"Just come down already...."
I lay in the middle of the stark white room, one that felt like it would drive me insane at any moment, and blankly stared up at the ceiling.
I had no idea how much time had passed.
Ten minutes? Twenty?
There was no timer, and I could not properly tell whether the ceiling was descending, so I could not even guess.
"Hoo...."
Thump! Thump!
My heartbeat rang in my ears.
I mindlessly scratched at the edge of the puzzle covering me like a blanket with my fingernails.
‘At this speed, I probably could have managed even without the wiki.’
If I had rolled around like hell the moment I noticed what was unusual about the puzzle pieces, I probably would have made it in time somehow.
I was not certain... but looking at that ceiling slowly approaching over there, it was probably true.
‘I want to go back already.’
My head hurt too much.
Lying in this pure white space, and that mysterious thing I had experienced earlier.
I had gone through all kinds of things every time I entered a tower, but this time was different from all the others.
*
Creeeak... squeak... rumble—
How long had I been lying there?
At some point, the ceiling had descended to within arm’s reach.
"..."
[Tower of Wisdom]
- First-Run Floor 20 Walkthrough: Displaying Results.
After briefly checking the wiki, which remained unchanged, I quietly closed and opened my eyes before getting to my feet.
I turned the puzzle piece in my hand until it fit the gap, then drew in a deep breath.
‘Please, let this be the last one....’
The waiting was hell.
Since I could not even look at the gallery inside the tower, all I could do was blankly watch the ceiling coming to kill me.
Slide.
I reached out one arm, and my hand touched the ceiling.
It was smooth, nothing special. An ordinary ceiling that was no different from the floor or the walls.
‘Just don’t let me get crushed to death here.’
My mouth bone-dry, I slowly raised my trembling hand.
As I fitted the puzzle into the ceiling, I prayed for this to be over.
‘Stop shaking...!’
My arm trembled as I lifted a puzzle so light I could hold it with a finger.
Though I stretched out my arm while pretending to be strong, pretending to be confident, I had unknowingly clenched my teeth hard.
"...It touched."
Click.
It fit. It felt just like fitting the puzzle pieces together on the floor.
Now I just had to let go. Letting go would end it, but my hand would not move away.
The anxiety that it might not be the right answer held my hand there as if by magnetism.
"One... two.... Three!!"
I finally squeezed my eyes shut and hurriedly pulled my hand back, thinking that if I delayed any longer, I would not even be able to find another way.
"...It’s not falling."
It was stuck fast in midair... no, to the ceiling.
The empty space had been neatly filled. It was as if it were telling me this was the right answer.
Thump—thump—
My heart pounded as I stared at the ceiling, unable to tell whether it had stopped or not.
Just like when I had first entered the room, everything had turned completely white without a single empty space.
"Hoo."
Still pressed tightly to the floor just in case, I swallowed and quietly looked up at the ceiling.
Rumble...!!
"Ha, haha...."
Then, hearing the noise at last, I gave a hollow laugh and shook my head.
"That would be such a fucking boring development... you know that, right...?"
I muttered that I had done everything there was to do, so do not pull that on me—surely it was not going to keep coming down?
Anyone could see that this should be the end, could they not?
Just as I wildly looked around, wondering what the hell else I was supposed to do here.
"...!"
I squeezed my eyes shut at the sight of an exit that had somehow appeared in one corner of the pure white room.
It was that door I had seen dozens of times already. The door that led out of the tower, covered in grotesque creatures and bizarre patterns.
"I’m alive...."
So that sound had been the door opening, not the ceiling descending.
Rumble rumble rumble!!
Smack!!
"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me—!!"
No, fuck, the ceiling really was coming down.
*
Ding!
[Tower of Trials Floor 20 Clear - TP +2,000]
"After all that trouble, I only get 200,000 won...."
I slumped my shoulders at the notification that arrived as I walked down the dim passageway.
I had risked my life and worked my ass off, only to get 200,000 won.
No matter how I thought about it, the cost-effectiveness was terrible.
‘...Or is it?’
Come to think of it, it had not actually seemed that difficult.
The visuals on the twentieth floor had overwhelmed me, and there had been some confusing situations, but really, the wiki had done everything for me.
It had not been hard like the Tower of Trials, and I had not gotten hurt anywhere like I did then.
It had not been terrifying like the Tower of Mindscape, nor had I needed to gamble like in the Tower of Fate.
‘Come to think of it, that was fucking easy.’
I had breezed through everything from the eleventh floor to the twentieth.
I was not just saying that because it was over. It was a matter of waiting for the wiki, putting together a few puzzles, and looking up at the ceiling once.
As for the last ceiling... sure, I got a little scared, but anyone would have figured out the answer if they thought about it for a bit.
Thinking about it rationally, they were just throwing money at me for playing a few minigames, answering a few quizzes, and doing a little puzzle play.
‘Is this a change in perspective?’
Step.
-1-
[Apocalypse 347:22:07:44]
[Section 3:22:07:44]
[ 60 / 21 ]
Roughly two hours had passed since I entered the eleventh floor.
