Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 75
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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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Mythic-Rank Tower Climbing with a Cheating Administrator (75)
Lee Jeong-gi’s eyes darted rapidly left and right.
A duck materialized, bursting forth from Kim Moo-saeng’s back.
Behind those black-framed glasses, the bead-like eyes clearly fixed on Lee Jeong-gi himself.
A yellow rubber duck drifting idly through empty air—its toy-like appearance impossible to ignore.
‘Nobody—wait. One person. That young woman noticed it? No one else?’
But was anyone actually looking at it?
Perhaps one person’s gaze might be drifting that direction, but even that he couldn’t confirm.
So no one in this space was seeing it after all?
Such a jarringly out-of-place presence couldn’t be ignored.
Not by any living being.
It simply couldn’t.
The eye was inevitably drawn to it.
“A Skill. Hahahaha! You bastard, it’s a Skill!”
Lee Jeong-gi laughed.
He was certain his deduction was correct.
Kim Moo-saeng’s eyebrow twitched.
“What are you talking about? Who used what Skill?”
He gestured quickly to Wash to come back, moving cautiously.
Kim Moo-saeng played it cool.
It might have worked if it weren’t for Lee Jeong-gi.
“Cut the crap! That du—”
But Lee Jeong-gi was not the sort to doubt his own eyes.
This was definitely a Skill.
“Have you lost your mind?”
A sharp whistle cut through the air———
Kim Moo-saeng surged forward instantly, throwing a punch.
He barely evaded, but broken ribs wouldn’t allow his usual mobility.
Kim Moo-saeng’s fist connected hard against Lee Jeong-gi’s shoulder.
Pain.
“-ing! Hahahaha! So this is what you did! Everything’s on record—”
Yet even through it, Lee Jeong-gi kept shouting.
At this point, he was already sensing something.
“At least keep your rambling reasonable!”
“-being filmed! I’m watching! That du—”
Kim Moo-saeng’s punches and kicks followed again.
His voice had lost some of its earlier composure.
“This is worth hearing! If you keep going, it loses all credibility anyway!”
“-ck, I said! Floating in midair! Yellow!”
——, ——, ——!
Most of all, his attack pattern—trying to seal the mouth that wouldn’t stop talking……
He’d dodged twice, but his thigh was kicked hard nonetheless.
Yet the grin never left Lee Jeong-gi’s face.
“There’s… there’s something secret about that thing, isn’t there?”
This young bastard didn’t want to talk about that duck.
Skill, whatever—didn’t matter.
He wanted to keep the secret. That was what mattered.
“Keep your mouth shut. Disappear from my sight this instant.”
Then they could strike a deal on that basis.
At seventy-seven, the veteran who’d built up a mid-tier guild in South Korea made his judgment with no hesitation.
* * *
Until now, Robert Kay’s group and Geum Su-ah had effectively shared the same information.
But the few words Lee Jeong-gi spilled even while getting beaten by Kim Moo-saeng drove a wedge between them.
‘……Yellow. Duck.’
The moment those words reached Geum Su-ah’s ears, certain scenes flickered to life in her mind.
From past conversations with Kim Moo-saeng, there were several times when words Lee Jeong-gi had uttered suddenly intruded into her recollection.
‘Lee Jeong-gi can see it and I can’t. Due to favorable attitude—no. No, that’s not it. Perhaps…….’
Why could some see it and others couldn’t.
Finally, the scattered pieces aligned in Geum Su-ah’s mind.
The conference held under Geum Byeong-chul’s direction, one that had opened so suddenly it left even Geum Su-ah startled.
Eight Seconds, who had arrived unannounced.
‘A difference in level. A difference in skill.’
Geum Su-ah and Yoon Pyo couldn’t see it.
But her father, Eight Seconds, and Lee Jeong-gi could—a difference they could perceive.
‘It means only those of a certain level can see it. And it has nothing to do with Kim Moo-saeng’s will.’
If it could be divided by the user’s intention, there’s no way he would have let someone like Lee Jeong-gi see it.
Considering Kim Moo-saeng’s character from what she’d observed so far, such a thing would never happen.
Which meant the division couldn’t be controlled by the user’s will.
And such a skill doesn’t exist.
