Juhyeok returned home once again.

Fortunately, they had secured the nuclear weapons, but that did not mean they could use them right away.

It would take some time before everything was ready for operation.

So Juhyeok sent Cossack off.

For his LSSR-grade breakthrough.

They only had to wait about two weeks.

The remaining physical Platinum Badges numbered 27.

Nine badges were pinned to Cossack’s chest.

Since 25 were required for a breakthrough, Juhyeok firmly placed the Wheel and the remaining 16 badges needed for a summoned entity’s grade breakthrough into Cossack’s hands.

“Come back safe. It’s fine even if the breakthrough fails.”

“...Yes, # Nоvеlight # sir!”

Ah.

Not being able to see a founding merit subject for two whole weeks.

Juhyeok hurried forward and hugged him tight.

“Cossack, fighting!”

“Huk! P-please don’t do this. My preferences are very firm.”

“Good grief. I like women too, you know. Do you think I enjoy hugging a sweaty man?”

“Heh heh.”

A hug between men.

Wasn’t that just an expression of deep friendship?

And then—

“Cossack, dismiss summon.”

SPOT!

Now there were 11 badges left.

There would be no more badge ceremonies for a while.

‘Well, I can just collect them little by little.’

The empty place left by Cossack

was filled by the remaining summoned entities.

Mad Demon, Meatshield, Sergeant Veronica Caliber, Bardin, Rajix, Blood Wolf, and Jepetto took turns commuting to North Korea.

And Diamat, who returned at SR rank, handled the housework.

Whenever there was time, Gyeon Dallae put Diamat through mental discipline so severe it made a person’s ears ring.

Meanwhile, what about their shut-in alchemist, Aliamari?

She was in the middle of a conversation with Gyeon Dallae.

<Princess♥Fairy>: ...So we’re going to use a nuke. On Floor 81.

<Mari>: The shockwave from the blast will be no joke, and we’ll have to worry about radiation too. I’m worried about you, Summoner.

<Princess♥Fairy>: It is fine. We are making preparations on our side as well. The Young Master’s subordinates, who are handling matters of state outside, are helping us.

<Mari>: I’m jealous. I want to help too. Still, radiation is something I can handle.

<Princess♥Fairy>: That is excellent. By the way, do you have any homunculi specialized for defense rather than explosions?

<Mari>: Ah! Yes. We can modify a few of the basic models.

<Princess♥Fairy>: Good. Make them quickly. We may have to enter Floor 81 together with the Young Master.

<Mari>: Got it. I’ll try to make as many as possible.

And so time passed.

Almost two weeks went by.

“Hoa!”

Rajix, returning from his work in North Korea, came back with two tactical nuclear warheads tucked inside his subspace backpack.

Each one was fully equipped with a wireless detonator—

meaning they could go off at the press of a button.

There should be no problem operating them.

When people thought of nuclear technology, North Korea was the first thing that came to mind.

Even though they were tactical mini-nuclear warheads,

their power exceeded that of the Hiroshima-class atomic bomb.

Two were enough.

Whether it was a super-colossal monster, an ultra-super-colossal monster, or an ultra-ultra-ultra-multi-colossal monster,

it would all melt away in an instant.

And another day passed.

Their Minister of the People’s Armed Forces comrade, whose status in the Catalog had changed to summonable, finally appeared.

“Designated Summon: John Cossack!”

SPOT!

“Comrade summoner! This Cossack has returned safely!”

At last, he was back.

Having successfully broken through to LSSR rank.

“Oh! LSSR Minister of the People’s Armed Forces comrade.”

“I truly thought I was going to die. That mental reinforcement was no joke.”

“Oh my, even your exaggeration is LSSR-level. Hahahahaha!”

“Hehehehehe.”

<Catalog: Assassination, Infiltration, Beheading, Disruption, Coercion, Plunder, Frenzied Swordmaster>

Name: John Cossack

Grade: LSSR (Legend Special Super Rare)

Type: Assassin (Human)

Manifestation Time Limit: 6 hours

Satisfaction Rating: None

Resummon Cooldown: 3 hours (Designated Summon currently available)

Setting the extra modifiers aside,

he was a Swordmaster, no less.

Was he planning to carry on his father’s legacy?

Juhyeok liked it.

Though it was a little unfortunate that his manifestation time had been shortened.

It was about time to start getting ready.

They did not need that many people for this clear anyway.

The fixed members would be

Mad Demon, Cossack, and Mari.

