The Heavenly Demon Destroys the Tower - Chapter 18
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 18
“Uncle, are you a famous person?”
“Ah…… Well, my uncle ranks 11th among Korean Players. Third among Warriors.”
“I see. I haven’t been Awakened long, so I didn’t know.”
Lee Kang-han, whose available waking hours each day were limited by sleep.
Before his Player Awakening, he’d spent most of his time investigating Tower Syndrome.
So he hadn’t managed to learn all the Korean Players.
“But then why is someone so distinguished here…….”
“He’s rather overprotective when it comes to me…… He took a day off and followed along.”
Shin Yu-ri laughed awkwardly.
Shin Dong-seok fixed Lee Kang-han with a piercing stare.
“Hey, you know your brother, right?”
“My brother?”
“Shin Kyung-chul, the Management Bureau Chief.”
“Of course I know him—he’s quite well-known.”
“Ha. So…… you’re not a complete idiot, then.”
This man.
So he was Shin Kyung-chul’s younger brother.
‘Which makes him Shin Yu-ri’s uncle.’
Lee Kang-han was mapping out someone else’s family tree when.
Tap. Tap.
Shin Dong-seok turned his back.
He walked over to the long table positioned in the executive office and sat down.
“Well then, how about two 10+ Strength users test their power?”
“Test our power?”
“Yeah, peacefully.”
Swish.
With his sleeves rolled up, Shin Dong-seok.
“Arm wrestling—how about it?”
He proposed an arm wrestling match to Lee Kang-han.
‘Arm wrestling between two 10+ Strength users.’
A stat of 10 was supposedly only attainable by national-level athletes.
If Shin Dong-seok had a plus attached, his strength must be extraordinary.
With his sleeves rolled up, the arm muscles exposed rippled visibly, quivering with tension.
Certainly, his raw strength appeared formidable.
“Uncle! Why the sudden arm wrestling……!”
“No, actually. This sounds fun. Let’s do it.”
Before Shin Yu-ri could even stop him.
Lee Kang-han took a seat across from Shin Dong-seok.
“Hmph. I like that you’re not backing down.”
“I’m curious to see what 10+ Strength is really like.”
“So we’re on the same page.”
Swish.
Lee Kang-han clasped hands with Shin Dong-seok.
The contrast was immediately apparent.
Unlike Shin Dong-seok, who had the bulk of a bear with forearms the size of an ordinary person’s thigh.
Lee Kang-han, though similar in height, had a slender frame compared to his opponent.
To any observer, he looked destined to lose an arm-wrestling match.
But.
“Alright…… Let’s go!”
As Shin Dong-seok’s face flushed crimson and he began applying serious force.
‘What.’
Lee Kang-han, who’d been anticipating what 10+ strength felt like.
Was instantly disappointed.
‘Why is he so weak?’
Hissss. Hissss.
Shin Dong-seok’s face burnt red, exhaling sharply through his nose, straining with all his might.
But.
Lee Kang-han’s arm didn’t budge an inch.
Did this person really have 10+ strength?
“Why don’t you try putting some real strength into it?”
“What—what?”
“Or are you saying this is all you’ve got?”
Lee Kang-han’s composure never wavered.
“Hngh……!”
Shin Dong-seok gritted his teeth and summoned every ounce of strength he possessed, but
Lee Kang-han’s hand remained perfectly still.
‘Is the effect of the Cheonma Divine Art at 15% really this vast?’
Then again, even with the same 10+ rating,
one person might have 11
while another could have 20.
Lee Kang-han felt no need to continue the test of strength with Shin Dong-seok
and in one swift motion,
drove his hand down.
Shin Dong-seok’s wrist snapped instantly,
and crack——!
the table splintered with fissures.
“Ngh…… ugh……!”
As Shin Dong-seok gazed at his twisted right wrist and let out a groan of pain,
“Just as I thought, truly Cheonma! A power worthy of Humanity’s Strongest!”
Shin Yu-ri approached him with sparkling eyes.
“The table’s cracked, but should I compensate you for the damage?”
“No, no. Don’t worry about it. Are you sure your hand is all right?”
“I’m fine, but…….”
With that, Lee Kang-han glanced across the table.
Shin Dong-seok’s face was twisted in discomfort.
“Hey, this nephew of mine broke his uncle’s wrist and doesn’t even care?”
“It was Uncle who wanted to do it in the first place.”
“Pfft…….”
Crack. Crack.
