Chapter 33 – Unyielding (3)

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ㄴ“It’s over. Good job.”
ㄴ“Can we go mock the Assassination Gallery now?”
ㄴ“Wow, the gamblers are gonna lose their minds seeing this. They got double screwed.”

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No one doubts Reina’s victory anymore. She sensed the enemy’s presence through her Constellation’s warning, prepared the optimal countermeasures, and emerged victorious.

The tense, nail-biting moments had turned into moments of exhilaration and joy.

Once again, users flooded the gallery, causing posts to explode and rankings to rise.

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[I feel so refreshed.]
[Why do I like everything she’s been doing lately?]
[I was so pissed when she got wrecked on the 150th floor last time.]
[Honestly, it feels like she’s a completely different person now, lol.]
[Her one-on-one combat talent isn’t bad either. If she had focused on that, she could’ve been great.]
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.

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Of course, Reina couldn’t see the gallery, which had turned into a festival.

“Are you planning to run?”

“No way.”

Reina smiled, and Dekar, realizing she was looking down on him, sighed and shook his head.

He had no choice but to admit it. This was their complete defeat.

“I just want to ask one thing. Why didn’t you run after hearing the warning? No, how could you even think of fighting back?”

“I don’t run. You yourself said you have no personal grudge against me. That means someone hired you to kill me. I don’t know who exactly, but…”

In response to Dekar’s sincere question, she answered while subtly glancing upward.

At least those watching this scene would understand the meaning behind that gesture.

“Such petty grudges don’t scare me. Because I have people who believe in me more than that.”

“Impressive.”

Reina’s bold declaration, made with a smile as if she never expected to lose, might have seemed like the arrogance of a winner or the composure of a strong person to Dekar, who didn’t know the truth.

But to those watching from above, her words felt like a declaration of their victory, delivering a thrilling catharsis.

‘You’re really something.’

At that moment, Serpina let out a hollow laugh as she watched the gallery explode with activity.

As someone had written, Reina seemed to know exactly what the gallery users wanted lately and acted accordingly.

“I want to leave a scratch on that noble, unyielding light.”

Dekar bit his lip as he raised his polearm.

He had no choice. Reina had crushed the head of someone begging for their life without batting an eye.

She probably wouldn’t let him live no matter what he did. So, the only way for Dekar to survive was to fight and defeat Reina here.

‘But you said it yourself. If you’re not prepared to die, you’re useless.’

He intended to go further. Not to fight to survive, but to fight with the resolve to die, to leave a scar on her body and face.

「Flame of the Abyss (A)」

What he prepared was an item that looked very crude. Its effect was extremely drastic.

It granted power beyond limits at the cost of one’s life, essentially providing a common self-destruct mechanism.

“When I first got this, I never thought I’d use it. Let’s see the end, Moonlight Sword Radiance!”

Dekar, unleashing his rampaging mana, charged at Reina in an instant.

Even Reina, who hadn’t expected him to attack at the cost of his own life, widened her eyes in surprise.

“You…”

“Why that look? Wasn’t it you who preached about overcoming through daring acts?”

The polearm, swung with the amplified power, narrowly grazed her hair.

‘A direct hit would be fatal.’

Even she couldn’t guarantee what would happen after that. Reina, breaking into a cold sweat, began to step back.

Every time their weapons clashed, the ground cracked, the air shook, and dust fell from the ceiling.

“Thanks for awakening the savagery I forgot I had.”

“Huh?!”

Reina’s sword was knocked away by Dekar’s strike, fueled by his fading life, and the shaft of the polearm hit her body.

If she had been even slightly slower to dodge. If her blocking strength had been even slightly weaker. The blade could have cleaved her body in two.

“Haah…”

With a loud noise, her body was pushed back several meters. The ground where she had stood was shattered, leaving a long trail.

At the same time, Dekar’s lifeless body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and Reina, who had driven her sword into the ground, gritted her teeth and swallowed her pain.

「Hermetica damaged. Time required for self-repair.」

The armor on her abdomen, struck by the shaft, shattered, and the cloth beneath it vanished without a trace, revealing her reddened, white abdomen twitching.

“That last bit gave me chills. Bastard.”

Bent over, clutching her aching stomach, she bit her lip.

