Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 89

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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 Mythical Tower (89)
How to teach it. Can it even be taught.
Is all of this truly on the Dean’s orders.
There was no need to verify each of these questions one by one.
“……She’s a professor, then.”
Isabelle’s face was displayed clearly on Reveil Grandes Écoles’ official homepage.
Only then did Kim Moo-saeng recall a news article that had slipped his mind.
“The Venus Hotel Conference……. Some of the faculty stayed behind even after she and Dean Hugo entered Korea together and most others left. There was talk of that, wasn’t there.”
Perhaps the ‘Blue-Eyed Buddha’ had arranged for this very moment and left the faculty behind.
Even as the thought crossed his mind that it was absurd, he found himself simultaneously thinking: ‘That’s exactly why someone like Geum Byeong-chul hates seeing Dean Hugo challenged’—a figure who could make both thoughts coexist.
Contemplating Jean-Francois Hugo, the SSR-Grade ‘Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara,’ Kim Moo-saeng’s body trembled slightly for a moment.
Isabelle nodded and spoke with firm conviction.
“Correct. There are two other professors besides me, but I alone have received direct orders from the Dean.”
Pride in being the most exceptional.
Watching her lay it bare without concealment, Kim Moo-saeng let out a short laugh.
Back when he’d been a Dungeon Sherpa, hadn’t this been one of the groups he’d admired most.
One had to be born with a high-Rank Awakening Ability.
And one had to achieve that high-Rank Awakening at a young age.
Moreover, at a young age, while possessing a high-Rank Awakening, without any formal training, using only one’s own talent, effort, and will, one had to prove one’s worth by climbing the tower beyond a certain floor.
Only then were the admission requirements barely satisfied—an elite among elites.
Yet after barely gaining admission, most still pursued their studies as students, unable to meet the far harsher graduation requirements—an elite group where that was the norm.
That place was Reveil Grandes Écoles.
“Looking at the professor roster, you seem like the most junior? Well, well—I know this person too. SR-Grade, and…… this professor’s SR-Grade as well. Wait? Now that I look, are all the publicly known professors SR-Grade?”
For Kim Moo-saeng, there was good reason for the teasing with a hint of malice.
Isabelle’s brow did twitch momentarily at the remark, and that was all.
“……Excluding honorary professors, I alone am the only faculty member who is an S-Rank Awakening despite graduating top of my class.”
The way elites divided themselves into further ranks among elites.
As Kim Moo-saeng gazed with obvious fatigue, Isabelle let out a short breath through her nose and continued.
“And I’m also the youngest professor. Despite possessing an S-Rank Awakening Ability.”
If anything, the pride came even stronger because of the S-Rank Awakening Ability.
It wasn’t entirely wrong, so Kim Moo-saeng simply couldn’t ignore it.
“Right, yes. I understand. So then? The pursuit of truth. The power to approach reality. A pure mind free from affliction—how exactly do you do that?”
“Meditation. The method to reach the Enlightenment that exists within yourself.”
“Meditation?”
“Lotus Position. Sit.”
Isabelle Green said no more before dropping herself to the floor with a thump.
The way she shifted into the Lotus Position so effortlessly made Kim Moo-saeng’s eyes widen in disbelief.
“Here? Just like this? Some kind of ritual, isn’t there one? Lighting incense or something—”
“Unnecessary. Sit.”
Then, smoothly and gently, she closed her eyes.
Kim Moo-saeng had to bite down hard on his lower lip. It was nothing resembling anger.
‘A panda……’
With those heavy smoky eyeshadow makings, when she closed her eyes, the entire upper lids turned pitch black, and he found it nearly impossible to suppress his laughter.
In any case, meditation? If an ability could truly be improved by such a thing, he had nothing to wish for.
Kim Moo-saeng grunted and struggled into the Lotus Position, then closed his eyes.
* * *
So this “meditation” thing—what exactly am I supposed to do?
I’m sitting here with my eyes closed…… is it concentration?
She said something about reaching Enlightenment within yourself.
Within me. What in me. You’re inside me?
Heh, that can’t be it.
[Kuckuckuckuck! How primitive. Closing your eyes and your ability increases? You can perform beyond your Awakening Rank? Hey, Kim Moo-saeng. You actually believe that and are just going along with it?]
Ugh, shut up.
Even with an explanation, you don’t understand.
So how could an S-Rank fifty-something-floor awakened one have looked at you.
You’re the one who said it wasn’t an Awakening Ability, and yet…….
Obviously that means she can pull off performance beyond that.
[Time wasted, time wasted. Just find a way to reach Floor 39 faster. Before this damned Layer Overlap Phenomenon clears, I need to make contact with my beloved, and you can find Ye-rin, can’t you?]
I want that too.
But I need to hear back from Park Hyun-gu first, so if anything—.
Wait, hold on. The Layer Overlap Phenomenon could dissolve?
So we can’t reach Ye-rin in one go? We can’t jump straight from Floor 39 to Floor 58?
We’d have to climb each floor one by one? Then you should’ve told me sooner, damn it!
How could you bring up that possibility now?
[Surely you know, Kim Moo-saeng, that becoming complete quickly is the best growth method—and you have Murometsu’s warning too. Proceeding with Download in the dungeon with that less civilized female is dangerous now. Download is only possible on Floor 58. Only there.]
Yeah, I know that.
