Before I could even protest, I was teleported to the space between the floors.
âAm I being teleported to yet another strange place?â
I felt anxious about what awaited me, but I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw that I was standing in a normal gymnasium.
It was really just an ordinary gymnasium. It was the kind that you could find at any school, with the usual hardwood floor, a stage at one end, basketball hoops on both sides, and a second floor balcony area.
I couldnât figure out why I was brought to a gym.
Maybe it was because it was so unexpected, but looking around the gym reminded me of the past. After looking around with a sentimental feeling, I turned around when I sensed a presence.
[You again?]
âAah! What is it?!â
[It was understandable the first time, but how are you still surprised by this?]
âWouldnât you be startled too if a voice suddenly started speaking to you when youâre in an empty space?!â
It was Yoo Ji-han.
He definitely looked worse for wear than when I had last seen him. The school uniform that had looked practically brand-new had become worn out and tattered, and it looked like he hadnât been able to wash his hair, as it was soaked with blood. If he had said he was some kind of refugee, I wouldâve believed it.
Did this guy even know what he looked like?
Yoo Ji-han looked around at his surroundings.
âWhat is this place?â
[Canât you tell just by looking? Itâs a gym.]
âObviously, who wouldnât know this is a gym?â
I shook my head at Yoo Ji-hanâs annoyance. I went over to the stage and gently perched on top of it. I had restored my strength with a potion, so I didnât have any injuries or anything, but I was still considerably exhausted.
As far as I could tell, it looked like my voice would be transmitted to Yoo Ji-han no matter where I was in this gym.
Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.
[First of all, just sit down and make yourself comfortable.]
âHow can I get comfortable when I canât even see your face? Are we at a sanggyeonrye or something?â
TL/N: A sanggyeonrye is a meeting between the families of the bride and groom. Usually at a restaurant or something where the families sit facing each other.
[What does a kid like you know about a sanggyeonrye? You arenât even 20 yet. If you donât want to sit, you can just keep standing.]
Yoo Ji-han, who was standing in the middle of the gym, was still trying to talk to me while facing the completely wrong direction.
âGee, talk about being unable to adapt to the situation.â
After looking around the gym, Yoo Ji-han suddenly stuck his hand out and started waving it around in the air.
âWhat is he doing? Is he trying to do some stretches or something?â
I was watching him from afar, and I tilted my head in confusion right before Yoo Ji-han opened his mouth to speak again.
âAre you in front of me again today?â
[Nope.]
âWhere are you then?â
[By the stage. You canât see me anyways, so why bother?]
Even though I didnât think there was a point to knowing where I was located, at my response, Yoo Ji-han turned towards the stage then sat down. Although there was still a good amount of distance between us, it wasnât a huge impediment to our conversation.
Yoo Ji-han sat on the floor with a dagger in his hand. He removed it from its sheath and started to watch his surroundings, keeping his guard up.
[There are no monsters here.]
âHow can you say that for sure?â
Yoo Ji-hanâs voice had a sharp edge to it.
Cautious. Anxious. On edge.
Even though I wasnât that close to him, it wasnât hard to read Yoo Ji-hanâs mental state.
[If you donât want to believe me, then donât.]
No monsters would appear here.
The reason why was very simple. It was because this wasnât the proper 2nd Floor. There was no reason to waste my breath arguing with Yoo Ji-han over such a definite fact.
Everything was so unexpected on the 1st Floor, but the 2nd Floor felt like it had quite a bit of leeway. I felt that it was necessary to get an overview of the situation.
[How was the 1st Floor?]
âI already finished it.â
Judging from his behavior, it looked like some time had passed since he finished clearing the 1st Floor.
[What the hell happened since then?]
âA lot.â
Yoo Ji-hanâs expression was not encouraging. From his short response, I could tell he didnât want to just tell me everything right away.
[Letâs talk about what we couldnât say last time.]
I was curious about Yoo Ji-han, and about the things that happened within this tower. I got the feeling that if I could find out what happened in the Tower of Trials, I could gain information that would help me in the fight to become the dimensional ruler.
