What did “automatically activates” even mean?
I didn’t think the wiki would do anything strange to me, but the description alone didn’t make much sense.
"Ahem."
After staring at the wiki for a moment, I put my phone away.
I cleared my throat, gripped my sword tightly, and assumed the stance I’d spent the past week copying over and over.
"Parry!"
The effect was negligible!
I tried shouting the skill’s name, but nothing happened.
I’d wondered whether the wiki would move my body for me, but apparently not.
‘Do I have to swing it myself while shouting?’
Thinking that might make a difference, I forced my eyes wide open and swung the sword.
"Parry—!!"
...Not that either.
What was the command? What was I supposed to do?
The wiki only said “automatically activates.” There wasn’t a single scrap of additional information.
‘Is it a problem with my stance?’
Maybe I wasn’t supposed to take a defensive stance and wait for an attack, but aggressively aim for a counter instead.
Whoosh!
"Parry!!"
Huff!
"Activate skill!"
Swoooosh—!!
"Wiki, do it for me!!!"
Three straight cheeses.
It was called a skill book, so I’d thought it might activate like a game skill, but apparently that wasn’t how it worked.
Maybe I simply couldn’t activate Parry by swinging alone. For now, that was the only conclusion I could draw.
Though parrying was something you couldn’t do by yourself in the first place.
‘This is fucking embarrassing.’
Even knowing nobody was around, I still felt ashamed.
Being this old and shouting while swinging a sword made my face burn for no reason.
"Let’s just go..."
If the wiki had even sent me a notification about this, there had to be a place to use it.
I could now trust completely that this would help me.
Besides, I hadn’t expected to use Parry right away anyway.
Every ten floors, something like those boars would show up, so I planned to take it a little easier until then.
Step.
‘Nothing’s showing up.’
I’d approached the door, but nothing in particular appeared.
The wiki was quiet, and unlike the first floor, there were no numbers or instructions written near the door.
‘And the door won’t open.’
I pulled the handle, but of course it didn’t budge.
With no gimmick or instructions in sight, I looked around for a moment, wondering what the hell this was.
Tap.
"?"
A pebble dropped onto my head, and I blankly looked up at the ceiling.
Drip, pat...
Something like dust was falling from the ceiling.
Small chunks of stone were dropping around me.
Rumbleeeee—!!
"...!!"
Then the entire tower shook, accompanied by a deafening, incomprehensible roar.
"You fu—"
Instinctively realizing the ceiling was about to come down, I immediately threw myself backward.
Boom—!!
A stone wall now stood where I’d been standing just moments ago.
It must have fallen from above. An impossibly thick stone wall filled the place where the door had been.
Drip...
"...No, right?"
Then another pebble fell onto me as I was barely picking myself up—
Rumbleeeee...!!
"Fuuuuuck!!!"
At the renewed roar, I immediately ran backward like a madman.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Craaash!!
"Open the door!! Open it!!"
I shouted as stone walls continued to fall.
I’d made it back to the entrance, but the door wouldn’t open. Watching the stone walls fall closer and closer, my eyes trembled.
"Where’s the walkthrough, Wiki!!"
Five more... no, if about four more stone walls fell, I’d become a pork cutlet.
I’d surely be ground into minced meat and never get out of here. Delicious Han Seol pork cutlet.
Boom!!
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it...’
What was I supposed to do?
How was I supposed to stop those falling stone walls?
Parry? I was supposed to parry that?
With the arms of someone without an ounce of muscle and a wooden shield, I was supposed to stop that stone wall from falling?
Boom!
The wiki still had no answer.
And the stone walls kept multiplying, coming closer and closer.
‘Think... think!!’
Why wasn’t the wiki, which had even sent a lunchbox in the Tower of Fate, giving me so much as a notification?
Why was it creating this situation, something anyone could see was complete bullshit?
Boom!!
Drip, tap...
"Ah..."
Only one space remained.
As pebbles fell over my head, I tightened my grip on the sword and forced my eyes wide open.
"Aaaaaaah!!!"
I couldn’t think of anything. Not a single thing.
All I could do was scream and savor my final moments.
All I could do was simply—
"Wikiiiiii!!!"
Believe like a fanatic that there had to be a reason the wiki was keeping its mouth shut.
Clang!
"..."
I couldn’t take it anymore and squeezed my eyes shut at the last moment, but nothing happened.
The sound was far too different for a stone wall falling.
I think... I survived. Probably.
Stone walls had come down everywhere except exactly one space above my head, where I stood unharmed.
At first, I’d worried because pebble-like bits had fallen here too, but...
