Chapter 163: Treasure Hunt (5)

For several seconds, I couldn’t see anything but light.

And a ringing filled my ears.

Normally, my eardrums might have burst. Though I guess my eardrums would’ve been the least of my problems.

Armor of Karma perfectly blocked all external damage.

Considering I was still conscious and thinking like this instead of blacking out from the explosion, thankfully, it seemed my body was safe just as I’d hoped.

Thanks, Seri!

Rrrrrrrrrumble-!

My vision soon returned to normal.

An enormous pressure of seawater was bearing down on me.

But my body didn’t budge, like a ship anchored by something weighing millions of tons.

When Armor of Karma was active, I couldn’t move myself, but apparently external physical force couldn’t push me either.

‘Urgh...’

Right before the bomb exploded, I had put the Sea Dragon’s Orb into Subspace.

If I had kept holding it, there was no way I could’ve avoided losing it in this storm.

Armor of Karma only blocked damage. It didn’t take care of my breathing too, so I had to hold my breath for quite a while.

Once the pressure from the destructive current weakened somewhat,

I deactivated Armor of Karma and took the orb back out.

Now I can finally breathe a little.

The explosion had left an enormous crater on the deep-sea floor, as though a meteor had fallen there.

If it had caused this much destruction under the pressure of the deep sea, just how destructive would it have been on the surface...?

Anyway, judging from the aftermath alone, the island probably hadn’t been directly caught within the explosion’s range.

I hurried upward.

To check for myself.

Splash!

After breaking out of the violently churning sea and rising into the sky...

“Whew.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

For now, the island visible far in the distance was intact.

The plan had succeeded.

Rrrrrrrrrumble...

No, maybe it hadn’t succeeded yet.

It wasn’t over.

A gigantic wave was spreading outward from the site of the explosion.

Wait...

Could that reach the island?

The image of a massive tsunami sweeping across the entire island played through my mind.

If that happened, some of the treasures might not withstand it and could be destroyed.

“Fuck.”

I hurriedly flew after the wave.

I had no idea how I was supposed to stop something like that, but I had to do everything I could until the very end.

After catching up to the wave, I threw myself back into the raging water.

Clutching the Sea Dragon’s Orb tightly, I began controlling the current.

The orb’s ability to control water currents could be used by consuming Willpower, and my Willpower was practically infinite.

But that didn’t mean I could control the sea like I’d become Poseidon or something.

Just because a car had infinite fuel didn’t mean it could travel at the speed of light. There was still a limit to its maximum output.

Anyway, I moved through the waves heading toward the island and tried to calm them down as much as possible.

It didn’t have any meaningful effect.

But regardless of my efforts, by the time the wave reached right in front of the island, its height had naturally decreased considerably.

Thankfully, it didn’t look like a tsunami large enough to cover the entire island was going to happen.

Guess I worked myself up for nothing.

Whatever.

As long as everything was safe, that was fine.

Craaaaaash!

A fairly powerful wave surged over the island’s coast and reached as far as the forest, but that was all.

It was done now.

There wouldn’t be any more secondary damage.

Feeling somewhat exhausted, I returned to where the cave was.

I saw Ye Cheon-wi outside the cave entrance.

He was kneeling with his hands clasped together as though praying.

When I approached, Ye Cheon-wi opened his eyes and stood up.

“...I believed you would return safely.”

He spoke with a peaceful smile.

I wondered where the guy who had nearly jumped out of his skin when I stabbed myself in the heart had gone.

“I went out to sea and got rid of the bomb there.”

When I briefly explained, Ye Cheon-wi nodded as though he understood.

“If the bomb had exploded as it was, not only I, but all the treasures might have been destroyed as well. Once again, you have saved countless lives.”

I’d been lucky.

I was seriously sick and tired of the Tower’s underhanded bullshit.

I sighed.

The portal should have opened again by now, and all that remained was ending Treasure Hunt.

The Tower’s Curse that had descended on a random area.

The Communication Channel still wouldn’t open here, so I had no way of knowing what was happening outside.