Rajix would carry the nuclear warheads into Floor 81.

Veronica would lure the Behemoth.

Meatshield would install the warheads.

That should be enough.

Let’s go.

We’ll blast it to pieces—completely and utterly.

[Entering Republic of Korea Black Tower (NO.2) Floor 81.]

[Current mode: Hell Mode.]

They entered Floor 81 once again.

Preparations were carried out immediately.

They had already coordinated everyone’s roles in advance for today.

First, they moved forward to receive the mission.

Ding!

As the clear began, the very first thing Rajix pulled out of his subspace backpack was—

“Hoa!”

A huge, sturdy shovel made of tower metal.

It had taken quite a while to make at the Player Shop workshop.

Commissioner Jeon Gwangil had helped, which sped things up.

Who was going to use it?

Meatshield in giant form, obviously.

Who else would?

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Meatshield worked diligently, digging into the ground with the giant shovel.

Sergeant Veronica Caliber watched in admiration.

“With Mr. Meatshield around, building trench fortifications would be easy.”

That was true.

The shovel was huge, and his strength was tremendous.

In no time at all, a large, deep square pit had been dug.

Next.

Ssssss.

Rajix pulled out a concrete structure from subspace, about three meters wide, long, and high.

That was right.

A simple portable air-raid shelter.

Something they had prepared over the past two weeks.

A cube with thick concrete walls.

Both the inside and outside were covered with Gyeon Dallae’s talismans and gold dust.

Steel plates containing lead had been added as well. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

It had been manufactured outside and brought in through the subspace backpack.

If it could hold an entire camper van, something like this was nothing.

“Hoaeee.”

The plan was to place the portable air-raid shelter inside the pit Meatshield had dug.

When Rajix stretched his hand into the pit, the shelter slid neatly into place.

Leaving only the upper portion with the entrance exposed, they completely filled the gaps with dirt and tamped it down so it would not shake.

A perfect air-raid shelter, completed in less than ten minutes.

This was the part they had paid the most attention to over the past two weeks.

A nuclear weapon was a double-edged sword.

If it detonated on Floor 81, it would endanger not only the Behemoth, but themselves as well.

But now it was safe.

Safe for everyone except the Behemoth.

The real clear began.

Sss, sss.

Lastly, Rajix took out the two tactical nuclear warheads fitted with detonators.

“Good work, Mr. Rajix.”

“Hoaeee.”

“I’ll make sure our Mr. Rajix gets his badge.”

“WAAH!”

Without Rajix, a nuclear-explosion clear would have been impossible from the start.

This plan only existed because he was here.

“Come here. Let’s have one hug before you go.”

“Hoa....”

Their cosmic bald farmhand—

Juhyeok hugged him tight, burying his face in the fluffy fur and rubbing his cheeks against it.

Then—

“Rajix, dismiss summon.”

SPOT!

Rajix returned after carrying out his role perfectly.

Now it was time to install the nuclear warheads.

They had to lure the monster as far away from the portable shelter as possible.

For that, someone had to draw it out.

That role belonged to Sergeant Veronica Caliber.

“Don’t get hurt. Safety first. You know that, right?”

“Sergeant Veronica Caliber. I will carry out the order exactly as instructed.”

And then—

she slid closer and pressed herself against him.

“W-why?”

“Please hug me too, like you did the quartermaster. I think it will raise my morale.”

“...Uh.”

So suddenly?

“Sergeant Veronica Caliber, I’ll hug you instead. An LSSR hug. Your morale will soar into the sky.”

“Yeah, shut up.”

“Hoe?”

Why are you copying Rajix?

“Commander, please hurry up and hug me.”

There was no helping it.

Juhyeok bent his waist back as far as he could and gave her a light hug.

SQUISH!

‘...Eek?’

But he endured it, reciting a prayer in his head while patting her on the back.

“Thank you, Commander!”

It felt like he could hear a message saying:

Veronica’s morale has increased by +10.

DADADADAK!

Veronica dashed forward using tactical movement.

Behind her followed Meatshield in giant form, carrying one nuclear warhead on each shoulder.

Each warhead weighed about 200 kilograms.

But to Meatshield, that was nothing.

At most, the two together were only 400 kilograms.

Veronica and Meatshield.

They ran for quite a while, and then—

ZIIIIING! FLASH!

BOOOOM!

The large round fired by Sergeant Veronica Caliber struck the super-colossal monster Titan Behemoth squarely.

