Chapter 58: Sub-Tower (4)

After Person123 cleared even Japan’s third Sub-Tower, Wang Kai was beside himself with rage.

By all rights, he should have been the one to clear every Sub-Tower and claim ownership of them. Yet two had already been snatched away from him.

Of course, his desperation to secure the Sub-Towers had nothing to do with patriotic devotion to China.

He had struck a deal with the Party, and delivering a Mana Vein into their hands would earn him substantial benefits. But even that had become secondary.

Put simply, having what he regarded as his taken from him again and again was driving him mad.

Person123.

The Nightmare-difficulty record holder.

It had always irritated Wang Kai to see people praising the man as though he were humanity’s savior, but until now he had never paid him much attention. They had no real reason to come into conflict.

After all, Wang Kai himself was still the highest-level climber in the world.

But if Person123 intended to keep getting in his way, that changed everything.

Wang Kai was the kind of man who always got what he wanted. Anything that stood in his path had to be swept aside—or crushed beneath his feet—before he could feel satisfied.

To make matters worse, the endless chatter on the Communication Channel, comparing him to Person123 and openly mocking him, was scraping his nerves raw.

Those insect-like pests would never dare say a word if they were standing in front of him. Yet on the channel, they never seemed to shut up.

“How about putting me on a fighter jet and flying me there?”

“...Don’t be ridiculous. You’re asking us to violate another country’s airspace.”

“If you can’t do it, then forget it. Tch.”

Japan’s Sub-Tower had only been lost because that bastard happened to be in Japan and entered it first.

Luck like that would not strike twice.

Wang Kai had the full backing of his nation.

Unless the next Sub-Tower appeared in Person123’s own country, there was no conceivable way that Japanese punk could reach a foreign Sub-Tower faster than he could.

Right?

Wang Kai waited for the next Sub-Tower to appear.

[The fourth Sub-Tower has appeared.]

A week later, the fourth Sub-Tower emerged.

“Brazil? Good.”

The host country was Brazil.

At last, a Sub-Tower had appeared outside Northeast Asia, all the way across the Pacific on the American continent.

There was no way Person123 could reach it quickly. He should still be in Japan.

The fourth Sub-Tower is mine.

I’ll go there, clear it, and leave him standing around sucking his thumb.

With that thought, Wang Kai boarded his plane.

[The fourth Sub-Tower has been cleared to the final floor.]

“...!”

The instant he settled into his seat, the message flashed before his eyes.

Wang Kai nearly spat out his drink.

He doubled over, coughing violently, then wiped his mouth and twisted his face into a furious scowl.

“What?”

What is this?

No...

How?

Unable to make any sense of what he was seeing, he stared blankly at the message.

***

After clearing Japan’s Sub-Tower, I posted information threads on the Communication Channel.

[Person123: Information on the second Sub-Tower clear.]

[Person123: Information on the third Sub-Tower clear.]

One for Mongolia, and one for Japan.

Originally, I had not planned to post any information about the Sub-Towers.

I intended to clear all of them myself anyway, and since the monsters differed from tower to tower, there did not seem to be much point in writing detailed guides.

But after giving it some thought, I decided posting them would still be useful.

Once cleared, Sub-Towers could be entered again, much like Repeat Clearing. There might be people who wanted to challenge them afterward.

So I uploaded the information threads.

Another week passed.

Then the fourth Sub-Tower appeared in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It had finally emerged outside Northeast Asia, but that was hardly cause for celebration.

Brazil was practically on the opposite side of the planet.

I looked up the distance and felt my mind go numb.

“E-Eighteen thousand...”

Nearly nine times the distance to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The Willpower required for the Warp Device was 1,800,000.

That amounted to roughly 1,400 hours of charging.

I had been adding to the charge little by little over the past week, so subtracting the 120 hours already stored left me with another 1,280 hours.

Converted into days, that was more than fifty.

“Holy shit.”

This is completely insane.

Even worse, the amount exceeded the Warp Device’s maximum charge capacity, which meant I would have to divide the journey into two separate jumps.

Was using the Warp Device really the right choice?

I had to think about it seriously.

Maybe I should start looking for a flight to Brazil before the travel advisories were issued. I could simply tell my family that I was leaving on another trip.

But somehow...

I had a bad feeling.

China is probably scrambling to clear the Sub-Tower right now, negotiations be damned.

They obviously know about the Ownership system.

If I traveled by plane, I would probably arrive after them.

Should I just let this one go?

No matter how skilled I had become at passing the time while time was stopped, fifty days was far beyond reasonable.

That staggering number alone was enough to make me consider simply handing the Sub-Tower over to China.

In the end, however, I chose the warp.

If I had already decided to see this through, then I had to finish what I had started.

I will spare you the details of just how mind-numbingly tedious those fifty days were.

