"Haa..."
I let out a deep sigh as I looked at my phone.
Z-63, the management code, the Central Administration. And even that inexplicable attack...
They were all things that were difficult to figure out by brooding over them alone.
All I had were fragmentary pieces of information for now. Without thinking about it for a long time, it was hard even to make guesses.
And it wasn’t like I could explain every single thing to the gallery and puzzle it out together with them.
What could be hidden inside the Irregular?
Or was this tower expecting something from me?
...I do want to think more about the anomaly, but.
After dwelling on the unknowable for a while, I shook my head briskly.
There were still two more fiftieth floors I had to climb.
I might encounter an anomaly there too, so there was no need to settle in and start agonizing over it already.
I had experienced them on the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Wisdom and the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Fate.
Wasn’t it only reasonable to assume I would experience them in the other two towers as well?
If I don’t... then there must be some special condition for seeing anomalies.
I still wouldn’t know what that condition was, but even being able to conclude that one existed would be a gain.
[TP Held: 6,280]
"Should I be happy about this or not?"
Having finished my thoughts, I gave a hollow laugh at the TP displayed on my phone.
Judging by what it said, I had definitely cleared it in just a few minutes.
In reality, I had suffered for at least several dozen minutes, but...
The unlock progress for [???] clearly showed the Tower of Fate at 50/50 too.
Getting the bonus makes this even stranger.
I earned six thousand TP in three minutes.
Wow! Two hundred thousand won per minute!
"Can I really just be purely happy about this?"
Nothing like this had ever happened before, which made my head hurt even more.
The thought of whether skipping an entire tower was actually a good thing—
"...It is good, though?"
I learned a secret, got a free clear, and earned TP.
Wasn’t that just an insane profit?
Yesss.
If possible, I wanted to experience anomalies in the Tower of Mindscape and the Tower of Trials too.
As long as I didn’t die, honestly, I wanted to solve this mystery more than I wanted to climb towers.
I didn’t particularly want to risk my life climbing them.
The headaches and the burning sensation in my eyes are pretty painful, but...
As long as I could open my eyes again, I could endure that much.
"You’ve opened your eyes... Come to the Tower Gallery..."
Click!
After taking a picture of the timer floating in midair, I took a light breath.
I had been flustered by the sudden situation, but I should have taken a picture proving I’d cleared the tower.
I had taken pictures at every ten-floor interval for my album, but with no picture for the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Fate, it felt like my collection was missing a piece.
Swish.
The instant I finished taking the picture, I headed straight for the Tower of Trials.
I felt better quickly. It didn’t seem like I needed any rest.
I made sure to record the time.
The reason I took the picture was to check whether the flow of time would be similar if I experienced another anomaly.
And there was one more reason—
[Cleared the Tower of Fate’s 50th Floor]
[Author: KingGodWiki]
(Photo of numbers and a timer floating in midair)
It was so easy, I didn’t even think to take a picture;;;
It was over in three minutes...
Why can’t you guys do something this easy?
Is it because you have no luck..?
I wish I could share some of my luck with you..! Pyu pyuㅠㅠ
[Create Post]
Because I had to brag to the gallery!
This pyu pyu crap is seriously irritating.
I gave a hollow laugh as I looked at the post I had written.
I still couldn’t understand the appeal of it, but that didn’t matter.
It just pissed you off at a glance. I didn’t know why, but it was annoying.
I didn’t really get it even as I copied it, but it would make them feel bad too, so it was fine.
I’ve got a way to smooth that over in mind anyway.
One step of dislike for two steps of affection, you could say.
Ding ding ding ding—
[Comments]
Anonymous: No, holy shit, the big one came way too fast.
┗dd: For real, a proof post within minutes is a whole different level.
Anonymous: Look forward to it. (Meaning, look forward to me bragging about how amazing I am.)
Philosopher's Stone: Tell us if something shows up.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): I’ll tell you when the time comes.
Anonymous: "Pyu pyuㅠㅠ," my ass;;
6373: Hurry up and reveal who you are.
┗Anonymous: This guy is a full-blown conspiracy theorist now, damn.
┗6373: I’m certain this guy’s the culprit.
┗Anonymous: Scary;;
┗No. 43: He’d probably turn normal too if you offered him a cola lol.
Anonymous: As expected of our newbie! I’d love to learn from you!
┗Anonymous: A world where newbies and veterans are reversed;;
┗Anonymous: Even if you say that, he won’t give you cola.
"Yeah, yeah, I’m your big bro."