Shin Dong-seok twisted his fractured wrist back into place,
then shook his head at Lee Kang-han in disbelief.
“Hah…… I simply can’t understand it. How can your Ranking be E? Won’t your Trait disappear any day now?”
“Uncle! Please don’t say such unlucky things.”
“Wow, you really…… how long have you known this guy, taking his side like that?”
“Cheonma is my only hope right now, so of course I have to support him! And please stop calling him ‘hey’ or ‘this guy.’ How is it you keep using informal speech? When did you ever meet him before?”
Shin Dong-seok made a bewildered expression at his niece’s reproach.
Scratch, scratch.
He rubbed the back of his head.
“Fine. Understood. Should I just call you Cheonma then? Or would that work?”
“Just use my name. As for speech—please continue as you were. The formal tone looks rather awkward on you.”
“Oh. This fellow knows what’s up. All right, Kang-han. Are you really going to accept that donation from my niece here?”
A donation.
Was he referring to the half a billion won he’d mentioned before selling off his stocks?
‘I wish it could be truly free, but……’
Nothing in this world is truly free.
Receiving money steadily from the Management Bureau director’s daughter and the president running a major agency,
it felt burdensome when the nature of the Trait remained entirely mysterious.
‘And now money isn’t even urgent anymore.’
The power of the Cheonma Body had already brought in astronomical sums from Iron.
If he kept this up, there would be no need to worry about money.
There was no real reason to accept this burdensome donation(?) here.
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“Eh? But why not? Is the amount too small?”
“It just feels too much of a burden.”
“I’m really quite all right. It’s not that large a sum……!”
Half a billion won wasn’t a large sum?
What was this woman’s scale of thinking?
Just as Lee Kang-han was waving off the offer,
“Then, what if we just sign a three-month contract with us instead?”
“A contract?”
“Right. We sign a three-month contract, you take the signing fee, and it’s not like you’re getting charity, right? It’s a fair exchange—give and take on both sides.”
Shin Dong-seok proposed a three-month contract arrangement.
* * *
‘The offer I got before didn’t have a time limit…….’
An agent contract that could be terminated whenever he wished.
But now they were asking him to swap that for a contract with a three-month lock-in—in exchange for the signing fee.
“From your perspective, you’d get the signing fee without any burden, so it’s not a bad deal, is it?”
“Hmm.”
“And even if the Cheonma Body Trait disappears tomorrow, you’ll have pocketed a decent sum and can retire comfortably. Seems worth doing.”
“Oh, uncle! It won’t disappear!”
“……Well, fine then. If you’re offering that signing fee.”
The free part was the issue.
A three-month binding contract in exchange for a substantial signing fee was a legitimate trade.
And if the Cheonma Body really did vanish the next day—that would be one thing.
But if it persisted for the full three months, GLASS would profit handsomely from their contract with Lee Kang-han.
Lee Kang-han made his decision.
“I would’ve preferred just to donate……, but if that’s what you wish, I suppose there’s no helping it.”
Shin Yu-ri promptly revised the contract and printed it out.
The terms were identical to before, but now locked in for three months.
The signing fee was the 500 million won in donations that Shin Yu-ri had originally proposed.
The contract proceeded swiftly.
The fee was wired directly to the account Lee Kang-han provided.
“Ah…… this time the text stayed normal.”
Despite the contract being finalized.
There was no change in Shin Yu-ri’s Trait window.
“I see. That’s unfortunate.”
“Was the amount too small, perhaps? Should I have added another zero……?”
“No. It seems Assistance through the system works differently than a straight bank transfer. Think about it—we just exchanged TP, and the amount was far greater than this, wasn’t it?”
It did seem unlikely the system would track individual bank transfers.
Shin Dong-seok’s point made sense.
“Ah…… so only TP exchanges that come directly from you would count?”
“Right. So stop doing bank transfers.”
As Shin Dong-seok was cautioning his niece.
Lee Kang-han, glancing at his suddenly fattened bank account, felt a sudden question take shape.
‘What if I bought TP with this 500 million and resold it?’
What if he used 500 million to purchase TP.
And then Shin Yu-ri bought it back at 120% markup—she’d meet her ‘Assistance’ condition, and everyone wins.
Lee Kang-han, curious about whether resale was possible, asked Shin Yu-ri directly.
“Ah. Resale isn’t possible. Only TP you earn directly can be converted through the TP trading window. Though buying TP itself is freely available through Tower Tube.”
“Ah. So Player sponsorship comes from there.”
