Black Tower Floor 69.

A fierce shockwave shot straight ahead.

A wide path blasted open through the sea of undead that had filled the battlefield.

Like Moses parting the waters.

Thanks to that, Juhyeok and the summoned entities strolled down the cleared highway at a leisurely pace.

“It’s not something I can use often. There’s a cooldown. But I can carve a road straight to the boss.”

A skill that let you reach the boss fast in a boss fight where subordinate monsters spawned in swarms.

As expected of our tank who leads the party.

But Meatshield’s real greatness wasn’t the shockwave.

“I wanted to upgrade the Enlarge skill, but I didn’t. When my body gets bigger, I get sluggish. Instead....”

WOOOONG!

Energy gathered around Meatshield.

“KUUOOOHHH!!!”

An SSR-rank taunt shout.

Aggro snapped in all at once.

Every undead still standing swarmed Meatshield.

Mummies, zombies, skeletons, ghouls, dullahans, specters, phantoms, death knights.

“KYAAAAAK!”

“KAK!”

“KIIAAAK!”

“GRRRR.”

The top celebrity here was Meatshield.

Like they were confessing love, every undead clung to the enlarged Meatshield like crazy.

TATAT, TAK! TATADADAK!

To the legs, the arms, the torso—some even crawled up the shoulders to the head.

The huge body got even bigger.

And still, they couldn’t stop Meatshield from advancing.

Veronica stared at the scene with a blank, incredulous look.

“It looks like an armored personnel carrier charging.”

“Since it’s even wrapped in armor, it’s basically a human tank.”

Meatshield wasn’t bare-handed anymore.

Pitch-black armor had formed over the body.

The undead couldn’t even leave a scratch.

Not even the blade of a death knight steeped in thick dark aura.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.

Meatshield advanced toward the lich.

The undead threw themselves in the way, desperate.

But in front of a human tank, they were nothing more than plastic bottles on the road—flattened instantly.

“How pleasant it is. The monsters can’t even get close to us—no, they aren’t even trying.”

Right.

There were so many undead, but they only had eyes for Meatshield.

They didn’t care about anyone else.

Veronica fired her magic gun at the undead clinging to Meatshield, but she didn’t pull even a sliver of aggro.

Shoot or don’t shoot, I’m killing this guy.

Right now, to the undead, Meatshield was basically the enemy who’d murdered their parents.

Meanwhile, Bardin looked deeply dissatisfied.

In a mutter laced with hurt feelings—

“Why isn’t anyone picking me up?”

No, why would anyone, on purpose?

“...Is it because I’m SSR, so I’m beneath them?”

Human holy sword Bardin seemed to think it had been abandoned.

Right then!

“Bardin!”

At last, Meatshield called.

Bardin’s face lit up.

“Light!!!”

FWOOOOSH!

Radiance flared over Bardin’s entire body.

WHIIISH! Bardin sprinted over, then leapt toward Meatshield like a full-body dive, stretched out.

SNATCH!

Meatshield grabbed Bardin by both ankles.

Meatshield had finally picked up a weapon.

“...”

This is driving me insane.

“Light!!!”

Bardin swung.

PAPAPAPAPAPA...

Undead shattered.

Crushed by the torso, ground up like a flail.

“WAAAH...”

In the middle of it all, Rajix rode Blood Wolf around, searching for items.

Yeah. This is Tower clearing.

It felt very familiar.

But are Mr. Cossack and Mad Demon doing okay?

Please don’t cause a major incident.

If there has to be an incident, keep it small.

*****

A dark night.

The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Chairman Kim Injung, couldn’t fall asleep.

The wife lying beside him had already passed out cold, but Kim Injung kept tossing and turning.

Back then was good.

The days of sucking honey straight from the comb.

Twenty years ago.

When towers were created by nationality.

The Republic didn’t have its own tower.

It shared a Black Tower with the Republic of Korea.

So the Status Window nationality of the Republic’s Players wasn’t the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but the Republic of Korea.

