[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
Chapter 32
Ryu Haneul and I, holding hands tightly, fell endlessly.
"Senior! Sothing's strange! When we usually go up the Tower, it's definitely..."
"I know! Sothing's wrong."
Normally, when moving between floors in the Tower, there should be a flash of light, like when using a teleportation skill, and then we'd arrive at the destination.
But we had been falling for like almost 30 minutes.
Moreover, the fact that we were 'falling' was strange.
The Tower was, after all, a 'Tower,' and clearing it involved 'climbing.'
Reaching the 50th floor by falling from the 0th floor?
It felt a bit odd.
I asked Ryu Haneul,
"How was it before you regressed? Was it like this then too?"
Ryu Haneul avoided my eyes and answered.
"I… I wasn't even Awakened back then!"
"There must have been interviews with or sothing!"
"You always talked about the rewards you got from clearing the Tower, but you hardly ever ntion what happened inside!"
"...You're right. So it's all my fault?"
"That's not what I ant!"
"Forget it. Just hold my hand tighter! We might end up in so strange space-ti if we're not careful."
"I know that too!"
It was common for there to be a ti gap of a few days to a few weeks internally when entering a floor.
At its most extre, there was a difference of over 30 years in internal ti.
If you succeed in reaching the ending of an episode story, aging and injuries were nullified, but if you failed, that was it.
Giving up midway was only possible in a very few 'system zones,' and considering the Aitel notification that popped up when we entered, it seed virtually impossible on this floor.
Ryu Haneul looked directly at .
His purple eyes seed to contain both flas and the depths of the ocean.
"I will never, ever let go of this hand. I even went back in ti for you, Senior. Even if we fall into hell, I will conquer it and follow you."
Those were words that resonated with .
I burst into laughter and opened my subspace ring once again.
"Cheong Siyeol said I would open the gates of Fla Realm and raise an army of demons."
I took out the 'Winter Duke's Standard' and gripped it tightly in my left hand.
"What are you going to do?"
"Doesn't this process feel like 'loading'?"
"Yes, yes! Now that you ntion it, it does."
"It's like certain conditions need to be t, right? And from what I can see, the first condition is that we get separated."
"!"
I've been climbing the Tower for a while now.
I can pick up on these kinds of hints.
Ryu Haneul asked, looking perplexed.
"Then... should we let go?"
"No, why would we?"
I held out the Winter Duke's Standard.
"Hold it, and channel mana into it with at the sa ti. You know how to handle titles, right? You're the Heavenly Demon. The Heaven-Shattering Heavenly Demon."
From using it a couple of tis, I was certain that this standard had the power of amplification or enhancent.
If the 'rule' of this floor was 'to be separated'—
My Law of Light could erase that rule.
And Ryu Haneul's class, 'Heavenly Demon,' could overturn that rule.
Ryu Haneul nodded.
His long, black hair flowed gracefully with the motion, and the purple halo above his head resonated.
"Let's begin."
"Yes."
I started by drawing up my mana.
【Domain Expansion: Law of Light】
Fwoosh!
A pale light flickered from the standard.
Ryu Haneul imdiately poured his inner energy into it.
【Class: Heavenly Demon (Legend)】
【Trait: 'Heaven-Shattering' is activated.】
【Trait: 'Ten Thousand Demons Submit' is activated.】
【Trait: 'I Alone Am the Honored one' is activated.】
I could feel Ryu Haneul's traits, his powers, coexisting with my Law of Light under one banner.
The jet-black mana of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art writhed as if it was about to burst forth at any mont.
I instinctively knew that this was the mont.
It was the intuition of an Awakened who had spent 15 years on Earth and countless years within the Tower.
I 'thrust' the standard into the empty air.
The sensation of piercing through the exact gap traveled up my arm.
Crack!
A thick crack appeared in the empty space where we had been endlessly falling.
【Aitel Notification: Error Occurred】
【Executing simultaneous transmission.】
【Rejected: Will cause critical damage to the floor's structure.】
【Retrying】
【Rejected】
【Retrying】
【Rejected】
.
