Juhyeok and his companions returned to the penthouse.

They put the dining table and chairs back where they belonged.

‘No matter how I think about it, this is insane.’

Rajix had become SSR.

Two things had changed.

First.

Earth items could go into Rajix’s Subspace Backpack.

It wasn’t that you couldn’t bring Earth items into the Tower at all.

There were items that were allowed—clothes you were wearing, shoes, hats, a smartphone, a bodycam, a pistol, and so on.

They called this an “on-person item ruling.”

Small, light items you could hold in your hand.

But no matter how small the item was, you couldn’t store it in the Tower-Only Inventory.

The Player just carried it in.

The Tower-Only Inventory only accepted items received from the Tower.

Now everything was possible.

As long as the size was reasonable, the limitation was basically gone.

An all-purpose worker and an all-purpose porter.

You could stuff anything into Rajix’s backpack.

Second.

Item detection.

When Rajix was R—Rare—he could only smell ore.

But now that he was SSR, his # Nоvеlight # item-search ability seemed to have advanced by at least two stages.

That was how he’d found the Blink Ring and the fragments.

Juhyeok took the ring out of his inventory.

Maybe because of its age, it was covered in scratches.

Thankfully, there was no rust.

‘A Blink skill... should I try it?’

When he put the ring on, the usage method surfaced in his mind.

A type of instantaneous movement.

But long distances were impossible.

About 3 meters was the limit.

“Blink!”

Flash.

Juhyeok—who’d been in the living room—appeared in the kitchen.

‘Whoa!’

Let’s keep going.

Blink, Blink, Blink, Blink...

Flash, flash, flash, flash...

Like a horror movie ghost, Juhyeok’s new form kept popping up all over the house.

“Ugh, I’m dizzy.”

“SQUEEEAK,”

“Truly, a splendid displacement art.”

“The warrior worries less. The Summoner is safer now.”

Did he use it about five times?

You could do up to ten consecutively.

It said it recharged every two hours, but he shouldn’t burn through it.

And then there were the <Unknown Rune Fragment (1/7)> and the <Unknown Ticket Fragment (1/5)>.

From the item descriptions, the rune was one of seven fragments, and the ticket was one of five.

The runes Juhyeok knew so far were the level-up rune, the Summoned Entity Rank-Up Rune, and the Trait enhancement rune.

Tickets were things like a Tower Jumping Ticket, a Skill Cooldown Reset Ticket, a Multinational Tower Access Ticket (One-Time Use), a Guaranteed-Rank Summon Ticket.

Of course, that couldn’t be all.

He’d heard that as you went up higher, items that hadn’t appeared before would start showing up.

What if the unknown rune fragment was actually a Trait enhancement rune?

What if the unknown ticket fragment was a Skill Cooldown Reset Ticket?

And what if those fragments could be combined?

‘That would be the jackpot of jackpots, wouldn’t it?’

There was something he’d been thinking about while clearing Floor 60.

The chances to receive privileges were gradually disappearing.

He currently had 61 Platinum Badges in his inventory.

If his calculations were right, he’d get a privilege at Floor 64.

And after that?

Floor 69 would be next.

If he used a Multinational Tower Access Ticket (One-Time Use), then Floor 68.

But from Floor 67 and up, you couldn’t just brute-force it.

You had to climb slowly to match the time limits.

When would he even reach Floor 68?

And he only had one Multinational Tower Access Ticket (One-Time Use) left.

But with Rajix’s ability?

Runes and tickets that you could receive as privileges or clear rewards—items that were only possible at very rare odds—could be “harvested” through gathering.

Now that he knew that, how could he sit still?

First, he needed to see whether fragments of the same type could be combined.

“I think we need to enter other floors too. To look for fragments.”

The summoned entities nodded at Juhyeok’s suggestion.

“How about Floor 61? The uncleared upper floors.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, but he had to keep an S++ clear in mind too.

“We’ll take the holy sword there.”

After syncing the schedule with Deputy Commissioner Jeon Gwangil.

“Then do we go to Floor 60? I feel like there’d be tons of dead people there.”

“Not sure.”

It wasn’t a good choice.

Floor 60 was where Wyvern Lords and venom wyverns appeared.

Of course a lot of people would’ve died.

But the issue was whether anything remained intact.

