The Heavenly Demon Destroys the Tower - Chapter 36

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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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Episode 36
‘An S rating? Even after killing the snake?’
Lee Kang-han had grown accustomed to receiving SSS+ ratings.
He’d caught the pursuing serpent too, so he’d expected another SSS+ this time.
But when the Performance Evaluation came through, it showed only an S.
‘Did I fail to meet some Clear Condition?’
The phrases that appeared during the Performance Evaluation seemed to indicate the conditions that shaped the rating itself.
The only ones that showed up were cleared in under one hour and defeated eighty percent of the Lizardmen, so that was all.
It seemed there was some hidden Clear Condition he’d missed.
‘I thought catching the snake would be it… but apparently not.’
Was there something else he could have done in that tower besides catching the snake?
Lee Kang-han tilted his head in confusion.
But since the result had already come back this way, he decided to accept it as unavoidable.
[Clear rewards will be distributed proportional to your evaluation score.]
[Opening clear rewards.]
[Your level increases by 1.]
[Your level has reached the current Rank ceiling. Additional experience points will accumulate as personal ‘Score’ for the player.]
[You obtain 4,000 TP.]
He received his clear rewards.
‘So instead of leveling up, I’m getting more Score accumulated.’
Score.
Points that determined each month whether towers would spawn in each country or not.
Every month, the Score accumulated by individual players was added to the total Score of the country where that player was located.
Since different Ranks earned different amounts of Score,
someone at Iron Rank like Lee Kang-han couldn’t contribute much.
So then,
‘Even if Score piles up, it doesn’t seem very useful…… what a shame.’
He was locked at level cap 25 until reaching Bronze Rank.
Until then, he’d just be gathering meaningless Score.
Lee Kang-han clicked his tongue.
Within the game, he’d been lavishly sponsored by TowerTube with enormous TP.
He’d tested remote worship and achieved a great deal.
But the actual Performance Evaluation was disappointing.
‘Well, I gained quite a lot today, so I should be satisfied with this much.’
As he was thinking this,
he found himself back home without realizing it.
The first thing he checked after arriving home was the TP displayed on his status window.
“Wow…… what?”
The TP field showed a number exceeding one million.
Donations had surged today, true enough.
But he hadn’t expected to break through the million mark.
‘This puts it over 1.3 billion…… that’s crazy.’
He was the first player to destroy a tower.
And with scouts from various nations offering massive sponsorships trying to contact him, he’d expected a large sum to accumulate.
But he never thought it would exceed a million.
Lee Kang-han blinked his eyes repeatedly.
‘Should I use this money to upgrade the Demon Realm Territory?’
His thoughts soon shifted toward the Demon Realm Territory.
Until now, he’d managed to scrape together just enough TP for upgrades.
But now that he had financial abundance, he decided to check if further upgrades were possible.
However,
[To upgrade the ‘Goblin’s Black Market’ to Lv.2, the following conditions must be met:]
1. Average Goblin level 30 or higher
2. Player Rank Bronze or above
[To upgrade the ‘Orc Shaman’s Altar’ to Lv.2, the following conditions must be met:]
1. Five or more Gersh Empire Orcs residing in the territory
2. Player Rank Bronze or above
Facilities in the Demon Realm Territory that bore a Lv. designation
basically required the player to reach Bronze Rank or above first.
This was a situation where even if he wanted to spend TP, he couldn’t.
‘But isn’t it a bit premature to build the Elf Territory right now?’
TP was plentiful, sure enough.
But the only being who would actually live there was Karana, who stubbornly believed herself to be an orc.
For as long as she remained at the Orc Shaman’s Altar.
The Elf Territory would sit empty — no point in constructing it now.
‘Besides, who knows how much TP I’ll need once I upgrade the Black Market and the Altar, let alone when I try to actually raise the level.’
The Black Market had consumed 60,000 TP.
The Orc Shaman’s Altar had cost 200,000 TP.
Climbing to level 2 would demand far more.
A bit of breathing room didn’t mean he could throw caution to the wind.
‘I’ll keep saving until I reach Bronze Rank.’
With that resolution, Lee Kang-han turned his thoughts to the timeline ahead.
He’d cleared the tower to level 6 today.
Levels 7 through 10 would take four more days.
‘Ah. With those two unused Treasure Vault Tickets factored in, that’s six days total.’
The Treasure Vault of Heavens — bonus map in name, brutal in difficulty.
That map he’d meant to return to later.
