Day 10 since he started climbing the tower.

Yesterday’s Floor 9 clear was easy too.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t easy for him—it was easy for Cossack.

A Floor 9 mission to eliminate ten Jungle Man-Eating Corpse Flowers.

In a thick jungle, they would spread their petals out on the ground, then when a human passed by, they would snap shut and clamp down on their feet—giant Jungle Man-Eating Corpse Flowers.

“What is this? It’s in the way, sir.”

They didn’t even have teeth, the force of the petals closing was weak, and digestive fluid did ooze out, but even if it touched your skin, it only stung a little.

John Cossack just stepped on them as he went.

He stomped the corpse flowers over and over until they were so mangled you couldn’t even tell what they’d been.

“Should I try stepping on one too...”

“No. Don’t come close, sir. It smells, and it’ll dirty your shoes.”

Was he really being raised like a greenhouse flower?

On the other hand, since he didn’t have any proper combat skills, it also made sense that he wasn’t charging in.

Either way, Floor 9 was another success.

S++ was basically the default.

The Platinum Badge was a freebie.

It was so reassuring.

The fact that he was a deranged assassin who slaughtered three people didn’t even feel like an issue anymore.

“Honestly, he did that to protect me.”

Today was the Floor 10 mission.

First: Designated Summon Cossack.

And the Satisfaction Rating was always five stars, no matter what.

But then—

[John Cossack’s Satisfaction Rating has been set to 5 stars.]

[Due to continued accumulation of the highest score, John Cossack’s manifest time increases by 1 additional hour.]

“...Huh?”

He hadn’t expected that.

“So there really is a payoff to always giving the top score.”

John Cossack looked pleased too.

“Thank you, sir. I can support you for one more hour now, sir.”

“I always say this, but I’m counting on you.”

“Just trust me, sir!”

Juhyeok and Cossack entered Floor 10.

[Entering Black Tower (Republic of Korea) Floor 10.]

[Your physical abilities have been enhanced to match your level.]

[Trait and combat skill use is available.]

By the time he hit Floor 10, it felt different.

Now he could clearly feel it.

“I got stronger.”

The way his body got recalibrated inside the tower.

Vitality overflowed, and strength surged up through him.

And on top of that, a faint magic power he could feel in his lower abdomen.

Still useless, since he hadn’t learned any skills.

There was an entry in the Status Window called [Combat Skills].

Since Juhyeok’s trait was Summoning, there was nothing there, but Players with combat traits tended to learn something starting at 1LV.

So did that mean summoners could never learn combat skills?

No.

As your level rose, or as rewards—items, like skill runes, for example—you could learn them.

Anyway, Floor 10’s mission—

[Floor 10 Mission: Defeat 1 Giant Horn Mantis.]

[Time Limit: Within 2 hours.]

[Completion Condition: Giant Horn Mantis 0/1]

[Failure Condition: Death or Abandon Mission]

“I’ll help too.”

“Uh, no, sir. If you end up with even a scratch, Summoner Bong, I have to smash my head into the ground, sir.”

“No, but still. It feels weird to just stand around. If I get hurt, I can drink a Healing Potion. We have some from the reward.”

“Save the potion and just praise me from behind, sir.”

He didn’t want to be a greenhouse flower anymore.

He would do something.

“No. This time, I absolutely have to! Together, for su—”

In that moment!

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

A massive Giant Horn Mantis pushed through the brush and appeared.

“...Oh.”

It was huge.

Just looking at it made his skin crawl.

Compound eyes on a giant insect.

A large, well-developed mouth and jaws.

Front legs bent like sickles.

A triangular head, with a horn where antennae should be.

That was a Floor 10 monster?

How did other Players kill this?

“...If I fumble around trying to ‘help’ on the side, you’ll just end up annoyed, Mr. Cossack, right?”

“Well, there’s not really anything to be annoyed about, sir.”

“No. Rather than helping clumsily, it’s better if I cheer you on.”

“Is that so, sir?”

“Yes! You can do it, Mr. Cossack.”

“Yes, sir!”

PAPAPAT!

Cossack charged in at a terrifying speed.

THUD! THUD!

Two thrusts shattered the mantis’s compound eyes.

SLICE! SLICE!

Two cuts took off both front legs.

STAB—SHHHHK!

Blue-black aura carved the mantis’s belly open, and its insides spilled out.

As expected, it was instant.

The Giant Horn Mantis went down without even getting a counterattack in.

[You have succeeded in the Floor 10 Mission.]

[Your level has increased.]

