051. Administrator (3)
After the message that the interview with the administrator was over… ”
You have
entered the world of Sangvis Sangvis.”
As always, it changed from the waiting room to an unknown space.
“…”
I was taken aback for a moment, but soon I regained my composure and looked around.
Caves, grasslands, plains, deserts, seas, etc…
I’ve seen and experienced numerous stages, but this space was especially heterogeneous.
White swords were stuck inconsistently in the snow-covered yard.
Even though there are no traces of someone fighting, it must be said that it is like a battlefield.
Of course, it wasn’t the only thing around, and I could see a cabin at the end of it…
‘Should I go in?’
There was no guarantee that it would not be dangerous, so I felt hesitation.
‘But I can’t just do nothing like this…’
After thinking for a while, I felt something flash in my head.
Come to think of it, there was one useful skill that could be used in this situation.
‘The eyes of truth.’
「The skill ‘Eye of Truth’ is activated.」
The Eye of Truth activates the skill focusing on what I am focusing on.
This is what I learned from using the eyes of truth several times before.
In other words, if the current focus is not on a single object, but this space itself…
「The World of Iron Blood」
「Rating:」
「A special space only for her, where the administrator, the ‘Monarch of Iron Blood’, resides.
」 It is a place where there is no place.」
I could understand this as well.
‘Iron-Blooded Monarch…’
Looking at the manager and ‘her’, it seemed that the manager had a gender.
Of course, there was no such informative explanation, so I couldn’t know much.
But now I felt like I knew where I was.
‘I never thought I’d come right to the place where the manager stays…’
The moment I vaguely recognized that the meeting with the real manager was about to begin.
「The administrator, the Iron Blood Lord, is displeased with someone’s search.」
「The Administrator, the Iron Blood Lord, asks you to stop doing unnecessary things and come in quickly.」
A message of a type I had never seen before came to mind, prompting me to make my choice.
‘Could the administrator have conveyed his thoughts through a direct message…?’
Even judging from the contents of the message, it seemed that he knew that I had used the skill.
To be able to recognize the activation of a skill even though it is invisible and invisible…
I could see how terrifying a manager was.
An existence that manages incomprehensible things like the Tower of Trials.
‘If he had such a mind, he would have killed me right away.’
Eventually, I made up my mind and started walking towards the cabin. I
quickly
arrived at the hut at the end of the snowy road with swords stuck here and there.
Then I held the doorknob of the cabin and exhaled.
“Whoa…”
There was nothing to be nervous about.
Even at the Tower of Trials, he said he was a ‘pioneer’ and simply held personal interviews.
That’s why there’s no way I’m going to die here.
I soon regained my composure and opened the cabin door.
And…
「The manager, the ‘iron-blooded lord’, is looking at you.
」
At that moment, I heard a cold but beautiful voice in my ear…
“Welcome, Pioneer.”
Looking at the source of the voice, I saw a silver-haired woman sitting at a table.
“I am the Iron Blood Lord, the administrator assigned to interview you.”
***
“…”
I looked at the woman in front of me nervously.
The iron-blooded lord, wearing a long white coat, smiled with interest.
‘Looking at the outside, she may be an exotic beauty…’
In reality, she is the one who manages the Tower of Trials.
So even if I didn’t want to be nervous, I couldn’t help but be nervous.
It was then.
“Huh…”
The iron-blooded lord grinned as he slowly moved his red eyes to look at me.
“Funny. I would have thought you were the pioneer of that ‘hunter’.”
“…?”
“I was wondering what kind of monster it was, but it looks pretty good.”
“…”
I narrowed my eyes at the sudden evaluation and glared at her.
“…Do you know me?”
To that question, the iron-blooded lord answered by crossing his legs on the table.
“Of course. Didn’t you prove your worth on the 4th floor? It was such a splendid debut stage, there’s no way I didn’t know about it.”
It seemed that the fact that the 4th floor had a fairly high performance attracted attention.
‘if…?’
I immediately opened my mouth again at the tone that seemed to have been watching me all along.
“Could you have been watching my ordeal all this time?”
“I only knew it as a settlement board. It is impossible to observe the trials of the challenger on the 8th floor.”
“…?”
“I seem to be misunderstanding something, but administrators are not omnipotent beings like gods. It’s not about ruling the tower.”
“What is that…”
“Rather, it should be seen that the being subordinate to the tower is the administrator. So don’t be too nervous. As long as I am subordinate to the tower, I cannot harm you.”
“…”
The Iron Blood Lord said as if he knew I was nervous.
“Private things aside… Pioneer, this private interview is a boon to you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.”
I couldn’t quite understand all the words, but I knew what the point was.
The manager is not a god-like being and is subordinate to the tower.
And…
‘You mean you don’t intend to hurt me after all, and you’re just answering my questions?’
There was no hostility at all, and I could see that he was friendly to me.
The moment I realized that, I immediately asked the question without hesitation.
If this was a ‘benefit’, as the iron-blooded lord said, there would be no hesitation.
“Then can you tell me what this private interview is?”
The iron-blooded lord, who twisted his long silver hair with his fingers, smiled.
“Adaptation is pretty quick. Well, that’s why I must have survived this tower.”
“….”
“Individual interviews are a ‘benefit’ given to pioneers as mentioned earlier. You don’t have to use a ‘question box’ to answer your questions through the manager.”
“Is that the end?”
