Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 55

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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 Mythical Tower Climb with a Cheating Admin (55)
[Floor 19]
[Blood, Sweat, and Tears—the Heart of Battleground]
[Survive.]
[Time Remaining: 3:00:00]
[Multi-person Climbing adjustment applied.]
[Contribution Rate calculation commencing.]
Whoosh—!
The moment the system message appeared, everyone except Kim Moo-saeng dropped into a crouch.
“Graaaah, die, you bastards!”
“Kyaaaaaaah—!”
In the chaos of blood splattering indiscriminately across human and monster alike, they had to survive three hours.
Unlike before, even Kim Moo-saeng felt the weight of tension.
Not that survival itself worried him.
It was the need to secure every last point of Contribution Rate.
He had to clear the immediate area quickly and isolate his party members.
‘As fast as I possibly can—?’
So Kim Moo-saeng had made his preparations.
Since he needed to suppress the monsters’ behavior immediately, he’d completed everything by Floor 18—using the Poison Artisan skill with Slake’s Poison from the Poison Snake to prepare a fast-acting paralytic toxin mixed into water and ready to spray—but…….
“Nngh, nnnnngh…….”
“Krrr, krrrrgh.”
Yet the monsters had frozen solid without him even spraying it?
They weren’t rushing at him carelessly?
“Huh? What’s wrong with them?”
Kim Moo-saeng was bewildered.
The monsters kept their heads slightly lowered, eyes wide and fixed on him.
Some of them were even backing away hesitantly.
It looked almost as if…….
“They were terrified.”
[Kekekeke! Kim Moo-saeng, you seem to know quite a lot, yet you still don’t know that.]
Wash laughed as he watched Kim Moo-saeng analyze the situation.
Then he explained.
“What?”
[Don’t you know what skill you possess?]
[Intimidate (Passive)]
The first eye contact determines the victor. Everything is decided by instinct.
Debuffs are applied according to the ability gap between hostile targets. (Applied in order by ability difference: Attack Power Decrease, Accuracy Decrease, Fear, Confusion, Escape, Paralysis)
The skill Intimidate.
“……So what you’re saying is—.”
Attack Power Decrease, Accuracy Decrease, Fear, Confusion, Escape, Paralysis—applied in that order.
And right now, every monster whose eyes had met his were frozen in place.
Averting their gaze.
“—Paralysis? They’re afflicted with paralysis?”
Their helpless hands and feet.
Eyes wandering, with nowhere left to turn.
Was this all the final effect of the Intimidate skill activating!?
“Wait, but this is party play. The monsters’ stats should’ve gone up too, right?”
The reason Kim Moo-saeng only now realized the skill was his own was crystal clear.
An eleven-person party play was in effect.
It wasn’t just the number of monsters increasing.
Sometimes their attack patterns changed; monsters that couldn’t use magic would suddenly cast spells.
Monsters grew stronger in proportion to the increased challenge participants, so why—?
Hearing his question, Wash laughed even louder.
Then he spoke.
[Kekekeke! That’s exactly what I’m saying, you savage! No matter how strong these vermin become on Floor 19, they’re still just insects!]
That was the point—Kim Moo-saeng had already become a monster himself.
Party play strengthens monsters. True enough.
But party play also magnifies the rewards upon clearing.
And Kim Moo-saeng, who had monopolized a 100% Contribution Rate from Floor 14 through Floor 18, understood this perfectly.
“……Ah.”
And that’s not all he’d accomplished by just meeting the basic conditions.
He’d achieved hidden conditions by cutting the time dramatically.
He’d achieved additional conditions by defeating the Doppelganger without a single mistake.
He’d achieved both hidden and additional conditions simultaneously by choosing a route that was never presented.
The shocking rewards accumulated floor by floor. That tremendous increase in all Stats.
It meant this was the effect it all had finally brought about.
Step, step, step….
Kim Moo-saeng walked toward a nearby troll.
“G-g-grrrgh….”
Watching the mid-sized monster trembling, unable even to think of swinging its club, Kim Moo-saeng let out a hollow laugh.
What to do on Floor 19, how to approach it, what strategies to employ….
“Guess I was putting on a show for nothing.”
Overwhelming power.
Kim Moo-saeng grasped anew what was truly most important—and fundamental—to climbing the tower.
He didn’t even need the full three hours.
The additional condition was to eliminate every monster in the vicinity before the time limit expired.
The monsters that froze the moment their eyes met his—those pathetic things cowering in fear—took less than thirty minutes to dispatch entirely.
[Congratulations!]
[You have achieved the Clear condition.]
[Time remaining: 2:32:38]
[Calculating Contribution Rate.]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Contribution Rate 100%]
[Others: Contribution Rate 0%]
And so Kim Moo-saeng passed Floor 19—the section he’d worried about most—with a perfect Contribution Rate of 100%.
* * *
Floor 20.
Even Noh Ye-rang, who had been quietly voicing quiet grievances, was now scanning the surroundings with a flushed face.
“If we just Clear this floor….”
“We become proper Floor 20-29 Awakeners, right? Haha, this easily?”
The treatment is entirely different between a Floor 10-19 Awakener and a Floor 20-29 Awakener.
“The substance might be a bit lacking, but the evaluation gap between Floor 20-29 and Floor 10-19 is still huge.”
Of course, one could argue what good it is to climb without actual rewards, but that sort of thing could be “smoothed over” easily enough.
Those gathered here had anticipated as much from the start.
Precisely because they were confident they could find a method that benefited them, they’d asked for Kim Moo-saeng’s Bus service.
The reason Floor 20-29 Awakeners receive far higher evaluation than Floor 10-19 Awakeners is because of the difference in skills.
