Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Manager Using Cheats Climbs the Mythic Tower (28)
Maia’s Finger Snap.
Two people vanished.
“Good. The human bearing the second mark, and…. This cursed world’s lackey. I’ll kill every last one of you and uncover the truth!”
The final sorcerer, consumed by madness—Maia.
If this had been the Tower, Kim Moo-saeng’s legs would’ve buckled beneath him.
But this wasn’t the Tower.
It was a Dungeon.
“So that’s what happened, Wash?”
Which meant Moo-saeng could afford to look far more composed.
You made Yoon Pyo and Geum Soo-ah disappear?
You erased them?
No one around to witness it?
[Executing Admin Authority.]
────────────…….
“Actually, thank you.”
It simply meant Wash could wield his power without any constraints whatsoever.
Just a single word.
Wash’s true ability, after so long—Admin Authority.
Everything in the space froze, Maia included.
“Wash! The entire Dungeon stopped? Or—”
[No. Just his immediate vicinity. See what needs seeing, take what needs taking. Then we leave, Kim Moo-saeng.]
“—Ah. Okay.”
Moo-saeng asked him something.
It was undoubtedly a terrifying, overwhelming power—yet after so long, he could see it clearly.
The crackling distortion around Wash had grown far worse than before.
[I told you not to pity me.]
“Pity? As a contracting party with a vested interest, I’m merely showing concern in my eyes. That’s all I ask. Besides, you can recover quickly enough, right?”
[Executing Disc Fragment Collection.]
[1%]
[2%]
.
.
Wash didn’t answer Moo-saeng’s question.
He simply opened a hologram window that both of them could see.
‘Wish I’d had this sooner.’
Wash, forcibly transmitted and executed at 73% download completion.
In a Dungeon, unlike the Tower, he could wield his power without restraint.
But that didn’t mean he could use it infinitely.
Especially not within the 55th Floor Dungeon—the difficulty of manipulating its environment would far exceed adjusting a lower Dungeon.
They’d confirmed as much during their conversation about respawn speed adjustments in the lower Dungeon.
It was then that doubt crept into Moo-saeng’s mind.
“Wait—why freeze everything? You could’ve just erased them outright.”
What was Wash’s reason for doing this?
But Wash, as if to say it was incomprehensible, adjusted his black-rimmed glasses.
[Huh? You came to get a Guardian, didn’t you? To climb the Tower faster, wasn’t that the plan based on Good Faith, Kim Moo-saeng?]
“Yeah, that’s right.”
[Then we pick one up. Were you just planning to leave empty-handed?]
Wash posed the question.
To Moo-saeng, the words still made no sense.
“Pick up? What? The core I got from the 5th Floor? Are you telling me to find that?”
Did he mean to take back the core he’d given Maia, then head up to the 55th Floor of the Tower and hand the core to the real Maia?
Moo-saeng’s guess held some logic.
[This idiot—. Is your brain really this slow!? You’re hopelessly backward!]
“No, wait—explain it properly! What am I supposed to pick up?”
For any ordinary Awakener thinking within the bounds of common sense, it was only natural their thoughts wouldn’t reach beyond that point.
[Once you choose a Guardian! I’ll change the Ownership for you! We’re in a Dungeon! How many times do I have to explain this hacking!?]
“……Huh? Wait—”
Who could have imagined it would turn into a shopping spree, picking whatever he wanted?
Moo-saeng blinked his eyes wide open.
Hacking? You can change ownership?
“Then… why didn’t you say that sooner, Wash? Or better yet, why didn’t you say it from the start? There was no need to put on a show in front of Maia!”
Why hadn’t he done it earlier?
Kim Moo-saeng voiced his frustration, though mildly.
Wash cocked his head as though baffled by the question.
[Squawk? You were fulfilling your duty through your own good faith and sincere intention. Was I supposed to interfere with that, Kim Moo-saeng?]
Why had Wash stayed silent?
Because he believed this was a result Moo-saeng could reach through his own ability.
