Chapter 137: Joint Battle (3)

“Everyone, listen up! Let’s get into formation!”

Before Round 2 began, Robert stepped forward to organize the climbers.

Based on the monsters’ attack patterns and overall strength in Round 1, he divided everyone into positions according to their level ranges.

The Nexus stood at the very center of Zone 0’s portal. They would surround it, forming a defensive ring that was neither too wide nor too tight, and hold back the monsters from there.

“Climbers in the level-10 range, stay toward the inside! Don’t push yourselves. Just deal with whatever you can handle, and above all, don’t Exit!”

Shin Su-jin also conferred with Clara and the other Security Corps members so they could coordinate their movements.

Things had gone in a direction none of them had wanted, but now that the battle had begun, there was no choice but to give it everything they had and hold the line.

They had to keep the Nexus’s HP from dropping.

[Round 2 begins.]

Soon, the message appeared.

‘Ten minutes, then.’

It seemed they were given roughly ten minutes of rest between rounds.

“Alright, let’s go!”

“Let’s clear Round 2 without losing a single point!”

At the shouts of a few climbers, the rest answered with a roar.

Round 1 had ended without much difficulty, and morale had risen considerably.

Shin Su-jin fixed her gaze once more on the monsters pouring from the forest.

Werewolves, lions with scorpion tails, cyclopes wielding axes...

There were more varieties than there had been in Round 1.

On the whole, they were larger as well.

The climbers and monsters collided.

Once again, the high-level climbers took the brunt of the charge at the front.

Grwoaaar-!

Shin Su-jin slashed through the leg of a cyclops barreling mindlessly toward her, knocking it off balance, then brought her blade down across its neck.

The impact jolted violently up both arms.

At that very instant, a werewolf sprang past her.

Before Shin Su-jin could react, Clara moved first, smashing the werewolf’s head apart with a mace wrapped in the Aura Blade skill.

There wasn’t even a second to spare for looking away.

Shin Su-jin was already moving to intercept the next monsters.

This time, they had no choice but to use their skills.

The monsters had jumped an entire tier in strength.

Amid the chaos, the other climbers were fighting desperately as well.

“Guh...!”

“Block them! Cover that side first!”

Even as Shin Su-jin swung her greatsword without pause, she gradually began to sense that something was going wrong.

No.

She had suspected it from the very beginning, so perhaps this was less a hunch than a growing certainty.

The other climbers had to be feeling it too.

The jump in difficulty between Round 1 and Round 2 was far greater than any of them had expected.

And this was only Round 2.

Four more rounds still waited beyond it, all the way to Round 6.

Robert, his expression grim, raced frantically across the battlefield, cutting down monsters wherever the line threatened to collapse.

Robert and the other climbers in the level-50 and level-60 ranges were holding the positions where the monsters were most densely concentrated, but...

Even so, the climbers were gradually running out of strength to contain the monsters swarming in from every direction.

Eventually, near the very end of the round, a single gap tore open in their formation.

“...!”

On the far side of the battlefield, several monsters had broken through and were already dangerously close to the Nexus.

“Hu, huaack!”

Faced with the massive creatures charging straight at him, one of the low-level climbers stationed on the inside went deathly pale and Exited on the spot.

Shin Su-jin ripped her sword free from the skull of the monster in front of her and immediately hurled herself forward.

Whish!

She chained the Leap skill directly into Descent, driving her blade through the head of the lion-beast as she crashed down.

Without breaking the motion, she swept the sword sideways and cleaved a werewolf clean through the torso in a single stroke, but...

Bang!

In that brief opening, a cyclops finally drove its fist into the Nexus.

[99,999,891/100,000,000]

The Nexus’s HP dropped.

Robert, who had come sprinting in just behind her, shattered the cyclops’s head.

[Round 2 has ended.]

They finished off the remaining monsters, and Round 2 came to an end.

[Round 2 result: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

[A total of 109 non-climbers die at random.]

[Round 3 will begin shortly.]

As they stared at the result, the climbers fell silent.

Still catching her breath, Clara swept a grim glare across the group.

“...Didn’t I tell you? Did none of you see this coming?”

Her gaze settled on Robert.

“It’s already this bad. What are we supposed to do now? We’ve still got four whole rounds left.”

“...Only one monster got through. We just have to defend better from here on out.”

Clara’s temper flared, and she looked ready to unleash a torrent of curses, but Shin Su-jin stopped her.

She was furious too.

But they couldn’t afford to start fighting among themselves now.

Until this was over, everyone had to work together.

The climbers’ morale had visibly fallen, and injuries had begun appearing here and there.

Those who were hurt, along with several low-level climbers, finally gave up and Exited.

‘If we’d just been a little faster...’

Guilt over the 109 people who had died made Shin Su-jin clench her fist.

How many more would die before they reached Round 6?

If all one hundred million really ended up dying...

