The Heavenly Demon Destroys the Tower - Chapter 92
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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 92
‘The savior of humanity actually forsaking first place? Why does the title start like that……?’
At this point, it wasn’t a joke anymore.
It really seemed like he was thinking of himself as the savior of humanity.
As Lee Kang-han watched the text appear on the screen, he thought this.
Whoosh.
The screen shifted.
A clearing bathed in crimson light came into view.
‘This place…… could it really be Cheonma Valley?’
Cheonma Valley—a place Lee Kang-han had visited a handful of times before.
In his memory, Cheonma Valley was an expansive clearing awash in red light.
But the screen showed something added to the terrain.
Namely, countless people and corpses strewn across the ground.
Yet the survivors huddled together.
They didn’t seem to be fighting one another.
‘I thought they’d be throwing a thousand people at each other and forcing them to fight, but it’s not like that.’
If it was about determining a first-place winner among a thousand people.
He’d expected it to proceed in battle royale format.
As Lee Kang-han continued watching the screen.
Flash!
A pure white light exploded above Cheonma Valley.
[Mana Limit Value: 11.9]
Text made of light appeared.
‘Mana Limit Value at 11.9?’
What did that mean?
As Lee Kang-han saw the text and wondered.
“Ahhhhh, ahhhhh……!”
“Stop it! You’re insane!!!”
“They’re testing it in decimals starting from 10……!”
Screams erupted from where people had gathered.
‘Decimal testing?’
Were they talking about Mana Limit Value 11.9?
Then.
[Two applicants have qualified.]
The text of light changed.
Whoooosh……!
Two beams of light descended from the sky.
One went to the owner of this screen.
And the other went to the center of the cluster where most of the people were gathered.
Then.
“Come……!”
“Please, us too……!”
Where the crowd was thick, they were desperately trying to get closer to the light at the center.
But no one came toward this side.
Then.
“I…… I’m sorry, but I’ll just impose on you for a moment!”
A young boy, his eyes squeezed shut.
Came running toward this side.
‘Is it good if they touch the light?’
Watching people’s reactions, Lee Kang-han thought this.
“What’s the point of surviving now?”
For the first time from the screen.
The voice of the short-haired girl he’d seen earlier rang out.
Shhhhk.
The sound of a blade being drawn.
“Ah, please……!”
“Dying would be easier.”
A sharp arc of blade light.
A thin line appeared across the boy’s neck.
Thud…….
Her head fell straight to the ground.
“Ah, a demon……!”
“There she goes again…….”
“Don’t go over there…… That woman will kill you.”
The people around them recoiled in horror.
It seemed the short-haired woman had severed necks more than once before.
One.
“But…… if we take the Penalty, we’ll just become monsters and die anyway!”
“Let’s all rush her at once! Then that woman won’t be able to do anything!”
So receiving no ‘light’ meant becoming a monster.
People drew their weapons.
They believed that even if the woman was strong, they could subdue her with numbers.
In unison, they lunged toward her.
And yet.
“Fine. Go ahead and die now.”
Slash! Slash!
Her blade moved a few times.
Heads flew in every direction.
Though Shin Nyeo had been surrounded.
She dispatched these rabble mercenaries without hesitation, cutting through them in an instant.
‘No wavering in her hands. How many people has she killed……?’
Watching Shin Nyeo’s technique, Lee Kang-han grasped immediately that this was no first-time skill.
Whoosh.
The woman sheathed her blade.
She tilted her head slightly, gazing toward the light that had descended on the far side.
“Another one who passed through…… Still her, as expected.”
Unlike this side, where the population was sparse.
The opposite side was crowded with people, packed in densely.
“Let’s go in too……!”
“No! We just secured our spot!”
“Are you the only ones who want to live!?”
Those trying to enter clashed
with those trying to block them.
“Move it!!”
Among them were a considerable number of foreigners.
‘Looking at them now, they all seem quite young.’
If he recalled correctly, he’d first contracted Tower Syndrome at fourteen.
So these people must have fallen ill with that sleeping sickness at fourteen and been dragged here to Cheonma Valley, which is why they were so young.
As Lee Kang-han observed the crowd.
Whirrr.
The screen’s focus shifted.
