#1
In games, a character one rank higher often wielded overwhelming power.
They could get you through stages you couldn’t clear and beat down bosses you couldn’t defeat.
It wasn’t unusual to see one easily outstrip the firepower of ten lower-rank characters.
That was exactly what Lucas was doing now.
He had only gone from N-rank to R-rank, but his power was on an entirely different level.
The boss was an [Orc Warrior].
“Human, kill!”
“Lucas, you can handle this, right?”
“Leave it to me.”
Hwanung had kept one monk and one shield bearer, just in case.
He believed a tank and a healer were absolutely essential.
With three N-ranks supporting him, including the newly drawn summon, Lucas entered battle.
Gripping his sword firmly in both hands, he charged straight at the Orc Warrior.
The moment he took the lead, a change came over him.
[In the Name of the Knight]
Lucas’s passive skill had activated.
A blue aura wrapped around his entire body, and his speed visibly increased.
[Demonstrates the spirit of chivalry.]
[Strength, Stamina, and Agility increase by 3 when taking the lead.]
[These increases are doubled against unholy beings.]
[Demons] [Monsters] [Evildoers] [Undead]
“Oh, that’s awesome.”
That put his Strength alone at nearly 40, didn’t it?
With 40, he could be the lead fighter in a small-time Climbing Club.
And Hwanung could command a summon like that as easily as moving his own limbs. This avatar really was the best.
‘And I’m only getting started.’
If a mere R-rank was this strong, what would the higher ranks be like?
The anticipation building inside him was enough to give him goose bumps.
Anyway, he should watch the fight.
Lucas and the Orc Warrior clashed.
Lucas clearly had the advantage in strength.
After all, he had sent the orc flying with a single blow.
“Kweeeek!”
“Know your place, you filthy orc.”
Perhaps chivalry was so deeply ingrained in him that even his insults were hard to distinguish from curses.
The Orc Warrior had been knocked clean off its feet by his sword.
Lucas gave it no chance to recover.
An explosive surge of aura enveloped his body.
[Kingdom Swordsmanship – Requihner]
[Overwhelms the enemy with a powerful charge and thrust.]
[Enemies struck by the charge suffer ‘Status Effect: Stun’ for 1 second.]
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
As if putting those words into practice, Lucas shot forward in a straight line, leaving an afterimage behind him.
An opponent with even a little more skill wouldn’t get hit by an attack like that, but this was an Orc Warrior.
The tower mostly attracted people with stats in the twenties and thirties, so its enemies weren’t particularly formidable.
“Kweek!?”
“Die!”
With a shout, Lucas’s sword tip traced a blue streak.
That straight streak sliced clean through the Orc Warrior’s neck.
Though he had begun with a thrust, Lucas pierced its neck, then swept his blade through an elegant arc to slash it.
The Orc Warrior died without so much as a scream.
The boss fight ended with anticlimactic ease.
Lucas let out a “Whew!” of a sigh, then turned and walked back to Hwanung.
And then—
“Mission accomplished, Master.”
“Yeah. Good work. You looked great out there.”
“You flatter me.”
Why was seeing him kneel to deliver his report so moving?
Hwanung smiled quietly and nodded with an approving “Mm-hm!”
Then Lucas said something laden with meaning.
“You have granted me a chance at salvation and vengeance. Once more, I shall burn this soul in your service.”
“Huh? What do you—?”
Before he could ask what Lucas meant, an alert from the tower snapped him out of it.
Lux, accessories, and equipment lay on the ground.
[Collect your rewards. Number of equipment items you may bring into reality: 1]
Accessories and equipment could be equipped on a character or brought into the real world.
Take home a hefty sum, or strengthen your avatar?
Summoning an R-rank had increased his mana consumption a little, but he was still fine.
Which meant he didn’t need to keep any items yet.
‘A hundred Mana really is incredible.’
No matter how many R-ranks like Lucas he summoned, his mana would replenish far faster than he could use it.