“KRRRRAAAAAAAAGH!”

After landing that heavy blow—

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

she kept harassing it with rapid-fire small rounds.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

The Behemoth chased after Veronica, leaving its original area.

Behind it, giant-form Meatshield followed while carrying the nuclear warheads.

While the warheads were being installed, Juhyeok summoned the shut-in alchemist Aliamari.

SPOT!

As always, Mari was summoned with her body crouched low and her head bowed.

Her role was to stay inside the shelter, take out the defense-type homunculi, and prepare for any unforeseen danger.

But then—

Slide.

The summoned Mari quietly set several potion bottles on the ground.

“These are?”

“Oh! Is this because of the radiation?”

Mari scratched letters onto the ground with her finger.

Scritch, scritch.

Yes.

“Does it work?”

Scritch, scritch.

It does. It purifies any kind of energy entering from outside.

“How did you even know about radioactive material...?”

I’ve experienced a nuclear explosion before too. In another world—outside the tower, of course.

Ah!

Right.

She had said there were many worlds with civilizations similar to Earth’s.

“You drank it too, right, Mari?”

Scritch, scritch.

I did.

To Mad Demon and Cossack, who were standing nearby with blank looks on their faces—

“Drink one bottle each. It blocks radioactive substances.”

“So you’ve got tricks like this too. Thanks, alchemist.”

“What does it taste like? Strawberry would be nice.”

Gulp, gulp.

As for the roles of Mad Demon and Cossack?

If the Behemoth somehow survived,

their mission was to finish it off completely—

to cut off the last breath it had left.

Honestly, was that even possible?

How could anything survive a nuclear explosion?

Still, you never knew.

That was why the two strongest damage dealers among the summoned entities were being kept close at hand.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Veronica continued her relentless luring operation.

Juhyeok kept waiting,

watching through binoculars,

until enough distance had been created.

A little later—

Piyung! Bang!

The signal flare Veronica fired burst in the sky.

It was the sign that enough distance had been secured

and that the nuclear warheads had been installed near the Behemoth.

Objective achieved.

Then—

“Dismiss summon: Veronica. Dismiss summon: Meatshield.”

SPOT! SPOT!

Sergeant Veronica Caliber and Meatshield also returned safely.

CLUNK!

Juhyeok opened the shelter door, entered with Mad Demon, Cossack, and Mari, then shut it.

THUD!

‘Now... any second.’

He pulled out the wireless detonator.

CRRRRRRRR.

The defense-type homunculi above their heads appeared one after another.

CLACK! CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!

They spread densely throughout the inside of the shelter.

At the same time—

Swoong, swoong, swoong, swoong, swoong...

One shield barrier for each homunculus.

They transformed into tiny soap-bubble-like forms.

Their role was shock absorption.

You could say the entire shelter was packed full of cushioning material.

Truly perfect.

Protective barriers wrapped around them layer upon layer, three deep, four deep, tightly packed together.

ZIIIIING.

Juhyeok activated his energy defense barrier as well,

and at the same time circulated the energy of Heaven-Earth Unity Art.

Detonate immediately.

Let’s go. The people’s nuclear fire flavor!

Click!

He pressed the detonator—

BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM!!!

A nuclear explosion erupted with a horrifying roar.

The inside of the shelter shook violently.

And yet, no real impact could be felt.

KOO-KUNG! DRDRDRDRDR—

Meanwhile, right next to Juhyeok, Mari was trembling.

Shiver, shiver.

‘Is she scared?’

From behind, Juhyeok gently wrapped his arms around her.

Flinch!

Mari’s body trembled even harder.

I’ve hugged a lot of people today.

Rajix, Veronica—and now Mari too.

Thump-thump!

Her heartbeat rang so loudly he could hear it clearly.

It felt as if a nuclear warhead had gone off inside Mari’s heart.

In any case, inside the shelter,

Juhyeok, Mari, Mad Demon, and Cossack were all perfectly fine.

Even though two tactical nuclear warheads stronger than the Hiroshima atomic bomb had detonated.

The administrators had been watching the whole clear process in real time from the very beginning.

From the moment Rajix pulled a shovel out of his subspace backpack.

They were dumbfounded.

A shovel?

[What is that? Are they planning to beat the Behemoth to death with a shovel?]

[They’re digging.]

[Why are they digging?]

[Are they trying to make some kind of trap?]

[Dropping a super-colossal Behemoth into a trap? Ha. No way.]

Then came the concrete structure.

