Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 27

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

Cheating Administrator’s Legendary Tower Climb (27)
There was no particular force behind Maia’s voice.
Rather, it had lost all strength—you could have mistaken it for the voice of an old man.
Yet no one could respond easily.
The words he had just spoken were, after all, the very question that for twenty-nine years
had shaken the entire world. All of humanity.
The planet itself.
‘Where is Washu?’
Muosaeng glanced at Washu, hovering and bobbing above his shoulder.
It was also the direction in which the sorcerer Maia’s gaze, Goggles perched on his face, was clearly fixed.
Of course, to Yun Pyo and Geum Sua, it would look no different than him staring at Muosaeng.
‘He’s not speaking. Or perhaps he can’t speak.’
Washu, the one Maia was actually concentrating on, showed no reaction whatsoever.
Beak firmly shut, he had done nothing more than press the black-rimmed glasses down with one small rubber wing.
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them.
It was a woman’s voice that broke it.
“You think we know what the Tower is? We’re the victims here. It’s us who’ve been inconvenienced by this Tower that appeared out of nowhere. Because of you—the Tower’s creatures.”
Geum Sua spoke.
The sorcerer Maia’s gaze turned slowly toward her.
“Creatures, you say. Are we creatures, human?”
“…What?”
“Can something that dies and lives again be called alive? What is the definition of life?”
“…What are you talking about…?”
He made no particular gesture.
Simply a somewhat weary voice, drawled and continuing as before.
And yet Muosaeng, Geum Sua, and Yun Pyo could all feel it.
“What is life? What is death?”
With each word the sorcerer Maia uttered,
“There is an ‘I’ within the Tower. And here, too, I exist now. What am I?”
with each word that left his lips,
came a sense of pressure, oppression, heaviness.
“What is the Tower? Is it omniscient? Is it divine? And if it is not?”
He stood motionless in place.
Even the Boss of the 55th Floor, 55th Dungeon? No genuine threat at all.
“Vice-Chairman.”
“Yes.”
Yet Yun Pyo immediately took a combat stance.
Geum Sua, too, quickly realized that further dialogue was meaningless and fell in line.
A monster should never understand the Tower’s structure.
It should never grasp the concept of Instances.
This was deeply abnormal. There was only one way to set it right.
“Muosaeng. I don’t know what you wish to achieve, but would it not suffice if you left and returned?”
Kill it and come back in.
It was the most natural attitude for Awakeners to take toward a Dungeon.
Even hearing those words plainly, Maia did not stop.
“No, setting all that aside… Who created the Tower? What lies at its peak? Beyond that, who exists? What is—”
[A bug, it seems.]
Washu finally opened his beak.
The tense expression that had lingered throughout gave way to something more relaxed.
Rather, the little rubber duck’s eyes gleamed with something like regret.
[Did a collision occur between a Marked human and myself existing together? Hmm, I wish I could have examined it more closely… but the internals are so completely twisted and tangled that I can’t make heads or tails of it.]
Listening to Washu’s mutterings, Muosaeng at last understood.
All this time, his silence had not been because Maia’s words had struck at something crucial, or because they were threatening—
‘He was examining it using Admin Authority, wasn’t he. Of course, me.’
Muosaeng wondered whether Maia’s words might actually have approached some great and dangerous truth.
Whether he was pronouncing the answer to the concept of [Tower] itself—something Muosaeng himself had questioned more than once.
[Still, the basic data itself isn’t bad. The original body on the 55th Floor should prove useful enough, Muosaeng.]
Maia’s expression darkened, as though displeased by Washu’s mutterings.
“An endless cycle of eternity, endlessly repeated… And you say that even I, having finally awakened, amount to nothing?”
[What’s gotten into you, you twisted defect? And a faulty one at that.]
Washu let out a snort.
Only then did Geum Sua glance back and forth between Muosaeng and Maia.
“Who are you… talking to?”
Maia was clearly looking toward Muosaeng.
Yet Muosaeng hadn’t uttered a single word.
Then who was Maia speaking with?
“Am I truly nothing more to you? Have you still not grasped that there is no difference between you who climb the tower and me who dwell within it?”
Muosaeng quickly cleared his throat and shook his head.
“Ahem, sounds like you’re talking to yourself? Besides—look, I think it might be better if we stepped out for a moment. It seems we won’t get the conversation we want from ‘this one.'”
With that, he redirected Yun Pyo and Geum Sua’s attention.
If they couldn’t obtain a Guardian from this Maia after all.
Following Yun Pyo’s suggestion, just as Washu had said—wouldn’t it be better to reset once?