That came to a whopping 100,000 won an hour. It was profitable even if it was dangerous, but it had not even been particularly dangerous.
‘Was I on the twentieth floor for an hour?’
The ceiling had definitely descended slowly. Looking at it this way, I had more leeway than I thought.
‘Wouldn’t I have barely cleared it even without the wiki?’
I did not know for sure, but somehow I had a feeling that was the case.
The wiki had told me the answer, but I had also found a way to solve the puzzle on my own.
"Two hours have passed...."
While I was in that white room, I had wanted to return immediately and rest, but now that I was out, I felt fine.
[TP Held: 3,673]
More precisely, greed had overcome my fatigue and fear.
Now that I had earned TP, I wanted more for no reason.
Honestly, I felt like I could climb higher.
I had climbed forty floors on the first day, but now I had only climbed ten.
Since I had finished without much danger, greed was welling up inside me.
‘If I get to the thirtieth floor, that’s 6,600 TP.’
Enough TP to buy a new sword and learn new techniques.
It was even enough money to try my hand at magic. I could spread all sorts of things around the gallery, too.
If I went as far as the fortieth, fiftieth floor....
[TP Held: 12,673]
"Holy shit."
I opened my eyes wide at the illusion floating before me.
A full 1.2 million won.
It was enough to possibly upgrade an item... no, a weapon, by two whole tiers.
I could learn several flashy sword techniques and eat out for an entire week.
Rather than basic magic, I might even be able to dip my toes into magic with a more diverse range of elements.
With that much, could I not send the mod a whole chicken, too?
Slide.
Yeah, heading to the thirtieth floor like this was definitely the right—
"...No."
I shook my head as I looked down the passage leading to the Tower of Wisdom.
There was no problem with climbing it anyway.
Whether I went now or a few days later, the TP I earned would be the same.
‘Investigation first.’
What I needed to do now was not rake in money, but gather information.
That mysterious place I had seen during the twentieth floor.
I needed to find out about the situation where I had suddenly passed out and woken up.
"...Did I get a little smarter after visiting the Tower of Wisdom?"
Maybe I am a little levelheaded?
*
Creak.
"My sweet home...!!"
I threw open the hideout door and spread my arms wide.
Moving from that insane white room to a room that reassured me just by looking at it naturally brought a smile to my face.
Thinking I could rest comfortably here, not going to the thirtieth floor really had been the right—
"—Like hell it was, Han Seol, you bastard...."
I squeezed my eyes shut and lamented the fact that I had genuinely smiled at the sight of this room.
This was not even my real home, yet after just over two weeks here, I had already gotten used to it.
A room with nothing but a hard pillow, a scratchy blanket, tasteless bread, and water.
‘This suddenly feels so fucking unfair....’
My brand-new 5090 graphics card I had bought just a month ago, my 64 gigs of RAM I had tearfully bought at peak prices.
My dual-monitor, dual-PC setup optimized for farming money, my high-performance gaming laptop, my beloved room where even the angle of my bed could be adjusted so I could farm money while lying down.
Overnight, it had all turned into this sorry state.
Tears welled up at the sight of myself being happy just looking at this shabby room.
"Heavens!!!!"
Grant me strength—no, send me back to my original world.
"Hyaaaaaah!!!"
Thud!
"Fuck, I slammed down way too hard."
I tried kneeling down like a madman, but nothing happened.
Rubbing my tingling knees, I pulled out my phone and entered the gallery.
[Infinite Regression Gallery]
[Found a pro tip for making bread taste good lol] (12)
[Newbie, when the fuck are you coming back? You ruined my gallery life] (34)
[Second Run)) Saw a crazy pretty woman in the Tower of Mindscape, will she show up again later??] (16)
[When is the newbie gonna hit a wall, seriously] (9)
[No way he has the brains to climb the Tower of Wisdom at that speed;;] (22)
‘How smart do you think I am, doubting my intelligence?’
The wiki’s ability was my ability, so I was absolutely not stupid.
Even though I had been gone for quite a while, the place was still buzzing with talk about me.
The results of the groundwork I had been laying anonymously over the past week were showing here.
If the mod had really been a strict person, someone who shut down mentions and killed topics with an iron fist, even posts like those would have been subject to execution....
‘But the mod has already fallen for me.’
One stack from Irregular, two stacks from the cola.
Someone who could control thousands of people with a gesture was already in the palm of my hand.
‘Honestly, I do not know why they treat me so well either.’
The mod was treating me far too well for those things alone to explain it.
After roughly skimming through the posts that had gone up over the past two hours, I slowly tapped Create Post.
To find out about the phenomenon I saw on the twentieth floor, and the truth about this tower that I did not know.
*
[Ah fuck, I failed]
[Author: WikiWikiIsTheBest]
(Proof photo of clearing Floor 20 of the Tower of Wisdom)
(Photo of numbers and a timer floating in midair)
I went and failed at failing..
