Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 45

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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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Admin with Cheat Using Mythic-Grade Tower Climbing (45)
Moo-saeng secured his efficiency even as he read the system message.
“Can you hear me? Just go straight in the direction I ran earlier. We’ll meet halfway.”
―Ji, is it really over? That’s six people, so shouldn’t there be two Cyclopes?
―Kim Moo-saeng, how did you do that?
―Must be thanks to the Metalline Artifact… but still, that’s insane.
In party play, to advance to the next floor, all members have to gather and reach consensus.
So he could simply stroll toward them and savor the “real reward.”
[Rewards will be distributed according to Contribution.]
[Stat Points +25]
[Contribution Distribution: Kim Moo-saeng 100% / Others 0%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Stat Points +25 acquired]
[Others: Stat Points +0 acquired]
Moo-saeng smirked at the system message that materialized before him.
“Come on, they’re still party members. Shouldn’t at least their names show up? Even if the Contribution is zero. Just seeing ‘Others’ feels wrong…… as a matter of human decency.”
[You’re not human though?]
“…… Wash. I wasn’t being serious about that. Just making a joke.”
It was nothing more than an offhand remark from Moo-saeng, who was in good spirits from the rewards.
Yet here was Wash, pushing up his black-framed glasses and taking on a solemn expression.
‘Pfft, excellent. The Cyclops’s weakness played out exactly as I thought.’
He knew the eyes were the weak point, but the downside was that direct attacks would be difficult to exploit.
Originally he’d planned to stab them with Slayken’s Fangs, but once Park Hyun-gu had already gathered everyone, he didn’t want to waste even a day and hurried instead.
‘Good thing I looked up what Geum Su-a said online back then. Yeah, yeah.’
Moreover, this idea didn’t rely solely on Moo-saeng’s knowledge as a Dungeon Sherpa.
When it came to light, there was one Awakener who couldn’t be overlooked.
He was able to apply it because he remembered Geum Su-a, who wielded Luminous (SR), discussing how to neutralize large monsters in an interview.
[You have achieved an additional condition.]
[Additional rewards are granted.]
[All Stats +20]
[Contribution Distribution: Kim Moo-saeng 100% / Others 0%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: All Stats +20 acquired]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Additional Attack Power against Large Monsters +80%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Giant Slayer acquired]
[Kim Moo-saeng: 21st Floor Quest Changed]
(applies even in multi-person challenges involving this person)
[Your understanding of monster physiology has increased.]
[Knowledge 94 → 100]
[You are the 9,644th achiever of this additional condition.]
There were roughly ten thousand Awakeners who cleared a Cyclops within ten minutes.
But there was no way to know under what circumstances they’d achieved it.
In other words, there probably wasn’t a single case where someone had challenged it as a six-person party like Moo-saeng and hogged all the rewards to themselves.
“All Stats +20? No, +20 from just one floor on the 12th Floor!?”
Moo-saeng could savor the reward purely for himself.
His eyes went so wide they nearly scraped against his goggles!?
What is this?
What kind of reward is this!
‘Geum Byeong-cheol…… pffthahahaha!’
It was truly the reward for an incredibly valuable information exchange.
In reality, he’d given nothing to Moo-saeng except for his own existence as Wash.
Yet the tips had proven this helpful!
“Hmm? 21st Floor Quest changed……? Wash?”
Even so, there was one part that made Moo-saeng tilt his head.
Wash answered with a rustling of his wings.
[You’re dealing with giants. No big deal.]
That casual tone.
And the fact that there were nearly ten thousand achievers of the additional condition.
Since Moo-saeng had only just cleared the 12th Floor, there was no need to worry about how the general conditions of the 21st Floor that he knew of would change.
“Moo-saeng!”
“Ah, there!”
Besides, now that he was meeting up with Park Hyun-gu and the other party members, he couldn’t continue his conversation with Wash anyway.
The seasoning and instinct of a Dungeon Sherpa—Moo-saeng could read it in an instant.
“We’re going to the next floor too…… aren’t we?”
“Can we ask—how many floors are you planning to go up in total?”
“Could we make a reservation for next time as well…… not just today?”
