Dong-hyeon and the Climbers accompanying him watched me warily.

I could sense quite a few more gathered outside as well.

But they were all small fry.

“A high-level guy like you, throwing a fit in peaceful Seoul. You sure you didn’t come to the wrong place?”

I asked,

“You’re one of the Ark’s Climbers?”

“So what?”

“Go bring Person123 here.”

Park Dong-hyeon’s expression hardened.

“...So a real lunatic finally crawled out of the woodwork. You that desperate to die?”

Rather than waste time trading words with him,

I moved on to a much more effective form of conversation.

In an instant, I closed the distance and seized Park Dong-hyeon by the throat.

“...!”

The other Climbers lunged at me in alarm.

Bang! Crash!

With my free hand, I swatted every last one of them away.

Park Dong-hyeon struggled in my grip, trying to pry my arm loose, but it was hopeless.

For someone supposedly considered high-level, he was only around Level 50.

His resistance soon crumbled.

He stared at me with naked bewilderment.

“Deliver my message to Person123. Tell him I want to see him.”

I released his throat.

Park Dong-hyeon gasped for air, then managed to ask,

“Why... why are you looking for him?”

“None of your business. Go bring him.”

“You’re seriously going to die. You got some kind of death wish? Haven’t you heard what Person123 did to every Climber who ever opposed him...?”

“You’d rather die here?”

This guy really liked to talk.

The moment I raised my hand, Park Dong-hyeon scrambled to his feet.

Still watching me nervously, he bolted out of the club.

If he was a Climber from inside the Ark, he should at least be capable of getting a message to Person123.

Or he might come back with stronger Climbers instead.

If that happened, I would simply keep beating them down and sending them back until there was no one left to send.

I sat down again and waited.

The Ark’s Climbers—the man who had earlier gone on about how their Levels existed on an entirely different plane, along with the rest—held their breath and remained utterly silent.

How long had I been waiting this time?

When I sensed approaching presences again, I rose.

There were more of them now.

And they were stronger.

Had every last one of the Ark’s so-called Climbers finally turned out?

Rather than enter the club, they appeared to be surrounding the building.

So I made the first move.

Craaash!

I punched straight through the club’s ceiling and burst onto the surface.

The startled Climbers all looked up at me at once.

I dove toward the nearest one.

He tried desperately to dodge, but there was no chance he was faster than me.

My fist slammed into his stomach.

He went flying and embedded himself in the outer wall of a nearby building.

The others attacked immediately.

I took them down one by one as easily as breathing.

I didn’t use a single skill.

This world’s Person123 would presumably also be capable of casting magic-type skills with zero delay, so I had no intention of showing him how I used magic if I could avoid it...

But more importantly, there was simply no need.

The Ark’s Climbers were only around Level 50 or 60 at most.

I was already well past Level 100.

This wasn’t even a fight.

Unless one of them happened to possess something like Destruction Ray, the difference in Level alone made it nearly impossible for them to deal meaningful damage to me.

Fwip!

A faint warning rang through my Sixth Sense.

I twisted in midair and dodged a streak of light.

What was that?

That one actually had some power behind it.

It had come from a Climber who had been waiting for an opening before launching a surprise attack...

Huh?

Once I got a clear look at his face, I was mildly surprised.

‘Ye Tianwei?’

It was Ye Tianwei, China’s flagship Nightmare Climber.

I still remembered his face from when I had overseen the boss battle in Zone 3.

The moment Ye Tianwei realized I had noticed him, he tried to retreat.

I chased him down anyway.

He resisted, unleashing several more unusual skills, but it was hopeless.

He, too, went down almost immediately when my fist connected with his face.

Bzzzzzzt!

Someone activated an item that released lightning much like the Lightning Strike skill.

I dodged it with Teleportation, closed the distance, and smashed my fist into the side of his jaw.

A few Climbers fled.

Then the rest of the small fry followed.

I didn’t bother chasing them.

In the end, I captured five of the Ark’s Climbers and gathered them together.

I asked,

“Any more friends left?”

“...”

“If not, then hurry up and bring Person123. Keep this up and you’ll all end up dead.”

The Climbers looked thoroughly shaken.

I fixed my gaze on one of them.

“You don’t exactly need five people to deliver one message, do you? Should I cut the number down a little?”

He answered in a rush.

