I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 68

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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 68
There was one place I needed to visit first.
Happiness House. Or Happiness Villa.
This building, which had collapsed from the Gate’s aftermath and been rebuilt with two names, was both my sanctuary and my refuge.
Small, but precious to me.
Just as I was about to move, I stopped.
I heard voices from outside.
“Brother, it’s still pretty brutal out there.”
“Your face has loosened up. Damn annoying.”
“Hehe, is it that obvious? Look at this. The Apostle gave it to me this time?”
“Damn, I’m jealous. I should’ve gone tank.”
“Hehehehe. It’s my first time since awakening. I’m thinking I made the right call going tank. How many points would I get if I secretly sold this to the Market?”
“…You’re thinking of selling it?”
“Are you insane? Just saying. It’s my spare life, so I’d never sell it. It’s customized perfectly for my abilities, so it feels wrong to sell it and buy something else. It’s practically impossible to find an artifact that fits this well.”
“Yeah, everyone’s saying the same thing. How on earth did you manage to get an artifact that matches your traits so perfectly?”
“Hehe, that’s why the Apostle is amazing. Let’s praise the Apostle! Brother, should I start a fan club?”
‘…It’s been a while since the Villa was this lively.’
After the mobilization order was lifted, the Villa had regained its vitality for the first time in a while.
From my room, I was careful not to let any sound escape.
I had my synchronization active and was running mana detection at full power.
Even employing Whitey’s senses.
And after waiting only a short while, the person I’d been expecting returned.
I seized the moment when the hallway emptied of people and when the CCTV glanced away, then bolted out of my home.
Knock knock.
And carefully, I tapped on the neighboring unit’s door.
Creak!
Since someone had just entered, the door opened immediately.
“Who….”
“It’s me.”
“!”
An extraordinarily ordinary-looking man saw me and went pale.
His face resembled the one I’d seen in the mirror one day.
I had referenced this man’s face when creating my disguise.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he’d immediately slammed the door shut, eyeing me like a madman.
But.
“Damn!”
Even as he cursed harshly, he urgently grabbed my arm and yanked me inside the room.
Slam!
The door shut forcefully.
The man pressed his ear to the door, carefully listening for any movement in the hallway.
“Hey, you crazy bastard…!”
“What.”
“I told you never to go outside.”
“I don’t take orders from someone weaker than me.”
“Again! Again with this!”
Thwack.
A light punch taps against my arm.
It has all the force of a foam bat.
“Oh, still the Incheon glass cannon. Your fists are still weak. You’re hopeless.”
I said it playfully, but I knew the truth.
A superhuman enhanced by mana had held back to an extreme degree, terrified of shattering an Awakening-incapable person’s bones.
Heh.
Watching that display, I finally felt like I’d returned to everyday life, and laughter escaped me unbidden.
The most ordinary name in the world: Kim Chul-soo.
My neighbor next door and…
my one and only ‘brother’.
“You’re laughing? Here I am worried about you.”
“I’m fine, hyung.”
“Don’t you remember last time? You got mistaken for a doppelgänger, and I had to go through hell explaining it wasn’t true….”
“Shut your mouth.”
Thwack!
“Ow! That hurt!”
“That one was because it hurt, you idiot.”
With a relieved sigh, Chul-soo sat on the edge of the bed and looked me over from head to toe.
“Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”
“Something did. A lot actually….”
“Pfft, bullshit. What ‘something’ could you possibly have? I don’t even need to ask—it’s definitely about games. Did you get some loot?”
“….”
I simply nodded.
Chul-soo shrugged with an expression that said ‘I knew it’, then tapped his waist and shoulders before flopping onto the bed with a groan.
“Ugh, I’m dying.”
“Was it rough?”
“Nah, not really? This time that guy called ‘Apostle’ planned everything out cleanly. He scattered artifacts left and right telling the tanks not to die, so it was manageable.”
“Yeah?”
“Man, but it was scary as hell. These huge caterpillar-like things came out—two of them!—and they were screaming…!”
With a flushed face, Chul-soo gestured wildly as he recounted the Resonar subjugation operation.
I listened quietly to his story.
Chul-soo went on at length about how incredible Han Seol-ah’s new magic was, how desperately that ‘Lee Ah-woon’ guy fought, and what kind of grand magic the ‘Apostle’ unleashed at the end.
Watching Chul-soo talk like clay being molded, I thought about him.
My brother from the same orphanage, someone I’d been close to since before the Tower appeared.