The way they looked at Moo-saeng had shifted.
Their eyes, which had held a lingering wariness and anxiety even as they accepted the Metalline Artifact, now gleamed with unmistakable hunger.
Then what?
“Of course. Free rides for everyone here from now on. But you know it’s virtually impossible to drop out and rejoin later, right? Ha, and you’re welcome to bring others along. From them, I’ll collect a Bus Fee…… and I’ll give you 20% of that Bus Fee back. Deal?”
Now it would grow.
From a six-person party to many more, structured in a way that let Moo-saeng claim far greater rewards.
Shin Hyun-dong—bespectacled, slight of frame, the party member who’d been most suspicious of Moo-saeng—asked carefully.
“Um, so, if the person I bring brings yet another person……?”
Moo-saeng grinned and answered.
He knew what moved people.
“Nah, no need to complicate it. You know what I mean, right?”
Moo-saeng knew it well.
“Yes! Yes, I understand, boss!”
“Aw, come on, don’t call me boss.”
Having somehow become the representative of a tower-climbing multi-level operation (?), Moo-saeng surveyed them.
At this mood, at this momentum, there was no doubt about it.
“All right then……! Take one of these each.”
Moo-saeng adjusted his status window matter-of-factly.
And distributed something to them.
Their brows, bright with joy just moments before, furrowed for a spell at what flowed from his hands.
Of course, and just as Moo-saeng had predicted, none of them refused his instructions.
* * *
[13th Floor]
[Starving wolves, a village trembling with fear]
[Protect the villagers until reinforcements arrive.]
[Surviving villagers: 31/31]
[Time remaining: 120:00:00]
[Party-climbing adjustment applied.]
[Contribution tracking initiated.]
Based on five days of solo play, the task was to defend the village from three wolf-men and forty wolves.
It seemed easier at first glance than the fortress siege on the 11th Floor, but it was far from it.
“Everyone here should stay put inside. I’ve confirmed the storehouse is empty, so absolutely…… absolutely don’t leave it.”
“But, b-but what if wolf-men attack? Can we still not leave?”
“No. Even if you hear screaming or whatever, don’t leave without my permission.”
They had no means of defense.
They were literal villagers. Incapable of any real resistance.
“Wouldn’t it help if we assisted in controlling the villagers-?”
“No, that’s not necessary. It’s fine.”
“But if the number of villagers drops below a certain threshold, the Quest fails…… doesn’t it?”
And yet they moved about to earn their living.
Not knowing when or how they’d be attacked, staying still was death anyway.
To eat and survive, they had to move.
If too many of them were attacked, the Quest would fail automatically.
In solo play, it was known that death of over half, that is, sixteen villagers, meant automatic failure.
An Awakener who’d cleared it with fifteen dead had told him, so they knew that much—but no Awakener had yet killed more than that, so anything beyond remained unknown.
What was even more frightening was that this baseline was for solo play.
Party play? Naturally, the standards were harder.
And a six-person party at that!?
The death threshold was likely around five. Maybe four? Three?
For five days, the woodcutter went to the mountain, the farmer to the field—Moo-saeng had to protect the scattered villagers without letting a single one die.
From wolf-men and wolves far more numerous than in solo play.
“We should trust you, Kim Moo-saeng! Yes! We trust you!”
Shin Hyun-dong raised his voice.
Moo-saeng looked at him, grinned, and nodded.
“Call me if anything happens. Park, I’m counting on you.”
“Right, right, Moo-saeng. Go and don’t worry.”
A timber storehouse about ten square meters, holding an assortment of farming tools and communal village equipment.
Now that Moo-saeng had left, only five people remained.
A moment of silence.
It was Park Hyun-gu who broke it.
“You all don’t need to be so nervous. Even if Moo-saeng talks like that, he won’t make any mistakes. If things get dicey, I’ll just go bang-bang with my powered fists, you know?”
He threw a few practice punches at the empty air.
Watching him, Kim Ji-yoon—the blue-haired woman whose roots showed black where she hadn’t touched up the dye—responded.