I want to move fast, but it feels wrong to throw away the chance to grow while climbing the floors.
I’ll contact Park Hyun-gu. He should arrive within a few days anyway.
In the meantime, maybe I can gain a little strength using Reveil Grandes Écoles’s methods—
Crack!
“Ahhhhh!?”
[Kwaaaaahhh!?]
Bang-bang-bang—startled, Moo-saeng stumbled backward and tripped over the hotel sofa.
Even so, a strange excitement and shock that wouldn’t settle easily lingered.
Barely suppressing his racing heart, Moo-saeng saw it.
“W-what is it? What’s happening?”
Isabelle, sitting in the Lotus Position, remained exactly as she was.
Should he stay quiet? Pretend not to hear?
He’d felt as if wind itself had blown through.
Moo-saeng touched his bangs.
The strands were clearly parted differently than before.
Ring-ring-ring!
The phone suddenly rang. Moo-saeng picked up the receiver while staring intently at Isabelle.
The call came from the front desk in the lobby on the first floor, and its content was straightforward.
“…You didn’t hear the sound?”
―Yes, the sound reached the lobby as well. We’re contacting the guests remaining in their rooms to confirm whether they experienced any inconvenience. We will contact you again as soon as we identify the source of the noise. We apologize for any disturbance caused.
A roar loud enough to reach the hotel lobby.
Unable to pinpoint where it came from, they had even apologized to Moo-saeng in the suite, saying they regretted any inconvenience to his stay.
Moo-saeng looked at Wash.
[Th-this female… the sound… wait, this female didn’t move at all, did she, Kim Moo-saeng? What is this? What’s going on?]
Unlike Moo-saeng, whose eyes had been closed, Wash hadn’t stopped watching while playing around.
Isabelle hadn’t moved.
Yet the sound was distinctly audible. The pressure was strong enough to be felt as wind.
What was that?
────────────…….
Soon, both Moo-saeng and Wash could see it.
A pure white aura enveloping Isabelle’s body was thickening, like a winter blanket.
Moreover, that pure white aura was gradually expanding and moving toward Moo-saeng.
“Um… I apologize for interrupting your Meditation, but Isabelle—Professor? Professor Green? Could you open your eyes for a moment—”
The speed increased further.
The pure white aura swelled as if consuming the space itself.
[K-Kim Moo-saeng! What is that!?]
“How should I know—Professor! Answer me! Is this okay? Something seems to be going haywire?”
Moo-saeng called out to Isabelle frantically, but she didn’t respond.
The pure white space confounding Wash.
“No matter how I look at it, something’s wrong—eek!?”
It finally reached Moo-saeng.
───────────……!!!!
Moo-saeng felt a moment of dizziness.
[Screech—.]
Even Wash.
With good reason.
“…What is this?”
It was no longer the suite of the Venus Hotel.
All the space around them had turned pure white.
A space with nothing.
The ground could be felt underfoot, yet even that floor was invisible, compounding the dizziness.
“No, that’s not it—this place…”
Moo-saeng had seen a space similar to this before.
He had experienced it.
When 〈Transmission (X)〉 became 〈Transmission (O)〉.
At that very moment when he faced certain death from the Kraken in Dungeon 66 due to the layer overlap phenomenon.
[How is this possible. How can a human—. Separate space like that?]
In other words, Wash herself confirmed that this place was similar to the very space where they’d first met.
Where was this?
Isabelle drew a slow breath.
Haaaaaaa…….
Kim Moo-saeng found himself matching the length of her exhalation.
Even as she exerted no force, there was something about the way she dominated the space itself that left him breathless with admiration.
She spoke in a measured, hushed voice.
“Enlightenment is not something gained anew from without, but rather achieved through casting aside the ignorance within oneself and awakening to one’s true nature.”
In ordinary circumstances, Kim Moo-saeng would have dismissed such a thing—saying something like “I don’t need platitudes; just show me the real method.”
But in this moment, he found himself unable to speak at all.
Isabelle’s body was transforming.
“What is needed is focus.”
Her skin began to shift toward a teal hue.
“What is needed is reflection.”
Her frame began to expand.
Crackle, crackle—.
Her garments tore away.
“The condition for awakening is threat from without.”
Her blonde hair, lengthening and growing, covered all vital areas.
“Enlightenment does not come from outside.”
The smoky makeup around her eyes began to spread and darken, its borders expanding.
It was grotesque.
A woman with teal skin and a voluptuous frame.
Obscene.
She had grown to nearly two meters tall.
And at the same time, terrifying.
“Yet only when one transcends external stimuli can true enlightenment finally be achieved.”
Isabelle opened her eyes.
There was no white in them.
Like the smeared makeup, only pitch-black irises remained.
While not identical to what he’d seen before, Kim Moo-saeng recognized this phenomenon.
“……Yaksha Transformation. This is a skill.”
One of the unique skills possessed by users of S-Rank Yaksha Awakening.
The appearance varied depending on the individual awakener, but its nature was unmistakable.
It was a violation of the Nevada Treaty.
The Yaksha Transformation, forced into being despite full knowledge of this fact.
Gulp.
Kim Moo-saeng swallowed hard.
Her hair, grown even longer and matted, separated with a snap.
A long, golden Trident Spear.
Isabelle grasped it and spoke.
“I grant you mercy.”
Crash—————!
Isabelle and Kim Moo-saeng collided.

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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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