episode_0016

As I stood there blankly, the second floor score window was covered by another window.

[You will be automatically moved to the ‘3rd floor waiting room’ after 3 minutes.]

3 minutes.

I turned away from the three people who were blankly staring at me and crouched down to look at the orc shaman.

My mind was filled with thoughts of having to grab something quickly.

I tried to take the staff the sorcerer had used, but the description window that appeared in my field of vision made me put the staff down.

[Orc Warlock’s Unique Staff]

Cannot be used by races other than orcs

… Is there anything else?

A necklace that stood out from the rest of the jewelry dangling from the neck caught my eye.

[Swift Navy Necklace]

Category – Jewelry

Effect: After wearing, pressing the center of the jewel will temporarily increase the player’s movement speed.

Number of times the effect can be activated: 4

Available Level: Level 10 and above

Grade: C+

I put it in my inventory because it seemed useful.

After raising my body, I looked behind me.

The mercenary leader, Liselin, met my eyes and pointed down the mountain with his index finger.

“Yuseong, can we get off? The sun will rise soon.”

Mercenary Rohan was wiping the blood off his sword.

The wizard Younes kept wiping the blood and flesh off his leather clothes.

NPC.

No matter how you look at it, it just seems like a person.

According to what the seniors of the Transcendent Gallery said, even if I don’t know about anyone else, it seemed likely that I would meet the mercenary leader, Liselin, again.

Anyway, if I disappear like this, it will be awkward the next time we meet no matter what I say. But I still felt the need to say hello.

“Oh, see you next time.”

“Huh?”

A look of puzzlement appeared on the faces of all three who were looking at me.

Three minutes was both long and short.

I felt a strange floating sensation, as if my body was floating in the air.

For a moment, everything before my eyes turned black.

[Welcome to the third floor.]

And when I returned to my original state, I saw a place with a scenery that was not much different from the waiting room on the second floor.

[600 coins are awarded as a reward for breaking through the 2nd floor.]

[Items have been awarded as a reward for clearing Pandemonium Level 2. Check your ‘Inventory’.]

The clock hanging on the central wall was the same.

February 23rd.

Two days left until the top exchange meeting.

Top Exchange Meeting Date: February 25th, 12:00

There was more time left than expected.

But it wasn’t enough time to even consider challenging the 3rd floor stage.

If you train for two days, the time will pass in an instant.

The moment I opened my inventory to check the 2nd floor breakthrough reward item, a notification window popped up.

《 2nd floor – Score ranking 》

1st place – Union Leader: 784 points

2nd Place – Tracking: 412 points

3rd Place – Sinclair: 399 points

4th place – Argul: 382 points

5th place – Rosetta: 379 points

⋮

⋮

[Han Yoo-seong: 1,532 points]

[Register your score.]

[Please write the name you want to register in the score ranking.]

[name : ]

The blank space next to the name was blinking, as if telling me to quickly register the name.

There was no option to keep the ranking scores themselves private.

It didn’t matter if it went up in public.

Because the odds of the climbers on the tower ever knowing it was me were virtually nil.

‘Pandemonium’, where I may be the only one residing.

Aside from encountering players at social gatherings, there was little chance of meeting the players themselves.

‘I was hoping for the Sword of Light.’

Reaching the top of the score rankings.

That’s what causes change and confusion to the current top rankers.

The Sword of Light was hoping that I would achieve such a feat.

It was written like that on the Light Sword Gallery bulletin board as well as in the supplementary Yongsal Sword that was given to me.

The same goes for other Transcendent seniors who commented on the post.

But I still didn’t like my real name.

What would be a suitable nickname?

After much thought, I wrote it briefly.

[Score registration has been completed.]

***

Hard difficulty, floor 63.

Hard Difficulty Top Numbering #35

The waiting room on the 63rd floor had a vast view. The view was far from what one would call a waiting room. It had to be seen as a city.

The man with blond hair and silver armor had his head bowed and seemed lost in thought.

“Union Leader.”

Union leader.

Someone called the leader of the Alliance of Conquests, the most famous and most powerful person in the current climber’s gallery.

Union Commander Targon raised his head in response to Raid Captain Bellasia’s words.

“What’s going on, Bella.”

Bellasia said urgently.

“Open the ranking window. Something strange has happened.”

“Something strange?”

Targon’s brow furrowed.

The open staircase ranking window was, of course, in order of the most recent staircase.

“There’s not much difference.”

From the 50th to the 62nd floor.

All the names listed in the top 1 had their nicknames on them. The names listed in the 2nd to 5th places were also the nicknames of their colleagues who were part of the strategy alliance.

Bellasia slowly shook her head.

“Sort them in chronological order, not in latest step order.”

Targon’s hand moved.

And I could immediately see why Bellacia was acting so uncharacteristically.

The score for the 2nd floor stage, which is the first level where scores are tallied.

There was a reason for that.

《 2nd floor – Score ranking 》

1st Place – Private: 1,532 points NEW!

2nd Place – Union Leader: 784 points

3rd Place – Tracking: 412 points

4th place – Sinclair: 399 points

5th place – Argul: 382 points

⋮

⋮

A new #1 surrounded by a golden border alone.

