Drip... Drip...
"..."
I seriously felt like I was going to lose my mind.
Something kept touching my back and shoulders from behind, as if demanding that I turn around right this instant.
A sticky liquid—whether it was saliva, blood, or something else entirely—ran from the back of my head down my nape. I clenched my teeth at the revolting sensation of it spreading beneath my clothes.
The sign I had finally found after what felt like an hour was telling me to turn around and say hello.
I had no idea whether turning around now meant I had fallen for a trick and would die, or whether I had endured well until now and this was finally the end.
‘The Tower of Trials and the Tower of Wisdom were both cleared by following what was written in the towers, after all.’
The wiki merely told me how to carry out those instructions easily and quickly.
This was the first time the wiki and a tower’s instructions had contradicted one another.
Swipe.
[Tower of Mindscape]
- First Run, Floor 10 Strategy: Do not move more than a certain distance away from (Restricted). Never turn around.
The strategy displayed on StarWiki.
[Turn around and say hello.]
The tower’s sign, which I had barely found after walking down an endless road for an hour.
[I’m pregnant.]
- Trust the wiki.
[I’m pregnant too.]
- Trust the sign.
‘Even now, all I can think of is this goddamn crap.’
I didn’t know which one to trust or what choice I should make.
Because beyond the sign lay another endless road.
Honestly. Truly honestly, I didn’t think I could take this any longer.
If it were a round of Yacha Rule, maybe, but what was I supposed to do when it told me not to turn around and then suddenly pulled this on me?
‘What happens if I say hello without turning around?’
What would happen if I greeted it like this, while looking straight ahead?
If I acted by mixing the wiki’s instructions and the sign’s instructions halfway—
"Um, excuse me... hello...?"
Splat.
Oh, damn.
Apparently, that wasn’t it.
I covered my mouth as sticky liquid trickled down the back of my neck.
I must have provoked it for no reason. If I was going to do something, I needed to either turn around or ignore it and keep walking. One or the other.
[Never turn around.]
"...Ah."
As I stared at the wiki strategy on my screen, an unnecessary curiosity came to mind.
I knew it was insane even as I thought it, but I couldn’t suppress the question that had flashed through my head.
Tap.
"..."
After leaving the internet app, I opened the camera I had only used for verification photos.
I looked at the sign on-screen, then slowly brought my finger to the camera-switch button.
‘This isn’t turning around.’
Wouldn’t it be easier to decide if I just found out what was behind me?
If I confirmed its identity, I thought I could decide whether to trust the sign or the wiki.
There was also the pure curiosity of whether a ghost behind me would show up on a phone camera.
Gulp.
Swallowing hard, I squeezed my eyes shut and switched to selfie mode—
Click!
The instant I took the picture, I closed the camera app and cautiously checked my photo album.
"...!!"
Tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble.
‘This is insane.’
The hand holding my phone shook violently.
It was there. It had been captured with horrifying clarity.
If I had to describe what was behind me, it looked like a ghost.
Its face was deathly purple. Long black hair that reached the floor covered half its face.
I couldn’t judge the distance exactly, but it was probably about three steps away from me.
It wore something like a pure-white burial robe, and I couldn’t even guess its height. No, how was I supposed to calculate the height of a thing like this in the first place?
‘...Don’t tell me it’s still doing this?’
Its neck was several times longer than a normal person’s.
Like a snake, the ghost had stretched its neck looooong, shoved its head right beside me as I stood there with my eyes squeezed shut, and stared into the camera. A pair of blood-red eyes was vividly caught on the screen through its hair.
More precisely, it was staring intently at me in the picture, eyes squeezed shut.
Drip... Drip...
My body shuddered at the mysterious liquid falling onto my shoulder.
I didn’t even want to know what that liquid was anymore.
‘I don’t know anymore...!!’
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a step forward.
To hell with the sign. I was only trusting our wiki.
This was the all-purpose internet that precious Irregular had given me as a gift.
Wiki-chan had already helped me dozens of times in just one day.
Besides, there was no way in hell I could greet this thing.
Step.
Even if I was wrong, all I had to do was walk for another hour.
Seeing as it had quietly followed me until now, maybe this thing behind me couldn’t actually do anything after all.
"Y
ou
...
can’t
go..."
Flinch.
"Are
you
really...
going
to
go...?"
"..."
"You’ll
regret
it...
you
know...?"
W-Wiki, I can trust you, right...?
*
"Mmmwah—!!!"
Smooch! Smooch smooch smooch!
[Tower of Mindscape]
-10-
In the end, passing by the sign was the right answer. I escaped after walking for another thirty minutes or so.
After I passed the first sign, two more appeared at shorter intervals, but the fact that they showed up so quickly only made them more suspicious.
Clenching my teeth, I ignored the voice calling for me, the hands touching me, and the sticky fluid, and kept walking until I found a door standing wide open.
"I love you, Wiki. You’re the best. I’ll trust only you for the rest of my life—!!"
Smooooooch!!
I kissed the floating StarWiki home screen over and over.
The phone screen was the filthiest thing in the world? So what? If it was my lifesaver, I could kiss the sole of its foot.
