I Alone Am an EX-Class Summoner - Chapter 32
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Am Alone EX-Grade Summoner Episode 032
Let’s Keep Running Forward
Player Headquarters, Head Office.
The aging head of the association had been quite troubled lately.
‘Baek Jin-woo.’
A prodigy who suddenly appeared from somewhere had completely shattered all the lower-tier Weekly Dungeon records, then the intermediate records, and now he’d even conquered the Tower of Trials 1st Floor.
And at an incredible speed too.
“Secretary.”
“Yes!”
“Why is there still no news? Still can’t connect with Baek Jin-woo?”
“Well, that’s…”
“If it can’t be done, make it happen. Don’t you know? You climbed all the way up to head secretary because of your abilities, and you can’t handle one simple thing like this?”
“…”
The secretary made an aggrieved expression.
‘Old geezer.’
He doesn’t make any effort himself.
No, and besides.
How am I supposed to make something impossible happen?
Ever since personally visiting Baek Jin-woo last time, I’ve tried everything.
I contacted Yubak Management, and even asked Park Chang-seok for help.
The responses were similar.
– Sorry. He’s our affiliated player, but we don’t have 100% control over him.
– Well, why did you get on his bad side? You ignored him when he offered to help. It’s too late now. He’s beyond my control. There’s an old saying: treat people well while you can.
Yu Ji-a, Park Chang-seok.
Both politely expressed their refusal.
Congressman Park Chang-seok was even subtly sarcastic.
I had no choice but to visit Baek Jin-woo several more times.
– Sorry.
– Didn’t I tell you last time? Go through Yubak.
– Sorry.
– Sorry.
– …
Later, he’d just raise his hand without any response and whoosh! disappear.
At times like that, the pride of working at the headquarters, the nation’s top elite public corporation, would crumble in an instant.
‘What exactly did I do wrong!’
If there was one thing I did wrong, it was simply being the head’s secretary.
Because of that one thing, my once-high self-esteem was gradually crumbling.
And in the midst of all this, the head was spouting nonsense like ‘if it can’t be done, make it happen’!
Ugh!
“I have one question.”
“What, for me?”
“Yes.”
“What is it.”
“Why do you keep obsessing over Player Baek Jin-woo? He’s hot these days, but he’s not even a ranker yet, and he’s not a National Team player either. His Weekly Dungeon records are impressive, but a player’s skill can’t be judged by that alone.”
It was a valid point.
If there are dungeon-specialized players, there are also PvP-specialized players.
But the head shook his head and smirked.
“Man, that’s not what’s important.”
“Then?”
“He’s handsome.”
“…What?”
The secretary doubted his ears.
That’s the only reason?
Player Baek Jin-woo… *ahem*, he is quite good-looking.
But even so.
How could that be a reason to bring him to headquarters!
“Players need to have star quality. That way the public recognizes them, and the congressman beside them also gets their name value raised.”
“…Hah.”
So.
In the end, it’s because of his own vote-seeking, right?
As expected.
Whether it’s the National Assembly or headquarters.
All congressmen are the same.
“But that guy’s a bit stubborn, so he’s not great in that regard.”
“Are you finally giving up?”
The secretary’s eyes lit up.
“Head!”
Clang!
A staff member opened the door and entered.
It was a staff member directly under the head, responsible for Tower of Trials management.
Specifically, a staff member handling privacy-related information.
“What is it.”
When the staff member glanced at the secretary,
“He’s fine. He’s also under contract.”
Only those who had completed contracts regarding privacy disclosure obligations could share information.
If disclosed to someone without such a contract?
They’d have to bear the system’s curse.
“Well… Player Baek Jin-woo has conquered the Tower of Trials again.”
“Oh, really? I thought it was something else.”
The head nodded as if he expected as much.
A player who conquered the 1st floor conquering the 2nd floor wasn’t particularly surprising.
The difficulty of the early floors of the tower was said to be similar, even if the later floors were different.
“He cleared the 2nd floor? How long did it take this time?”
“If it were just that, I would have reported it in writing rather than running here myself.”
“Huh? Then?”
“He conquered up to the 9th floor… And it took less than an hour after he entered. This is an impossible speed even if you search the entire world, not just domestically…”
“Eh?”
The secretary was shocked.
“What!?”
The head shot up from his seat.
“Is that really true? He was only on the 1st floor until yesterday!”
“We couldn’t believe it either. When he first entered the 2nd floor and came out, we naturally thought he’d cleared the 2nd floor and saw him off, but when we checked the records room… there were records of him clearing up to the 9th floor consecutively.”
There’s a records room on the outer area of Tower of Trials 1st Floor.
When a user enters and clears floors, it gets recorded.
“He consecutively defeated floors 2 through 9. Without even coming outside.”
“He’s just insane.”
The head’s face flushed with excitement.
Tower of Trials 9th floor?
By South Korean ranker standards, that’s not even halfway.
Ranker rankings are determined at the beginning of each year when the World League ends, but with this record, Baek Jin-woo had essentially just entered the ranker tier.
“Huh, so there was a reason why his butt was so heavy?”
“…He is a remarkable individual.”
“Baek Jin-woo, that bastard. I’m suddenly getting more greedy for him?”
“….”
The secretary shook his head.
No matter what, what won’t work just won’t work.
He had to acknowledge what needed to be acknowledged.
That they had failed to recognize a gem and treated it poorly.
Rather, Yu Ji-a who had recognized it was remarkable.
‘There’s only one way from here.’
Cast out Im Hee-su and reach out to Park Chang-seok.
