Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 66
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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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An Administrator Using Cheats Climbing the Mythic Tower (66)
[Floor 23]
[Perform a Ritual Offering at the Ancient Temple]
[Find the altar and present an offering upon it.]
[Time Remaining: 12:00:00]
[Multi-person Climbing adjustment applied.]
[Contribution Rate calculation commencing.]
Floor 23 lay before the entrance to the ancient temple.
Enter, locate the altar within twelve hours, make the offering upon it, and the floor clears.
“Everyone, stay right where you are! I’ll handle all the bedding and provisions, so just sit tight.”
“……Pardon?”
The twelve-hour time limit wasn’t attached to this straightforward general-condition quest for no reason.
“Set up camp? Here?”
“Right now?”
“I know exactly what I’m doing, so don’t worry about a thing. Trust me.”
That was precisely why the party members had frozen in confusion.
The altar was traditionally said to lie six floors below.
No one knew exactly how the party adjustment worked—let alone an adjustment for a group of eleven—but the depth in terms of floors could nearly double.
And it wasn’t just vertical depth; the horizontal space might have expanded as well.
Finding it alone, within twelve hours……
Sleep now? Here? Right at the entrance?
Before the gate?
While the quest timer ticks away?!
If this were before Floor 21, someone probably would have cried out in protest.
But things were different now.
Though each party member harbored doubts, a single statement settled them all.
‘Kim Moo-saeng wouldn’t say it if he didn’t know.’
‘If Kim Moo-saeng says he knows everything, then he really does know everything.’
Moo-saeng had said he knew.
He’d told them to be quiet.
‘I heard from Hyun-gu that he worked as a dungeon sherpa with Moo-saeng for ages…… is that why he’s like this?’
‘But the sherpa I knew was never like this. I wonder if Moo-saeng has a girlfriend.’
That was enough.
The rest of the party simply stood in awe as two large tents rose in moments, completed with mechanical precision.
“Moo-saeng, I always knew you worked fast, but your tent-pitching skills have improved a ton. Is it because of that bug thing?”
Park Hyun-gu spoke with a silly grin, and Moo-saeng felt emotion well up in his chest.
“Don’t be stupid—it makes barely any difference. Want to try it yourself? If you’ve got time to talk, help me with the fire—no, wait, I have to do that too. Ugh, you’re buying dinner when we get out of here. No negotiation.”
But the Contribution Rate meant he couldn’t ask Park Hyun-gu to do anything else.
So Moo-saeng resorted to a different approach.
“Why me? I’m sitting still because you told me not to move—”
“You’re buying it. That’s final.”
“—Hey, come on. Fine, fine, I’ll buy you dinner. I can see how hard you’re working; I’d be a terrible person if I didn’t at least do that much.”
Park Hyun-gu, despite his protests, would have gladly treated his struggling younger brother to a meal.
“And a whiskey. A thirty-year-old.”
“That’s going too far.”
Though he had to draw the line somewhere.
Beside the bickering pair, the other party members struggled to stifle their laughter.
Wash was the same.
Of course, Wash was laughing for a different reason.
[Kekekeke! I had my doubts, but really—you’re actually sleeping up here? Kim Moo-saeng, no matter how tight the Hidden Condition for Floor 23 is, clearing it with five minutes to spare! And to think you’re spending the time like this, squeezing out efficiency in such a manner!]
Why waste time?
Because the Hidden Condition for Floor 23 demanded it—the time had to be spent anyway.
So rather than sleeping down on Floor 22 and climbing up, getting proper rest here on Floor 23 was Moo-saeng’s way of squeezing out even a fraction more efficiency!
And why wasn’t Moo-saeng searching for the altar alone and waiting near it?
Because if the party members standing before the temple did anything that even slightly influenced each other, the Contribution Rate might be split!
Moo-saeng’s plan was to handle and prepare everything here himself, then sleep together with the others, wake up, and act alone thereafter.
[Congratulations!]
[The Clear condition has been achieved.]
[Time Remaining: 00:04:48]
[Calculating Contribution Rate.]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Contribution Rate 100%]
[Everyone else: Contribution Rate 0%]
By the time this efficient and flawless growth plan of his came to fruition, only three people wore expressions of dismay.
