Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 84

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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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The Manager Who Cheats in the Mythic Tower Climb (84)
Beneath the sea, where soft green light diffused through the water.
Kim Moo-saeng spoke urgently.
“Is everyone all right?!”
Wash, are you okay?
Hildegard, has something gone wrong?
Still, neither of their voices reached him.
Kuuuuuuung─────────……!
A vibration so sharp it cut through the water itself.
The sound that only an underwater detonation could produce echoed through the depths.
“The… the charging attack is among the most devastating on record. An Absolute Barrier-level defense shatters in a single blow! Normal defensive skills require at least two people to work together, and even then—” he coughed up blood.
The Awakener with the defense specialty pressed on, forcing out the information he’d gathered even as blood poured from his lips.
It had been just one attack from one of the seven heads.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a proper attack—merely the creature lunging at high speed and colliding with them.
Yet that mass, that velocity.
The kinetic energy unleashed even through water alone had shattered the top-tier defensive skill of the Geumseong Conquest Headquarters’ First Team—proof of the catastrophic impact force.
It was crucial information.
The assessment wasn’t wrong.
And yet Geum Soo-ah shook her head.
“No! We don’t have the personnel to get two defensive specialists in the same place! If we do that and get targeted by two or more heads, we’re finished! Spread out and maintain distance—make absolutely sure no head targets more than one of us!”
The deputy director of the Geumseong Conquest Headquarters had already grasped that defensive positioning would only trap them in a worse bind.
Yoon Pyo understood the same.
Kuung, kuung, kuung, kuung, kuung…….
Five walls of solid ice erupted between the eel’s head and Yoon Pyo.
It shattered through them with ease, its charging speed undiminished.
All they’d bought was a few precious moments to dodge.
“All available resources are authorized. It’s time you all internalize once more that unexpected crises are the nature of tower climbing.”
There was no point relying solely on skills.
And there was no time to panic.
In tower climbing, in uncharted dungeon exploration, the unpredictable was inevitable.
The severity was unusual, but these were the elite of the elite chosen to conquer Floor 67.
“I’ll take one head. The deputy director takes one, but if her Awakened Ability prevents breakthrough, priority shifts to luring. The remaining five pair off as 2-on-1 teams, with one rotating to support as needed.”
Thirteen members of First Team A.
Seven heads.
The moment Yoon Pyo finished allocating personnel, every expression hardened.
What now rested in their hands were scrolls and potions laden with buffs—Haste, Enchant, Strength, and more.
“Under the command of the director of the Geumseong Conquest Headquarters, we now commence the subjugation of the Floor 67 boss.”
Yoon Pyo spoke.
His voice carried no tremor.
─────, ─────, ─────!
In that same moment, skills unleashed in torrents.
Kim Moo-saeng watched from where he stood, his lower lip firmly bitten.
The Geumseong team moved as one.
Yoon Pyo, Geum Soo-ah—each executing their role.
That wasn’t the problem.
“Wash.”
He called out directly, but received no answer.
“Hildegard.”
Nothing.
“Huu…….”
Kim Moo-saeng steadied his breathing.
Bubbles scattered upward through the water for a moment.
Something had gone wrong.
There was a clear reason they couldn’t respond.
So?
Could he intervene now?
If he couldn’t, did he have reason to fixate?
They were the sort who’d find their own way to reach him.
Then?
“I’ll provide support to Geum Soo-ah!”
Which meant Kim Moo-saeng wasn’t the type to just stand there foolishly.
He’d solve the problem right in front of him.
And maybe that would be the key to reaching out to Hildegard again—no, to Wash again.
* * *
“Geum Soo-ah! The light—?!”
“It won’t work! The ability still won’t—kah!”
Geum Soo-ah twisted her body nimbly and lashed out with a kick.
At least the conger’s charge came in a straight line; there was that much to be grateful for.
But even though she hadn’t taken the blow head-on, the shockwave trailing the massive eel’s passage sent her body spinning a half rotation through the water.
Which only confirmed it: Luminous still wasn’t activating.
