Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 62

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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 Mythic Tower (62)
Yes, he’d been startled—that sensation of piercing through fog was disorienting.
But when he’d fused both arms into a single, elongated spear shaft.
When he’d cut through it with Dok-Sa, Moo-saeng had seen it clearly.
Shadow fragments scattering.
They’d recombined swiftly, reforming their shape, but the difference was unmistakable.
‘There were pieces that didn’t reattach—shadows that evaporated and dissipated like mist. I saw it clearly!’
If he dealt, say, one hundred points of damage,
then ninety-eight or ninety-nine might reattach and merge, but one or two points of loss would still remain—wasn’t that what this meant?
At that moment, Moo-saeng had woven together the advice Wash had offered and found his path forward.
“No core isn’t always an advantage, is it, Wash!?”
Maia’s golem had possessed a core.
That’s why it could be shattered, fractured, scattered, and still recombine and restore itself to its original form. It was why one hundred percent recovery was possible.
Put another way—no core meant!?
Just as Moo-saeng had witnessed with his own eyes, loss accumulated from the very moment the original form began to crumble!
[Kya-kya-kya-kya! Even that fool Murometz never guessed you’d resort to something so crude, Kim Moo-saeng!]
Wash burst into uncontrolled laughter, his voice thick with disbelief.
Moo-saeng felt much the same.
Though the distance was considerable, even a fleeting glance let him see the rather rigid set of Murometz’s expression.
‘It was close. If Luck Stat hadn’t worked its hand… I honestly don’t know how it would’ve turned out.’
Of course, Moo-saeng couldn’t afford to relax just yet.
Luck.
If the shadow fragments he’d scattered were caught by the wind and slyly reattached to the main body?
If the binding force grew stronger?
This arena, with its open roof and no walls, had wind—plenty of it.
Air currents flowed through.
To minimize the influence of such natural environmental conditions,
no, to shift the flow so it didn’t merely avoid harm but actively favored Moo-saeng instead, his final stat choice had been Luck.
‘Twenty minutes left. I can do this.’
His gamble had paid off.
The scattered shadow fragments didn’t reattach.
And once the shadow began to shrink, its rate of contraction only accelerated.
“Breath!”
Shaaaaaaaa———!
The sound of fists tearing through air; his body was already drenched in sweat, and the burden from his amplified physical prowess was agonizing—but.
He wasn’t leaving empty-handed.
[Your understanding of novel monster types has increased.]
[Accuracy 549 → 555]
[Your understanding of physical movement has increased.]
[Strength 549 → 555]
[Agility 549 → 555]
[Your understanding of air currents has increased.]
[Luck 549 → 555]
Only 0.7% of his power was in play, yet the opponent Moo-saeng faced was nothing less than Floor 77’s boss—the apex of all giants, Murometz.
The reward was unmistakable.
Even amid this, Moo-saeng never forgot to open his Status Window and align all stats to 555.
Now with Strong Bone applied, his total was 1,110.
And among those elevated stats, Strength, Agility, Vitality, Accuracy, and Luck were each multiplied four hundred percent by Berserk Mode, yielding an absurd figure of 5,550 across the board.
“Huff… hah… huff… hah.”
Another five minutes elapsed, and now fifteen minutes had passed since Berserk Mode activated.
Murometz’s shadow was now barely half Moo-saeng’s size.
Seventeen minutes, twenty, twenty-two…
As time pressed on, the clamor only grew—now from the Giant Race themselves.
They, who had filled the arena chanting Murometz’s name and howling in fervor, had finally grasped what was happening.
“How is this… how is this possible…?”
“The… the Grand Lord’s shadow…”
The Cyclopes especially—the cerebral ones among the Giant Race—stared in utter disbelief.
Those massive single eyes darted about, uncertain where to settle, betraying their distress.
“It’s a fraud. This is cheating!”
“Impossible! The King’s shadow cannot be trampled upon so casually!”
Beside him, the Twin-Headed Ogre and those grotesque rock formations were crying out that it was unbelievable.
This was precisely why the Cyclops could not bring themselves to rejoice.
The shadow of the king was taking punishment.
It was being consumed, deliberate and undeniable.
That was the king’s power. The power of a Grand Lord.
An ability that no mere fragment dared challenge — and yet here was a human, standing against it.
“We must stop this insolence at once!”
“Yes! The human deserves to be torn to shreds — we cannot stand by and watch such audacity! How dare—”
Crash——————…!
Amidst the uproar, a deafening boom erupted.
It was so sudden, so tremendous, that even Kim Moo-saeng in the Arena could not bear to look away from it.
“…….”
Murometz had risen to his feet.
He said nothing at all.
He did not even glance at the clamoring Twin-Headed Ogre.
Yet his posture, his very bearing—
It was enough to force every Giant Race in rebellion to bow their waists deeply in proper deference.
Murometz stretched his hand toward the empty air.
Whoooosh……
In that instant, the black shadow in the Arena flew toward him.
The pinnacle of every giant, reabsorbing its power once more.
Murometz spoke.
“The execution of Kim Moo-saeng, slayer of the Giant Race, shall be—”
[Contract Qualification Examination has concluded.]
“—postponed. However, we shall now discuss the specific conditions and terms thereof.”
Kim Moo-saeng raised his head boldly and looked at Murometz.
“Ha… ha… ha… I’m grateful for the lenient judgment, but… perhaps……”
“Perhaps?”
“Is there somewhere I could lie down? I mean, this is an Arena, so there must be a waiting room for combatants or something like that?”
Covered in sweat and dust as he was, his expression remained bright.
Though he knew well that maintaining it would not last much longer.
“……What are you saying?”
Thirty minutes after Berserk Mode.
