Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 69

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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 (69)
How many more times did he cough?
Kim Moo-saeng frowned and glared at Park Hyun-gu.
“What’s this about now? What are you daydreaming about, Park Hyun-gu? Get your head together.”
“Ah, no—when you say it like that, I guess you’re right. And that… well, the sound leaked out, so I couldn’t help but overhear, and all that fidgeting and whatever, those expressions… you didn’t rush to call just because you wanted to hear my voice, did you? You wanted to talk quickly.”
Park Hyun-gu rambled on, awkward and flustered.
Kim Moo-saeng immediately shook his head and lay back down on the bed.
“You sound like a moody middle schooler. Say something that makes sense.”
“Tch, fine. Besides….”
Park Hyun-gu was about to say something.
“Park Hyun-gu.”
This Kim Moo-saeng was no fool.
Joo Ye-rin existed.
He had confirmed that Joo Ye-rin was alive.
There was no way he would turn his attention to another woman under such circumstances—and there was no need to voice such a thing explicitly.
“Uh, yeah. What’s anyone gonna say? Just get some rest.”
Park Hyun-gu, too, realized his remark might cross a line, so he hastily changed the subject.
Besides, there was more than just Park Hyun-gu that Kim Moo-saeng needed to think about….
[Kekekeke! That female? You, Kim Moo-saeng? Kwaak! I’d say you two make quite the pair, though.]
……
Wash, circling around nearby, had spotted something amusing and was blabbing about it without restraint.
To Kim Moo-saeng, it was an utterly absurd remark.
A yellow rubber duck—what would a rubber duck possibly know?
[What? What’s with that look? Crude creature. The very idea that you should have only one mate is itself primitive. In reality….]
There had been a comment that piqued Kim Moo-saeng’s curiosity for a moment, but that was all.
Wash seemed to have realized the slip and abruptly snapped its beak shut.
‘That remark… could this thing actually believe in polygamy? Wait, but I don’t even know Wash’s gender in the first place. Does it even have a gender?’
There was an even more fundamental question.
Was it even a living creature to begin with?
Was it something that could be measured by the standards Kim Moo-saeng himself possessed?
“Ugh, my head hurts.”
“A headache? Want some medicine?”
“No, not that.”
Kim Moo-saeng returned his attention to his thoughts.
Wash’s identity, the tower’s Administrator….
‘Now that I think about it, it was the same when I talked with Murometsu.’
He’d gained much from the modified Quest on Floor 21.
There were rewards potent enough to surprise even Kim Moo-saeng himself.
But more than those rewards, what had left an impression on Kim Moo-saeng was that very moment—that point in time when he was unconscious.
The conversation between Wash and Murometsu.
Kim Moo-saeng had grasped one thing with certainty.
‘Wash was exiled. Cast out.’
There had been multiple Administrators at the tower’s summit.
Among them, Wash had been exiled. Forcibly.
Wash had probably sensed the signs of it to some degree.
So when things came to a head, Wash used Teleport on itself.
That random faulty Teleport was what ended up clinging to Kim Moo-saeng.
And finally, the correctly Teleported Wash seeks revenge on them….
‘Not all Administrators would be equal. They probably had some sort of hierarchy. The fact that Wash could sense those signs means that not being exiled until a certain point suggests Wash ranked fairly high among them.’
If you compared the Administrator system to a normal company, or to a certain team within such a company.
Wash probably held at least the rank of department head, if not director.
So it felt like Wash had been suppressing the ambitions of lesser Administrators, and then was brought down by those very ones acting openly…. Something like that?
‘And then there’s the Abyss Contract with Murometsu. In any case, what I need to do is clear.’
Kim Moo-saeng exhaled lightly and collected his thoughts.
He’d gathered all sorts of information.
His objectives had been updated in various ways.
But ultimately, it all came down to one thing: climbing the tower would resolve everything.
And to climb the tower more effectively.
To achieve his purpose.
“I should probably get in touch with Hildegard Schmidt.”
I have to grow stronger.
And fortunately, I have the ‘materials’ to do it.
Park Hyun-gu chimed in, listening to Kim Moo-saeng’s murmur.
“Right. That bug thing of yours broke, didn’t it? We should fix that.”
“Yeah. That too, and… I’ll ask you to make some other things. I went to the trouble of gathering materials—it’d be a waste to just haul them to market and sell them.”
