Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 16

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Administrator Who Cheats: Climbing the Mythic Tower (16)
The reason Mu Saeng was smiling was simple.
Park Do Hyun was an Awakener who had climbed into the thirties.
His destructive power was undeniable, and if he had charged with genuine intent, it would have been normal for Mu Saeng not to even properly perceive the movement.
If he were still his former self.
Strength: 6 Agility: 5
Stamina: 6 Mana: 3
Knowledge: 4 Precision: 4
Will: 6 Luck: 5
An Awakener with low Stats who had barely cleared floors one through three through party play and had no choice but to stop climbing—that was what he would have been, of course.
A deep, resonant whoosh—!
Park Do Hyun’s fist would have smashed directly through Mu Saeng’s jaw instead of cutting through empty air.
“Hmm!?”
“Wow, so the thirties really are in a different class, huh!?”
But things were different now.
He’d stepped back two paces to evade.
It wasn’t an instinctive backward shuffle.
Mu Saeng had seen precisely when Park Do Hyun charged, and reacted by dodging.
“Getting cocky, a Sherpa at that—”
Park Do Hyun threw another punch.
A certainty that his attack couldn’t have missed.
He knew from their time together in Dungeon 15.
While Mu Saeng, a Dungeon Sherpa, was certainly superior at using the surrounding environment, the truth was he’d dealt no real damage whatsoever to any monsters.
“A Sherpa at that? Are you saying some professions are beneath others?”
Yet this time too, Mu Saeng evaded.
He had no choice.
The Climbing Records up to floor three were the same.
—Climbing Record: Maximum 3 Floors
·Solo: Floors 1–3
·Hidden or Additional Rewards: Floors 1–3
·Group: None
But unlike the past when he’d only climbed in groups, now he’d ascended only solo. And there were even records engraved that hadn’t existed before.
“Shut up!”
Park Do Hyun shouted.
A sharp crack—! His fist was covered in a green aura.
Awakening Ability: Wall Builder (B).
A technique that wasn’t just used as a Barrier but could channel Mana to individual body parts to strike across a wider surface!
Watching the incoming fist, Mu Saeng gritted his teeth.
He couldn’t dodge. Then he’d block.
A harsh impact—
Mu Saeng crossed his arms in an X to stop it.
“Oof… yeah, that stings.”
His body lifted briefly and flew backward, but he didn’t tumble.
It was Park Do Hyun who was shocked.
“How…?”
He blocked? A Sherpa with floor three credentials?
And he’s brushing off his arms?
His arms didn’t break?
Park Do Hyun saw it then.
Black gloves wrapped around Mu Saeng’s hands. Open-finger design with exposed fingertips.
“An Artifact. What’s in those gloves?”
Did they boost defense?
“There’s something in these gloves, but… it’s probably not what you’re thinking.”
Mu Saeng shrugged as he answered.
“That’s nonsense. With Stats like yours—”
“What do you know about my Stats?”
Mu Saeng’s previous total Stat sum: 39.
He still hadn’t broken past floor three, but what was his current Stat total?
Strength: 18 Agility: 17
Stamina: 17 Mana: 14
Knowledge: 16 Precision: 13
Will: 15 Luck: 14
124 in total—more than three times stronger than he’d been before.
“Enough. We don’t have time for word games. Just hand over the Antidote. I’m only leaving you alive because I’m bothered about leaving you behind, so cooperate.”
But Mu Saeng understood this well.
Yes, his stats had tripled, yet he could only barely dodge Park Do Hyun’s attacks by the thinnest of margins.
He had no chance of winning a one-on-one physical confrontation with him.
In fact, Park Do Hyun’s stat total at the 37th floor Climbing Record was 242.
Moreover, his stats were distributed to maximize his Awakening Ability.
Compared to Mu Saeng, whose ability scores had risen evenly across the board, the detailed disparity was far more pronounced.
“Even in this situation……. Well, quite an impressive organization. Fine, take it. Here.”
Mu Saeng had anticipated as much.
Yet he had still withstood Park Do Hyun’s assault.
And he was provoking him still—by displaying the Antidote like this.
“You insolent bastard! I’ll turn you into a corpse— Ack!?”
Park Do Hyun lunged forward.
Then came a sucking sound—fwoosh.
The ground beneath his feet gave way.
A sickening sensation of falling, hair standing on end, empty space yawning below.
