Chapter 43: Tower 2

Hansoo who had sent off Sangjin looked at the tower in the distance as he got lost in thought.

'It's seems like I will need to play hide and seek. He's a real talent huh.'

Hansoo clicked his tongue.

They could choose because the structure of the tower was unique.

To either move in small groups or in large groups.

And a fitting difficulty and reward is prepared from that.

Normal clan lords would try to move by combining all their forces.

Since they had done so until now and since it was safer this way.

But this guy was different.

<there isn't enough time for us to kill off everyone else by moving around in a big group. separate and move with a mindset of killing 10 people per one person. monopolize the chances that would be given to 10 people and then take the runes from those corpses.>

With such thoughts he splits up his clansmen and then mixes them in between other adventurers.

A method that was possible because he was confident in each individual member's abilities and because they could communicate with each other no matter where they were in the tower.

It would actually be eye catching if they were to move in groups but moving in small killer squads allowed them for them to pretend they're normal adventurers between other people and then wipe them off during decisive moments.

People who had died from the Dark Mad Lord's small killer squads had numbered over a thousand in the past and these killer squads had monopolized around 1000 people's worth of artifacts and runes and had reached a point where they could openly massacre people and no one could do anything to them.

Since they were all separated he had to find and kill them off one by one as he climbed.

There was no need to look out for his image because he had transformed himself, but he hadn't done this to just kill normal adventurers to turn them into runes.

He had changed in order to get as close as he could to the Dark Mad Lord, who knows of his appearance, to cut off his neck in a single swipe.

'It won't take that long.'

Hansoo thought of this and that and laughed coldly as he slowly walked towards the tower.

After a long walk the people inside the Tower greeted Hansoo.

"A newcomer has come. I'm called Suhan. What about you?"

Hansoo made a befuddled expression at the words of the man in the front.

'Ah. I have to choose a name.'

Since he was a different person he had to make a separate name.

Since he wasn't Kang Hansoo anymore.

Hansoo laughed as he spoke his name.

"My name is..."

.....................

"Is that the tower..."

Chulman frowned as he looked at the giant tower in the distance.

How hard had it been getting to this point.

Chulman looked around him cautiously as he walked.

At the same time he glanced at the giant tower in front of his eyes.

Giant Tower.

Many entrances existed in all directions but not many differences could be seen.

'... Do I just need to go in?'

Chulam chose one of them and then headed in carefully.

The passageway was long which was befitting of the giant tower.

As he followed the tunnel in, a giant circular plaza came out.

'...This is?'

Chulman checked his surroundings instinctively.

Hundreds of entrances had surrounded the plaza and a few of them already had closed doors.

And above the entrance there were various numbers.

Some said 1 and others said 50.

Some big ones even said 80.

Similarities between them was that to the inside of the entrance was not a passageway but rather a small room.

'What is this...'

But that wasn't the only peculiar part.

People who had grouped up in the corner.

'9 people.'

It was only 9 but he couldn't let his guards drop.

Whilst Chulman was on guard the guy in the very front spoke out as he looked at him.

"Don't be so anxious. We're meeting each other for the first time here too."

"...?"

The others couldn't drop their guards but had their curiosity perked at these words.

What was the reason for 9 strangers to group up.

And the fact that 9 people were mixed into the group was also strange.

"Why are you gathered so?"

The man who was standing in the front, Suhan, replied at Chulman's words.

"I'm called Suhan, well... since you're alone I can guess to some extent. There's really nobody you can trust huh?"

Chulman frowned at these words.

Correct.

He had felt this while going up the other islands.

That there was really nobody he could trust.

No, this damnable fairy had made it so.

He didn't resent it.

They only had one life, who in the world would give up their life for somebody else.

Since he was like that too.

Suhan smiled as he looked at Chulman.

"But what do we do. It seems we have to group up again no matter what. You're the tenth person. It said we needed one more person."

"?"

While Chulman was making a confused expression, the fairy appeared in the sky.

"I welcome you to the tower. Heehee. This is a land of opportunity. Of course everywhere in the tutorial is like that but this place is even more so."

And at that moment a small map had appeared within Chulman's hands.

'This is...'

Information about the hundreds of doors nearby was written on it.

<2 man room: arunan's crown, kokulka's elixir> (Closed)

...

<9 man room: seven stripe cape, karun's doll...>(Closed)

<10 man room: roropin's sharp hook, circlet of kiladerape...>

...

<47 man room: kelpin's sub equipment, sword of akin...>

...

<80 man room: divine wrath, sword of lightning...>(Closed)

<80 man room: king's sword...>(Closed)

By pressing it he could even read descriptions about the options on these.

'... King's Sword? Diving Wrath? They even give this? Isn't this a bit too much.'

While Chuman made a flustered expression the fairy smiled as it spoke.

"This is a friendly care for you guys. You've seen instances of people moving in large groups in the islands below right?"

Chulman nodded his head.

'Damn... that's really out of the norm. How do you want us to go against such things.'

Clan Lord.

Their psychic power was fascinating itself but it was also very superior.

50 to 100 people moved about in groups, how did they expect them to win against that.

He had gone through two islands on the way here and one of them had a Lord on the island.

It was an island that could hold 100 people but the whole time while he was there the island was basically controlled by the Lord who lead 50 people.

"I was watching from above but phew. How would the people traveling alone live from such sorrows? So we prepared this for you. This way you won't be in a disadvantage because you lack numbers right?"