“……At this rate, clearing beyond Floor 25 is basically off the table.”
Whether they could push past Floor 25 before the time ran out remained the question.
Those three who had wagered on that possibility—Park Hyun-gu, Shin Hyun-dong, and Kim Ji-yoon—were now facing the grim reality.
Floor 23 had been cleared around 9 a.m. on the third day.
With only twelve hours remaining, clearing Floor 25 and reaching Floor 26 was absolutely impossible.
It made perfect sense why the majority had wagered on Floor 25 or below, despite having witnessed Kim Moo-saeng’s abilities firsthand.
[Floor 24]
[Part of the Grand Labyrinth (2), Maze]
[Escape the labyrinth.]
[Time remaining: 120:00:00]
[Multi-person Climbing adjustment applied.]
[Contribution Rate calculation begins.]
Floor 24’s quest was simply an upgraded version of Floor 8’s maze—one that normally required five days to escape.
‘No matter how fast, I would’ve expected us to burn at least a full day on Floor 24-.’
‘But if we spend a day here now, we’re in danger. At this point, it’s not just about the wager anymore—our lives could actually be on the line.’
‘Still, Kim Moo-saeng will clear it. Probably timing it perfectly, right? Then we’d reach Floor 25 and leave…… so going beyond is impossible anyway.’
That the party members could contemplate such thoughts as ‘a matter of life and death’ without falling into panic or despair was thanks partly to their Resistance against Chaos and Fear, and largely to their faith in Kim Moo-saeng.
They suppressed the urge to hurry him along.
Yet they could not entirely suppress the flutter in their chests.
[Time remaining: 117:25:33]
“Okay, done. Let’s head up.”
In merely two hours and thirty minutes, Kim Moo-saeng had found the exit.
Or rather—to be precise—not the exit of the maze itself.
“A staircase……? What do you mean by that, Director Kim?”
“A staircase? Stairs in a maze?”
“I mean, honestly, the fact that there’s still something new to be surprised about…….”
The same clearing method as Floor 8.
Mage Mayer used her Goggles to see through walls.
Wash opened the hidden passage they found using the pattern-based passcode he had identified.
And Kim Moo-saeng simply climbed the stairs and finished it—that was his method.
Floor 22, standard conditions and additional conditions achieved.
Floor 23, standard conditions and Hidden Condition achieved.
Floor 24, standard conditions, additional conditions, and Hidden Condition achieved.
Now, around lunchtime on the final day, with roughly ten hours remaining until the promised tower climb, the party reached Floor 25.
It was a floor where anxiety and anticipation tangled together in every way.
* * *
[Floor 25]
[Orc Settlement Subjugation, Settler Village]
[Drive out the Orc Settlement located near Settler Village.]
[Time remaining: 72:00:00]
[Multi-person Climbing adjustment applied.]
[Contribution Rate calculation begins.]
A floor where rendering the Orc Settlement non-functional for three days would suffice.
Conventionally, it was known to be cleared by setting fire to the Orc Settlement under cover of darkness.
“H-High Orcs…….”
“Just because there are eleven of us, did the entire orc species get an upgrade?”
The problem was that the Multi-person Climbing adjustment had upgraded the very race of the monsters themselves!
Watching the NPC soldiers bury orc corpses, unease rippled through the party.
For those who had already weathered Fort Siege Battles like the one on Floor 11, the High Orc race could only be an object of dread.
They were fundamentally stronger than ordinary orcs and possessed superior intellect—fighting them was essentially like facing an army…….
“S-still, surely you don’t mean the commander orc from the Fort Siege Battle? That was some kind of freak mutation, right?”
“That’s not the point—we’re dealing with High Orcs, High Orcs! I’d rather face a few ogres!”
“First, how many of them are there-.”
“Ahem, ahem. Everyone, have you forgotten already?”
As the party voiced their concerns in the face of a situation worse than expected.
Tap, tap—Kim Moo-saeng plucked a single blade of reed grass and began to walk lightly.
Everyone’s gaze followed him as if entranced by that casual, almost leisurely stroll along a country path.
