Chapter: 47
The United States.
The world’s strongest nation.
It held the nicknames of both the world’s police and the world’s bully simultaneously, and it was a nation with power incomparable to the Republic of Korea.
“Your affiliation is either special forces or the CIA, right? Something along those lines.”
Eugene fired off questions, continuing to extract answers through their reflexive reactions.
“The reason is that tower over there, isn’t it? I was dying of curiosity about what that thing is anyway, and then some strange guy appeared in Korea. You must have been desperate to find out more. Right?”
There was no answer.
But Eugene had already heard the answer he needed.
“Not opening your mouth, huh? You don’t care what happens to this guy’s hand? Should I just tear it off?”
As he wiggled his fingers and spoke, the bald man furrowed his brow and chewed his lips.
“How much do you know?”
“Quite a bit more than you think, I’d say.”
It was similar during the first round, too.
Powerful nations had used all sorts of methods to make contact with players, trying to uncover the tower’s secrets.
As the number of people reaching the 5th floor increased, it gradually died down, but in the beginning, it was absolute chaos.
Eugene had experienced it several times himself.
“Release my comrade.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I can tell you’re no ordinary person. But stop the bluffing right there. We have the power to subdue you.”
It seemed they trusted the guns tucked into their waistbands.
“American traditional martial arts sure are impressive.”
There’s no business like gun business.
At this point in time, that saying was practically the truth.
Even Eugene couldn’t perfectly block bullets right now.
Dodging them was a different story, though.
But.
“Then go ahead and shoot.”
Heh-.
He chuckled.
Shoot guns in the middle of Seoul, with a South Korean military base right nearby?
Unless they were insane, they couldn’t possibly do that.
Even the United States was no exception.
Wouldn’t it immediately escalate into a diplomatic issue?
So guns, schmuns.
It wasn’t Eugene who was bluffing, but them.
As if to prove his thought right, the bald man couldn’t say a word.
He could only alternate his gaze between Eugene and his comrade with a troubled expression.
Eugene scoffed once more at the sight and asked the bald man.
“If you answer my questions obediently, I’ll let him go. I won’t even kill him. How about it?”
Fact-checking through physical reactions had clear limitations.
You could discern a certain degree of truth, but it was impossible to extract detailed information.
So ultimately, you had to hear it directly from their mouths.
The bald man deliberated.
Considering his mission, he would naturally refuse and want to subdue Eugene immediately.
But he didn’t act rashly.
The captured comrade was a problem, but more than that, the move Eugene had shown made him hesitate.
Piercing a hand with a finger?
He’d only seen that in movies; he would never have imagined it was actually possible.
His wariness was only natural.
Thanks to that, he couldn’t make a decision easily, repeatedly mulling it over.
“…Enough.”
Seeing that, Eugene’s voice turned cold.
Precious rest time.
It was too precious to waste wrestling with scum like this.
He was curious about a few things, but it didn’t matter if he didn’t hear them.
If they wouldn’t answer, he’d just make them pay the price for messing with him first.
Woong-woong-.
Mana surged up.
The formless, colorless, transparent energy, inheriting Eugene’s will, sharpened itself keenly.
Swish-!
That sharpness was more than enough to cut through human bone and flesh.
“Hngh!”
The man impaled on Eugene’s finger widened his eyes.
Suddenly, a burning pain surged, and one of his body parts was severed.
It wasn’t a limb, but his neck.
Without even realizing how he was dying, the man met his end with his head severed.
“Kyaaaahhh!”
“Crazy!”
People who had been watching with bated breath from nearby screamed.
A person had died in broad daylight on a street.
And with their head cut off!
It was an unprecedented, surreal scene, so it was only natural.
People fled.
People called 112.
People panicked and collapsed on the spot.
Reactions were varied.
Eugene didn’t spare them a single glance.
His mind was filled only with the punishment for those who dared to touch him and waste his time.
“You crazy bastard!”
The bald man finally gasped in horror and pulled out his pistol from his coat.
The others did the same.
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t kill?”
If they had been ordinary neighborhood thugs, he wouldn’t have gone this far.
Eugene was eccentric, not a bloodthirsty murderer like a demon of the ten evils.
Even so, the reason he went overboard was simple: letting them live would offer no benefit.
America, the Tower of Light, players, special agents.
The combination of these words had a very negative effect on players worldwide, including Korea.
That was the case in the first round.
The number of players who died or went missing due to America’s behind-the-scenes maneuvers exceeded double digits.
Just that fact alone was reason enough not to let them go, and they dared to pick a fight first?
That was no different from asking to be killed.
“Attack!”
At Eugene’s sneer, the bald man gave the order.
Bang bang bang-!
Their pistols finally fired.
With their comrade murdered, they judged it wasn’t time to mind the Korean government’s eyes.
But Eugene kicked off the ground simultaneously as they unleashed their murderous intent.
Thud thud-!
The space behind where Eugene had been standing moments ago was riddled with bullets.
