Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 91
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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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Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator (91)
One of Eight Seconds.
Headmaster of Rebeil Grandes Écoles.
But the nickname he’s far more known by is the Blue-Eyed Buddha.
He’d even changed Isabel Green’s irises to blue.
“It’s not Possession… I don’t think it is, anyway. I saw something about it not long ago, and it didn’t work like this.”
This was why Moo-saeng had been able to notice Isabel’s abnormal stat increase and skill activation.
He’d experienced it before at the World Awakeners Association Office.
Having encountered the Five Rings Eye through those who wielded Possession, he’d barely managed to sense the difference.
“That’s correct. It is not Possession.”
Using Isabel’s body, Hugo spoke.
That was all he said—that it wasn’t Possession.
There was no way he’d explain what technique or mechanism actually underlay this, what it was based on, or anything like that.
‘Forced Possession? No, since it’s forced, more like forced body takeover? Something like that, I suppose… Good grief. This Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara ability has everything under the sun.’
All Moo-saeng could do was conjecture based on his own power.
Moo-saeng shrugged and spoke.
“So… did you speak to Chairman Geum this way as well?”
“I didn’t tell him everything, but he likely has deduced much. He and I have clashed many times in this space, with consciousness separated as it is now.”
Isabel’s eyes were fixed on Wash.
Wash met that gaze without any particular reaction.
Only the lenses of the Black Horn-Rimmed Glasses he wore flickered faintly.
Moo-saeng asked quickly.
“So why did you come in person, Headmaster? Since you sent your youngest professor, I figured you’d have him tell me to study hard together… practice Dantian Breathing every single day without fail, that sort of teaching.”
“If one could raise their level that way, no one would worry, would they, Kim?”
Hugo answered Moo-saeng’s question with one of his own.
At that point, Moo-saeng was certain.
“… So in other words. To put it differently, you don’t trust even Isabel Green, a professor at Rebeil Grandes Écoles? You keep it secret? And you’ve come in person to share information of that sort… Is that how I should interpret this?”
There was no reason for Hugo to come.
No need to come this way after sending Isabel Green.
If so, then at the moment of that forced takeover, the moment he seized her body, the probability that Isabel Green’s consciousness was being blocked was high.
He couldn’t think of any intent other than that he had to convey something to Moo-saeng directly—something that even she couldn’t know.
“I did sense your keenness even in our brief meeting… truly remarkable. But Professor Green knows of this as well. I’ve simply come in person to share this with you, Kim, and at the same time, because I have a question to ask.”
Of course, it wasn’t one hundred percent correct.
There was something that had to be kept secret from Isabel Green, but what he taught Moo-saeng wasn’t necessarily that thing.
Half-right, perhaps? In any case, in a situation where Moo-saeng felt somewhat awkward—
Hugo spoke.
“You must already understand the concept of breaking through one’s limits, since the analogy of HP and MP has been discussed with you. Then… you should also be inferring that to break through such limits requires not merely willpower, but something substantial to support that willpower.”
“I take it you’re not speaking only of Stats?”
At Moo-saeng’s guess, Hugo smiled slightly and gave his answer.
“We call it Awakening Affinity.”
“Awakening Affinity?”
It was an unfamiliar concept even to Moo-saeng.
Never really heard of it, even during his time as a Dungeon Sherpa.
Yet it was the sort of concept that, once you understood it, seemed perfectly simple.
“Consider an Awakener who was originally a boxer receiving an awakened ability related to fists. A track athlete, if granted an ability related to running, to movement.”
“Ah, that kind of thing. Yes, I know about it. There are many ways to apply it too. People like that tend to learn several more skills than other similar Awakeners anyway.”
Park Hyun-gu had also trained at a boxing gym after awakening the Core Fist ability. Was this affinity in that sense, he wondered.
Before Moo-saeng’s thought was finished, Hugo spoke.
“Then what of abilities like Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara, or Yaksha, or Tengu?”
“… Hmm?”
It wasn’t just a matter of the body alone.
It wasn’t merely a question of practical application or direction.
“To date, four Awakeners with the Tengu ability at S-rank have enrolled at Rebeil Grandes Écoles. Three of them took approximately eleven years to graduate. However, one took six years. He was also the youngest. What difference do you think there was?”
Hugo posed the question as if trying to excavate the answer from within Moo-saeng.
Tengu was one of the awakened abilities Moo-saeng had seen a few times on the internet.
Tengu, a type of yokai.
With wings and a red face, with an elongated nose…
“Ah. Japan. That one person was Japanese?”
A Japanese yokai.
As Moo-saeng’s thoughts reached that point, the answer bloomed in his mind.
Isabel Green held a pleased smile.
“Precisely. Familiarity, or perhaps a shared understanding. The cultural foundation accumulated within him—that is what functions as his Awakening Affinity. For reference, the nationalities of the other three were Spain, South Africa, and Indonesia, respectively.”
An Awakener with the Tengu ability from a nation she’d never even heard of would inevitably grow at a different pace than a Japanese Awakener with the same Tengu ability.
Moo-saeng nodded at an example so relatable he didn’t need to have experienced it himself to grasp it.
Only after observing this did Hugo open his mouth again.
“So that is why…the World Awakeners Association works to check the China Central Committee.”
An abrupt shift in topic.
Yet if they’d been discussing Awakening Affinity all this while, Moo-saeng was hardly one to miss where the conversation was headed.
“The Yellow Dragon, you mean?”
“Correct.”
The so-called Eastern Four Divine Beasts—or Five Divine Beings—as awakening abilities?
Surprisingly, no such thing existed.
The White Tiger? Someone simply called Geum Byeong-chul’s thunder tiger by that name.