For now, he would just make money.
With that thought, he checked the items.
“The Lux is low-grade. Fine… Nothing special among the items, either.”
Would they fetch about a hundred thousand won?
They were nothing remarkable.
Together with the proceeds from the Lux, he would probably make around three hundred thousand won.
‘That’s still something.’
Three hundred thousand won a day.
After splitting the rewards with a Climbing Club or Trekking Crew, he wouldn’t have made even a hundred thousand. Keeping everything for himself made it a pretty decent haul.
If he climbed every day, he could make ten million won a month.
Maybe even more.
‘This really is a jackpot.’
As he stood there grinning with satisfaction, another alert sounded.
[You have set a new record.]
[Avatar No. 19930211: 47 minutes 10 seconds]
[You are ranked No. 1 in the Miner’s Tower.]
[You may set a nickname.]
“Oh!”
Every tower kept climbing records, making each one a kind of arena for score competition.
Medium and large Climbing Clubs scrambled to recruit people with good records.
There were a few towers used specifically for setting records.
The Miner’s Tower wasn’t one of them, of course.
After a moment’s thought, Hwanung decided against registering a nickname.
Outside the tower, no one could tell who was who, so he intended to spend some time building his strength.
If people happened to notice him, there was nothing he could do, but he wasn’t planning to openly reveal himself.
‘It’s not like I’ve done much yet.’
Maybe the solo run would get some attention.
Solo Climbers did turn up occasionally at lower grades, so he probably wouldn’t attract much interest for now.
Wasn’t it best to let things happen naturally?
“Time to head back.”
Hwanung returned to reality.
What happened to his real body while he was in a tower, you ask?
It vanished, of course.
Towers came from another world. They defied common sense.
“Haha, hahahaha!”
Like a transformation, his body was replaced by a new one—an avatar.
Once he left the tower, he returned to his original body.
Hwanung walked on, adjusting to the unfamiliar sensation.
A bright smile lit his face.
#2
〈〈New Miner’s Tower record〉〉
[They shaved a whole ten minutes off the old record. Some Climbing Club must’ve thrown a ton of support their way. lol]
—What else is new?
—Someone from the big leagues coming down to stomp noobs again?
—Those Climbing Club bastards competing over records again?
—Just go climb a higher tower. Why bother with this;;
—It’s nothing. Leave it alone. Someone’ll break it again anyway.
The forum treated it as a minor incident.
After all, a Climber could only really prove their worth in a tower that adjusted combat stats to the avatar’s base values alone.
But some people weren’t willing to dismiss it.
“Which Climbing Club is backing that crew?”
Large Climbing Clubs were divided into multiple crews.
Crews formed to farm items, proper reserve crews, main crews…
Together, those crews made up one enormous Climbing Club.
Setting a new record in the Miner’s Tower meant standing out among all those otherwise unremarkable farming crews.
Tsk, tsk. Idiots.
Couldn’t they think for a moment and consider that a promising rookie might turn up?
“Hmm. Maybe I should look into it.”
The person browsing the internet was someone known as [Sigrul].
He held Platinum rank in the [League], where Climbing Clubs or individual Climbers fought in PvP, and ran a Climbing Club of his own.
‘Put them to work in the lower leagues for a while, then set them up with a crew once they’re good enough. Take a fixed cut… That’s how we’ll do it.’
A diamond in the rough belonged to whoever picked it up first.
What would the person in question think?
They couldn’t keep climbing alone forever. Sooner or later, they were bound to hit a wall.
When that happened, who reached out to help would matter a great deal.
Sigrul the Golden Axe began to make his move.
The thing was, he wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines.
Naturally, the new Miner’s Tower record was also being watched closely by the major Climbing Clubs.
It simply wasn’t apparent, since the people who recognized its significance were high up in those organizations.
Avatar 19930211.
Little by little, his name began to spread among Climbers.
#3
Regardless of all that, Hwanung grinned at the money deposited in his account.
