Chapter 74 – The Meaning of Competition (2)

Ｒｅａ​ｄ ​ｏｎ ＫａｔＲｅ​ａｄｉｎｇＣａｆｅ

“I found out that the previous record was also achieved by a skilled person who came down from the upper floors. But it’s only around the 130th floor.”

Since the shortest time record can be broken at any time, you can quickly fill the necessary figures if the conditions are right.

Of course, the higher the difficulty, the more achievement points you get.

As Diana said, if it’s a challenging dungeon with a solid existing record, then it’s the perfect place for those conditions.

“Let’s finish quickly and get out.”

We need to accumulate as many achievements as possible within a month.

I didn’t see any reason to take my time, so I entered the dungeon with Diana without any intention of dragging things out.

As the name “Collapsed Village” suggests, this dungeon was an open-type eradication dungeon where you had to wipe out all the enemies in a ruined village.

“For a party that relies on mages, this is the perfect place to learn how to fight without mages. But we don’t need to do that… In the end, we came here purely for the achievement.”

As expected from the guide I saw in advance, the road to the village was just emptiness with nothing appearing.

Diana, who had taken out her bow, opened her mouth as if she was uneasy about the silence.

“Reina, aren’t you curious? I haven’t heard that you and Lienblad have a bad relationship. To have you openly compete in rankings with him, does that mean those people have some kind of arrangement?”

“Arrangement?”

Hearing her words, I couldn’t help but scoff.

Diana seemed quite intrigued by the fact that the Constellations had openly put us in competition.

Come to think of it, the mentions and images of the Constellations were definitely different in the original work.

They are great transcendental beings whose existence is shrouded in mystery, stars who have directly obtained the power called godhood in their own worlds.

There were also those who used contractors for games or amusement, but even that felt like an incomprehensible sense of intimidation when I read the original work.

Perhaps Diana’s contracted Constellation is also a gentlemanly type like Serpina.

“I was just told to win no matter what.”

I couldn’t tell her the truth.

That the Constellations are watching us with minds and actions not much different from ours, enjoying the competition and satisfying various desires.

Of course, Diana will eventually become another Constellation when she reaches the end of the Tower, and she will learn the truth for herself.

‘By the way, am I doing well?’

I drew my sword as the village came into view, and my face hardened.

My ultimate goal hasn’t changed, whether before or after knowing the identity of the fan gallery.

That is to keep getting stronger and growing.

Whatever lies at the end, it’s enough for now if I’m even one step stronger than I was yesterday.

But after learning about the existence of the fan gallery and peeking into it, I’ve learned too much, whether I wanted to or not.

I, who knows the truth that probably no one else in this Tower knows… can I keep doing this in the future?

The strongest person I knew was definitely Jung Chan-soo, but at some point, it changed.

The videos related to the Heavenly War that still come up from time to time and the battles of the Constellations that appear there are literally different from what I know, and the Constellations said that if I prepared as much as possible in the Tower and came out, I could reach that level as well, so my goal has changed to that.

Even what I’m doing here right now wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t known about the existence of the fan gallery and intentionally cooperated with them.

“It’s not just magic that’s prohibited. These guys, their resistance to magic is too strong!”

The fierce battle that took place in the village was short and intense.

As an open-type eradication dungeon, the monsters rushed in from all directions as soon as the party that entered the village appeared.

A textbook party would secure the most advantageous position and calmly defeat the enemies one by one, aiming for annihilation.

“You know, right? It’s not just about enduring. We have to hurry.”

But we are the people who came down from above just to clear in the shortest time.

We couldn’t achieve anything with such textbook methods, so we had to voluntarily rush towards them with just the two of us and annihilate the enemies that were surrounding us from all directions.

I grinned at Diana’s urgent words as I cut through the monsters that looked like mutants with tumors all over their bodies.

I see what it means to have strong magic resistance.

It felt like my swirling golden sword was duller than usual.

“-!!!”

“This bastard…”

A mutant with a height of at least 3 meters, who grabbed my whip-like sword with his hand, growled while resisting with his strength.

It was definitely a troublesome enemy. But that doesn’t mean it could hold me back.

The moment I gave strength, I swung my sword, and at the same time, the light that burst out became numerous blades, wrapping around the monster’s body from all directions and tearing it apart.

“Was that guy the boss by any chance?”

“Yes. It’s over.”

I returned the extended sword to its original state and caught my breath, and Diana, who had already cleared the other side, approached with a chill that made my bones ache.

Neither Diana nor I avoided the rushing enemies even once.

If there were mutants who dodged our arrows and swords or managed to break through and rush at us, we punched or kicked them down.

