Chapter 86: Bug (4)

I returned to Zone 0 and took the portal to the Reward Room.

I still needed to claim the rewards for defeating the Zone 4 boss.

[Item: Frozen Hydra’s Blood]

Upon ingestion, increases cold resistance. Enhances physical regeneration and all healing effects received by the body. The user cannot die unless the head is destroyed or the neck is severed.

“...Hmm?”

The first-clear reward was a small glass vial filled with blue liquid.

The description caught me off guard.

For one thing, this was the first consumable item I had ever encountered.

More importantly, its effects were incredible.

Cold resistance, enhanced regeneration, and above all...

‘I won’t die unless my head is destroyed or my neck is severed?’

Wasn’t that the Zone 4 boss’s ability?

The item had preserved the boss’s power exactly as it was.

“That’s a little broken...”

In other words, as long as I protected my head, I would effectively have an immortal body.

And my regeneration would become even stronger on top of that.

Of course, the head was already an obvious vital point, so perhaps it wasn’t completely overpowered, but...

Even so, the effect was absurdly powerful.

I pulled the cork from the vial and swallowed the liquid in one gulp.

It tasted like ordinary water, but it was cold enough to freeze my tongue.

As it slid down my throat, a gentle chill spread through my body.

[You have ingested ‘Item: Frozen Hydra’s Blood’.]

Next came the standard reward.

[Skill: Cavalry Charge (Rare+)]

Charge while mounted on a unit. For 5 seconds, greatly increases the speed, defense, and resistance of both the caster and the mounted unit. Targets struck by the charge are forcefully knocked back. Can only be used while mounted on a unit.

Category: Physical Type

Willpower Cost: 130

Cooldown: 1 minute

The standard reward was only Rare+, rather than Epic, but...

This skill was unusual as well.

A skill that could only be activated while mounted?

For five seconds, it increased speed, defense, and resistance.

In simple terms, it seemed to strengthen the force of a charge.

Since I had Fly, it was a skill I could actually use.

[You have acquired ‘Skill: Cavalry Charge (Rare+)’.]

That took care of the rewards.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 7]

[Level: 80]

[Willpower: 3,600]

[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+2), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Scorching Zone (Rare+), Sword of Light (Rare+), Cavalry Charge (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+5)...]

I was looking over my Status Window when the Demon King’s voice sounded inside my head.

— Thou. Wast thou a Nightmare Climber?

His question left me stunned.

“...You know what this is?”

Did the Demon King understand the Tower’s system?

Earlier, when the Tower had been about to act, he had ordered me to stop time. I had already begun to suspect that he knew about the Tower’s existence.

“How do you know about it? What exactly are you, Demon King?”

Of all the intelligent beings I had encountered inside the Tower, not one had understood the concepts of climbing or the Tower itself.

Even those I had met while clearing Hidden Routes had known nothing. They had behaved like NPCs trapped inside their assigned roles.

The Demon King ignored every one of my questions and asked another of his own.

— How many floors hast thou cleared? How much time remains before thy world reaches its Time Limit?

“...I’ve cleared up to the sixth floor.”

— Hah. For a Lesser Being, thou hast climbed surprisingly far. Dost thou hold the highest record?

“Yes.”

The Demon King sounded faintly impressed.

— Aye, I suppose a Lesser Being capable of wielding the divine art of stopping time—

“No. I asked what you are, Demon King.”

At last, he answered.

— I, too, was once a Nightmare Climber.

“...?!”

— I offer thee a proposal. Surrender thy body to me, and I shall clear the Nightmare difficulty in thy stead. I shall prevent the destruction of thy world.

Wait.

Hold on.

This conversation was moving far too quickly.

He had been a Climber?

This creature too?

How?

Why?

“...I don’t understand any of this. Start explaining.”

— Explaining what?

“There are other worlds besides Earth? You aren’t from Earth, are you?”

— What a foolish question. Countless worlds exist beyond thine own.

Huh.

So there truly were other worlds.

Not that I should have been surprised.

Common sense had ceased to matter the moment the Tower appeared. Compared with that, the existence of other worlds was hardly shocking.

I had already half-suspected it while clearing Hidden Routes.

What truly surprised me was the revelation that Towers and Climbers existed in those worlds as well.

“You said you could prevent this world’s destruction?”

The Demon King answered with quiet arrogance.

— Aye. Thou shalt fail before long in any case. Accept my proposal. I shall extend the Time Limit of thy Nightmare difficulty.

I asked him another question.

“How many floors did you clear? Did you reach the top?”