“Still, the Floor 20 reward is a new skill, right? Just getting one new skill makes an enormous difference. Normally—.”
“But will they even give us a skill if our Contribution Rate is zero?”
“The general understanding is that even with low Contribution Rate, you definitely get a skill reward. My friend got 2% Contribution Rate on Floor 3 and still received a skill.”
“But 2% and 0% are conceptually different….”
What lingered in their minds despite everything was still the Contribution Rate issue.
Even with low Contribution Rate, they would definitely receive the skill reward.
But what if they contributed nothing at all?
Would a new skill reward still be given?
Most didn’t care whether they got a skill or not, but just as a few faces began to darken slightly—
-Yes, you’ll get the reward. Don’t worry.
Kim Moo-saeng’s radio transmission reached everyone.
Shin Hyun-dong started in alarm and quickly switched on his radio.
“H-how did you know, CEO Kim?”
-Well, I have my ways of knowing these things. Would I be doing this with all of you if I didn’t care about such details?
How he knew.
Who had told him.
Kim Moo-saeng wasn’t the type to explain such things.
All he did was speak in vague assurances, like jumping over a well to cross a ridge.
“That’s our CEO Kim for you! Always thinking of us, really—”
“Insane….”
“With this, we’d even meet the entry requirements for a decent mid-tier guild. Crazy!”
But they all already possessed certainty.
When Kim Moo-saeng said something would happen, it happened.
The infinite trust placed in a man who had silenced every doubt and anxiety encountered climbing to Floor 20 with nothing but his ability.
“CEO! Then, uh, can we also get the Stat rewards that appear on Floor 25 and Floor 30? Have you looked into that as well—?”
Yes, yes. Since it works regardless of Contribution Rate, don’t worry about a thing! If you want to keep going all the way to Floor 25, Floor 30…… you do know what needs to happen, right?
Kim Moo-saeng’s playful voice seeped into everyone’s ears.
Lee Ha-eun laughed and answered.
“Hehe, we just have to be nice and obedient like you tell us to.”
“The way you say it, I almost feel like if you told me to drop dead, I’d lie down and play corpse for real.”
“Exactly…… I never thought you’d even confirm that Skill rewards were being given out.”
“Not that it’s my place to say, but didn’t you get off too cheap? Shouldn’t you have raised the entrance fee by two or three times?”
Lee Jin-won, Cha Jin-pyo, and Kim Woo-min, who were climbing the tower for the first time with Kim Moo-saeng, felt the same way.
They’d verified the entire reward system?
They were running a Bus this perfect, this safe?
“That’s all our Moo-saeng’s thinking, really. You all get one taste of this, just this once! And then, if you bring back some really trustworthy people…… isn’t that good for everyone? Right? Of course, make sure they’re trustworthy first and foremost! If you just go around rounding up random people thinking about kickbacks…… you’ll lose your own opportunities too. You understand, yeah?”
It was Park Hyun-gu, as always, cutting in at that point.
Something this cheap and this good could become even cheaper and even better.
Listen well, and if you know anyone trustworthy, bring them along too.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—!
Kim Moo-saeng, who’d been running ahead quickly, heard that and burst out laughing.
‘The man’s a genius at reading the room, absolutely genius.’
Perfect timing, perfect wind-chasing.
The two of them had such a natural rapport that Kim Moo-saeng didn’t even need to say anything.
Now Kim Moo-saeng spoke without the radio.
An Awakener with 0% Contribution Rate can get a Skill at Floor 20 Clear?
[Kekeke, getting emotional over a single Floor 20 Skill—you’re all still savages, through and through.]
The tower’s administrator had said so.
Who else’s confirmation was needed?
“Don’t be like that. I cried and laughed over a single Floor 3 Skill once.”
At Wash’s mockery, Kim Moo-saeng chuckled.
The new Skill that would be given this time would surely be a concept of branching out from the Skill Tree, and if that were the case……
‘I should think about what to pick for myself. Thank goodness I said we’d head up after resting on the night of Floor 20.’
The initial basic Skills had been 178 types.
This time around, it should be viewed as a second-tier Skill concept branching out from there.
There would be far more variations.
To calculate and determine what would be best, to run simulations, there really was no choice but to take time.
At least, since they’d decided to finish the first day’s schedule after wrapping up Floor 20, he could buy some time.
‘The Strong Bone route…… there’s probably no need to go further down that path. Since I’ve already got Poison Snake anyway, it might make more sense to go the poison-enhancement route.’
Already thinking as though Floor 20 were cleared, Kim Moo-saeng’s mind naturally concentrated on the anguish of choosing Skills.
[Kekeke, Kim Moo-saeng, I see you!]
[Gyaaaaaaaaa—————!]
“Okay, Lesser Dragon…… right?”
So when the dragon’s roar reached his ears, Kim Moo-saeng had to pause for a moment, bewildered.
A Lesser Dragon was small.
Compared to the generally known dragon, it was roughly one-tenth as powerful.
The normal Clear condition for Floor 20 was to dispose of one Lesser Dragon within two hours.
But the size of the dragon flying before him, distant though it was?
That great, blue creature?!
“Uh, Wash? That’s not just a dragon, is it? That doesn’t look like a Lesser to me?”
Kim Moo-saeng asked.
Wash’s beak curled up in a grin.
[Eleven of you climb up and still hope for a Lesser, Kim Moo-saeng? Be grateful it’s not an Ancient Dragon.]
“But, what? If it’s a regular dragon? Huh?”
A dragon.
One of the creatures that Awakeners climbing the tower found most troublesome.
[Impudent, human.]
A noble, exalted being had noticed Kim Moo-saeng.

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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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