In other words, because he trusted him.
Moo-saeng clicked his tongue as he absorbed Wash’s response.
“Tsk, when you put it that way… I’ve got nothing to say. Besides, if things had gone smoothly with my original plan, I wouldn’t have needed any of this in the first place.”
[And as I mentioned before, no matter how much it’s a Dungeon! If you use too much power, those Tower bastards might catch on. Anyway, even after explaining the system several times, you’re like some primitive who can’t grasp it.]
What Awakener in all the world would understand such a thing?
Moo-saeng swallowed the words that had risen to his throat.
He didn’t have the time for it.
“Say, Wash. So there’s only one Guardian possible? I mean, if we’re stopping and transferring ownership and all that, why not just thirty or so—”
Squawk-squawk-squawk!
The 55th Floor Dungeon, commonly known as Maia’s chamber.
From within the mage Maia’s domain, a rubber duck’s cry echoed long and piercing.
“Ugh, quiet. Fine, fine. It’s not like Geum Soo-ah will take long to get here anyway—. Let me think, what should I pick……”
By now he’d grown accustomed to such reactions.
Moo-saeng naturally tuned out the noise and began scanning his surroundings.
What spilled out unbidden was less a complaint, perhaps, than an observation.
“……But why do I always end up making these life-or-death decisions this way? With incomplete explanations, or time running out, or just… suffocate me, just suffocate me.”
Yet his eyes held a keenness and sharpness more acute than ever before.
* * *
What should he choose?
There was information he’d confirmed through reports from the Southeast Asia One-Way Group.
The humanoid Guardian had inflicted the greatest damage.
An identical design to what he’d encountered on the 5th Floor.
Among all the Guardians that had materialized from every corner to protect Maia, the humanoid variety comprised the largest proportion.
‘They’d certainly be the most useful, but……’
It would be like gaining another person.
They could do everything a person could do.
But could he actually manage one?
‘If something with intact limbs just ends up crawling around, that’s a problem.’
The craftsmanship was incomparable to the crude Guardians he’d created himself.
But what of operational difficulty?
Wasn’t “the same as a human” equivalent to requiring a highly sophisticated level of control?
‘From that angle, what I need is something that doesn’t demand high-level intelligence—something that supports what I cannot do myself. That approach would be most rational.’
The fortunate part was that this place held more than just humanoid Guardians.
Moo-saeng knew this too. There were giant minotaur-type Guardians as well.
‘If I took one of those, any one-on-one boss fight would just be crushed instantly—’
But how would he transport it? Where would he store it?
The Universal Pouch reduced volume, but not mass.
He couldn’t exactly ride it, either.
What excuse could he give Geum Soo-ah and Yoon Pyo right now?
‘Hmm, then it has to be….’
Compress the necessary functions.
Factor in ease of operation.
It needs to be useful in the Tower, not just the Dungeon.
It must have multiple applications.
When he listed the conditions, a rough outline emerged.
The question was whether a Guardian of that type existed here at all.
Rumble-rumble-rumble…!
And even if it did, whether he could find it in time.
A deep boom accompanied the vibration—Geum Soo-ah’s ability had activated.
[Primitive, so primitive. Is she planning to destroy everything?]
Ignoring Wash’s grumbling, Moo-saeng quickly scanned the surroundings.
This place was something like Maia’s experimental chamber.
It was then that Maia had deployed and activated all of her Guardians to eliminate Kim Moo-saeng and Wash.
In other words, if one looked hard enough, there had to be something there.
“Ah.”
That was when something caught Kim Moo-saeng’s eye.
This?
Could this work?
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!
Again, a violent boom accompanied the tremor.
Wash glanced up, turning his head toward the source of the sound.
Kim Moo-saeng did not falter.
Already, simulation was running in his mind.
What could be done. What could not.
The judgment came in an instant.
“Okay. Wash, let’s go with this.”
[……You’re sure about this, Kim Moo-saeng? Twice won’t work. If we fix the Bug, a situation like this shouldn’t even arise.]
