Chapter 94: Nightmare, 7th Floor (1)

—...And now, please welcome him with a warm round of applause. The groom is making his entrance.

Clap, clap, clap, clap...

I was attending my older cousin’s wedding.

After the ceremony, the family gathered with the rest of our relatives at the reception hall for the meal.

“Seo-hyeon, how have you been? Isn’t your job dangerous?”

“What? Seo-hyeon became a Climber? What happened to medical school?”

Some of my cousins already knew I had become a Climber. Others had no idea.

As a result, I had to endure a relentless barrage of questions from the adults while I ate.

I even managed to exchange a few words with the man of the hour—my cousin—despite how busy he was greeting the guests.

“You’re practically glowing.”

“Haha. Isn’t this supposed to be the happiest day of a man’s life? Of course I am.”

He really did look happy.

I had heard that, with November drawing closer, wedding halls were booked solid.

The reason was obvious.

The Nightmare Time Limit.

With the possibility that this could be humanity’s final year, everyone was rushing to marry while they still had the chance.

My cousin said he had barely managed to reserve such a large wedding hall himself.

“Seo-hyeon, you’ll be twenty-six next year, right? You’d better hurry up and get married too.”

“You should probably ask whether I even have a girlfriend first.”

“My mistake.”

After the wedding, while we were driving home in Dad’s car, my sister suddenly spoke.

“Maybe I should take the civil service exam after I graduate.”

She was due to finish university at the end of the year as well.

Somehow, she had managed to complete all her credits without ever taking a leave of absence.

“Where did that come from all of a sudden?”

“I mean, Su-yeon passed the civil service exam, so the thought just sort of popped into my head.”

Mom gave a dry laugh, while Dad said,

“Don’t rush into choosing a career. Do whatever you genuinely want to do, Seo-a. Your mother and I will support you no matter what you decide.”

I wasn’t particularly inclined to recommend the civil service exam either.

With the world liable to end at any moment, spending all that time cramming for an exam seemed... rather wasteful.

If she was only considering it because she had nothing better to do, she would be better off enjoying herself. It wasn’t as though our family was struggling financially.

My sister frowned.

“I’m saying this because it really is what I want to do, okay? What do you think about working for the Tower Climbing Special Agency?”

“...The Tower Climbing Special Agency? Of all places?”

“I don’t know. Something about it appeals to me.”

I said,

“I heard they’re so overwhelmed with work that people call it the Hell Department. You know that, right?”

“I know, okay?”

Then why in the world was she drawn to a place like that?

Well, whatever.

It was her life.

I turned toward the window and watched the scenery drift past.

Less than two months remained on the Nightmare Time Limit.

*

Time passed.

[Nightmare]

Population: 475,126

Time Limit: 30d 1h 5m 52s

Reached Floor: 7

Once again, the next challenge was drawing near.

KABOOOOOM!

A Mist Ghost that had ambushed me from within the fog took a Flame Strike head-on and exploded along with all its duplicates.

Continuing my hunt through Zone 5, I checked the gauge.

[Zone 5 (38%)]

Still a long way to go.

At this rate, I might not finish filling it even after clearing Floor 7.

My progress was far slower than it had been in Zone 4, though that was only natural.

Zone 5 was a field perpetually shrouded in fog, which made actively tracking down monsters difficult.

Besides, there were no other Climbers hunting here.

Well, perhaps saying there were none at all would be an exaggeration.

Still, at my current Level of 80, I had no confidence in defeating the Zone 5 boss, which would be at least Level 100.

The Zone 4 boss had survived a direct hit from Destruction Ray because of its head-destruction gimmick. Between the level difference and whatever special mechanic the Zone 5 boss possessed, I had no reason to expect an easy fight.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 7]

[Level: 85]

[Willpower: 4,050]

[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+3), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Scorching Zone (Rare+), Fire-Type Low-Tier Mastery (Rare+), Sword of Light (Rare+), Cavalry Charge (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+5), Lightning Strike (Rare) (+2), Blade Storm (Rare), Exaltation (Rare), Skin Hardening (Rare), Aura Blade (Rare)...]

[Skill: Aura Blade (Rare)]

Forms a blade of aura that enhances attack power. The aura blade may be channeled around the user’s body or into a weapon held in their hand.