Surely it hadn’t hit Korea.

Surely it hadn’t hit Seoul.

If something like that had happened...

I suppressed the anxious thought.

Were there any Climbers still left on the island?

Probably not.

There was a high chance the bastard who wanted the treasure had been the last one.

But I couldn’t ignore even the smallest possibility.

You could call it obsessive anxiety.

I wanted to get outside as quickly as possible and find out what had happened...

But first, I had to make absolutely sure whether any Climbers remained.

Once I exited, that was it.

I said to Ye Cheon-wi,

“Mr. Ye Cheon-wi, could you exit first? If there’s anything you can do once you’re outside, please help people. I need to search a little more to see if there are any Climbers left.”

“Yes, understood.”

We headed to the portal.

The portal was glowing again.

“Thank you for helping me. You worked hard.”

I shook hands with Ye Cheon-wi.

“It was an honor to be by your side, however briefly.”

Before he left, I asked one last thing I had been curious about.

“Mr. Ye Cheon-wi, why do you follow me this far?”

Ye Cheon-wi answered immediately.

“Because you are more special than anyone else.”

“...Because I’m the foremost Nightmare Climber and humanity’s savior?”

“Those reasons are no longer important to me. I have already come to worship... deeply respect you.”

Worship.

At first, I’d thought it was simply because I was a Nightmare Climber, but now I knew.

The way he followed me wasn’t something as simple as respect.

It was almost fanatical.

Was Ye Cheon-wi perhaps a believer in the Church of Person123?

Even those people probably weren’t this extreme.

“As you can see, aside from my abilities as a Climber, I’m just an ordinary human too. I’m not some god you should worship.”

Ye Cheon-wi shook his head at my words.

“I am not speaking merely of your abilities. No one else can become you. And as I have already said, such things are not what matter to me.”

He met my eyes and asked,

“Person123, what do you ultimately desire?”

...What did I desire?

Obviously, there was only one answer. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

If just one thing disappeared completely from this world, I would want nothing else.

“To get rid of the Tower and have peace return to the world.”

Ye Cheon-wi nodded.

“Please accomplish everything you desire. I only wish to watch the path you walk. I firmly believe that it will surely come to pass.”

He really was blindly devoted.

I still couldn’t understand why he trusted and followed me to this extent, and part of it seemed a little dangerous.

Still, I was grateful to him.

He had saved my sister’s life.

“...Thank you for supporting me. Yeah. I’ll make sure I do it.”

Ye Cheon-wi smiled brightly and bowed his head deeply.

Then his figure disappeared.

After confirming that Ye Cheon-wi had exited, I stepped on the air with Air Walk and rose into the sky.

I continued searching the island.

While looking for anyone who remained, I froze every treasure I found.

I wondered whether I might find another treasure whose seal could be released like Tekan’s Heart, but there were none.

The search continued for two days.

During that time, I didn’t find a single person.

I stopped finding treasures too, perhaps because I had already found all of them on the island.

The reason I searched the island for an entire two days was because I wanted to remain cautious until the very end.

Once Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown ended, I used Radiant Incarnation and made one final circuit around Treasure Island.

There really were no Climbers left.

Only then did I use the portal and exit.

I still felt a lingering anxiety until the very end, wondering if maybe...

[‘Treasure Hunt’ has ended.]

The moment I exited, that message appeared.

And with that, Treasure Hunt ended.

***

Ever since Treasure Hunt began, the world had been in an uproar.

People were tensely waiting to see the result, wondering whether something like the Joint Battle would happen again.

[Lightning: Hey, Person123 got selected for Treasure Hunt too!]

[Dundale: Person123 forced all the Climbers to exit the moment it started lol. Seeing it in person was fucking incredible.]

[Cactus: He completely incinerated a monster with a magic skill. Didn’t even leave a trace. Terrifying.]

[BlackTea: Seriously? Person123 got selected too?]

[Madness: Huh? Some psycho was killing people and threatening everyone to leave. What are you talking about, Person123?]

