I Inherited the Basement of the Tower - Chapter 54

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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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Inherited the Basement 1 of the Tower – Episode 54

“Find their voices.”

【The Black Dragon’s Consciousness resonates with your intent.】
【Beginning detection.】

My senses intertwined in an instant.
Countless sounds from all directions drew near and receded in endless waves.

Honk, honk—!

The blare of a car horn.

Ah, I really want to leave work.

The sound of a cigarette burning as a sigh escaped.

Woof, woof! Woof!

A small dog barking ferociously.
And then….

Li Wei.

‘Found them.’

The voice calling out the name was Lin Xiao-wei’s.

Whoosh—.

I deactivated the Black Armor and rushed toward them.
How long did I run?
With a brick wall between us, I heard their voices.

“…!”
“….”

They seemed to be having a conversation.
But it wasn’t in Korean, so I couldn’t understand it.

‘So they were Chinese after all.’

Ding-!

I turned on my phone’s voice recorder and pressed myself against the wall, recording their conversation.
They wouldn’t be having casual small talk in such a desolate alley.

‘Just one piece of evidence. Just one shred of proof that they’re harming our country!’

* * *

…Li Wei’s neck veins bulged with rage.

“Damn it! How much longer are you going to make me do this nonsense!”

But Lin Xiao-wei remained composed.
He simply gazed at Li Wei with eyes narrowed in contempt.

“Until the Party gives new orders.”
“I’ve already completed my mission! Naturalizing you to Korea under a false identity! That was my task!”
“Consider this a new mission. Enter the special dungeon floor and sabotage the conquest attempt. So that China can place a bid. Is that so difficult?”

At the emotionless voice, Li Wei clenched his fists.

“My wife… is she still alive?”
“…Of course. If you carry out your orders well, you can return home and become a Party member. You and your family as well.”

Crunch!

Li Wei ground his teeth.
And he nodded.

“Fine. But this had better be the last order. You understand me! Damn it!”

He kicked a can on the ground and disappeared from the alley.
Lin Xiao-wei, left alone in the alley, lit a cigarette.

“….”

Cigarette smoke hung thick and heavy through the alley.
Then, in that instant.

“…!”

She whipped her head toward something.

“…Just now.”

I felt a gaze from this direction.
She stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette with her foot and crushed it.
Then moved toward that spot with deliberate stealth.
Slowly, so whoever was hiding wouldn’t notice.

“Who’s there!”

And finally, bursting out from nearby—

“Meow-.”

There was only a cat lounging in the sun.
Lin Xiao-wei gazed down at the cat quietly, then patted its rear.
The cat purred contentedly in response.

“…Must have been my imagination.”

In the end, Lin Xiao-wei never realized it.
At the mouth of the alley, someone was recording their entire conversation.

* * *

Ding!

“Okay.”

I confirmed the recording had captured everything clearly and quickly vacated the spot.
In that final moment when Lin Xiao-wei suddenly lunged at me, I thought I was done for.
Fortunately, a stray cat happened to divert her suspicion.
Well, even without the cat, I would’ve escaped through the darkness one way or another.

‘Still, I can’t let them know I’m under suspicion.’

From that point on, their actions would become far more cautious, making it exponentially harder to gather intelligence.

‘Losing the advantage in information warfare would translate into serious damage down the line.’

In any case, the recording was a success.
I smiled contentedly and sent the recording to Hyeon-jun.
Hyeon-jun turned out to be quite capable, surprisingly.

‘He said he could speak four languages, didn’t he.’

Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese.
Of course, if the recording contained a cipher only they knew, decryption would take time, but the Association would crack it quickly.

‘Wait, no.’

I paused for a moment.

‘They’ve infiltrated Korea. What makes me think the Association doesn’t have their people inside?’

Thinking it over carefully, I sent Hyeon-jun an additional message.

[Kang Ha-jin: If possible, translate it privately. Just in case.]