Category: Physical Type

Willpower Cost: 10 per second

Cooldown: 10 seconds

These were the skills I had obtained from Bilon.

Among them was Aura Blade, commonly regarded as the premier rare-grade Physical Type skill.

Admittedly, now that I possessed Sword of Light, it wasn’t something I desperately needed.

Still, having it certainly did no harm.

Bilon had also managed to secure a Rare+ grade Skill Enhancement Stone for me, allowing me to raise Sixth Sense to +3.

The rest consisted of assorted Normal and Normal+ grade Skill Stones and Skill Enhancement Stones.

For reference, the standard reward I had received from the Zone 2 boss was a Rare grade Skill Enhancement Stone, which I had used on Lightning Strike.

I finished hunting and returned to my room.

[Sorrow: The day of reckoning is coming again...]

[Hansho: at this rate I’m seriously gonna die of a heart attack one of these years lol]

[Dracula: gotta admit though, the dopamine hit when the clear notification appears is insane]

[Sellira: He’ll clear Floor 7 too, right? Please!]

[Lemur: Have faith and wait in reverence. Person123 is a god.]

Out of habit, I spent a little while browsing the Communication Channel before closing it.

Still...

How should I put it?

Compared with the early floors, the atmosphere was nowhere near as panicked, even with the Time Limit looming over everyone.

I remembered seeing statistics showing that crime rates and instability in the financial markets had fallen sharply ever since I established the twenty-day mark as my usual clearing date.

I had cleared every floor up through Floor 6.

I supposed people’s trust in me had grown accordingly.

It wasn’t that the weight of all that public faith felt especially burdensome anymore...

But the outcome remained uncertain.

No matter how far I had come, Nightmare’s brutality left no room for arrogance or complacency.

Every floor had been a walk along the edge of a blade.

Would Floor 7 be the end?

Or would I be allowed to live for another year?

—The Nightmare difficulty Time Limit is now only one day away from the twenty-day mark. Person123’s Floor 7 challenge is expected to begin—

The Nightmare Time Limit had reached twenty-one days.

As I had the previous year, I avoided travelling and merely went out for some air near home.

When I visited Gwanghwamun, I saw people already gathered there in prayer.

[Nightmare]

Population: 475,093

Time Limit: 21d 1m 6s

Reached Floor: 7

That evening, I sat on the edge of my bed and waited for the Time Limit to reach exactly twenty-one days.

On Floor 4 and Floor 6, the Tower had made its offers the moment the clock reached that point.

I needed to find out whether it would do the same this time.

—Did the Tower make you an offer?

The Demon King suddenly spoke.

“Yes.”

—...What did it offer you? Did you accept?

I told him about every proposal the Tower had made.

The penalty on Floor 4.

The ark on Floor 6.

Even what had happened at the masked auction.

“It may try the same thing again. That’s why I’m waiting.”

The Demon King let out a hollow laugh, faintly tinged with what almost sounded like regret.

—The Tower is not an entity to be bargained with. Whatever it offers you, accept nothing.

...What had gotten into him?

Was he actually giving me advice?

—Though there is little point in warning you. You will fail soon enough regardless.

And the moment I thought that, the inevitable curse followed right on cue.

Of course, I already knew perfectly well that the Tower was a petty, cowardly son of a bitch.

Unless the circumstances became truly desperate, I had no intention of accepting anything it offered.

“Did the Tower trick you out of something once?”

The Demon King did not answer.

At that moment, the Nightmare Time Limit reached exactly twenty-one days.

“...”

Nothing happened.

No offer this time?

A small wave of relief washed over me, accompanied by an equally unwelcome flicker of unease.

When a bastard who was always scheming suddenly fell silent, the silence itself became suspicious.

I went to bed early.

Whatever happened, all that remained was to challenge Floor 7 in the best condition possible.

Early the next morning, while the rest of my family was still asleep, I ate a quick meal of energy bars and warmed up.

“Let’s go.”

There was still a fair amount of time before the Time Limit reached the exact twenty-day mark.

But I intended to begin now.

[Will you enter Floor 7 of Nightmare difficulty?]

“Whew...”

I drew a deep breath, steeled myself one final time, and entered Floor 7.

*

The theme of Floor 7 was simple.