[Durangrito: ?? We got attacked by pterosaurs and everyone ran away, then the real Person123 saved us. What are you guys talking about?]

[Grape: What? Looks like we weren’t all summoned to the same place?]

As the people who had exited appeared in the Communication Channel, information gradually began spreading.

This Treasure Hunt apparently involved searching for treasures on an island where monsters roamed around.

Of course, since most of them had been made to exit and none of the Climbers had actually found any treasures, no one knew what the treasures truly were.

But as more time passed...

[The Tower’s Curse descends upon a random area with a radius of 10 kilometers.]

[There is a 90% chance that a Stage 1 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 9% chance that a Stage 2 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 0.9% chance that a Stage 3 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 0.09% chance that a Stage 4 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 0.009% chance that a Stage 5 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 0.0009% chance that a Stage 6 Fallen will appear.]

[There is a 0.0001% chance that a Stage 7 Fallen will appear.]

Messages appeared.

It was the same notification about Fallen appearing as when Nightmare Floor 3 had been cleared.

[Hedgehog: What the fuck is this]

[Canyon: Is this because of Treasure Hunt? What the hell is happening now?]

[Sangwon: Stage 5 wasn’t the end? There are even Stage 7 Fallen...?]

[Sam: Where did it hit?]

[Jerry: It’s on the news. It hit America.]

Whitefish, a small city located in northwestern Montana, United States.

It was confirmed that everyone in the area had transformed into monsters.

Though caught off guard, the U.S. government immediately began a rapid response.

After the first Fallen incident, the Qualification incident, and other events, nations had already been discussing how to respond when people transformed into Fallen.

Needless to say, the United States was no exception.

Fortunately, Whitefish was a small city with a resident population of only around ten thousand.

Even including tourists, the number of people transformed into Fallen was estimated to be fewer than thirty thousand.

In the worst-case scenario, dropping a nuclear weapon on their own territory might have become unavoidable, but that wasn’t necessary this time.

The area where the Fallen had appeared was clearly defined, and as previous encounters had shown, Fallen could be exterminated with military force.

On top of that, with active research into magic stones, military technology had advanced dramatically compared to the time of Floor 3.

The U.S. military immediately sealed off the area and began an extermination operation.

Under relentless bombardment, the Fallen were rapidly eliminated.

After all, Fallen had no will to hide or flee anywhere.

Once the bombardment was complete, the remaining Fallen would be exterminated by ground forces working together with Climbers.

The operation was proceeding smoothly.

—Abnormal entity detected. Seven horns... Estimated to be a Stage 7 Fallen!

A single Fallen was discovered racing south at insane speed.

Booooom! Boooooom!

Bombers hurriedly pursued it and attempted to stop it, but it was useless.

Every tank blocking its path was destroyed as well.

Breaking through the military encirclement, the Fallen traveled dozens of kilometers south in an instant and reached a nearby city.

“Kyaaaah!”

“S-Save me...!”

Buildings collapsed and screams echoed from every direction.

Once a Stage 7 Fallen began rampaging through the city center, it was nothing short of a disaster.

In response, a transport aircraft that had been heading toward the operation zone abruptly changed course and flew toward the city.

A person dropped straight from the transport aircraft crossing the sky.

“Mom! Mooom!”

A child was crying in front of a woman whose foot was trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building.

“Run! Mom’s okay, so hurry...!”

Despite her pain, the woman urgently shouted at the child, then suddenly went pale.

Beyond the thick cloud of dust, a monster was approaching.

A monster capable of knocking down even high-rise buildings like they were made of straw.

Kiaaaaak-

The Fallen let out a long, grotesque roar and charged toward the mother and child.

That was when it happened.

At the same moment, something flew in from the side, grabbed the Fallen by the head, and ground it into the ground.

Craaaaaaash!

America’s Nightmare Floor 10 Climber, Taylor Miller.

She had arrived in the middle of the chaos.

After a brief clash, the Stage 7 Fallen was eliminated by Taylor.