“On Floor 60, because of poison puddles, both bodies and items might’ve melted away completely.”

“Ah! Right.”

“Truly a wise judgment.”

“SQUEAK!”

In the end, the best choice was—

“Let’s go to Floor 59. Same as before—no clearing wyverns, just item searching.”

“Yes!”

[Entering the Black Tower (Republic of Korea) Floor 59.]

The moment they left the safe zone—

“Rajix, I’m counting on you.”

“SQUEAK!”

Rrrrrroll, Rajix rolled at high speed.

Juhyeok chased after him using Shadow Step.

He didn’t even pay attention to the lightning wyverns floating in the sky.

Cossack, Meatshield, Gyeon Dallae, and even Veronica—who wasn’t dozing—covered them with her magic gun.

It was a pretty wide area.

And yet Rajix rolled around it just fine.

Then—!

He stopped short.

He’d stopped rolling.

“SQUEAK?”

Looks like he caught a scent.

Sssst!

He pulled a golden pickaxe out of his backpack

and started digging.

‘He found something.’

What was it?

An item? A fragment?

A tense moment.

Rajix stopped swinging the pickaxe, shoved his body into the deep hole—

“SQUEAK!”

—and pulled out a bent stick.

What is that?

Juhyeok took the stick Rajix handed him and checked the information.

<The rotten world of the elves.... ???>

Effect: It is broken.

Limit: Repairs are impossible.

“Hm.”

It seemed to be made of wood.

The world of the elves, what... he couldn’t check further.

“What are you supposed to use this for?”

Then Meatshield reached out.

“The warrior thinks he knows. I will show you.”

“Really?”

Juhyeok handed the stick to Meatshield.

“This is a bow used by vegetable-eaters.”

A bow?

“If you curve it like this and hook the string on both ends—”

Snap!

The stick broke cleanly in the middle.

“...Huh.”

“Gasp!”

“I-it broke.”

“This...”

“Ah!”

Rajix started trembling, eyes glistening.

He’d worked so hard to dig it up.

“SQUEEEAK....”

Cossack snapped, turning on Meatshield.

“I knew it would happen. Always flexing strength like an idiot—Meatshield must take responsibility. Worker Rajix will never forget this.”

“Meatshield! How could you be so careless! To break something the absolute greatest servant worked so hard to find so easily—why, even cutting off your finger as an apology would not be enough!”

“Damaging supplies is a serious crime. You’re going to a court-martial. Sergeant Veronica, under military law, I am arresting you. Prepare for a hundred days in confinement.”

Meatshield looked extremely flustered.

He took a step back, sweating buckets.

“T-the warrior... the warrior..., s-sorry.”

Oh man.

Look at him, completely helpless like that.

The guy who grabbed a basilisk tail and slammed it into the ground.

“Alright, alright. That’s enough—let’s find something else. It was a mistake, so Rajix, try to hold it in.”

“SQUEAK.”

Once Juhyeok stepped in, the situation settled quickly.

Rrrrrroll.

Rajix went back to searching.

He stopped short again.

Another scent.

He dug again—WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM!

This time—

“SQUEAK!”

Rajix raised his tiny hand high.

“Oh!”

It was a piece of stone.

Then—

Juhyeok snatched it and checked.

<Unknown Rune Fragment (1/6)>

It really was a rune fragment.

But the color and material were slightly different from the one he’d collected before.

And the number of fragments for completion, too.

The earlier one was (1/7). The one he dug up now was (1/6).

Just in case, he tried pressing the two together.

‘They don’t stick.’

Different rune fragments.

No need to be disappointed.

Someday something similar would show up.

Rajix kept searching.

And soon, he found one more ticket fragment.

But it didn’t combine either.

‘Don’t tell me you can only collect fragments?’

Do they just never merge from the start?

Then—

“SQUEAK!”

This time too, a paper fragment.

“Good job.”

Juhyeok took the fragment and matched it to the ticket fragments he already had—and it slid together.

Sluuurk.

“Huh?”

At last, one fragment stuck to another.

And the item information that had said Unknown Ticket Fragment—

changed into—

<Damaged ???... Ticket (2/5)>

like that.

“It stuck!”

“It stuck like glue. Amazing.”

“T-thank goodness.”

“Congratulations.”

