Chapter 132: Nightmare, 10th Floor (5)

Shwoooosh.

I raced through the air, kicking off empty space with Air Walk.

A faint rumble reached me from somewhere in the distance.

I turned toward it, and before long, I found the source.

A scene unfolding in the middle of the city.

“...!”

A Fallen.

People fleeing as it hunted them down.

And a man and a woman.

‘...Found him.’

The man was me.

And the woman was Section Chief Shin Su-jin.

I had no idea what had happened here, but Section Chief Shin was badly injured.

And the other me was simply standing there, watching as the Fallen slaughtered people.

That bastard... what the hell is he doing?

For now, I dove straight toward the Fallen.

Six horns.

A Stage 6 Fallen, from the looks of it.

KABOOOOM!

I slammed into the ground and crushed the Fallen’s head beneath my foot.

After sweeping my gaze over the bodies scattered nearby, I grabbed the Fallen’s corpse, its head already caved in, and hurled it.

The other me casually knocked it aside.

I walked toward him.

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

He had exactly the same face as me.

But his eyes were dull, almost lifeless, with heavy dark circles beneath them.

There was something deeply exhausted about his expression.

I stopped about ten paces away.

At last, I met the gaze of this world’s Person123.

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

According to my Sixth Sense...

He was strong.

Stronger than any boss monster I had faced so far.

Well.

He was me, so I supposed that made sense.

Maybe he could tell something was strange despite the cap and mask.

Or maybe he had already recognized me completely.

Person123 stared directly at me before speaking.

“You... what are you?”

I glanced at Section Chief Shin, who was watching the two of us with a stunned expression.

Then I kicked off the ground and launched a surprise attack at Person123.

Clang!

Person123 crossed both arms and blocked my fist.

I wasn’t trying to hurt him so much as knock him away, and the impact sent him flying backward.

Let’s move this somewhere else first.

I chased after him.

While still airborne, Person123 twisted his body, kicked off empty air, and shot back toward me.

Air Walk.

So he had that too.

I blocked his fist and countered.

Person123 reacted just as quickly, slipping my attack and striking back again.

With Skin Hardening active on both sides, we exchanged blows at close range.

‘...Are we evenly matched?’

I had expected to be slightly ahead of him in Level.

But our strength and speed were almost identical.

Maybe he possessed better physical enhancement skills than I did.

We kept kicking off the air, colliding again and again as we climbed higher above the city.

Then—

Person123 slipped beneath my roundhouse kick, caught my leg, and hurled me diagonally downward.

Boom!

I planted both feet against the outer wall of a high-rise and caught myself.

I jerked my head back to avoid Person123’s follow-up attack, then drove an upward kick into him.

Person123 blasted through floor after floor of the building before bursting onto the rooftop.

I followed immediately.

Standing atop the high-rise, we faced one another again.

This time, I finally took off my cap and mask.

“Hi.”

Person123 merely furrowed his brow and glared at me.

...Looking directly into your own face really is a strange feeling.

I spoke to the visibly confused version of myself.

“How about we stop fighting and talk?”

[Kill ‘me’.]

A message telling me to kill myself.

If I intended to carry out the quest—which was probably the Clear condition for Floor 10—there was no real need for conversation.

But I still hadn’t made up my mind.

And something about the idea that everything would simply end the moment I killed him bothered me.

For now, I wanted to talk.

I wanted to know how the version of me in this world had ended up like this.

Besides, talking to him might reveal some other clue.

Person123 spoke first.

“What the hell are you?”

“Like I said, I’m you. Which means...”

I stopped time for a moment and thought.

If we were going to have an actual conversation, I would need to explain the situation first.

But how was I supposed to explain this?

And how much should I tell him?

Obviously, the me standing in front of me had no way of knowing that this world existed inside the Tower.

If I told him the truth, would he simply accept it?

‘Probably not...’

If I put myself in his position, there was no way.

Imagine living your life normally, only for another version of yourself to suddenly appear and tell you that none of this was reality, that your entire world existed inside the Tower.

How would that sound?

I’d dismiss it as complete nonsense.

I wouldn’t want to believe it either.

Still, there was no point in lying.

So I decided to tell him everything.

“This is Nightmare Floor 10.”

“What?”

“This world is the world inside Nightmare Floor 10. And I’m currently in the middle of clearing it.”

