Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 174

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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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“Ugh!”
Kanna’s meticulously sharpened harpoon drew blood across Gerth’s arm. We had both exhausted our mana reserves. The pale bone visible beneath the deep laceration confirmed it—from this point forward, it was a brawl of pure endurance.
“Waaahhh! Mother! Father!”
Gerth had chosen not to equip a weapon from the start, so this was his responsibility, not mine. Anticipating a prolonged struggle, I steadied my trembling legs and pushed myself upright. Hubert wailed and began pounding the Tower’s walls frantically. A door materialized moments later, and he vanished through it—though that had nothing to do with us.
“Surrender before you die, Gerth!”
“I can still fight, Evan!”
I spat blood and wielded the harpoon like a club. Gerth, drenched in gore, extended his claws and lunged. Now it became a test of pure endurance.

Gerth’s mana was depleting rapidly. I maintained only a single superhuman skill by drawing from the ambient mana around us. We were both covered in blood, unmarred flesh nowhere to be found. Gerth’s newly regenerated right arm hung by a thread, barely attached, while I had lost so much blood that my vision blurred. Dizziness threatened to overwhelm me, yet I barely maintained control. I gripped the harpoon with both hands and swung it crudely.
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
Gerth kicked the blade’s flat side, and the impact reverberated painfully through my hands. Unable to maintain my grip, I lost the harpoon—it clattered to the floor with a metallic ring.
My hands had no strength left. I was weaponless. Testing my limbs, my muscles still functioned adequately. Joint locks in close combat would be my best option.
“Please, both of you, stop!”
Gerth stamped the ground forcefully to prevent my approach, and Hubert suddenly reappeared. As if boasting of his resemblance to his father, he extended his claws and pressed them against his own throat, threatening.
“Let’s call it a draw! Please, say it’s a draw right now!”
“Step back, Hubert. My fight with Gerth isn’t finished.”
“I will not surrender. A draw is impossible.”
We were resolute, but Hubert was more so. The white fox drew blood from his throat with his claws, drops falling freely, and spoke while staring directly at Gerth.
“If you cannot lose like this, then I shall grant you victory. If you return my body to Father, the fight will end.”
Now that I thought about it, Hubert had said he was created from Gerth’s blood and flesh. Given that he was strong enough to serve as the Serpent King’s proxy, Gerth must have shared considerable power with him. If that were true, my friend’s son’s words made perfect sense. If Hubert died and his strength reverted to Gerth, the outcome would be decided swiftly. In essence, as long as Hubert lived, Gerth could never fight at full capacity.
“Evan. I don’t want to lose Hubert.”
“Neither do I.”
We had grown far too attached to him. If Hubert died, I would weep.
I tried to collapse onto the floor, but my body simply sprawled out flat instead. I had no strength left to rise.
“Since Hubert is going this far, let’s call today a draw.”
“After treatment, I’ll be ready to fight again immediately.”
“Wenri will have his hands full.”
Another thud sounded as I turned my head sideways. Gerth lay stretched out beside me, groaning that he couldn’t move a muscle. The sight was deeply satisfying.
“You don’t even have the strength to twitch a finger.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Actually, I still have enough strength to land one punch on you.”
“I probably have that much left too.”
“Want to try? Think you can manage it?”
“I’ll give it my best effort.”
As we writhed and struggled to strike each other, Hubert—wiping away tears frantically—stood between us and cried out.
“I made a deal with the Tower! If both of you say it’s a draw, it agreed to recognize joint ownership!”
So Fox’s plea led to a change in real estate law. Well, what era are we living in where people should be able to own homes under joint ownership? It’s a good development for the future.
“Once your treatment is finished, come register it. The Tower said it would wait for you.”
The Tower is quite a useful thing. Now I understand why Samryong became so twisted. The Machine King has access to the Akashic Records and power, the Serpent King has the Tower, but he only has useless siblings—he must have thought he was being discriminated against. Honestly, this does seem like discrimination. Isn’t Samryong actually being tormented by the Creator?
When I pointed this out, Gerth answered that Samryong was a pitiful child and should be treated well. It seemed Gerth also recognized that he hadn’t received proper benefits.
Since neither Gerth nor I could move, Wenri, the healer, had to climb all the way to the top floor. My internal injuries were serious, but Gerth’s dangling arm was equally bad, so Makina was also called.
Some marveled at the sight of the Tower with its ceiling spectacularly torn open, while others debated my title again, saying that as a joint owner of the Tower, I was practically the Serpent King’s consort. Sunbird and his partner didn’t miss this opportunity and moved quickly. Recording everything with a portable recorder and notepad, Sunbird even secured a spot in the discussion about the Serpent King’s consort and offered his opinion.
From losing so much blood, drowsiness crept over me. I asked if closing my eyes now meant death, and Makina assured me not to worry—he would bring someone to give me a blood transfusion, so I wouldn’t die. So I fell asleep without concern. When I woke up, my entire body felt stiff and sore.