Crash—Park Do Hyun plummeted into the pit Mu Saeng had dug.
Over six meters deep. More than three meters across.
What in the world was this enormous trap?
No—when and how had he managed this much work right here by the Gate?
Park Do Hyun was stunned. But he couldn’t remain still.
With his physical prowess, it was possible.
He could climb out.
Jumping as high as he could, then wrapping a Barrier around his fingers and driving it into the earthen wall as he rose……
“Ugh, wha—what!?”
Park Do Hyun’s plan crumbled at once.
Mu Saeng’s face appeared above the hole through which sky was visible.
Along with the tube or bamboo pipe he was holding.
Splash-splash-splash—
Water continued to pour from it relentlessly.
Aimed straight at Park Do Hyun.
“I thought I’d rupture a disc doing this work. If you can hold your breath and climb out, give it a try. Ha ha.”
A weak water gun stream?
Or urine? Surely not.
“You’ll pay for this— Ugh. Ack!”
It was poisoned water.
Toxin-laced. Park Do Hyun felt a sharp sting lance through him.
The incomprehensible poison of Dungeon 22.
The snakes’ movements.
Had all of that truly been orchestrated by this Dungeon Sherpa, Mu Saeng?
The moment his vague suspicion hardened into certainty, Park Do Hyun bit down on his tongue.
At this rate, he would die.
Jolting himself awake through the pain, he wrapped his entire body in a Barrier.
“You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you for this!”
Blood sprayed from his eyes and nose like a geyser.
Regardless, he drew upon his Awakening Ability to its limit, struggling to escape the pit.
Mu Saeng’s eyes went wide.
Then he gritted his teeth.
“That’s my line. And don’t speak down to me—we’re barely different in age, you bastard.”
He hurled the bamboo pipe away.
Mu Saeng drew his fist back as far as it would go.
A deep blue gleam settled over the open-fingered gloves.
The green Barrier enveloping Park Do Hyun’s body—already half-emerged from the pit—and the blue radiance wreathing Mu Saeng’s descending fist
clashed in a violent collision.
Bang—
They collided.
Scattering in the aftermath were fragments of green light.
The barrier shattered like glass, its energy scattering in all directions.
In the same instant, Park Do Hyun’s body plummeted—thud—crashing down into the pit below.
“Huff… huff…”
Mu Saeng breathed hard, catching his breath.
A C-rank Artifact: the Power-Enhancing Gloves.
And the skill Mu Saeng had chosen as his reward for clearing the third floor.
Strong Bone (Passive).
True hardness could only be achieved when heart, spirit, and body existed in perfect harmony.
The smaller the gap between the highest and lowest stat, the stronger the effect becomes.
“If I’d miscalculated even slightly, I’d have lost. Genuinely.”
Most Awakeners invested stats only in those that enhanced their particular Awakening Ability.
If an Awakener’s power was long-range magic, there was no need to invest in accuracy, precision, agility, or any of that.
Since the highest and lowest stats were bound to exist and the gap between them only widened over time, it was a skill most Awakeners refused to take.
But Mu Saeng had understood something crucial.
Most rewards from meeting hidden conditions were tied to “Overall Stat Increase.”
If he could maintain that gap by carefully leveling things out using standard reward stat points, then ultimately—
If his Awakening Ability itself transcended the boundaries of ranged/melee, physical/magical…
Strong Bone (Passive).
Current stat gap: 5. Overall ability increase x2.
He could squeeze out maximum efficiency.
He’d burned thirty-three hours comparing this skill against every other option to make that calculation.
Kim Mu Saeng
―Age: 29
―Awakening Ability: Teleportation (O)
―Stats
Strength: 36(18) Agility: 34(17)
Stamina: 34(17) Mana: 28(14)
Knowledge: 32(16) Accuracy: 26(13)
Will: 30(15) Luck: 28(14)
―Skills: Poison Mastery, Strong Bone
―Resistance: Poison (S)
―Climbing Record: Maximum 3rd Floor
·Solo—1~3rd floor
·Additional or hidden rewards—1~3rd floor
·Party—None
―Special Notes: High resistance to mana suppression.
Attack power against small monsters +45%
Stat increase from passive skill Strong Bone
Total stat sum: 248.
Of course, when total stats were similar, someone who’d dumped everything into strength would still outmatch him in raw strength.