The benefactor who looked after me even when I became unable to awaken and my life spiraled into ruin.
“Quite the ordeal you’ve been through.”
“Yeah, phew. One wrong move and everything would’ve collapsed.”
Kim Chul-soo, a B-rank healer.
“But who is this Apostle person anyway?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Is he handsome?”
“No idea.”
“Is he incredibly cool?”
“…Yeah. He’s incredibly cool. There’s this dark thing that just… it’s hard to describe. That massive larva-like creature turned undead and… damn, wow. It’s just a mess. I can’t put it into words.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“He was that impressive?”
“You’d understand if you saw him. But there’s something… psychopathic about him. I’m a healer, right? I use holy power? So I can tell—that dark thing is genuinely sinister energy. There’s no way someone wielding such power could be normal.”
“Dark thing?”
“Yeah. It rises from the Apostle’s body like mist.”
I summoned the Lich King’s power slightly.
I raised my hand and released a wisp of dark mana.
“Like this?”
“Yeah, exactly that.”
Chul-soo felt the ominous aura emanating from my fingertips and reflexively trembled.
“Seeing it up close makes it even….”
“Even what?”
“Huh…?”
Chul-soo’s gaze, which had been answering casually, fixed on my fingertips.
Then his head turned like a broken robot, creaking and grinding.
“What is this?”
“Ah… you don’t recognize it? This is dark mana.”
Chul-soo, seized by shock, went rigid.
“You… what happened to you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Don’t mess with me! You bastard! Did you awaken?”
Worry was written all over his wide-open eyes.
Well, he’d just called dark mana the “power of a psychopath” moments ago.
Of course he’d be worried seeing his brother wielding such a thing.
That’s so like Chul-soo to worry.
“Yeah.”
“Why would you have such power… is it because you’re always brooding in your room?”
“This guy, even when I explain…”
“Are you really okay?”
“Yeah. I can turn this on and off.”
I quietly shut off the dark mana.
“This works too.”
As I tapped my pocket, Rat-dol burst out with a graceful aerial flip and landed magnificently before Chul-soo.
[I greet my master’s friend.]
“…!!!”
Chul-soo reflexively clapped a hand over his mouth before he could scream.
The Happiness Villa had skimped on materials during reconstruction, leaving the soundproofing absolutely terrible.
If he’d screamed like that, the whole neighborhood would’ve drawn unwanted attention.
For the record, skimping on materials during construction wasn’t unusual.
It was the new normal.
Everyone did it that way.
I waved my hand casually.
“You can scream. I already set up a soundproof barrier.”
So I’d already taken care of it.
“Geez, you scared me. What is this?”
“My summon.”
“Are you a Necromancer?”
“No. I’m an Apostle.”
“…?”
Chul-soo froze, confronted with a massive truth.
Sometimes truth renders people speechless.
“An Apostle? There’s no such job….”
“Chul-soo. You understand, don’t you?”
“Huh… hehe.”
Chul-soo rubbed his face dry, then exhaled heavily.
“What on earth happened to you?”
* * *
The Ha Sung-woon that Chul-soo remembered was a “four-dimensional lunatic.”
During their time at the orphanage, among all the children who cried, laughed, raged, and complained, he was the only one who maintained an expressionless face.
After hearing “Are you a psychopath?” met with “Don’t talk to me, asshole” and settling it with fists,
Chul-soo and Sung-woon became friends.
Chul-soo had always thought:
That guy was impossible to read.
Handsome enough to pass as an aspiring actor, yet whenever he opened his mouth, incomprehensible words poured out.
It was a sports day long ago.
While other children ate boxed lunches their parents had packed, the two orphans sat on a bench tearing into plain bread.
Chul-soo spoke bitterly, gazing at the field.
“Kids with parents have it good. They even get fried chicken….”
Sung-woon, seeing Chul-soo’s melancholy, suddenly said:
“Look in a mirror.”
“This bastard really… you want me to read the room after seeing my ugly mug?”
As Chul-soo clenched his fist, Sung-woon shoved his bread into Chul-soo’s mouth and spoke.
“Looks are genetic. Look at your face. Even if your parents were alive, you wouldn’t have been the star of the athletic festival—you’d have been a side character. So stop blaming the lack of parents and just accept that your genes are unfortunate. And when you’re depressed, chewing carbs helps scientifically, so finish eating my bread.”
It was unclear whether it was an insult or comfort, but strangely, Chul-soo’s mood improved a little.
