Juhyeok’s daily life was always the same.

He lazed around at home.

His job was hanging out with the summoned entities every day until Rajix became summonable again.

Veronica snored in the living room as she slept.

She’d started dozing the moment she got summoned and she was still sleeping now,

and Gyeon Dallae sat on the sofa reading a book.

As expected of an imperial princess—such dignity.

Meatshield was sprawled out in the outdoor garden, sunbathing.

Not that his skin would tan, anyway.

Juhyeok and Cossack were enjoying a game.

A soccer game on a console.

“Number 8, Cossack—sharp interception off Bong Team’s pass. Breaks the press and fires a quick through ball upfield—ah! Number 10, Cossack receives! Fancy dribbling! Bong Team players are running around in panic! Cross goes up! Number 7, Cossack headiiiing! Goal! It’s a goal! Goalgoalgoalgoal!”

Hoo.

“...”

This is pissing me off.

It’s only the first half, but the score is 5:0.

Of course, Juhyeok is the zero.

How am I supposed to beat Cossack with SSR physical stats?

His brain is sneaky, his hands are fast, and his eyes are fast too.

“Mr. Cossack.”

“Yes!”

“Are you having fun?”

“Yes!”

“Good for you. At least one of us is enjoying this. I’m not.”

“...Yes?”

“I mean, you scored five goals. No way you’d be in a bad mood.”

Seriously. Scoring is one thing, but what is with the live play-by-play commentary? Are you trying to shatter my mental?

“Ah—no, I just... thought it’d be fun to, to play the g-game...”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks to you, I’m having so much ‘fun.’”

Fun my ass. It’s only fun if I can score at least one.

Cossack looked flustered.

“S-should we stop?”

“Keep going. We started the game, so we should see it through. Ugh. How many am I gonna eat in the second half? If it ends 20 to 0, I’ll just feel amazing.”

“...”

At that, Gyeon Dallae paused her reading.

“Cossack, you have quite the nerve. Do you not know your place, to dare try to defeat Master? At this rate, you will soon climb onto his head.”

“O-oh, no.”

Veronica muttered half-asleep too.

“Mmm... when the commander dribbles the ball, you’re supposed to fall down on your own. If you defend, you’re going to the brig. Minimum punishment is full kit and a hundred laps around the parade ground...”

“Uh—uhhh...”

The game restarted.

Cossack’s mental had already collapsed.

There was no way his controller inputs were going to work right.

Juhyeok’s in-game players ran the field.

They ravaged Cossack’s goal.

“Yes! 5 to 1!”

“...”

“Oh yeah, one more.”

“...”

“Whaa—tie game. Time to take the lead—let’s goooo!!!”

Yeah. Games are fun when you’re winning.

He slammed in six goals like a storm and flattened Cossack’s nose.

This is the Earth Gamer class!

He felt a twinge of guilt, but the world of competition was ruthless.

Still... you can only laze around for so long.

When you try to do nothing but eat and waste time, you start getting itchy.

The life of a rich unemployed guy.

He’d always dreamed of it, but actually doing it wasn’t all that.

At least the money worries were gone.

Still—when is Rajix coming back?

It had been four days since he sent him.

If it was like Meatshield’s case, he should be summonable around today.

“When is our worker coming back? Ah— I wanna enter the Tower.”

“Can’t we just climb without him?”

“Hm.”

If they climbed, it was one of two things.

A repeat clear, or an uncleared upper floor.

Without Rajix, a repeat clear was meaningless.

So an uncleared upper floor?

From Floor 61, it was the undead section.

Living corpses—mummies—started appearing from Floor 61.

Belching dark aura everywhere.

He could clear it.

The problem was getting an S++ clear.

“Master, do not worry. This young lady can more than suppress the foul aura of those impure things.”

Probably.

Her class was shamaness, after all.

If she just shook her bells properly, she could easily cancel out dark aura.

And if they brought the holy sword and held it?

S++ would be guaranteed.

Even so... what’s the fun of a clear without Rajix?

Not to mention Veronica’s ammunition supply.

‘Let’s decide once Rajix gets back.’

Honestly, he’d been checking the Status Window nonstop since yesterday.

He’d just checked a moment ago.

He checked again now...

“Huh?”

It changed.

The Summon Unavailable mark was gone.

Juhyeok shot his fist into the air and shouted.

“Rajix is back!!!”

“Is it true?”

“Oh my?”

“Sergeant Veronica Caliber! Has the Supply Officer returned?”

Cossack and Gyeon Dallae cheered with him, Veronica woke up automatically, and Meatshield—who’d been sunbathing—also came into the living room.

“Alright, let’s start getting ready to welcome him.”

“Yes!”

He must’ve suffered so much ranking up.

For this day, Juhyeok had pre-ordered Jeju-grown pesticide-free organic carrots and spread them all over the living room.

A small banner that read, CONGRATS! RAJIX PROMOTION—and colorful balloons he’d blown up and stuck to the wall.

“I’m calling him now.”

“I’m excited.”

“I missed the Supply Officer.”

“The warrior feels the same.”

“Ah... how will our finest servant have changed?”