It magnified and displayed the center of the light on the far side.
And there.
‘That’s…… me?’
Among the adolescents.
A grown version of Lee Kang-han stood alone, towering above them.
* * *
The light from the sky that people clung to like a lifeline.
It shone not only on the short-haired woman.
‘It applies to me as well.’
The same light illuminated Lee Kang-han in the screen.
And beside him.
‘That girl…… looks exactly like Yu-ri.’
A young girl who was the spitting image of Shin Yu-ri stood with her lips pressed tight.
‘Now that I think about it, Yu-ri said she was third place too.’
When she’d mentioned finishing third in Cheonma Valley.
He’d thought they were rivals, competing against each other.
But now they seemed more like collaborators.
As Lee Kang-han studied the two figures closely.
Shhhhh…….
A crimson mist began seeping up from the ground.
Then it happened.
“Ugh, ugh…….”
“Not again……!”
“Please! Let us inside!”
The terrified crowd surged toward the shelter, but—
“Hack, hack……!”
“No, no……not again…….”
“It hurts……! It hurts! When will this end!!!”
Those who couldn’t reach the light turned a violent crimson from head to toe.
Thump. Thump.
One by one, they collapsed onto the pavement.
‘They said they’d turn into monsters.’
And soon enough.
Crack. Crack-crack……!
The fallen bodies twisted grotesquely.
Pop. Pop.
Their joints contorting in unnatural ways, the transformed figures dropped onto hands and feet, beginning Quadrupedal Locomotion.
Skitter-skitter!
They crawled across the ground at inhuman speed.
“Nngh, nnggh……! Again……!”
The survivors shrieked at the sight.
The one who had become a monster stared at them.
Whirrrr…….
Its head rotated a full three hundred sixty degrees, drool streaming from its jaws.
“Krrreeee!”
The creature shrieked and lunged.
At a speed far too fast for anything human.
The survivors clustered together in a tight circle.
“Kill it!”
“Why are there so many today……!”
Weapons drawn, the survivors fought desperately against the creatures.
While that place descended into absolute chaos.
The location where Shin Nyeo stood was far from peaceful either.
“Screee!”
Those who had collapsed before reaching her transformed into monsters as well.
Now they hurled themselves at her relentlessly.
At least over there, the people had managed to form some kind of defensive formation.
Shin Nyeo, by contrast, faced the creatures alone.
One.
“No progress with these things.”
With a soft whisper of steel.
She drew her blade again.
Walking with the casual pace of someone on an evening stroll through town.
She sliced cleanly through each creature that rushed at her.
‘……can this really be the power of a young girl?’
Like a solo Player.
A warrior Player ranked at least Gold-tier or higher—that was the image Shin Nyeo projected.
Within Cheonma Valley, she reigned alone as an irregular.
Unlike when they’d been human, the monsters had no intellect now.
“Krreeeee!”
No matter how many fell to her blade, they charged at her mindlessly.
“Begone.”
Slash!
The sword cut through them mercilessly, a reaper’s dance.
After she’d made quick work of the creatures.
Her eyes turned.
Toward the place where Lee Kang-han fought.
There.
‘……I’m fighting too.’
Lee Kang-han, standing alone in an adult body.
He cut down monsters without mercy, his great sword flashing.
“Fight! Just a little more pressure and we’re done!”
Shin Yu-ri shouted encouragement to the others while supporting Lee Kang-han.
The survivors had dwindled significantly since before.
Yet they moved with surprising coordination, holding back the monsters’ assault.
“Hmm… Lee Kang-han really is strong.”
Watching this,
Shin Nyeo spoke Lee Kang-han’s name with perfect clarity.
‘How does she know my name?’
The desperate fighting in Cheonma Valley.
From what people had said, it felt like it had been going on for days.
Was there an introduction before this footage even started?
Lee Kang-han held onto that question
while continuing to watch the battle unfold.
Because there were few people near her,
Shin Nyeo had already finished off the scattered monsters and was now resting—unlike the area where Lee Kang-han fought.
“Shriek!”
Lee Kang-han’s sector had been crowded from the start.
The battle there raged on.
“I… I can’t hold much longer……”
“Ugh, ugh. Ugghhh!”
