HRMCT 53

Chapter: 53

The Jang-san Monster.

Park Jihu, who had crushed the momentarily terrifying monster with his bare fists, opened his eyes in a completely new space.

A ruined city.

It was the center of a city filled with collapsed and burning buildings, as if a war had broken out.

“Jihu!”

Memories that had been obscured by an unknown force came flooding back, and as he stood there dazed for a moment, he heard a voice calling him from behind.

“Noona!”

It was Lee Si-a.

She was covered in blood all over her body, as if she had gone through some kind of ordeal.

Only one day after entering the Tower, and she was drenched in blood again.

He himself had been through a lot, but it seemed Lee Si-a had faced even harsher trials.

“Are you okay? Any injuries?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Park Jihu shrugged nonchalantly.

It wasn’t an empty statement.

The Jang-san Monster was scary, but it wasn’t actually that strong of a monster.

It couldn’t be helped.

It was only the 6th Floor.

Moreover, the main theme there was focused on instilling fear in the players.

How strong could a monster in a place like that be?

Once he decided he needed to hunt the Jang-san Monster, it was just a slightly bizarre-looking ordinary boss monster.

Only about the level of the 3rd Floor, at that.

Naturally, it was an easy opponent for Park Jihu, who had reached level 30.

It died with just a few punches, its body bursting and blood gushing out.

“And you, noona?”

Park Jihu’s gaze turned toward the blood covering her body.

“Yeah, I’m fine too. I had a bit of a hard time, though.”

Lee Si-a gave a bitter smile.

“It’s just that there were a lot of bastards to kill. No injuries at all.”

It was the same for her.

Caffè Napoleone.

The price for breaking the rules there was quite harsh.

Dozens of customers had gone mad and charged at Lee Si-a, trying to kill her.

Kitchen knives that appeared from nowhere.

Broken teacup shards.

Chairs, tables, even flower pots.

They chased her like madmen, using anything they could get their hands on as weapons.

“I got a lot of blood on me killing those bastards.”

It wasn’t really difficult.

Maybe about as tough as the Red Goblins she had caught countless times on the 1st Floor?

And there were far fewer of them than that, so for Lee Si-a, who had become much stronger than back then, they dropped dead with every swing of her sword.

“Normally, I could have finished them off more cleanly.”

Her movements had unconsciously shrunk due to the fear the 6th Floor instilled.

The fight itself was easy, but because of her imperfect memories, she ended up in this state.

“Hah-.”

Lee Si-a let out a sigh.

“We’re going to get scolded, aren’t we?”

Why on earth did she act like that?

She muttered that if she had only kept her wits about her, it would have been nothing.

“…Probably.”

Park Jihu couldn’t offer any consolation.

He could clearly picture how Seong Yoo-jin would react upon seeing Lee Si-a’s current state.

That strange uncle would undoubtedly grab her like a cat catching a mouse.

Asking how she ended up in such a state against mere opponents like that.

Park Jihu let out a silent sigh of relief.

He was relieved that he hadn’t ended up in the same state as Lee Si-a.

“Anyway, let’s think about that later. Did your level go up?”

“Level?”

After he had beaten the Jang-san Monster to death, it seemed there had been a notification from the 【Akasha System】.

But with the rush of memories flooding back, he hadn’t had the mind to check it.

Belatedly, Park Jihu called up his status window.

■ Name: 『Park Jihu』

■ Level: 『32』

■ Trait: 『Indomitable[E]』, 『Fighting Spirit[D]』

■ Alignment: 『Neutral』

■ Title: 『None』

■ Skills: 『Strike[E]』, 『Combo[E]』, 『Smash[E]』

“Oh?”

There were some changes.

His level had gone up by 2, and he had gained one more skill.

“I’m level 32, and I got a skill called 『Smash[E]』.”

“Really?”

Lee Si-a nodded.

She too, like Park Jihu, had gained a level and a skill.

Though it wasn’t 『Smash[E]』.

“Then I guess we really did clear the 6th Floor.”

That meant this place was the 7th Floor.

“Wow, congratulations.”

“Huh? Congratulations for what all of a sudden?”

Lee Si-a blinked her eyes, unable to understand.

“Uncle Yoo-jin said it before. That the first person to reach a floor gets a reward. Didn’t you get to the 7th Floor first, noona?”

Park Jihu hadn’t received any notification.

Then there was a high probability that Lee Si-a had…

“Do you think that monster came up later than me?”

Lee Si-a scoffed.

“That psychopath probably came up way before.”

First clear reward, my foot.

He hadn’t received any notification similar to that either.

That meant Seong Yoo-jin had already snatched it up.

“Oh, really?”

Park Jihu thought for a moment, then nodded.

He himself had cleared the 6th Floor without much difficulty.

Seong Yoo-jin would have finished it even more easily.

Whether it was ghosts, monsters, or urban legends.

Given his personality, he would have definitely drawn his sword first.

And that thought wasn’t wrong.

“You’re finally here. You’re all so damn slow.”

