Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 46

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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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The Admin Climbing Tower Myth with a Cheat (46)
The silence didn’t last long.
These were climbers whose highest record had now reached Floor 13.
And they’d ascended one step further toward higher floors without worrying about rewards they wouldn’t have obtained anyway—free progress they could advertise to the world.
“But wait, um, how many werewolves and wolves were there? You said over three hundred, didn’t you?”
“How on earth… but how could not a single one show up? Does that make any sense?”
“What about the villagers? What happened to the villagers?”
“I knew I could trust you, Director Kim!”
—Oh, please don’t all talk at once! I don’t have the function to split the audio output!
The strategy for monopolizing Floor 13’s Contribution ultimately boiled down to two key points.
1. The party members couldn’t leave any trace of their presence.
2. The villagers had to be protected.
How to handle these two problems.
As Kim Moo-saeng pondered, what literally came to him was a scent.
Scent rendered to sight, chromatic vision.
From that moment, he could solve every problem!
Simply cover the party members in filth to mask their scent?
It was possible.
But it wasn’t enough.
Above all, what if their scent began to waft again as time passed?
Therefore, even if he applied the filth, Kim Moo-saeng had prepared one more layer of insurance.
[Kraaackle! Fighting so well in such a bare-naked body, Kim Moo-saeng.]
“What else could I do? I gave you all my clothes. And I’m not completely naked—I’m still wearing underwear.”
His own clothes.
Sweat-soaked garments, fabric thick with his body odor!
If he smeared them with filth and distributed them?
And then thoroughly verified through his chromatic vision that they carried scent similar to his own?
The problem was how to obtain filth. Bring it into the Tower?
Or go into the Tower and defecate?
Even for someone like Kim Moo-saeng, such an act was beyond the pale, and he couldn’t guarantee that the quantity (?) he’d planned would produce the desired effect.
But then.
Hadn’t he just recalled the strategy for defeating the Cyclops in exactly that manner?
[Those bastards even wore the things—admirable, truly. The savagery of mankind knows no bounds. No, actually, you four who dug into a monster’s excretion tract are the most admirable, kraaackle!]
“Don’t put it that way… As if I wanted to burrow into the Cyclops’s, uh? Like that?”
Because he lacked Slaeken’s Fang.
Because he’d watched Geum Su-a’s interview.
Because his own needs aligned perfectly—that’s why he’d steeled himself to do it.
“Blood and body fluids—ugh, this is revolting.”
Not just filth but a rich mixture of varied scents for the first layer of camouflage.
And then, as a second layer, he draped his own scent-soaked clothes around the party members.
By distributing these garments to the party members before ascending Floor 13, he’d solved the first problem.
The second problem—the villagers?
He hadn’t left it unthought.
That was precisely why he’d ventured into the Dungeon on Floor 13.
Where they went to work, what they did, how far they traveled, how far they stayed from the wolves’ primary respawn coordinates.
He’d committed it all to memory.
From there? The rest was simple.
Kim Moo-saeng activated his communication function and spoke.
“Park, come outside and tell the villagers they can leave the chief’s house now. Don’t mistake my clothes by the door for trash and throw them away—keep them safe!”
The instant he’d confined the party members—though not quite confined—to the wooden storage shed, Kim Moo-saeng sought out all the villagers and persuaded them.
I’ll protect you from the werewolves.
For the next twelve hours, if I don’t return, I’ll compensate you for all losses to your livelihoods.
Though he reeked of filth and countless other odors, the value of the single Gold Nugget he produced from his bag was undeniable.
He herded the few of them into the chief’s house and scattered his own scent-soaked garments all around them—that was enough.
In other words, even if the werewolves and wolves approached, they’d catch the scent of ‘the exact same chromatic color as Kim Moo-saeng himself’ and flee the area he’d prepared.
With both problems solved, everything after that was simply a matter of time.
—So, uh, yes. Got it. But Moo-saeng, why exactly did you clear it?
“Huh? I hunted down and killed all the wolves.”
With the goggles of mage Maia and the dungeon guide’s experience, it was just a matter of tracking every monster and killing it.
That was precisely how he satisfied Floor 13’s Hidden Condition: the annihilation of every werewolf and wolf.
[Rewards will be distributed according to contribution.]
[Stat Points +28]
[Contribution Distribution: Kim Moo-saeng 100% / Others 0%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Stat Points +28 Acquired]
[Others: Stat Points +0 Acquired]
‘Good. So I’m pocketing the Floor 13 reward in full as well.’
[Hidden Condition Achieved.]
[On the Night When the Full Moon Rises]
[Come See the Night]
[Additional Reward Granted.]
[Stat Points +22 by Category]
[Contribution Distribution: Kim Moo-saeng 100% / Others 0%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Stat Points +22 by Category Acquired]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Additional Attack Power Against Beast-Type Monsters +100%]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Skill 〈Berserk〉 Acquired]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Skill 〈Dog Nose〉 Acquired]
[You are the 711th Achiever of this Hidden Condition.]
Just as on Floor 12, stat increases across the board that defied all reason.
On top of that, two new skills.
[Berserk]
Werewolves are powerful because they’ve stopped being human.
During the active period, this skill amplifies your stats. The duration and which stats are amplified, as well as the amplification rate, are determined by the user’s power and can be selected upon activation.
(However, after the active period ends, your stats are weakened by the same ratio as the amplification. Example: if you amplified your power fivefold, afterward you’re reduced to one-fifth strength. The weakening period lasts three times the active duration, during which the skill cannot be reused.)
‘Berserk, huh… it’s a bit subtle, I’ll admit.’
