Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 41

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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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Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator (41)
In Korea, dungeons corresponding to the 30th Floor and below are managed by the state.
Not by checking qualifications, adjusting times to prevent overlap, or prohibiting commerce in front of Gates—
The state’s management responsibility is exactly one thing.
Ensuring that no one profits from entering and exiting the Gate.
Beyond that, whether other Awakeners pursue safety or enter dungeons to collect Artifacts—there’s no reason or need to stop them.
It was the same when Moo Saeng lured the members of the Korea One-Way Group into the 22nd Floor Dungeon.
The state doesn’t intervene aggressively.
Therefore, there is a certain etiquette when entering dungeons below the 30th Floor.
“Ah…… hello? Mister King?”
The most important among these rules is not overlapping.
Once an Awakener enters, you wait at least twenty minutes before following.
To allow entry into separate Instance Dungeons, Awakeners voluntarily respect the order according to timers and clocks provided by the state—this is Korean culture, and yet…
Steve King approached with a hearty laugh, arms spread wide.
“Don’t be awkward! Speak freely! I’m glad to—”
“Even if Korea is your first time, if you have any sense of the situation, you’d know the rules.”
And Moo Saeng immediately spoke casually.
Watching Moo Saeng shrug, Steve King’s feet stopped awkwardly mid-stride.
His arms, which had been reaching for an embrace, drooped awkwardly away.
“The dungeon? No, no, never mind. Don’t worry about it. I won’t disturb anything.”
Nevertheless, Steve King spoke cheerfully.
Moo Saeng glanced back and gestured behind himself.
“That’s already a disturbance.”
Cyclops remained in a bowing posture.
Not the slightest movement.
The stance suggested he would accept even having his throat cut without resistance.
In all his time as a Dungeon Sherpa, Moo Saeng had never seen or heard of such a situation.
“Shit, Cyclops! What are you doing? Get up!”
Steve King, clearly flustered as well, gestured repeatedly for him to stand.
But Cyclops, with his face buried in the ground, had no way of seeing it.
‘…… He’s crazier than I thought. Far more than the information I gathered.’
It wasn’t because Steve was standing near Cyclops, shouting, “Don’t you hear me? Get up!”
It was the information that appeared in Moo Saeng’s Goggles as he stared at Steve’s back.
[Steve King]
―Age: [Your ability is too low to confirm this.]
―Awakening Ability: 〈Red Hawk (SSR)〉
―Skills: [Your ability is too low to confirm this.]
―Resistances: [Your ability is too low to confirm this.]
―Climbing Record: Maximum 74th Floor
―Special Notes: [Your ability is too low to confirm this.]
‘The official announcement from Windbloom Guild states 71st Floor. Steve King’s current climbing record, the highest in the world…… this bastard……’
He had climbed higher than the officially announced floor.
He had hidden it.
Why?
Reaching the highest floor of the tower is a race competed by guilds across the world.
Leading guilds in Europe are conquering the late 60s, entering the 70s, and so forth.
The difficulty of conquering each single floor increases exponentially, to say the least.
Yet climbing three additional floors beyond that was an astronomical gap.
‘He could crush the spirits of his competitors entirely. Windbloom’s honor, fame, brand value—it would be beyond imagination.’
Steve King, as Guild Master and the very person who reached the highest floor, would be called the apex itself.
Such profit, such a shift in the balance of power—there’s no way he wouldn’t have considered it.
Yet despite all that, he hid it.
“Hmm?”
In that instant, Moo Saeng felt the air shift.
────────────…
Heat? No, it was different from warmth sensed by rising temperature.
Yet unmistakably, a palpable warmth.
“Stand up.”
Steve spoke.
A voice rang out, different from the exuberant tone he’d used moments before.
“Kuh, kuh-waaaaaahhh!”
Cyclops rose to its feet, roaring like a beast that had forgotten language itself.