I’ll hand out something tasty, so just hang in there until your big bro finishes climbing all the fiftieth floors, okay?
*
[Tower of Trials]
Should I have gone to the Tower of Mindscape after all?
I had put some thought into choosing the Tower of Trials, but I was starting to regret it a little.
My original plan had been to clear the Tower of Fate and the Tower of Mindscape, then use TP to train a new technique or buy additional Magic Stones.
That was why I went to the Tower of Fate first.
I already have enough Magic Stones, and there’s no point learning a new skill right now.
Of course, I could use magic with a simple click, but the water and lightning I already had were enough.
Even if I gained more skills, I didn’t think the situation would change much.
Carrying the steel sword around was heavier than I had expected, and it would be a disaster if I went through another anomaly, got exhausted for no reason, and failed to react to an attack.
Honestly, I wasn’t that afraid of the Tower of Mindscape, so I came into the Tower of Trials with the mindset that I might as well get the worst part over with first.
It’ll work out somehow.
I had trained enough. Every day without rest, I had worked myself to death for hours at a time.
It was the first time in my life I had practiced anything this hard.
I cleared the fortieth and forty-fifth floors easily, too.
I knew the fiftieth floor wouldn’t be easy, but surely all my efforts so far would shine through.
"Hoo."
Rumble...!!
After checking the shield on my left arm and my Magic Stones, I opened the tightly shut door.
I gripped my steel sword tightly, tense over what kind of bastard would welcome me this time.
Thud!
"..."
The moment the door closed, the scenery before my eyes changed.
The fiftieth floor of the Tower of Fate... no, it hadn’t actually been the fiftieth floor either.
Anyway, what I saw before me now wasn’t a tower.
Chirp, chirp—!
Rustle rustle—
"...A forest?"
No matter where I looked, it was a forest.
Birdsong, the sound of small animals brushing through the grass.
There was a stream flowing beneath my feet and towering trees rising high above.
The fresh scent filling my nose made me feel cleansed. It was unmistakably a forest.
[Survive]
[10:00:00]
Survive...
A type of message I had never seen before appeared again.
The timer ticked down one second at a time.
It probably meant that if I survived in this forest for ten hours, it would be over.
...Isn’t that too easy?
I couldn’t be sure, but all it said was to survive...
I didn’t know anything about this place’s ecosystem, but didn’t that mean I could just keep running away or hide somewhere?
Ding—!
[Tower of Trials]
-1st Run, Floor 50 Walkthrough: Analyzing.
"You’re alive, Wiki...!"
I smiled at the Wiki’s lofty declaration of revival.
It wasn’t a particularly useful walkthrough, but at least it was alive.
Once the analysis was over, it would surely help me. That was enough.
Swish.
So what do I do, then...?
I quietly looked around.
This definitely wasn’t an ordinary forest.
There would be monsters and perhaps even traps.
Shouldn’t my first priority be to slowly inspect the surroundings and find somewhere to hide?
I have my weapon and Magic Stones properly prepared.
There was nothing wrong with my condition either.
I had fought continuously in coliseums and caves, so this situation felt a little unfamiliar. Still, it suited the name Tower of Trials.
If it was nothing but fighting, it would be far removed from a trial.
That was why I hadn’t thought much of the simple grind floors, either.
Rustle—
Stepping over the grass growing around me, I decided to first get out of the area packed with trees.
To find an open view, and to get a better grasp of what this place was.
It might not help me hide immediately, but I moved to find out something, anything.
*
Slash—!!
"Slimes are more disgusting than I expected..."
I grimaced as I peeled the sticky lump clinging to my sword away.
Every time I encountered one, it mindlessly tried to latch onto me, so I cut it down—but the cleanup was fucking awful.
Just in case, I tried rubbing it on my clothes, but unfortunately, it didn’t have an effect that only dissolved clothing.
I had considered taking some with me... what a shame.
Maybe it’ll wash off in water?
Step.
After two hours of roaming through the forest and gathering information, I hadn’t found anything particularly noteworthy.
I had spotted a bear along the way, as well as a white wolf that didn’t belong in a forest.
There were slime-like monsters and some rather enormous birds, suggesting it was a fantasy world, but—
[Survive]
[08:04:16]
Is surviving here really all there is to it?
I kept wondering whether this was truly a difficulty level worthy of the fiftieth floor.
Honestly, it was too easy, and none of the creatures seemed particularly dangerous.
[Tower of Trials]
-1st Run, Floor 50 Walkthrough: Analyzing.
The Wiki was still as inscrutable as ever.
Trickle, trickle—
"Fuck, it doesn’t wash off in water either."
