I blankly blinked at the empty guide on the wiki.
Even after leaving and coming back, even after repeatedly closing and reopening the internet app.
[Tower of Fate]
- First-Run Floor 1 Guide:
The wiki screen did not change in the slightest.
"Ha. So this is the Tower of Fate, huh."
A hollow laugh escaped me.
It felt as though the wiki were mocking me, saying, What did you expect? This is your reality.
That was just my fate, I supposed. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but it wasn’t enough to despair over.
‘At least everyone else is under the same conditions in this tower, right?’
Even some grand archmage, a space commander from an SF world, or the Heavenly Demon from a martial arts novel.
In the end, all they could rely on here was luck.
A one-hundred-percent luck-based game where neither guides nor tricks worked.
Swallowing dryly, I slowly approached the two doors, tense.
The moment I got close enough to see the handles and examined the doors—
[Number of Selections: 987653] [Number of Selections: 483278]
"Haha…."
A number appeared over each door.
The instant I understood what they meant, the corners of my mouth twisted upward.
"Right…. This is what a guide should be like…!!"
Test my luck? Face fate’s judgment?
Go ahead and try me.
Long live big data. All hail StarWiki.
*
"Free win! Free win! What a fun free win~."
[Tower of Fate]
-9-
It took just five minutes to get from Floor 1 to Floor 9.
It didn’t matter whether the odds of a given challenge were one in two or one in ten.
All I had to do was follow the choices made by the gallery users who had climbed this tower before me, and I would eventually reach the right answer.
Sure, if my number of regressions went far beyond six thousand in the distant future, then big data wouldn’t mean shit anymore—but—
‘Why worry about that already?’
That would be six thousand years from now. By then, the advance party would have gone much farther.
Though they might be dead, of course.
Honestly, wouldn’t I be able to get out before then?
‘Someone like me should escape pretty quickly, shouldn’t I?’
Maybe my luck was actually pretty good here, even if it hadn’t been on Earth.
After all, I had this.
Swipe.
[StarWiki]
You’re the best, Wiki-chan…!
After pressing my lips to the screen again and giving it a kiss, I exited StarWiki.
[Gallery] [StarWiki] [???]
‘I’m really almost there now.’
[Tower of Trials 10/10]
[Tower of Wisdom 10/10]
[Tower of Mindscape 10/10]
[Tower of Fate 9/10]
I checked the conditions displayed on the [???] icon once more.
I was almost there. This was really the last one.
‘What could it be? What will I get?’
Games? A video site? Or maybe I’d be able to read something like the original novel of this world?
I was curious what I would get. Only a day had passed, but so much had happened in that time. It felt like I had spotted the finish line at the end of a long marathon.
‘Will I be able to clear Floor 10 easily too?’
Walking through the dark passageway, I stretched casually.
Floor 10 was clearly on a different level in every tower.
There was the Tower of Trials, where my life had been in danger despite the wiki, and the Tower of Wisdom, where I had failed completely.
I couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if I had failed the Tower of Mindscape, but still.
‘I’ve only done each one once, so I can’t say for sure….’
In any case, even after getting a free win, there was always something that snagged me.
Rumbleeeee…!!
I swallowed at the heavy sound of a door that seemed to reverberate through my body.
What would Floor 10 be? Floors 1 through 9 had all been games of chance.
The two doors on Floor 1, the mysterious stairs leading who knew where, the shell game moving too fast for the eye to follow, and so on.
There had been a fair variety of challenges, but every single one of them had ultimately been gambling.
‘The Tower of Fate really is different.’
I could vaguely understand why the Tower of Fate had such a fucked-up reputation in the gallery.
The odds were around fifty-fifty for now, but what if I later had to gamble my life on even lower odds?
With strength, wisdom, or mental fortitude, you could at least blame yourself. Here, even that was impossible.
‘How many people would genuinely come to hate their own luck?’
Even I had never hated myself during my life on Earth.
I had hated my surroundings, the circumstances that had forced things to turn out this way.
Flash!
At the center of the tower’s dark interior, lights from some unknown source switched on.
‘…What is this?’
An empty round table and a single chair.
A spotlight shone on the chair as if inviting me to sit there.
Step.
Even when I approached, there was nothing particularly noteworthy in sight.
The wiki didn’t send a giggling notification, either. The [Number of Selections] that had appeared throughout the Tower of Fate was nowhere to be seen yet.
"There’s nothing here…."
The table was large enough to seat roughly six people.
The chair had a backrest and looked fairly expensive.
‘Is it telling me to sit?’
I had a bad feeling about it and didn’t want to sit down, but I had no choice.
As I scratched my head at the focused light that kept shining solely on the chair and sat down—
Clack.