The Demon King was silent for a moment before answering.

— Far more than thou, knave.

“How many, exactly?”

— I climbed beyond the twentieth floor.

“So you never reached the top either?”

— ...

“What the hell? For a second, I actually thought you knew what you were talking about. You couldn’t even clear it yourself, and now you’re claiming you can save my world?”

Whatever the circumstances, he had failed.

Wasn’t that why he had ended up buried on the fifth floor?

The Demon King erupted in fury.

— How dare a wretched Lesser Being mock me! Dost thou imagine thou shalt even reach the tenth floor?

His claim of having passed the twentieth floor did seem genuine, however.

Perhaps because our souls were linked, I could vaguely sense whether he was telling the truth.

I tuned out his curses and tried to organize what I had learned.

There were worlds other than Earth, and those worlds had Towers and Climbers of their own.

The Frigid Demon King now residing inside me had once been a Nightmare Climber as well.

For some reason, he had been buried on the fifth floor and classified by the Tower as an error to be deleted.

“Then tell me the rest. Why were you buried on the fifth floor? And what was that business about you being an error?”

There were countless things I wanted to know.

How had a former Nightmare Climber ended up trapped inside the Tower?

If he had failed his climb, why was he still alive?

What was the Tower’s true nature?

What was its purpose?

Surely the Demon King knew more than I did.

The creature, who had been shouting only moments earlier, gave a contemptuous snort.

— Dost thou truly believe I shall tell thee? Hand over thy body, and I shall answer.

Hmm.

Did he actually know anything useful?

“You’ll tell me what the Tower really is and what it wants?”

— Aye. I shall reveal everything thou desirest to know. And I shall clear Nightmare in thy stead besides!

He was lying.

Through the connection between our souls, I could tell that the Demon King didn’t know anything particularly impressive either.

— Damn it all. So thou refusest my proposal?

“Obviously. There’s no chance I’m giving you my body.”

— I told thee, thou shalt fail before long! I can extend thy world’s remaining lifespan by at least ten years. Surrender half of the body to me!

It was a ridiculous offer.

Had he truly been capable of clearing Nightmare all the way to the end, I might at least have considered it.

But there was no chance I would surrender the body I had only just recovered in exchange for a minor extension of the Time Limit.

Besides, he was completely untrustworthy.

I had barely managed to regain full control of my body. The moment I handed it over, that control would pass right back to him.

What if the bastard refused to return it?

I would have to stop time again and begin the same tedious battle of endurance all over.

No, thank you.

And there was another problem.

Was the Nightmare difficulty the Demon King had challenged even the same as mine?

“Demon King, what did you encounter on Nightmare’s sixth floor?”

The Demon King answered.

— The sixth floor? My memories have grown indistinct. I believe a volcano erupted.

...A volcanic eruption?

“There weren’t any Ogres? You didn’t have to destroy the enemy’s Nexus or anything like that?”

— What nonsense art thou spouting? Ah, yes. I remember now. I froze the entire volcano and halted the eruption.

I had no idea what kind of absurd monster could casually say that he had frozen an entire volcano, but...

In any case, our versions of Nightmare were completely different.

That made his offer meaningless.

Even with the same body, changing the person controlling it wouldn’t alter the contents of the trial.

‘Wait.’

Or perhaps it would?

Come to think of it, when the Demon King had seized my body, he had used powers that weren’t among my skills.

With a wave of his hand, he had summoned freezing winds.

He had flown through the sky as naturally as if he had been born with wings.

‘So he can use his own powers through my body.’

The Demon King spoke as though he had read my thoughts.

— With this pathetic vessel, I cannot wield even a fraction of my true power. Even so, thou wouldst become at least ten times stronger than thou art now.

“Wow. Impressive.”

— Aye. At last, thou beginnest to understand. Wilt thou accept my proposal?

“No.”

I refused without hesitation.

Then I ignored the Demon King as he continued yapping inside my head.

Sigh.

Should I have simply allowed the Tower to delete him?

The Tower’s reaction had been deeply unsettling, and that still bothered me.

I honestly didn’t know whether stopping time had been the right decision.

But there was no way to undo it now.

What was done was done.

I left the Reward Room and finally exited the fifth floor.

Then I returned to my room.

The familiar surroundings felt like something I hadn’t seen in years.

In a sense, that wasn’t far from the truth.

I had kept time stopped for an unimaginably long period.

I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

The entire family was sitting in the living room, watching television.

...Was it the weekend?

Right.

It was.

Father glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Why are you just standing there?”

“...It’s nothing.”

