Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - 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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Chapter 95

To be honest, until now Neia had always been underestimated.
It was impossible to make direct comparisons with the Rankers.
But that dismissive gaze—the one that looked down on her as just a twenty-something-floor Player—vanished completely.
It happened when her name shot to the top of the Global Power Ranking website and became major news.
Before that, Kang Min-hyuk, who had ruled Korea like a monarch, ranked around thirtieth.
But Neia was already recognized as a Player in the top ten.
Of course, the commotion among the Tower Know-it-alls wasn’t purely because of that.
Neia’s latest clear had been dopamine incarnate—not a single detail missing, from process to result.
First, attention poured in on Tia’s stellar performance.

[Breaking down the newly arrived Tia!]
– I’m guessing her defense gets shaved down about 70%. The Glasses seem to work like a spyglass. Her accuracy is insane.
ㄴ She’s got a good head on her shoulders..

[Tia’s armor shred? Didn’t see that coming.]
ㄴ So what’s the principle behind the bullets?
ㄴ A 70-floor monster getting treated like a trash mob…

[Got a version of Tia without the Glasses.]
ㄴ Yeah, the Glasses are definitely a liability.
ㄴ But looking at it, isn’t that like an X-ray scope? A targeting visor? Something like that?
ㄴ If it’s not something like that, there’s no way to explain that insane accuracy.

[Wasn’t this one called the Long-hale Turtle?]
– This one looked similar to Tia’s type too.
ㄴ Looks like its armor got shred.
ㄴ I was curious how she’d break through this Trial, but it was refreshing.
ㄴ But how is a technique like that even possible.
ㄴㄴ At this point, shouldn’t we check what’s actually inside a Gate?

Then came the Trial settlement, which spawned talk of a phenomenally powerful “Blessing.”

[Trial’s Blessing? What even is this?]

The outrageous options on Trial’s Blessing.
It was time-limited—just one month—but the jaw-dropping effects drew global attention.
It spread across the Community and beyond Korea’s borders, and by half a day later, conversation everywhere was about nothing else.

[Blessing experience report!]
– What is this, honestly? A floor I was stuck on for two months just… melted away?

[Knew it! Only Neia thinks about the newcomers like this.]
ㄴ The Sky Garden and now a growth package?
ㄴ If you give it all away like this, what’s left?
ㄴㄴ Us… maybe?

[Spire players are literally dying of envy right now…?]
– Immigration inquiries to the domestic Association have spiked thanks to the buff.
ㄴ Don’t accept short-term naturalization under any circumstances.
ㄴ They’ll bolt the second the Blessing expires.
ㄴ Short-term? Forget it. Make them put down roots for good.

[I’m a newbie who awakened yesterday, and I cleared five floors in a single day.]
– Neia… she’s our friend, right?
ㄴ If she cleared five floors in a day, she’s definitely our friend ㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ That one got me good.

[Stuck on the fiftieth floor for half a year…]
– Is this right? We’re getting pushed back steadily?
ㄴ If it’s the 50s, maybe there are so many skills that the subjective sense of difficulty is even greater?
ㄴ I’m curious what it’s like for the top-tier Players.

[No, I tried using it myself and it’s already terrifying…]
– The reverse shock’s gonna be brutal

[Why are you guys just coasting now of all times! I should do it after I awaken!]
ㄴ You haven’t even awakened yet and you’re talking
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋ

And Byun Ki-hyuk felt the current blessing crisis viscerally through his skin.
His eyes went wide at the flood of inquiries pouring madly into the Association.
It was a wave far beyond what had been mentioned in the Community.
Though there were no top-tier Players among them.
Mid-tier Players at the backbone level had sent over a hundred inquiries in mere hours.
If even thirty percent of these materialized, it would obviously translate into tremendous national benefit—the situation was that clear.
Of course, there was no guarantee they would remain in Korea after the blessing ended.
Yet it was a remarkable phenomenon because even that could be made somewhat real through contracts.
“The Mana Stones we got squeezed out of just recently don’t feel like a loss at all…”
He was utterly dumbfounded.
When Baek Jin-seong came out of nowhere and extorted the Mana Stones, Byun Ki-hyuk had fumed behind closed doors that it was little better than daylight robbery.
But now it felt like even emptying the entire warehouse and offering every Mana Stone in it would be no waste.
“And these are just mid-20s Players…”
It was hard to believe.
At the same time, precisely because of this, the attention pouring in from overseas terrified him.
Entry into the top ten of the Global Power Ranking.
True, it was the lowest rung, but it carried different weight entirely.

[But we should be happy about this, right?]
– Actually, no one in the top ten lacks a guild, so this basically means Neia’s on every guild’s first-priority recruitment list.
ㄴ Might she get kidnapped?
ㄴ The Association has a plan in place, but there’s no guarantee someone won’t offer to pay the penalty fee.
ㄴㄴ Did cutting her a cheap deal end up being a blunder instead. Ugh…

Those posts and comments best captured Byun Ki-hyuk’s feelings right now.
“Aaaaaargh! How could I have done something so stupid!”
Regret seized him.
His past self, who’d had a pride-driven fight over a mere few hundred billion won.
Byun Ki-hyuk understood.
This blessing wasn’t happening because of Korea.
It was an event unfolding because Neia was in Korea.
There are endless reasons for overseas powers to pursue her!
“Should I… go bring her gifts even now?”