For the sake of getting what Muosaeng himself desired.
“Understood. Then right now—.”
“Kyahahahahaha!”
The moment Yun Pyo nodded in agreement.
The sorcerer Maia laughed.
At that instant, all three humans understood.
The rim of the transparent Goggles he wore had turned a reddish hue.
More than that—the emotion woven through his laughter, that savage aura, felt terrifyingly palpable.
“Vice-captain—.”
Crash—!
Before Yun Pyo could even issue his command, Geum Sua was already gathering photon particles in her palm to fire.
But Maia’s finger snap was faster.
In the flash of light, Yun Pyo and Geum Sua vanished.
“Good. The human bearing the second Marking, and you—lackey of this wretched world. Even if I must kill you all, I will uncover the truth!”
The Boss of the 55th Floor, the final sorcerer Maia.
Commonly called Mama fixed his gaze upon Muosaeng and Washu as if to devour them.
Not in the 55th Floor of the tower.
But in an exact replica of the 55th Floor.
“That’s how it is, Washu?”
In the 55th Dungeon.
Washu smiled faintly.
[.]
* * *
Geum Sua and Yun Pyo instantly realized they had been transported near the Gate.
“Huh? Captain, Vice-captain—.”
“Seo. Speed Acceleration Potion, Ranged Defense Scroll. Quickly! And Vice-captain—.”
“Yes! I’ll break through!”
Geum Sua stretched both arms out as if to fire a lance.
───────────……!!!!
The particles of light gathered at her ten fingertips became a beam of pure radiance, lancing forth in a single line.
Power so tremendous that even Seo Young-hwa, the Geumseong Conquest Division’s own captain, could only stare.
From near the Gate all the way to where Mama stood—several doors lay in between.
And countless Guardians stood watch over those passages…….
‘Three doors and all the Guardians around them wiped out in a single attack—is this the Vice-captain’s full power!?’
In mere moments, three doors had been obliterated, as if by magic.
Seo Young-hwa, who served as a mainstay of the Conquest Division yet had never truly witnessed the captain and vice-captain’s true strength, found herself speechless.
“Seo, keep using the Summoning Scroll. The moment we secure Kim Muosaeng, contact me immediately.”
“Ah, understood! Then Captain—.”
Clang……!
“—huh?”
It was far too early to be astonished by that.
The figure of Yun Pyo standing before her shattered into fragments and vanished in an instant.
In the moment of confusion, what Seo Young-hwa perceived were tiny shards of ice drifting through the air.
“Ice shards…….”
And beyond those shards of ice?
Yun Pyo was already sprinting past the third door that Geum Sua had destroyed.
What Seo Young-hwa had believed to be Yun Pyo ‘speaking to her’ was merely his image reflected in ice—a kind of shadow or phantom form.
‘Impossible—how could it be so seamless…… exactly like the real thing—an illusion crafted from ice?’
So much so that even she herself, a climber of the 42nd Floor in her own right, felt no sense of incongruity?
Seo Young-hwa’s mouth fell open, but soon a grin spread across her face.
Incredible technique. Overwhelming skill.
‘This is why they’re our superiors. This is Geumseong.’
Because she could feel firsthand both the pride of having such remarkable people as her direct supervisors and the pride of Geumseong itself.
Rip—!
In the same moment, Seo Young-hwa tore open a Summoning Scroll and spoke Muosaeng’s profile aloud.
One of the most expensive items on the market—costing over ten million won per scroll—it instantly transports the target to the user’s location, provided they consent and respond. But Geumseong was not an organization that would skimp on such resources.
What mattered most was what mattered most.
Seo Young-hwa understood perfectly what those superiors she so deeply respected wanted above all else.
“Muosaeng, respond please!”
Muosaeng’s safe retrieval.
Seo Young-hwa gave it everything she had.
* * *
Yun Pyo and Geum Sua had to move fast.
The situation had taken an odd turn, but the fundamental fact remained unchanged: this was the 55th Dungeon.
“Intruder detected. Eliminating—.”
A Guardian lunged forward.
Then light exploded.
The Guardian that had just jumped was already gone.
All that remained was ash—burnt to cinders, drifting down in a flutter.
The Guardians posed no serious threat.
“Vice-director, I’ll focus on speed—.”
“Yes! I’ll cover the rear!”
So Yun Pyo devoted himself entirely to velocity.
Zero friction.
A path of ice far swifter than Maia’s personally controlled Moving Walk, carrying both Yun Pyo and Geum Sua along its frictionless surface.