“P-Person123 isn’t in the Ark right now...!”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“He usually travels outside the Ark, clearing out the Fallen. He’s out there right now too.”

“Then where is he?”

“Th-that, I don’t know. You think he reports to every one of us whenever he leaves?”

The man glanced toward Ye Tianwei.

I looked at Ye Tianwei as well.

Judging from the atmosphere, Ye Tianwei seemed to hold the highest position among them.

He was also the strongest.

He stared up at me with a strange expression.

Tilting his head slightly, as if confused by something, he opened his mouth.

“You...”

Don’t tell me he recognized me?

I cut him off.

“Do you know where Person123 is right now?”

“...”

Ye Tianwei remained silent.

Something told me he knew.

So I pressed him.

But threats of death were apparently not enough to make Ye Tianwei talk.

‘Demon King.’

In that case, we would do it another way.

The Demon King’s torture.

The kind that froze the soul itself and stirred up primal terror.

When I had used it in North Korea, people had started spilling answers almost immediately.

The Demon King took control of my body and pressed a finger to Ye Tianwei’s forehead.

“Kh-hhhh...!”

Ye Tianwei’s teeth began chattering violently as his eyes rolled upward.

“Talk. Where’s Person123?”

But even under that torture, Ye Tianwei refused to speak until the very end.

The Demon King sounded impressed.

– A stubborn little creature. Though on rare occasions, I have seen faith run deep enough to overcome even instinctive terror.

...Was he saying Ye Tianwei was really that loyal?

What kind of bond could Ye Tianwei possibly have formed with another version of me?

I couldn’t help wondering.

Either way, it seemed I wasn’t going to get an answer from him.

So I turned back toward the others.

“...Probably somewhere in Gyeongsang Province!”

One of them blurted out.

“Person123 travels around the country clearing the Fallen region by region. I heard that until recently he’d been working his way down through Gyeongsang Province, so maybe he’s somewhere near Busan...!”

I sighed.

“Then when is he coming back?”

“Th-that, I really don’t know... He’s stayed away for days at a time before...”

Days.

That was a problem.

Taking too long would be troublesome.

But Gyeongsang Province was a massive area.

I wasn’t sure I could simply fly around and expect to find him.

After thinking it over, I decided to head there anyway.

Better to search than sit around waiting.

At my speed, it wouldn’t take particularly long to reach the area.

I froze the bodies of every Ark Climber there, then launched myself into the sky.

Setting my course toward Gyeongsang Province, I flew.

***

When the Nightmare difficulty’s Time Limit expired and the world collapsed,

the outside of the Ark became hell.

But the inside was every bit as terrible.

It was the only place on Earth that offered any hope of escaping certain death.

Had the South Korean government attempted to close its airspace and territorial waters to save only its own people, the rest of the world would not have hesitated to threaten nuclear strikes against the Korean Peninsula.

And the government would never have been able to stop them.

So desperate people from every corner of the world poured in.

The Ark’s ten-kilometer radius, vast as it might once have seemed, became hopelessly overcrowded.

The place descended into absolute chaos.

Order collapsed.

Humanity collapsed with it.

And that state of affairs continued for quite some time, even after the Tower’s Curse activated.

Shin Su-jin had been fortunate enough to escape the curse while inside the Ark.

The world had nearly ended.

Even then, however, she had not lost hope.

There was still the Ark.

And there were still Climbers.

She believed that someday, this chaos too would be brought under control.

That perhaps the small number of survivors remaining could build a world where they might continue living.

Then something horrific happened.

Something almost impossible to believe.

Person123 emerged after clearing Floor 8 and drove everyone out of the Ark.

Then he pushed ordinary people to the very edge of ruin.

Person123.

The savior who had once cared about humanity more than anyone.

Shin Su-jin had tried to oppose him.

She had failed.

Barely escaping with her life, she was effectively driven out of Seoul.

After wandering through a world crawling with Fallen, she eventually stumbled upon a bunker near Busan containing several dozen survivors.

Every one of them was an ordinary person.

Shin Su-jin willingly joined them and took responsibility for their protection.

She had failed to protect the people of Seoul.

This time, at least, she wanted to protect these people properly.

“Please, just a little more?”

“No. The others need to eat too.”

People stood in line to receive their rations.

The man serving as the group’s second-in-command approached Shin Su-jin with a grim expression.