âHow can I trust you?â
Yoo Ji-han raised his head up towards the platform. Even though it must have been by accident, for a split second, I felt like our eyes met.
âAnd he doubted me about the monsters too⊠This guy.â
When I first met Yoo Ji-han, he didnât have nearly this level of vigilance. This was a general distrust of all people.
It was obvious to me that something had happened in the lobby. I checked Yoo Ji-hanâs Merit Points.
[Yoo Ji-han]
Merit Points: 722
Maybe it was just the reward for clearing the 1st Floor, but he had quite a lot of Merit Points piled up now, especially compared to when I first met him. I opened up the gift window.
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Translator: Igixri
Proofreader: Imagine
Discord Link:
* * *
[Gift]
- Available gift targets: Yoo Ji-han
- Items that can be gifted: Small healing potion (12), Small magic power potion (33), Painkillers (6), Shower bomb (2)
[2 Merit Points will be consumed to gift a shower bomb to 'Yoo Ji-han'.]
[2 Merit Points have been acquired.]
It seemed like heâd also gotten a notification since he opened up his inventory screen.
[First of all, you should clean yourself up a little.]
There was a blue ball shaped like a softball in Yoo Ji-hanâs hand.
âHow do I use it?â
[Pop iâ]
Before I could even finish my sentence, Yoo Ji-han gripped the shower bomb tightly in his hand. The water and bubbles that came out of it covered Yoo Ji-hanâs whole body.
After about 10 seconds, Yoo Ji-han emerged looking relatively normal, especially compared to before.
[This is much better than that haggard look you had going on. If I had a mirror, I wouldâve handed it to you so you could take a look at yourself.]
Yoo Ji-han touched his hair, which was completely dry as if heâd blow-dried it. He mustâve felt uncomfortable like that.
Arenât you supposed to be the one that knows your body best?
Yoo Ji-han looked around the gymnasium once again. After doing this a couple of times, he put his dagger back into its sheath. He didnât tell me that he believed me when I said that monsters wouldnât appear here.
It was a wise choice. As his tension finally dropped, I could see that his bodyâs energy had also weakened.
âWell, I donât know where to startâŠâ
With that, Yoo Ji-han started to carefully open up to me.
Yoo Ji-han was a regular high schooler living in the city of Daejeon in South Korea.
âThere was nothing out of the ordinary that dayâŠâ
It wasnât just Yoo Ji-han.
In the lobby, there had been more than a thousand people who had suddenly been transported there, just like Yoo Ji-han.
At first there were a thousand people, but then there were five to ten newcomers at the end of each week. Yoo Ji-han had arrived late to the race, and the lobby was already taken over by the early comers who had made their own rules and regulations.
When he was teleported to the lobby without even knowing the reason why he was there, the first thing Yoo Ji-han had seen was the mangled corpse of a peer who had been horribly murdered.
âThey told me to choose. Either follow their rules, or enter the tower.â
Luckily, heâd managed to steal a dagger and escape into the tower. At this point, it wasnât difficult to realize that he met me in that place, wounded after just barely managing to kill one goblin.
[How much time has passed since then?]
âAbout four days, Iâm not sure. Itâs hard to keep track of dates while Iâm in the lobby.â
Four days, huh.
After I left the tower, Iâd spent some time being investigated by the association, and if I counted the day Iâd spent drinking with Choi Soo-hyun, then at least a week had passed. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like the time scale between me and Yoo Ji-han was different.
âDoes time even matter?â
Iâd found something new to verify.
[Have you cleared the 2nd Floor yet?]
At my question, Yoo Ji-han shook his head. Heâd gone in to attempt the 2nd Floor, but heâd been teleported to the gymnasium and had met me instead. On the flip side, Iâd just finished clearing the 2nd Floor.
âIâll still need more information.â
It was still too early to be sure.
[And? What happened after you cleared the 1st Floor?]
Yoo Ji-han started to talk again as soon as I finished asking.
