Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 34

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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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Cheating Administrator Climbing the Mythical Tower (34)
Typically, the first ten levels of the tower are classified as the territory of Beginner Awakeners.
Though more challenging than the Tutorial of levels one through three, Awakeners at that point have grown considerably.
Their abilities, newly acquired skills, and the composition of Party Play formations…….
With such methods, achieving the “Normal Condition Achievement Level” is relatively straightforward.
In other words, from Level 11 onward, reaching even that standard becomes difficult.
Simultaneously, the risk of losing one’s life increases exponentially.
According to the World Awakener Association’s investigation, the majority of Awakeners who cease climbing do so between levels eleven and twenty, and this stems from precisely that reason…….
Park Hyun-gu found himself wide-eyed, frantically scanning this way and that.
[Level 11]
[Awaiting the Full Moon. A Fortress Under Siege]
[Defend the Fortress. And survive.]
[Time Remaining: 360:00:00]
“Gaaaahhh, over here, potions! Potions!”
“Damn it, bring more boiling oil! They’re scaling the Fortress Wall!”
The quest on Level 11 is a Siege Defense.
The Fortress must be protected from the surging swarms of monsters.
“When will reinforcements arrive!?”
“At least a fortnight! Not until the next full moon rises! We only need to hold out until then!”
The duration to be defended is three hundred sixty hours—that is, fifteen days.
Naturally, these fifteen days would be neither happy nor pleasant.
“A f-fortnight!? We’re surrounded and cannot receive food, water, or supplies! Moreover, our stockpiled provisions will last only a week!”
A siege situation.
No further supplies possible.
Stockpiled provisions insufficient.
The Fortress commander NPC gritted his teeth.
“Quiet! Hold on however you must! We will hold, I assure you!”
What the commander could not say aloud, some of the soldiers grasped in their understanding.
Even if provisions ran short, there would be something to eat.
“Gagging……”
“S-Sir! Sir! A poison arrow struck him! A goblin’s poison arrow!”
As time wore on, naturally the number of “mouths to feed” would dwindle.
Dead comrades consumed no rice.
It was hardly a pleasant prospect…….
“Damn it…….”
“Hooks! Hooks on the rampart! Cut them down!”
In the end, there was only one thing anyone could do.
Stake their lives and endure these fifteen days somehow, holding off the assault.
[Modifier for group climbing has been applied.]
[Contribution Score calculation has begun.]
By the time the situation on Level 11 was sufficiently clear, system messages appeared before Kim Mu-saeng and Park Hyun-gu’s eyes as well.
Park Hyun-gu stared intently at the steadily decreasing timer, breathing hard.
“Haa, haa. M-Mu-saeng? What’s this now? What are we supposed to do? Am I really just supposed to sit here?”
A full fifteen days of hell.
Yet for Awakeners, this held a slightly different meaning.
“Yeah. Don’t share your food with anyone around you. See, the NPCs won’t go near the Awakener tent, so hide there and eat by yourself in secret.”
The information that they must endure fifteen days with insufficient provisions had spread to a certain degree.
Naturally, Awakeners would bring provisions for themselves to eat.
Since many Awakeners even brought enough rations for the NPC soldiers, Kim Mu-saeng could avoid excessive panic even in this first encounter with Level 11.
“And you? What are you planning to do now?”
Park Hyun-gu ducked quietly into the tent assigned to Awakeners as he asked.
Kim Mu-saeng paid no mind to the chaos within the Fortress, straightening his spine.
“Let me see……. Ah, that way then.”
He then surveyed his surroundings.
Park Hyun-gu could not know what reflected in those goggles.
“What’s over there? What are you planning to do?”
“Heh, it’s a bit long to explain……. Anyway, I’ll slip out for a moment and be back.”
Kim Mu-saeng carefully withdrew Slaken’s Poison Fang.
Perhaps to repel the monsters clinging near the Fortress Wall?
The fastest and easiest method was, of course, to deploy the poison.
If we stop there, then what comes next…….
“Ah, he’ll be back soon, don’t worry. If you get bored, play with this. Just don’t stick your head outside.”
Mu-saeng remembered something and pulled a small plastic box from his bag.