A gray revolver, faintly gleaming, dropped out of thin air onto the table.
‘Fuck…. No way…?’
There was nothing funny about this situation, yet the corners of my mouth rose on their own.
It was so unreal that I let out a hollow laugh, as if I wanted to run away or deny reality altogether.
Was it seriously telling me to shoot this at my own head?
I didn’t even know how many bullets were loaded. What would happen if I shot somewhere else?
Slowly.
I slowly reached out and grabbed the revolver.
The cold feel of the revolver came through vividly.
Like gripping ice in the dead of winter, goosebumps spread across my whole body in an instant. The sensation of freezing to my bones made my mouth go dry.
"……"
The wiki still gave no notification.
I had no idea what the hell it expected me to do with this. As I swallowed, wishing it would at least give me instructions—
Bzzzt… krzzzzt…!!
Three blue, translucent holograms shaped like people appeared in front of the table.
"What the…."
Bzzt, krzzzzt…….
The flickering holograms began to gain "color" in an instant.
Skin and muscles emerged over the holograms, transforming them into real people.
"……"
They had my exact face, my exact expression, and each held a revolver in their hand just like I did.
‘What the hell is this?’
All of us stared at one another with wide eyes, shocked.
For some reason, even the holograms were flustered by the situation.
I knew this tower was anything but normal. I knew it was making us do absurd things, but this went beyond ordinary absurdity.
Something I couldn’t comprehend, something I could never have imagined, was happening right before my eyes.
"Excuse me—"
Fwoosh—!!
"……!!"
The moment I ignored my pounding heart and opened my mouth to at least try speaking to them, something like cloth shot out from behind my chair.
"Mmph…."
My mouth was tightly sealed as if I had been gagged.
I tried to say something, but I couldn’t form words properly.
‘No, my body’s tied up too?’
Looking down at the unpleasant sensation, I saw a pure white cloth tied around my waist.
Creak… thud….
No matter how hard I twisted, it didn’t seem like I could get up from the chair.
The other three versions of me were going through the same thing.
Every single one of them stared wide-eyed at the cloth binding them to their chairs.
Clench….
My hand tightened around the revolver without my meaning to.
The tower had given no command and hadn’t explained the conditions for clearing this floor, but—
I could roughly guess what we would end up doing here.
Click.
[Only One]
Words appeared above the center of the table.
[Each of the six chambers contains three bullets. Once a turn has passed, it will not return until every participant’s turn has passed.]
I didn’t know whether only one person was meant to survive, or whether we merely had to kill one person.
Watching the three people facing the same direction as me swallow, I let out another hollow laugh.
‘The chambers aren’t even all loaded.’
[Bullets Remaining: 3]
[Bullets Remaining: 3]
[Bullets Remaining: 3]
When I glanced around, a line of text had appeared above each of the three versions of me.
[Bullets Remaining: 3]
Of course, it was above my head too.
Three bullets out of six.
As if this truly were a game with fate on the line, the display cruelly filled my vision.
"……"
Gulp.
I silently looked down at the revolver in my hand.
My heart pounded at the thought that I had to fire it at another "me."
‘……It’s okay. I have the wiki.’
I forced myself to breathe evenly and calm down.
They were holograms, after all. They were holding revolvers too, but I was definitely the only one with a phone.
Ding!
‘Just as I thought, Wiki! You came to save me!’
Thinking my hero had finally come to rescue me, I lowered my gaze and checked the wiki.
[Tower of Fate]
- First-Run Floor 10 Guide:
The screen was empty on this floor as well.
Expecting numbers to appear over the three versions of me now, I raised my head—and—
"……"
I looked here and there, then gave a hollow laugh when nothing changed.
There was no sign whatsoever of big data or numbers.
[Tower of Fate]
- First-Run Floor 10 Guide: No, I got caught too.
It felt like if I looked back down, that was what would be written on the wiki.
‘Fuck….’
Did that mean it didn’t work on Floor 10? No matter how hard I looked, there was no guide on the wiki.
I stared at the revolver for a moment, then squeezed my eyes shut.
A literal one-hundred-percent luck game.
I didn’t even know whom I would shoot, and even if I did fire, there wasn’t a one-hundred-percent chance that a bullet would come out.
Flash!
When I opened my eyes at the sound, the spotlight that had illuminated the chair had moved to the center of the table.
[Round 1]
I swallowed hard at the words appearing in the middle of the table.
Then an arrow appearing in midair began spinning rapidly.
It spun at the speed of light, like a roulette wheel, so fast it was hard to follow with my eyes—and—
"……"
The arrow gradually slowed, then stopped with a click, pointing at me.