Steve approached the trembling seven-meter frame and tapped at its legs, laughing.
“Good, right Moo Saeng? Now go on, fight. Using… Wash’s power.”
He pointed at Wash.
[……Kekeke! Reduced to nothing but a savage beast, I see. The brain has become bestial too, you arrogant creature.]
Light glinted behind Wash’s black-rimmed goggles.
* * *
Steve glanced between Moo Saeng and Wash before speaking.
“Not quite enough to violate the Nevada Treaty. Yet there it is—wandering outside of towers and dungeons…… It’s not a summon or a tamed creature, judging by how no one around here seems bothered. ‘Only visible once you reach a certain level,’ I’d say…… Am I right? A Key?”
It wasn’t particularly surprising.
That seemingly foolish demeanor, cheerful yet with a screw loose somewhere—
A person like that would never have been recruited into Eight Seconds, nor could they have climbed the tower higher than anyone else in the world.
They’d be dead already.
Intelligence, perception, instinct, experience, strength……
A man who possessed it all.
As that thought settled, doubt crept in regarding Moo Saeng as well.
Though the specific meaning of “Key” remained unclear, Steve King understood the framework: Wash equals Tower Administrator.
Which meant he’d extracted that much information from Geum Byung-chul.
“It’s curious, possessing such ability yet speaking as if setting a ‘test.'”
But why speak that way?
Not out of ignorance, but knowing full well?
“Relaaax~! Was my phrasing odd? The translation must not be coming through. But…… isn’t there truth to it regardless?”
“Hmm?”
“A key has to be tested to see if it can open a lock. What if it’s not a real key, or it’s broken? You understand, yeah? Just Test!”
Steve laughed brightly again.
At the sound of his laughter, Moo Saeng smiled too, a faint grin crossing his face.
Then he turned to Wash.
“Wash. Can you delete it?”
Steve’s laughter cut off abruptly.
Wash landed lightly on Moo Saeng’s shoulder and answered.
[Kim Moo Saeng, if you deem it necessary.]
“Me?”
Steve asked.
Moo Saeng chuckled.
“A key’s meant to be inserted and turned, after all. You don’t want to be inserted, huh?”
Moo Saeng understood.
Why Wash hadn’t simply erased him outright. Why it was waiting for Moo Saeng’s own answer.
Confirmation of mutual contract’s good faith? But it was more than that.
‘Since Maia’s surrounding space froze in the 55th Floor Dungeon, the recovery should be complete by now……’
Within a dungeon, Wash could Execute with Administrator Authority.
But it remained incomplete—that much was certain.
And in that state, even more than the actual 55th Floor, more than the Slaken of the 66th Floor—
To contend with Steve King, who might be equal to or exceed Geum Byung-chul, would require immense power.
Perhaps that’s why Wash asked instead of acting immediately.
“Hahahaha! Entertaining. You’ve got decent humor, Moo Saeng!”
Steve laughed.
Then he brought his hand down lightly against Cyclops’s leg.
Fuooooaaahhh─────────……!
“Ugh, uuuuhhh-sss.”
Fire erupted across Cyclops’s entire body.
By the moment Moo Saeng registered what was happening—
“…… Hmm.”
The monster’s form had already transformed.
Into ash, not a bone fragment remaining.
The black ash left by the seven-meter behemoth’s mass scattered and drifted—the kind of sight that would naturally draw everyone’s eye.
“Let’s Start!”
As if he’d calculated all of this beforehand, Steve rushed forward.
Closing the distance in an instant, his hand extended.
Ah—timing and speed so fast that not even a sound could follow in their wake.
And predicting, evading—it was impossible.
No matter how much he’d grown, no matter how far beyond a typical 10th Floor Awakener he’d become.
The gap between the world’s highest tower climber and Moo Saeng was unmistakable.
‘Damn it. The end.’
In that instant, Moo Saeng felt death arrive.