Park Hyun-gu’s eyes widened as he caught the object tossed into the tent.
“……What is this? Hwatu Cards?”
“What do you mean, acting like you’ve never seen them? You play with these in the office all the time when you’re bored.”
Hwatu cards. Real Hwatu cards?
No hidden function, no secret use—just pure entertainment?
Park Hyun-gu swallowed those words and looked at Mu-saeng.
An innocent expression, yet those sparkling eyes betrayed him.
“……I thought I’d been watching you for long enough, but I never expected you to lose your mind this badly.”
That was all Park Hyun-gu could manage to say.
Mu-saeng laughed softly and stepped outside the tent.
‘No matter how much they say Contribution Score is judged by the Tower’s standards……. If he literally doesn’t move an inch inside the tent.’
No direct combat, no support for the soldiers either.
If he just stays inside the tent, not even sharing small snacks?
Park Hyun-gu’s Contribution Score has to be zero.
‘But given his personality, he won’t last more than a few days. So eventually…….’
He can’t stay in the tent for two weeks.
Just going back and forth to relieve himself, trading a few quips with the soldiers—that might raise his Contribution Score.
To prevent such a risk, they have to hurry.
First priority: use Slaken’s Poison Fang to provide siege defense support immediately.
And then?
‘End the siege itself.’
Mu-saeng pulled something from his pocket and activated a skill.
Mage Maia’s Magitech Engineering.
A small silvery something, small enough to rest in his palm.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzz─────…….
It began to flutter.
It didn’t need to go far.
Behind the Awakener-exclusive tent, a place where the NPC’s eyes wouldn’t reach.
There, the silvery something began to follow Mu-saeng’s [operational method] in earnest.
Wash, quietly observing the movements, murmured.
[So this is what you were planning to use it for, Kim Mu-saeng.]
“Yep. I figured out the Hidden Condition, so once it’s ready~ let’s get to work!”
[Time Remaining: 359:44:37]
About fifteen minutes after the Level 11 Quest began, the mob of monsters surrounding the Fortress started backing away, gradually increasing their distance.
* * *
“Are you……doing all right?”
Mu-saeng asked, stretching outside the tent.
A casual gesture made even in front of soldier NPCs trading shifts after the night watch.
But it was warranted.
“Yes! Thank you so much. They’re too scared to come near us now.”
“There were a few rushes, but……haha, whenever we spray the water Kim Mu-saeng made for us, they back off right away.”
They survived because of Mu-saeng.
They survived the night safely thanks to Mu-saeng, and the soldiers knew it.
“Good to hear. If the poison runs out, just let me know right away. I’ll refill it for you.”
“Yes, sir! Please rest easy, Kim Mu-saeng.”
Mu-saeng waved a hand dismissively at the soldiers who even saluted him, then headed back into the tent.
Snacks, beverages, scattered Hwatu cards, and even a few small-sized Novel Books…….
“Haaah, so I’m just supposed to loaf around all day, Mu-saeng?”
Park Hyun-gu, buried in the midst of it all, stretched out with a yawn.
He looked like a complete wreck.
For Mu-saeng, it was a familiar state.
“Yeah. That works. Can you still hold out?”
“I’ve been cooped up for three days—how am I supposed to hold out? I’m asking because I want to get out too.”
“Pfft, just think of it as a recovery stay~ rest up. You were so busy with the company anyway that you never got proper rest.”
Three days since coming to Level 11.
Over seventy-two hours, and Park Hyun-gu had been faithfully following Mu-saeng’s ‘request’—eating, sleeping, using the bathroom, and playing.
He ran his greasy fingers through his hair and forced himself up.
“I appreciate that you’re worried about me, I really do… but you know what? I’m concerned about you. Can you really keep making poison with that artifact?”
He himself was fine—he had nothing to do but idle away the days.
But Kim Mu-saeng?
“What? Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s just… normally during the day when monsters are weakened, the soldiers and Awakeners go out beyond the Fortress Wall to fight. The strategy guide says we should dig as many traps and pits as possible around the Fortress during daylight hours, but…”
Park Hyun-gu knew the truth.
Over the past three days, Mu-saeng had lived much the same life as he had.
