Chapter 143: « The Tortoise and the Chrono-Hare »

The light of the 24th floor faded. My feet touched soft grass. The air was fresh and smelled of clover. It was a pleasant change from the metallic stench of the vault. I looked around. I stood at the beginning of a dirt track. It was wide enough for ten carriages.

A system window opened.

『Floor 25: The Tortoise and the Chrono-Hare』

『Main Scenario: Win the Great Race』

『Objective: Reach the finish line before the Beast of Alacrity.』

『Warning: Velocity is the key to victory and defeat.』

I looked toward the horizon. I saw a white line far away. It was several kilometers distant. Next to me, a pedestal stood. On top of it sat a small, stone statue of a tortoise. It looked useless.

A race. I hated races. They were the simplest form of amusement for the Constellations. They liked to watch things move fast and crash.

A blur of white light appeared on the track. It was the Beast of Alacrity. It looked like a rabbit, but its proportions were wrong. It was two meters tall. Its legs were long and muscular. Its fur sparkled with blue electricity. It did not stand still. It vibrated.

The beast looked at me. Its eyes were two spinning clocks. It let out a high-pitched whistle and vanished. A trail of dust rose from the track. It was already a hundred meters away.

That’s the beast.

I did not move yet. I waited for the countdown.

『3... 2... 1... START!』

I pushed off the ground. I used a burst of mana to accelerate. I wanted to see the limits of this floor. I moved at a high speed. The wind felt sharp against my face.

『Warning! Time-acceleration curse detected.』

『Velocity: 60 km/h.』

『Aging rate: 10x.』

I felt a sudden pang in my chest. I looked at my hands. The skin became dry. Small wrinkles appeared around my knuckles. I felt my stamina draining faster than usual. My HP bar started to flicker.

Stop.

I skidded to a halt. The wrinkles on my hands smoothed out. The dry sensation vanished. I checked the UI.

『Velocity: 0 km/h.』

『Aging rate: Normal.』

I looked at the Hare. It was a tiny white dot in the distance. It was moving at a terrifying speed. It reached a forest biome, then a desert, then a mountain. It was circling the entire track.

It was fast. Too fast.

If I run, I die of old age.

The logic was simple. The gods wanted me to watch my life disappear while I chased a rabbit. They wanted to see me panic. They wanted to see me get desperate as the finish line stayed far away.

"Disgusting," I said.

I looked at the chat.

「 -Wait, he’s not running?- 」

「 -Look at his HP. It dropped 5% in two seconds.- 」

「 -The Hare is already on its third lap. This is impossible.- 」

「 -Is he stuck? Kang Min, move!- 」

I sat down on the grass. I did not move. I watched the dust trail of the Hare.

The Tortoise and the Hare. It was a famous story. The slow one wins because the fast one is arrogant. But the Tower did not care about morals. This was about physics.

The Hare was moving at a speed that manipulated time. But time was a two-way street. If my time accelerated when I moved, then the Hare’s time was permanently accelerated.

I looked at the beast as it finished another lap. It zipped past me. The shockwave of its passage almost knocked me over. I saw its fur. It was less bright than before. A few patches of gray appeared on its back.

It is killing itself.

The gods created a monster that was its own executioner. They just needed someone to stand there and watch it happen. They wanted to see if I was smart enough to stay still, or if I would succumb to the urge to compete.

"You think I’m a tortoise?" I muttered.

I looked at the sky. I knew the Constellations were watching. The God of Alacrity was probably laughing. They liked these "ironic" floors.

"I’m not a tortoise. I’m the one who kills the race."

The Hare finished its tenth lap. It slowed down slightly as it passed me. It didn’t just run. It turned. It lunged at me.

A hit-and-run.

The beast was a living projectile. At that speed, a headbutt would be the same as a cannonball.

I didn’t move. I waited.

The Hare was twenty meters away. Ten meters.

[Singularity] - Level 2: [Gravitational Pressure]

I didn’t apply the pressure to myself. I applied it to the five-meter space directly in front of me.

The Hare entered the zone. Its speed didn’t change, but the weight of its own body suddenly increased by ten times.

CRACK.

The beast’s front legs buckled. It didn’t stop. Its momentum carried it forward. It performed a violent somersault over my head. It hit the ground fifty meters behind me.

The Hare scrambled to its feet. It was shaking. Its gray fur was now more prominent. It looked older. Its breathing was labored.

Moving fast ages you. Getting hit at high speed ages you more.

The beast screamed. It didn’t like the pain. It accelerated again. It ran away, circling the track.

I started to walk. I didn’t run. I took slow, deliberate steps.

Step. Step.

I checked the status.

『Velocity: 3 km/h.』

『Aging rate: 1.01x.』

This was acceptable. I could walk for days.

The Hare came back. It was angry. It moved even faster. It looked like a streak of blue lightning. It didn’t try to headbutt me this time. It ran in circles around me. It created a cyclone of dust and accelerated time.

The air around me began to warp. My hair grew an inch. I felt a slight ache in my joints.

"Is that all?"

I reached into my inventory. I pulled out a handful of gold coins from the 24th floor.

I used [Exchange].

I swapped the position of the coins with the space inside the Hare’s lungs.

It was a small, precise swap. The coins were small. The Hare was large.

The beast stumbled. it started coughing. It coughed up gold coins covered in blood. It had to stop to breathe.

The moment it stopped, it aged.

Its muscles withered. Its eyes grew cloudy. It looked like a dying old pet. The blue electricity died out.

The Hare looked at me. It tried to growl, but it only managed a wheeze. It tried to run again. It took three steps and fell.

It was too old. It had run a thousand kilometers in ten minutes. Its heart was hundreds of years old. Its bones were brittle.

I walked past the beast. I didn’t even look down at it.

"You’re a bad joke," I said.

I looked at the chat.

「 -He just put gold in its lungs?- 」

「 -That’s the most Kang Min thing I’ve ever seen.- 」

「 -The Hare is dying. Look at it. It’s turning into dust.- 」

「 -He’s just walking to the finish line. This is so boring but so effective.- 」

「 -The God of Alacrity just logged off.- 」

I continued walking. The track changed from grass to sand. Then to snow. I didn’t care. I kept the same pace.

The gods are arrogant.

They thought they could control everything with their rules. They thought they could make us dance to their music.

Velocity is the key. They were right. But they forgot that I could control the velocity of others. I could control the weight of the world.

I saw the finish line. It was a hundred meters away.

The Hare made one last attempt. It dragged itself along the dirt. It used its claws to pull its withered body forward. It was pathetic. It was a few meters behind me.

"Go ahead," I said. "Try to beat me."

The beast saw the finish line. It saw salvation. It used its remaining life force to lung. It moved fast.

『Velocity: 150 km/h.』

『Aging rate: 500x.』

The beast didn’t reach the line.

Mid-air, its body turned gray. Its skin shriveled. Its eyes popped. It turned into a skeleton, then into white powder.

The wind blew the powder away.

The Beast of Alacrity was gone.

I stepped over the pile of dust. I walked across the white line.

『Main Scenario: Win the Great Race - COMPLETED』

『Clear Result: THE STEADY VICTOR.』

『Condition: The Hare died of old age. You stayed young.』

『Reward: ’Chrono-Step’ (Passive Skill).』

『Reward: 50,000 Coins.』

I felt a new power in my legs. I could move my feet without moving my body. It was a strange sensation.

I stood at the exit gate. I looked back at the track.

It was empty. The grass was still green. The sun was still bright.

Twenty-five floors. I was a quarter of the way through. The challenges were getting more conceptual. The Tower was trying to test my mind, not just my strength.

"Try harder," I whispered to the sky.