From atop a collapsed building, about six stories high, came Yoo-jin’s irritated voice.

Looking up, he could be seen frowning heavily.

*Thump*.

Without any hesitation, he jumped down from there.

Holding a long, red-bladed sword, he landed on the ground as lightly as a feather.

It seemed that once you passed around level 20, you gained physical abilities that far exceeded human limits.

“Why are you so late?”

Yoo-jin asked.

“…I don’t think we’re that late? We came up way faster than before.”

It had taken a full month to get from the 1st Floor to the 5th Floor.

But clearing the 6th Floor took just one day.

Isn’t that incredibly fast?

Just as Lee Si-a was muttering that…

“It only took me 30 minutes.”

Yoo-jin said with a scoff.

“…30 minutes?”

Park Jihu asked with a surprised look.

Even he, who had thought he cleared it incredibly fast, had taken several hours.

He had spent a considerable amount of time running away from the pursuing Jang-san Monster.

Compared to that, 30 minutes was practically an instant.

“Did you go to that place too, Caffè Napoleone?”

“Ah, so that’s where you were.”

As Lee Si-a asked in surprise, Yoo-jin nodded knowingly.

“What about you?”

“I-I got the Jang-san Monster.”

“Oh? You managed to survive and get here.”

Park Jihu couldn’t help but tilt his head at Yoo-jin’s reaction.

‘How does he know all that?’

Surely Yoo-jin, like them, had come up step by step from the tutorial floor.

Hearing him say that made it sound like he had already climbed it once before.

“Both of those were pretty creepy places. For that, you weren’t too late.”

Yoo-jin said, his eyes glinting.

Caffè Napoleone and the Jang-san Monster.

These were notorious themes even on the 6th Floor.

With a clear rate of less than 10%.

The fact that they had broken through such places in less than a day was proof of how outstanding the two of them were.

“Alright, I take back the ‘late’ comment. Not bad. The hard work you’ve put in paid off.”

*You* didn’t do the hard work, *we* did.

Lee Si-a grumbled.

Of course, Yoo-jin completely ignored her words.

“Anyway, now that we’re all gathered, we need to move.”

“What is this place? It’s the 7th Floor, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it a horror theme here too?”

As Lee Si-a trembled, a few flakes of dried blood fell off her.

“Of course. Brace yourselves. This isn’t a place you can climb just because you’re good at fighting.”

Yoo-jin’s voice was a bit heavy.

Since he had never once shown that kind of demeanor, Lee Si-a and Park Jihu tilted their heads.

“Come to think of it, what is this place? You said it’s horror up to the 10th Floor. But no matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem that way.”

The ruined city was eerie, sure.

But that was it.

No ghosts, no strange rules, and the sun was shining brightly so it wasn’t dark either.

There weren’t really any fear-inducing elements in a place like…

“Zombies.”

Never mind.

“From the 7th Floor to the 9th Floor, it’s one world. A zombie apocalypse.”

“Ugh.”

Zombies.

Rotten flesh.

Spilling entrails.

The stench of decay that seemed to numb your nose.

And above all, the endless, overwhelming numbers.

Just imagining it sent cold sweat down his spine.

“One quest per floor. Clear a total of three main quests here, and it counts as completing the climb.”

Yoo-jin continued, enjoying the sight of Lee Si-a’s pale face.

“Now you understand why I said fighting ability isn’t what matters most?”

If it were Yoo-jin, he could handle not just a hundred zombies, but even a thousand.

But what about two thousand, three thousand, or tens of thousands?

Even someone like Yoo-jin couldn’t possibly deal with all of them.

Maybe if he were around level 100.

And he had to complete quests on top of that, so the difficulty was bound to skyrocket.

Lee Si-a and Park Jihu’s faces also grew serious.

The existence of zombies themselves was a problem, but they also realized just how difficult clearing this floor would be.

“Let’s move first. The real quests start once we get over there.”

Yoo-jin pointed a finger in one direction.

It was towards a pillar of blue light shooting high into the sky.

It wasn’t too far away, so Yoo-jin and the two of them were able to reach it quickly.

■ You have entered a Safe Zone.

■ Primary Quest triggered.

■ Safely bring 100 survivors to this location.

■ No time limit.

■ Upon quest failure, retry is possible.

At the same time, a notification from the 【Akasha System】 appeared before their eyes.

“See?”

“Yes.”

“…There were survivors here?”

After quickly reading the quest details, the two blinked their eyes.

“Listen carefully. The clear time here depends on how you handle things. If you’re lucky, you could break through to the 9th Floor within today. If not…”

It’s endless.

Whether it takes a month, two months, a year, or ten years.

The fact that there’s no time limit means exactly that.

“So focus. Don’t hold us back. I have no intention of wasting time on just the 7th Floor.”

Yoo-jin said coldly.

Unable to open their mouths, the two just nodded.

“Good.”

Seeming satisfied, Yoo-jin smiled.

At the same time.

■ The dormant zombies have awakened.

■ Zombie Wave Start.

■ Evade the surging zombie hordes and rescue the survivors.