Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - Chapter 58

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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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Chapter 58

It was a shock, but I couldn’t help accepting it once I thought it through.
That incompleteness had already shown answer-defying strength.
The grotesque difficulty of subjugation that had left countless victims in its wake.
If all of that belonged to the Seven Deadly Sins, then it made sense to some degree.
“May I ask a few more things?”
“Please do.”
“Belpherus being Pride — that’s conjecture, isn’t it?”
Unlike Gluttony, he’d lacked distinctive traits.
Of course, pride had overflowed from him in abundance.
For instance, after dealing with the archbishop who possessed the holy relic.
He left it abandoned—didn’t recover it or destroy it.
His remark that no one stood equal to him.
But those were easily interpreted as a strong one’s simple contempt for the weak.
My question was whether we could really be certain he was Pride.
“It’s inference, certainly. But I suspect it’s correct. I have my reasons.”
He didn’t elaborate, but his tone suggested he had further evidence he simply wasn’t willing to share.
Well, there wasn’t much to do about it. I’d have to accept it for now.
“I’m satisfied with that, then. Next question: if that’s true, doesn’t the power gap among the Seven Deadly Sins seem too extreme? It hardly feels like they’re the same category…”
Belpherus, even in his incomplete state, had been far more threatening than Gluttony.
Back then, despair—utterly devoid of hope—had gripped my entire body with overwhelming force.
Gluttony was different.
Despite the hardship and the corner I was backed into, objectively speaking, he ranked well below Belpherus. That was my honest assessment.
The catastrophe stemmed from the absence of Argellaire, our maximum power, which had shaped the situation that way.
‘Or did I put him down too early?’
He’d materialized in Peronta and I’d engaged him immediately in combat, before he could fully regain his strength.
The hypothesis: like Belpherus, he too was in an incomplete state.
While I was mulling this over, the old man chuckled and spoke.
“I told you—I don’t know much myself. And I’ve shared everything I do know.”
With that, he gave me a look suggesting I surrender the coveted documents.
I sensed he wasn’t actually withholding anything beyond what he’d already said.
Fearing the relationship would deteriorate if I held the materials hostage any longer, I handed over the papers.
The old man received them and placed them in his arms with the care of someone handling an heirloom.
“Still, if my humble scholarship means anything to you, I’ll offer an opinion: I called it ‘Gluttony’ for convenience, but I suspect it was nothing more than a tiny fragment of what true ‘Gluttony’ would be. Or perhaps an imitation—something mimicking it.”
The old man brushed himself off and stood.
“Then I’ll take my leave. Thank you again for your assistance.”
With an elderly man so politely taking his leave, I couldn’t very well hold him back.
Instead, I made a different request as he headed for the door.
“If you happen to learn anything else later, would you be willing to share that information?”
“If you wish to deal, I’m always waiting. Ha ha.”
He spoke as though saying “for a price, I’m always open”—just like today.
I laughed at that and showed him another document.
“I anticipated this. I held back a portion.”
A bitter laugh flickered across the old man’s easy smile.
But he couldn’t exactly snap at me for that.
He was the one being held hostage.
“…I’ll contact you if anything comes of it.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
With that, the old man left the room.

Once the uninvited guest had vanished, Baek Jin-seong, who’d been watching quietly the whole time, spoke.
“Brother, so how far has Eclipse tracked down the Seven Deadly Sins?” “Your guess is as good as mine.”
For now, they likely have Gluttony under their control or are exploiting him in some way.
Whether it ends there.
Or whether there’s something else entirely.
There’s no way to know.
So I decided not to dwell on it—no point in giving myself a headache over something I can’t determine right now.
I should start preparing for the next meeting.
“By the way, when is Kang Se-hyeon supposed to arrive?”
I hadn’t arranged a specific time with Kang Se-hyeon beforehand.
I’d planned to summon him once my meeting with the old man was finishing.
“Ah, he’s almost here now, sir.”

