Climbing the Mythic Tower as a Cheating Administrator - Chapter 95

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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 Admin Climbing the Mythic Tower (95)
The additional quest condition for Floor 26 is to defeat Arachnella within five hours.
One of the reasons this is nearly impossible is the geographical characteristics of the Black Forest itself.
Fundamentally, it’s so dark that no light penetrates it.
If you turn on lighting? Darkness-dwelling monsters, including Arachnella’s spawn spiders, swarm toward you en masse.
In other words, you must locate the spider queen with only the barest minimum of light—just enough that the monsters won’t charge at you—but…….
Whoooooosh──────!
“This is no joke. Those things on the trees—those are all spider webs, aren’t they?”
“Look, look how the spawn spiders flee each time a tree falls and light pours in.”
“Insane. So that’s why people almost never find Arachnella.”
The trees of the Black Forest thrust upward in dense profusion.
The problem was that virtually all of their upper branches were connected by webs.
Even though any Awakener entering Floor 26 surely knew that ‘Arachnella dwells atop the trees of the Black Forest,’ they still couldn’t find her.
Arachnella moved freely above, concealing herself.
Until her prey collapsed from exhaustion.
A boss difficult to search for in the first place, and even if found, could only be defeated by either suppressing her mobility or matching it with superior mobility—the Spider Queen, Arachnella.
“D-damn wretched vermin!”
“Kyaaaaaagh-!”
“Krrraaaagh!”
The fact that Arachnella’s face was twisted in absolute fury was a source of pure joy to Kim Moo-saeng.
“Don’t underestimate Petit Hydra, I’d say.”
Fire, water, ice, lightning, wind, poison.
Six heads endlessly pouring forth spells and breaths of each respective element.
The spawn spiders charge forward as if to breach the Hydra’s torso, but it means nothing.
Whoooosh-!
The head that commanded poison alone was executing an airtight defense.
Simply piercing the poison mist it breathed out was difficult.
Considerable numbers of the spawn spiders exposed their bellies and flipped completely within that poisonous haze—proof of its formidable strength.
Even if they barely survived and pushed through the poison fog?
The caustic acid pools creeping across the ground around Petit Hydra were potent enough to dissolve the carapaces of Arachnella’s spawn.
The poison alone wasn’t what made it remarkable.
“The entire forest’s going to disappear at this rate.”
“The water-lightning combo is practically a massive Chain Lightning itself, and the ice control combined with fire and wind to spread the flames is no joke either…….”
The remaining heads possessed lethality equal to or greater than the poison-wielding head.
Every living creature in the Black Forest—aside from Arachnella’s spawn, including the colossal blood-sucking bats—was being slaughtered by Petit Hydra.
“But if Petit Hydra has six heads and wields six elements, then the true Hydra has twelve heads, right? What other attributes does it use?”
“Right. Are there even that many attributes? What else could it possibly command?”
Noh Ye-rang and Kim Ji-yoon murmured aloud.
It was a doubt anyone could share.
Everyone except one person, Cho Sang-gyu.
“Ah, no, everyone……. Isn’t now really not the time to be discussing this leisurely? Our quest condition is to defeat that Petit Hydra, isn’t it?”
Even Arachnella could do little more than fire webs.
And even those webs were frozen solid mid-flight and lost their adhesion, or were incinerated and severed, rendering them ineffective attacks.
Venom stings? Where exactly on Petit Hydra would she need to drive those fangs?
In the end, all she could do was scream and curse as she watched her own habitat, the Black Forest, be destroyed!
That was how formidable Petit Hydra was, and that was precisely what their Floor 26 Clear quest condition demanded—the defeat of Petit Hydra!
Cho Sang-gyu pleaded his case.
But no one supported him.
“That’s something Kim Moo-saeng will handle for us, isn’t it? You’re essentially controlling Petit Hydra right now, aren’t you?”
“That must be it. We could understand your clearing Floor 22 in that same light, so that makes sense, doesn’t it, Representative?”
Kim Ji-yoon and Hwang Jun-seo simply shrugged their shoulders.
Kim Moo-saeng likewise let out only a faint, hollow laugh.
“Heh, it’s difficult to explain in detail, but, well, suffice it to say that’s how it is.”
There was no point in hiding everything, anyway.
No reason to bother deceiving them.
Rather, they would work harder to maintain his secrets.