.
.
【Forced Execution: Forcing execution to prevent the spread of the error.】
Familiar notification windows appeared in my vision.
I couldn't help but smile, feeling a pang of nostalgia.
Ryu Haneul stared at intently.
A mont later, the white light that should have co earlier enveloped us.
* * *
Baekya couldn't believe his eyes.
'I definitely entered the Tower, didn't I?'
The place he was standing wasn't so exotic world.
It wasn't a burning land, the capital of a thousand-year-old kingdom, or a dragon's nest.
These buildings, the Tower, and most importantly, the large river flowing through the middle of the city.
He was certain.
It was Seoul, the heart of South Korea.
The sa city he had been in just a few minutes ago.
But it was slightly different from how Baekya rembered it.
Whoosh!
The entire city was ablaze.
Fla-winged demons from the Fla Realm soared through the sky.
Buildings crumbled tragically, and Hunters were dying everywhere.
'Sunny?'
He called out to his Constellation, but there was no answer.
It ant that either all of this was an illusion, or the situation was so dire that his connection to his Constellation had been severed.
He could see the Han River Park ahead.
A familiar figure stood there.
The purple halo of the Heavenly One's Authority glowed above his head, and his long, black hair swayed with the wind, along with the surrounding reeds.
But his limp hands told a different story.
Ryu Haneul was not in his right mind.
"Ryu Haneul? Are you okay?"
Baekya approached Ryu Haneul and placed his hand on his shoulder.
Thud.
"What did you see that made you so... Well, I can see why."
And then he froze too.
He recognized it instantly.
The 100-story building next to the Tower, built alongside it.
It was his building.
Four red pillars rose from the rooftop, gleaming ominously, and a red dinsional gate was open in the center of those pillars.
And from that gate, demons from the Fla Realm were pouring out endlessly.
"...Senior. No. Tell this isn't true."
Ryu Haneul's eyes were vacant.
Baekya let out a sigh.
It was ti to use the traditional solution.
'This won't do.'
He went in front of Ryu Haneul and slapped him hard across the cheek.
"Wake up!"
Smack!
The Heavenly Demon's head snapped to the side.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, or the tragic protagonist of a lodrama, the Heavenly Demon collapsed onto the ground.
"Gasp! Gasp, gasp!"
Ryu Haneul inhaled sharply, like soone who had nearly drowned.
"S-Senior? It's you, right? So right now, ti is..."
His youthful face was covered in cold sweat.
Baekya grabbed both of Ryu Haneul's cheeks and looked him straight in the eyes.
"You succeeded in regressing, and I died once and returned. We entered the 50th floor of the Tower to escape Lee Baejeong. Rember?"
"Oh, yes. Yes!"
He guided Ryu Haneul's gaze, which had always been directed towards so distant point, and brought it back to the present.
It didn't take long for his eyes to regain focus.
"I'm back, Senior. Thank you."
"Good. Now get up."
"Yes."
Ryu Haneul reached out his hand.
"What are you doing? Get up on your own."
Baekya stared blankly at the offered hand.
"Never mind."
Ryu Haneul got up by himself, looking a bit dejected.
Baekya, looking at the endless stream of demons pouring out, said.
"That's been repeating since a while ago, you know?"
"Yes."
"I think this is so kind of ntal attack. The kind that traps you in a dream and drains your ntal energy. Sotis it's a good dream, sotis it's a nightmare."
"I understand."
Ryu Haneul, befitting a Heavenly Demon, looked ahead with composure.
He seed to have completely returned to normal.
"You're right, Senior. It's trapping us in the worst possible mont and making it last forever."
"Was this your worst mont?"
"Yes."
"What kind of mont?"
His composure didn't last long.
Ryu Haneul turned his head slightly.
His slender fingers trembled.
"When you... abandoned ."
Baekya exhaled sharply.
He had been hailed as a savior by countless people, but this was the first ti he had received such heartfelt devotion.