The most despairing thing of all was that it already felt like an inevitable future.

[Round 3 begins.]

***

[A total of 109 non-climbers die at random.]

After the message announcing the deaths of 109 people appeared,

I couldn’t calm down.

I paced restlessly around the room.

This was what I had managed to piece together so far.

On the fifth floor, the climbers were fighting some kind of battle divided into rounds.

And whenever a round ended, ordinary people died depending on the result...

[Round 2 result: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

Looking at that number,

it seemed that, in the absolute worst-case scenario, as many as a hundred million people could die.

Just like during the Masked Auction.

‘How many rounds are there?’

There was no way to know how many were left.

And the most fucked-up part was that even if I did know, there was nothing I could do about it.

“Hahh...”

News alerts began appearing almost immediately, and the Communication Channel had descended into chaos as well.

I kept opening and closing the Channel for no particular reason.

Then—

“...!”

Amid all the commotion, one post caught my eye.

I opened it immediately.

It had been written by someone who had been dragged into the Joint Battle and had only just Exited the fifth floor.

[Starfish: I Exited because I nearly died fighting. We are supposed to protect the Nexus from the monsters, but...]

To sum it up:

1. The Joint Battle involved protecting the Nexus from monsters swarming into Zone 0.

2. The figure of one hundred million represented the Nexus’s HP, and non-climbers died in proportion to however much HP it lost.

3. The climbers could choose to proceed as far as Round 6, and because the Round 6 reward granted Curse Immunity to every climber, the majority had voted to attempt Round 6.

4. Climbers were free to Exit partway through.

5. The dead non-climbers would not become the Fallen.

“...Ugh, seriously.”

My head began to spin.

Curse Immunity for every climber.

It was the exact same thing I had been offered as one of the Special Reward options during the Isolation Zone.

This time, the Tower had dangled the same reward in front of the other climbers.

And even after I’d warned them...

Why the hell couldn’t they take a hint?

Why?

[Viper: Curse Immunity for every climber? For real?]

[Teringeu: If that’s real, that’s insane! You’re saying climbers won’t die even when the Time Limit runs out?]

[Biyeon: Can they even make it to Round 6? If they only lost about 100 in Round 2, don’t they have a chance?]

[Chess: You lunatics. Who knows how many more people are going to die, and that’s what you’re worried about?]

[Flamingo: What’s done is done. Nothing we can do about it now. Might as well cheer them on.]

I shut off the Channel, which had become a complete mess, and dragged both hands down my face.

I know the Tower.

I could confidently say that I knew it better than anyone else.

And I could see the future as clearly as if it were already happening.

They were never going to pull this off.

A hundred million.

An absurd, staggering number of people were going to die.

A chill spread through my chest.

Because my own family could be among them.

“...”

Call it a hunch.

Somehow, I felt that at a moment like this, he was going to...

I lowered my hands from my face.

A message had appeared before my eyes.

[The Tower makes an offer to ‘Person123’.]

[If ‘Person123’ accepts the following contract, they will immediately gain the right to participate in the ‘Joint Battle’.]

[Terms of Contract]

– The instant the contract is formed, the Tower will open all zones of the fifth floor up through Zone 10 and cause the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to appear.

– ‘Person123’ will slay all of the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 within one hour from the moment the ‘Joint Battle’ ends.

[Should the contract go unfulfilled, ‘Person123’ will be permanently barred from entering Nightmare difficulty.]

[If ‘Person123’ wishes to accept the offer, signal your intent to accept.]

“Ha.”

I stopped time immediately.

So this was what it had been after from the very beginning?

First it shut me out so I couldn’t interfere at all, and now it was using that very situation as leverage to make me an offer?

This was nothing new, but wasn’t this petty even by the Tower’s standards?

Unbearably petty.

I read through the offer again.

The terms were a little unusual too.

Open every remaining zone on the fifth floor, then kill all the bosses within one hour...?

– Don’t accept it.

The Demon King’s voice rang out.

I considered it for a moment before answering.

‘...Isn’t it worth trying?’

Even the bosses all the way up to Zone 10 couldn’t be much stronger than level 200, could they?

If I activated Radiant Incarnation and borrowed the Demon King’s power,

killing five bosses wouldn’t even take me a minute, let alone an entire hour.

...Of course, I knew.

If it were really that easy, the Tower would never have made me an offer like this.

– If you understand that much, then forget it. Whatever the other zones may be like, do not underestimate the boss of the final one, Zone 10.

‘...You’re saying even your power wouldn’t be enough against the Zone 10 boss?’

– Even when I possessed my true body, it was no trivial opponent. The one you face will be a different kind of boss, but its caliber should be roughly comparable.

For the Demon King to say something like that...

Was the Zone 10 boss far stronger than level 200?

– Absurd as it may be, I’ll admit this much. For the Tower to come after you this aggressively means the Tower itself is serious.