I watched Person123’s expression carefully before continuing.

“You know too, don’t you? The worlds inside the Tower are worlds that already fell and were swallowed by it. My guess is that you and I are both Kim Seo-hyeon, just from different parallel worlds—”

Person123 cut me off.

“...What kind of trick is this supposed to be?”

“Huh?”

“Fuck off, you damn Tower. How much longer are you planning to toy with me before you’re satisfied?”

What is he talking about?

Ah.

Don’t tell me he thinks the Tower is playing some kind of trick on him.

“That’s a pretty understandable conclusion, but I really am you.”

He clearly didn’t believe me, so I continued.

“What would convince you? Want to talk about our personal history? First love was Kim Min-ji, same class, second year of middle school. Sent her a ridiculously long confession by text and got rejected hard.”

“...”

“Let’s see... what else? How about high school, when we bragged to all our friends that we’d aced the mock exam, only to find out we’d shifted the entire answer sheet and made a complete fool of ourselves?”

As I casually listed one humiliating memory after another, Person123’s expression twisted.

Part of me had hoped it might lighten the mood.

The atmosphere around him was so bleak that I figured a little embarrassment might help.

Apparently not.

I opened one hand.

“And more importantly...”

I stopped time, completed Mental Concentration, and activated a magic skill.

Small bolts of light shot out and exploded against the ground around Person123.

No-delay spellcasting.

“This is an ability only we can use. Still don’t believe me?”

Person123 said nothing.

I kept going.

“Besides, why would the Tower need to mess with you? What would be the point? The Tower’s Curse already activated, you fell, and now you’re out here persecuting people... isn’t this world already ruined enough? From where I’m standing, the Tower accomplished its goal perfectly.”

My voice grew sharper as I spoke, even though I hadn’t intended it to.

Person123 gave a quiet laugh.

“So... you seriously expect me to believe that garbage? That this is a world inside Floor 10?”

“I know it sounds insane, but it’s true.”

“And what exactly do you want to talk to me about?”

“Anything. I need a clue to Clear Floor 10. And you’re probably the key.”

I deliberately left out the part about being told to kill him.

There was no telling how he would react.

Person123 remained silent for a long time.

I spoke again.

“First, can you tell me what happened to y—”

“Hey.”

Person123 let out a dry laugh.

Then he glared at me with an expression I couldn’t begin to read.

“If what you’re saying is true, why the hell should I cooperate with you?”

Killing intent poured off him.

My Sixth Sense screamed a warning.

In the next instant, sparks erupted and a bolt of lightning struck the spot where I had been standing.

I leapt into the air and avoided it.

Person123 immediately followed with another spell.

Flame Strike.

I cast Flame Strike in return.

The two fireballs collided in midair and exploded.

KABOOOOOOM!

Flames filled my vision.

Then my Sixth Sense warned me again.

Person123 shot upward at tremendous speed, thrusting a Sword of Light toward me.

I summoned my own Sword of Light and met his attack.

Klang!

The blades locked.

For a moment, we pushed against one another.

I stared into his eyes.

“I said let’s talk.”

“Shut up. Disappear.”

We broke apart and opened the distance again.

It was as if everything up to now had been nothing more than the two of us testing each other.

Now the real fight began.

Magic erupted between us.

I looked at Person123 through Weakness Insight.

A red haze shimmered only around his head.

That had to be the effect of the Frozen Hydra’s Blood.

Fireballs filled the air again.

This time, Person123 mixed in an unfamiliar spell.

Lightning lashed out like a whip.

My Sixth Sense warned me in time.

I bent backward and narrowly avoided it.

‘What kind of skill is that?’

He has skills I don’t?

So he isn’t exactly the same as me after all.

Kzzzzt-crack!

The lightning whip suddenly changed direction and curled back toward me.

I blasted it apart with a Lightning Strike of my own.

When I shifted my gaze back—

Person123 had vanished.

‘Left.’

I focused my senses and unleashed Scorching Zone into the empty air to my left.

His Concealment broke.

Person123 charged straight through the flames without hesitation.

I moved to intercept him—

and he vanished from directly in front of me again.

Concealment again?

No.

It wasn’t.

The instant my Sixth Sense sounded behind me, I stopped time.

I completed Mental Concentration and used Teleportation to move behind him instead.