I thought that I might have to give up first place someday. And the score on the second floor didn’t matter.

But the problem was the difference in scores between him and me.

‘… 1532?’

First of all, the units were different. Units of thousands.

A score difference of almost double his own.

How do you get such a score on the 2nd floor?

Bellasia’s soft words flowed into my ears.

“Is this an error?”

Targon immediately mounted his horse.

“No way.”

Targon’s words were full of confidence.

“Don’t you know that Top doesn’t cause errors like this?”

Bellasia wiped the sweat that had formed on her forehead and purple hair from running.

“But…is that possible? A score like that?”

Bellasia thought deeply.

“Surely not a Pandemonium player…? ”

Targon once again contradicted Bellasia’s words.

“If it was Pandemonium, they would have been in a hurry to complete the mission. I guess those numbers come from clearing the floors in a very short time or killing a lot of monsters. Pandemonium is a difficult place for both.”

Targon expected ‘Private’ to be an Easy or Normal difficulty player.

Whether it was a quick clear or killing a lot of monsters, I was sure it was either easy or normal.

Hard thought it was impossible because he couldn’t do it.

And pandemonium was considered completely impossible.

Targon, who had gathered his thoughts, opened his mouth.

“Send mail to the person on the 30th floor below on March 1st. If you know of anyone around you who you suspect is this private player, report them.”

“Okay, I got it.”

Bellasia answered and quickened her steps.

mail.

Mailboxes existed from the 5th floor onwards, with one on each floor of the tower.

Once a month, on the first day of every month. It was a mailbox that only worked once.

Players saw this as a device to get the bare minimum information they needed to survive before reaching floor 30 and gaining access to the Climber’s Gallery.

Bellasia, who had distanced herself from the Federation Leader Targon, opened the .

As expected, the climbers’ gallery was also in chaos.

It was on the same topic as the conversation he and Targon had had.

Title: What is the 2nd floor ranking score?

Author: Save Me

– Did you all see it??

1st place – Private: 1,532 points

What is this?

N hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha what the heck is this.

N What kind of monster is coming up from the second floor??

n There must be some monsters on the second floor. Maybe you got lucky and a bunch of goblins came out in easy mode or something.

N JR No matter what, even if you kill all the goblins that come out like that, will that four-digit number appear? There must be something else.

N Even so, it’s only the second floor. Even if we talk about it in the gallery, we’re probably newbies who don’t even know this post exists. Why are we sitting here and worrying about it?

N That’s because it’s an overwhelming score compared to the second place, Union Leader. It’s almost two bands?

N It’ll come up soon. If that’s not luck but real potential.

N Everyone doesn’t remember that they got their scores all messed up and they’re just beating down the 2nd floor ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s true that it’s really strange

Bellasia turned off the climber gallery with a blank expression on her face.

It was too strange to just ignore. But it was still the second floor. That thought didn’t leave me.

Hard difficulty level 63. I’ve experienced all kinds of human figures by reaching here.

I have seen countless people who started out brave but have now lost their sharpness.

‘… That’s interesting.’

If you’re on the second floor right now, you’re likely from ’21st Century Earth’. But why are you standing out like that?

‘They were all weak, you know, without any magic or martial arts.’

Bellasia, who had been thinking a little deeper, shook her head from side to side to clear her thoughts.

***

After confirming that I was at the top of the 2nd floor score rankings, I opened the .

I clicked on the most recent post with the most comments.

Title: Hahahahaha, how did it get to four digits? Hahahaha

Author: Pioneer

– But why did you make your nickname like that? What is private and what is private? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Anyway, I feel proud and stuff. Let’s make sure that the 3rd floor gets 1st place too.

n 1,532 I doubt my eyes I doubt my eyes.

n 2nd place 784, the gap is overwhelming ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋIt’s crazy

N Why are you happy?? If you were to find someone here who deserves to be happy, who would it be other than the Sword of Light?

N Well, everyone has thrown out their own tips and stuff. I feel a sense of pride too.

ㄴ Of course I’m happy, you little brat who can’t even empathize. ㅇㅇ The ‘intervention’ was successful. I was just lurking on the gallery, but when our climber took first place, I felt like I showed my presence a bit. ㅇㅇ

(N 天魔) Ahem, I want to give you my martial arts book during the next interdimensional transaction.

(N) I finished the talisman. 15322222

(Ice Queen) Freeze frozen!! Come out! Climber!

N Yeah*) Yeah, it’s coming out

After a brief silence, comments poured in.

(Ice Queen) Ice, ding-!

N Kiyaaa, you’re here, the king of the second floor

N 2nd floor king ㄷㄷㄷ

He’s the king of the second floor, so something’s wrong.

(Absolute Monarch) That’s cool. It reminds me of when I got first place.

N??? When has the monarch ever won first place?

(N Archmage) You’ve worked hard. There are only two days left until the exchange meeting.

n Sword of Light) Well done. It’s a bit of a shame that it was made ‘private’ though.

N Yeah, kid. You should have written Han Yoo-seong’s name correctly.

n Sword of Light) For example, a descendant of the Dragon Sword.

N Well, that’s a bit like that.

N Giraffe from the Transcendent Gallery

(N Archmage) Too bad

I thought it was a good idea to keep it private.