Huff.
The wooden sword shot toward the arrow shaft.
The red light that had flashed at the tip of the arrowhead gradually dimmed, forming a small circle.
‘Hit it…!!’
Clang—!!!
The instant the red light at the arrow’s tip became a dot, my wooden sword struck it.
The arrow’s trajectory twisted upon hitting the wooden sword, and it skimmed past my cheek.
"Urgh…!"
I’d thought the sound it made flying was different. This apparently wasn’t an ordinary arrow.
The impact transmitted through the wooden sword made my entire hand go numb.
Thud!
I had fallen without even being ready for it, and pain spread through my whole body.
My eyes were instinctively drawn to the black holes in the wall that seemed to be watching me.
‘Move!!’
With stray thoughts flooding my mind, I bit down hard on my lower lip.
Arrows were flying every second. If I hesitated for even a moment, I’d turn into a pincushion.
This was no time to rest just because I’d deflected one arrow.
Clack!
‘Please…!!’
Just a few steps. I only had to move forward that much farther.
But there was no time to get up and walk, so I barely planted my toes, braced myself against the ground with my arms, and forcibly threw myself forward.
Whoooosh—!!
Just how accurate had the wiki’s guide been? I’d failed to follow it for only a few seconds, yet arrows were flying toward my entire body. The same was probably true outside my field of vision, behind my head.
And among all those countless arrows, exactly three were flashing red.
It was as though they were marking themselves as threats to me.
‘I can’t swing my sword…!’
It was impossible in my current position.
I could force myself to swing it, but at best, I’d only be able to deal with one.
‘Damn it…!’
I wrapped my chest with the arm holding the wooden sword and covered my face with the shield in my left hand.
Please, don’t let them hit me. And even if they did, please don’t let them hit anything vital.
I clenched my teeth, squeezed my eyes shut, and braced for the coming impact.
Thududud—!!
Thuuud—!!
"Haa… haa…!"
Pain surged through my entire body from throwing myself with all my strength.
The floor wasn’t particularly smooth, so my back and arms had taken a heavy impact.
Still, the pain was awful enough that I was certain I’d be bruised all over, but—
"H-Heh…."
Two arrows embedded in my shield, and the arrows still menacingly flying through the passage, made me laugh despite myself.
The wooden sword had flown far away after I dropped it from the impact of hitting the ground, but the sensation of deflecting an arrow was still vivid in my hand.
‘At the end, it brushed against my sword too.’
If I’d tried to swing it halfheartedly for no reason, my heart might have been pierced.
"……"
When I saw the bright red circle at the arrow’s tip, the contents of the skill book I had read over and over came to mind.
The optimal moment, when an enemy’s attack flashed and seized your attention.
If the wiki hadn’t displayed it like a game prompt, I never would have been able to swing.
"I seriously love you, Wiki…"
It was practically as if the wiki had leaned close to my ear and whispered, ‘Swing.’
Whoosh!
"Ha."
Seeing the arrows flying about without pause made my heart pound belatedly.
It wasn’t fear or anxiety. My body trembled from the pointless dopamine rush of having survived again.
‘This could become a habit.’
When I was holed up in my room, I used to wonder why people did things like extreme sports… Now I understood a little.
No, even extreme sports probably amounted to nothing compared to what I was doing now.
"What a fucking lunatic."
I mocked myself as I got to my feet.
It was absurd that I was smiling after nearly dying more than five times in ten days.
Rumble…
I picked up the wooden sword and headed toward the door, which happened to be opening.
[Tower of Trials]
-15-
I casually took a picture of the featured-post ticket welcoming me, then glanced back.
Whether the door was open or not, arrows were still flying around. I let out a hollow laugh and raised my middle finger at them.
"Let’s never meet again."
Dopamine was dopamine, but something shitty was still shitty.
Step.
As I passed through the dark corridor, I stretched thoroughly.
My back and forearms throbbed. I wondered whether I should rest for today or somehow push on to the twentieth floor and properly test Parry.
-1-
[End: 355:11:56:43]
[Section 4: 11:56:43]
[ 45 / 14 ]
When I returned to the communal chamber and looked up at the timer floating in the air—
-1-
"Ah, fuck."
I squeezed my eyes shut at the realization that, if I regressed, I would have to go through this again in the next run.
‘……It’ll change, right?’
Surely it wasn’t the kind of thing where the exact same one came up again just because I cursed at it.
That would be boring.