"What was I to you?"
"...That."
"Forget it. Don't answer. Anyway, it's good that you're awake. You're here, and I'm here."
Ryu Haneul obediently closed his mouth.
Just as he said, Baekya was still standing by his side.
Their faces were bathed in the red light of the burning sky.
The colors and shadows were familiar.
It was like the ti when he proudly displayed the 'Sunny' emblem without even bothering with a handkerchief.
Baekya continued.
"I get it now. I understand why they tried to separate us. This is the type of Epilogue Story that becos ridiculously easy if even one of us is with the other."
It was true.
Because Baekya was there, Ryu Haneul was able to quickly regain his senses.
"Will the rewards remain the sa?"
"They might adjust it, but it shouldn't change much. I've pushed the limits with Law of Light a lot, and I know they can't change the rules themselves."
"Ah!"
"We didn't say it was okay to reduce the rewards just because we lowered the difficulty. This is good. I should be able to reach A-Rank without any problems."
Ryu Haneul clicked his tongue.
"Senior, isn't this totally cheating?"
Baekya nodded.
"Why are you talking like I did it all by myself? We did this together."
Ryu Haneul loved the word 'together' in that answer.
The world around them warped and twisted, fading into a monochro palette.
Space distorted once more.
* * *
Everything before Ryu Haneul's eyes turned white.
At that mont, he saw the Aitel System notification and Baekya's mories.
【Loading...】
【Selecting...】
【The selection process may take so ti...】
'Senior?'
He wasn't sure if his senior had also seen his mories, but it was likely that he hadn't.
Judging by the notification, this situation seed to have risen due to his senior's unique characteristics.
'It's when he was young.'
The first thing that caught his eye was 12 years old Baekya.
'He was ordinary back then?'
Baekya at that ti was just an elentary school student, a bit more handso than his peers.
That year, the Tower appeared in the world, and Gates started opening.
12-year-old Baekya was abducted into the Tutorial on his way ho from school.
After overcoming several near-death experiences and returning ho, he found that the entire neighborhood where his house had been was swallowed by a collapsed Gate and turned into a sea of lava.
'M-Mom? Dad?'
The next Baekya was 15 years old.
It was around the ti when the chaos of the early Gate openings reached its peak.
Gates were still bursting open everywhere.
'Level 1 Gate outbreak in Busan!'
The conflict between Awakened and non-Awakened people was intensifying.
'We oppose the forced conscription of Awakened!'
'Awakened are innocent, non-Awakened are guilty? Punish Rankers' misconduct severely!'
Conflicts with other countries also began.
'Japan has dispatched Awakened special forces to Dokdo!'
The next scene was on a certain floor of the Tower.
In that place where sandstorms raged endlessly and mummies never died, Baekya spent a long, long ti.
The deaths of his comrades were too nurous to count.
'Mister! Mister!'
It had been a long ti since Baekya beca the last survivor of the 1st Generation, the final survivor of the 1st Tutorial.
He witnessed a fight against an unimaginably powerful ancient dragon.
■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■
He also saw mories that were completely blacked out.
How much ti had passed?
【Selection process complete.】
The system notification appeared.
【Constructing the world.】
Fwaaaaaah!
The next mont, they were standing in the middle of a desert.
The sun blazed fiercely in a cloudless blue sky, and sand dunes like tidal waves stretched to the horizon.
Unlike before, when they were slightly apart, this ti they were completely stuck together.
Ryu Haneul asked.
"Where are we?"
"Ha."
The emotion Baekya displayed at that mont was sothing Ryu Haneul had never seen before, not in the previous regression or this one.
"S-Senior?"
The eyes that had been looking up at the top of the Tower rolled back, hiding within themselves.
Baekya… was afraid.
Baekya, who had fought ancient dragons, closed Level 1 Gates, and wandered through the other worlds within the Tower as if they were his own backyard, was afraid of a re desert.
"Okay, this might be a bit tough."
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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