“Well, there are some other benefits besides that. Because you can see the manager directly, and you can receive ‘benefits’ from the manager.”
In other words, pioneers will receive one or another benefit from managers.
As this was the opportunity for Q&A, I expressed my doubts that I had been harboring for a long time.
“Then can you tell me what it means to be a challenger to the other world?”
“Have you already met something like that…? You had a bad experience.”
The iron-blooded lord frowned and said that.
In other words, knowing something means knowing something.
I continued to ask questions with my eyes shining.
“I was almost killed by that challenger from the other world once during the trials on the 5th floor.”
“Still alive… You seem to be the type that is strong against misfortune. Well, there won’t be any big secrets like I expected.”
The iron-blooded lord put on a curious expression and then opened his mouth.
“As you can see from the fact that it is a challenger from another world… the Tower of Trials is not unique to this world. There are towers of trials in some dimensions, and I don’t know where the guy you met was from, but he must have been a challenger in that place.”
He said it as if it wasn’t a big deal, but it’s not something to be easily overlooked.
‘Is there really such a thing as a different world…’
Even in that world there is a tower of trials, and it is said that the challenger came up from there.
It was difficult to accept it easily, but I had no choice but to do it because it made no sense from the beginning.
But…
apart from accepting that fact, a question arose.
“Why did such a guy come to me? Would layer intrusion have been possible in other worlds?”
“Of course you will. However, it is a different reason to intrude into another world.”
The iron-blooded lord continued with a light smile.
“This is because the rewards of that layer can be robbed when you infiltrate a layer into another world.”
“What is that…”
“Not only that, but you can also get a better class reward.”
“…”
In other words, the challengers from the other world came to rob [the reward of the trial].
“Challengers from other worlds have come from where the tower has existed for decades. That’s why I know what a tower is, and I know that the reward for harming a challenger from another world is great.”
In a word, for challengers from other worlds, the way the tower competes is natural.
“And not only that.”
“…?”
“The towers of this world will one day be integrated with the towers of other worlds.”
“…what does that mean?”
“It is literally. From the 20th floor onwards, it will focus on integrated trials rather than individual trials, and you will meet challengers from other worlds.”
“…”
So far, the Tower of Trials has created competition with most of the other challengers in each integrated trial.
In other words, it also means that it is the intention to eliminate competitors that will meet someday in advance.
“So he must have thought that it would be better for a lesser level challenger like Earth to rob and kill the layer rewards in advance.”
Hearing that, I couldn’t help but sigh.
‘From the 20th floor onward, I will compete with challengers from other worlds…’
It was out of the blue, but since I met a challenger from another world on the 5th floor, I had no choice but to accept it.
As I was accepting the truth as calmly as possible, the iron-blooded lord tilted his head.
“I am not very upset. Isn’t that surprising?”
At that, I shook my head and opened my mouth.
“…no, it’s amazing. It’s amazing that another world exists, and it’s shocking to compete with challengers from another world from the 20th floor onwards.”
“You’re pretty calm for something like that, right?”
“What will you do? Well, I have no choice but to adapt and prepare in advance for that to happen.”
“Hmm… I guess you could think of it that way too. understood.”
I looked at the iron-blooded lord as if it were strange, but that was how I felt.
In any case, the fact that this tower of trials was originally a phenomenon that made no sense.
‘So I should be able to understand the other world or whatever.’
Since he understood that, the iron-blooded lord asked him a question.
“Are all my questions answered now?”
“Except for that last question, yes.”
I brought out one of the questions that I had been thinking about before.
“What the hell is a tower?”
Up until now, he had gotten used to the tower by climbing the tower and receiving various rewards…
but he still couldn’t erase that question.
“Hmm…”
“And what’s at the end of the tower?”
“It’s something I can’t tell you.”
“…”
I looked at her as if I was dumbfounded at that.
“You said you were subordinate to the tower, but you don’t know that either?”
“I have no choice but to know. It hasn’t been that long since I was in the tower too.”
“yes?”
“The original managers are also those who were once challengers.”
“…”
The iron blooded lord continued his explanation.
“I once went beyond the 20th floor, where integration with the other world takes place, and reached a fairly high place… but I still couldn’t reach the top of the tower. No, not just me, but all administrators died without reaching the end of the tower. That’s why I became a manager.”
I’ve been listening to the explanation all along, so to summarize:
After the 40th floor, the challenger gets the right to resurrect as a manager after dying.
And the current administrators are those who have died beyond the 40th floor.
“By the way, I went up to the 47th floor. what was the luck At that time, I met an opponent with a bad match and died in the unification ordeal.”
Finally, the iron-blooded monarch looked at me as if he understood
.
“So there’s no way to know the end of the tower, and we don’t even know what the tower is.”
The iron-blooded lord smiled bitterly.
“So this is all I can answer. As a manager, the only thing I can tell you is the facts I experienced as a challenger in my lifetime. I’m sure there’s very little that can answer questions now.”
There was little left to ask. I
can’t
believe that a manager is a challenger who died beyond the 40th floor .
It was then.
“Then, I think we should finish our private interviews soon.”
As if it was time to go back to the waiting room, the Iron Blood Lord said so.
“but.”
“…?”
“Before that, there is something I would like to suggest.”
“proposal…?”
“Yes, the manager is subordinate to the tower, but there are things he can do.”
After saying that, the iron-blooded lord opened his mouth with red eyes shining.
“I propose a contract for the challenger Han Seong-yoon’s apostleship.”