“Pfft. What a strange kid.”

A breaking-news report was playing on the television.

It was about my defeat of the Zone 4 boss.

I returned to my room and collapsed face-first onto the bed.

“Hngghhh...”

I was exhausted.

Before anything else, I needed to rest.

***

[Cobweb: He actually defeated the Zone 4 boss solo too.]

[Anguish: The minimum recommended level was supposed to be 80. That’s genuinely incredible.]

[Shape: That’s why I told you there was nothing to worry about.]

[Devans: Did anyone see the boss fight? There hasn’t been a single report about what happened this time.]

[Kikikikiki: Well, Person123 personally warned everyone to stay away because it was too dangerous, so...]

The following day, after sleeping off my exhaustion, I spent some time browsing the Communication Channel.

Then I closed it.

A great many unexpected things had happened, but...

The Zone 4 boss was dead.

Now it was time to return to my original plans.

“Demon King.”

I called out to him.

Until recently, he had been pestering me constantly about accepting his proposal.

Now he had fallen silent again.

— Speak not to me unless thou intendest to surrender thy body.

“Understood.”

If that was what he wanted, fine by me.

The Demon King muttered irritably.

— Damn it all. Of all the bodies into which I might have been cast, why did it have to be that of this peculiar Lesser Being...?

“You were lucky.”

— What rubbish art thou spouting?

“If I hadn’t stopped time, the Tower would have deleted you. Technically, I saved your life. Don’t you think you could cooperate with me a little?”

Naturally, I had no intention of surrendering my body.

Still, now that we were stuck together, the Demon King’s cooperation could be useful in all sorts of ways.

— Dream not of such a thing. If thou desirest my assistance—

“You want half of every day in exchange. I know.”

— Aye. Hast thou reconsidered?

“I’ll give it some negative consideration.”

— ...Wretched scoundrel!

Enough of that.

It was time to move on.

[Enter Floor 6 at Nightmare difficulty?]

My next objective was the Floor 6 Hidden Route.

Rather than immediately scouting the newly opened Zone 5, I intended to clear the Hidden Route first.

I wanted to finish it quickly and publish a proper guide to the sixth floor.

[The match begins!]

[Destroy all of the opponent’s Nexuses!]

Goblins emerged from the portal.

I tore through the sixth-floor trial.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I went straight to the Nexus inside my own base and struck it repeatedly with my mace.

This ridiculous trick had caused me no end of trouble during my previous attempt.

[You have destroyed an enemy Nexus!]

[Nexuses destroyed: 1/4]

After destroying the Nexus in my own base, I sprinted toward Lane 1.

I eliminated the Ogres, demolished the First and Second Turrets, and charged all the way into the enemy base before destroying the Lane 1 Nexus.

I had wondered whether the order of the lanes might change each time I entered, but...

[You have destroyed an enemy Nexus!]

[Nexuses destroyed: 2/4]

No.

Nothing had changed.

The order was still Lane 1, then Lane 2, then Lane 3.

[You have destroyed Lane 2’s First Turret!]

[You have destroyed Lane 2’s Second Turret!]

.

.

.

[You have destroyed an enemy Nexus!]

[Nexuses destroyed: 4/4]

I rushed through the destruction of the final Nexus.

[Match won!]

The victory message appeared.

I looked around.

Now it was time to search for the Hidden Route.

Whoosh!

“...?”

A portal suddenly appeared beside me.

What was this?

Was I supposed to enter it?

I approached cautiously.

Sixth Sense gave no warning, so I stepped inside.

The scenery changed.

“...?”

A group of knights stood around me.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Someone emerged from between them, applauding.

A human...

No.

Not human.

His skin was gray, and he had three eyes. His arms and legs were longer than a human’s, giving him an alien appearance.

His clothing was lavish as well.

Compared with the knights surrounding him, he looked like a nobleman.

He spoke in a satisfied voice.

“A splendid performance, Slave Number 199.”

“...?”

“Only the final round remains. Return and rest well.”

One of the knights prodded me in the back with the tip of his sword, urging me forward.

— What are these wretches? Slay them at once.

The Demon King’s voice echoed inside my head.

I ignored him and stopped time.

‘Slave?’

Something about this Hidden Route felt different from the others.

Had my role already been decided before I arrived?

Gathering information came first.

For now, it would be better to play along.

I allowed time to flow again.

Then I obediently followed as the knights escorted me away.

— What art thou doing? Slaughter them all, I say!

‘Ugh. You’re loud.’

Why was he so obsessed with killing everything?

What a lunatic.