As a sovereign state, it was humiliating.

The Republic belonged to the South?

There was nothing to be done.

The system had decided it.

No—countries with populations as small as five million got their own towers, so why not the Republic?

But as time passed, Kim Injung realized something.

It wasn’t all bad.

With no burden of defending against Tower Collapse.

Without climbing to the upper floors.

By farming repeated clearing rewards on the lower floors,

you could climb comfortably.

Then came the great upheaval.

True Kabalan’s clear.

High-grade Magic Stones—the rice grains of the Fourth Industrial Revolution—came out exclusively from the Republic of Korea tower.

Naturally, North Korean Players benefited too.

Foreign currency poured in like madness.

But soon, that monopoly would end.

Once other countries’ Black Towers reached Floor 71.

Only a few months left.

Then what?

If you can suck it dry, you suck it dry while you can.

So Kim Injung created a short-term temporary naturalization program.

Clear the Republic of Korea’s Black Tower flowing with milk and honey, and claim the rewards.

Pay money, and Kim Injung would change your Status Window nationality to the Republic of Korea as much as you wanted.

In practice, temporarily naturalized Players claimed high-grade Magic Stone rewards from the Republic of Korea Black Tower, which had the highest reward probability.

Applications for short-term temporary naturalization flooded in.

It spread like a craze.

The temporarily naturalized Players were extremely satisfied, too.

Without having to go to North Korea, they could go in and out of the tower from the country they already lived in, and just siphon off items.

And then the incident happened.

Player overcrowding.

A newly established Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Black Tower.

And right near Pyongyang, at that.

Overnight, a national tower had been created.

It was impossible not to be shaken.

Who would have ever predicted this?

Nothing had been prepared.

The Republic didn’t have the capacity to climb the uncleared upper floors.

It couldn’t even control them.

On top of that, some crazy bastards had pushed the tower floor all the way into the undead section.

They’d caught the Player who did it, sure, but—

Something had to be done. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The most reliable method was to raise state-sponsored Players and have them defend against Tower Collapse.

But at the current point, it was impossible.

The budget was lacking, nobody even knew how to do it,

and the place to lean on was, as always, the South.

The know-how of the TOWER PLAYER AWAKENING ADMINISTRATION, which had turned the South into a tower-clearing advanced nation.

And the Player-only equipment said to be sold in Player shops.

He didn’t even dare hope for an S+++ clear recorder.

If he could just bring someone like Deputy Commissioner Jeon Gwangil to the Republic... then this wouldn’t be a crisis, but an opportunity.

Thinking this and that, Kim Injung’s eyelids started to droop.

Just as he was about to sink into sleep...

“Looks like it’s this guy.”

Huh?

“Hm. Yeah, just looking at the face, it’s a perfect match.”

“Wow, we finally found him. We searched through so many rooms...”

“If you were even a little smarter, you’d have found him ages ago.”

“Sorry. What about the woman sleeping next to him?”

“I pressed the blood points. She won’t wake up until morning.”

What is this?

Intruders?

No way!

It must be a half-sleep dream.

The bedroom where Kim Injung slept was the most hidden place, even within the office and residence building.

Guards stood watch in every corridor, at every door, at every corner.

Who could possibly get in here?

So it had to be a dream.

Or a ghost.

Only a dream or a ghost could explain what was happening.

That was what Kim Injung was sure of—

right up until someone slapped his cheek with a palm.

“Chairman Kim Injung, comrade! Hurry up and wake up. A nuke just dropped on the Republic.”

SLAP SLAP

What the hell...?

“The nuke of nukes—don’t you know the Mad Demon nuke?”

“You insolent bastard—”

“...Sorry.”

Kim Injung slowly opened his eyes.

Two people.

One was a young man, the other an old man with snow-white hair.

“Who are you—”

Kim Injung couldn’t finish.

Because his eyes met the old man’s.

A chill shot through him.

Just from a look.

Cold sweat ran down his back.

His heart pounded like it was about to explode.