Kim Moo-saeng donned Maia’s Goggles and swept his gaze across the surroundings.
That faint green luminescence flooding the water—could that be it?
‘No. Nothing’s showing up. It’s just light. Ordinary, unremarkable light.’
Yet Maia’s Goggles picked up nothing unusual.
He’d thought there might be some kind of Awakened Ability absorption, or an optical illusion effect rendering the conger as multiple targets to the Awakeners’ eyes, but nothing.
‘Then this makes even less sense. There’s no reason the conger would seal Geum Soo-ah’s ability.’
No reason to absorb light itself.
If it meant to obstruct their vision, there’d be no need for the creature to spread this green glow and illuminate the water like this.
So the activation of Luminous and the boss’s green light couldn’t be directly connected.
‘Rather—’
Kim Moo-saeng lifted his head.
Everyone’s attention was locked onto the conger’s attacks alone.
“Gaaahhh, it’s—it’s drawing them in! The suction pattern—!”
“I’ll hit you down! Go lower!”
Thoom…!
One of its heads was pulling the Awakeners toward itself with suction.
A close-range Awakener used his own strength to drive a comrade out of range—only for another head to spring the trap.
Screeeeeee—
This time, a tearing sound emanated from a different head.
“Sonic shockwave—cough, cough!”
“Watch for Debuffs! Confusion and some Paralysis confirmed—pull out the mental Resistance scrolls now!”
With seven different heads unleashing seven different attack patterns, keeping focus on them was only natural.
Which was exactly why.
“Geum Soo-ah, keep drawing its aggression for a moment!”
“Where are you going? If you and I get torn apart left and right—”
“I need to recover my ability first—”
They’d all forgotten.
They hadn’t noticed, too preoccupied, that gentle green glow enveloping the sea.
“That thing!”
The colossal manta ray hovering above their heads.
Was that dark, enormous manta ray drifting lazily through the water perhaps blocking something related to light?
Kim Moo-saeng surged upward rapidly.
The scale and coloration were so vast and murky it was hard to tell whether he was drawing closer or simply running out of distance.
Yet Kim Moo-saeng saw it clearly.
[Giant Venta Ray]
[Distance: 37.2m]
‘The environment on Floor 67 is close to an expanded version of the ordinary sea. Excluding the bosses, the larger monsters usually have no new attack patterns—just scaled-up sizes. So then—’
The Giant Venta Ray was a manta ray species too; it wouldn’t have a venomous barb.
Its leisurely movement despite its massive body would likely match the typical behavior of a plankton-feeder.
And if it wasn’t an aggressive initiator—
Kim Moo-saeng sheathed the Dagger-Snake and ascended at speed.
Though he didn’t have perfect knowledge of marine ecology, he’d spent long enough as a Dungeon Sherpa, hadn’t he?
There hadn’t been many depths quite this extreme, but there were underwater and coastal environments below Floor 40, and Kim Moo-saeng had guided expeditions through those dungeons more than once—
What he needed wasn’t a weapon.
What Kim Moo-saeng pulled out was small in size, yet a brighter blue than the seawater itself.
A smooth surface, but solid enough to look properly rigid—a sort of scale.
Now, at this point-blank distance—
“Sorry about this, but move fast!”
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle—!
Kim Moo-saeng hurled it at the Giant Venta Ray.
“M-Moo-saeng! What—what is that?!”
Geum Soo-ah stared in bewilderment.
Electricity? A shock?
She could see what had happened, but how?
Kim Moo-saeng answered her.
“An electrical shock, naturally. Seawater disperses it too widely otherwise, so I had to make contact up close. At least—whoa!”
At that instant, the manta ray’s fins, which had been drifting lazily moments before, began thrashing at tremendous speed.
Kim Moo-saeng grinned at the sight.
“Effective, thankfully. Crafting it from Blue Dragon remains definitely paid off.”
Then he revealed the secret.
Blue Lightning (SR)
An electrical shock device crafted from Blue Dragon blood and scales. A dragon’s electrical discharge is sufficient to disrupt the nervous system and paralyze its target. However, effects may vary depending on the usage environment, the size and structure of the target organism. Exercise caution. Designed by METAL RHINE.