After fully charging the Warp Device, I traveled all the way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the far side of the world.

[The fourth Sub-Tower has been cleared to the final floor.]

The clear itself was instantaneous, of course.

The monsters were slightly different this time as well, but the tower’s overall difficulty remained about the same.

The boss on the tenth floor was a wyvern-like creature capable of breathing fire.

I avoided its attack with Teleportation, then ended the fight with a single click of Destruction Ray.

[You have obtained ownership of the fourth Sub-Tower.]

“Hehehehe.”

Wonderful.

Now all I had to do to get home was charge the device for another fifty days.

Laughing a little too manically, I stepped out of the tower.

Please.

Please let the final Sub-Tower appear somewhere closer.

***

After Japan’s Sub-Tower was cleared, rumors that Person123 was Japanese spread far and wide.

Then Person123 himself uploaded information threads about the Sub-Towers to the Communication Channel.

People had already treated the rumor as fact, but now one thing was officially confirmed: he had been the one to clear both Mongolia’s and Japan’s Sub-Towers.

[Ratata: The boss on the tenth floor is at least as strong as a level-50 climber, right?]

[Ice: Then how did he beat it? Isn’t Person123 only level 40?]

[Weirdo: Maybe he has some ridiculously overpowered skill or item. He took all the Nightmare first-clear rewards too.]

As always, people marveled at Person123’s strength.

Meanwhile, the Japanese climbers were still riding the wave of national pride.

[Lighter: Naturally, it is the Japanese who will save the world.]

[WinterBud: Honestly, Person123’s noble spirit of self-sacrifice fits perfectly with our national character.]

[Cheonji: The world should be thanking Japan.]

Some of them were laying it on especially thick.

Person123 had made no attempt to deny the rumors, and as a rule, he never wrote anything on the Communication Channel unless it was absolutely necessary.

As a result, the idea that Person123 was Japanese had begun to feel like an established fact.

[Tadaki: So out of Japan, China, and Korea, Korea is now the only country without a Nightmare clearer, lol.]

[DogAndCat: No Mana Vein either. Korea’s the only one that hasn’t gotten a Sub-Tower.]

[Secret: Pretty pathetic, lol.]

[Gangnam: Look at them having the time of their lives.]

[ChickenLeg: Go run your mouths somewhere else. Preferably among yourselves.]

Then the fourth Sub-Tower appeared in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It, too, was cleared in roughly twenty minutes.

Exactly like Japan’s Sub-Tower.

[Latinya: ?]

[SoSo: Huh?]

The Communication Channel erupted all over again.

[Hansen: What? The Brazilian Sub-Tower was cleared in only twenty minutes too?]

[CoffeeBean: Wasn’t this one cleared by someone else?]

[Reset: No chance. The clear time is exactly the same.]

People began to wonder whether another climber had handled it.

[Person123: Information on the fourth Sub-Tower clear.]

But not long after the tower was cleared, Person123 uploaded another information thread.

That settled the matter.

It had not been anyone else.

How was this even possible?

The entire channel descended into collective confusion.

Could Person123, by some absurd coincidence, have already been in Brazil?

In any case, the moment Brazil’s Sub-Tower was cleared, the rumor that Person123 was Japanese lost all momentum.

[Salanco: So he wasn’t Japanese after all. He was Brazilian.]

[Placebo: Why not just say he’s half Japanese and half Brazilian?]

[Banwol: Finally, those obnoxious bastards shut up, lol. Where did all the Japanese climbers go? They were so loud before.]

[Salamander: I heard they went off somewhere to cry.]

[Hongsi: They really took it way too far.]

[Musashi: Whatever. We still got the Mana Vein~]

[OneThird: But seriously, how the hell did he do it? Unless he knows in advance where the Sub-Towers will appear, how is this possible?]

[MountainKing: Person123 is using chukjibeop, damn.]

[TL: A legendary Korean technique said to let a person cross vast distances in a single step.]

[Dinosaur: Maybe he has some kind of cloning technique.]

[FunParty: Could it be an ultra-long-range Teleportation skill?]

Attention now shifted toward the fifth and final Sub-Tower.

Meanwhile, at the Japanese Prime Minister’s residence...

“Even based solely on the surface deposits discovered so far, we estimate the total at no less than fifty tons. Once the underground reserves are included...”

A meeting was underway between the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers.

A Mana Vein had formed after the Sub-Tower in Sendai, Japan, was cleared.

From the Japanese government’s perspective, the unconfirmed rumor that Person123 might be Japanese was of far less importance than the question of how best to refine and consume this enormous lump of gold.

It was a very pleasant dilemma to have.

The Sato Cabinet’s approval rating had been hovering near rock bottom. Yet given the immense economic benefits the Mana Vein was expected to bring, a dramatic recovery was now within reach.

Can things truly go this smoothly?