I fiercely grimaced as I peeled off the slime’s corpse... Calling it a corpse made me feel a little strange, but it was just sticky lumps.
I hadn’t found anywhere that looked suitable for hiding.
I wondered if there might be a cave, but there was nothing but forest, forest, forest.
Trees taller and denser than expected, quite a few streams, and diverse living creatures.
It was just a slightly unusual forest from a fantasy world.
If the goal were to kill every creature in the forest, I could understand it.
When I came across the bear or wolf, I had backed away instead of fighting them.
My objective was survival, after all.
I wanted to see the results of my training, but I wasn’t some martial-arts-crazed maniac who had to cut down everything in sight to feel satisfied.
Is some kind of event going to happen?
Maybe the forest would be destroyed, or its size would steadily shrink.
That was all my feeble brain could come up with for now.
"Gwoooooar—!!"
"...Is that the bear from earlier?"
I swallowed quietly at the roar echoing throughout the forest.
When I had encountered it about an hour ago, despite holding a steel sword, a shield, and Magic Stones, I had been scared shitless.
I would have been frightened even if it were an ordinary bear, but it was slightly different from any bear I knew.
How could a bear with dozens of inexplicable scars carved all over its body possibly be ordinary?
Besides, there’s no way a human can fight a bear.
An UFC champion could beat a bear barehanded?
Well, I thought that was absolutely impossible.
At least, it would be impossible against the bear in this forest.
Grrrrumble...
I guess I have to find food myself, too.
It was only ten hours, so I could endure it if I had to, but staying hungry probably wasn’t a good idea.
Eating until I was full wouldn’t be good either... but this wasn’t exactly a place where food would be easy to come by.
Fruit from trees or fish...?
I couldn’t chew up slime lumps and eat them, so wasn’t that my best option?
Rustle—
As I kept looking around for something to eat—
Ding—!
"Oh."
Thinking the analysis had finished, I immediately checked the Wiki at the cheerful notification sound.
[Tower of Trials]
-1st Run, Floor 50 Walkthrough: Analyzing.
Until the first event, [Mark of the Prey], occurs: [30:00]
[Mark of the Prey]
-(Restricted) body emits special pheromones.
-Living creatures that enter within a certain range recognize the target as ‘prey.’
-The instant they recognize the target, its location is exposed. Duration: 90 minutes.
"Of course... There was no way it would go normally, right?"
[07:59:43]
In thirty minutes, there would be exactly seven and a half hours remaining.
An event every two and a half hours.
Would there be four events in total?
This was fitting for the Tower of Trials, and fitting for the fiftieth floor.
Being recognized as prey probably meant they would see me as food or maybe a toy.
"..."
The scar-covered bear I had seen earlier, the wolf.
And all the countless forest creatures I might not have discovered yet would see me as food...
I still didn’t know how large this forest was or what range the pheromones covered, but—
I’m fucked.
I understood perfectly well that this was not a welcome situation.
*
Until the first event,
[Mark of the Prey],
occurs: [00:07]
I stared at the Wiki, which said it would begin soon, then stuffed my phone into my pocket.
Clench—!
I gripped my sword tightly and fastened the shield securely to my arm.
After preparing to throw Magic Stones at any time, I waited for the countless forest creatures that might swarm me.
Beneath an immensely tall cliff where I couldn’t be attacked from behind.
There were especially tall, thick trees on either side, while a body of water wider and deeper than the other streams flowed before me.
"Hoo."
Thinking there was no better place than this, I took a light breath.
[Survive]
[07:29:58]
Slither...
The moment the event began, something like a pale pink mist seeped out of my body.
I had no idea how far it drifted or what its range was.
There were still more events to come, so it probably wasn’t that wide.
I loosened up lightly, thinking that not every living creature would start gathering already.
Besides, if they all gathered, wouldn’t they start beating the shit out of each other?
Swish.
"Grrr?"
"Nice to meet you?"
Maybe it had already been nearby before the event began, because a wolf appeared almost immediately, sniffing at the air.
It was small—not much more than a stray dog in size, honestly.
I smirked as I watched it drool thickly and lick its lips the moment it saw me.
Pat pat pat!
"Kraahk!!"
I gripped my steel sword tightly as the wolf charged at me with all its strength.
Mark of the Prey, my ass...
If everything in this forest saw me as food, as a toy—
Slash—!!!
"I’ll show you who the real predator is."
Go on. Try devouring prey soaked in a predator’s blood.
I hadn’t spent all this time lazing around enough to die that easily.
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