Kim Moo-saeng had spoken with Hildegard Schmidt by phone yesterday.
Three days had passed since he handed over the Blue Dragon corpse. He’d asked her to send him any completed items from his request list.
This single Artifact was all he’d received.
Regardless of how the manta ray had only recently graduated from Hatchling-class into Adult-class strength.
Regardless of how it was smaller and weaker than a typical Adult-class creature.
An Artifact that delivered genuine effects against monsters that ordinary electrical shock devices wouldn’t touch at all!
While Geum Soo-ah struggled for words, Kim Moo-saeng finished his analysis.
“Either way, I’ve eliminated the source! That thing wasn’t blocking the light—it was absorbing it! It was the one draining your power, so now—”
The enormous manta ray hadn’t been blocking the illumination.
It had simply been absorbing the light. It had been feeding on Geum Soo-ah’s strength all along.
And he’d driven it away.
The creature was already receding rapidly from these waters.
Geum Soo-ah’s eyes widened, blinking rapidly.
“What? Then—”
“Ahead! Ahead! Conger eel incoming!”
In that instant, the conger eel launched itself toward her.
Whoooosh——————!
At the conger eel’s tremendous speed, Kim Moo-saeng cried out in alarm, but Geum Soo-ah was already too late to dodge.
Or rather, it wasn’t that she was too late to dodge.
“Right then. So I’ll—”
Geum Soo-ah extended both arms forward.
Fingers spread wide.
Wrists aligned.
“I’ll trust you, Moo-saeng.”
Single-Point Photon Concentrator, colloquially known as Solar Beam.
——————————……!!!!
A beam of light thicker than the conger eel’s entire body shot forth.
The Geumseong Conquest Headquarters personnel themselves had to close their eyes or turn their heads against the brilliance.
In the deep underwater abyss, suddenly blazing like broad daylight.
Kim Moo-saeng saw it clearly.
“So that’s what they mean by ‘the sea splitting open.'”
For a single instant, he witnessed the sea divide.
The conger eel that had been charging toward Geum Soo-ah simply vanished.
Already blackened and charred, it was plummeting toward the seabed.
“Ability restored! Director! The Solar Beam requires 30 more minutes to recharge!”
“Then assist Teams 3 and 4 in intercepting the boss. As for us—”
At Geum Soo-ah’s commanding cry, Yoon Pyo nodded.
Simultaneously, the water around him began to freeze.
Five layers of ice walls once again.
The massive conger eel’s head shattered through them and surged forward.
Screeeeeee——————!
“Now it’s over.”
What awaited beyond was a colossal ice drill.
The ice drill, sharp as an awl at its tip, pierced through the broken ice wall and bored directly into the conger eel’s forehead.
“Understood!”
Two down. Five remained.
If Geum Soo-ah handled two more alongside the other conquest teams, only three would be left standing.
‘Not that I should call it “only three,” but still—Yoon Pyo’s no joke either.’
Perhaps he’d exhausted himself to the point where he couldn’t even muster his Awakened Ability anymore, but in any case—he could solo a single one of these creatures?
It was almost pathetic, the gap in their strength.
‘From the start—no, he’d already grasped every attack pattern and weakness, which is the only reason he could kill it now. In any case, ice-type Awakened Abilities are invaluable. Utility, offense, defense—everything wrapped into one.’
It was then that something surfaced in Kim Moo-saeng’s mind as he analyzed Yoon Pyo’s performance.
Series.
Series?
[Download Progress: 76.0%]
[Administrator Log Partially Recovered]
[Detection Target: CX-Ω Series Administrator Residual Log]
When the download reached 76%, the holographic window that materialized before Kim Moo-saeng’s eyes made something unmistakably clear.
‘CX-Ω Series Administrator residual log…….’
And he still remembered the text from when Wash first appeared.
[CX-Ω-74 Tower Administrator: Codename ‘Wash’]
‘There was a number. There was a number designating Wash.’

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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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