He’d ventured outside the tent occasionally, but only for brief stretches.
Just fetching water from the well and pouring fresh poison into it.
That alone, of course, made for an extraordinarily effective defensive weapon.
“You can’t rely on NPCs alone. They don’t follow orders as reliably as you’d think. An Awakener has to work alongside them, managing and supervising.”
But it wasn’t enough.
Not for what was coming.
“But we haven’t even assigned those kinds of tasks.”
“That’s exactly what worries me! Your poison from the Dungeon 66 is strong, sure, but starting on day five we’ll get Orc Shamans, Troll Shamans—casters. What do we do when they destroy the barriers from range?”
But surely the monsters wouldn’t attack the same way for fifteen straight days.
Even from the information already circulating, day five brought caster-type monsters.
Day seven added large monsters. Day ten brought flying types.
From day thirteen onward—forty-eight hours of unrelenting assault…
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think I don’t know that?”
“Well, you should know it. You’ve been to Level 11 a few times, so obviously—”
“That’s why I’m telling you not to worry.”
Mu-saeng spoke in Park Hyun-gu’s own cadence, but with the opposite message.
Don’t worry.
At Park Hyun-gu’s confused expression, Mu-saeng added one more thing.
“It’s almost over now anyway.”
Mu-saeng turned his head slowly to the side.
Looking past the tent, or rather beyond it—gazing at something far more distant.
Park Hyun-gu, watching that gaze, flopped back down onto his bedding.
“Fine, do what you think is best. Just give me a heads-up if you’re going to need my help later. I should be ready to fight anyway.”
“Oh come on, you?”
When Mu-saeng scoffed, Park Hyun-gu sprang up suddenly.
Then he threw a few shadow-boxing punches through the air with sharp whooshes.
“Look here—you don’t know that when I throw a one-two combo, an Orc’s head just explodes?”
Park Hyun-gu.
Awakened twenty years ago with the skill Nuclear Fist (Rank C).
Classified automatically at C-rank—an absolutely destructive power.
“It’s just your fists that get enhanced. Your body’s still human, so the time you got hit in the gut by a Goblin and threw up—what’s that about?”
His weaknesses were equally clear.
And there was the constraint of only being able to use his power in close combat.
“When was that? Fifteen years ago! Don’t bring up ancient history and embarrass me.”
The fear of facing monsters head-on, the pain from back then, the trauma.
That was why Park Hyun-gu had given up climbing the Tower.
“Aw, I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me up.”
“What, are you seriously pouting over this?”
“I’m not pouting! You bastard…”
“Tell you what—I’ll go get us some good food. Two-Horned Beef. Deal?”
“Cut it out! We’re stuck here for over ten more days. What are you talking about?”
When Mu-saeng said it so casually, Park Hyun-gu felt a surge of unfair indignation.
Mu-saeng had to make an effort to coax him.
“I can go out tomorrow and buy it.”
But to Park Hyun-gu, such words seemed like nothing but a joke.
“There you go again with ‘tomorrow’! If you leave tomorrow, I swear I’m disowning you as my brother.”
“Hmm, a brother like you… I’m not sure I need that.”
Despite the banter, Park Hyun-gu bristled and got to his feet.
Mu-saeng quickly ducked out of the tent.
“Hey, this punk—”
“Hehehehe, sorry about that. Just hang in there a little longer, okay? I’ll be back soon.”
“Don’t come out here, you idiot! Just stay put.”
Even so, Park Hyun-gu never stepped outside the tent.
This was the very essence of the friendship the two had built since their days at the Orphanage.
No matter how angry or hurt, they relied on each other.
“But where the hell is this bastard? He’s got me worried for nothing.”
It was the same when Kim Mu-saeng, who had left that morning, failed to return even as night fell.
What was Kim Mu-saeng doing? Where was he?
Park Hyun-gu found out soon enough.
[Congratulations!]
[You have achieved the Clear condition.]
[Calculating Contribution Score.]
“……What?”
Level 11 had been cleared.
And?
[Park Hyun-gu: Contribution Score 0%]
[Kim Mu-saeng: Contribution Score 100%]
Kim Mu-saeng had done it all.

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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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