[A house?]

[Looks like they’re planning a drawn-out battle.]

[With only two hours? What drawn-out battle?]

[Anyway, that laborer really carries all kinds of things around.]

[He’s more useful than expected.]

[Even so, he’s still only non-combat personnel.]

And then—

at last, the two nuclear warheads revealed themselves.

[Huh?]

[W-what?]

[...What is that?]

[It looks like... a nuclear weapon.]

[Why is that coming out of a backpack?]

[Who knows?]

It was a cheat.

The final tech tree of modern Earth’s scientific weaponry.

A powerful bomb that generated enormous energy through nuclear fission,

burning and destroying everything, even altering the shape of the terrain itself.

The administrators stared with their mouths hanging open.

Then they snapped back to their senses.

Because they finally realized what those people were trying to do.

Digging the ground, placing a concrete structure, one person luring the Behemoth, another following behind with bombs in hand—

[On Floor 81... a nuclear weapon?]

[S-stop them! We can’t let them clear it like this! Take the nuclear weapons away!]

[U-um, th-that isn’t possible. We can’t interfere during an active clear.]

[Then change the rules! Make it so nuclear fission can’t occur inside the tower!!!]

[That would take a long time.]

[Stop talking and do something. Anything.]

But it was already too late.

BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM-BOOOOM!!!

[We’re screwed.]

Across the vast grasslands of Floor 81,

enormous mushroom clouds rose into the sky.

Not one.

Two.

[......]

[......]

[......]

Everyone fell silent.

Did this even make sense?

A nuclear detonation inside the tower?

It was absurd.

Naturally, curses started pouring out.

[You fucking—...!]

[...]

[Damn it!]

[Trial? A trial? You call this a trial? Fuck!!!]

What was this?

They were supposed to break the summoner’s mind,

and instead it was the administrators whose minds were collapsing.

They fell into panic.

Something utterly unimaginable had happened on Floor 81.

All because of that beastman laborer.

[Haah... how could a mere laborer do this?]

[We only focused on Mad Demon and Mari. Overlooking the abilities of the other summoned entities was our mistake.]

[Is there any way to restrict the abilities of that beastman laborer?]

[Th-that’s impossible. We could change the tower’s rules, but...]

[...]

The administrators stood there in a daze.

They had never seen such a deranged strategy before.

Kukukukuku.

The shockwaves gradually subsided.

So what had happened to Bald Mountain?

Meaning the super-colossal monster Titan Behemoth.

Was it still alive?

Mad Demon opened the hatch on the shelter ceiling.

Whoosh!

Heat from the blast rushed in.

‘This much is bearable.’

Juhyeok and the others climbed out of the shelter.

They surveyed the area again through binoculars.

Far away, where the Behemoth had been, nothing remained.

Only the two mushroom clouds were still visible in the distance.

‘When is the clear message going to pop up?’

It seemed the system was having difficulty making the judgment.

Which made sense.

There had never been a clear like this before.

At that very moment—

[Completion condition: super-colossal monster Titan Behemoth 1/1]

[You have succeeded in the Floor 81 Mission.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Reward: 81kg of high-grade Magic Stones.]

Oh! Finally, the mission success judgment.

Of course.

Whether you kill it with a nuke or stab it with a sword,

once the Behemoth is dead, it counts as success, right?

[Guaranteed reward is being distributed.]

Let’s see—

[The soul liberation procedure of Hartmann, who belongs to the tower, has begun.]

‘Yes!’

[Hartmann’s soul has been summoned to Floor 81.]

SPOT!

He appeared.

Hartmann—

the same man who had always been dying in chains on Floor 77—

had now appeared on Floor 81 in perfectly healthy condition.

Seeing him like this made it obvious.

He looked exactly like Cossack.

“...Father?”

“Rian.”

“You recognize me?”

“How could I not?”

“And... uh, th-this place is...”

Hartmann nodded with a warm smile.

“I understand everything now. That this place is the tower, that I am a bound soul, that I will soon be freed—and everything you have done.”

Then Hartmann looked at Juhyeok

and slowly bowed his head.

“Thank you.”

A sincere expression of gratitude.

He remained bowed like that for quite some time.

Then, after a moment, he raised his head and looked at Cossack.

“Rian. Come here. Let me hold you.”

Cossack walked over without a word.

Grab.

The two embraced each other tightly.

Ah...

Did something get in my eyes?

Radioactive fallout or something?

The tears just kept coming.