The Vermillion Bird? Someone merely called Steve King’s crimson hawk by that name.
The others who could be called the Azure Dragon, the Black Tortoise—those Awakeners too were members of Eight Seconds.
While such abilities remained largely unknown to the public, there was one who had deliberately revealed their awakening power of their own accord.
The Chairman of the China Central Committee.
The true number one.
“The Yellow Dragon holds profound significance in Chinese culture. It serves as the imperial emblem, the very mark of the Emperor. Its depth is beyond words.”
He swallowed.
Jean-François Hugo paused briefly, then drew in a dry breath.
Moo-saeng already knew what he was about to say.
“And if that were a UR Grade…”
The Yellow Dragon—UR Grade.
Not SSR Grade.
UR Grade, proclaimed to be a tier above that.
The ability itself was named Yellow Dragon—the Yellow Emperor.
Hugo’s gaze had already fixed on Wash.
“Is it truly possible? Does the China Central Committee truly possess a Yellow Dragon of UR Grade?”
He asked respectfully.
This was what had to be kept secret even from Isabel Green.
‘Because of the balance with the World Awakeners Association…?’
The chaos and turmoil that would erupt the moment what everyone had dismissed as falsehood became truth.
Was Hugo, concerned about that very disruption, keeping this inquiry secret even from his own university’s faculty?
Wash did not answer.
Only the lenses of his Black Horn-Rimmed Glasses continued their rhythmic flashing—he remained silent.
The answer came from Moo-saeng instead.
Along with a light sigh.
“Yes. The Yellow Dragon—UR Grade.”
Hugo’s eyes widened.
Watching his fumbling mouth, Moo-saeng continued.
“I asked about it long ago—whether such a thing existed, whether it was nonsense too absurd to speak of. But he said they’d actually designed it. Not only that, but he hinted there was something even more astonishing…”
Moo-saeng felt oddly apologetic as he answered—he couldn’t quite say why.
Yet the Principal of Rebeil Grandes Écoles was a principal indeed.
There was no hint of panic or stammering in his bearing.
“…Avalokiteshvara.”
He simply closed his eyes quietly through Isabel Green’s body and murmured a single phrase.
Moo-saeng glanced at Wash before speaking again.
“But honestly, I don’t think you need to worry quite as much as you might.”
“What do you mean, Kim?”
“Well…it’s about Awakening Affinity, what you’ve been explaining. You’re saying I should grasp it deeply, right? In your terms, it’s a ‘key,’ isn’t it?”
“Precisely. One cannot emphasize it enough. Of course, this is not something one achieves immediately. But you must always keep it in mind, understand it more deeply, and reach further—”
“But rather than what you’re concerned about, I think I’ve probably already grasped it quite deeply.”
Moo-saeng cut Hugo off gently and smiled with a touch of awkwardness.
Hugo showed his surprise as plainly as when Moo-saeng had confirmed the existence of the Yellow Dragon—UR Grade.
This wasn’t the sort of thing Moo-saeng would say at such a moment.
Hugo knew that about him.
“Might I ask your reason for saying such a thing, Kim?”
So Hugo had no choice but to ask, driven by curiosity.
Why display such confidence when the opposing faction possessed a UR Grade?
“Well, that is to say…….”
Kim Moo-saeng smiled awkwardly, his gaze drifting toward Wash.
The yellow rubber duck remained perfectly still, showing no particular reaction.
A moment of silence hung between them.
Only after the light had completely vanished from the flickering lenses of the Black Horn-Rimmed Glasses did he speak.
“It’s like this. Wash! Is it finished?”
Kim Moo-saeng said it aloud.
The first time he’d spoken this name before Hugo.
The Tower’s administrator, Wash, finally opened his beak.
[Cackle-cackle-cackle! Yes. So, you arrogant little beast. What do you call this spatial partition?]
A First-Generation Awakener, likely older than Lee Jeong-gi — Jean-François Hugo.
Even at such a contemptuous remark that made Kim Moo-saeng flinch, he answered calmly.
“We didn’t partition the space itself. Your physical bodies remain intact…… it’s merely that your consciousness has been extracted and isolated here.”
[Consciousness, you say. A most intriguing concept. Compared to my spatial partitioning, it’s worth only half—many limitations, but it served its purpose well enough.]
“I beg your pardon? What do you mean—”
“Puh-huh-huh, exactly. You see, Headmaster? This fellow and I go that deep, I’m telling you.”
Before the bewildered Hugo, Kim Moo-saeng laughed.
There was no way Hugo could understand what he meant.
[That’s right. Kim Moo-saeng—the moment that damned bastard confirmed his left eye had gone blind, he had the audacity to send me a signal first.]
Kim Moo-saeng had posed the questions to Wash.
First: could the Clairvoyance see through this place?
No.
Second: if it couldn’t see, then wasn’t this space one that Wash had created—a partitioned space, or something like it?
That needed to be confirmed.
Third: what if he was right? What if this was that very space Wash had only been able to use once during the transmission?
Simply using Wash’s power to subdue Isabel? That wasn’t the issue at all.
Kim Moo-saeng had told Wash what to do.
Given this flow of events, there was only one task left.
[Cackle-cackle-cackle, did you think my relationship with Kim Moo-saeng was merely contractual? Of course it is contractual. But it’s not you who drives everything, you cocky young beast. Since things worked out well thanks to that, I’ll overlook your impertinence today.]
“Finished? Finished with what—”
[Accessed the Tower.]
That single moment during the transmission was the only time it had been possible.
The Execute Administrator Authority over the 〈Tower〉.
Kim Moo-saeng had seized that moment perfectly, exploiting the stage Hugo had laid for him.
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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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