When heâd returned to the lobby, people were shocked. It looked like there had never been anyone like Yoo Ji-han who survived going to the 1st Floor with no armor and carrying nothing more than a single dagger.
âWell, that makes sense.â
Yoo Ji-han was a latecomer. Viewed from the opposite angle, being one of the leading parties meant that they were the ones who knew the Towerâs rules and had survived them. They were those who had the resolve to kill monsters, or even other people. And they knew better than anyone that those whoâd just arrived to the lobby wouldnât have that same resolve.
Even if that were the case, they couldnât dream of the possibility that Yoo Ji-han would survive and manage to kill all the goblins on the 1st Floor.
But he did survive.
Ultimately, this meant that his desire to cling to life no matter what was strong, and also that he wasnât just a regular person.
Yoo Ji-han told me that after heâd cleared the 1st Floor and come out of the tower, there had been people that had come to find him. They were the thugs who had been the ones to throw Yoo Ji-han and the rest of his party into the 1st Floor.
âThey asked me to join their guild, the Central Guild. The nerve of those bastardsâŠâ
Yoo Ji-hanâs line of sight lined up directly with the platform where I was sitting.
If heâd accepted the support, Yoo Ji-han would have no reason to enter the 2nd Floor with his worn dagger and haggard appearance. This meant that heâd rejected them.
[Wouldnât you have been better off if youâd accepted their proposal?]
It wouldnât have been a bad proposal if they were one of the early parties. But when I said that, Yoo Ji-han furrowed his brow and scowled with an expression close to disgust.
âAre you crazy? Iâd rather die than join those sons of bitches. Those murderers. Thatâs just⊠Letâs not even talk about it.â
Yoo Ji-han seemed pretty frustrated since he curled his hand into a tight fist. At the sight of that, I got the sense of what those leading parties were really like.
âRight, he shouldnât behave like those bastards.â
Honestly, I wanted to praise him for that part. The problem was what came after.
Yoo Ji-han had rejected the proposal, and had escaped to the 2nd Floor the same way heâd escaped into the 1st Floor. I was pretty sure I knew the reason why those guys hadnât tried to stop him.
âThe 2nd Floor isnât something that can be cleared alone.â
For the current Yoo Ji-han, it was definitely impossible.
[If you go to the 2nd Floor now, youâll definitely die.]
âWhat? Why are you saying that all of a sudden?! Are you messing with me right now?â
[Itâs still possible for you to leave.]
It would be fine because he still hadnât entered the 2nd Floor yet.
âYouâre telling me to go back to the lobby?â
[Yeah.]
Yoo Ji-han frowned with his arms crossed. It looked like he would need a little bit of explanation.
[If you do as I tell you, you can clear it, but you wonât be able to do it right away.]
âAnd if I just go in anyways?â
[Youâll die. Forget about lasting 1 hour, youâd barely last 30 minutes.]
The goblins I met on the 2nd Floor were the same kind of goblin as the goblin troops I met at the entrance of the Tower of Trials. I knew better than anyone how those Hunters that had been thoroughly educated by their guilds had died at the hands of those goblins.
A shadow fell over Yoo Ji-hanâs face. I didnât press him for a response.
If someone who I could only hear the voice of had said this to me all of a sudden, I would also have a lot of worries to think about. Yoo Ji-hanâs worries and concerns were fair and realistic.
âSo, I can clear the floor if I do what you tell me to do?â
[Itâs up to you. Still, itâs better than a 0% chance, right?]
âAlright. So what do I need to do?â
[Iâm just warning you beforehand, but itâll be really difficult. Forget what happened on the 1st Floor, that was just a warm-up. Are you still going to do it?]
âYou told me youâd kick my ass if I just gave up. Of course I have to go back in.â
The light in Yoo Ji-hanâs eyes had changed.
To say that there was no anxiety or fear in those eyes would be a lie. But still, the fact that the light was there meant that he had already made up his mind.
This place was by no means heaven, and the path one had to take would be a thorny road streaked with blood. In some ways, compared to when I had first arrived in Arbelicia, Yoo Ji-Hanâs situation was much better.