No reply yet.
He’s probably driving right now.
I’d have to wait for the translation of Lin Xiao-wei and Li Wei’s conversation, so I headed toward the temple instead.
I’d ended training early using my authority as the raid leader, and by now everyone should have gone home.

‘My training progresses best at Yahwi’s sword dojo anyway.’

It’s been a while since I’ve practiced the Yahwi style.

‘During team training, I can’t practice my martial techniques.’

I understood that the team’s synchronization mattered more than my individual strength, but there were times when I wanted to unleash my techniques without restraint.
Besides, my Fourth Technique had grown quite familiar to my body by now.
I was planning to ask Yahwi to teach me his ultimate technique.

‘I wonder what it could be.’

Now that I’d confirmed the power of my Fourth Technique, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t anticipating it.
Even if I learned it before entering the special dungeon floor, I wouldn’t have much time to train before going in.
Still, I wanted to add at least one more card I could use in actual combat.
Of course, the decision to teach me or not rested with Yahwi.
If he said it was impossible at my current level, I had no choice but to accept it.
In the temple, I may be the highest, but when it comes to swordsmanship, Yahwi is my master.

‘And I should check on Elder Barkalor too.’

Elder Barkalor was currently pouring all his efforts into reforming the Yahwi School.
But my purpose for this visit was something different.
It was a preliminary survey for a smooth conquest of the special dungeon floor.

‘He said there are books related to Thanatos in his office.’

Information and money—the more, the better.
Just as I was about to head home.

Zing—.

A vibration rang out.

‘Already?’

I wondered if Hyeon-jun’s translation was already finished.
But an unexpected name appeared on the screen.

[Park Eun-ji: Hey mister. It’s me.]
[(A squirrel character waving its hand emoticon.)]

“Park Eun-ji?”

We became part of the same special dungeon layer conquest team and exchanged contact information.
But I don’t recall ever exchanging personal messages after that.
And now she’s suddenly sending me emoticons.

‘It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen emoticons.’

Whenever I contact someone, it’s either Hyeon-jun or Gu Jang-hun.
Or it’s work-related communication.
Perhaps that’s why seeing these cute little drawings made me feel oddly uncomfortable.
It wasn’t because of my age.
I’m not that old, and I know that these days people use emoticons regardless of age.

‘I just don’t have friends to exchange emoticons with.’

Suddenly, I felt the weight of two facts simultaneously—that people called me mister, and that I had no friends.

‘…Though it is kind of cute.’

I laughed with a slight frown.

[Kang Ha-jin: What is it.]
[Kang Ha-jin: I’m not accepting after-school activity applications right now.]

[Park Eun-ji: (shocked squirrel.)]
[Park Eun-ji: Huh, what after-school activity?]
[Park Eun-ji: I’m not doing that kind of thing these days.]

[Kang Ha-jin: But “these days” aside, aren’t you the oldest among the younger ones now?]
[Kang Ha-jin: You’re nineteen—you’ll be twenty soon.]

[Park Eun-ji: (crying squirrel.)]
[Park Eun-ji: (crying squirrel 2.)]
[Park Eun-ji: Still, I want to become an adult soon and try drinking lol.]

[Kang Ha-jin: I’m busy. Just get to the point.]

[Park Eun-ji: Oh. That guild master unnie wanted to meet up.]
Park Eun-ji: I was trying to tell you earlier, but you left before I could finish ㅠㅠ.
[Park Eun-ji: She’s asking if you’re free this weekend?]

It was the weekend.
That meant it was after clearing the special dungeon floor.
I hesitated for a moment, then decided it wouldn’t work and moved my fingers.

[Kang Ha-jin: I hate to ask when I’m already disappointed.]
[Kang Ha-jin: If possible, as quickly as you can.]
[Kang Ha-jin: Or is today really not possible?]
[Kang Ha-jin: It would only take a moment.]

Once I cleared the special dungeon floor, there would be no reason for me to remain at level 10 any longer.
From that point on, I planned to ascend through the upper and lower floors as quickly as possible, alternating between them.

‘I’m also bothered by what the Association President said about Ahn Jae-jun.’

