Chapter 17  

"What?"

"Are you sure you can do that?”

Cha Yu-Min was the man who had climbed to the highest floor on Earth. He was the top ranker as well as an idol for challengers around the world.

He never spent more than a year on Earth ever since he had entered the tower. For the top ranker, time was as valuable as gold. One year was enough for one’s achievements to disappear.

While he was wasting time on Earth, other competitors were climbing the tower and continued to be strong. There were countless ways to become stronger while inside the tower without having to climb it. Therefore, it was very unlikely that people who started climbing the tower would remain on Earth.

"We need to clearly distinguish ourselves from our enemies and build trust to establish a cooperative system in advance. It’s all because of one crucial issue. And that is why I’m not going into the tower," Cha Yu-Min explained.

"What’s that?" They asked.

What on earth could happen in the future that would make Cha Yu-Min do such things?

"Everyone is being deceived by the tower right now. I'm staying here to prevent that from happening," Cha Yu-Min explained.

"We’re being fooled…? What is that supposed to..."

"Don't beat about the bush and just tell us what’s going on!"

Jeon Jae-Yong and Shin Hyun-Woo were very frustrated.

"In the next five years, the tower will shut down the Dimension Gate. And..." Cha Yu-Min continued on.

* * *

"... At the same time, they will start distributing new gates onto Earth. To be honest, there were clues about this from the past,” Lee Shin recalled his old memories while drinking his tea.

One thing that the tower—or, rather the gods, have been fooling the people about was the fact that the tower and Earth would be connected forever.

In the early days of the tower, many people did not enter the tower recklessly. The system of the tower was unknown to people, and many of them were confused about it. Moreover, people went missing.

A year later, the tower began spreading new videos to people on Earth. These videos showed the challengers who were climbing the tower.

As if in a fantasy world, they could use magical superpowers to defeat their enemies and develop themselves. These videos stimulated the desire of people to escape from this frustrating and weary life.

The world inside the tower was just like what people could see in the movies or cartoons. It reflected people’s imagination and fantasy. And the challengers who entered to challenge the tower were the main characters of that world.

People who were once fifty-fifty on entering the tower began to enter, one after another, and soon learned that the videos that they had seen were all true.

And when the first challenger to reach the 50th floor appeared on Earth, it became a catalyst for people’s desire to climb the tower.

The challenger was able to use the abilities they got from the tower on Earth as well. They also brought some mysterious items from the tower back to Earth.

It was the beginning of a cataclysmic event on Earth.

Since then, the Earth had been flooded with people trying to get into the tower. Soon after, the video that showed the interior of the tower was no longer available for viewing. Nevertheless, the number of people trying to enter the tower had not decreased; it only slowed down, for a moment.

Still, those people who reached the 50th floor released information about the tower, proving there was a connection between the tower and the Earth. However, the Dimension Gate on the 50th floor could have caused a problem. There were only a few people who wanted to climb to the top. The drastic increase in difficulty between floors and the low rate of survival had reduced people’s determination and motivation.

And in the end, most of the challengers gave up on climbing the tower. That was why many people returned to Earth.

The gods who made the tower shut down the Dimension Gate, because they did not like what they were seeing. They wanted to force people to go all the way up to the 100th floor.

And they opened up a communication network where challengers could see what was happening on Earth from the tower. They released some of the monsters from the tower into Earth as well.

“Fuck,” on second thought, a curse popped out of Lee Shin’s mouth again.

The challengers who entered the tower had no choice but to helplessly watch people being slaughtered on Earth. They had to endure the sight of their country, colleagues, friends, and family struggling to fight against the monsters.

Ordinary people on Earth were helpless even against the weakest monsters such as the Goblin and Kobold.

At the very beginning when the Dimension Gate had closed, a small gate appeared in a small neighborhood where old grandfathers and grandmothers lived. It was in the countryside far from the city center.

An Orc walked out of the small gate as an elderly couple passed by. Lee Shin could still remember the scene vividly as if he could picture it in front of him. He could not forget the insanity the Orc displayed when it brutally killed the old couple. Almost all the challengers of the tower, as well as Lee Shin, witnessed that scene.

At that time, a piece of writing by a challenger from the 55th floor circulated in the community. He said he was the son of the old couple. He climbed the tower for his parents, reached the 50th floor, gave them enough goods, and went back into the tower.

There was greed inside every challenger in the tower. They all wanted to go up one more floor, and get a little stronger. The greed accumulated and kept the challengers from leaving the tower. And eventually, he spent two more years in the tower.

Then, when he was ready to go back, the Dimension Gate got shut down. Because of his greed, his parents were killed by the Orc, and he had no choice but to watch them helplessly.

He lamented about why they didn't go to a bigger city with the money that he had sent. He was upset to see his parents living like that in reality, when they had thanked him and told him that they were living comfortably with the money. People could sense his tears in his lament.

Numerous challengers sympathized with him. All those who entered the tower were someone's sons and daughters. The challengers could not think of the situation unfolding the screen as simply someone else’s matter.

They wished they were on Earth. They had left behind their families, friends, and colleagues. They gave up on many things to enter the tower, but they had never regretted it because the tower was such an attractive place.

