Chapter 196 - 18th Floor Hidden (1)

TL: DDTL

The meeting took place at the White House in the United States.

The President, the Climbing Bureau Director, and other senior government officials were gathered there.

Everyone watched the video playing on the screen, their expressions grave.

The monster in the footage was impossibly huge, towering up through the stratosphere and almost into the mesosphere.

The creature had been split in half and killed the instant it emerged from the summoning circle.

“They’ve reviewed every available record, including satellite surveillance footage, but they report finding no sign of Person123 anywhere near the scene.”

The President nodded at the Secretary of Defense’s report.

“Then it’s very likely that he really did kill the boss monster remotely.”

“Or he may have used something like Concealment, but...”

In truth, how he had killed the boss wasn’t important.

His abilities had long since defied any attempt to measure them by ordinary standards.

What they needed to consider was Person123’s attitude.

For the 18th Floor rule, Person123 had taken the unusual step of telling every Climber to choose the reward.

He cared deeply about people’s lives. Would he really have made that decision if there had been even the slightest chance of a single person coming to harm?

That seemed unlikely.

It was more reasonable to conclude that he had been completely confident of the outcome.

He had shown that certainty despite knowing that a Level 1,000 boss, or one close to it, would appear.

Perhaps Levels no longer meant anything to Person123.

“...Was that truly an act of divine judgment?”

The President murmured as he watched the footage play on a loop.

Person123 had become a godlike being capable of conveying his will to all humanity, and had even stopped the Tower’s Time Limit, if only temporarily.

And then... there was his proclamation that the Tower would fall and humanity would prevail.

It was no longer far-fetched to think that Person123 now possessed the power to stand against the Tower itself.

Had the world reached a momentous turning point?

Everyone present had a vague sense that it had.

The President turned from the screen, surveyed those gathered, and spoke with the utmost gravity.

“From this moment on, the United States must do everything it can to prepare. We must be ready for the even greater upheavals ahead.”

This time, Person123 had given humanity a deeper kind of hope, something fundamentally different from anything he had offered before.

For nearly ten years, the world had adapted to the incomprehensible Tower and grown used to its presence.

The Tower’s existence was now taken for granted. Most people would have considered the idea of it disappearing unthinkable, downright absurd.

But if Person123’s proclamation was anything to go by...

Perhaps it really could happen.

It might be in the distant future. No, perhaps that future was not so far off after all.

There could be a world without the Tower, whose absolute power had seemed destined to last forever.

They might return to the ordinary world they had known barely ten years before, a world that had been unimaginable while they were scrambling year after year just to extend the Time Limit.

The nation had to prepare for that possibility in advance. That was the government’s responsibility.

‘If that day really does come... I suppose I’ll be out of a job too.’

The Climbing Bureau Director smiled at the stray thought, then turned his attention back to the meeting.

*

The 18th Floor rule ended without incident.

I immediately prepared to enter the 18th Floor.

“I might be gone for quite a while.”

I had warned my family in advance.

My main goal in the 18th Floor Hidden wasn’t so much to clear it as to search for any Divinity that might exist in that world.

There was no telling how long that would take.

‘At least there’s a chance while the Hidden is still in progress...’

Once I finished clearing it and the Hidden closed off again, searching for Divinity would be impossible.

On Repeat Clearings, the world was empty. None of its inhabitants appeared anymore.

I’d already done some testing on other floors, too.

When I ventured too far from the trial area during a Repeat Clearing, I reached a boundary beyond which the world had not been recreated.

Beyond it was nothing but darkness, just like the area past Zone 10 on the 5th Floor.

So I had to search for clues to Divinity without letting the Hidden end.

I would have to try it to find out whether that was even possible.

After saying goodbye to my family, I entered the 18th Floor.

[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 18.]

Stark white metal covered every surface, giving the room a cold, sterile feel.

First, I had to clear the floor again.

I approached the sealed door and cut an opening in it with the God-Slaying Sword.

Once inside, I saw the Skull-Head Boss.

I switched from the God-Slaying Sword to the Gatekeeper of Heaven’s Sword.

There was no telling what the Hidden might throw at me, so I couldn’t afford to waste Divinity.

The Skull-Head Boss’s eyes flared, bathing the room in red light.

BZZZZZZZT!

Lasers rained down from every direction, striking indiscriminately.

I moved in response to the warnings from Supreme Combat Sense, dodging the attacks.

I closed in on the boss with ease and swung my sword.

I gave it a few good chops with Heavenly Aura Blade, and the boss erupted in sparks and exploded.

I had cleared the floor.

I immediately took out the Warp Device and activated it.

[9:59]

This was the plan.

Whether I succeeded or failed in the Hidden, I would be ejected from the 18th Floor.

So what if I abandoned the storyline altogether?

Clearing it wasn’t what mattered, anyway.

That was when it happened.

WEEEEEEEOOOO-

The walls around me suddenly turned red, and alarms began blaring.

Was the Hidden starting?

I stayed where I was and waited for the Warp Device’s countdown to finish.

Before long, I sensed people rushing toward me.

They were cyborgs, their bodies half machine.

The moment they spotted me standing in the middle of the room, they aimed their guns at me.

RATATATATATATAT-!

Blue light flashed as they unleashed a hail of energy rounds.

I dodged their shots without much effort and fired off Elemental Arrow Barrage.

Wind arrows pierced the Cyborg Soldiers’ bodies.