[Reward: Magic Stone 1kg]

[Notice: You have achieved Clear Rank S++ for Black Tower (Korea) Floor 1.]

[S++ Clear Reward: Platinum Badge will be awarded.]

[You can challenge Floor 11.]

[Leaving Black Tower (Republic of Korea)

POP!

Juhyeok was back in his studio.

“...It’s already over.”

Did ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) that mean he was out of beginner territory now?

Let’s check the rewards.

Magic Stone: 1kg.

Total accumulated: 5.5kg.

And the Platinum Badge?

He got a perk at five—Awakening Trait Enhancement—so...

[You will be granted a perk for accumulating 10 Platinum Badges.]

“...Again?”

A perk popped.

What was it?

[Perk: You may copy 1 skill among the skills possessed by the summoned.]

[List: Blade Explosion, Shock Break, Vile Ambush, Poison Dagger, Shadow Step, Disruption, Stealth, Invisibility, Polymorph...,]

[State the skill you want.]

“...Wow.”

Skill copy.

So he could learn one of John Cossack’s skills?

There were too many.

What should he pick?

“Summoner Bong!”

“Yes?”

“Shadow Step, no matter what, sir.”

“What...?”

“The skill you’re copying from me, sir. Don’t ask, don’t argue—learn Shadow Step, sir.”

Should he?

He decided to ask the reason first.

“Why?”

“It’s convenient when you’re running away, sir. If something happens to me, you can slip out fast and quietly, sir.”

“...”

Running away?

What did he take him for—

like he was some guy who’d run off alone to save himself?

“...Learn Shadow Step.”

[Skill: You have learned Shadow Step.]

[Shadow Step has been registered in your Status Window.]

Fast feet mattered a lot in combat.

A fight was speed, wasn’t it?

Of course, it was useful for running away too.

Either way, the way to use it sank right into his head.

Skill: Shadow Step

Description: You run away quickly, leaving a shadow behind. The effect improves as your level increases.

How to use it.

You could say the name out loud, or you could manifest the will internally and move your steps.

“Nice.”

[Combat Skills]: Shadow Step

Now he had one skill he could use inside the tower.

“What if it works in the real world too...?”

All he had to do was try.

“Shadow Step.”

He triggered the skill, but—

“...”

Nothing changed.

“So it doesn’t work.”

He’d been hoping, honestly.

“This is a mess.”

Summoning worked outside.

So why didn’t a combat skill work?

If it made Summoning work, it should make this work too.

“There’s no consistency. No consistency!”

“I don’t know what it is, but you’re right, sir.”

What a waste.

A skill that would be incredibly useful for running away.

If it worked outside too, there would be so many places it could come in handy.

Still, inside the tower it worked, so he was getting safer and safer.

That was the right direction.

※ ※ ※

Day 11 since he started climbing the tower.

A day off from work.

He’d taken the day off on purpose.

Because there was something he had to do.

A thought came to him out of nowhere.

Should he quit his part-time jobs?

“...I’ll wait a bit longer.”

Tower climbing wasn’t hard.

Just summon John Cossack and it was done.

At least until the mid part of Floor 10, he said it wouldn’t be a problem.

For the late part of Floor 10, he’d need one more person.

Once the Random Summon cooldown came back, that is.

Anyway, what he had to do this morning was set.

Sell Magic Stones.

But it required going through a special procedure.

For Juhyeok, this was the hardest and most exhausting moment.

Magic Stones—rocks that contained energy harmless to the human body.

Used across industry, and still under ongoing research.

If you wanted to sell them, you could sell them anywhere.

But the moment you tried to sell Magic Stones,

your identity as a Player would be exposed.

You’d be placed in an extremely dangerous situation.

Inside the tower, you were a warrior who could display your abilities—but in the real world, a Player was no different from an ordinary person.

Bad people might kidnap you, imprison you, and turn you into a Magic Stone shuttle.

Players died a lot in the tower, but they also died a lot in the real world.

Well, it wasn’t really a case that applied to Juhyeok.

Because he could summon John Cossack in the real world too, like a loyal bodyguard.

Even so, he couldn’t relax.

What if something happened after John Cossack was dismissed?

What if, by unlucky timing, he couldn’t summon him immediately because of the Designated Summon cooldown?

If you thought about safety, there was one choice.

Contract with the state.

In the past, there were deals with major corporations, and Players banded together into guild-like alliances, but now those were almost gone.

There were rumors that a black market and secret Player organizations still remained, but nothing about them was clear.

Contracting with the national government was the safest.

If you requested it directly, they protected you.