Now it seemed manageable.
He’d hit level 25, and his Cheonma Body Constitution had risen to D-rank, making him eligible for the Cheonma Divine Sword.
‘Still, I should spend about three more days in ordinary towers. By then, the hype will have died down.’
The Treasure Vault of Heavens — harder than most maps.
He wanted to tackle it when interest had cooled, not in the fever of the moment like this.
‘I should research how others have cleared the other Iron Rank maps.’
After securing an S-rank today, Lee Kang-han felt the need to investigate the clear conditions of other Iron Rank towers.
An S-rank seemed achievable by defeating enemies quickly and climbing fast.
‘But discovering the hidden conditions — that’s what gets you SSS+.’
As Lee Kang-han was mapping out his next moves.
Buzz, buzz, buzz……
His phone vibrated.
Shin Yu-ri : You were amazing today! We’re already getting offers pouring in.
Shin Yu-ri : I’ll work to land you the best terms possible, so please don’t commit to anything yet and just wait patiently.
Waiting was easy enough.
— Yes, understood. Thank you for your help.
Shin Yu-ri : Got it! I’ll coordinate everything carefully and get you the best result! Oh, and I’ll also be in negotiations with our country’s regulatory board, so if they reach out directly, just tell them I’m handling it. I can appeal to patriotism and loyalty, after all.
Patriotism, huh.
Lee Kang-han certainly wasn’t devoid of such sentiment.
But that was a far cry from letting himself get lowballed on a contract.
— Understood. I’ll do that.
With that, Lee Kang-han ended the conversation with Shin Yu-ri.
“Having an agent is pretty nice.”
He found himself grateful, once again, that he’d signed with her.
Having a representative definitely made things easier.
‘Now I should focus on my own work.’
He chanted through the true secret verses of the Cheonma Divine Arts, sent today’s stream recording to Kim Ju-young.
And dug into research on Iron Rank tower clear conditions.
‘There’s almost no public information on the actual conditions.’
Despite handling all this, it was still only 9 PM.
Under normal circumstances, he’d already be asleep by now.
‘But since Tower Syndrome is gone, I’ve got the whole evening free.’
His mind was sharp and alert.
He pondered what to do next.
Then a message to his father surfaced in his memory.
He’d sent it after exiting the First Tower.
But the unread notification — that lone “1” — hadn’t disappeared.
‘I should try messaging him again.’
Lee Kang-han sent another message through the messenger app and waited for a reply.
But none came.

Three days passed.
No answer came.
* * *
[Evaluating Iron Tower No.33 performance…….]
[Tower cleared within one hour.]
[Slimes suppressed at 80% or above.]
[Clear Evaluation – S]
Third day of tower climbing.
Lee Kang-han’s brow furrowed at the sight of the S grade.
‘Two S-ranks and one SSS+ in three days.’
He hadn’t realized it because he’d been receiving SSS+ so frequently before.
So this was harder than he’d thought.
‘Even looking up information, hardly anyone actually knows the proper evaluation criteria.’
How many enemies you suppress.
How long it takes to clear.
Those were the two most crucial axes for measuring performance.
All players did their utmost to push those metrics higher by any means.
Like Lee Kang-han, aiming for SSS+ and hunting for hidden conditions.
Only a tiny fraction of players had that kind of leeway.
Perhaps that’s why.
-How did you even get SSS+?
-Could you maybe upload a strategy video?
-lol what strategy? Only the Cheonma could pull that off.
-Still, even knowing the Clear Condition would be nice…
The information Lee Kang-han was looking for barely surfaced at all.
Instead, the overwhelming majority of inquiries were people asking him how he’d managed to get SSS+ in the first place.
He kept searching for information about the SSS+ Clear Condition.
But with low expectations, Lee Kang-han logged back into the real world.
‘Now that I think about it…… my viewer count just plummeted below a hundred thousand.’
When the tower shattered and he streamed next.
Viewership had exploded with the world’s attention riveted on him.
But once the dust had settled and the outline became clear, the numbers had dropped sharply.
‘At this level, public interest has cooled enough that challenging the Treasure Vault of Heavens should be safe.’
The viewer count was still substantial even now.
But for someone who’d experienced the million-viewer era, the adjustment felt strange.
Now to obtain the Cheonma Divine Sword skill from the Treasure Vault of Heavens.
Clear a 10-stage tower and reach Bronze. That’s the plan.
As Lee Kang-han was mapping out the route to Bronze.