Juhyeok muttered quietly.

“Designated Summon: Rajix.”

FWOOSH!

A swirl of light gathered, and—POP!

Rajix revealed himself—

“SQUEAK!”

He appeared.

Rajix was summoned in the same round, fluffy body, lifting his short right arm high.

“Waaah!”

“How can you be this dependable?”

“Certain victory! Supply Officer, congratulations on your promotion.”

“SSR worker—amazing.”

“The warrior is proud of the worker.”

“SQUEEENG...”

Juhyeok hugged Rajix.

Gyeon Dallae, Cossack, and Meatshield too.

Veronica saluted and showed respect.

<Catalog: A faithful and dependable all-purpose genius worker from the beastkin>

Name: Rajix

Rank: SSR (Special Super Rare)

Type: worker (beastkin)

Manifestation Time Limit: 7 hours

Satisfaction Rating: average 5 points.

Resummon Cooldown: 3 hours (applies after Dismiss Summon)

As expected, he was SSR.

The Catalog title changed too.

A faithful and dependable all-purpose genius worker.

And his appearance?

Unchanged.

That made it even better.

Of course, one thing had changed.

His ordinary safety helmet was now a shiny, gleaming golden hat.

And the backpack on his back was easily more than twice as big.

It was so huge you couldn’t even tell whether the backpack was carrying Rajix or Rajix was carrying the backpack.

Right then—Sssst!

At some point, Rajix had pulled out a cleaning broom and dustpan from the backpack.

Scrape-scrape, roll,

Scrape-scrape, roll,

‘The moment he arrives...’

He started cleaning as he moved.

Even with that massive backpack, he rolled around just fine.

Juhyeok wanted to tell him to stop—what kind of cleaning is this?—but Rajix looked so bright and happy.

And honestly, the penthouse had gotten really messy during the time Rajix was gone.

Now?

The penthouse became spotless in the blink of an eye.

“Truly, the greatest of all time, unmatched and invincible.”

He cleaned over here—then appeared over there.

He moved like lightning.

Laundry into the washer, dishes into the dishwasher.

Mopped the floors, wiped the windows.

Then Rajix came to the living room where Juhyeok stood and pointed at the Jeju-grown pesticide-free organic carrots with his hand.

“SQUEAK? Put carrots away?”

“No, those are for you, Rajix. You wanted them, right?”

“SQUEAK? That’s too many.”

“Hahaha. Eat slowly. If you run out, I can order as many as you want.”

“SQUEAK. That’s awesome.”

Rajix picked up a carrot with one hand.

Then he crunched it with his front teeth—crunch, crunch—while his other hand picked up the rest of the carrots and threw them behind him.

The carrots automatically slid straight into the Subspace Backpack.

Is he trying to save them?

‘He’s just throwing them and they’re going in on their own... huh?’

Wait.

Carrots are going into the Subspace Backpack?

‘Why is that going in?’

Rajix’s Subspace Backpack.

The ability to bring Tower items outside without any restrictions.

But... he could put Earth items in too?

Juhyeok thought it was like a Tower-Only Inventory, that only Tower-related items could go in.

“...Were you always able to put carrots in?”

“SQUEAK. Before, couldn’t.”

“Now?”

“Rajix SSR. So put in.”

So it was possible because he ranked up.

“Can you take them into the Tower too?”

“Yes.”

“If you get dismissed, they won’t disappear?”

“Yes.”

Then...

Juhyeok pointed to a chair in the kitchen.

“That one?”

“SQUEEEAK! Put in.”

“The marble dining table too?”

“Put in.”

“It’s huge and heavy.” 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

“Put in.”

In that instant—

Sssrrr,

The large marble dining table vanished.

The chairs beside it all went in too.

“...”

Earth items could be stored and brought into the Tower.

This was not something to brush off.

“This TV?”

“Put in.”

“The sofa too?”

“Put in.”

“That fridge?”

“Put in.”

“...Even really big things go in? Like...”

He searched for a tank—K2 Black Panther—and showed it on his smartphone.

“SQUEAK? No. Too big.”

Hm. So there was a size limit.

Juhyeok opened the fridge and the sink cabinet shelves and pointed at item after item.

Each time—sssrk—vanishing into the backpack.

Everything goes in.

There was nothing that wouldn’t.

‘This is a complete revolution.’

Modern scientific weapons would go in too.

For example, a portable missile launcher.

Well, even then it wouldn’t beat Veronica’s magic gun, but—

‘If I get a chance to copy a skill later...’

Top priority was Rajix’s Subspace Backpack, no question.

And now—

“Let’s go into the Tower for the first time in a while.”

“SQUEAK!”

Let’s verify whether he could take things out inside the Tower too.

*****

[Entering the Black Tower (Republic of Korea) Floor 56.]

He deliberately chose the 50s.

A flying-monster section—if you didn’t pull, there was no need to fight.

“Rajix, take out the chairs and table.”

“SQUEAK!”

Sssst, ssssss-st.

Chairs and a table slid out of the backpack.

Meatshield took them and ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) set them on the ground.

This is insane. Insane. I can’t believe this is possible.

He took out food he’d brought from home too.