“It’s a long story, but basically I need about two hours to—. Gahhhhhhh!”
Kim Moo-saeng felt his entire body beginning to crumble.
The backlash from pushing a four-hundred percent increase for the next hour and a half—ultimately applying a penalty that reduced him to one-quarter of his original stats, bypassing even Strong Bone.
Five Stats—strength, stamina, agility, accuracy, and luck—would plummet all the way to 138.
Even that was far higher than it had been before meeting Wash, or even when facing Park Do-hyun of the Korea One-Way Group in Floor 22 Dungeon… yet…
‘The backlash—I can barely breathe.’
The problem was that the aftereffects of moving with stats in the 5,500 range persisted unchanged.
By the standard of what was called inverse sensation, it was not an exaggeration to say his entire body was being hammered relentlessly.
“Aaaah, oooh, haaah……”
There was no way he could endure it.
Kim Moo-saeng collapsed where he stood.
* * *
Measured against Kim Moo-saeng, it was a space of absurd vastness.
Yet it did not seem so vast, and the reason was the two beings that filled it.
[Kyakakakak! How does it feel, Murometz, now that you’ve tasted what it’s like to be underestimated by a savage?]
Wash—though no more than ten centimeters in size, smaller even than Murometz’s fingernail—floated before them, a yellow rubber duck.
Murometz did not bother looking at the rubber duck circling his face, yet he answered.
“……I see why you chose him as your contract partner.”
[Tch, that’s a misunderstanding. The random transmission code simply reached that fool—did you think I’d have picked such a half-wit if I’d chosen directly?]
Wash spoke through a scoff of derision.
Even as Murometz heard the pompous reply, he fixed on a single word.
“Random… Things were that dire?”
Flinch.
At those words, the movements of Wash—circling around Murometz’s head—stopped dead.
Murometz gazed quietly at the frozen duck, then opened his mouth again.
“If my memory serves, ‘so low a position’ was not quite the case. What happened?”
[……None of your concern.]
“How amusing. Even in that state, you strut about as though you’re superior.”
[It’s not strut­ting—I am superior. Dim-witted creature. I could reset your memory this very instant. ‘The you that exists now’—however long you’ve been alive—I could take you back to around the time you unified the Giant Race. Would you like that?]
Wash flew directly in front of Murometz’s eyes.
Murometz would be blown away by a mere breeze.
Even more so if he couldn’t use the administrator’s power.
“If I could do it, I’d have done it long ago. Such bluster isn’t necessary.”
Murometz knew this and yet did not attack Wash.
As though he didn’t even need to?
That wasn’t quite it.
Wash made a sharp, clicking sound.
Even understanding all of this, the fact that Wash—ultimately—was not showing hostility toward him; what did that mean?
[Damn creature…. Do you truly mean to overturn it? The Tower?]
Because Wash understood his own situation.
Because he had tested Kim Moo-saeng.
In other words, it meant he wanted to project his own desires onto both of them.
Wash was not one to overlook such things.
[A creature of the Tower’s own making…. Do you understand how dangerous it is for you to attempt to overturn the Tower?]
And naturally, he knew just how dangerous a sincere such intention truly was.
Murometz’s eyes flashed with light.
“And yet you speak, having already used the Abyss Contract.”
Though the specific aims might differ, the direction was the same, was it not?
As the apex of all Giants spoke, Wash clicked his beak together.
So it would be.
That was the problem.
[I am vengeance. Against them.]
The direction might be the same, yet the specific aims differed.
The eyes of the two beings gleamed with different lights.
That brief silence hung between them.
“Mm—.”
Suddenly, Moo-saeng stirred.
Both Murometz and Wash’s gazes turned toward him.
Eyes shut tight, breathing still ragged, unconscious for roughly an hour now.
Wash exhaled, then looked back at Murometz.
Then he spoke.
[Remember this, Murometz. The contract I have made with Kim Moo-saeng and the contract you make with Kim Moo-saeng may have points where they conflict. And regarding that problem…… if you intend to do anything with Kim Moo-saeng.]
Moo-saeng will wake soon.
And he will converse with this one, negotiate, make contracts.
Before that.
“If I intend to?”
[I will not tolerate it.]
Wash moved to make it clear.
Watching the rubber duck push his black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his beak as he spoke.
“Rare indeed.”
Murometz spoke with evident interest.
Wash let out a small laugh, ruffling his wings as he replied.
[Nothing rare about it. You made the same choice I did, after all.]
A task that cannot be done alone.
A task that absolutely requires a proxy.
And a contract partner who not only met those conditions but exceeded all expectation.
At last, Wash had revealed his true resolve: if anyone interfered, he would show no mercy to anyone.
The determination of one who had once been the Tower’s administrator.
Hearing this, Murometz murmured.
“…… But whether the contract I made and the contract you made will conflict, I don’t yet know.”
[Squawk? Don’t know? You know my purpose full well, and yet you speak not of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but ‘I don’t know’?]
For a moment, it was a statement even Wash found difficult to comprehend.
But Murometz turned his gaze toward the unconscious Moo-saeng lying beside them.
What would come to pass?
That, in the end….
“Depends on what this man does…… and how he chooses to stake it. As the man Kim Moo-saeng said, it will change depending on what valuable thing we exchange with each other and how we do so.”
It all rested on Moo-saeng.
What contract terms. What kind of deal to strike.
Wash, hearing those words, turned his gaze toward Kim Moo-saeng as well.
Two sets of eyes fixed on him.
‘……Damn it, what are they saying, all of a sudden? I’ve been hearing them muttering back and forth since before—’
He’d been awake. Since before.
Or perhaps from the very start.
A torrent of words churned through Kim Moo-saeng’s mind.

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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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