Chapter: 38
Fortunately, the wallet was still inside Eugene’s belongings.
He pulled out the card to pay, but when he noticed the smartphone was there as well, he transferred the money through internet banking instead.
After that, the balance left in the account was barely around 1 million won.
It was an absurdly small amount of money, but it didn’t matter.
“Anyway, I can always earn more.”
There were countless ways for players who had returned to reality to make money.
Even during the first playthrough, some people had amassed enormous fortunes by taking advantage of that fact.
Of course, those idiots who became obsessed with making money never even reached the 50th floor before they all collapsed.
You couldn’t completely ignore reality, but the thing that deserved your greatest focus was the Tower.
Every single person who forgot that ended up dead.
Well, in the end, even the ones who diligently climbed the Tower died too.
“Anyway, the important thing right now is getting to the Blue House.”
Eugene stepped outside.
The streets looked no different from before he had been summoned to the Tower.
Except for one thing.
“What the hell is that?”
“They say aliens built it.”
“Honestly, that’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
He heard passersby talking while staring in one direction.
Eugene naturally turned his gaze there as well.
A gigantic black tower.
A structure that looked completely out of place in Seoul stretched so high that it seemed to reach the sky.
“The Tower of Light.”
December 25th.
Christmas.
The very day Eugene had been summoned.
In reality, that enormous tower had suddenly appeared.
Not just in Seoul, but in major cities all around the world.
There were exactly 200 of them.
There had been no warning signs.
One moment they weren’t there, and the next…
They simply existed.
As though they had always stood in those locations.
Naturally, every nation with one of the towers immediately entered a state of emergency.
The military sealed off the surrounding areas, and the towers were placed under constant surveillance and research twenty-four hours a day.
But even after an entire month, the towers had shown no reaction whatsoever.
The researchers had discovered absolutely nothing.
Except for one thing.
The exact moment the towers appeared, tens of thousands of people vanished simultaneously.
It wasn’t an ordinary disappearance.
They literally vanished.
Someone you had been talking to.
Someone you had been eating with.
Someone you had been watching television with.
Countless people disappeared into thin air.
The only things they left behind were electronic devices such as smartphones and watches.
The researchers desperately tried to uncover the connection between the missing people and the towers.
But aside from confirming that an incomprehensible phenomenon completely outside humanity’s understanding had occurred…
They learned nothing.
“Of course they wouldn’t know.”
Even he, someone who had cleared the Tower, didn’t know.
What exactly the Akasha System was.
Why something like this had appeared on Earth.
Or whyāhowāhe had returned to the past.
Eugene knew none of it.
“This time, I should try to uncover that too.”
He added another objective to his list.
“Oh, taxi!”
Just then, he spotted a yellow cab passing by and raised his hand.
“To Namsan, please.”
“Huh? Sir, that’s a restricted area.”
The Tower of Light in Korea was located on Namsan.
As a result, the surrounding area had become a strictly controlled zone where civilians were forbidden to enter.
“Just take me as close as you can.”
“Sure thing.”
Thinking he could simply drop him off near the security perimeter, the taxi driver started the car.
“You going to see that big black thing?”
Even then, the driver tried to make small talk.
Naturally, Eugene had no intention of humoring him.
Maybe he would chat with the owner of the goshiwon, but he had absolutely no interest in talking with a taxi driver he would never see again.
Without saying a word, he simply looked out the window.
Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t the type to take the hint.
“A lot of young people have been going there lately to take a look. They’ve got no fear. What if they get too close and end up exposed to radiation or something?”
Whether Eugene answered or not…
The driver simply rattled on about whatever he wanted.
“They’ll regret it once something terrible happens. Kids these days have no common sense. My generation wasn’t like this. If they want to die, they should at least do it somewhere no one else has to see.”
“…Should I kill him?”
The thought crossed Eugene’s mind that the world he was trying to save would probably survive just fine without this one person.
“Shut your mouth. You’re being annoying.”
When the irritation became too much to tolerate, Eugene warned him in a cold voice.
Silence followed.
Even though he had just been cursed at by someone much younger, the driver merely kept his mouth shut and cautiously watched Eugene.
Apparently, he had sensed that provoking this young man any further could end very badly.
“A useless bastard who can’t even help with climbing the Tower, running his mouth.”
To Eugene, there were only two kinds of people in the world.
Those who were useful for clearing the Tower.
And idiots.
By that standard, the taxi driver belonged to the latter.
And Eugene wasn’t kind enough to patiently listen to the nonsense spouted by idiots.
Ignoring the driver, who kept glancing nervously at him through the rearview mirror, Eugene closed his eyes.
The silence made it much easier to think.
‘What was his name again?’
The person in charge of the Tower research facility.
He had been a fairly famous scientist even before all this happened.
‘Ah, right. Lee Gi-seok.’
He was some theoretical physicist with an impossibly difficult title.
He occasionally appeared on television and even ran a MeTube channel to make science more accessible to the public.
Not that it seemed particularly popular.
In any case, Lee Gi-seok was regarded as one of Korea’s greatest scientists.
Which was exactly why…
He had been appointed director of the Tower research facility.
‘Will he believe me?’