‘A pickaxe...?’
Ridiculously enough, what had come down wasn’t a stone wall, but a pickaxe.
Swoosh.
As I cautiously picked up the pickaxe, text appeared before my eyes.
It explained how to clear the eleventh floor. Why the stone walls had fallen and why I’d been given this pickaxe were written there.
[Open the door yourself and proceed]
The door couldn’t mean the entrance behind me. It had to mean the door where the first stone wall had fallen.
‘So, in other words—’
I was supposed to break through a stone wall dozens of meters thick with this pickaxe.
Just as floors one through nine of the Tower of Trials had been nothing but simple grinding, this was telling me to suffer through another round of labor.
"Haha."
If that was the case, why not start with the stone walls already standing?
I’d nearly died for no reason after walking all the way to the door.
My clenched fist trembled with rage and indignation.
I wanted to give the stone wall everything I had, but I decided to generously forgive it this once.
Because I’d be the only one getting fucking hurt.
‘So... I’m supposed to mindlessly break all of this and go through?’
It was sharp. Honestly, it looked dozens of times more dangerous than my wooden sword.
It was probably incomparably heavier too.
I couldn’t even imagine how long it would take to smash through a stone wall that thick.
Ten swings... no, after just five swings, I’d definitely hit my physical limit.
"Yeah, no thanks~."
I didn’t know how much the others—my gallery seniors—had suffered, but I wasn’t doing the same thing.
Ding!
I was going to cheese it with the wiki.
[Tower of Trials]
- First Run, Floor 11 Walkthrough: Red Dot Strategy.
After checking the wiki’s walkthrough, I looked at the stone wall.
Red dots had appeared all over it, as though laser pointers were shining on it.
Swoosh.
I put down my wooden sword and shield for a moment, then picked up the pickaxe.
I’d entered to test Parry, but this wasn’t so bad.
I had to climb to the hundredth floor anyway. If I could cheese it, cheesing it was best.
I could use Parry to my heart’s content when I met a boss.
Clang—!! Clang—!!
I swung the pickaxe, so heavy it took both hands to hold, and struck the red dots—
Crack... crunch...
After a few misses, the instant I struck one accurately, cracks began spreading across the entire massive stone wall.
One, two, three.
After targeting around five dots—
Rumbleeeee...!!
The foremost stone wall collapsed in a heap, and I snickered.
‘Too easy.’
Seriously, why was everyone making such a fuss over something this easy?
*
『Tower of Trials』
-14-
From the eleventh to the fourteenth floor, I followed the wiki’s instructions and cleared them at lightning speed.
What I had to do remained simple grinding, and thanks to the wiki’s walkthroughs, I was able to cut down the time required by an absurd amount.
By the shared timer, I reached the fifteenth floor in roughly thirty minutes.
‘Honestly, if my specs were better, I probably could’ve done it in under ten.’
Still, if I kept climbing one step at a time like this, wouldn’t I eventually become more like a real person?
If I kept living in a place like this, I’d get a muscular body whether I liked it or not.
Flash!
As I entered the fifteenth floor and looked around, bright lights switched on throughout the tower.
"Wow..."
A gasp escaped me at the sight before my eyes.
I liked that it was bright rather than dark, but more than that, it was ridiculous.
At the center of the tower... though I wasn’t sure this could even be called a tower.
Either way, there was a straight path through the middle, wide enough for roughly five people to walk abreast. On either side of the path were bottomless cliffs with no end in sight.
"...And arrows are going to come flying from there, right?"
Beyond the cliffs lining the path, there were strange devices riddled with holes at the far ends of both walls.
They looked like traps from some movie or comic where people robbed a treasure vault.
I didn’t know whether they would shoot arrows, bullets, or something even stranger, but one thing was certain: they were meant to deal with intruders.
And right now, I was the only intruder here.
‘...About a hundred meters to the door on the other side?’
I couldn’t really estimate distance.
It looked fucking far away, but also weirdly close, so a hundred meters seemed about right.
Whiiiiiiir...
As I stood blankly in front of the door and watched, I heard something that sounded like machinery starting up.
I didn’t know if it was an engine or some other device. But this bizarre noise blanketing the scene before me was enough to make my heart pound.
In a bad way.
The irritating sound soon vanished, but—
Swoooosh—!!
It was replaced by the sound of arrows splitting the air, as though that meant it was time to begin.
"Haa..."
They were hard to follow even with my eyes.
The moment I thought one had fired from the right, it was already lodged in the left wall.
It would have been one thing if they only came from one side, but they were firing from both, changing angles all over the place and shooting out of sync.