Ring-ring-ring…….
A call came from Shin Yu-ri.
[Cheonma!]
“Yes.”
Though he’d told her she could use a more casual honorific.
Shin Yu-ri kept calling him Cheonma, saying Cheonma was just fine.
Her bright voice continued.
[At the awards ceremony this Saturday, and apparently FIPA is sending a dedicated aircraft on Friday!]
“A dedicated aircraft?”
[Yes. It’s quite the contrast to our country, isn’t it? Korea’s Tower Management Bureau tried doing a media play with the hundred-million-won prize money and ended up getting blasted instead.]
In recognition of being the first in the world to break a tower.
Korea’s Tower Management Bureau had announced it would present Lee Kang-han with a commendation and prize money.
This time they’d specifically raised the prize from ten million to one hundred million won and run news articles about it.
-Okay, a hundred million is whatever, but why brag about raising it from ten? lol
-Right, like “we specially took care of this” kinda vibe? ㄷㄷ
-The Cheonma was getting over a billion a day in donations back then lolololol
-Just put him on special management watch and rein him in already  
-Special? It’d need to be special+++
-Honestly, the Cheonma’s emigration score keeps going up at this rate…
He was only getting bashed for even calling it praise.
Meanwhile, FIPA.
[FIPA promises to grant ‘Cheonma Lee Kang-han’ a special item.]
[FIPA Chairman Blaet stated in an interview: ‘The player who destroys a tower for the first time deserves a special reward.’]
Word spread that Lee Kang-han would receive a special item.
‘I wonder what this special item could be.’
They hadn’t specified exactly what it would be.
But given how much press it was getting, it had to be something decent.
[Ah, Kang-han, I’m asking just to be sure — you have a passport, don’t you?]
“A passport… I made one back in high school. Let me search for it.”
I’d gotten it for a school trip abroad.
But ended up not going because of Tower Syndrome.
[Yes. Since you’re leaving Friday, take your time finding it.]
“I’ll look for it right now.”
Lee Kang-han hung up the phone.
Then he thought about where his passport might be.
‘I don’t think I saw it when I searched the master bedroom before.’
He’d raked through that room thoroughly, looking for information about his mother.
No sign of a passport then.
‘So it must be in my room.’
With that thought, Lee Kang-han went to his bedroom.
Click-click-click.
As he rummaged through the desk drawers,
“Here it is.”
He found the passport at the back of the lowest drawer.
As he reached to pull it out,
Scrape.
His hand brushed against the rough wooden floor of the drawer.
And then—
Flash…!
“Huh?”
A red light flashed from the drawer’s bottom.
[The Divine Protection of %&$&$ activates.]
A message appeared—the nameless blessing
that had been governing Lee Kang-han all this time was activating.
What?
The blessing activates just from touching the drawer floor?
But it was just a wooden floor…
‘Don’t tell me Tower Syndrome is flaring up again…?’
That was Lee Kang-han’s first thought upon seeing the message.
[You are in an Awakened state.]
[The Divine Protection cannot dominate you.]
Fortunately, his ‘Awakening’ held firm—
he avoided falling under the nameless blessing’s control again.
But still.
Whoooosh…!
Just as he’d seen in the recorded footage before,
a red portal opened.
“…”
If I go through this… does it lead to the First Tower?
“Inventory.”
He opened his inventory and checked the First Tower Seal—the item needed to enter the First Tower.
It was still on cooldown.
So this portal had opened independently of the Seal.
“Wow… the portal opens just from touching the drawer floor?”
He’d searched the master bedroom looking for any connection to his mother.
But turns out,
the problem was in my room all along?
Lee Kang-han let out a hollow laugh and stared at the portal.
It opened wide at first, then slowly contracted.
If he didn’t enter now, it would vanish soon.
‘Well… since it’s come to this… maybe I should get some training in the Cheonma Divine Arts from Shin Nyeo?’
The two-week cooldown on the Seal was pretty long anyway.
Lee Kang-han resolved to enter the First Tower on his own feet.
Whoosh!
He hurled himself into the portal as it began to fade.
Then.
[Oh! You’ve finally arrived, sir!]
From the world beyond the portal,
Shin Nyeo’s ghost greeted him with wild enthusiasm, her hair streaming loose.
The Cheonma Destroys the Tower (Serial)
Author │ Yeom Bi
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 204 Daelung Post Tower 1st, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul, Korea (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ 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 publisher and author.
Violation of this will result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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