Their hair whipped chaotically around them.
Yet both understood perfectly.
Seven to eight minutes until they reached where Maia was.
Merely seven to eight minutes, but…….
‘Muosaeng.’
The problem was Muosaeng.
No matter how accomplished an Awakener Sherpa he was.
No matter how seasoned a Dungeon Sherpa he’d become, there were limits to what was possible and what was not.
Facing the 55th Dungeon’s Boss—commonly known as Maia—was absolutely impossible.
‘If only he’d stay alive…… even if all four limbs were damaged—.’
That was precisely why Yun Pyo pushed for speed.
He concealed his urgency before Geum Sua, but what he absolutely had to accomplish was nothing less than the Chairman’s direct order.
Alive. That was all that mattered. Escape, Muosaeng.
Even if both arms and legs were severed, they could restore him. They could save him.
‘With this guild’s technological capabilities, we can pour in Scrolls, potions without limit. We can heal him. So please……!’
Whoooosh—!
In an instant, another massive iron door blocked the path of the two sliding figures.
Dozens of Guardians were already activated near the entrance, now rushing forward to attack!
“Intruder detected.”
“Gate sealed. Further progress is—.”
The Guardians murmured.
───────────……!!!
At Yun Pyo’s side, light erupted outward once more.
Silence returned as if nothing had ever happened.
Geum Sua’s Photon Concentrated Cannon—colloquially known as the Solar Beam—continued to burst forth indiscriminately across the distance.
“We’ve passed nine doors, Director! The next is—.”
“The tenth…… the Wall of Lamentation.”
They had already passed through nine doors.
Which meant Seo Young-hwa from the Geumseong Conquest Division had fallen so far behind as to be completely out of sight.
Yet both of them knew the tenth door was not going to be easy.
A monster more troublesome than facing even the Mage Maia—too powerful to be a mid-boss, yet not meeting the clear conditions to qualify as a true Boss. That Guardian existed precisely because of this.
Even Geum Sua showed signs of unease, her discomfort evident.
“Yes. The Guardian Minotaur…… I’m afraid my firepower alone won’t be sufficient—.”
“Yes. I’ll keep it contained around the periphery.”
Yun Pyo answered lightly.
To anyone else, it might have been cryptic, but for Geum Sua, it was a satisfactory response.
“—Perfect! That’ll be more than enough!”
Absolute Zero (SR) — one of the Awakener abilities that governs all things related to ice, all phenomena that lower temperature.
Luminous (SR) — one of the Awakener abilities that commands light, wielding photon discharge with enough destructive force to erase its target.
Why, then, did these two hold the positions of division director and deputy director?
What was the reason they could manage the Conquest Division so effectively — personalities that seemed at odds on the surface, yet possessed a respect for each other and an uncanny synchronization?
“Graaaaaaaaahhhhh—!”
A roar modeled on the cry of a beast echoed through the entire corridor.
The force behind it was such that the hems of both Yun Pyo and Geum Sua’s clothes rippled from the tremor in the air.
The Guardian beside the tenth door — the half-man, half-beast Minotaur — raised that massive Axe overhead, and in that moment…….
Glimmer…… something beside him flashed.
A small fragment?
A tiny reflection of light, impossible to ignore.
The Minotaur tried to dismiss it.
“Huh?”
But when a flash of light filled his entire field of vision——
When it erupted not just before him, but filling every direction, left and right, up and down, becoming a sphere that engulfed the Minotaur himself and reflected light on all sides——
“That’s enough.”
The Minotaur realized what those fragments were: ice.
And from the moment of that realization, the ice shards were already serving their purpose as mirrors.
“Light, be unleashed.”
Ice that reflected light.
Every ounce of energy Geum Sua unleashed ricocheted wildly within the spherical ice mirror Yun Pyo had created.
The duration was infinitesimal.
The Minotaur’s form vanished.
“And the door will shatter—. Huh?”
Geum Sua turned without hesitation, about to obliterate the Gate.
Clap, clap, clap, clap—!
At the sound of applause, she found herself at a loss for words.
Yun Pyo, who had been sliding forward without resistance, could no longer summon his technique.
“……How……?”
“Since when……?”
Because Muosaeng was standing there, applauding as he watched.
“Wow…… I never thought I’d see this with my own eyes. That’s incredible. The combination technique of the Geumseong Conquest Division director and deputy director! The strongest lethal force in Korean combination technique history! That’s right, isn’t it? I’ve got it on video—would it be okay to upload it to YouTube?”
And there he sat in the corner, smartphone in hand, crouched down.

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