Sato struggled to keep the corners of his mouth from curling upward.

When the Sub-Tower had appeared in Ulaanbaatar and China began pressuring Mongolia, the towers had seemed less like blessings than national calamities.

But then Person123 had appeared and cleared them at astonishing speed, turning the entire situation on its head.

This was a rope sent down from heaven.

No.

A rope lowered by Person123 himself.

The man truly was humanity’s savior.

If Sato knew which direction Person123 was standing in, he would gladly perform a full dogeza toward him that very instant.

“...One concern remains: the Magic Stone Accord. Under its current provisions, Japan may be forced to shoulder unnecessary losses.”

The Magic Stone Accord had been signed between Japan, Korea, and several Southeast Asian countries.

A year earlier, nations without Nightmare clearers—and therefore without an adequate supply of Supreme Magic Stones—had established the treaty to counter China’s manipulation of the market.

But now Japan itself would be extracting Supreme Magic Stones from a Mana Vein.

The accord had become nothing more than a shackle.

One of the ministers immediately spoke.

“Why not withdraw from it altogether? With the international situation in turmoil over the Sub-Towers, this is the ideal opportunity.”

There would be no shortage of justifications they could offer.

Whatever backlash followed could easily be endured, considering the staggering benefits the Mana Vein would bring Japan in the years ahead.

The proper move was to cut the others loose as quickly as possible, before they—especially Korea—had time to respond.

Naturally, doing so would deal a devastating blow to the Magic Stone liquidity of Korea and the Southeast Asian nations.

But so what?

That was not Japan’s problem.

There might be protests in the immediate aftermath, but eventually Korea would have no choice but to bow even lower before Japan in negotiations over Magic Stone distribution.

Sato nodded.

“Very well. We will make the first move, before the Sub-Tower crisis has fully settled.”

***

After clearing the Brazilian Sub-Tower, I finally returned home.

In real time, less than thirty minutes had passed.

For me, however, the journey had felt impossibly long.

The moment I arrived, I collapsed onto my bed.

[Chicken Sandwich: Mr. Kim, what method did you use to reach the Japanese and Brazilian Sub-Towers?]

When I checked the Communication Channel, I found a Whisper from Bilon waiting for me.

It was rare for Bilon to be the one asking questions, but this time his curiosity must have been too strong to suppress.

Understandably so.

I decided to satisfy it.

[Person123: I have a long-distance teleportation item that I received as a reward for clearing Nightmare difficulty.]

[Chicken Sandwich: Ah!]

Bilon now seemed to understand how I had managed to clear the Sub-Towers in Japan and Brazil within twenty minutes of their appearance.

[Chicken Sandwich: Excellent work. According to intelligence gathered by the CIA, China still appears determined to clear the Sub-Towers.]

Ah.

So my suspicion had been correct.

If I had not used the Warp Device to reach Brazil, China might have beaten me to it.

So all that suffering wasn’t pointless after all.

Still...

How does Bilon know what the CIA has gathered?

I suppose this is what the influence and connections of the richest man in the world look like.

[Person123: Are you sure you should be telling me something like that?]

[Chicken Sandwich: For you, Mr. Kim, even American state secrets would be negotiable. Unfortunately, this particular matter is not one I know much about myself.]

[Person123: I’ll appreciate the sentiment, then. Haha...]

[Chicken Sandwich: By the way, does the person who clears a Sub-Tower receive any personal reward beyond the Mana Vein? If not, China would have little reason to go to such lengths.]

[Person123: The reward is ownership of the Sub-Tower. Apparently, it allows the owner to activate or deactivate the Mana Vein at will.]

[Chicken Sandwich: I see. So that is what China has been concealing.]

I ended the conversation with Bilon and returned to resting.

Once I cleared the fifth and final Sub-Tower, everything would be over.

But...

[Time until the fifth Sub-Tower appears: 3 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes, 6 seconds.]

Several days passed.

Then, while watching television, I caught a breaking news report.

—The Japanese government has unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the Magic Stone Accord with Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and several other nations, citing what it describes as severely unfair provisions. Our government has already begun preparing formal protest measures...

Japan had unilaterally torn up the Magic Stone Accord with our country and several Southeast Asian nations.

They had dragged out some ridiculous justification, but the real reason was obvious.

The Mana Vein.

From my perspective, I had gone to all the trouble of clearing the Sub-Tower for them, and this was how they repaid me.

By stabbing me in the back.

“Seriously...”

Why is everyone so damn greedy?

I had not intended to exercise the Ownership rights I received from clearing the Sub-Towers.

But this changed things.

If I allowed Japan to get away with this, the other countries that had received Mana Veins might begin trying similar tricks.

I decided to make an example of them.

[Do you wish to deactivate the Mana Vein of the third Sub-Tower?]

Close the valve.

Magic Stones confiscated.