His last payment for working as a Sherpa with the Climbing Club, plus what he had earned this time.
Together, they came to roughly two million won.
Everything started small.
Once he had more summons and could climb harder towers, he would be able to get his hands on astronomical sums.
Something was nagging at him, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
‘All right. Which tower next?’
He was happy.
People were always going on about how unfair the world was, but when misfortune actually struck, the feeling was on an entirely different level from those abstract complaints.
Having your ordinary life shattered and feeling yourself dragged down to the depths of hell was truly terrible.
But on the other hand, was there anything more exhilarating than being able to bounce back from that?
Especially when it wasn’t simply hope, but a recovery with results you could see.
Hwanung clenched both fists and grinned and grinned.
‘I could even build a one-man army.’
A one-man army made up of summons.
No upkeep, no need to manage subordinate crews.
He simply wanted to race ahead on his own.
“Maybe this one next.”
[Tower of Protection]
[Stages: 3]
[Grade: Bukhansan]
It only had three stages, but it offered better returns for the effort than most towers.
That was because it incorporated defense gameplay.
It opened at set times, with a maximum of five people per crew.
Four teams competed in each session.
At the end of every stage, the team that had cleared the fewest waves was eliminated.
It was also a place people passed through when a Climbing Club formed a new crew, or when they started a new crew of their own.
Hwanung wanted to test himself, too.
How long could his current summons hold out?
He could have looked for an obscure tower, but there weren’t any obscure towers at the lower grades to begin with.
The reality was that seventy to eighty percent of people couldn’t even climb the [Seoraksan]-grade towers that had appeared on the Korean Peninsula.
‘Didn’t they used to say eighty percent of players were in Bronze, Silver, or Gold in those old games? Same thing, really.’
That settled it.
He would get plenty of rest today and go tomorrow.
‘Tomorrow, I’m going to grind some towers hard.’
At least two.
Three, if he could manage it.
#4
The next day.
Hwanung quietly headed for the tower.
Towers guaranteed complete anonymity, so no one would recognize him.
Plenty of spectators came, too. No one could tell who was a Climber, a Sherpa, or just there to watch.
[Entering tower lobby.]
[The game begins at 10:00 a.m. Please select ‘Join Game’ if you wish to participate.]
‘Count me in.’
He glanced around and saw people gathered in little groups.
They’d all brought good avatars, hadn’t they?
Or maybe they were grinding away to make a living.
“Anyone look strong…? Maybe that team over there.”
He muttered to himself without realizing it.
The avatars he was looking at were decked out in gleaming accessories and equipment.
Judging by their emblem… Oh, the Baldhead Climbing Club.
‘Their leader cleared up to Hallasan grade, I think?’
It looked as though they had formed a new crew.
Anyway, he only needed to focus on his own work.
With that thought, Hwanung got ready.
Then he heard something he couldn’t ignore.
“You know that 1993? The Miner’s Tower record holder.”
“Oh, that crew? Wonder which Climbing Club they’re from. Could be a new crew, too.”
“Should we give it a shot?”
“Let’s do it. The club leader would give us loads of support then, right?”
“Oh, I’m in.”
At their level, they could certainly manage it.
He didn’t mind if they beat his record.
They wouldn’t be able to keep up with him in the higher-grade towers anyway.
[The game begins.]
[May fortune favor you in battle.]
With a quiet smile, Hwanung entered the stage.
An enormous gem, barricades, and a horde of zombies in the distance.
A classic defense-game setup.
[Stage 1]
[Hold off the incoming enemies.]
[You will be automatically eliminated if your Guardian Stone is destroyed.]
[Number of Waves: 5]
[The next wave begins when all enemies are dead or 3 minutes have passed.]
“Summon. Then Draw.”
Once again, he drew a summon to keep his forces snowballing.
If things went well, he could get himself plenty of R-rank summons here, couldn’t he?
His grin widened.
[The stage begins in 1 minute.]
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