261. Earth (4)
「A new message has arrived from your friend ‘Baekryeonhwa’.」
「There are currently 187 unread messages in your friend ‘Baekryunhwa”s chat history.
」 there was.
‘Something else happened on Earth.’
The opportunity to use the powers obtained as a reward from the 21st floor ordeal has arrived.
It was worth it.
Until now, Lee Ha-yeon hadn’t contacted me at all.
She is not called this way unless there is a compulsory muster from Earth.
‘Perhaps something happened to the extent that I had to stop climbing the tower.’
Convinced, I immediately started scanning the chat window of my friends list.
I read 187 unread messages from beginning to end.
Also very carefully.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Mr. Seongyun. If the ordeal is over, please read these messages. Things are very bad right now.
To what extent did Lee Ha-yeon also think that he had to climb the tower as a challenger?
‘…the 17th floor? It’s the same difficulty as Lee Ha-yeon, but he’s already reached the 17th floor?’
Before she knew it, she had reached the 17th floor of the tower.
Of course, the challenger’s skill could not be measured by just the number of floors.
According to the information Lee Ha-yeon gave me in the past, the difficulty and tendency of each challenge change as the challenger climbs the floor.
So just because she was on the 17th floor, I couldn’t compare her to the days when I was on the 17th floor.
But…
‘Still, at this point, isn’t Lee Ha-yeon also a ranker at the Earth level…?’
Considering the minimum level of difficulty of her floor, she couldn’t underestimate it that much.
It’s probably at a level that can be highly regarded at the Earth level.
I don’t know why I thought to climb the tower so high.
It’s not a bad thing, at least she’s my partner on Earth.
‘A lot of interesting things happened while I was drawing attention from Earth.’
At that, I smiled and then read the messages in the chat window.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Orange gates that have never been seen before have opened in each country. However, this is different from the existing gate.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): There is no such thing as a dungeon break, but monsters keep coming out of the gate.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Even that level is incomparable to the monsters I’ve seen so far. But the problem is that this is not the end.
gate.
It was not surprising that portals leading to dungeons were opened in each country.
Even if the color of the gate is orange, it can be regarded as a special phenomenon.
However, after seeing the message in the chat window that followed, I was able to realize the seriousness of the situation.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): A demon, one of the monsters that can only be observed in the Tower of Trials, has appeared.
“A demon…?”
The appearance of a demon, a monster that doesn’t even appear in dungeons?
I couldn’t understand.
It was even more so because the current earth dimension was recognized as the ‘official climbing dimension’ designated by the tower.
Now, challengers from the other world won’t be able to easily aim for Earth…
I felt something was foreign.
‘…There’s no reason the challengers have to pay a huge penalty to create a gate in the Earth dimension.’
However, it could not be said that it was not the work of the challenger unconditionally.
It reminded me of the challenger from the other world who had appeared in London before.
At that time, the challenger of the other world said himself that he had gained faith from the earth.
By concentrating all the negative emotions into himself, he is trying to gain divine power in his heart.
‘If there’s a challenger who wants to gain the power related to divinity like that time, it doesn’t make sense.’
Even if it wasn’t so, maybe this was a situation that was entangled with the godhead.
Even a mere challenger came to Earth to gain faith, so there could be something different about being a god.
Whether it’s a challenger or a godhead…
Whatever it is, I can tell that the situation is not good.
While frowning at him, I speeded up reading the messages in the chat window.
And…
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Nearly 1 million casualties occurred in Korea alone. And I’ve suffered a lot of damage overseas as well.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Each country concluded that it was actually related to the challengers.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Eventually, the International Hunter Association summoned the highest difficulty level challengers.
Soon, the message in the chat window came down to the latest one.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): And Mr. Seongyun is also subject to the call of the International Hunter Association.
Then I couldn’t help but show interest with a twinkle in my eyes.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Of course, I didn’t say it bare-mouthed, but the International Hunter Association promised to reward Seongyun’s cooperation.
He would be like that…
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Mr. Seongyoon said that if you respond to the summons, you can get an S-class hunter license right away.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): They say they will give you as many items as you want, such as skill proficiency increase potions and skill random acquisition books.
-Baekryeonhwa (17th floor): Other than that, Seongyoon said that he had plans to compensate for most of what he wanted.
I don’t know why, but it was because the Hunter Association offered a big reward.
“…”
That’s a very appetizing reward.
“You have purchased a return stone (E+).
”
How much money can I get this time?
***
When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a studio that felt a little distant.
A dusty desk, a crowded floor with all sorts of items, unventilated air, etc… I
felt strange seeing the evidence that someone had been away for a long time.