* * *

Before meeting with Kang Se-hyeon, I was more cautious than ever.
Unlike the others I’d met, Kang Se-hyeon was a high-ranking Player.
I couldn’t afford to let my guard down just because he had good taste in gifts.
So I gave orders to the humanoids.
“Pluto, you stay in Stealth and respond if you detect anything suspicious.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The rest of you, be prepared for sudden movements.”
“We’ll handle it carefully, sir.”
“We won’t let him lay a finger on you.”
“Understood!”
After making my preparations, I waited.
About ten minutes later, Kang Se-hyeon arrived.
The moment he entered the room, he showed signs of tension.
Probably from the humanoids’ piercing stares.
“This is quite intimidating, I must say.”
Kang Se-hyeon walked slowly and took the seat across from me.
“Is this seat acceptable?”
“Yes.”
Even after sitting, Kang Se-hyeon seemed to feel the drones’ presence as an enormous burden.
Even for a Ranker of his caliber.
‘This is the normal reaction, as it should be.’
In that sense, the old man from earlier had been remarkable.
It made me think of the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword.
In any case, Kang Se-hyeon, now seated on the cushion, spoke.
“On the way here, I noticed the outside was quite noisy because of the Special Materials.”
“Was the business venture you mentioned related to that?”
“Ah, no. How could it be? That’s not unrelated to Eclipse, after all.”
“Then what about Gangseong? Are you envious of them?”
“It would be a lie to say I’m not envious at all… but it’s fine.”
After saying that, Kang Se-hyeon bowed politely again.
“First, thank you for arranging this meeting.”
“I’m curious about things myself, so we can skip the pleasantries.”
After accepting his courtesy without dwelling on it, I went straight to the point.
“So you’re proposing a partnership? Let’s hear it.”
At my words, Kang Se-hyeon briefly observed Baek Jin-seong.
Checking whether this man was trustworthy.
“He’ll find out anyway. Besides, you know how it is with this one. Looks aside, he keeps secrets well.”
Kang Se-hyeon paused for a moment, then nodded.
“How would you feel, Neia, if there were an Elevator in the Tower?”
“An Elevator?”
“Yes, I mean an Elevator for ascending and descending the Tower.”
I imagined it for a moment.
Players climbing straight to higher floors without struggling through each Floor, growing all at once.
“It would certainly be convenient….”
Actually, it would be nothing short of a revolution.
There were countless Players stuck on a single floor, wasting months of their lives.
“But why bring up something like that?”
In the next moment, I was deeply shaken.
“Don’t tell me…”
“Exactly. We happened to discover an Elevator.”
Was that even possible?
An Elevator in the Tower.
It was a device that shouldn’t have existed by conventional understanding.
“You’re saying we can climb floors without any restrictions?”
“Yes, after conducting our own experiments, we confirmed that it’s possible to ascend without going through the complicated process of Tower conquest.”
“That’s absolutely insane….”
A thought struck me suddenly.
“How many floors, exactly?”
If it reached beyond the 70th floor—currently treated as the vanguard’s territory.
If it was possible to operate that far, it would be nothing short of a paradigm-shattering discovery.
You could mass-produce Rankers like widgets rolling off an assembly line.
Fortunately, what came from Kang Se-hyeon’s mouth wasn’t quite that dramatic.
“Unfortunately, we’ve only cleared from the 30th to the 50th floor.”
“Still, fifty… floors.”
If someone offered to lift people straight to the 50th floor in exchange for money, how much would people actually pay?
A billion? Ten billion?
Without knowing the exact details, it was clear that even if he demanded sums in that ballpark, there’d be no shortage of willing customers.
People would go into debt just to board that express lane to power.
“I see. I understand the situation regarding the Elevator, then. So what exactly do you want from me?”
The Mir Guild—that is, Kang Se-hyeon—was proposing a partnership with me.
Even though he could have simply pocketed this massive business opportunity on his own.
That meant the odds were high that a problem had cropped up somewhere.
And he wanted me to scratch whatever itch was bothering him.
“I’d appreciate your help opening the path.”