“Supply Officer! Great work!”

Now it was certain.

If he gathered paper fragments of the same type, it would become a completed ticket.

The rune would be the same.

And it was all thanks to Rajix.

He was so adorable he could die.

Juhyeok grabbed the dirt-covered Rajix and hugged him tight.

“Rajix.”

“SQUEAK?”

“Don’t ever go anywhere. Let’s stay together for a long, long time.”

“SQUEEEAK...”

“Prepare the toss!”

“SQUEAK!”

A furball shot high into the air.

“Don’t throw him too high. You’ll pull wyvern aggro.”

“SQUEEEEEEAK?”

Now he worried less.

SSR Rajix—

he was the privilege itself.

*****

Beijing, China.

China’s Special Intelligence Department for Tower Clearing.

Even within China’s political sphere, not many people knew this department existed.

Not even Central Party cadres knew.

Of course they didn’t.

This department kidnapped foreign Players and threw them into China’s Tower clears.

The only people who knew were a tiny handful—the Chinese Chairman and a few members of the Standing Committee.

Director-General Lai Yuan was receiving Vice Director-General Xiao Jun’s report.

“Did you find it?”

Director-General Lai Yuan’s voice was indifferent.

Xiao Jun answered, sweating profusely.

“We compiled a full list of Players in the Republic of Korea. Using ‘Meatshield’ as a keyword from Crown Prince bin Sala’s remarks, we’re investigating Players connected to it.”

“Hmph!”

Director-General Lai Yuan snorted and continued.

“So you still don’t know.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Let me ask you something.”

Gulp.

Xiao Jun swallowed.

“We managed Floor 59 by borrowing the strength of that Russian. But with our Players’ current capabilities, do you believe we can break through Floor 60?”

“...”

Xiao Jun couldn’t answer.

Because he knew it was impossible.

“I can tolerate one failure. But not two.”

Failure.

The incident where the special forces soldiers infiltrated into the Republic of Korea to kidnap elite Players had died.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Northeast Special Forces Brigade—China’s best of the best operations team—led by Deng Guanlin.

They had never failed a mission until then.

They weren’t the kind of team that could be taken down by something like the National Intelligence Service—and even if they were compromised, they weren’t a team that would be wiped out helplessly.

But they were.

By someone unknown.

“Xiao Jun, you’re going to the Republic of Korea yourself. Did you think sitting here and giving orders would be the end of it? Bring them back no matter what—the Republic of Korea’s S++ clear record holder. If you fail, die there.”

“...Yes. Understood.”

Japan had Prime Minister Kawaguchi personally handling things.

“Mobilize the entire Cabinet Intelligence Research Office immediately. Don’t bring back husks—bring back the real thing.”

A being Japan absolutely needed for its fate.

“And check the political side too. I don’t care how much money it takes—use this chance to find out who the holy sword owner is as well... It may be the same person.”

It wasn’t just China and Japan.

Every country that was starting to climb into the higher floors moved at the same time.

Go to the Republic of Korea.

Find out who Meatshield really was, whether they were the S++ clear record holder, and who the true owner of the holy sword was.

Crown Prince Abdul bin Sala of the United Arab Emirates also entered through Incheon International Airport on a private jet.

Because he’d announced he was coming in advance, reporters gathered like clouds.

Bin Sala smiled and answered the reporters’ questions one by one.

It was an extremely unusual thing.

“Your Highness, why have you come to the Republic of Korea?”

“I plan to discuss the joint development of the Republic of Korea and the United Arab Emirates.”

“Is this for a temporary naturalization request for a future Floor 61 clear? Or for holy sword rental?”

“It is not temporary naturalization. However, I am keeping holy sword rental in mind.”

They asked about Meatshield too.

“What does ‘Meatshield’ mean? Is it a person’s name? Or an organization name?”

“Meatshield? I’ve never heard of it.”

“But in your interview—”

“I never said that. You must have misheard.”

The reporters were persistent, but bin Sala denied it firmly.

“What will your schedule in the Republic of Korea be?”

“Nothing is planned. For now, I will stay at the HG Hotel and decide.”

“When do you plan to depart?”

“That is not decided yet.”

On the news, bin Sala’s expression was very gentle and relaxed.

*****

It had already been three days of Tower searching.