The men wore expressions of shock once again.
Because in their eyes, Eugene appeared to have teleported.
“You’ve got some nerve. Actually shooting.”
In the meantime, Eugene had already taken their rear.
The bald man turned his body belatedly.
No, he tried to turn.
But that was impossible.
A corpse with a pierced heart could no longer follow the brain’s commands.
“Whe, when did you…?”
Only after speaking did the stinging pain flood in.
He collapsed powerlessly, looking at his comrades beside him.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
They too were crumbling, bleeding from their chests just like him.
“…Monster.”
What other word could possibly describe Eugene?
The bald man, a nameless American, closed his eyes with those final words.
“Monster, huh.”
Eugene looked down at the corpses with a completely unimpressed gaze and scoffed.
“Too bad, I’m not just that.”
He turned around.
Then, walking slowly, he muttered softly.
“Disaster.”
* * *
A week for a jobless person and a week for a soldier on leave are not the same.
The latter flows overwhelmingly faster, like a stream.
It was the same for Eugene.
Rest after a truly long time.
It was his first break in a full ten years, so no explanation was needed.
“It’s already over?”
The week had passed in the blink of an eye.
All Eugene had done during that time was eat, sleep, and laze around.
As if making up for all the rest he’d missed.
Truly, he did absolutely nothing.
“Hmm, no contact yet.”
Even as the time drew to a close, there was no contact from Lee Gi-seok.
It seemed he was having trouble persuading the higher-ups.
“If I stepped in, it’d be resolved right away, but…”
They hadn’t asked for help, so there was no need to go out of his way.
By the time he got his next leave at the latest, a decision would be made one way or another; he could check then.
“I wonder how those kids are doing.”
The faces of Lee Si-ah and Park Ji-hoo came to mind.
He didn’t know how they’d spent the week, but they were probably making sour faces about now.
Maybe they were even wasting time trying to find a way not to return to the tower.
Of course, they’d fail.
“Let’s see.”
He picked up his smartphone and checked the time.
It was approaching 5 PM.
The time for recall was drawing near.
“Come to think of it, the new year came and went without me noticing.”
He was first summoned on Christmas, so a month later, it was now January.
In the first round, he was so focused on surviving that he hadn’t felt much, but now it was different.
Perhaps because he had some leeway, he felt oddly restless for no reason.
Eugene scratched his head and cleared his mind of distractions.
Indulging in such sentiments could wait until after he’d hunted down the apocalypse and cleared the tower.
What mattered now was getting stronger as quickly as possible.
“Time to start preparing slowly.”
If he didn’t want the same experience next time he came out, he had to store his belongings in a safe place.
“…A safe place?”
Eugene unconsciously looked down at his arm.
He saw one small bear, hanging motionless like a doll, asleep.
“Chunbae.”
Eugene lightly tapped the creature’s nose, and its closed eyes slowly opened.
“Kyaaahng-.”
Looking at Chunbae, who stared back as if asking what was up, Eugene held up his smartphone.
“Can you eat this too?”
During the first round, the [Subspace] Eugene had obtained couldn’t do it.
Except for clothing, he couldn’t take a single item from outside the tower inside.
Even storing it in [Subspace] was impossible.
However, Chunbae operated on a different principle from ordinary [Subspace].
Perhaps it might be possible.
Of course, even if he took the smartphone inside, there wasn’t exactly a use for it, but…
‘If it works, the possibilities for other applications are endless.’
Eugene waited for Chunbae’s answer, his face filled with anticipation.
“Kyaahng?”
The creature tilted its head, then reached out and took the smartphone.
And then.
Gulp-.
It swallowed it whole.
“So it works.”
He tried it on a whim, and surprisingly, Chunbae succeeded in storing the smartphone.
That meant it was possible to bring items from reality into the tower.
It wouldn’t have great utility right now, but.
“I’m looking forward to the next outing.”
If things went as he thought, something quite interesting might happen.
Eugene smiled with satisfaction and stood up.
Time was up.
He roughly straightened the blue tracksuit he was wearing.
“Come to think of it, I need to get some armor too.”
So far, it hadn’t mattered much, but the higher the floors he climbed, the more important armor became.
“Was there a decent one on the 8th floor?”
He seemed to recall there was an item around there that wasn’t bad for early use.
He didn’t remember exactly, though.
“For now, I’ll just have to pick that up and use it.”
Eugene thought about the things he needed to acquire up to the 10th floor as he prepared for his return.
And so, a short while later.
Whoooosh-!
The [Akasha System] summoned the returnees back to the tower with not even a one-second error.
“Ah, fuck. I really am back.”
“…Yeah, seems so.”
Lee Si-ah and Park Ji-hoo were with him, chicken in both hands.
“Looks like you two thoroughly enjoyed your leave.”
Looking at the two, Eugene smirked.
“Then, since you’ve rested enough, it’s time to move again, right?”
It was an utterly wicked smile.