For some reason, everything felt strange.
“It doesn’t even feel like home anymore.”
I really doubt that this is the place where I lived.
But soon, I worked hard to get rid of that sense of difference and immediately injected magical power into my smartphone.
And at the same time, delicate control turned mana into electricity, filling the smartphone’s battery.
「The power skill ‘Magical Management’ is activated.」
It was rewarding to climb the tower and raise the skill level of Magical Management.
It’s because he can do the detailed manipulation of magic that he wasn’t very familiar with before.
While doing so, I could sense that I had grown subtly.
That abilities not related to divinity are steadily growing.
“…”
But now there was no time to fall into sentimentality.
‘…Now it’s more important to find out the situation on Earth.’
As it was, I immediately turned on my smartphone and checked the news on the portal site.
[The appearance of the ‘devil’, a monster observed only in the Tower of Trials, became a hot topic when the International Hunter Association said, “Everything is an issue that the challengers must also take responsibility for.”…] [Gate-related scholars “This time
, The gate is a point of change where the influence of the tower on the earth increases,” and conveys that a great inflection point has arrived…] [
Susanoo Guild head Sachio Michimoto “All challengers must work together to resolve the current situation. ” and recommended a request for cooperation…]
“It’s a mess.”
The rankings of real-time search terms on all portal sites are all focused on the current situation.
Attention was focused on the demons appearing at the gate and the challengers involved in the Tower of Trials.
That too is excessive.
Realizing that the situation was more serious than I thought, I moved from the studio to the place where I had an appointment with Lee Ha-yeon.
And…
“…It’s been a while. Mr. Seongyun I was waiting for you.”
I saw Lee Ha-yeon standing in the middle of a street where no one walked.
It must have been a while since the tower sent a message to the chat window…
I never thought it would appear this fast.
Not even that.
‘I went up to the 17th floor and my skills improved that much.’
Lee Ha-yeon’s level of mana, which was affected by the senses, was unusual.
Compared to when I was on the 17th floor before, it must be difficult…
I could feel that at least as one challenger, I had the minimum amount of strength.
Perhaps at that level, wouldn’t it be a level that could compete with an A-class hunter?
But there was no room for admiration.
“…Congratulations on reaching the 22nd floor. But I don’t have much time.”
It was because Lee Ha-yeon said that with a tired face as if she was tired.
In that, I saw the emotions that dwelled inside her.
Nervousness, joy, worry, anticipation, etc….
I was able to immediately understand her intentions because I felt so many emotions from her.
“Does not having time mean that the situation is that serious?”
and.
“…that’s right. There is no time. All I can tell you is that the world is in a very bad situation.”
Lee Ha-yeon pursed her lips with a melancholy face.
“Really, really… A lot happened, but there’s no way to explain it all.”
I was able to notice without hearing much about the situation from her.
“it’s okay. That the Tower had a great influence on Earth. That alone would suffice to explain the situation.”
“I see…”
“Yes. So you can get straight to the point. I’m comfortable with that anyway.”
“That sounds a bit upsetting, but… at least I feel fortunate now.”
Lee Ha-yeon smiled as if she was a bit dumbfounded, and then put her hand on my shoulder.
“The American Hunter Association decided to gather all the ranker class challengers.”
and.
“I will guide you there from now on.”
next moment.
「It has been designated as the casting target of the auxiliary magic < Teleport >.」
「Moves to the designated coordinates by the auxiliary magic < Teleport >.」
Before I knew it, I was able to arrive inside a conference hall.
***
The conference hall was bigger than I thought.
It was as big as if it could accommodate more than a hundred people.
However, compared to its size, there were not many people inside the conference hall.
‘The number of people will barely exceed double digits.’
Did he gather the best of the challengers from all over the world?
In the current meeting room, there were people with magical powers that were incomparable to Lee Ha-yeon.
And there were some familiar faces among them.
Right away…
“Ah…! you! Are you finally here? It’s here, here…!”
Catherine Bennett was like that.
Katherine Bennett, who was sitting quietly at the head of the conference room, looked at me and smiled broadly and even waved.
It’s also very strong.
It looks like a puppy welcoming its owner back from a trip.
Seeing that, it bothered me that I went back to the tower without contacting her for some reason.
‘I should have left a message, even if it was small…’
But that was only for a moment.
“Seongyun-san…”
Suddenly, a soft whispered voice came into my ear.
“Contrary to what you promised me, you climbed the tower silently and never contacted me properly…”
Before I knew it, Lee Ha-yeon was on tiptoe and whispering to me.
“You must have had such a close acquaintance at the Tower?”
I don’t know why, with a cold eye smile.
