Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 67

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Climbing a Legendary Tower as a Cheating Administrator (67)
Moo-saeng’s mind raced.
Premises and questions.
He had to strain to organize the thoughts swirling through him like a tempest.
1. Whether it was the Thousand-Li Eye or the Five-Ring Eye, neither could be used carelessly.
‘They’re individual abilities, yet they’re not. Both sides would require some form of consensus from their respective factions.’
Either at the command of the Chinese Central Committee.
Or by the decision of the World Awakeners Association board.
Only under such preconditions could they wield these abilities.
Why not use them continuously for mutual surveillance, you might ask?
In a situation where the cards in one’s own hand might become a threat to oneself, perfect discipline and perfect rules were the only path to perfect control.
For that very reason, Moo-saeng understood that neither of these two Awakeners could use their abilities recklessly.
If so, it meant this wasn’t a situation where they were casually surveying the tower out of personal curiosity.
The will of each faction was embedded in this act.
2. Then why Floor 25?
‘It doesn’t make sense. Originally both eyes were searching Floor 58. I even had memories of the Overlapping Phenomenon on Floor 39, so I could pinpoint it because I knew which floor Ye-rin had last challenged. But even if they somehow observed and searched Floor 58 thoroughly and discovered “it’s connected to Floor 39″…’
Surveying Floor 25 was incomprehensible behavior.
Both factions would likely consider floors below 30 a “section that doesn’t need examination” at all.
‘Did they sweep from Floor 1? If that were the concept, I could at least understand it, but—’
Moo-saeng asked.
“Wash, can you tell if they’ve looked at other floors too?”
[You’re really quite stupid, aren’t you.]
“Tsk, yeah, that would be the case. There’s no way to know.”
Wash couldn’t Execute with Admin Authority while in the tower anyway.
While some form of reverse detection might be possible on the floor where Wash existed, there was no way those eyes could tell which other floors they’d observed or where they’d looked.
“Do you at least know which one it is—the Thousand-Li Eye or the Five-Ring Eye?”
[Left eye.]
“…That’s not helpful either way.”
[What did you say, Kim Moo-saeng?]
“I didn’t say anything.”
It would’ve been useful to know which faction was doing the observing, at least.
Moo-saeng gathered his thoughts and posed another question.
“How far can that ability reach? For instance, right now, if there are others challenging Floor 25 besides our party, can they see all the way to them? Or do they specifically isolate just us—”
[They can see. No, you could say they’re forced to see everything. Kekekeke, that’s why I told you—no matter how much they dig through Floor 58 with those eyes, they won’t easily grasp the nature of the Overlapping Phenomenon.]
“—Okay. I understand. So I’m not the only one standing out in particular.”
It wasn’t just Moo-saeng himself who would be visible.
They would see all the Awakeners currently on Floor 25.
3. Have they completely identified Kim Moo-saeng himself? Or are they seeing roughly someone in the sub-30 or sub-40 floor range alongside Wash? Did information about Moo-saeng leak from someone in Eight Seconds? Did people like Steve King or Wigo report Moo-saeng’s name and approximate floor level to the World Awakeners Association?
……
There were countless other questions he could pose.
Of course, he couldn’t answer them now.
So Moo-saeng decided to discard pointless rumination and focus on one thing he could be certain of.
At this stage, there was no way they could be looking at ‘any Awakener other than Moo-saeng himself’ on floors below 30.
Regardless of which eye it was or whose it belonged to, they were conducting verification.
Just as Wash had said.
Whether their reference level was below Floor 30 or below Floor 40, he didn’t know, but…
[I don’t know how much those bastards have trained their eyes, but they can probably see as clearly and sharply as if watching a screen. Kekeke, even so, they won’t be able to see me, and naturally they won’t be able to see your [Status Window] or anything like that either.]
Which floor was generating an unusual flow different from the tower’s normal rhythm?
And who was the one creating that flow?
They would be verifying exactly that.
“Yeah, tsk, so that’s the problem, actually.”
So Moo-saeng found himself in a rather awkward situation.
Before the High Orc Settlement—fortified like a fortress, with iron-tight perimeter guards and sturdy outer walls.
“Ki, Kim Moo-saeng! The human Kim Moo-saeng……!”
“Our clan’s enemy, the enemy, the enem—argh!”
Not a single High Orc could mount a proper attack; they were collapsing left and right.
High Orcs with discipline and tactics rivaling a human army, with clear divisions of troop types?
“Children under 2 years and adults over 30, ev, evacuate them immediately, and everyone, everyone prepare for combat against Kim Moo-saeng at once—. Krgh, prepare for combat…….”
High Orcs crawling about while defecating themselves.
If eyes of any kind were to witness this, it would be extraordinarily problematic.
“I’m going to lose my mind. I really am, ugh.”
But sweep it all away in an instant? Well, if I tidy up just the interior of the fortress, that’s basically the end of it.
‘Wash would have told me the moment he saw. If I assume the eye could scan me at any time, at any point…’
But I can’t achieve the Additional Condition.
I’d have to clean up every orc across the entire map, every individual that’s become a High Orc with a changed species.
No matter how fast I move, I can’t do that.
Which means I have to spend time, and at the same time, I need to create an atmosphere where it won’t seem strange no matter when or at what point each ‘eye’ scans over everything!?
In the end, Kim Moo-saeng had no choice but to reluctantly pick up the Poison Dart.
“Everyone, stay close to me! This time, don’t spread out too far—we move together at close range right beside me! You won’t be fighting, of course, and the maddened High Orcs will only target me anyway, so don’t worry too much! Come on!”
Then he called the other party members over.
Park Hyun-gu came rushing over and asked.
“M-Moo-saeng, what are you trying to do?”