“It’ll hurt a bit. Still, count yourself lucky—how many humans survive after meeting this one? You grabbed fortune.”

What is he even saying?

In an instant—

the old man poked Kim Injung’s body here and there with a finger.

“...Hk!”

Not even a scream came out.

He couldn’t raise his upper body. Fingers, toes—his whole body locked up, stiff as stone.

And a moment later.

Kim Injung faced a pain he’d never experienced in his entire life.

“GAAAAAAH!”

It felt like his flesh was being carved away.

Muscles tore.

Bones shifted, joints snapped backward.

But he couldn’t even thrash.

His mind was perfectly clear, but his body was paralyzed.

“Uh, that’s too much. Can’t we just persuade him with words? Do we really need to go this far?”

The young man spoke in a worried tone, and the old man snapped—

“You little bastard! You want to die? How dare you interfere in this one’s work?”

“No, it’s not that. I’m just saying—can’t we just make him unable to move?”

“Shut up. Unless you want to die.”

“Yes.”

“Tsk, tsk. Why am I going through all this—if I just wiped them all out in one go, the world would be so much easier.”

Kim Injung felt like he was going insane.

From childhood, he’d lived under protection to an excessive degree.

If he tripped in the street, the bodyguards who protected him were punished and driven out.

He’d grown like a greenhouse flower, with no immunity to pain.

Even as he aged, it was the same.

The Republic’s highest dignity.

A body that couldn’t be allowed to have even a single scratch on the skin.

And now this kind of horrific pain?

He couldn’t endure it.

Silent screams poured out of his whole body.

I want to die.

Then it’ll be peaceful.

“Ah, this is too pitiful. Please remove the pain. Can we even talk like this? We have to negotiate.”

The young man stamped in place, but—

“Hmph! Negotiation only goes smoothly when you sit on the other party’s head with your butt. What conversation is there with someone who lifts their head and resists?”

The old man wouldn’t listen at all.

“This isn’t talking. It feels like torture.”

“So what if it’s torture?”

Even in the haze of pain, Kim Injung heard the word clearly.

Talking.

Do it now.

I’ll agree to anything.

“Looks like we can’t talk today. We’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“Then do that.”

What? Tomorrow?

Why?

We can do it now.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes! Good work.”

“Yeah, you too... hm? But why is there a ribbon tied on this bastard’s head?”

“Eek? Sorry. It’s a habit.”

And then—SPOT!

The presence vanished.

They left?

They really left?

They’re leaving him like this?

Kim Injung despaired.

The terrifying pain continued.

This wasn’t right.

He wanted to bite his tongue off and die right now.

But at that very moment!

SSSST—

A presence, right beside him.

Who...?

“Hey. Even the old man—this was too much.”

It was the young man again.

“You could’ve just made him unable to move. Why’d you have to torture him too? This poor guy.”

He was right.

Torture was vile, unforgivable.

If Kim Injung could move freely again, he would eradicate torture from the Republic.

“Chairman, comrade! Don’t worry. I’ll make it so it doesn’t hurt.”

Oh!

“How did it go again... like this? Press here?”

GUK!

N-no, not there. Not—no—

“Ah! It was this side.”

Poke, poke—

“And press here too...”

Ahhh...

It was incredible.

The agony that felt like it would devour his whole body vanished in an instant.

But he still couldn’t move.

Like a vegetable.

Even so, it was something.

He was free of pain.

The young man clasped his hand tight and spoke in a plaintive voice.

“You have to endure it, Chairman, comrade.”

Such a grateful person.

“I want to pin a ribbon on you to cheer you up... but next time. Anyway, I’ll «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» see you tomorrow.”

Leaving behind Chairman Kim Injung, eyes full of gratitude, Cossack walked out of the room.

Bodyguards collapsed in the corridor.

Of course, they weren’t dead either.

Mad Demon had only put them to sleep by pressing the blood points.

By tomorrow, Pyongyang would probably be turned upside down.