Therefore, I wanted to keep my schedule as clear as possible.
Park Eun-ji didn’t respond immediately.
She came back about five minutes later.

[Park Eun-ji: Our guild leader is also a really busy person.]
[Park Eun-ji: So I find it quite offensive that you treat her that way!]
[Park Eun-ji: But she happens to have a free schedule and is very understanding. It works out perfectly in exactly two hours.]

Park Eun-ji then told me to come to a café she named if we were going to meet.
Since I had unilaterally set the appointment, I agreed.
I wasn’t thrilled about having two hours of free time hanging over me, but what could I do?
Something urgent must have come up.
I searched and found the café was nearby, closer than my home, so I headed to the café early to have some coffee.
Two hours was about the time it would take to go home and come back to the café.
There wasn’t even time for sword training—I’d just have to change clothes and leave immediately.

Ding!
【Black Armor dresses you in neat and casual clothing.】

…But with Black Armor around, I didn’t even need to worry about that.

* * *

Jingle-.

“Welcome~”

The clerk greeted me warmly, then froze upon seeing my face.

“Gasp!? K-Kang Ha-jin!”
“Hello. I’d like an iced Americano, please.”
“Y-yes, of course!”

The clerk made several calculation mistakes while staring at me with an astonished expression.
Finally, he hurried off to prepare the coffee.
There weren’t many customers.
Business seemed slow.
Well, that suited me fine.
If it were noisy, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on our conversation.
And I’d rather avoid becoming the subject of gossip.

‘So that’s why they say having money and staying unknown is the best.’

Being recognized everywhere I go was truly inconvenient.

‘Though I must admit, it feels rather good.’

I felt like some kind of celebrity.
Shortly after, the coffee arrived. I drank it straight without a straw, crunching on the ice as I picked up my phone.
I still had about an hour and thirty minutes before the scheduled meeting.

“Hmm.”

Wondering what to do, I typed “Thanatos” into the search bar.
Immediately, countless documents appeared.
If Elder Barkalor provided quality information, the search engine offered an overwhelming quantity of it.

“Thanatos… the god of death.”

The information wasn’t particularly substantial.
It didn’t differ much from what I already knew.
The child of Nix, and the god of death.
Though occasionally, there were interesting tidbits.

“Oh. So you got beaten up by Heracles?”

I should make a note of that.
If we ever end up fighting, it’ll be incredibly useful for provocation.

‘Well, I’m not sure if it’s true or not.’

In the first place, it’s uncertain whether the real Thanatos would even appear in a special dungeon floor.

“Twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Oh, and he was supposedly captured once while trying to kill someone?”

One more thing to add to my provocation arsenal.
I thought the god of death would be some unreachable, overwhelming deity, but that illusion shattered a bit.
Sporting such a cool name as Thanatos, what is he even doing?
My image of Thanatos in my mind had changed somewhat.

‘Looks like he has some surprisingly sloppy sides.’

I’ll need to compare this with the information Elder Barkalor provides later.
While I was thinking about that for a while.

Ding-!

The café door opened.
Wondering if it was a customer, I was about to glance over when someone sat down in front of me.
I thought it might be a fan.

“…Hello there. I’m Choi Yeon-su, the gatekeeper of the Opening.”

Someone spoke in a trembling voice.
When I looked up, it was a familiar face.

“Choi Yeon-su?”

I had discarded my usual martial robes that clung to me like a second skin and emerged in civilian attire instead.
Though calling her a civilian was a disservice—she was strikingly beautiful.
A different kind of beauty from Jeong Min-hee.
Short black bob-cut hair, long eyelashes, and pale skin that drew the eye.
Actually, “pale” would be the accurate description of her natural complexion.
But now it was flushed crimson as she slowly nodded her head.
Her hands trembled noticeably, betraying her nervousness.

“I… I asked you to… to see me. That’s what Eun-ji said.”

Ah, this outfit and demeanor.
Now I understood why she’d said it would take two hours.
This little troublemaker.
What exactly did she tell her?

—————
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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