This time, I had Person123’s back.

But—

he reacted immediately.

Black fog erupted from his body in every direction.

I kicked off the air and retreated beyond its range.

Diul’s Pitch-Black Fog ability.

Physical ability: dead even.

Our magic differed in a few places, but for the most part, we possessed the same skills.

Which meant we knew each other far too well.

Neither side could seize a decisive advantage.

We tore through the city, flying between buildings and bombarding each other with magic.

Of course, I still wasn’t fighting at full strength.

I hadn’t activated Radiant Incarnation.

I hadn’t used the Demon King’s power either.

But then again, neither had he.

Whether he was deliberately holding back or simply couldn’t use it, I had no idea.

Either way, I wasn’t about to be the first to pull it out.

Using it before he did would hurt my pride a little.

Of course, pride or not, if things actually became dangerous, then I’d have to—

Huh?

‘Charging again?’

The instant our Flame Strikes collided once more, Person123 rushed straight at me.

Teleportation should still be on cooldown.

I knew because I had been tracking every skill cooldown throughout the fight.

I was just about to knock him away with Blade Storm and take the initiative when—

the distance between us closed to roughly ten meters.

Person123’s eyes flashed.

“...!”

What the hell?

The moment our eyes met, my body locked up completely.

A binding skill?

He was hiding something like th—

Then a black sphere, like a miniature black hole, formed around Person123.

Destruction Ray.

My Sixth Sense shrieked.

I stopped time.

My own Teleportation was still on cooldown.

Which meant that once time resumed, I was about to take Destruction Ray head-on with no way to escape.

Ah.

I still had the Mist Beast King’s Pearl.

But it looked like the beam would hit me before the mist could fully spread.

Could I dodge in time?

There were other options.

I could activate Radiant Incarnation.

Or use the Demon King’s power to create a barrier.

‘Should I try that instead?’

I restored my depleted Willpower to full and focused.

[Skill: Mirror Barrier(Epic)]

Creates a mirror barrier within a 3-meter radius. The barrier reflects an opponent’s attacks, consuming additional willpower equal to the reflected power. Attacks with power exceeding the caster’s willpower cannot be reflected, and the barrier is destroyed. Casting requires 3 minutes of Mental Concentration.

Classification: Magic-type

Willpower Cost: 50 per second

Cooldown: 5 minutes after destruction

I decided to test the Mirror Barrier I had recently acquired.

[Item: Rosalia’s Earrings]

Earrings cherished by Rosalia, eldest daughter of a distinguished noble family. Willpower increases by 20%.

With Rosalia’s Earrings included, my current Willpower was around nine thousand.

That should be enough to reflect a Destruction Ray.

Probably.

I released time and cast Mirror Barrier.

And just in case it failed, I switched with the Demon King and formed another barrier around my body.

The result—

The Destruction Ray was reflected perfectly.

The rebounding beam tore one of Person123’s arms off.

His Sixth Sense must have warned him of the incoming attack, allowing him to twist aside at the last instant and avoid taking the beam directly through the torso.

Kzzzzt-crack!

But he couldn’t avoid the Lightning Strike I fired immediately afterward.

The lightning hit him head-on.

Person123 went flying and crashed onto the rooftop of a nearby building.

I landed after him.

“...”

Person123 lay sprawled on his back, his abdomen torn open as he coughed up blood.

I looked down at him in silence.

Of course, he wasn’t dead.

His body wouldn’t die unless his head was destroyed either.

Whoooosh.

He must have activated Rapid Regeneration.

His severed arm and ruined abdomen regenerated almost instantly.

Still lying flat on the rooftop, Person123 looked up at me and spoke.

“...Why didn’t you use Destruction Ray?”

He was asking why I hadn’t used it instead of Lightning Strike.

If I had, I could have finished him for good.

I answered,

“I told you. I want to talk.”

Either way, I could call that exchange a victory.

Whether he had exhausted himself or simply lost the will to continue, Person123 made no move to fight again.

I dropped down beside him.

“Seeing this world for the first time was a shock.”

“...”

“What happened here? The me I know would never be the kind of person who gets off on ruling over others like some king.”

Person123 said nothing.

Acting on instinct, I asked,

“...What happened to our family?”

He had been staring blankly at the sky.

Only then did he finally open his mouth.

“They’re all dead.”