Sigh.. Being too perfect is a problem, seriously;
Upvotes 235 Downvotes 235
[Comments]
Anonymous: I believed in you lmaoooooooo
Anonymous: Upvoted for the Fandral-tier state of this post;
Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Seriously impressive, in both a good and bad way
232nd Run: No, what the fuck kind of ability does he actually have???
Anonymous: Newbie’s 2 hours = my 2 weeks lmaooooooooo
┗485: Two weeks is fast, though? In the Tower of Wisdom, it would take me a month lol
Not an Eraser🔸: Great work, Wiki!! I believed in you hehe
┗Not an Eraser🔸: (Sticker of a grotesque creature clapping with all its might)
Anonymous: This guy climbed ten floors while I could not even climb one lmaoooooooo
┗53rd Run: That’s supposed to be normal, fuck, but I’m getting cognitive dissonance these days
I snickered as I looked at the comments that had piled up in no time.
Delicious. So delicious I felt like I might get sick from it.
‘I was so frustrated, but now I feel like I can finally breathe.’
Of course, the gallery was not where I should be looking for information.
There was no reason to look through the gallery when I had something better.
"Hoo."
I had planned to make just one proof post before going into the wiki to investigate, and that was exactly what I did.
[Restricted]
[No Search Results]
[Darkness]
[No Search Results]
[Universe]
[No Search Results]
The problem was that even when I searched the wiki, nothing came up.
I tried countless other search terms too—bug, error, and so on—but the wiki gave me nothing.
‘It did not even say Restricted.’
Even the ‘(Restricted)’ notice that occasionally appeared when I searched the wiki had not shown up.
Did it truly not know, or was it unable to show even that much?
I searched for a long time, but could not get any information whatsoever.
With no other choice, I searched around the gallery too, but the result was the same.
I did not know whether such posts had been deleted for being treated as tower walkthroughs, or if I was simply the first to experience this phenomenon....
‘This place has existed for at least 6,373 years... hundreds of thousands of people must have passed through here, yet nobody knows.’
My head was throbbing for all sorts of reasons.
The scene I saw then remained far too vivid for it to be just my imagination.
My intuition, which did not have the best track record, was screaming that something was hidden here.
"In the end, there’s nothing I can find out, though."
Whether I was suspicious or not, there was ultimately nothing I could learn.
Whether it only appeared in the Tower of Wisdom or in other towers too, whether it would happen again in the future....
Ding!
As I gave a hollow laugh and read through the comments, a new one appeared.
Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: So are you handing out cola now?!
‘They’ve got nerve.’
Honestly, it was nice seeing them be so bold.
I liked people who said what they wanted rather than beating around the bush for no reason.
┗WikiWikiIsTheBest (Author): Handing it out to everyone except you.
┗Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: Huh?! Why?!! Did I do something wrong?! I’ll apologize, so forgive me!!!
┗Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: I kept refreshing because I wanted to drink cola!!
┗Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: I even turned on notifications for the first time ever!!!
┗WikiWikiIsTheBest (Author): Reporting you for stalking.
┗Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: What’s a stalker?!
"Hehe."
It felt good that they reacted this much over just one cola.
The bigger the reaction from someone who had received one before, the more the gallery users would become obsessed with me.
‘They were lying about refreshing, too.’
If they really had been, they would not have left their comment this late.
"I don’t really feel like it, but should I hand one out?"
Unfortunately, I had not gotten an additional bonus on the twentieth floor of the Tower of Wisdom.
I could not know the bonus conditions, so I was not sure whether there was normally no bonus or whether I had been lacking something.
‘A bonus is just a bonus, I guess.’
It was a little disappointing, but not something to get too upset about.
Still, if I kept handing things out like this, I could build up a certain atmosphere in the gallery.
If I climbed the tower, snacks appeared.
So they had to cheer for me. They had to watch me climb the tower in suspense.
If I could create that atmosphere, this much would not be a major loss.
[Create Post]
"...Ah."
Just as I was about to post something telling them to line up, an obvious thought crossed my mind.
[Anyone ever wake up in a black space while climbing a tower?]
[Author: WikiWikiIsTheBest]
While climbing Floor 20 of the Tower of Wisdom, I suddenly collapsed like I passed out.
When I came to and opened my eyes, I was somewhere else instead of where I had been before.
It was a completely black space. It felt like outer space, like I could not even properly feel myself walking.
Does anyone know where this is?
Or if anyone has had the same experience, leave a comment.
I’ll give you cola if you tell me!
With everyone’s attention focused on me right now, I could simply ask directly.
There were plenty of living witnesses here who had lived in this place for hundreds or thousands of years. I did not need to struggle around looking for answers myself.
[Create Post]
Press.
Thinking that, I tapped Post.
"...?"
For some reason, the post I had just submitted was nowhere to be seen, and I blankly blinked.
[Create Post]
[Create Post]
[Create Post]
Once more, then twice more.
I tried posting the same thing three times, but no matter how often I tapped Post, it would not go up.
As if I was not supposed to ask. As if it were telling me to keep it to myself.
"...Ha."
I snickered as I looked at the post that would not upload no matter how many times I tried, no matter how I changed the wording.
‘Something’s being hidden, huh?’
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