Dodging.

Avoid the arrows fired from every direction and survive for the designated period.

Do that, and the floor was cleared.

Of course, any Climber who had reached Floor 7 was already a superhuman far beyond ordinary human limits.

Naturally, the arrows fired at them were far from ordinary as well.

Their size, speed, power, number, and the duration of the trial all varied according to difficulty.

On Hard difficulty, a Climber had to evade three hundred iron arrows over approximately five minutes—an average of one arrow per second.

[You have entered Floor 7 of Nightmare difficulty.]

The moment I entered, I stopped time and surveyed my surroundings.

I stood inside a chamber similar to the one on Floor 1, though considerably larger.

Torches illuminated the space.

And there was something else.

Countless holes had been bored into every wall around me.

Those were where the arrows would come from.

On the lower difficulties, I had heard that the arrows were only fired from directly ahead.

Here on Nightmare, the holes covered the chamber in a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

Even the ceiling was riddled with them.

There were enough to trigger trypophobia.

So the arrows would come from every direction.

That much was within my expectations.

There was, however, one other difference.

‘A door?’

A single door stood directly ahead of me.

Why was there a door?

Surely this wasn’t merely the first stage, with another waiting beyond it?

...First, I needed to confirm what I was dealing with.

I released the time stop.

The trial was supposed to begin exactly ten seconds after entry.

The walls that fired the arrows were reportedly indestructible, much like the terrain on Floor 4, so attempting to destroy them would be pointless.

In other words, I had to concentrate on one thing and one thing only.

Dodging.

Honestly, I felt a fraction more confident about this floor than I had about the others.

If dodging was the central challenge, I had more than enough tools at my disposal.

Sixth Sense.

Teleportation.

I had even consumed the Frozen Hydra’s blood. Unless my head was destroyed, I wouldn’t die.

Of course, this was Nightmare.

There was no telling what kind of deranged bullshit it might throw at me.

‘All right, then. Let’s see what you’ve got.’

BANG!

Sixth Sense screamed a warning.

I twisted sharply to the side.

A violent shock wave tore through the chamber, followed a moment later by the thunderous report of something that had already flown past me.

Calling that thing an arrow was absurd.

I glanced behind me at the shattered floor.

Only its general shape resembled an arrow.

People did not normally call a mass of iron twice the length of a human body and as thick as a tree trunk an arrow.

‘That’s a goddamn missile.’

Its speed was perhaps slightly greater than the speed of sound.

Even at Level 80 and above, a direct hit from one of those would tear my body apart.

But as long as it missed, there was no problem.

A chill swept across the back of my skull as Sixth Sense sounded another warning.

I twisted away and dodged the second arrow fired from behind me.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

I raced through the chamber, weaving between the relentless barrage.

I could have tried deflecting the arrows with magic, but dodging was simpler, so I didn’t bother.

The speed and reflexes of a Level 85 body gave me more than enough room to evade them.

Exaltation was steadily taking effect as well.

Even without it, I could already dodge the arrows by sight alone.

And on top of that, I had Sixth Sense.

The more I enhanced the skill, the more precise its warnings became.

At +3, I could roughly sense the direction of an incoming attack even with my eyes closed.

In other words, no matter which direction the arrows came from, I had no blind spots.

The intervals between shots grew shorter.

I continued to dodge.

Several minutes passed.

Maybe five.

“...!”

Sixth Sense erupted with warnings from every direction except above.

I launched myself straight upward.

The arrows converging from all sides collided beneath me and shattered.

I landed amid the debris.

The chamber floor had been torn apart by the barrage.

Then the arrows stopped.

‘Is it over?’

It felt as though roughly five minutes had passed.

Naturally, no clear notification appeared.

I approached the door.

I was examining the tightly sealed stone door, wondering whether I would have to break it down, when—

Rrrrrumble...

With a deafening roar, the stone door slowly began to open.

I immediately stepped aside.

BANG!

Before the door had even opened fully, an arrow shot through the narrow gap.

Sixth Sense had already warned me, so I was well clear of its path.

Cheap tricks like that weren’t going to work on me anymore.

“Whew.”

I took a brief moment to catch my breath, then stepped through the doorway.

The appetizer was over.

From this point on, the real trial began.