Across the entire hundred-meter distance.
‘...How the hell did the others get through this?’
This was only the fifteenth floor of the first run. They said it got harder with every regression.
Was I really the only ordinary person with absolutely no abilities?
Ding!
"..."
At the sound of salvation, I swallowed and checked my phone.
Praying and praying that this walkthrough would be easier than all the others, I cracked my eyes open and took a peek.
[Tower of Trials]
- First Run, Floor 15 Walkthrough: Analyzing.
‘Take as long as you need, just please give me a cheese walkthrough—’
I was praying, begging for it, when—
Ding!
The wiki finished its analysis in an instant and displayed another walkthrough.
[Tower of Trials]
- First Run, Floor 15 Walkthrough: Analysis of (Restricted)’s stride length complete.
Wait at the far left edge of the path. Start the moment the first device on the right stops. Then repeat: walk straight seven steps, stop for three seconds.
"..."
How could a walkthrough be this perfect? (Restricted) surely referred to me.
It had calculated even my stride length and perfectly factored in the timing and distance.
It was so perfect my head started to throb.
Swoooosh!!
I squeezed my eyes shut at the dizzying instruction telling me to cross that field of arrows while trusting nothing but a phone app.
I missed the simple grinding I’d been doing until now.
I’d rather suffer for hours without the wiki than do this. A million times over.
‘This is driving me insane.’
A few of the devices did occasionally pause.
I didn’t know if there was a pattern, but it did look as though I could get across if I watched my position carefully and stopped whenever I had to.
"Phew..."
Running probably wasn’t an option either.
After all, it had specifically calculated my stride and told me to take seven steps.
I had to slowly walk through the rain of arrows to that incredibly distant door, stopping every so often for three seconds to admire the scenery.
Whoosh!
When I stood at the far left edge of the path as the wiki instructed, the arrows sounded even more vicious.
Were those really arrows, not cannon fire? It felt like getting hit wouldn’t make one lodge in me and bleed, but would knock me straight sideways.
‘...It could’ve at least given me a route down the center.’
The thought that one misstep would send me plunging into the abyss made my mouth go dry.
Clench...
"Let’s go, Han Seol—!!"
I tightly gripped the wooden sword in my hand and shouted loudly enough to shake the tower.
There was no choice but to go straight ahead. It wasn’t as if I’d entered without knowing things would come to this. It was a path I had to cross someday.
Tap.
‘Now...!’
The moment the first device on the right stopped, I stepped forward.
At a pace neither fast nor slow.
Remembering my usual walking speed, I stared ahead and walked without looking to either side.
‘If I turn my head, I’m dead.’
I counted my steps internally and swallowed hard.
I’d die the moment I let myself get distracted. I had to trust the wiki’s words. If I doubted it for even an instant, it was a one-way trip to the afterlife.
‘One second, two seconds, three seconds.’
I didn’t know how I was still alive myself, but somehow, I was making it through.
Not a single arrow came near me, to the point where I wondered if I was being tricked.
‘H-halfway there...!’
Six steps, seven steps.
My breathing grew harsher. I was only walking at my usual pace, but my legs trembled violently.
Cold sweat poured from the hand gripping my wooden sword.
Whoosh!!
"...!"
I didn’t stop even when an arrow streaked past directly in front of my eyes.
For a brief moment, I nearly froze, and something touched the back of my head. I didn’t know if it was the arrowhead, the fletching, or what, but I’d nearly fucking died.
Then I went on for what felt like forever—walking and walking, waiting through three seconds that felt like three hours. After enduring that hellish stretch of time, I somehow found myself nearing the end.
I only needed to close my eyes and make it through one more cycle.
‘I’m alive...’
Maybe it was because that thought crossed my mind.
Or maybe my legs, which had been tense to the limit, relaxed in relief and gave out.
"Ngh...!!"
The toe of my left shoe caught on the heel of my right foot.
As my body slowly tipped over, I threw my eyes wide open and turned my head—only to see an arrow flying straight for the space between my brows.
‘Ah...’
I was losing my balance and falling, while a terrifying arrow hurtled toward me at the speed of light.
Just as I let out a stupid, hollow laugh, thinking I was going to die pathetically after coming all this way—
Flash.
A brilliant crimson light flashed at the tip of the arrowhead flying toward my brow.
At the moment my gaze—all my attention—fixed upon that arrow.
[The moment an enemy’s attack flashes and captures your gaze is the optimal [Timing].]
"!!"
Instinctively—no, reflexively—I twisted my body and swung the wooden sword in my hand.
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