I’m right… aren’t I?
*
Rumble—!!
"Whew."
I quietly caught my breath, rotating my throbbing arms this way and that.
As the door opened with a deafening roar, I picked up the wooden sword and shield I had leaned beside me.
[Tower of Trials]
-19-
Nineteenth floor cleared.
After getting out of the fifteenth floor and resting briefly, I spent another hour or so climbing to the nineteenth floor.
Floors sixteen through nineteen were nothing particularly special.
Move things, hit things, and break things again.
Or dodge, or repeatedly perform certain actions.
‘Nothing but floors I can breeze through with the wiki.’
There was nothing surprising like the eleventh floor, or anything that required tension like the fifteenth.
Step—
The moment I returned to the communal chamber through the dark corridor, I headed for the tower again.
I had no hesitation whatsoever. I was going to climb to the twentieth floor no matter what.
I could have stopped and rested on the fifteenth floor, and I could have stopped now and challenged the twentieth tomorrow, but—
‘Showing off floor fifteen would be way too pathetic….’
I had confidently walked away from those gallery users who looked down on me, so returning after only reaching floor fifteen wouldn’t give me enough of a rush.
Besides, my goal in entering the tower in the first place had been to test Parry.
‘I did use it once on the fifteenth floor, though.’
It hadn’t even felt like I was knocking away an attack, and I had come in expecting a fight against an ‘enemy,’ so I wasn’t satisfied.
Since it had come to this, I might as well go as far as I could.
If a man draws his sword, he ought to at least slice a radish.
Boom!!
"Wow…"
Just as when I first entered some of the other towers, my mouth fell open the moment I entered the twentieth floor.
It was bright. Blue sky stretched overhead in place of a ceiling.
I had gone outdoors in the Tower of Mindscape before, but this was the first time it wasn’t gloomy and dark.
‘I barely went outside to begin with….’
I’d spent years shut in my room, and even when I occasionally went outside, I never felt much of anything.
"Woooooah!!"
An indescribable sense of liberation washed over me.
I didn’t know whether this was truly outdoors, or whether I was still inside the tower and only my senses were being deceived, but even the air felt sweet.
‘I can’t climb the walls, can I?’
I looked around and let out a hollow laugh.
A cloudless blue sky.
And beneath it, a circular arena.
I stood in the center of what people commonly called a colosseum, without a single spectator in sight.
‘That’s where it’ll appear from.’
Far away, where the exit should have been, stood a barred iron gate.
I didn’t know what lay beyond it, but that was probably where the enemy would emerge.
"So, who’s coming out?"
Would it be a person, or an animal?
This was a place where aliens, monsters, or anything else could appear, so I had no idea what to expect.
Rumble—!
A moment later, the firmly shut iron bars sank into the ground in a cloud of dust.
Thump—!
"……You’ve got to be kidding me."
I gave a hollow laugh as I looked up at the being approaching me.
"A human?"
A gigantic… boar standing on two legs and speaking.
Was this supposed to be revenge for the tenth floor? This was the first time I’d seen a person who looked like that… No, was it even a person? Either way, it was startling.
How was a pig even capable of walking around on two legs?
I wasn’t sure whether I should call that a beastman… or an alien.
"Where is this, human?"
‘Was it dragged here against its will?’
I couldn’t tell whether that boar was climbing the tower too, or whether it was just a hologram like in the Tower of Fate.
Judging by how it was asking where it was, it probably wouldn’t be able to give me a proper answer even if I asked it myself.
Either way, the fact that I had to defeat it didn’t change.
Thump!
When I turned toward the sound, the path the boar had come through was blocked off by iron bars again.
Would they open if I defeated it? I didn’t want to think about the alternative.
[The gate will not open until only one survivor remains in the arena.]
"Whew…"
I took a deep breath at the obvious message floating before my eyes.
The boar, seemingly unable to understand the situation, had its eyes tightly furrowed.
"Answer me, human."
"I don’t know if you’re a hologram too… or if you were dragged here while climbing the tower as well, but—"
"What in the world are you talking about?"
Swish.
"I bear you no ill will. Come at me."
"……"
I raised my wooden sword and pointed it at the creature’s head as I spoke.
‘……Wow, even I think that was fucking cool just now.’
It was a shame there wasn’t a single audience member.
"Hahahahaha!"
"?"
"A mere human has lost his mind. You think you can fight me with that thing, which isn’t even fit to be a child’s toy?"