And Kim Moo-saeng explained his other purposes.
Park Hyun-gu, suddenly understanding, realized what materials Kim Moo-saeng had obtained.
Boom!
“Materials? Ah! Hey, why are you talking about it like it’s pig offal or something!? Not just anything, but—”
Park Hyun-gu spoke.
Materials that would pass through the hands of Hildegard Schmidt, the crafter of Eight Seconds.
“—scales stripped from a Blue Dragon. That’s what you should call it.”
Before the next ascent, the Blue Dragon Scales, teeth, claws, and blood inside the Everything Pouch.
He would reap the benefits of having brought back everything he could carry.
* * *
Creak…
Click—the lights of the dim room came on.
In a fairly cluttered interior, the man receiving an IV drip bared his teeth.
A lean, sturdy frame that didn’t look elderly, and a commanding presence that would dominate most young men.
“Father. Are you feeling alright?”
Lee Jeong-gi’s son, Lee Han-il, asked.
Lee Jeong-gi checked his son’s face, then lay back on the bed.
“Stop worrying about nothing. We weren’t followed, were we?”
“No, sir. I checked three times—”
“Five times.”
“I… I’m sorry?”
Lee Han-il was saying they’d prepared thoroughly enough.
But Lee Jeong-gi was not satisfied.
“Those Geum-sung bastards must be furious. Geum Byeong-chul won’t stop looking for me. From now on, whenever you spot a tail, verify it at least five times. Understood?”
“…Yes, sir.”
A temperament that trusted not even his own son.
Yet it was precisely because Lee Jeong-gi had lived this way that he had kept the Korea One-Way Group alive as a guild.
He had come within a hair’s breadth of launching a one-day ambush on the mighty Geum-sung and achieving specific results.
“Assume that the Five-Ring Eye might be watching. Don’t judge based on your meager knowledge. Do you understand?”
And Lee Jeong-gi still hadn’t realized why his ambush had failed.
His ambush was something that couldn’t be predicted.
The plan to lure Geum Su-ah, kidnap her, and use her as a hostage—that couldn’t be read.
Yet despite this, they had caught him completely off guard.
There was only one reason such a thing could be possible.
They had been watching.
“Understood, Father.”
With Geum-sung’s influence, it would even be possible to move the ‘eyes’ of the World Awakener Association.
Of course, no matter how cunning Lee Jeong-gi was, he couldn’t know when or how the Five-Ring Eye would activate, so for now all he could do was hold his breath and hide like a wounded beast.
“Any new information? Do you have anything that could serve as leverage?”
Like a wounded beast, too, he hadn’t forgotten the one who had wounded him.
Lee Han-il organized several documents and handed them to Lee Jeong-gi.
“Security details for Yoon Pyo and other key personnel at Geum-sung haven’t decreased at all. Not for Geum Su-ah, of course. Our company… even though we know we can’t use headquarters personnel anymore, they haven’t lowered their alert level—”
“Don’t talk like an idiot! Summarize! I asked if you had anything that could serve as leverage, son.”
Compared to Lee Jeong-gi’s obsession with his grandson Lee Eun-woo,
his actual son Lee Han-il was being treated with nothing but severity.
“W-well… I’m not sure if it’s leverage enough for negotiation, but there is one rather unusual candidate.”
Under his father’s rebuke, Lee Han-il muttered, shrinking into himself.
Lee Jeong-gi, clearly dissatisfied, quickly scanned the documents.
“Dungeon Sherpa? Kim Moo-saeng?”
“Yes, sir. When you were in Vietnam, he had a brief trouble with Eun-woo… After he met with Geum Byeong-chul, we estimate that a conference was hastily arranged. There’s testimony that he met Geum Su-ah outside once, and we’ve also confirmed that he’s been staying at the Geum-sung Hotel until recently—Argh!”
────────────!
In an instant, a red blur struck Lee Han-il’s face.
Crack! Crunch! Crunch…!
Blood began to stream from Lee Han-il’s broken nose as he was knocked backward.
“You fool… Why didn’t you take care of him sooner.”
“I, I did report it. Father asked me not to get entangled with Geum-sung, so I kept it under wraps on my end— h-help?!”
Lee Han-il saw it.
The face of a goblin, flushed crimson.
Before his father, who made no effort to conceal his power, Lee Han-il could only tremble backward.