“I’m sorry, Su-jin. Even if we stretch what’s left, I don’t think we can last more than another three days...”

The bunker’s own food supplies had run out long ago.

Now, finding food was entirely Shin Su-jin’s responsibility.

She was the only one capable of venturing into a world infested with Fallen.

Shin Su-jin nodded.

“Don’t worry. I’ll bring back as much as I can.”

But there was almost nothing left to scavenge nearby.

If only she could hunt on Floor 5, securing food would have been easy...

But even that route was closed to her.

The Ark’s Climbers controlled Floor 5, making it difficult for her to enter.

After thinking for a moment, the man offered a suggestion.

“How about we use this opportunity to move to the bunker in Geumjeong District? The one I mentioned before. There’s no telling when this ceiling might collapse. Sooner or later, dangerous as it is, we’ll have to relocate anyway.”

As if their food shortage weren’t enough, the bunker itself had suffered severe damage.

At some point, a powerful Fallen must have rampaged directly above them.

The protective walls had been damaged so badly that no one knew how much longer they would hold.

In the end, Shin Su-jin had no choice but to make a decision.

She would lead everyone to another bunker as soon as possible.

From the perspective of long-term survival, it wasn’t the wrong choice.

They had simply been unlucky.

“...Everyone, run!”

A Stage 6 Fallen had appeared without warning.

One unlike anything Shin Su-jin had ever encountered before.

The Fallen that emerged after the world’s end did not stop at Stage 5.

They were exceedingly rare, but some possessed six horns or even more.

This was a monster Shin Su-jin could never hope to defeat at her current Level.

Its attack struck her and sent her flying.

Shin Su-jin groaned and coughed up blood.

The Stage 6 Fallen’s head twitched from side to side like an insect’s.

Then it lost interest in Shin Su-jin and turned toward the fleeing survivors.

‘No...’

Gravely wounded, Shin Su-jin forced herself to move.

That was when it happened.

Craaash!

The ground split apart with a deafening roar.

The Fallen was suddenly pinned beneath the feet of a figure who had appeared from nowhere, its arms and legs thrashing helplessly.

Shin Su-jin stared blankly at the man who had subdued the monster with such effortless ease.

It was Person123.

“So this is where you’ve been, Section Chief Shin.”

Kim Seo-hyeon looked at her with indifferent eyes.

Shin Su-jin could not find the words to respond.

Kim Seo-hyeon stepped off the Fallen’s back.

The instant it was freed, the Fallen tore after the fleeing survivors, its eyes rolling wildly like a creature possessed.

“W-wait...!”

Shin Su-jin’s face went deathly pale.

She cried out to Kim Seo-hyeon.

“Don’t! Please!”

They’re all going to die.

Those people.

Shin Su-jin tried to stand, only to cough up blood again and collapse.

“Aaaaaargh!”

“S-somebody help me...!”

Kim Seo-hyeon stood motionless and watched.

The Fallen tore through the survivors, slaughtering them one after another.

Even as the screams reached him.

Even as Shin Su-jin begged.

He did not so much as blink.

“Don’t do what, exactly? What have I done?”

“Ah... aah...”

“That’s a pretty strange thing to say, isn’t it? Why is it simply assumed that I’m the one who has to save them?”

Kim Seo-hyeon gave a hollow laugh.

“If they want to survive, they should struggle for it themselves. They’ve spent all this time swallowing up the sacrifices I made without giving anything in return. Maybe they can start doing something for themselves now.”

The Fallen had already killed nearly half the survivors.

Then it happened.

A strange sight entered both Shin Su-jin’s despairing eyes and Kim Seo-hyeon’s.

...Whooom!

A figure dropped suddenly from the sky and crushed the Fallen beneath his feet.

Exactly as Kim Seo-hyeon had done moments earlier.

The Stage 6 Fallen’s head burst apart.

It died instantly.

“...!”

Shin Su-jin’s eyes widened in shock.

The newcomer grabbed the Fallen’s corpse and hurled it straight at Kim Seo-hyeon.

Boom!

Kim Seo-hyeon knocked the body aside and looked toward the man steadily walking toward him.

“Wow. Found you right away. Good to see you.”

The man wore a cap and a mask.

Then he said,

“But seriously, how’d your personality get this rotten?”