"……You’re one to talk when you aren’t carrying anything either, aren’t you?"
I frowned at its sudden mockery.
Of course, this wooden sword wasn’t anything special, but wasn’t it better than bare hands?
‘No, against a monster like that, are bare hands stronger?’
Maybe because it could hold a normal conversation, it didn’t feel all that threatening.
We had to fight until one of us fell, but unlike on the tenth floor, I didn’t feel any hostility toward it.
Its appearance was kind of disgusting, though….
"I see. I suppose you could think that."
Swish.
"Y-You crazy bastard!!"
As I watched it with those thoughts in mind, it suddenly shoved both hands inside its pants.
I grimaced fiercely as it moved its hands around in there, searching for something.
"Found it."
"Fuck… you filthy bastard…"
Why was that coming out of there?
Who the hell carries a weapon in there?
It could have stored it somewhere else, or at least turned around before taking it out. The sight of it rummaging around inside the front of its pants with both hands was deeply revolting.
Swish.
"The gate won’t open until only one remains, huh."
"……"
I frowned as it gripped its weapon like it was familiar with it.
Two daggers. More precisely, they weren’t daggers, but knuckle weapons with sharp blades attached to the sides.
I couldn’t understand why something that looked at least two and a half meters tall would wear weapons like those, but…….
"I don’t know what this situation is, but if I defeat you, I’ll learn something."
‘No matter what, I can’t let those touch me.’
It wasn’t simply a matter of getting hurt. Under no circumstances could I let myself be struck by those daggers.
‘At least it’s not fur…!!’
The moment I even grazed the disgusting thing stuck to the tips of those daggers, I’d be better off dead.
Seriously, absolutely, never.
I had to avoid them with my life on the line.
Ding—!
[Tower of Trials]
- First Run, Floor 20 Guide: After evading or blocking five consecutive attacks from (Restricted), it will attempt an attack with a large motion. If that attack is countered, it enters a brief groggy state.
‘……So if I dodge five times, it triggers a special pattern?’
It looked complicated in various ways, but the conclusion was simple.
Whether I dodged or blocked, I had to avoid that bastard’s attacks anyway.
"Are you ready, human?"
"You’re disgusting, so don’t talk to me like we’re friends."
"How arrogant."
"……"
Every time its arms moved, the fur stuck to the dagger tips swayed.
It swayed… It only swayed, and stubbornly remained stuck to the tips.
‘Fuck, just fall off already…!!’
"Here I come."
Clack—!!
"……!"
My eyes widened as the boar kicked off the ground.
It was far faster than I expected. Even running on two legs, the charge of a house-sized boar carried overwhelming force.
Gulp.
Still, it was at least one and a half times my height, and its charge was incredibly fast, but—
‘……I can handle this?’
It was smaller than the boar that charged me on the tenth floor.
It was slower than the arrows that flew at me on the fifteenth floor.
Of course, that alone wouldn’t let me deal with this thing, but—
Flash.
‘Just as I expected…!’
I still had one more cheat code left.
Red light burst from the end of its fur… No, the end of its blade.
As though perfectly calculating the ‘timing,’ the outer red light gathered toward the small circle at its center.
"Are you so scared you can’t even dodge—!!"
The creature closed in until it was right in front of me, then slashed its dagger toward my neck.
Whoosh—
The instant the red light became a circle, I swung my sword in the stance I had practiced thousands of times over the past week.
Clack!
"What…!"
The boar staggered one step back as its posture broke, seemingly stunned.
……Was that actually a stunned expression? It didn’t have a human face, so I couldn’t tell.
"You’re slow as hell. Was that really full force?"
Good thing I had barely managed to dodge those arrows on the fifteenth floor.
Having experienced parrying once, I could counter at the perfect timing.
‘Maybe if it had pulled out a greatsword, sure.’
Daggers like those could be blocked well enough with a wooden sword and wooden shield.
Of course, if a greatsword had popped out from inside its pants, I would have been terrified in more ways than one.
"You insolent…!!"
Gritting its teeth, it charged again and aimed for my neck, but—
Flash.
"Long live the wiki—!!"
Clack—!!
"!!!"
Having experienced all sorts of dodge patterns in games, matching the timing of a shrinking circle was child’s play to me.
Unless it was an attack impossible to block in the first place, I was more than confident against attacks at that level.
‘Like hell I’m letting that touch me.’
Even if I had to risk my life, I’d deflect every last one.
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