Lee Jeong-gi asked.
“Anyone left in the guild worth using?”
“Yes, yes! We’re controlling the information, so— there are a few capable but dim-witted ones we can mobilize.”
Lee Han-il replied.
Korea One-Way Group would soon be dissolved.
Once they lost the One-Way name, everyone would resign—the shell would either remain hollow or crumble to dust.
Naturally, neither Lee Jeong-gi nor Lee Han-il would announce that fact.
Not before Geum-sung made it public and dissolved Korea One-Way or absorbed the One-Way license.
“Gather them carefully. Men who keep their mouths shut. And the Dungeon Sherpa—— find this bastard’s location too.”
He needed a card to play.
“Yes, yes! I’ll move on it immediately.”
Whether it could be used in negotiations with Geum-sung remained unclear.
Whether Geum Byeong-chul would waver—no way to know.
But Lee Jeong-gi’s instinct was telling him something.
“……I can probably catch Geum Byeong-chul’s daughter.”
Geum Su-ah again.
In that moment when she’d let her guard down, thinking no one strikes the same target twice—
He’d seize her through new bait.
Lee Jeong-gi’s reddish eyes bored through the papers, fixed on Kim Moo-saeng’s face.
* * *
The day after a deep sleep at the lodgings.
Kim Moo-saeng was guided somewhere in disbelief.
It wasn’t just the shock of finding such a secret space in the basement of a ramshackle Steel Workshop in the heart of Seoul—
“But I heard you’d left the country? It was on the news? All of Eight Seconds left?”
“Yes. We did. My suit did.”
Her emerald eyes sparkled as Hildegard spoke without a trace of concern.
Kim Moo-saeng had to stand there dazed for a moment after hearing that answer.
“No, no, the passport… there’d be passport issues, wouldn’t there? Identity verification—”
“Huh? Identity verification was all completed. There wouldn’t be any issues.”
Kim Moo-saeng swallowed dryly.
So Hildegard Schmidt showed her passport, finished verification, and left the country, but then why the hell are you standing here—the Korea Immigration Service isn’t that easy to fool. Starting with security at Incheon International Airport—
“Well, that worked out well.”
Pressing the matter further would only generate more incomprehensible answers; best to let it pass lightly.
He’d assumed at best they’d connect with Metal Rhine’s Korean branch.
But if Hildegard herself was making equipment for him, there was nothing more he could ask for.
[I figured you for someone who just tinkers with toys. But you’ve done decent work hiding the space here.]
Wash spoke as he made a circle through the neatly organized interior.
Hildegard’s green eyes sparkled as she rushed toward Wash.
“Exactly! I knew Wash would appreciate it! Right, right? Ah, digging the basement itself was partly inspired by Kim Moo-saeng’s insect-type Guardian, but— I didn’t copy it. I just borrowed the idea. So the power is higher but the size is proportionally bigger, which causes its own problems, anyway, that aside, I’ve procured all the equipment here so we can actually measure you properly, right!? And now the true power—”
“Easy now, Hildegard. You’re getting ahead of yourself. We already discussed it all over the phone.”
Kim Moo-saeng had to rein in her barely contained excitement.
Hildegard too seemed embarrassed, taking a step back.
“—Oh, right, right. Well then, let me see.”
Hearing that, Kim Moo-saeng pulled out the Everything Pouch.
More precisely, he began laying out the various spoils contained within it.
“These are real Blue Dragon Scales…… they’re a bit small for Adult-class. More like barely past Hatchling stage—— but wait, no, even so! What is this? It looks like you cleared Floor 25, but these don’t show up unless you’re doing 3-person Party Play around Floor 60, and that’s avoiding the quest, not defeating dragons?”
Hildegard’s eyes widened.
She immediately put on her Goggles, assessing Kim Moo-saeng’s condition.
“That’s what happened. Heh, the Adjustment must have hit pretty hard, or however it worked. Anyway, I’ve scraped together all of this…… can you make some ‘various things’ with it?”
Kim Moo-saeng spoke.
A request? No, it wasn’t.
[This should be interesting.]
Wash settled onto Kim Moo-saeng’s shoulder, descending softly.
“I’ll… do my best. If it’s something you want, Kim Moo-saeng. Anything.”
For someone who wished to study Wash like this, her response would become an absolute order she had to obey.

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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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