[The person indicated by the arrow fires first.]
For better or worse, a message appeared telling me that the first choice was mine.
I quietly looked over the three people, each of them only watching the others warily.
I recoiled from the thought of shooting a person, but as in the Tower of Trials, if I didn’t do it, I would be the one who got hurt.
‘They’re fake anyway. It’s not like they’re other people—they look like me.’
Brainwashing myself like that, I slowly aimed across the table with the hand holding the revolver.
The fingertip resting on the trigger trembled.
I knew it was fake, but my own face, that frightened expression, the fear written across it bothered me a little… no, quite a lot.
‘I have to live.’
The odds of a bullet firing were fifty percent.
Please, please, just fire, I prayed as I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the trigger.
Bang!!
My ears rang. The hand holding the revolver shook. Unexplainable emotions filled my head.
The smell of gunpowder drifting to me, the weight of the revolver against my fingertips, the gunshot lingering in my ears.
Everything told me this situation was real.
It was enough to drive an ordinary person insane.
That was certainly true, but—
[Bullets Remaining: 2]
‘…That was a fucking one-shot kill.’
More than anything else, the fact that I had survived flooded my brain with intoxicating pleasure.
Probably because a blue hologram was now crackling where the me across from me had been sitting.
If that had been a real person instead of a hologram, my hands would be trembling violently by now.
I was truly relieved that there was no blood or anything, only a flickering hologram.
—Except there was one very minor problem with the current situation.
"……"
"……"
The two remaining people were looking at me as if I were some kind of monster.
‘No, aren’t you supposed to want to live?’
I couldn’t believe they were staring at me as though they wouldn’t shoot anyone themselves.
If you can’t shoot, then don’t. I don’t want to die, though?
Flash!
The arrow at the center spun wildly again and pointed to the person seated to my right.
The "me" on my right glanced at the arrow, then continued staring at me as if I were a monster.
Smile.
At the sight of him, I forced down a swallow and smiled.
‘I’m actually a nice person. I had no choice. You understand how I feel, so please spare me.’
Looking at the revolver in his hand, I put on an awkward, friendly smile.
Honestly, I wanted to ask what the hell he was looking at, but getting treated like a monster and then dying seemed like it would be even worse.
Slowly.
‘No, fuck.’
When the barrel turned toward me, I shook my head like crazy.
I had smiled as nicely as I could, so why was he aiming at me? Who the hell tries to kill the first batter just because he went first?
Watching his trembling eyes, I racked my brain.
I would die at this rate. I had to persuade him somehow.
‘I have to win… no, I have to live.’
I forced myself to ignore the meme image that popped into my head even now and met my other self’s eyes.
His finger tightened on the trigger. A bullet would probably fire in a few seconds.
The instant the gunshot reached my ears, my forehead and the bullet would high-five. It would be wonderfully refreshing, enough to send a jolt all the way through my brain.
I would die. Even with a revolver, at this distance it would be instant death.
Whoosh!!
"……!"
I quickly raised my own gun and pointed it at the bastard on the left.
With the trembling index finger of my other hand, I pointed at the text floating above our heads.
[Bullets Remaining: 2]
[Bullets Remaining: 3]
My gun only had two bullets left.
The guy on the left had a whopping three bullets!
‘That bastard is more dangerous!!’
On top of that, if I died, the last remaining guy would shoot the person currently holding the revolver.
‘I don’t know if the holograms would go on to play Round 3 after I’m dead, but….’
Thinking about it rationally, targeting that guy instead of me was clearly the smarter move.
"Mmph!! Nghh!!"
I twisted my body, gestured wildly, and screamed that he needed to aim at that bastard.
Gulp.
‘I’m alive….’
I finally relaxed when the barrel that had been aimed between my brows slowly turned aside.
The guy on the left glared at me as if I were his mortal enemy, but….
‘Then you should’ve used body language too if you don’t like it.’
I had only done my best to survive.
‘Please.’
The trembling hand of the "me" holding the revolver on my right finally pulled the trigger with all its strength—and—
Click.
"……"
"……"
Hearing only the faint sound of empty air escaping, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Fifty percent. He failed.
Seriously, what kind of scrub fails this?
The whole setup had been handed to him. I thought I had somehow managed to survive.
Grinding my teeth, I cursed him internally, then slowly opened my eyes.
‘Mm, I’m fucked.’
Seeing the barrel already aimed at my face, I let out a hollow laugh.
‘I should’ve just stayed still.’
The me on the left was looking at me with a nasty smile.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, thinking this was really the end and wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now.
Ding—!
‘Wiki…!’
I immediately opened my eyes wide at the notification, which rang out like the arrival of a savior.
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