“Yeah, I mean, contribution is one thing, but people come first. I don’t think failure’s even in the cards. Not with his skill level.”
“But it’s not like werewolves and wolves are just wandering around together…. Even so, don’t you feel anxious?”
Noh Ye-rang gauged the room, breaking the fragile calm.
Yoon Jeong-il, tugging at his soft belly to hide it, nodded in agreement.
“Exactly. Normally you’d split them up—one werewolf and, say, ten regular wolves. Plus with a six-person party, we can’t even verify how many monsters are actually out there. Even if the party leader’s perfect, what can he do about something happening in a completely different location? You know it too, Hyun-gu. Kim Moo-saeng doesn’t have teleportation skills or anything. If luck turns bad and even just three villagers die, we—.”
“Ah now, Jeong-il, after seeing what Moo-saeng did on the 12th Floor, you still doubt? Have faith. Blessings fall upon those who trust.”
Park Hyun-gu tried to calm Yoon Jeong-il with deliberate lightheartedness.
But a timidity so at odds with his sturdy build wouldn’t settle easily.
“P-please, not the jokes right now. Everyone else, don’t be naive about this. Do you know what happens if a Quest fails in the Tower? Death! The end! That’s it!”
“Then why’d you come up to the 13th Floor instead of going back down? Right? Besides, nobody forced you. You know all there is to know about this.”
Shin Hyun-dong cut off Yoon Jeong-il before his voice could rise further.
Startled, Yoon Jeong-il touched his belly. Kim Ji-yoon murmured something as she watched him.
“And we don’t actually know if you die or not.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, everyone talks about dying, dying like it’s guaranteed, but does it actually happen? Sure, people die fighting monsters, but there’s no verified case of Quest failure causing death. If it’s party play, the whole party gets locked out of the Tower. If it’s solo, obviously the same. Right?”
Kim Ji-yoon’s logic wasn’t flawed.
Of course, to most ordinary people it was a meaningless question.
“How is that different from dying, though, Ji-yoon….”
“No, Ye-rang. Realistically speaking, there’s no verified proof of what happens if you can’t exit the Tower. You can’t make conclusions without evidence. That’s all I’m saying.”
Kim Ji-yoon had deftly steered the conversation away.
Yoon Jeong-il jumped back in.
“I think I saw a paper on something like that once. Some philosophical, ontological mumbo-jumbo, right?”
“Well, yeah, there are papers on it, but I’m not talking based on those or anything….”
Kim Ji-yoon, now oddly embarrassed, fell silent.
An awkward quiet settled over them.
They did trust Moo-saeng, truly. They believed he’d clear it.
Yet could they really just sit here and do nothing?
Time passed.
[Surviving Villagers: 31/31]
[Time Remaining: 118:34:55]
“Should we eat something? We brought plenty of provisions anyway.”
“H-how can you think of eating at a time like this….”
“Well, we can’t starve the whole time either.”
More time passed.
[Surviving Villagers: 31/31]
[Time Remaining: 114:17:49]
“Does anyone need to use the bathroom? Urine goes in that corner over there.”
“How much longer do we have to wait? Should we ask Kim Moo-saeng?”
“He’s concentrating right now, so we’d just distract him. Let’s just stay quiet.”
And then, roughly an hour later.
[Congratulations!]
[You have achieved the clear conditions.]
[Surviving Villagers: 31/31]
[Time Remaining: 112:41:56]
[Calculating Contribution.]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Contribution 100%]
[Others: Contribution 0%]
“Huh?”
“What?”
“……What?”
Clear time: 7 hours, 18 minutes, 4 seconds.
“N-not a single person died?”
“What…….”
No casualties among the villagers.
―Wow, live and learn—twenty-two werewolves and three hundred twenty wolves? Three hundred twenty-one? I thought it was a full-scale ethnic migration. You’ve all been waiting long, haven’t you? There were simply more of them than expected, so it took some time.
And then Kim Moo-saeng’s voice reached every last one of them.
Park Hyun-gu, Shin Hyun-dong, Kim Ji-yoon, Noh Ye-rang, Yoon Jeong-il.
The five of them could only stand in silence, searching each other’s faces.

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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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