The circumstances had been different during the first playthrough.
Back then, dozens of people had returned to reality at the same time.
Compared to that, having only three survivors now made his story far less convincing.
Even so, Eugene wasn’t particularly worried.
If Lee Gi-seok didn’t believe him…
He would simply make him believe.
Fortunately, Eugene had plenty of ways to convince him.
‘First, I’ll meet him and see what kind of person he is.’
If he was reasonable, words would suffice.
If he wasn’t…
There were other methods.
All he had to do was make him accept the existence of the Tower and the players.
Lost in thought, some time passed beforeā
“Um…”
The car stopped, and the taxi driver cautiously spoke.
Eugene opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the barricade blocking the road ahead.
They had arrived.
Without a word, Eugene paid with his card and stepped out of the taxi.
As soon as he did, the passenger-side window rolled down.
“Hey, you little bastard! You’ve barely grown up and you’ve already got the nerve to tell your elders to shut up? Is that how your parents raised you?”
The shouting quickly faded into the distance as the taxi drove away.
“Hmm.”
He hadn’t expected to hear something like that.
For a moment, he considered chasing the man down and beating him senseless.
But he dismissed the thought.
With that kind of mouth, the driver would eventually pick a fight with the wrong person someday and regret it.
The odds of that happening seemed extremely high.
Still, Eugene memorized the taxi’s license plate as it disappeared.
‘Seoul 38-A 4XX5.’
Just in case.
Who knew when they might meet again?
As he repeated it several times to make sure he wouldn’t forget, he sensed someone approaching from behind.
“This is a restricted area. Please turn back.”
It was a soldier.
Holding a rifle, the man lazily waved him away with an expression full of annoyance.
Eugene stared at him quietly before turning around.
He had planned to sneak inside and simply meet Lee Gi-seok, so there was no reason to waste time arguing here.
“Now even unemployed bums from the neighborhood are showing up. Doesn’t matter how many times we tell people not to come near this placeāthere’s always one idiot like this.”
Eugene stopped.
“What did you just say?”
He understood the soldier’s frustration.
Just as the taxi driver had said, countless reckless people were probably showing up every day just to look at the Tower.
After dealing with them over and over again, anyone would become irritated.
But why speak like that?
“I said leave. Unless you want to get arrested for loitering.”
The soldier waved his hand as though shooing away a stray dog.
“Hmm.”
Eugene changed his mind.
‘Sneak in and quietly meet Lee Gi-seok? Yeah, screw that.’
At this point…
He would just walk in.
“Move.”
Eugene turned back toward the soldier and approached him.
“Ha… seriously.”
The soldier let out a mocking laugh.
From his perspective, it was only natural.
A guy in worn-out sweatpants and cheap slippers looked like nothing more than a delusional fool trying to act tough.
But Eugene wasn’t some unemployed nobody.
“If you don’t move, you’re going to get hurt.”
“The hell? You actually want to get arrested that badly?”
As the distance between them closed, the soldier frowned and spat on the ground.
“I warned you.”
That was enough talking.
He had already tolerated enoughāfar more than was normal for him.
Crack!
His palm shot forward at a speed invisible to ordinary humans.
Something shattered.
The soldier collapsed to the ground.
“What theā?!”
“Grab him!”
“This is A2! This is A2! An unidentified hostile is attacking at the checkpoint!”
The other soldiers watching from the nearby guard post cried out in shock as they rushed over.
There were four of them.
Eugene didn’t bother waiting for them to come.
Tap.
He lightly pushed off the ground and shot forward like an arrow at terrifying speed.
“Gah!”
The soldiers froze in surprise.
That brief instant was all he needed.
Eugene’s hand moved.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
All four soldiers collapsed simultaneously.
Each of them had received a devastating blow to the temple and lost consciousness instantly.
WEEEOOOOOOOOā
A blaring siren echoed through the area.
The intruder had been detected.
Without any sense of urgency, Eugene calmly continued walking.
“As far as convincing him goes… this is probably the best method.”
He could show him his items.
He could demonstrate Chunbae’s abilities.
A scientist like Lee Gi-seok would immediately understand that such things were impossible according to every known scientific theory.
But in the end, Eugene chose both the worst and the best option.
He would demonstrate his own power.
He would perform feats that no ordinary human could possibly accomplish, then use that as proof.
And if Lee Gi-seok still refused to understand?
Then Eugene would simply use even more force.
The only thing he had to lose was a little time and effort.
Actually, considering it as stress relief…
It might even be a gain.
“Move! Move!”
“Head toward Checkpoint A2!”
“Is it an enemy? How many are there?”
“One!”
“What? Just one?”
Armed soldiers rapidly converged on his position.
Hearing their shouts, Eugene raised a hand and spoke to Chunbae.
“Open your mouth, Chunbae.”
“KRRRROOOAAARRR!”
Eugene shoved his hand into Chunbae’s mouth and pulled out a massive weapon.
The Sun Blade [D].
“People never believe something until they’ve experienced it themselves.”
So…
He intended to let them experience it firsthand.
“KRRRROOOAAARRR!”
Chunbae let out an excited roar, as though this was going to be fun.