◇ ◆ ◇

“What about Sunbird? You’re here alone, Sera?”
“My Sunbird departed for the Capital first. He said it would look better if Evan Laef took me directly, so he told me to stay!”
I don’t know what that bastard is scheming, but everything he does seems shady. So what happened to Sunbird’s time limit anyway? If it said “defeat,” then Sunbird’s time limit can’t be lifted unless he defeats Gerth himself, right?
I opened my status window first to confirm my time limit had disappeared, then asked Sera. Sera told me not to worry about Sunbird and pounded her chest very proudly.
“Thanks to Evan Laef, Sunbird’s time limit has vanished! That’s why I’m still here in handcuffs!”
I became a joint owner of my lover’s house and Sunbird escaped death, so nothing but good things happened—Sera laughed heartily.
If time limits were resolved this haphazardly, I wouldn’t have suffered so much until now. This confirmed it: Sunbird’s claim about having a time limit was a lie. Then why did he deliberately lie? What’s more suspicious is that he appeared at just the right moment, as if he knew I had a time limit to conquer the Serpent King’s Tower. Does he have some ability to see other people’s status windows? Some ability not revealed in the original work? Or did something happen after the serialization I read?
“….”
Now that I think about it, there must be a ton of serialized chapters of “Dawn’s Repentance” piled up! Show me too! Why am I stuck in this shitty work and can’t read “Dawn’s Repentance”!
I complained irritably, wishing I had something like Doraemon’s universal tool so I could check the serialization on my phone with WiFi. When Makina can bring even Karceus from the Akashic Records, why can’t he bring “Dawn’s Repentance”?
“Wait! The Akashic Records!”
That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that! If I can access all the knowledge in the world, can’t I just copy over “Dawn’s Repentance”?
Due to anemia, I walked diagonally while searching for Makina. I needed Sera’s help to walk straight. I was grateful for Sera.

To cut to the conclusion, “Dawn’s Repentance” couldn’t be searched for. Apparently, since the Akashic Records is a vast universe of information that transcends the realm of cognition, a single keyword alone can’t retrieve all the serialized chapters. At best, if there were a publication code, Makina could fish out each volume individually and fill in any missing volumes plausibly, but….
There’s no way such a novel would have received a publishing contact! A novel with prose that reads like an AI just spitting out random word combinations, with 3,500 chapters—what publisher would go crazy enough to publish that! Proofreading alone would be a nightmare!
More than that, I realized that Makina retrieving information from the Akashic Records was similar to fishing. It’s not like a computer where you search and get results instantly—you can only encounter it when inevitability and coincidence intertwine. It was just like our lives.
What Samryong saw might be somewhat different from what I know. Since Makina said he created the middle parts.
“Then I’ll go the rest of the way alone.”
“Are you sure! I can support you all the way!”
“No, that door to meet the Tower—apparently it’s off-limits to anyone except those affiliated with the Serpent King’s Tower.”
Convinced by my words, Sera stepped back. I followed what Hubert and Gerth had done, knocking on the nearby wall. Then a blue door appeared with “Owner Only” written on it. It was a blue door, but with a slight jade tint that reminded me of a public telephone booth from that era. I wondered if this would have copyright issues.
I composed my anxious heart and pushed the door open. Well, since it was that era’s public telephone booth door, it slid open sideways! Was this really okay!
– Welcome.
A sound very similar to Microsoft Windows’ startup chime—which made me worry about copyright—rang out, and someone spoke to me. The voice was ambiguous, sounding both feminine and masculine, and rather than hearing it with my ears, it resonated in my head with a ringing sensation. Was this what they called telepathy?
– I am the movable and immovable property gifted to Gerth by the Mother of All Things. I am the Serpent King’s Tower, a device for traversing time, space, and parallel dimensions.

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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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