‘It’s not a skill. That’s it, then. So why Kay and the others from the Association—why they keep trying to measure it but can’t detect it. It’s not a skill. An Artifact? No. Even Artifacts made by Metal Rhine couldn’t classify things that way. And it doesn’t make sense for Kim Moo-saeng to possess such an Artifact in the first place.’
The puzzle pieces clicking into place, one by one.
And the final piece came from information Geum Su-ah herself possessed.
“A voice.”
“…Yes?”
“Oh, no. Never mind.”
Ignoring Robert Kay’s question, Geum Su-ah continued thinking.
There had been a moment when Moo-saeng seemed briefly flustered.
‘He spoke. I definitely didn’t mishear.’
It speaks. It has a voice.
That part, too, Moo-saeng can’t control.
Then it’s not a Skill, not an Artifact, not a pet.
‘It’s a living being. And—’
Geum Su-ah, who had already sensed that something existed with Moo-saeng,
‘—a living being with the ability to make Kim Moo-saeng grow dramatically in a short time. The Tower’s secret? That kind of information-rich living being.’
The moment she finally became certain of Wash’s existence,
Moo-saeng clicked his tongue in regret and stepped forward.
“For a chairman, your negotiating skills are pretty lacking.”
“…What?”
“A secret needs to satisfy several conditions, doesn’t it? First, it has to be catastrophic if leaked. Which means your enemies need to know about it too… Second, there needs to be solid proof. Without that, it’s just an old man muttering to himself. Third, from that perspective, anyone here who could hear what you’re spouting and actually threaten me—well, let me count. There are a few.”
One.
Hildegard already knows.
Geum Su-ah knowing doesn’t matter.
The World Awakener Association? They’re already making some educated guesses.
But the level of what Lee Jeong-gi knows versus what they know isn’t significantly different. In other words, it’s not critical information.
Two.
Wash isn’t caught on camera.
Three.
This problem?
If a few stragglers from Korea One-Way Group learn about it,
if Lee Han-il learns,
if Lee Jeong-gi learns?
“Including you. If I just shut all their mouths… what then?”
What can you do?
Moo-saeng walked forward without hesitation.
Rampage had thirty minutes left. He needed to end this.
“Actually, let me make you a proposal instead. Just cooperate, put on the cuffs, and head to the police station. If you pay for your crimes, I won’t touch you again. My heart’s soft, so when I think about hitting you, my hands get all itchy—”
“Kuh… hehehehe. I see. Just like young Geum Byeong-chul back then—no, even worse than that bastard. Another monster like that one is born.”
Lee Jeong-gi understood it all.
And at the same time, he thought of another hypothesis.
“You’ve never killed anyone before. And you… have some kind of time limit, don’t you? Because there’s no action without reaction in this world, you bloody lump.”
The truth Moo-saeng revealed through his casual remarks.
And also the law of this world—that anything supremely powerful must pay its price.
Moo-saeng made no attempt to hide his surprise.
In front of Lee Jeong-gi, still bent over from the pain of his broken ribs,
“Ha, you really do have the world’s best instincts. But here’s the thing—if there really is a time limit, why am I acting like this? What kind of confidence is that, you pseudo-clever half-wit?”
Moo-saeng stood still.
Lee Jeong-gi forced his spine upright and laughed.
“Pahahah, hahahahah! Yeah, yeah. Fine. I got it. I got it. Teaching a cocky punk like you—that’s a job for an adult.”
Laughing through the pain,
he steeled his resolve.
“I’ll turn you into a bloody pulp.”
A crimson aura erupted outward in a violent burst.
“Damn it, you’re insane—”
He’d activated an Awakener ability.
Right in front of the World Awakener Association.
Robert Kay shouted in protest, but it was no use.
“You’re violating the Nevada Treaty—”
The Skill Crimson Oni Transformation.
Roughly 2.5 meters tall.
A bright red oni with sprouting horns let out a roar.
“Shut your mouth!”
───────────……!!!!
The sheer force of the air vibration alone was enough to send low-ranked Awakeners flying.
* * *
“Kyaaaah!?”
“Grraaaugh!”