The defensive line crumbled under the relentless assault.
One by one, those who had been blessed by the light fell to the monsters when
“Screech!”
From behind Shin Yu-ri,
a monster lunged at her.
Caught off guard while wielding her spear,
Slash!
Lee Kang-han’s blade swept across,
splitting the monster’s body cleanly in two.
“Yu-ri, are you alright?”
“Oh, um…… thanks.”
Unlike in reality, the two of them spoke to each other comfortably.
‘Well, we are the same age, after all.’
Yet they seemed closer than expected.
The intensity in their eyes as they looked at each other—
it didn’t feel like a mere comrade-in-arms dynamic.
“Look at you two, goofing around.”
Shin Nyeo, watching from a distance, let out a soft laugh and mockingly called them out.
Which, oddly, made sense to him.
‘……What was I even doing here?’
As Lee Kang-han felt an awkward sense of unease watching himself,
the Lee Kang-han on screen and Shin Yu-ri,
along with the few remaining survivors, worked together to finish off the monsters.
After tens of minutes of fierce fighting came to an end,
Ding.
[The trial of Cheonma Valley has concluded.]
A message appeared announcing the trial’s end.
“Finally over?”
Yawn.
Shin Nyeo yawned as she read the message, her reaction utterly indifferent.
“What, what?”
“It’s over……?”
“This nightmare is finally over?!”
“Yes!!!”
The surviving players
embraced each other in joy.
‘I only saw the final battle scene, but they had to fight through all of this?’
No wonder their minds were breaking.
As Lee Kang-han entertained that thought.
Whissssh…….
A crimson mist spread across the corpses of monsters and humans scattered across the ground.
“Ahhhhh…… I died again……!”
“Ugh, ugh…….”
“When does this end, seriously……!”
Those who had died or transformed into monsters
resurrected and gasped out anguished cries.
Even after resurrection, it seemed the pain they’d felt before death lingered still.
People collapsed on the ground, clutching their heads and sobbing.
Among them,
“Damn it! Change the order!”
“Now it’s our turn to go inside!”
“We died too!”
“Do you know how horrifying it is to become a monster?”
Those who’d been on the outer perimeter
kicked up a fuss, insisting it was now their turn to enter the inner circle.
Then.
“Wait, don’t panic. It’s over now!”
“What……?”
“A message appeared! Check it!”
When one of the few survivors announced the trial’s end,
“Finally…… is it finally over?!”
“Fuck…… fuck!!!”
“This isn’t a trick, right? You’re not stabbing us in the back after all this?”
The resurrected struggled to believe it even as
hope flickered cautiously within them.
Then.
Ding.
[Final Settlement beginning…….]
As the Final Settlement message appeared,
“Yessss!!!”
“It was real?!”
“It’s…… it’s over?!”
cheers erupted from all directions.
Having cycled between death and life in Cheonma Valley since adolescence more times than once or twice,
people collapsed where they stood, tears of relief streaming down their faces.
Swish.
Following the short-haired Shin Nyeo’s gaze,
the screen’s view panned 360 degrees across Cheonma Valley.
‘But there don’t seem to be 1,000 Candidates here.’
The Cheonma Candidates in Cheonma Valley—
they’d said there were 1,000 of them, hadn’t they?
So she’d assumed the number would be less than the global count of those suffering from Tower Syndrome.
But the people gathered here were nowhere near 1,000.
At most, there looked to be around 200.
‘Did those who recovered from Tower Syndrome withdraw entirely from Cheonma Valley?’
Rather than continue this cycle of death and transformation here,
withdrawal would be preferable.
‘But what’s the withdrawal criterion?’
The footage Shin Nyeo had left behind,
being the final phase of the Cheonma Valley trial, contained more than a few unanswered questions.
Still,
‘The real question is…… first place.’
Did she truly forfeit first place, as Shin Nyeo claimed?
As Lee Kang-han fixed his attention on the screen,
at last,
“Ah…….”
“That’s……!”
A rankings table materialized in the sky above.
The Cheonma Shatters the Tower (Serialized)
Author │ Yeom Bi
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelung Post Tower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Yeom Bi 2025
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and no part of its content may be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and author.
Violation of this may 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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