He was dead. Certainly.
[Stop right there, you insignificant insect.]
────────────…….
If not for Wash.
Steve’s fingertip froze a hair’s breadth from Moo Saeng’s nose—it simply halted.
“……K-cough, cough!?”
Steve couldn’t have stopped of his own accord.
Wash had forcibly ceased that motion.
The world’s highest tower climber let out a bewildered laugh.
Wash drifted lazily toward him, bobbing gently in the air.
[You like things hot?]
“What?”
Removing his black-rimmed goggles, the rubber duck spoke.
[I’ll crank the full heat output for you. Try to enjoy it.]
“What the—. Hup!?”
That was all it took.
Moo Saeng could see it too.
The space around where Steve stood began to distort.
The ground beneath his feet was turning to liquid.
The air?
Heat shimmer trembled through the void as if it could be grasped by hand.
[Kim Moo Saeng, let’s go. Everything’s about to melt.]
Wash flew back to Moo Saeng and spoke.
Execute with Administrator Authority.
Faced with that overwhelming power, Moo Saeng found himself speechless.
But there was no walking out in silence, either.
“……Well, so it’s come to this? At least it seems like you are a good ‘Key,’ wouldn’t you say?”
“Hey, wait! Leaving? What about me? Hey, Just Kidding!”
Steve King remained frozen in place.
The state of complete immobility was surely also the work of Wash’s power.
Moo Saeng pulled out an Escape Scroll, his expression darkening.
“And please stop switching the translator on and off to use English. Who’s mocking whose short reach? I’m already sensitive about only finishing middle school.”
“No, wait! I was just trying to invite you to the Windbloom Guild, I—”
“I’m leaving. It wasn’t pleasant meeting you. Let’s not see each other again.”
“—No, NONONO, Moo Saeng Bro! Brother!”
Riiiiip.
Moo Saeng tore the Escape Scroll and exited the 12th Floor Dungeon.
* * *
By the time Moo Saeng emerged, the area before the 12th Floor Dungeon Gate was deserted.
Since Eight Seconds had vanished, the crowds that had gathered to see them had naturally dispersed as well.
‘I can’t go right back into the 12th Floor Dungeon.’
Moo Saeng moved forward, immediately correcting the plans disrupted by the uninvited guest.
Of course, the reason he could think and act so brazenly was clear.
Wash had said so, hadn’t he?
“He won’t die, right?”
[Huh? Why ask something like that when you never said anything yourself?]
Whether to kill Steve King would be decided by Moo Saeng’s need.
After that, Moo Saeng said nothing more.
“Heh, well. Yeah, that’s why I’m asking.”
[……How barbarically human of you.]
In other words, Steve King would not die.
Wash would have calculated that far.
As if knowing what Moo Saeng was thinking, Wash added:
[Either way, that buzzing insect will suffer enough to think death would be preferable.]
At that final remark, Moo Saeng’s footsteps toward the vehicle faltered for a moment.
“But isn’t that even more dangerous? I’m worried he’ll just work himself into a fury and come charging at us.”
Pain worse than death itself?
That sounds suspiciously like tempting fate.
[Heh, he’s just a mayfly at heart.]
Wash let out a derisive snort.
More sputtering and crackling than before.
Moo Saeng watched him for a moment, then thought better of responding.
There was no real need to press the issue.
[Execute Disk Defragmentation]
[1%]
.
.
‘Lighten Wash’s burden, and scout out the 13th Floor Dungeon first.’
His own strategy, factoring in Wash’s condition.
Moo Saeng couldn’t have known what it would cost him.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAA-!”
Steve King, stripped bare as his clothes burned away entirely,
howled with eyes so bloodshot they seemed ready to weep tears of blood.
“The Key—yes, the Key! That’s it! Okay, I got it.”
Was this hell, or reality?
In a space where the 12th Floor Dungeon no longer existed,
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Steve King laughed.

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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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