When Cossack slipped out of the residence building, Mad Demon was waiting outside.

“Did you release the tendon-splitting bone-breaking?”

“Yes.”

“I still don’t understand why we have to go through this trouble.”

“Don’t worry. It works well. It’s a rapport-building technique that even has a name—good cop, bad cop.”

Mad Demon tilted the head.

“Good cop, bad cop?”

“It means a good detective and a bad detective.”

“...You’re the good detective, and this one is the bad detective?”

“Yes!”

“Tsk, tsk.”

Mad Demon didn’t like it at all.

If you just killed everything you saw, there’d be no aftermath, and it’d be clean.

He didn’t understand why they were taking the long way around when an easy method existed.

*****

TOWER PLAYER AWAKENING ADMINISTRATION.

Park Kyungsoo sat there with his mouth hanging open, listening to everything Jeon Gwangil spilled.

Only after the story ended did he manage to speak.

“So... unification?”

“Yes.”

“That Mr. Cossack is negotiating with Chairman Kim Injung?”

“Yes.”

“Unify the tower first, then long-term full unification?”

“Yes.”

“You think that’s possible?”

“Yes.”

It was a half-hearted answer, but what could be more definite than that?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. It will work. It will work no matter what.

“...I think so too.”

Park Kyungsoo had no choice but to accept it.

What is there that they can’t do?

People who, if they felt like it, could massacre the North Korean communist leadership in a single night.

And yet they were talking.

Even though they didn’t have to.

An extremely moderate and peaceful method.

“Bong Player’s influence must’ve been involved, right?”

“Yes.”

Of course, it wasn’t like it would be “just” talking.

“But what are we supposed to do with this, seriously?”

“With what?”

“How am I supposed to report this to the Blue House?”

“Hm.”

“Want to do it?”

“...No chance. I have no idea what excuse I’d even use.”

Right.

To report it, they’d have to reveal Bong Player’s capabilities to some extent.

But could the state accept it?

A Player who could use abilities freely in reality without even using a Liberation Rune Necklace.

“...Better not to.”

“For now, watching seems like the best option.”

At least until the nationality of the North Korea tower changed.

*****

The next day.

Juhyeok’s penthouse.

Honestly, Juhyeok didn’t want to know what was happening in North Korea.

From the perspective of a weak man, wasn’t it way too big in scale?

It wouldn’t be for the summoned entities, though.

They played on a cosmic scale.

People who’d gone through everything—every horror and every humiliation—in worlds beyond Earth.

There had to be a reason they were doing this.

So they must have done something, and there was no way he couldn’t ask.

“...Nothing happened, right?”

“Don’t worry. We didn’t kill a single person.”

That was a relief, but—

“Then, the negotiations with the North Korean chairman?”

“You mean Chairman comrade? Probably in a coma right now. Talking starts tomorrow.”

Huh?

They didn’t kill him, they put him into a coma?

“I only pressed the blood points. I also pressed the pressure points.”

Ah. Blood points.

Juhyeok knew what that was.

One of the martial techniques that paralyzed the body and turned someone into a vegetable.

“The mind is perfectly fine. It’s just that unless this old man releases it, the body can’t move, and the person can’t even make a sound.”

Well, he’d expected a show of force, but—

“Don’t push too hard. Take it slow, minimize side effects.”

“Come on, don’t worry. Who do you think I am? I’m the good-cop of rapport-building, the ‘our kid has changed,’ tailor-made solution for problem children—Doctor Cossack.”

Yeah.

He had to trust him.

Had Cossack ever failed at anything so far?

He always came back with the best possible result.

This would be the same.

Today, they were climbing the upper floors again, for the first time in a while.

With Meatshield back, it was also a celebration.

He was curious.

What kind of mission would Floor 74 be?

It was a two-track strategy.

Tower climbing in the morning, North Korea dispatch work at night.

“These next few days... I’m going to be crazy busy again.”

What could he do?

He’d chosen this himself, so he had to accept it.

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────