“Yes. The Incentive through the TP trading window applies only to TP that Players have earned directly while climbing the Tower. Sponsored TP doesn’t qualify for Incentives.”
“I see.”
Makes sense.
If resale were possible, this entire Incentive structure would collapse.
Anyone could just buy from Tower Tube and sell to a guild for guaranteed profit.
‘So the TP I received as sponsorship must’ve been used to upgrade the Goblin Territory—all 33,000 of it got exchanged.’
The 10,000 TP he’d received from CH111 in exchange for exposing his status window.
That seemed to have been prioritized for upgrading the Goblin district.
‘So when it comes time to upgrade Man Ma Jeon, I’ll need to buy the TP myself.’
He’d sell the TP he earned in the Tower to his agent at a premium rate.
And buy TP from Tower Tube for Man Ma Jeon upgrades.
If he’d known the structure was like this.
Maybe he should’ve held off on the Goblin upgrades?
‘No. I can just earn more.’
Who could have predicted an exchange rate this favorable would come around so soon?
And now, with 500 million freshly deposited in his account.
He felt no real regret.
With the contract wrapped up.
“Then I’ll drive you home! Should I take you to the address listed on the contract?”
“Yes, please do that.”
The three of them got back in the car.
“Right now your Trait is E-rank, so advertisers won’t be interested yet, but give it a month and people will start paying attention. When that happens, I’ll match you with the best possible deals.”
“A month? Wait, you think that Trait will last a month?”
“Seriously, Uncle, stop poking holes in everything.”
They also discussed advertising contracts, another one of an agent’s duties.
“Iron’s the best place to be right now. Even if I’m the only one climbing well, I can shoot up the rankings.”
“Is it different at higher levels?”
“You haven’t watched many Diamond broadcasts? The higher you climb, the more it takes than just you performing well.”
As they traded various bits of gossip about tower climbing,
before long, they arrived at her apartment.
“Master, I’ll come running to exchange TP whenever you need! Even every day! Oh, if the rate were 130%, 140%, that would’ve been better……!”
“Every day is too much. I’ll come exchange it once I’ve accumulated a decent amount of TP.”
“Of course! I’ll be waiting!”
After seeing Lee Kang-han off, Shin Yu-ri got back in the car.
“Yu-ri.”
“……?”
“So, what letters showed up?”
Shin Dong-seok asked, looking at her.
“Letters?”
“You said new letters unlocked after meeting that guy. They must’ve changed from before.”
“Oh, that.”
Shin Yu-ri let out a small laugh.
“‘Assistance’ got ‘the more’ added to it.”
“……The more?”
“Yes.”
“You’re joking.”
Shin Dong-seok seemed more frustrated than she was, grumbling to himself.
After waiting so long for new letters to appear.
If all that showed up was “Assistance” changing to “Assistance the More,” he had every right to be annoyed.
But.
“At least something appeared.”
Perhaps because she’d seen hope in Lee Kang-han,
Shin Yu-ri remained remarkably optimistic.
“Are you out of your mind? We just blew five hundred million to add ‘the more’ to your Trait!”
“Why would we waste five hundred million?”
“Huh?”
“It’s not like I gave it away one-sided. I made a contract with Master.”
“Right, a contract with an E-rank whose Trait will disappear soon!”
“Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you it won’t disappear!”
Uncle and niece bickered back and forth about whether Lee Kang-han’s Trait would fade or persist.
By the time the two had returned to Seoul,
‘Time to sleep soon.’
For Lee Kang-han too, the promised eight o’clock was drawing near.
Of course, since he’d circled through 777 Tower that morning,
he didn’t collapse immediately at eight,
‘But this tower should wrap up fast, so I’ll be out soon anyway. Let me set up the camera and get some rest.’
Lee Kang-han finished his preparations and lay down on the bed.
What if tomorrow he got dragged into that red portal again and woke up injured?
And so he fell asleep.
“……What is this?”
The next day.
When he woke up,
he found a blood-stained Paper Fragment clenched in his hand.
At the very top, helpfully written in Korean:
[Method for Cheonma Body Advancement].
‘This is… my handwriting, now that I look closer.’
What?
Lee Kang-han frowned, but
‘Let me just read it.’
Beneath the Paper Fragment.
I examined the written characters.
The Celestial Demon Shatters the Tower (Serialized)
Author │ Yeom Bi
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Daelung Post Tower 1st, Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Homepage │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Yeom Bi 2025
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————