Chapter 154: Nightmare Floor 12 (1)

After finishing training Taylor and Ye Cheon-wi.

Not long afterward, I met Bilon, who had flown to Korea.

Come to think of it, hadn’t I met him once before clearing Floor 10 too?

In terms of real-world time, he had come back again almost immediately.

“You must be busy, yet you come here pretty often.”

“What could possibly be more important than Mr. Kim fighting for humanity?”

He had also come partly to hand me some Skill Stones in person.

I received one Common Skill Stone and one Common+ Skill Enhancement Stone.

At this point, most ordinary skills didn’t mean much to me, but regardless, he was someone I was grateful to for continuing to work on my behalf.

Bilon cautiously asked,

“How is it? Have you found any way to solve the problem with your lifespan...?”

I shook my head.

“No real progress yet.”

“I see.”

The Demon King had said something about becoming a god or whatever.

But that was far too vague and out of nowhere to take seriously.

“The UN General Assembly to pass the International Climbers Treaty will be held soon.”

Bilon also told me how far things had progressed with measures intended to punish Climbers who crossed the line.

They were apparently rushing things, but it still seemed like they had barely taken the first step.

That didn’t mean I could slow down my Nightmare progression, though.

I didn’t have much expectation that countries would actually be able to control Climbers anyway.

We had already passed that point, and it would only become more difficult from here.

Still, it was better than doing nothing.

I could only hope it would help restrain them even a little.

“China in particular is apparently pushing for it extremely aggressively, regardless of the means. Thanks to that, progress has been relatively smooth, but...”

“Really?”

“Yes. The current Chinese president is little more than a figurehead, so there’s a high possibility that Ye Cheon-wi’s will is involved behind the scenes. The representative Chinese Nightmare Climber I mentioned before.”

I nodded.

So Ye Cheon-wi had already been helping in various ways?

“Taylor and Ye Cheon-wi both successfully cleared through Floor 9 just recently.”

“...What?”

I told Bilon that I had helped the two of them.

The United States and China hadn’t announced it yet, but they probably would soon.

“To think even something like that is possible for you... Just where are your limits, Mr. Kim?”

After hearing about the training inside the Mental World, Bilon reacted with considerable surprise.

“But are those two definitely friendly toward you, Mr. Kim? Taylor is one thing, but Ye Cheon-wi...”

“They probably are. Separate from that, the more high-floor Nightmare Climbers there are, the better anyway.”

Ye Cheon-wi had his strange side, but while training him, I had definitely gotten the sense that he was friendly toward me.

And according to Bilon, he had already been helping me.

“You’ll be challenging Floor 12 soon as well, then.”

“Yes. I’ll challenge it tomorrow.”

“I sincerely wish you good fortune again this time.”

Bilon spoke with a slightly worried expression.

“I know you must have been deeply disappointed in people. You’ve done so much for humanity, and yet...”

I knew what Bilon wanted to say.

Because of the warning post I had put up in the Communication Channel, he seemed worried about my mental state.

I smiled and answered.

“It’s okay, Bilon. I’ll keep fighting for humanity until the end.”

I had decided long ago that I wouldn’t waver anymore.

After finishing my conversation with Bilon.

I returned home and spoke while having dinner with my family.

“I’m going to challenge Floor 12 tomorrow.”

“...Are you?”

My mother and father nodded as though they understood.

My younger sibling asked in an unconcerned tone,

“You’re going to breeze through Floor 12 too, right?”

“Of course. Who do you think I am?”

“Eat plenty, Seo-hyeon. Have some more meat too.”

“Okay. I’ll have another bowl of rice.”

Between the Qualification Trial and defeating every boss through Zone 10.

I thought I had shown them plenty of just how exceptional and overwhelmingly powerful a Climber I was.

Deep down, I hoped that had given my family at least a little faith and reassurance.

But...

“...”

Late at night.

I buried my face in my pillow and tossed around.

My unnecessarily excellent superhuman hearing meant that even from my room, I could hear every faint sound throughout the house.

The muffled sound of crying coming from my parents’ bedroom.

And from my younger sibling’s room.

The hardest thing before challenging a new floor wasn’t anything else.

I had long since grown accustomed to the fear of death and the fear of failure.

Those weren’t the things that weighed on me anymore.

My family was suffering more than I was.

Hoping that I could find some way to solve the problem of my lifespan as soon as possible.

Or finally reach the end of all this.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Morning came.

I woke up early, ate a hearty meal, waited until I had fully digested it, and finished preparing to enter Floor 12.

“Then I’ll be back.”

After hugging my family and saying goodbye one last time.

[Would you like to enter Nightmare Difficulty Floor 12?]

I entered Floor 12 immediately.

All right.

Let’s do this.

***

The Seven Deadly Sins.

Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth.

The term was famous enough that most people would know it, and it was the keyword and theme of Floor 12.

The clear condition for Floor 12 was to defeat all seven bosses, each representing one of the sins.

Every boss supposedly used unusual abilities connected to its respective sin...

Well, naturally, I had already memorized all of that.

Taking Hard Difficulty as an example, the boss of Gluttony supposedly used a skill that sucked every object within range into a gigantic mouth.

By Nightmare standards, that wasn’t even particularly unusual.

I’d find out soon enough what kind of absurd bullshit would show up this time.

[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 12.]

I stopped time.

Then I checked the information within my field of view.