Simply to keep riding his ‘bus.’
“Y-yes? What was that? What do you mean?”
Only Cho Sang-gyu failed to grasp it properly, left with only frustration.
Petit Hydra, already under his control through Slayken’s Tongue.
‘If death comes, then I’ll face it. That’s no problem at all. The real question is timing—when to order Petit Hydra to target only Arachnella-.’
[Cackle-cackle-cackle, another hour at this pace and we’ll satisfy the hidden condition too. We just need to illuminate a certain percentage of the Black Forest’s total area.]
That was the part Wash had explained to him.
Three hours, measured from when Petit Hydra began its rampage.
By then, the hidden condition of the quest—’bring light into the Black Forest’—would be satisfied.
At that point, he could make Petit Hydra target Arachnella.
A monster rampaging like that would make it nearly impossible for Arachnella to survive two more hours.
[And its left eye is still watching us, Kim Moo-saeng.]
That was the real problem.
The Thousand-Li Eye was watching.
Moo-saeng gave a small nod.
‘Of course it is. It wouldn’t make sense not to. And I know full well it wouldn’t make sense not to…….’
A faint white aura rippled outward from Moo-saeng’s body.
The countermeasure against the Thousand-Li Eye, which he’d been using even before deploying Slayken’s Tongue, would shine once more.
* * *
In the underground depths of the Chinese Central Party Headquarters, a solitary man stood in thick darkness.
Wearing a helmet with only his mouth and jaw barely visible, he’d only briefly seemed to notice the wires hanging from it in abundance.
—Observation report on target 22?
A voice echoed from empty air.
One of the candidates for the Brain.
Thirty observation targets who’d dispersed and begun operating the day the World Awakeners Association sent them out.
“……They’ve formed a group and are clearing Floor 26.”
The Thousand-Li Eye answered.
What they were monitoring was the target who’d been the twenty-second to exit the conference room—that is, Moo-saeng.
The voice muttered.
—Floor 26. Among the candidates, one of the lowest floors. Incomprehensibly low compared to the 67-level dungeon they visited recently……. But the Tower doesn’t lie.
“That’s exactly so. They’ve been going with Geumseong—”
—Comrade, your duty is observation, not analysis. We conduct the analysis; you observe based on the information we provide.
The Thousand-Li Eye had begun to assent, but was cut off at once.
The moment he closed his mouth, the voice sounded again.
—You should know well that personal analysis breeds prejudice. Don’t cloud your vision.
“Understood. I apologize.”
A controlled state that forbade any thought or speech beyond observation and factual reporting.
A form of conditioning not unlike brainwashing, yet the Thousand-Li Eye apologized with ease.
Only after hearing those words did the voice, seemingly satisfied, refocus on target 22, Moo-saeng.
—Then, are there any anomalies in target 22 during the Floor 26 clearance?
“Well……. The manner of combat is rather unusual.”
—The combat pattern is unusual? Is there something distinctive beyond what that floor warrants? If there’s an exceptional display in technique or stat values, then target 22 is indeed a candidate for the Brain—”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean. I’m not sure how to describe this.”
The Thousand-Li Eye shook his head.
The wires attached to the helmet swayed and trembled.
The voice demanded in a curt tone.
—Report accurately, comrade.
“So what I’m saying is…….”
The corners of the Thousand-Li Eye’s mouth trembled slightly.
Not from excitement or tension.
—Comrade. There’s no need to soften it. Report exactly as you see it, precisely as you’re observing it. Surely you’re aware we’re verifying the truth of your statements—”
“That’s what I’m trying to say. The candidate for the Brain, target 22, is……, flailing their limbs while fighting—. So this is…….”
The Thousand-Li Eye barely opened his mouth.
Even with him gesturing with hands and feet as he explained, a third party couldn’t easily understand.
—What do you mean?
It was only natural.
Because what he was seeing wasn’t Petit Hydra destroying the Black Forest and slaughtering Arachnella’s spawn.
What the Thousand-Li Eye was observing was Moo-saeng and his party members, inside the Black Forest, fighting the young spiders.
“Not any particular form or technique, but all haphazard—. Hmm……. Like little children fighting, you might say. Wielding daggers, yet dancing in empty air as if—. No, it’s not just target 22 under observation, but all the group members as well, just as fluttering? Billowing? Like paper puppets wobbling with limp movements…….”