“Gaaagh...!”

The soldiers dropped, some dead on the spot, others screaming.

They seemed like ordinary grunts, but their weapons packed a serious punch.

The civilization on the 18th Floor seemed pretty advanced.

I grabbed one who was still alive and questioned him.

“What’s this facility for? Answer me.”

“Kgh... F-for His Majesty the Emperor...!”

BOOOOOM!

Red circuitry flashed across the Cyborg Soldier’s body, and he self-destructed.

I had pulled back in time to avoid the blast.

He’d mentioned an emperor, so were these imperial troops? Was this some sort of government facility?

Cyborg Soldiers kept pouring in.

I stayed right where I was and took down every last one of them.

After ten minutes, the Warp Device activated.

I warped a long distance away in a random direction.

My surroundings changed in an instant.

Before me lay a city at night, awash in the glow of neon signs.

The scene brought one word to mind: cyberpunk.

Passersby glanced at me, then went on their way without much interest.

They all had the same haggard, lifeless look.

Many of them also had mechanical body parts, like the Cyborg Soldiers I’d just fought...

[You have failed to clear Nightmare difficulty 18F Hidden. (1/3)]

[Exiting the Tower.]

A message suddenly appeared.

I immediately stopped time before I could be ejected.

‘Oh, come on...’

So this approach wouldn’t work?

Had I strayed too far from the area, or had something in the original storyline triggered a failure condition?

I hadn’t really done anything, but the system had already declared the attempt a failure.

I thought it over for a moment.

Trying to keep exploring with time stopped... that probably wasn’t going to work.

My Divinity would keep draining, so I could only keep it up for so long.

I couldn’t recover Divinity with time stopped, either.

To be precise, the nature of my ability did allow me to recover Divinity with time stopped, but I would use up just as much in the process, making it pointless.

It would be like trying to create a self-charging battery that could run forever.

‘What else could I try...’

I had an idea.

Could it work?

After all, it was the Tower’s power that was forcing me out. What if I fought it with my Divinity?

I let time resume.

Then I summoned my Divinity and tried to push back against the Tower’s power.

[$^#!^$!%&&$%$?!#%&]

It worked. Divinity really was an all-purpose cheat code.

The message in front of me became garbled, and I wasn’t ejected. But...

‘...This isn’t going to work.’

The force pushing back was much stronger than I’d expected.

I wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. I couldn’t do anything on the 18th Floor while constantly keeping that force at bay.

I withdrew my Divinity and had no choice but to let the Tower eject me.

My first try was a bust.

[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 18.]

I went straight back in.

At least I’d confirmed that abandoning the Hidden storyline and doing as I pleased wasn’t an option.

This time, I would just follow the storyline.

WEEEEEEEOOOO-

I cut through the door and defeated the boss. Once again, alarms blared.

I moved through the facility, taking down the Cyborg Soldiers rushing toward me.

“Hmm...”

I studied the holographic map beside the door.

The interior layout, which had previously changed in real time, was now fixed. All the key icons had vanished, too.

A different marker had appeared in the center of the map instead.

‘Prison?’

What did that mean?

Should I head there first?

I got my bearings and started toward the prison marker.

I didn’t bother memorizing the map.

The route was ridiculously complicated, but that didn’t matter.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!

Whenever the way was blocked, I simply blasted straight through.

Elemental Arrow Barrage now had a zero-second cooldown thanks to the Hourglass.

I unleashed fire arrows nonstop, demolishing every wall and structure that got in my way. I carved a passage wherever I went.

Cyborg Soldiers kept coming, and traps occasionally activated, but of course none of them could stop me.

Before long, I reached what seemed to be my destination.

I smashed through another door and took in the scene as I stepped inside.

“...”

What I saw was unsettling.

The place resembled a huge factory.

Red liquid bubbled inside a translucent machine at its center.

On a conveyor belt connected to it, people were tied up like cattle in a slaughterhouse.

Elsewhere in the room, many more people were locked behind iron bars.

A researcher operating the machine turned toward me.

“Who the hell are you?”

The old man scowled, apparently annoyed that I had interrupted his work.

Cyborg Soldiers rushed in, quickly surrounding me with their weapons leveled.

I looked around, then questioned the old man.

“What’s this place for?”

“Well, you’re obviously some Rebel Army lackey. Where are the rest of your comrades? Wait, are you a Pure Human? I don’t see any signs of implanted parts. How can you fight like that?”

The old man ignored my question as well. He asked his own questions instead, then looked me over with interest.

I could make a pretty good guess even without an answer.

The prisoners and the faint tang of blood in the air suggested that this place used people as raw materials for something.

Was rescuing these people the condition for clearing the Hidden?

The old man grinned when he saw me looking at the prisoners.

“Oh, so you’re here to rescue the materials? Then you’d better behave.”

The old man held up a switch.

“All I have to do is press this, and they all go boom~ Get it? I’m not going to tell you to surrender or any of that bullshit, so just stand there and wait.”

I ignored his rambling and stopped time.

I walked past the Cyborg Soldiers and up to the old man.

Then I snatched the switch from him and let time resume.

“...!”

The old man was so startled to see me suddenly appear in front of him that he fell on his backside.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!

Then I easily wiped out all the Cyborg Soldiers with Elemental Arrow Barrage.

Still on the floor, the old man frantically looked down at his hand.

The switch was already in my hand, of course.

I spoke as the old man looked up at me, his jaw trembling.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

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