Whether that old man knows this or not…
‘He probably knows.’
The position of council member isn’t won through playing ddakji.
‘But.’
If we ask the reverse – would Councilman Park Chang-seok bother to take that hand?
‘Well.’
It felt like it would be difficult.
“Phew.”
Baek Jin-woo stretched as he arrived home.
At the same time, he summoned his summons.
Only his elite EX-grade ones: Ramba, Hunkyo, and Pokryong.
“Good work. You guys rest today too. I’m completely drained today.”
Thud!
Then he sprawled out on the sofa lying spread-eagle.
It had been a while since he pushed himself this hard.
From the 2nd floor to the 9th floor.
He had swept through like a whirlwind following the exact route he knew.
The mission to leave Chrome City and rescue the chief researcher in crisis was the 2nd floor.
The mission to escort the rescued researcher to the outskirts of another major city, Helio, was the 3rd floor.
The mission to open the secret door leading to the research lab was the 4th floor.
The mission to clear out the ghouls inside the research lab was the 5th floor.
The mission to move to the power plant to solve the power outage inside the research lab was the 6th floor.
The mission to clear that power plant and reconnect the severed lines was the 7th floor.
The mission to return to the research lab and help the chief researcher’s research was the 8th floor.
The mission to learn of the existence of the king of ghouls, ‘One-Eyed’ (S-rank), conclude that this entity must be eliminated to resolve the massive ghoul crisis, and move to face that One-Eyed was the 9th floor.
Baek Jin-woo’s progress, having already experienced everything, was unstoppable.
He utilized every piece of information he remembered and rushed forward without rest.
And now, finally.
He was facing only the battle with the final boss, One-Eyed.
‘And.’
One-Eyed is absolutely impossible with current full power.
He needed to properly equip runes with advanced-level options or higher, and Pokryong needed to grow more too.
He needed to increase intelligence to secure damage, and it would be even better if he could learn the Pokryong technique transformation.
‘Still.’
The growth speed was quite fast.
Compared to Jinugod’s speed during “Battle of Summoners”?
‘Of course it’s incomparably faster.’
Information and experience were indeed overpowered.
If before it felt like carefully walking through a thorny path, now it felt like running full speed on a flat trail?
– Hwaaam! We’re resting today? Hehe.
Ramba stretched and plopped down on the chest of the lying Baek Jin-woo.
– What are you doing right now?
Hunkyo’s eyes flashed menacingly.
– Hieek?
The startled Ramba carefully got up from Baek Jin-woo’s chest and flew into the air.
– My lord, I apologize. The problem wasn’t training but that I should have taught manners first.
“No, well. I’m fine.”
He really was fine.
Ramba wasn’t heavy either, it just felt like a pet dog climbing on top.
– No. My lord. You worked hard today. Please rest well. However, we cannot rest yet.
– Hieek? What kind of bolt from the blue is that!
Ramba threw a tantrum.
Tremble tremble.
Pokryong’s hands, who had been sitting comfortably on another sofa, trembled.
No way, surely not.
That hardcore dungeon right now…
After clearing them consecutively, training again?
– Didn’t you hear Jin-woo? He said we should rest today too!
– Ramba.
– What!
– At the 7th floor power plant. When catching the giant ghoul. Your attack speed increase was slightly lower. Why was that?
– Ah, that time…
Ramba broke out in a cold sweat.
– And on the 8th floor when dealing with the ghoul lord, you rested three times in the middle without waving your staff, right?
– Wh-why remember even that!
Ramba was horrified.
No way!
During all that intense fighting, he had been remembering and calculating all of that?
What a pervert!
– That’s too much! How can a fairy wave a staff all day long!
– Don’t you think that with that selfish thinking of yours, our lord could lose his life?
– That’s speculation! You could have caught a mere ghoul lord even without my buffs!
– Our lord will continue climbing the tower. The difficulty will become incomparably harder than now. Will you make such mistakes then too?
– ….
She had nothing to say.
When mistakes were pointed out so precisely, what could she say in response?
– And Pokryong.
Hiccup!
Pokryong, who had been waiting, flinched.
– 5th floor research lab twice, 7th floor power plant once, 9th floor path twice. You missed Pokryong Faction attacks, right?
– …Yes, I’m sorry.
Pokryong hung his head low.
The sight was so pitiful that Baek Jin-woo didn’t know what to do with himself.
– Of course anyone can make mistakes. But trying not to address mistakes after recognizing them is a big problem.
– ….
– ….
The two summons hung their heads, unable to argue back.
“Hey, everyone stop it.”
Finally, Baek Jin-woo stepped in.
“Hunkyo. You’re also a problem.”
– …!
“I told you to rest first. Is training important? Or is my order more important?”
– Th, that…. Of course, my lord’s command takes priority. My thinking was short-sighted. I apologize.
Hunkyo, slightly flustered, stepped back and bowed his head.
“That said, Hunkyo’s words aren’t wrong either.”
Baek Jin-woo now looked back and forth between Ramba and Pokryong.
“Mistakes should naturally be addressed and corrected. So today, we rest. Starting tomorrow. We’ll focus intensively on reinforcing that together.”
We were already running fast enough.
Adding boost to go even faster from there?
The probability of something going wrong increases.
We needed to relax a little.
‘For now.’
My body was fine, but mentally I’d been really struggling lately.
‘Let me get some sleep.’
Then I’ll wake up and organize the rewards.
From the 2nd floor to the 9th floor.
A total of 8 rewards!
I’ll check them tomorrow when the kids are training.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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