It was all a Dummy, incomplete because of Moo-saeng’s somewhat limited ability!
Twelve wobbling party members, moving their limbs abnormally as they fought young spiders?
No, and the young spiders themselves were climbing up and down the webs meaninglessly?
Was this even combat? Could such combat even exist?
The Thousand-Li Eye had to force himself not to voice these thoughts.
All they wanted was a report of the facts.
Conveying things as they were.
―Hmm, ahem… You mean to say Comrade is fighting right now with those strange movements?
“Y-yes, sir. I have no other way to describe it, sir.”
Because the ability to create illusions still wasn’t perfect.
If anything, it only muddied the waters further for the Thousand-Li Eye and the Chinese Central Party.
―So it seems Geumseong was only involved in matters related to the Korea One-Way Group after all… I should consider striking Observation Subject 22 from the candidates. Understood. Then, Comrade, concentrate on Observation Subject 23 from here on.
“Understood, sir.”
Truly, catching a frog by walking a cow backward.
It was Kim Moo-saeng, whose [Luck] Stat was exceptionally high.
* * *
“No, this can’t be—this can’t be happening!”
Arachnella clutched at her severed leg and shrieked.
But it was already too late.
There were barely any spawn spiders left to throw at them.
Arachnella, with only her left first arm and right third leg remaining, plummeted beneath the trees.
“Kyaaaaaaaa—!”
The flame-wielding Petit Hydra’s heads spewed fire.
[Time Remaining: 21:36:45]
[Arachnella: 1/1]
Everyone’s system messages, including Kim Moo-saeng’s, updated immediately.
“Well then, shall we finish this?”
Just over three hours had elapsed, and Arachnella was now disposed of.
The rampage of Petit Hydra had already destroyed a considerable swath of the Black Forest, light now pouring through. The forest had become so bright it was embarrassing to still call it the “Black Forest”.
Kim Moo-saeng and his party had to keep a substantial distance to avoid being caught in the fallout.
Kim Moo-saeng drew out Slayken’s Tongue.
‘Kill yourself.’
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt———
Then he swung it.
A sonic boom tore through the air with a piercing shriek.
Petit Hydra’s six heads, distant though they were, turned to face Kim Moo-saeng, only to—
Four of the heads dropped to the ground with soft thuds.
“Hm?”
But two remained.
No—not only two were left.
The four heads that had hung limp were rising stiffly upright again…?
[Cackle cackle cackle! Even Petit Hydra resists a suicide command. It’s a different tier from being ordered to attack another target. Especially since Petit Hydra is no ordinary serpent.]
That explanation came from Wash.
‘Why tell me now?’
It was perhaps the seasoned dungeon sherpa’s experience that kept the words from spilling out loud.
Yet his eyes couldn’t help but widen.
“…Director Kim, everything’s fine, yes?”
“Um, Kim Moo-saeng? No matter how I look at it—Petit Hydra seems to be coming this way…”
The other party members felt the same.
The distance was considerable, but so was Petit Hydra’s massive form.
No matter how you looked at it, all six heads were writhing, pulling that colossal body forward…?
“Ah, Moo-saeng? It’s not so much that I’m worried, but rather… how should I put it…”
“It’s fine. I’ll need to adjust the plan a little, sure! But there’s nothing for you all to worry about. I’ll be right back.”
Kim Moo-saeng thrust his hand into the Anything Pouch.
Then he turned and began walking toward Petit Hydra.
“Right back? Where?”
“To catch that thing. Won’t take long.”
“Wait, what? Moo-saeng, but that sword—”
What he’d drawn was a long blade.
Not the short sword Dok-Sa that Kim Moo-saeng had been using until now.
As it came free from the scabbard, the blade gleamed softly in the sunlight—a deep blue.
“Yeah. Made from the teeth and claws of a Blue Dragon. And using blood and flesh as materials—”
It was no mere blue blade.
Kim Moo-saeng tightened his grip on the leather-wrapped hilt.
Crack, crackle, crackle———!
In that instant, the blade crackled with brilliant blue lightning.
“It’s a sword that recreates the attributes of the Blue Dragon. Well, the performance is better than I expected.”
“You can’t just… end it with ‘better than I expected,’ can you?”
Park Hyun-gu laughed in disbelief.
Kim Moo-saeng grinned.
Then he broke into a sprint toward Petit Hydra.

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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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