And Awakeners who’d invested purely in mana would still edge him out in magical power…
“Fuh… khe-hehehe.”
With the Power-Enhancing Gloves and borrowing Wash’s strength to have dug that pit, all he’d needed was to lure Park Do Hyun into it.
If he could just handle things up to that point, he’d be more than capable—that was the sum of Mu Saeng’s calculation!
[Laughing over subduing a few insignificant flies like that? You should’ve just swatted them away cleanly.]
Wash spoke, watching Mu Saeng bask in the satisfaction of his successful plan.
Mu Saeng chuckled and brushed off the provocation.
“That’s what I wanted to say. You teleport paralyzed guys just fine, so why can’t you inflict paralysis in the first place? And you were so confident you could delete things, too.”
[Th-that’s—! Don’t you know editing is harder than deletion?! Deletion’s easy, but fine-tuning a target’s condition—!]
“You said in a ‘Dungeon’ like this, unlike in the Tower, you can use all your abilities?”
The plan itself had been designed precisely because of Wash’s limitations.
Wash, caught in the counter-provocation, groaned indignantly.
[Gwaaaaaah! You damn bastard! The download hasn’t finished yet! You got complaints?! Want me to stop helping?! Here I am giving you my all, and you can’t even be grateful!]
“Hey, don’t get sulky. Of course I’m grateful. If you hadn’t helped move the paralyzed ones and dig the trap, there’s no way I’d have managed alone—. Right, right, this isn’t the time for this. I need to inject poison into him too.”
Mu Saeng moved past Wash’s indignation and shifted Park Do Hyun’s body.
Near the Gate, he lined up all the Goldmoon employees in rows, laid them out in order.
“One, two, three, four… huh? That’s thirty-one.”
Mu Saeng realized.
Park Do Hyun had been the last one.
Judging by the fact that the serpent wasn’t responding to Mu Saeng’s intention to “attack the Korea One-Way Group employees,” it was certain.
But why thirty-one?
“One’s missing.”
On the map, there were definitely thirty-two.
Mu Saeng tilted his head in confusion.
* * *
Geum Sua was watching.
From Park Do Hyun’s arrival to Mu Saeng’s exchanges of physical blows that matched his own.
‘An ability-enhancing potion…… No, that’s not a price a Dungeon Sherpa could afford. Not when the Artifact from Dungeon 66 hasn’t even been sold yet.’
She couldn’t believe it.
It defied belief.
Yet what lay before her eyes was reality.
Mu Saeng dodged Park Do Hyun’s attacks, deflected them.
He lured him into traps and sprayed what was likely laced with Paralysis Poison.
Then, finally, he shattered Park Do Hyun’s Barrier—one conjured as the man steeled himself for death, drawing upon his Awakening Ability to its fullest.
Even accounting for how the poison had weakened Park Do Hyun…
‘Those gloves are likely Power-Enhancing Gloves. Given the depth of the blue glow, probably around C-rank at best…. But how exactly—.’
Even a potion that temporarily bolstered one’s abilities was extraordinarily rare.
On the black market, the price would exceed tens of millions of won.
And that was just for a Strength Stat boost.
‘It’s not something an Awakener with a three-floor Climbing Record could manage…… but that doesn’t matter anymore.’
Geum Sua nodded lightly to herself.
Though not quite her father’s caliber, her eye for people was sharp as well.
Which meant she could judge objectively.
‘He’s not a man I can evaluate.’
There was no point in analyzing further.
He was someone she couldn’t read.
But he must not become an enemy.
The wisest course was simply to acknowledge the situation and accept it—she understood that much.
So what remained was merely to observe the facts and commit them to memory.
‘The distance makes it hard to hear, but that habit of mumbling to himself—that much is certain.’
Better to reveal herself.
To face him with honesty and sincerity.
“One, two, three, four…… Wait? That’s only thirty-one.”
Around that thought, Mu Saeng’s voice reached Geum Sua’s ears.
“One’s missing.”
One. That would be Geum Sua herself.
Geum Sua was about to deactivate her concealment.
But in that instant, she felt as though her eyes had met Mu Saeng’s.
“Ah, there—you’re over there?”
…… Or was it not merely a feeling, but real?
Geum Sua’s already large eyes grew wider still.
A clone created by applying the Luminous Awakening Ability—
A mere Dungeon Sherpa was seeing through it.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————