They also handled selling reward items from mission clears on your behalf.

To be fair, you might have prejudices.

That belonging to the state meant you wouldn’t be free, or that you’d be unfairly exploited.

But that was something that happened under dictatorships.

A normal government—especially the government of the Republic of Korea—granted Players broad freedom.

Because Players weren’t safe in the real world, because they were only strong in the tower and weak outside, because without them, Tower Collapse might happen.

If anything, the state should step in and protect them as the highest priority.

“Being held in the sweet embrace of public authority really is nice.”

Right now, there were two categories of Players the state managed.

“There’s ‘elite’ and ‘regular.’”

Elite meant the tower-climbing specialist team the state managed with special attention.

They moved with the goal of uncleared upper floors.

Meanwhile, regular—or the bottom-tier team—meant Players who’d lost the will to climb and only played around on lower floors.

He just had to avoid the elite team.

Because then obligations and responsibilities followed.

What Juhyeok wanted was the bottom-tier team.

Among Players under contract with the state, over 90% fell into that category.

They parked on an appropriate floor and only repeated missions.

How good was that?

A goal that fit weak-man Bong Juhyeok’s identity perfectly.

But there was still something that bothered him.

Those notices that had come in while he cleared up through Floor 10.

[Notice: You have achieved Clear Rank S++ for Black Tower (Korea) Floor △△.]

He learned what they were recently.

After finishing Floor 10 yesterday, he logged into an internet board called Tower Climbing Gallery—where Players sometimes stopped by—to look up Floor 11 info.

└ So the rumor’s real?

└ Yeah. The administration’s keeping quiet, but when more than one or two people heard the notice, what can they do?

└ Ten straight S++ clears—what is this, a national pride trip?

└ If that isn’t a national pride trip, what is? Do you know Japan’s best record? I heard it’s only Rank A. No global notice, either.

└ Worldwide, they say Rank A++ is the highest. Even then, there was no global notice.

└ So only Rank S or higher triggers a global notice?

└ Seems like it. But it isn’t even S, it’s S++, so it’s definitely a massive national pride trip.

└ It’s definitely someone who awakened recently... seriously, who is it?

The global notice that popped for all Players.

Everyone knew.

A topic heating up all kinds of internet boards lately.

Of course the state would know too.

“If it gets revealed that I’m the one behind those S++ clears...”

He could get forcibly dragged into the ELITE TOWER CLIMBING TEAM.

So what, you ask?

Wouldn’t it be better to reveal himself and step forward confidently?

It was a golden chance to get fame and money all at once.

“That can’t happen!”

A single moment of boldness could change the direction of your life by 180 degrees.

Remember it again.

He didn’t get S++ because he was amazing.

He got it because John Cossack was amazing.

Cossack couldn’t guarantee what would happen past Floors 20 and 30 either.

And what if Random Summon went badly, and he ended up with someone lower-ranked than Mr. Cossack?

“I’m going bottom-tier no matter what.”

What’s wrong with bottom-tier?

Because of the Magic Stones they obtain, industry develops, the environment is protected, and the world becomes richer.

All right. Now he just had to press the number.

Then he only had to tell the official in charge, “I awakened. I want to sell Magic Stones.”

But he had to work up the courage.

It wasn’t easy.

Was this really right?

Once he called, there was no taking it back.

Couldn’t he just keep it hidden and live?

Then what was he supposed to do about tower rewards going forward?

He couldn’t even sell Magic Stones.

“5.5kg. That’s 2.75 million won.”

He picked up his phone, then set it down.

He typed the number, then erased it again.

Even now, countless thoughts flashed through his head.

Aah!

The embodiment of indecision.

The height of pettiness.

The curse of paternal genes.

Dad, why did you give birth to me like this?

No.

Trust the maternal genes.

After agonizing like that dozens of times—

“Right. I can hide it somehow.”

He’d cleared through Floor 10 at S++, but from Floor 11 on, he could tell Mr. Cossack to take it easy and mess around.

“Phew...”

At last, Juhyeok lifted his phone and dialed 1111.

BEEEP...

The moment the signal went through—

CLICK!

Hello? Speak.

“M-My name is Bong Juhyeok. Um... I-I... c-calling because I... Awakened.”

He finally did it.

Congratulations. May our government assistants visit your home?

“Yes, you can. But not my parents’ place—I live on my own. The address is...”

Understood. We will head over as quickly as possible.

Small-time citizen Bong Juhyeok.

In his twenty-five years of life, it was the bravest decision he’d ever made.

Even more than his first tower entry.

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