Once the choice was made, it was final.
Wash had been emphatic that later, if Kim Moo-saeng had second thoughts, he couldn’t just return to the 55th Floor Dungeon and hack into a different Guardian.
Kim Moo-saeng nodded immediately.
───────────……!!!!
Wash asked nothing further.
The moment the Guardian Kim Moo-saeng had indicated began to emit light gradually.
“Oh right, I can’t switch Guardians, but taking this one thing should be fine, yeah?”
Kim Moo-saeng thought of something and suddenly bolted off somewhere.
Wash was taken aback, but Kim Moo-saeng was already retrieving ‘it’.
[What, what? What are you going to use that for?]
“I was going to buy one for protection anyway. Once the Bug is fixed, I won’t need stuff like this going forward, so it doesn’t matter. It’s something Maia won’t need and would just discard—might as well put it to use, right?”
[……Your way of thinking operates on a different level.]
“Heh, you’re embarrassing me. Such a flattering compliment.”
He’d said it as a curse.
What could one say to such shameless audacity that didn’t even catch the insult?
Wash simply shook his head.
[It’s done.]
“Okay, then—.”
Kim Moo-saeng took the Guardian and immediately placed it in the Universal Pouch.
Then he withdrew Slayken’s Poison Fang.
The Bug would be fixed. This kind of situation wouldn’t happen again.
But what had already occurred still needed to be erased.
Since there was no need to expend Wash’s power further for that task…….
“One, two, three.”
[Debugging.]
They synchronized their breathing.
Squelch—the 66th Floor boss, the fangs of the serpent’s master.
No matter how much of a final-hour mage Maia was, there was no way the boss of the 55th Floor could withstand that.
“Kugh.”
Maia’s cry was brief.
Before she could even leave final words, Maia’s body had already stiffened completely, crashing with a thud to the ground.
The Guardians around her likewise ceased their functions with the death of their creator and maker.
Kim Moo-saeng stood silently, regarding her form for a moment, then turned away.
“Let’s go.”
There were questions.
The things the mage Maia had kept asking about—Kim Moo-saeng had not failed to consider them either.
There were answers to be given.
He knew that Wash could answer a considerable portion of those questions.
But Kim Moo-saeng swallowed them all.
At least for now, this was not the time to speak such things.
“But what if a situation like this erupts on the 55th Floor too?”
[……Hmph. We’ll find out when we get there.]
To Kim Moo-saeng’s question, Wash snorted.
For now, this would suffice.
Kim Moo-saeng sprinted toward the exit.
After Maia’s death, the Guardians around them offered no obstruction, so they were able to move quickly.
That was how he managed to witness it.
───────────……!!!!
A space of light reflected infinitely in the ice mirror that Yoon Pyo had created.
The sheer destructive power that made even the colossal Minotaur Guardian vanish without a trace!
“Wow… I never thought I’d see this in person. This is seriously incredible. A Combination Skill from the Geumseong Conquest Headquarters commander and vice-commander! Korea’s most lethal Combination Skill in history, right? I recorded it—would it be okay if I uploaded it to YouTube?”
Kim Moo-saeng turned his smartphone camera toward Geum Soo-ah as he asked.
Geum Soo-ah—and Yoon Pyo too—wanted to ask questions of their own.
What on earth had happened here?
Where was Maia? What of the Guardians?
How were you even here? How did you make it this far?
There was no time to ask each question separately.
So Geum Soo-ah had to ask only one thing—the most glaring question.
One that might provide at least some answer to her confusion.
One question alone.
“Those Goggles… where did you get them?”
Kim Moo-saeng was wearing them, after all.
Clear goggles, the kind that looked like sports eyewear.
Who had been wearing them before? Why did Kim Moo-saeng have them now?
Kim Moo-saeng answered.
“Oh… Maia doesn’t need them anymore. I brought them.”
Geum Soo-ah and Yoon Pyo could not comprehend it.
But it was an answer they could sufficiently accept.

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