Anyway, he was an odd fellow.
Time passed like that.
A friend became a brother.
One day, the Tower appeared.
Humanity awakened.
Ha Sung-woon, who had been missing for a while, returned as someone unable to awaken.
Chul-soo willingly helped his brother, who had nowhere else to go.
He found a home and gave one room to his brother.
Whether it was the shock of failing to awaken.
Ha Sung-woon had become sharp.
You could say there was a cold, blade-like edge to him.
…Or perhaps he seemed like someone who’d killed many people.
The lunatic became even more of a lunatic.
The one who seemed like a natural psychopath had those traits intensify, and now he’d become something beyond that—something utterly chilling—but…
Chul-soo didn’t mind.
Ha Sung-woon had always been strange anyway.
B-rank hunter Kim Chul-soo was a busy man, often away from the Villa.
Each time, he’d turn the TV up to maximum volume for his brother who couldn’t leave the corner of the room, and he’d been repeating the routine of gathering as many calorie sticks from rations as possible and sharing them for already ten years.
The strange Ha Sung-woon had become even stranger….
Listening to the story of the Apostle Ha Sung-woon, whose existence defied comprehension, Chul-soo stopped thinking.
* * *
‘This bastard Chul-soo, spacing out again.’
Chul-soo wasn’t bright.
You could say his brain moved slowly.
It wasn’t the first or second time I’d thought how frustrating it was that our thinking speeds didn’t match.
‘Still, the kid’s got a good heart.’
Just seeing how he nods along without understanding anything proves it.
“You’re a bit lacking, but you’re a good guy, Chul-soo.”
“…So what. Why are you telling me this?”
“Something good happened, so I’m telling my brother first.”
“Cut the crap. If you’re explaining it this thoroughly, you’ve got something you want to ask me for.”
That’s why I hate guys with sharp instincts.
“Caught, huh? You’ve always been like that.”
“Let’s do something together, Chul-soo.”
“What is it.”
I pulled out a possession ticket.
I’m now possessing B-rank hunter Kim Chul-soo.
* * *
I watched Chul-soo vanish before my eyes, engulfed in golden light, then hurried back to my room.
[…]
On the monitor.
Chul-soo appeared vacant, his mind struggling to process what had just happened.
[Ha Sung-woon? Are you listening?]
I sent Nebula forward to stand before Chul-soo.
[Damn, that thing looks absolutely terrifying.]
Chul-soo stretched his hand out in a stopping gesture and stumbled backward, as if pleading for Nebula to come no closer.
[Huff, ha. Huff, ha.]
He steadied his racing heart with deep, measured breaths.
Watching him, I opened the compendium.
[Compendium]
[Kim Chul-soo]
[Awakened Ability: Recovery (B)]
[Current Ability: B]
[Latent Ability: B]
Everything from awakened ability to latent ability—all B-rank.
Truly, Kim Chul-soo.
A man who embodied mediocrity itself.
[Stat Breakdown]
[Strength] C
[Endurance] B
[Agility] C
[Mana] B
[Luck] C
“Unbelievable….”
Look at these pathetic stats.
Compared to Han Seol-ah’s primary stats ranging from A to EX, it was almost laughable.
[Traits]
[Unique Trait: The Most Ordinary Existence] (B)
└[B-rank] (-)
“Look at this unique trait.”
Truly… Kim Chul-soo is a legend.
[Common Traits]
[Talent] (B)
[Homeowner] (B)
[Optimistic] (B)
He deserves the title of a true B-rank hunter.
But this man.
Ha Sung-woon’s only brother.
That alone held EX-grade value.
“Your life just changed.”
I opened Warehouse 99.
Lost Honor possessed five Genesis-grade items in total.
The fifth I gave to Lee Ah-woon. The Primordial Essence.
The fourth I gave to Han Seol-ah. Eternal Winter.
The third—the developer’s, or rather the Dimensional Merchant’s personal favorite. The Nameless.
The first I created to equip Nebula. The Shell of the Abyss.
And there was a second.
—I’ll give it to Chul-soo when the day comes that he plays this game.
Back when I didn’t know Lost Honor was a game with such intimate ties to reality…
A second Genesis-grade item I’d crafted with that mindset.
Priestly vestments designed to suit B-rank healer Chul-soo.
‘The Immortal Rite’.
The effect was simple.
[Genesis Trait: Immortal Sun]
…Eternal life and deathlessness.

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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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