‘What would have happened if I’d turned around at the beginning?’
At least it would have been lucky if I had merely started over.
There was a good chance I would have died on the spot. Thinking that I could have been eaten alive or trapped in that space made my body tremble.
Step.
-1-
[End: 363:22:10:17]
[Section: 5:22:10:17]
[ 30 / 7 ]
"Wow..."
The moment I emerged from the passage into the plaza, I saw the timer and let my shoulders sag.
The Tower of Mindscape alone had taken nearly three hours.
Neither the Tower of Trials nor the Tower of Wisdom had taken this long, so why was the tower centered on mental strength and emotions the one that took the longest?
‘Of course, without the wiki, the other towers would have taken longer...’
Considering the gallery’s reactions that I had checked yesterday and today, this was surely an incredibly fast pace too.
‘Now I just need to clear Floor 10 of the Tower of Fate to unlock the feature...’
I stared for a moment at the [ 30 / 7 ] floating in the air, then shook my head.
I had considered entering the last remaining Tower of Fate immediately, but I was too mentally exhausted, so I decided to rest a little first.
They said the Tower of Fate was the hardest one, and I thought it might be better to do some proper research this time.
After casually taking a picture of the timer, I dragged my unsteady legs toward my hideout.
Creak.
"...Huh?"
The hideout looked a little different.
No, rather than different, it had returned to its original state while I was gone.
The blanket and pillow I had slept on were neatly arranged. The one and a half loaves of bread I had eaten had gone back up to three, and my canteen was full of water again.
‘Did it refill?’
I couldn’t be sure, but that seemed to be the case.
Come to think of it, the date had changed. From 364 days to 363.
Maybe this place reset every twenty-four hours.
‘It is definitely strange, though.’
I had been dragged into an unknown world and experienced nothing but unknown things, so it wasn’t all that strange to me anymore.
It was more like, Oh, so that’s how it is.
At least I didn’t have to worry about food.
I could get a definite answer later by making a question post or carefully reading the head mod’s notices.
‘First, I need to wash up...’
I had checked my clothes and the back of my head as soon as I escaped the tower, but the sticky liquid that had touched my body was gone.
Maybe events, objects, and phenomena from inside the tower didn’t persist.
Well, I couldn’t be sure about that yet either.
*
"Haa..."
I sighed as I looked at the gallery screen in front of me.
[No, is he seriously really a newbie? Could he be a fraud?]
[But what happens if Irregular shows up twice?]
[Clearing twenty floors in one day, what the fuck kind of ability does he have?]
[He’s a newbie who might last four digits for once, but he’ll probably get another Irregular and leave before then lol]
The uproar was still enormous.
I had asked people not to mention him directly and to refrain from excessive insults or attention, but it wasn’t happening easily.
Getting Irregular alone drew the entire gallery’s attention.
But a First-Run newbie had obtained Irregular. What was more, instead of escaping the towers, he had used Irregular because he wanted to use the gallery. It would have been stranger if that hadn’t attracted this much attention.
‘It’s just too much for me to manage alone...’
[Block User]
[Block duration: 6 hours] / [Reason: Mentioning a nickname]
"How many people has that been already...?"
I couldn’t even enter a tower. I was stuck managing the gallery, staring at it nonstop.
Swipe.
-1534-
[End: 53:06:10:52]
[Section: 4:06:10:52]
[ 354 / 308 ]
I casually raised my head and checked the timer.
There would be no problem if I rested for a few more days. It wasn’t like I had gotten stuck somewhere difficult.
I just didn’t like this situation where I had to spend all day staring anxiously at the gallery.
‘It is my fault, but this feels a little unfair...’
After all, nothing like this had ever happened before.
Someone getting Irregular the moment they were trapped in the towers—if that was going to happen, there was no reason to bring them to the towers in the first place.
‘Though I don’t know why they bring people to the towers either... anyway...’
In many ways, he was a very likable newbie.
[☆ Fuck, newbie, this is urgent. What is this??] (47)
[Author: KingGodWiki]
Going to sleep, turn off the lights.
Upvotes 53 Downvotes 79
After searching his nickname, I frowned as I looked at the first post that had made me angry.
He said what he wanted to say and vanished. This newly arrived newbie had given me a headache all day.
The moment I told him he needed to climb the towers, he said he had gone to the first floor of the Tower of Trials.
While I was still wondering how he had cleared it so quickly, he disappeared, returned, and said he had climbed all the way to the tenth floor.
‘He didn’t even read the post I worked so hard to revise...!’
He said it was urgent, so I worriedly checked the post—only for him to tell me he was going to sleep and ask me to turn off the lights...!
And after vanishing for more than half a day, what did he do when he came back?
[★ To all you idiots who voted Tower of Wisdom—take thisss───!] (257)
[Author: KingGodWiki]
(Verification photo of clearing Floor 10 of the Tower of Wisdom)
(Photo of the run number and timer floating in the air)
So fun proving you gallery rats’ guesses wrong~
Upvotes 330 Downvotes 45
[Comments]
Anonymous: No fucking way, this guy wasn’t actually stupid?
Superiority of Dual Swords: How?! I voted Tower of Wisdom?!