[Achievement achieved: Cleared the dungeon in the shortest time]

[Achievement achieved: Cleared the dungeon without wearing armor]

“The achievement was recognized, but the rewards are very stingy. All I got was a low-grade stat fragment. There are ability selection tickets, but none of them look useful.”

“…You knew it, right? We’re doing this purely for the achievement.”

The enemies who were screaming all became corpses and rolled on the floor, and only our rough breathing was heard in the silence.

The system notifications that appeared in front of each of our eyes told us that our intentions had worked.

“To be honest, this kind of fight is not training or anything. It’s just an act that takes unnecessary risks. You also learned this while acquiring and researching new abilities in the lower floors.”

Diana smiled as she retied her tousled sky-blue hair.

The hem and sleeves of her dress were already torn from the rough battle. The same goes for me.

My sportswear, which had no power in it, couldn’t withstand the attacks of the enemies, as well as my own excessive strength to finish as quickly as possible, so it was torn and burst.

Unless we’re trying to commit suicide, there’s no way we’ll be fighting like this in the serious battles that will be in front of us in the future, including the 152nd floor.

“I’m just trusting those people‘s words.”

“…”

The reason why Diana is doing this inefficient ‘challenge’ with me is only because of the Constellation’s advice.

I closed my mouth again at those words.

There will definitely be practical rewards in addition to the pride fight between fandoms.

In the fan gallery, Serpina and Perbas said that if they win the match, they will invest all the points they earn as rewards for me.

But as Diana said, that reward is given artificially, not something we earn ourselves through meaningful training.

‘In the end, is it a debate about whether the rewards we get by currying favor with the Constellations are inherently meaningful or not?’

The fundamental point that Diana brought up without realizing it didn’t leave my head until I arrived at the lodgings that night, took a shower, and rested.

It was different from when I gave back to the fan gallery users.

If I knew nothing, it would be different, but now I can judge to some extent what helps improve my skills and what doesn’t.

I have already realized that the strategies that the Constellations write together are several times more useful and valuable information than one or two gifts they give.

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[This meaningless ranking competition doesn’t help Reina at all]

• Unfading Ember

-“It is an act of wasting time to achieve meaningless achievements at the most important time when Reina is trying to obtain, combine, and challenge the limits with the maximum rewards she can obtain from the Tower.”

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“Huh?”

But surprisingly, the moment I fell asleep that night and entered the bulletin board, I saw a post with the same thoughts as me.

With comments running down, the post was literally a battlefield, overflowing with the users’ hot enthusiasm.

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ㄴ“Are we just doing it for our own benefit? Of course, Reina doesn’t know, but if we win, a considerable amount of points will be invested in Reina. Reina’s ranking will also go up.”

ㄴ“Consider Reina’s spec. It’s not a spec that can be greatly changed with just one or two pieces of equipment anymore.”

ㄴ“Since when has Reina cared about rankings? She’s been swearing at Jung Chan-soo since she was in the top 50s.”

ㄴ“Honestly, you guys started the fight for your own benefit. Why are you denying it?”

ㄴ“Did the trolls come? The ones who freaked out first were them, not us ㅋㅋ”

ㄴ“Anyway, if there are no consecutive bloodbath events until the 152nd floor raid, Reina will just do personal training or re-raid the lower floors. I don’t know what the difference is between that and achievement farming.

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‘Ugh…’

The comments that make me dizzy just by looking at them continue endlessly.

If it were someone else’s business, I wouldn’t care, but the topic mentioned in the post and comments is myself. Even if I try to ignore it, I can’t.

Clearly, most of the public opinion seemed to be cheering and enjoying the ranking competition with Lienblad, but community opinion is like reeds.

Those who would have just stayed silent if they had different opinions came out and started to burn when one tinder was thrown.

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ㄴ“So what are you saying? Are you saying we should surrender and end it now?”

ㄴ“You know that there are people who are constantly looking for an excuse to bite and bury Reina because she’s doing well these days, so are you saying we should give them an excuse?”

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Those who welcomed the ranking competition sneered, saying how can we end the competition that has already started.

Even I thought that the other side wouldn’t just let it go as if nothing happened.

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ㄴ“We need to create a truly valuable meaning in the competition. Isn’t that our role? Not as mere community users, but as Constellations who have climbed the Tower first.”

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The one who refuted that opinion was the writer of the first post.

Now it was a nickname that was familiar to my eyes.

Author Note

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

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Be lucky enough to earn 3 competent contracted constellations.

That’s the plot armor of this.

Don’t get it? Hmm, poor thing, go beat up Kat and show me his corpse, then maybe I’ll enlighten you~

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