Moo-saeng answered.
“Keep a close eye on everyone for me. Make sure not even one of them gets touched.”
“Well, of course that’s what I’ll do, but…”
As Moo-saeng heard Park Hyun-gu’s response, his face twisted into an expression caught between laughter and tears.
“Hiss!”
He drove the Poison Dart into his own thigh.
Then, with a soft hiss—
he injected the poison.
“M-Moo-saeng!?”
“Cough. Agh, oh no… You go over there now. The people first…”
“Y-yeah. Y-yes, I got it.”
An SR-grade poison had been injected into Moo-saeng’s body, which had S-rank Poison Resistance.
Of course, it wouldn’t be instantly fatal.
It wouldn’t cause a life-threatening condition.
[You have been poisoned.]
[Partial body paralysis is beginning.]
[Stats have decreased.]
But his limbs began to tingle with numbness.
His vision blurred slightly.
That hazy, throbbing sensation that comes with a high fever of 38 to 39 degrees.
He could feel his overall athletic ability declining.
“Feels terrible.”
When the aura radiating from Moo-saeng’s body had considerably weakened.
In other words, when the final effect of the Intimidation skill was no longer being applied.
“…Kim Moo-saeng, the human Kim Moo-saeng.”
“Kill him, our enemy…”
“Proclaim blood vengeance. All of you, charge!”
The High Orcs finally began to rush forward, each wielding their weapons.
“These bastards who were cowering just moments ago, and now—ah, but it’s a bit, how do I put it, dizzy…”
Moo-saeng chuckled even as his mind felt utterly bewildered.
He raised the Poison Dart toward the High Orcs charging at him.
“Take a hit too, you sons of bitches.”
* * *
The High Orcs holding bows promptly drew their bowstrings.
Arrows whistled through the air, cleaving the wind.
Considering the distance from the fortress wall to Moo-saeng.
Considering above all the number of High Orcs wielding bows.
“W-watch out, Representative Kim!”
“Huh?”
“…Huh?”
It should have been a devastatingly threatening attack against Moo-saeng, who was moving differently than usual.
Yet Shin Hyun-dong tilted his head in confusion.
He wasn’t moving at any extraordinary speed, nor had he activated any special defensive skill.
But the arrows had missed? At this distance?
“…Kim Moo-saeng really does have good luck.”
“No, I don’t think it’s luck. Kim Representative must be somehow inducing their mistakes, or something like that?”
“Inducing mistakes? Is there a skill like that?”
As Noh Ye-rang murmured, Shin Hyun-dong quickly countered, but he couldn’t answer the question that followed.
It wasn’t merely a problem with the silk arrows.
What of all these High Orcs, bursting forth from the fortress gates?
Every last one came with the resolve to intercept Moo-saeng.
They charged out with a ferocity born of the obsession to kill him—and yet……
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Why did their attacks feel somehow… flimsy?
What was the reason that the High Orcs’ assaults seemed no more refined than those of goblins or kobolds?
“Is it because we spent the Stat Points we got on Floor 21? Why do these High Orcs feel so weak?” one party member asked.
“I agree…… If their attacks are that level, I feel like I could dodge them too,” another added.
Their speculation wasn’t entirely off the mark.
As one party member had said, they’d now acquired fifty Stat Points—more than all their accumulated Stats combined until now.
Yet given their current level, fifty Stat Points alone shouldn’t have made them regard High Orcs as weak.
The real reason, then?
“Die, Kim Moo-saeng!”
“Kyaaah, I’ll avenge my clan!”
“Huh, the Intimidation effect really is something.”
[Intimidation (Passive)]
In the first eye contact that decides the match, everything is determined by instinct.
A Debuff is applied according to the Stat difference with the hostile target. (Depending on the gap, effects apply in order: Attack Power Reduction, Hit Rate Reduction, Fear, Confusion, Flight Urge, Paralysis)
Despite his abilities having been so severely diminished by the Poison Dart.
It meant that the gap between Moo-saeng and the High Orcs—even the eleven High Orcs with their boosts—was that immense.
There was nothing the High Orcs could do, what with Attack Power Reduction, Hit Rate Reduction, and a touch of Fear all applied to them.
In other words, even after self-poisoning, Moo-saeng could neutralize the High Orc Settlement and achieve the Floor 25 quest conditions without any problem whatsoever.
Still, if there was anything particularly strange about it, it amounted to only this much.
“But doesn’t it seem like Director Kim is acting a bit odd?” Park Hyun-gu ventured.
“He’s slaughtering the High Orcs in much the same way as always, but……”
“He must have acquired a new skill. The Drunken Fist technique, something like that?”
If Moo-saeng’s reeling movements were intentional, they might well be some variety of drunken-themed skill.
“No, that’s not—well, uh, never mind. Anyway, everyone, Moo-saeng has been working so hard—no wait, if I let that slip again, he’ll hate me,” Park Hyun-gu muttered, catching himself.
Only Park Hyun-gu, who knew the truth, felt any real frustration about it.
Floor 25 was cleared without any other particular incident.
[Congratulations!]
[Clear condition achieved.]
[Time remaining: 66:08:15]
[Calculating Contribution Rate.]
[Kim Moo-saeng: Contribution Rate 100%]
[Others: Contribution Rate 0%]
[Additional Condition achieved.]
Some six hours later, Floor 25 was cleared.
Hearing Wash’s triumphant grunt, Moo-saeng grinned.
Then he spoke to his party members.
“Given the time constraints, we should wrap up here…… I won the bet, right? Over, Under—neither. We’re ending exactly at Floor 25. That’s how it goes, yes?”
It was that very wager Moo-saeng couldn’t possibly have missed.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————