Fruit, drinks, snacks—processed foods. It felt like a full-on picnic.

“We can light a campfire and grill meat too.”

“Thanks to you, it is pleasant to get some fresh air.”

Honestly, they really could.

Should they do it sometime?

Then Rajix pointed at a wyvern flying overhead with his hand.

“SQUEAK. Catch and peel leather?”

“No.”

“SQUEAK? Mine ore?”

“Today, you don’t have to do anything.”

“SQUEEAK... need work...”

“C’mon. This time, let’s just play.”

The scenery wasn’t great.

A lonely wasteland. Wyverns flying around.

A clear mission popped up, but he didn’t care.

He wasn’t even thinking about hunting.

They could just hang out for a while, abandon the mission, and leave.

You need days like this.

Do you really have to kill monsters every time you enter the Tower?

He took photos with the smartphone he brought.

They were laughing and talking loudly, killing time like that, when—

‘Huh?’

One spot was empty.

It was Rajix.

When did he disappear?

“Anyone seen Rajix?”

“Our worker’s right he—huh! Where’d he go? He vanished in an instant.”

The summoned entities seemed to notice late as well.

“Wow! I didn’t even realize. Truly SSR.”

“This young lady will go find him at once.”

“The warrior will go as well.”

“Sergeant Veronica Caliber. Search operations are my specialty. Beginning pursuit.”

But there was no need.

Juhyeok pointed with a finger and said,

“It’s fine. He’s coming.”

Rrrrrooooolllll.

Rajix rolled in at a ferocious speed.

“Where did you go?”

“SQUEEEAK...”

He panted for a moment, then—

“SQUEAK. Smell.”

“What smell?... Did someone fart in here?”

“Not me. Princess?”

“Yes—yes, you little—!!”

“Then Meatshield farted.”

“The warrior does not fart. The warrior would rather soil himself.”

“SQUEAK! Not fart.”

Then—clatter.

Rajix dumped a pile of weird odds and ends onto the table.

“I dug from underground.”

Not leather, not ore—

“What even is all th—”

Then one object caught his eye.

“Huh—!”

Juhyeok jolted.

Looking at the long, narrow thing on the table—

“Isn’t that a bone?”

“Yes. But not monster bone. A human finger bone.”

“A human finger bone?”

Rajix said he dug it up from underground, but...

Why would something like that be buried under the Tower?

Don’t tell me it was part of a Player’s body who died here?

But it was badly decayed.

Blackened, like it would crumble the moment you touched it—

Gyeon Dallae observed it closely.

“It appears to be at least a hundred years old.”

“I agree.”

A hundred years... was that even possible?

The year the Towers appeared on Earth was 2004.

Now it was 2024.

Only twenty years had passed, yet a bone more than a hundred years old?

The timeline didn’t match.

And yet, if it was definitely a human bone, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

‘...A human from another world, not Earth?’

He remembered a conversation he’d had with Cossack when he’d first awakened as a Player.

Cossack knew Earth civilization surprisingly well.

When he asked why, Cossack said there were quite a lot of worlds similar to this one.

Those worlds had Black Towers too.

Mad Demon and Gyeon Dallae had said similar things.

If Towers existed, then of course there would’ve been Players.

It might be part of a Player’s remains from a hundred years ago.

In a Tower that was only twenty years old.

The only thing he could infer was...

That you could enter a floor that another Player had cleared—or died on—again.

“However, it seems there is something stuck on the finger bone.”

“Where?... Ah!”

Looking closely, it was.

A thin silver ring.

‘A ring...’

Could it be?

“I’ll take it off.”

Cossack slid the ring off and handed it over. Juhyeok checked the information.

“Ah!”

His guess was right.

It was an item.

<Brilliant Archmage’s Blink Ring.>

Effect: You can use the 5-circle spell Blink without injecting mana.

Limit: Consecutive use is limited to 10 times or fewer.

Feature: It recharges 1 use every 2 hours.

“...It lets you use Blink?”

Cossack’s face lit up.

“Oh! Blink—that’s good. It’s the best.”

“The warrior agrees. It is good.”

“Congratulations. Certain victory!”

“Our greatest servant has done something huge once again.”

“SQUEEEAK...”

Blink was a skill that high-level mage-type Players could use.

A magic Trait skill you could only obtain after Trait enhancement.

And it didn’t even have the words Tower-Only.

Meaning it could be used in reality too.

‘Right. It said you don’t need to inject mana.’

No—he hits the ground running the moment he becomes SSR? How can he be this adorable?

“SQUEAK!!!”

A pose he hadn’t seen in a while—both short hands planted on his hips, his round chest thrust out, blasting out snorts like crazy.

But the ring wasn’t the only thing Rajix brought.

There were other things on the table.

A piece of stone, and a yellow piece of paper.

‘Hm.’

They looked trivial, but they wouldn’t be ordinary.

Juhyeok picked up the stone first.

‘Check information.’

Then—

<Unknown Rune Fragment (1/7)>

“...What?”

Then the paper?

<Unknown Ticket Fragment (1/5)>

A rune? A ticket?

“M-my god!”

Really?

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────