“This—this is—”
“B-boss, what do we do—”
“I don’t know, shut up and fall back! Back! If we get caught in Father’s rampage, we die!”
The Underground Space became a battlefield in seconds.
Lee Han-il had every right to be at a loss in this moment.
“Try to act tough one more time, you blood-soaked bastard!”
Lee Jeong-gi’s claws—now transformed into those of an oni—tore through the air in an instant.
Before Kim Moo-saeng’s eyes materialized two hands, their pointed nails razor-sharp, the tips reaching toward his pupils—
“Hup!”
Kim Moo-saeng barely dodged.
A single clash was enough to tell him everything.
‘Damn it, should’ve gone with 600%!’
Even now, at a 500% power amplification through Rampage—
Lee Jeong-gi in his oni form had the edge.
That the gap wasn’t insurmountable suggested that 600% might have made the difference—a regret that lasted only a moment.
There was no time for such hesitation.
──, ──, ──, ──…….
Scarlet wolves materialized around Lee Jeong-gi, swirling with crimson smoke.
The Skill Ghost Wolf.
“Tear them to shreds.”
“Graaaaaaugh—!”
“Shrieeeak!”
At Lee Jeong-gi’s simple command, the bloodred wolves surged forward.
Robert Kay cried out.
“Awakener Lee Jeong-gi! For violation of the Nevada Treaty, I hereby impose maximum-rank sanctions in light of the urgency of this situation. Penalty administrator: Robert Kay, East Asia Division, World Awakener Association.”
“Ha-ha-ha-hahahaha! File that complaint in the underworld!”
An Iron Mace now rested in Lee Jeong-gi’s grip—thicker than Hildegard’s thigh.
Studded with sharp spikes, its menacing form whistled through the air—Whoooooosh—!
“—Hagh!”
“Look out!”
Robert Kay’s head was nearly cleaved off, but Geum Su-ah barely saved him by hurling him aside.
Yet that was far from the end of it.
The scarlet wolves lunged toward Robert Kay and the other Association members.
Geum Su-ah gritted her teeth and clasped both hands together.
She thrust both index fingers forward in a sharp line.
“Disappear!”
A thin beam of light shot from her fingertips.
It was a laser potent enough to pierce the wolves, yet a crimson mist had already begun seeping around them.
The fog—an application of the Blood Erosion Skill—scattered the light.
The photons, robbed of cohesion, could not pierce through Lee Jeong-gi’s scarlet wolves.
“Kha-ha-ha-ha! Yes! Now this is exhilarating! I’ll shred you like rags!”
Crash—————!
Lee Jeong-gi charged forward, swinging the Iron Mace.
Toward Kim Moo-saeng.
Moo-saeng had drawn his Poison-Fang long ago, but he couldn’t find an opening to strike.
Put plainly: Lee Jeong-gi, now fully unleashing his Awakener abilities, was overwhelming Moo-saeng while simultaneously holding Geum Su-ah in check.
“Geum Su-ah! The Solar Beam—”
“If I use that, everything here gets blown to pieces! We’d be caught in it too—”
“Can’t you just narrow the range?”
Moo-saeng had hoped to get her help, but it wasn’t that simple.
Geum Su-ah answered with flushed cheeks, her embarrassment plain.
“If I could do that—don’t say the same things my father does!”
“Huh? Anyway, I understand—!”
Crash—BOOM!
The ground where Moo-saeng stood shattered under the impact of Lee Jeong-gi’s Iron Mace.
Having barely dodged the strike, Moo-saeng had to find another way forward.
‘What moves do I have left……’
How was he supposed to face this monster?
A Skill forged from blood.
Geum Su-ah’s light, held in reserve to contain him.
Moo-saeng moving with afterimages in his wake, and Lee Jeong-gi pursuing without hesitation, swinging his mace in casual arcs.
Lee Han-il and the rest of Korea One-Way’s personnel, frozen helpless.
And Robert Kay with his team, desperately trying to assist with whatever Skills they could muster.
This chaos, this maelstrom—
“……Even a Solar Beam wouldn’t level this place. I wonder how it’ll end.”
The strongest person in the room, one of Eight Seconds and the CEO of Metal Rhine.
Hildegard Schmidt watched with keen interest in her eyes.
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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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