* * *

If one were to define modern life,
I would put it this way:
pursuing maximum perfection within a fundamentally ordinary existence.
And from that perspective, when I look at my life since beginning Tower Climbing,
it’s honestly close to perfect.

«Master Seon-woo, it is time to wake.»

I open my eyes at the sound of my companion AI’s voice.
“What’s for breakfast this morning?”
“Roast chicken salad with strawberry jam on buttered toast, Master Seon-woo—your favorite.”
“Ah, that hits the spot.”
The morning prepared by the kitchen robot, optimized for my palate and health.
“Black coffee today, I think.”
Tea time enjoyed while gazing out at the city skyline.
Meow—
“Happy, are we?”
Even the cat purring as I scratch her horns.
‘My heart feels healed.’
Oh, and the light work schedule is just the cherry on top.
So where could there be a more perfect life than this?
“Meow?”
Kkamangi, who had been purring on my lap, stops and looks up at me when I cease touching her horns.
“All right, all right, I’ll pet you more.”
Kkamangi’s arrival, incidentally, filled in that final puzzle piece of life that had always felt 1 or 2 percent incomplete.
I’d even come across a research paper about it once.
A study showing that people who own cats had a 37 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and fatal heart attacks.
I thought I understood the reason a little.
Clink—
When she knocked over my cup after I’d set it down, another saying came to mind.
The running joke that the destruction caused by cats raised cancer rates by about 37 percent, which balanced things out.
“Sorry, Dduldduli.”
“It’s quite all right.”
I offered my thanks to Dduldduli for sweeping up the broken fragments.
So I maintained low cardiovascular disease rates and became immune to cancer risk thanks to Dduldduli.
A rather selfish trade-off, all things considered.
“Your fresh coffee, sir.”
“Ah, thanks.”
I took a sip of the new coffee to calm my nerves, then pulled out my phone.
“Still quite noisy out there.”
The Tower Know-it-alls had been filled with talk about the Trial since yesterday afternoon.
From what I could see, there seemed to be even more activity now.

[Neia > Top-tier Guild right?]
[All these self-proclaimed experts need to get their heads out of their ass.]
– What? A player in the 20s Range is supposed to be what now?
[Neia’s technical prowess is unmatched across the cosmos!]

Most of it was praise directed at me.
All talk about the Blessing.
I wasn’t used to it at first, but now I genuinely enjoyed it.
I was scrolling through the relevant posts when I came across something.

[Hey, isn’t the raid team supposed to release a video? You gonna watch it?]
ㄴHmm… when did they unblock things? They’re releasing it now?
ㄴShould we still check it out though?

A video of Yusera’s vanguard squad.
My curiosity was piqued.
I didn’t have anything scheduled for right now anyway.
The release was about twenty minutes away.
It seemed like something I could enjoy without pressure.
“I’ve got about three hours before my appointment.”
So I decided to kill time watching it.
The video drew far more attention than I’d expected.
Views climbed rapidly.
Comments piled up just as fast.
The problem was that the comment section wasn’t particularly favorable.

[I mean, I get why they uploaded it, but is this all? Seems kind of half-assed.]
[Exactly. They’re hiding the fact that the Correction Tower got cleared and dropping it now to avoid the backlash, right?]
[A vanguard unit completely wiped out by a single monster…]
[But that furry thing’s seriously strong, isn’t it?]
[If the raid team managed to catch it, we should give it credit for that much.]
[Looks like there were quite a few casualties too…]

After watching the footage for a while, I’d reached a conclusion of my own.
“Hmm…”
Non-aggressive, they said?

* * *

I lifted Kkamangi up to eye level.
Tiny little horns and bat wings.
Fluffy fur and bright, guileless eyes.
Just looking at it was enough to make me smile—it was genuinely adorable.
So why did those claws suddenly seem so terrifying?
“Hmm…”
As I played the video on my phone again,
I remembered what Surin had said yesterday.
That the mother releases the Illusion Fog to protect her young, something like that?
I mean, if her offspring is involved, it’s only natural she’d become a bit more sensitive… right?
That has to be it.
Mew—
As if asking to be put down, I set Kkamangi on the ground.
The creature fluttered its wings and flew over to the tablet propped up nearby, standing before the screen and licking it with its tongue.
Did it think its mother was trapped inside?
Its cry seemed to have taken on a sadder tone this time.
“I should stop showing it this.”
I pocketed my phone.
Besides, it was nearly time for our appointment anyway.
“I need to get ready too.”
We had plans for lunch today.
An appointment I’d made with Neia.
We’d agreed to go out together once I acquired a Dedicated Humanoid.
Today was that day.

A quick wash,
and I came out to the living room to wait.
About ten minutes before the appointed time,
everyone had finally gathered.
When we’d first made the plans, it was just Neia and Sermin.
But now Tia was here too.
Even if she was nodding off.
So I couldn’t help but think it.
That it might be better to just let her sleep instead.
But when I actually asked, she insisted on coming along. What was I supposed to do?
“Looks like everyone’s here. Shall we go?”

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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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