First of all...

The environment was a forest.

'A forest?'

Why a forest?

I’d heard that on the other difficulties, Floor 12 was a dungeon-like space just like Floor 11.

This Floor 12 was completely different from the other difficulties starting with the location itself.

That had never happened before except on Floor 10.

I didn’t particularly like that...

Thinking that the content might also be drastically different, I checked everything else.

I was standing in the middle of a bright forest, sunlight filtering down through the leaves.

In front of me stood a lone stone structure shaped like a fountain.

No.

It really did seem to be a fountain.

The water flowing down from the top was frozen in place.

Other than the fountain, nothing else particularly stood out.

I released Time Stop.

The fountain water began flowing again, and at the same moment...

[Absorb the Seven Deadly Sins.]

[Pride (X)]

[Greed (X)]

[Envy (X)]

[Wrath (X)]

[Lust (X)]

[Gluttony (X)]

[Sloth (X)]

[Once you absorb one or more sins, an ‘Exit’ will appear somewhere in the forest.]

[Once you absorb all seven sins, ‘Holy Water of Purification’ will appear somewhere in the forest.]

[You may complete the floor by using the Exit or consuming the Holy Water of Purification.]

A string of messages appeared before my eyes.

“...?”

I immediately stopped time again and checked the messages.

This...

Wasn’t it similar to Floor 10?

The way it displayed messages from the very beginning and clearly told me the conditions for clearing the floor.

'Absorb the Seven Deadly Sins?'

At least the Seven Deadly Sins keyword itself seemed to be the same as on the other difficulties.

I had no idea yet what the Exit or Holy Water of Purification meant.

Nor did I know what I was supposed to do to absorb the Seven Deadly Sins.

I could at least infer that it probably had something to do with the fountain in front of me.

I released Time Stop.

I approached the fountain.

Sixth Sense gave me no warning.

Trickle, trickle...

I examined the fountain from different angles as clear water flowed down it.

Something was floating around inside the basin.

A cup that looked like a golden goblet.

What was this?

There were also patterns carved into the outside of the basin...

I walked around it, checking each pattern one by one.

They appeared to be a lion, a fox, a snake, a dragon, a goat, a fly, and a donkey.

Seven animal symbols, one engraved on each side of the heptagonal basin.

The symbols protruded slightly.

For some reason, they looked almost like buttons.

'Are they actually buttons?'

I cautiously touched the dragon symbol in front of me.

Click—

When I pressed it lightly, it sank inward.

“...!”

The water in the fountain changed.

The clear, transparent water instantly turned red.

I backed away, then approached again.

Sixth Sense still gave no warning.

My gaze fell on the cup floating on the surface of the basin.

'...Don’t tell me I’m supposed to drink it?'

The thought came naturally.

[Absorb the Seven Deadly Sins.]

The Seven Deadly Sins.

And seven animal symbols.

Come to think of it, didn’t each sin have an animal associated with it too?

Maybe I could absorb the Seven Deadly Sins by drinking the water from this basin.

Pressing each button one by one to select the corresponding sin.

I pressed another symbol.

The lion.

This time, the water turned purple.

“Hmm...”

...But I had no idea which one was which.

What sin was the lion?

If the dragon turned it red, was that Wrath?

Instead of immediately tasting the water, I decided to explore the forest a little more first.

I used Air Walk to climb high into the sky and looked down below...

But nothing particularly caught my eye.

The forest simply stretched endlessly in every direction.

I descended back to the fountain.

I stared intently at the purple water in the basin.

It didn’t seem like I was supposed to kill bosses like on the other difficulties.

Did I really have to drink this?

[Once you absorb one or more sins, an ‘Exit’ will appear somewhere in the forest.]

[You may complete the floor by using the Exit or consuming the Holy Water of Purification.]

According to the messages.

If I absorbed even one of the Seven Deadly Sins, an Exit would appear somewhere in the forest, allowing me to clear Floor 12.

But if absorbing one of the Seven Deadly Sins really was as simple as drinking this water...

Then obviously, something bad would happen if I drank it.

There was no way the Tower would just let me clear the floor that easily.

Whatever happened, it seemed like I would have to drink it myself to find out...

After thinking for a while, I picked up the cup and scooped up a little of the purple water.

Sixth Sense still gave no warning even as I brought the cup to my lips.

At least it wasn’t a danger directly related to my life?

Gulp.

I drank only the tiniest sip.

It tasted like nothing.

“...”

I waited tensely to see whether anything would change.

But nothing happened.

[Pride (X)]

[Sloth (X)]

Even when I checked the messages floating in the air, nothing had changed.

I figured that once I absorbed a sin, the X would probably change to an O.

Had I drunk too little?

This time, I took a proper sip.

Still, none of the X marks changed.

...Did I have to drink enough to fill this entire cup?

—Stop nibbling at it and just down a whole cup.

Apparently, the Demon King had been thinking the same thing.

“I was going to.”

With no other choice, I plunged the cup into the basin and filled it to the brim.

But who the fuck was he to butt in?

Did he seriously think I couldn’t figure out something that simple?

I was the one who had cleared Nightmare all the way through Floor 11 and seen through the Tower’s filthy schemes again and again...

“...?”

I reflexively slapped myself hard across the cheek.

—What is wrong with you?

The Demon King sounded dumbfounded.

...What the hell had I just been thinking?