He realized it then.

What the 2 Man Room and 3 Man Rooms meant.

A game which could be played with 2 people, a game which could be played with 3 people.

'Clearly... if you were to do this then the chances of going against clans go down substantially.'

It seemed like large rooms such as 80 Man Rooms were rooms that clans had targeted and entered.

Since it was that dangerous but had enormous rewards to go with it.

The 2 Man Rooms or 3 Man Rooms seemed like they were all closed due to people coming ahead but rooms such as 10 man rooms were still left.

'This is what they meant when they said when they were waiting for me.'

They wanted to go into the 10 Man Room but they couldn't because 1 was lacking.

But Chulman looked at the fairy with an extremely suspicious expression.

'These flies are friendly huh?'

How could they be.

But at that moment he heard Suhan's voice calling at him.

"There's no point of pondering over it. Since the lowest one right now is the 10 man Room."

"..."

As if the people ahead of them had similar thoughts, all the 2 Man to 9 Man Rooms were long closed.

'Well... Since they could enter by gathering for a small time it would've been filled up quickly.'

He was alone.

The 10 Man Room was the least burdensome.

If he missed this chance and were to enter a 11 Man Room with a group of 3-4 people then it would be extremely hard on him.

'There's no way that it wouldn't have set something up.'

Chulman nodded his head as he went into the room which had <10> written on the entrance along with the nine people.

As 10 people got into the room the doors made a grinding noise as they closed.

Kuguguguuung.

And soon the small room with 10 people moved about aggressively as it started to dig deep into the tower.

........................

Kyaaaaak!

Kudududk.

Chulman cut off the neck of the Beast which was charging at him.

The beast which had the shape of a red ant spat out a rune after having its head cut off by Chulman's black medium sized Greatsword.

'Let's see. Did he say we should get the things from whatever we killed ourselves?'

He didn't drop his guard against the nine of them even whilst he was hunting.

At the same time he was inspecting them the whole time.

'First... it seems like these guys know how to play as a team.'

Maybe it was because they were cautious of each other or they had decided that it wasn't the time for them to fight each other but a clear rule was set between the 10 of them.

The two basic rules which said that they had to fight in the front and distribution of runes and artifacts were according to their contributions.

'As I expected... there's a difference in levels.'

The three which were composed of two men including Suhan and a female were really strong.

Since it looked like the 7 others could not beat these three.

'That guy called Youngjae is strong too...'

The four including himself were at a decent level.

There were three of them who were weaker than him.

'Thankfully there isn't anyone who wants to take over because they're strong... and the girls are fighting well too.'

Being a female did not mean they were weak.

No, the fact that their poisonous aura could be felt at every swing of their sword showed how hard it was to get to this point.

But then a thought came up in Chulman's head.

'... This is too simple.'

Of course he didn't mean the difficulty itself was hard.

Since if it was that easy then it wouldn't have taken them a while day to get here.

Just like the name of the 10 Man Room, the difficulty was set so 10 people needed to work well with each other in order to clear it.

It would've been hard on them if they had 8 or 9.

The difficulty played a huge role to the fact that they were all keeping by the rules while advancing forward.

If it was too hard or too easy then the relationship between the people would be much worse than it is now.

Since a person would have separate thoughts when they were in dire situations or had leisure.

But because of this they felt much more at ease.

'The fairy didn't set anything up?'

While Chulman was surprised Suhan swung his sword while shouting energetically.

"It seems like all ten of us could survive this way? Let's stay strong!"

Chulman nodded at these words.

'Yeah. Let's first focus on advancing forward.'

Who would enjoy killing and stealing things from them.

If they could combine their forces then doing so was the best.

They would all become zealous since their lives were on stake.

And have their own circumstances.

Just like him.

'Damn... I'm not sure if I can find Suhee.'

Chulman grinded his teeth.

He had to survive and find his daughter who he had separated from during the ticket stealing wars.

His daugher Suhee and him, the two of them weren't strong enough to gather three ticket so they had to get a third random member and go up with three tickets.

Since they would've lost their tickets and died there if they had remained a bit longer.

It had been a month since he had been separated with Suhee.

Insecurities rose up from deep within but he couldn't do anything.

He could only search fervently.

Swinging the sword about crazily, the location of their goals could be seen.

A clearly different place in comparison to the jungle-like environment around them.

Chulman sighed a breath of relief.

"It seems like we're almost there, Old man."

Chulman looked to the side towards where the voice came from.

A girl who was swinging the sword diligently besides him.

One of the three weakest people.

'Did she say she was Minhee. Hoo...Suhee is just about that age too.'

Chulman sighed.

Because thoughts of Suhee sprang up again by looking at her.

"Yeah. But it's good because evil people don't exist here."

Minhee shook her head as she spoke.

"You don't know by looking at them from the outside."

"..."

Chulman grinded his teeth.

It was just as she said.

There might be somebody who was looking for a decisive moment.

'And... will it finish like this?'

There might not be any evil people.

But when a situation changes, the people turning evil wasn't even a big deal.

Chulman, who had been lost in thought, flinched as he looked at the location where they had arrived at.

'... There isn't just one door.'

The doors which were laid in front of them weren't just one.

Exactly 10 doors for 10 people.

'This doesn't feel good.'

Chulman and the others frowned.</10></80></80></47></10></9></2></there>