Even though she was already battered from the continuous battles, pain was still pain.

「Trial: Victor of Duel in Progress」
「Defeated Enemies: 33/100」
「Reward Granted: Intermediate Random Stat Fragment」

In the aftermath of the gruesome scene, Reina let out a hollow laugh at the reward that appeared before her.

To the Tower, the enemies who attacked her were just experience points. The 33 challengers she had killed so far were just numbers.

The moment a serious victory or defeat was decided against those who weren’t just random weaklings, the settlement began in an instant.

If Reina had lost, they would likely have been standing over her corpse, receiving this reward.

「Trial: Unyielding Judge Unlocked」
「Defeated Strong Enemies: 4/25」

‘What’s this now?’

But at that moment, something even she hadn’t expected happened.

A new trial was unlocked, accompanied by a notification that the conditions had been met.

Even as a transmigrator, this was something she didn’t know about.

***

“Reina!”

“That guy ran away, huh?”

Her stomach still ached from the last blow she had allowed.

Walking unsteadily up to the shopping mall’s upper level, she was greeted by Shadis’s party, who had set up a barrier in the parking lot filled with wrecked cars.

The assassin who had been threatening them had fled when the situation turned unfavorable.

But it didn’t matter. Now that their identities were exposed, the gallery users would have already dissected every detail.

She could just hunt them down later and punish them.

“A-Are you okay?”

“This is a cheap win.”

Shadis was shocked to see her broken armor and exposed abdomen.

She awkwardly laughed and covered her stomach with her hand.

It was just a bit sore, but the stares made her self-conscious.

“Terrorists who infiltrated the dungeon using various means to commit crimes. I’d heard rumors, but I never thought it would really happen.”

“Were they really after you, Reina? And they targeted us too?!”

As Wayne muttered with a serious expression, Groll’s eyes widened in shock.

Seeing their reactions, it seemed impossible to keep it hidden any longer.

“They were after me. They’re skilled quasi-rankers from the upper floors, and they’ve been doing this kind of thing for a while.”

“That’s…”

“Sorry for dragging you into this. But please keep this quiet. I’ll handle it discreetly.”

If she decided to dig into the mastermind, it could stir up the entire Tower society. But she already knew exactly who was behind it.

Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention, she urged them to keep it quiet.

“So, you won’t inform the alliance?”

“No? I will.”

Of course, she didn’t mean to keep it from the public, but she intended to inform those who needed to know.

After all, she had won and reaped sweet rewards, but it felt like something was missing.

‘The Assassination Gallery. They’re worth dealing with.’

The reason her initial desire to quietly end things had changed was largely emotional.

Even the fan gallery users lamented that nothing could be done if the Assassination Gallery got involved, given their notorious infamy.

Instead of hiding and waiting for the storm to pass, she wanted to crush their arrogance.

No matter how impressive those gallery users were, in the Tower, she was the ranker.

Unless they recruited Jung Chan-soo or his faction, no one ranked higher than her.

That was why she had openly provoked those who had ignored her and her fandom before the final battle.

「Trial: Unyielding Judge」

‘This is a big one.’

But at the last moment, a powerful reason was added.

It wasn’t just about provocation. It was about drawing out more enemies who opposed her.

“W-what is this?”

“I wasn’t joking last night. There were people who infiltrated the dungeon to kill me. This is the evidence.”

As she exited the dungeon, Jake, along with other alliance executives, rushed over, pale-faced.

She opened her inventory and dumped the equipment collected from the enemies in front of them.

The items, still stained with blood and flesh, were clearly things only a formidable powerhouse could possess.

“I’d like you to report this to the alliance council immediately. Although I ended up killing them all in the heat of the moment, they were clearly acting on someone’s orders.”

“W-Who would dare try to assassinate you in the Tower?”

“We’ll find out when we investigate. Who knows? Maybe some ‘high-ranking figure’ wanted to play with pawns.”

Smirking at Jake, who was sweating bullets, she pointed upward with her finger.

The Constellations. According to common knowledge, they were beings who could make even Tower rankers seem insignificant.

Unable to refute her words, they all fell silent and rolled their eyes.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Thank you for reading.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
The tower treats them as numbers, so she treats them as numbers too!

Now yield your flesh to claim their bones.