* * *

Kang Se-hyeon elaborated further on the Elevator situation.
First and foremost, they needed to open the path before operations could begin.
Currently, the Elevator only had passages carved through the 33rd floor—effectively just three floors’ worth.
The reason was that the difficulty was staggering.
The guild had deployed numerous 30-level Players specially cultivated in-house, yet over the course of six months they’d managed to break through only three floors.
But having Ranker Kang Se-hyeon or the executives throw themselves in to handle it was also problematic.
“The Floor Penalty.”
“Exactly that, yes.”
The Floor Penalty came in two main varieties.
The most common was the stat penalty.
And the other was the floor entry prohibition penalty.
For Rankers, of all people.
Even with stat penalties applied, they should be able to flood into the 30-level floors and clear them without issue.
‘But I’m different.’
I was practically optimized for opening paths.
Unaffected by Floor Penalties.
With overwhelming firepower for my level, the top specialist in this particular field.
I could read the general drift of where this was heading, but before deciding whether to accept the proposal, I asked one thing that was nagging at me.
“So you’re saying Eclipse was after the Elevator?”
“That’s my assumption. Reaching the Elevator’s location requires a special item, and I suspect that’s precisely what they were targeting in their attack.”
The explanation held some weight, but I couldn’t help feeling doubt creep in.
‘Is that really all there is?’
The Elevator was certainly of enormous value.
I won’t deny that.
Without exaggeration, the Elevator’s mere existence was valuable enough to elevate the Mir Guild to Korean—no, world-class standing.
I could understand Kang Se-hyeon’s earlier remark that while they coveted Special Materials, it was manageable.
Yet if I stopped to consider whether Eclipse would really go to such lengths for this alone, something didn’t sit right.
Perhaps it had to do with meeting the old man not long ago.
The Seven Deadly Sins and all that.
An artifact so alien to the Tower itself, paired alongside the Elevator—it felt like there should be some additional purpose lurking beneath the surface.
Though it could just be paranoia on my part.
“I understand, then. Now, name your price.”
I was clear on one point: I wasn’t moving for pocket change.
The City had crumbled so badly that I still couldn’t even estimate the cost of reconstruction.
In other words, with money needed in so many places, I had to make a fortune now.
“Once the Elevator pathway is complete and begins regular operation, I’m prepared to hand over 70 percent of the revenue to you.”
“Seventy percent?”
“Yes.”
Kang Se-hyeon’s proposal was admittedly surprising.
Unlike Baek Jin-seong or some streamer out there.
For someone from the Mir Guild itself to obtain such a remarkable item and yield such a significant stake to me—it was unexpected.
As suspected, Kang Se-hyeon attached an additional condition.
“In exchange, the Mir Guild will retain full operational rights.”
What the Mir Guild stood to gain was easy enough to infer.
Victory in the domestic guild power game.
Negotiating advantage over other guilds.
Recruitment of promising newcomers who would inevitably emerge in the future.
It was clear they intended to leverage the Elevator for advantages across the board.
‘But it’s not really a loss for me.’
I had no immediate plans to establish my own guild anyway.
And I had no desire to entangle myself in complicated rivalries with domestic players.
Who dominated the industry mattered little to me.
In fact, whether the Mir Guild or the Gangseong Guild—or anyone else connected to me—claimed the top spot would only bolster my reputation rather than diminish it.
Yet some contrarian instinct stirred within me.
If I obscured the information gap and twisted the narrative, I might squeeze out even more.
“Make it 80 to 20.”
“But we’ve already made considerable concessions with 70 to 30, surely you see that.”
“The truth is, without me, it’s uncertain when the Elevator could even begin operations, wouldn’t you agree?”
Three floors in half a year.
By simple calculation, proper operation would take at least three more years.
“Moreover, the Mir Guild’s rise would become a burden for the Gangseong Guild.”
I deliberately implied I maintained strong connections with the Gangseong Guild.
“And my own circumstances might become somewhat difficult as well—I’ll need compensation for that loss.”
Kang Se-hyeon’s expression deepened in thought, just as I’d anticipated.
The article I’d seen before coming here today.
Having read about the Gangseong Guild’s monopoly on Special Materials, my argument carried more weight.
“Then I have one condition—if you accept this proposal, I hope your relationship with Neia won’t suffer should unavoidable conflict arise with the Gangseong Guild.”
“Well, I’d prefer we all got along, all things considered.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
Kang Se-hyeon then produced a freshly prepared contract, shared the timeline, and spoke.
“Then I’ll be waiting in Olia.”
The contract would be fulfilled starting in Olia, where the Elevator existed on the thirties floors.
After a final courteous bow, Kang Se-hyeon left the room with a relieved expression.
He was clearly delighted to have found what amounted to his masterpiece.
“It’s finally over.”
Today’s meeting.
After spending all day meeting people, the hour had grown late into the night.
“I’m more tired than I expected.”
“I quite agree—climbing the tower is far less exhausting.”
I turned to Baek Jin-seong.
“Once we’ve gathered enough items, let’s resume our ascent as soon as possible.”

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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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