Today too, they’d combed two floors from morning, but there were no results.

A few broken, corroded items that didn’t work.

If it even said repairs were possible like the holy sword, they could fix it and use it, but when it blatantly stated repairs were impossible, there was nothing to do.

Fragments barely appeared at all.

Maybe they had to go higher.

Wouldn’t the 60s have more?

Anyway, he’d used up all his Tower entries for the day.

The summoned entities were loafing around in the penthouse.

Ding!

A message notification suddenly rang on his smartphone.

This is Jeon Gwangil. If you are not busy, I would like to see you. I am in the apartment’s underground parking lot, and the car number is...

Perfect timing. He didn’t have anything to do.

Juhyeok went down to the underground parking lot and found the car.

“Welcome.”

“Yes, Deputy Commissioner.”

Juhyeok got into the passenger seat.

“I came because I have something to give you.”

What is it? Something good?

Jeon Gwangil handed him two large paper bags placed in the back seat.

“This is...”

“Yes. High-end luxury bags made by HG Fashion. One is a men’s pouch, and one is a women’s handbag.”

Oh!

Even at a glance, they weren’t ordinary.

They even mixed in rainbow leather, making them dazzling beyond belief.

‘But it’s too flashy.’

How am I supposed to take this outside?

‘Give it to Mom and Dad?’

It wouldn’t match their age.

“And this as well...”

Jeon Gwangil showed him a card that looked like a wedding invitation.

“It’s an invitation. In a few days, there will be a Wildflower & Basili showcase at the HG Hotel, and quite a lot came in under the Administration’s allotment. Many ELITE TOWER CLIMBING TEAM Players are expected to attend.”

A showcase.

An event full of celebrities you only heard about.

“...A-a lot of entertainers will come too, right?”

“Yes. It’s a showcase. It seems mostly top stars were invited.”

Meaning he could see people he’d only ever seen on TV with his own eyes.

‘Whoa... that’d be wild.’

His ears perked up. He was tempted.

“If you don’t feel like it—”

“No. I’ll take it for now.”

Juhyeok accepted the invitation and carefully slipped it into his inner pocket.

“Oh, right! Deputy Commissioner—what’s the schedule for the holy sword reservation?”

“In three days, a Player affiliated with Norway is scheduled to visit. Then one week later, Russia, and then Saudi Arabia.”

Three days.

“Then after the Norwegian Player uses it, can you hand the holy sword to me for a bit? I have a use for it.”

“Ah! Are you planning to clear Floor 61?”

“Yes. I’m going to go up. Only to Floor 66.”

“Understood. In three days, I will have it delivered to you through Section Chief Lee Mina.”

It really did seem best to try fragment searching on higher floors.

That was that.

Juhyeok said goodbye to Jeon Gwangil and went back up to the penthouse.

Click.

He opened the door and stepped inside.

Meatshield was watching TV with a stiff face.

The moment he saw Juhyeok—

“Summoner, strange.”

“Why?”

“My name keeps coming up on TV.”

“Huh?”

Your name?

It turned out to be an interview with Crown Prince Abdul bin Sala of the United Arab Emirates, who had come to the Republic of Korea.

Juhyeok glanced at Cossack.

But Cossack’s expression didn’t change at all, like it had nothing to do with him.

He’s truly shameless. Shameless.

At this point, it felt like he deserved another flick on the forehead.

Juhyeok spoke to Meatshield with a calm face.

“Maybe someone is using your name.”

“Using... stole it?”

“Yes. They used your name, Mr. Meatshield, instead of their own.”

At that, Meatshield’s face turned red.

“To steal the sacred name the Summoner gave— the warrior is angry. Very angry.”

The mood was ominous.

“...If you find out who it is, what are you going to do?”

“I will break them in half at the waist.”

That was too much.

“Wouldn’t a flick on the forehead be enough?”

“Understood. If that is what the Summoner thinks, the warrior will endure with a flick on the forehead.”

Juhyeok grinned and said,

“Here’s what happened—back then, when I tried to negotiate for a Trait enhancement rune...”

Spot!

Cossack dashed over in a flash using Shadow Step and whispered.

“S-summoner Bong.”

“...What?”

“Please let it slide just once. From now on, I’ll live righteously.”

Well.

What should he do?

Should he spare him?

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