If I choose something like doubling all stats for an hour, then I have to live at half capacity for the next three hours?
It’s an incredible effect, but the backlash is equally brutal.
Yet there was no mistaking why Moo-saeng’s lips curled up into a grin.
[Dog Nose]
Once you’ve caught the scent of prey, you never lose it.
By detecting and marking a target’s scent, you can determine the direction and distance to that target.
(However, if the target removes their scent, the marking is deleted.)
(The number of markable targets varies by Accuracy/Willpower stats. Current capacity: 0/2)
I couldn’t keep using the mage Maia’s goggles indefinitely in their Olfactory Chromatic Vision version.
Beyond that, in urgent moments they’d actually obstruct my vision, and it was difficult for a human brain to continuously process all that information anyway.
In that sense, acquiring a skill that could mark and track a specific target would definitely be a tremendous asset.
* * *
After all the preparations and a little over ten hours of Tower Climbing followed by the pause, time had slipped away.
Park Hyun-gu would’ve been happy to oblige Moo-saeng’s every whim, but the others had already overrun the time they’d promised to keep.
“Let’s just keep going, Director Kim.”
“No, I’d like to, but… Jiyun and Jeongil said it’s impossible. Let’s pick another day and try again.”
Some of the party wanted to continue climbing even if it meant canceling personal schedules, but others were adamant that today had to end.
At that point, Moo-saeng had no reason to keep climbing.
Once you’ve tasted the rewards of a six-person party, how could he go back to four-person runs?
Once you clear a floor and move up, you can never retry it.
‘Looking at efficiency… it’s disappointing, but it can’t be helped.’
No one was more eager than Moo-saeng himself.
Why wouldn’t he want to reach Floors 39 and 58 as quickly as possible?
He wanted to find any clue about Joo Ye-rin, and the sooner the better.
No one wanted to climb each floor faster than he did.
Yet he couldn’t move hastily.
Whatever you called it—the Tower’s tricks similar to Dungeon mechanics—abnormal events had occurred, and the party had been caught up in them.
If that was the case, power was needed.
If he thought of Geum Byeong-cheol. If he thought of Hilda.
Or rather, if he thought of those monster-like humans in Eight Seconds.
‘I have to squeeze every last drop. There’s only one chance per floor.’
Moo-saeng knew that despite his regret, now was the time to stop.
After everyone had left one by one, Park Hyun-gu sidled up to Moo-saeng and spoke quietly.
“I set up a group chat, and I made it very~clear that if anyone leaks any of this, they’re out immediately, so we should be fine. These aren’t people who’d go blabbing about it anywhere…”
These weren’t recruits gathered from the internet.
They were people gathered by Park Hyun-gu through Park Hyun-gu’s connections.
Park Hyun-gu was saying he’d take responsibility for keeping it quiet too.
Kim Moo-saeng let out a soft laugh at his thoughtfulness.
“Yeah, you’ve probably handled it well already. Thanks.”
“But you should think it through too. Once you get more people involved, information always leaks out eventually.”
Park Hyun-gu asked with a concerned look.
But for Kim Moo-saeng, it wasn’t really a meaningful worry.
“Plenty of people have imagined it, sure. But actually pulling it off? That’s the impossible part.”
Form a party and climb the Tower, yet monopolize all the Contribution?
Anyone could imagine that much.
Lots of people probably already have.
But who’s actually done it?
As far as Kim Moo-saeng knew, only people at the level of Geum Byeong-cheol and Eight Seconds.
It was a point Park Hyun-gu could understand without needing further explanation.
“That’s… well, that too. But you know, once you start going through one connection after another, all kinds of people will surface. You’ve worked at a company, so you know how it is, right?”
“I know. Someone might even pop up demanding hush money. Or someone who says they don’t want Contribution, just cash them out. It’s all predictable.”
“Right, so if that happens—what’ll you do?”
Park Hyun-gu asked.
Kim Moo-saeng answered as he stepped into the car.
“Show them.”
“Show them what?”
The Awakeners who climb to the same floors as Kim Moo-saeng.
The ones who’ve lacked the courage and ability to climb until now and gave up.
Those who get no Contribution, no rewards like Stat Point increases.
That they know about this information that “anyone could imagine.”
That they try to blackmail Kim Moo-saeng?
“A lesson.”
Show them a lesson.
Who loses more.
Who suffers more damage.
That calculation shouldn’t be too difficult.
“…Huh? What did you say?”
“Heh, anyway you’ve worked hard too! I’ll call again soon!”
Watching Kim Moo-saeng wave out the window, Park Hyun-gu let out a hollow laugh.
* * *
Kim Moo-saeng entered the hotel owned and operated by the Geum-seong Guild.
It had become a space as familiar as his own home, but this time felt slightly different than usual.
“Oh, Geum Su-a. You seemed busy lately. The conference isn’t over yet? Tomorrow? The day after?”
Geum Su-a, who was sitting in the hotel lobby’s café, was waving at him.
“The conference ends the day after tomorrow. But that’s not it—I came to tell you something Kim Moo-saeng asked me to pass along.”
“Asked me?”
“What, you told me about it. You don’t remember?”
Only after hearing that much did Kim Moo-saeng catch on.
Geum Su-a spoke, her expression grown serious again.
“Between the conference and other work, I got intelligence that Cheon Ri-an is intensely focused on Floor 58. Floor 58… the place you mentioned, Kim Moo-saeng.”
Cheon Ri-an.
One of Eight Seconds.
At the same time, a Chinese Awakener forming a hostile force against those who came to Korea with Geum Byeong-cheol and the others.

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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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