“I’ll figure out how many there are and where they’re positioned—all of it. Just stay quiet and follow behind me.”
Twirling the Poison Snake, Moo-saeng stepped out of Settler Village.
Did he know the way?
Generally, the locations of Orc settlements were known to be fixed, but what if circumstances had changed like this?
The problem wasn’t just the settlement itself. What about the High Orcs standing guard near it?
The ones patrolling or scouting?
Those were High Orcs too.
With far more thorough division of labor, they maintained security as ironclad as any human army.
“Kim Moo-saeng……! It’s Kim Moo-saeng!”
“Human, Kim Moo-saeng!”
“Krrrgh, kraaagh! Moo-saeng, Kim Moo-saeng!”
“Kyaaagh, kyaaagh, kyaaaght! Kim Moo-saeng!”
And indeed, walking unguarded, Moo-saeng was spotted by four High Orcs bursting out from the flank.
The quality of their equipment was altogether different from common Orcs.
Everything from their armor composition to the finish, even troop specialization.
Watching the High Orcs ready to charge, Jun-seo stepped backward.
“S-see! High Orcs are thorough because……?”
But after retreating two steps, he had to stop.
“Hm?”
“What?”
The High Orcs bared their fangs at Moo-saeng, eyes rolled back.
Yet all they did was show their razor-sharp teeth.
Despite the words they uttered and their threatening demeanor, they did not charge.
“Wait, why do they even know the director’s name in the first place?”
“……Right? Kim Moo-saeng just came up to Floor 25.”
“Oh, it’s because of my Unique Trait. I’m probably their Enemy.”
Moo-saeng answered lightly.
One of the Unique Traits.
Enemy of the High Orc Tribe.
The duty of vengeance etched into their minds.
Regardless of which floor of the tower, no matter where, the High Orcs sensed Moo-saeng and sought to avenge themselves.
“But why aren’t they attacking…….”
“It’s not just that they’re not attacking, look at that.”
Moo-saeng didn’t answer from that point on.
Another of the Unique Traits.
Nightmare of All Orcs.
What surpassed their reason was the fear carved into their very instinct.
Moreover, fear wasn’t merely emotional.
Momentum and bearing.
The overwhelming sense of class difference.
Moo-saeng’s level, striking directly against the High Orcs’ skin.
“No, no, the High Orcs are collapsing.”
“……Are they crawling right now?”
“What? Why are the High Orcs crawling?”
“What’s happening……. No, what is…….”
The skill Intimidation.
The greater the gap in total ability, the stronger its effect.
Despite the “sufficient difficulty adjustment” from an eleven-person party formation.
The High Orcs were currently before Moo-saeng utterly helpless, like newborns.
Of course, those who didn’t know of such Unique Traits acquired on Floor 11 could only be baffled.
High Orcs collapsing?
Trembling and crawling?
Cursing Kim Moo-saeng with their mouths, yet their bodies being honest?
What on earth was this picture?
Moo-saeng chuckled softly and explained his plan going forward.
“Probably, even when we get to the settlement, no matter how many there are, we’ll get the same reaction. Let’s clean them up quickly and m-……move on.”
Then he hesitated for a moment.
Brief though it was, Park Hyun-gu caught the reaction perfectly.
“What is it, Moo-saeng? Something wrong?”
“No……. Never mind. Nothing at all.”
Moo-saeng shook his head and turned away.
Wash had spoken to him moments before.
[……Left eye.]
And now, he was speaking again.
[The left eye is watching, Kim Moo-saeng.]
It wasn’t difficult to grasp what the left eye meant.
‘Clairvoyance? Five-Ring Eye?’
Whichever one corresponded to the left—he didn’t know.
Somewhere within the Chinese Central Party or the Global Awakeners’ Association.
They were watching Floor 25.
There was no reason for them to concern themselves with Floor 25 at this stage.
Below Floor 30, there was no need to expend real effort. So there could be only one reason.
‘They’re aware of me……. But how? Why?’
Whether it was Clairvoyance or Five-Ring Eye.
Either way, it was fair to assume they’d activated their awakened abilities to scrutinize Moo-saeng himself.
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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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