‘...’

– Do you understand now, you foolish thing? I’m telling you to abandon these pointless ideas.

As though he could read my mind, the Demon King tried to persuade me.

– It was already a miracle that you managed to prevent even a single soul from dying under the Tower’s rules. And you did so all the way through the tenth floor.

‘It’s not like nobody has died, though...’

– Let the hundred million go. It is barely one hundredth of this world’s population, is it not?

‘Demon King.’

I let out a hollow laugh inside my head.

‘I really don’t want to do this either.’

– ...Tch.

‘But I don’t have a choice.’

Six rounds in total.

Four remained.

I had absolutely no expectation that the climbers on the fifth floor would be able to clear them.

There was no telling how many more people would die in Round 3 alone.

And there was an overwhelming chance that they would eventually fail to protect the Nexus entirely, killing all one hundred million people.

The sheer number—a hundred million—was horrifying enough on its own, but...

If my family happened to be among them, there would be no taking it back.

The whole thing was completely fucked for me, but I had no choice except to accept the offer.

It was an unavoidable, dirty stack of the deck.

...Since I was going to accept anyway, I might as well look at the bright side.

If I succeeded, I could sweep up all the rewards from the bosses through Zone 10 in one go.

I might even get a legendary-grade skill, or an item of equivalent value.

And if Zone 10 really was the final zone, then afterward I would never have to waste time on the fifth floor again.

Assuming I succeeded, of course.

Fine, you son of a bitch.

Let’s see which of us comes out on top.

[‘Person123′ has accepted the Tower’s offer, and the contract is formed.]

The instant I released the time stop, I accepted the offer.

Offers were always broadcast to everyone, so my family must have seen it as well.

Almost immediately, I heard a commotion outside.

The door flew open.

“Seo-hyeon...!”

Mother, Father, and my sibling stood there, their faces stricken with shock.

I smiled at them and left them with a single sentence.

“I’m sorry. I’ll take care of everything and come right back.”

[Do you wish to enter the fifth floor?]

I took the mask from my Subspace and put it on.

Then I stepped directly onto the fifth floor.

***

Round 3 began.

“The Curse Immunity reward is waiting for us! We’ve only lost 100 HP so far!”

Robert shouted, trying to rally the climbers.

Their morale had taken a blow, but the climbers still burned with fighting spirit.

But then—

“What... the hell...”

The moment they saw the monsters, whose numbers appeared to have outright doubled,

they couldn’t help but falter.

The battle began.

Stronger monsters.

Greater numbers.

It was a far more vicious fight than Round 2.

The monsters charged straight for the Nexus like berserkers, caring about nothing else, while the climbers fought desperately to hold them back.

But their defensive line collapsed almost immediately.

Faced with the overwhelming number of enemies, even the high-level climbers quickly reached the limits of what they could hold back.

Shin Su-jin had been fighting along the outer edge of the formation, but the moment she saw the left flank beginning to collapse, she rushed inward.

Kill one, then another, and another—

and still they kept bulldozing their way forward.

Swinging her Aura Blade-wrapped greatsword like a woman possessed, Shin Su-jin was steadily driven backward toward the Nexus.

One by one, the nearby climbers gave up and pulled themselves out of danger.

Even Clara, who had been fighting desperately beside Shin Su-jin, eventually broke away and shouted.

“Shin Su-jin! What are you doing?!”

If she stayed where she was, she would be crushed to death.

But if she retreated, the monsters would reach the Nexus.

She knew the situation was already hopeless.

Even so, Shin Su-jin stubbornly held her ground to the very end.

That was when it happened.

[The Tower makes an offer to ‘Person123’.]

[If ‘Person123’ accepts the following contract, they will immediately gain the right to participate in the ‘Joint Battle’.]

.

.

.

[Should the contract go unfulfilled, ‘Person123’ will be permanently barred from entering Nightmare difficulty.]

[If ‘Person123’ wishes to accept the offer, signal your intent to accept.]

The message appeared before every climber at once.

‘What...’

Shin Su-jin didn’t even have enough breathing room to think about it.

Clang!

A four-armed ogre slammed into her ribs with a brutal blow.

“Kh...!”

A sharp breath tore from Shin Su-jin’s throat as the impact sent her staggering backward until she was directly in front of the Nexus.

The monsters surged toward her all at once.

[‘Person123’ has accepted the Tower’s offer, and the contract is formed.]

And at that exact instant—

Kwaaaaaah!

A colossal pillar of flame erupted before Shin Su-jin’s eyes.

The monsters vanished without a trace.

For a moment, Shin Su-jin could only stare blankly at what had just happened.

Then she turned her head.

“...Ah.”

And there he was.

A man wearing a mask.

She had no idea when he had appeared.

He gave one light, almost careless flick of his arm—

and flames erupted in every direction, melting the swarming monsters away in an instant.