But not now. Some had come into the tower to protect someone on Earth at their own expense. For them, the current situation was like hell. They came in wishing to protect, but they could not.

Lee Shin associated the madness of the Orc with the images of the gods. It was the gods who were truly mad, not the Orc.

From that point on, Lee Shin no longer looked at the screen. He did not even look at the community. He just didn’t want to see anything at all.

Lee Shin questioned why the tower had to show such a scene to all the challengers. The death of a human was no entertainment for the gods. They only wanted challengers to reach the top of the tower.

They carried out these massacres in order to instill anger and motivation in human beings. They knew anger was a big driving force for humans.

They took advantage of this and aroused the anger of all the Korean challengers with a single video. And it was only the beginning. Numerous situations that were happening on Earth were broadcasted live ever since. And from that point on, all the challengers started climbing the tower like crazy.

After seeing the video, that challenger, the son of the old couple, began climbing the tower in anger. However, such anger only made it impossible for him to see his surroundings. News of the challenger was lost after they reached the 70th floor.

"Fucking bastards," Lee Shin was full of rage just by recalling his past memories.

The gods gave many favors to the outstanding challengers to make them their apostles. After the closure of the Dimension Gate, when all the challengers were enraged, some of the gods approached the challengers casually.

They were crazy people who thought that even if humans were so angry and climbed to the top of the tower, they would eventually feel the power of the gods and submit to the gods. Those gods could not understand humans nor did they try to understand them.

Lee Shin was determined not to repeat the same mistake. Lee Shin would never forget, so there was no way he would forget their evil deeds.

[A challenger has appeared.]

- Hwang Kang-Woong is here. He wanted me to tell you that he had found it.

May received a message a moment after the system message had popped up.

"Tell him to come in," Lee Shin replied. * * *

Hwang Kang-Woong sat down and handed the documents to Lee Shin.

"Look over here," Hwang Kang-Woong pointed out.

There was a square monument in the place where Hwang Kang-Woong was pointing.

"This monument is..." Lee Shin was lost in his thoughts.

The monument resembled a tombstone that was built on an altar dedicated to the gods.

"This monument was disrupting the mana around it,” Hwang Kang-Woong explained.

"Where did you find this?” Lee Shin asked.

Hwang Kang-Woong raised his index finger and pointed downwards.

"Did you find it under the ground?” Lee Shin was shocked.

"Yes, I found it while digging up some white limestone in the Rockies," Hwang Kang-Woong replied.

"How did you find it?” Lee Shin asked again.

"One of the men who was digging for the white limestone had a strange feeling at the end of the Rockies. So I went to that place and dug deeper. But the deeper I dug, the more I felt like I was losing strength. That's when your words came to mind," Hwang Kang-Woong explained.

"The place where the mana gets dissipated," Lee Shin remembered.

"That's right, it was impossible to dig it to the monument with just one person's power. It was not easy because the mana got dissipated. So, I gathered people and carried out the work," Hwang Kang-Woong said proudly.

"It seems like it took you a long time. Then how come you are telling me this now?” Lee Shin asked.

"Hahaha, actually, I thought of telling you right away but you seemed a bit busy. Also, I wanted to tell you after I confirmed it. I wasn’t sure about it until then,” Hwang Kang-Woong continued.

It was understandable if it was Hwang Kang-Woong’s personality. He liked to be meticulous and precise all the time.

Lee Shin nodded and took a sip of tea.

"You must have had a hard time," Lee Shin acknowledged his effort.

"Don't even get me started. I felt like I was going back to being an ordinary person after a long time. I really thought I was going to die," Hwang Kang-Woong replied.

"Have you tried digging deeper underneath?" Lee Shin asked.

"I've tried it, but it was a failure. It was too hard. I don't think it would have worked even if we could use our mana. It seemed like there was something solid that connected to the monument,” Hwang Kang-Woong explained.

Lee Shin nodded as if he could sympathize with Hwang Kang-Woong’s words.

Maybe they would never find out more than that, because that was the altar of the gods. The altar of the gods was always like that.

Lee Shin kept looking at the pictures in his hand, but that monument was clearly a tombstone that was placed on the altar. The inscription on the tombstone was very similar to the ancient language in the old bundle of papers that Gene Ebrium had.

"Thank you for your hard work. It seems necessary to interpret the inscription on the monument. I'll take over from here," Lee Shin appreciated Hwang Kang-Woong’s effort.

"Alright, is there anything else I can help with?” Hwang Kang-Woong asked.

"Just keep training hard. It won't take too long,” Lee Shin answered.

Hwang Kang-Woong left the room and Lee Shin looked at the ceiling with a complex expression. The ceiling made up of just stones contained images of the gods, the ones he had encountered on the 100th floor.

Lee Shin smiled bitterly. He knew there really wasn't much time left now. Since the first floor was out of sight for the gods, it was a perfect place to prepare the blades of a dagger that would be used on them.

"You would never even know that the knife is being forged behind your backs,” Lee Shin smirked.

Not just Lee Shin, but countless humans were ready to bring the gods down. The humans, whom they thought were just tools, would trample over them, and bring them down from their height to the bottom. Lee Shin and others were ready to make them feel like they were bitten by their dogs.