┗ Anonymous: With your IQ, that was the right choice.
┗ Superiority of Dual Swords: Shut up, you...!!
Not an Eraser🔸: Congratulations!!
┗ Not an Eraser🔸: But aren’t you pushing yourself too hard? It’s really okay to take things slowly...!!
┗ Weekly Badge: Hurry up and cheer for me too. I think I’ll get mad if you don’t.
┗ Not an Eraser🔸: You’re blocked for three days. If you come back without changing your nickname, it’ll be permanent.
┗ Anonymous: I knew the head mod was nice, but she must feel guilty as hell lol.
If You’ve Regressed 13 Times: ...Impressive. How long did it take?
Mindscape Tower Lover: Tower of Mindscape next, right? Tower of Mindscape next, right? Tower of Mindscape next, right? Tower of Mindscape next, right?
┗ Tower of the Heart: Newbie, I believe you’ll be one of us. I can tell the Tower of Mindscape will suit your tastes.
┗ Anonymous: Crazy fucking creep bastard;
Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: Are you a Long-Eared Noble by any chance? If you are, it makes sense that you’d have this much wisdom!
┗ Anonymous: Erofs are supposed to be dumb as rocks, though?
┗ Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: I’m not an elf, and I’m not an erof either!!!
┗ Anonymous: If you’re really a cute girl, post verification.
┗ Long-Eared Noble O, Elf X: No way?!
He suddenly climbed to Floor 10 of the Tower of Wisdom and started farming attention too!!
"Seriously..."
The gallery, which had only just begun to quiet down, became active all over again.
Since everyone here climbed towers, dozens of verification posts went up every day. But this newbie’s posts were on an entirely different level.
‘Twenty floors in one day...’
His regression count was low, and so was his floor, so it definitely wasn’t impossible.
If someone was used to the towers, if they had possessed all sorts of abilities even before entering the towers, and if they climbed all day without sleeping, then it was certainly manageable. Hell, they could probably climb even higher.
If I stopped managing the gallery and kept climbing only the early floors, I was confident I could make it to around Floor 50 within a week.
‘...Though I don’t know if it’s possible for a First-Run newbie who came in after getting a full night’s sleep.’
Maybe if he were a newbie on his tenth run, but how could a chick who had just arrived climb this quickly?
"And... why did you just make another post and disappear again...?!"
That was the irritating part.
He stirred up the gallery that had finally calmed down, then disappeared again for hours without leaving even one comment.
He didn’t answer questions, and brushed off every theory with a single [lol].
He was the talk of the town... no, the source of a blaze, yet he himself never even showed his face.
‘KingGodWiki... search nickname...’
[★ To all you idiots who voted Tower of Wisdom—take thisss───!] (257)
[☆ Fuck, newbie, this is urgent. What is this??] (47)
[★ Okay, everyone, pay attention.] (460)
[★ I cleared Floor 1. Is it normally this easy?;;] (338)
[☆ Okay, okay, I get it. Head mod, answer me.] (335)
[☆ Did he get blocked again?] (123)
[★ Is this the run count?] (530)
[★ Head mod, look at this.] (768)
"Haa..."
I squeezed my eyes shut as I saw that every post he had made had become a featured post.
I knew this attention was natural, but as the one who had to manage this place, I had complicated feelings about it in many ways.
‘Even I have spent over a thousand years here, and this is the first time I’ve turned on post alerts for someone else...’
Still, it was true that he had been trapped here because of my mistake, so I wanted to help him as quickly and accurately as I could.
If this person disappeared one day and died, I felt like I would suffer and agonize over it for years.
So if he was going somewhere, I wished he would at least say so before he left.
‘Please come back soon...’
I anxiously watched the gallery for a while.
[New post by KingGodWiki]
"Ah...!"
Without a moment’s hesitation, I tapped the post notification that had appeared.
[What the fuck is wrong with people who like the Tower of Mindscape?]
[Author: KingGodWiki]
(Photo of a ghost thrusting its face right up against the screen)
(Verification photo of clearing Floor 10 of the Tower of Mindscape)
I was so fucking scared I almost cried.
"Eek!"
No...!! At least put up a gore warning, please!!
Ding ding ding ding—
[There is a new comment on a watched post.]
[There is a new comment on a watched post.]
[There is a new comment on a watched post.]
[There is a new comment on a watched post.]
[There is a new comment on a watched post.]
"Ah..."
[☆ Complaint Box] (24)
[Author: Not an Eraser🔸]
Please call for me if something happens...!
[Comments]
Anonymous: Head mod! Head mod! Heaaad moood!!!
Anonymous: What the fuck are you going to do about my eyes?
Mindscape Tower Lover: You’re allowing Tower of Mindscape pictures? Okay.
┗ Anonymous: What kind of abyss does this guy have inside him...
Anonymous: You’re picking a fight with me now, right? Just wait and see what I post from now on lol.
Anonymous: Aren’t you taking down that disgusting pic? Eraser, why the hell aren’t you working!!
"Aaargh, seriously...!!"
This newbie was seriously going to drive me insane.
...Still, I was glad he was safe.
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