This eyeball interfered in the duel. Assuming that this was the Queen, the mysterious conversation that followed made sense.
—Child, will you follow me?
The Queen came all the way here to win over new challengers.
—…W-Who are you?
—Don’t you know who I am?
Judging from the situation, she must have approached before and got rejected. The choice couldn’t be the same as before.
—Nod your head once. Then I will give you a new life and strength.
It must be different from before.
—It’s time to choose. Whether to remain a slave whose soul has been taken away or move toward a new world with me.
At the crossroads of life and death, the Queen made the challenger choose. In Yoon-seok’s view, the decision might as well be set. Indeed, it was just the same as making a deal with the devil. To stay longer was an alluring proposal to anyone.
「10 seconds until the initialization of dimensional firewall.」
「9 seconds until the initialization of dimensional firewall.」
「8 seconds until the initialization of dimensional firewall.」
The countdown began to announce the Tower’s countermeasure. Maybe the Queen would disappear after that, but that time limit must be visible to their eyes as well.
’Shit.’
Sorting out the situation and looking at his opponent’s jaw slowly going down, Yoon-seok realized what he had to do right now. It didn’t matter whether it was training time or not.
’I have to kill her.’
Kill her before she nods and expresses her consent. Get rid of her.
Whik-!
Just as he made up his mind, Yoon-seok’s sword flashed. However, did that eye have functions other than looking and speaking?
Tuk.
Before his blade reached her neck, something transparent blocked the way. Of course, due to breaking something that can’t be broken, it couldn’t last forever. But…
Whoosh-!
After that moment, the dying woman was no longer in front of him. Only blood-stained soil remained as she completely disappeared.
—You’re still always in a rush.
Yoon-seok turned to look at the floating eye. Was it because her tone sounded like she was reprimanding a child? It was annoying.
“What do you know about me?”
—Calm down. You don’t have to be in a hurry. You’ve been doing a good job so far.
Doing a good job… hearing that face-to-face, it felt like he was her puppet.
“I’ll find you and kill you no matter what. Let’s see if you can still say the same thing.”
However, was this declaration of war absurd? The Queen only let out a pleasant laugh.
—Huhu. That wouldn’t be bad either. I’ll look forward to it, the day you stand in front of me.
“…”
Yoon-seok grew quiet. Instead of speaking, he clenched his fist and teeth. It probably wouldn’t take long. Once he left this duel, that would be next.
—It’s near. The end of this long story.
Her presence disappeared from the stadium with that murmur. Yoon-seok sighed as he saw the message appear.
「Dimensional firewall has been initialized.」
Goodness, it should’ve come faster. What’s the point of fixing the fence when the thief has already left with all the valuables?
He was left in the empty arena. The victory notification had yet to appear. It must be taking some time because this error was still being handled.
“Seriously, is there anything you guys can do? You can’t even stop this.”
Yoon-seok looked up the sky and complained. Although no one was around… they should be listening.
“There’s no excuse for this. I feel sorry for you.”
“Can she just barge in here like this?”
“It’s usually impossible, but it’s a special situation.”
As soon as he complained about the Tower, the first admin appeared. Like he was in charge of the customer service center.
“If you knew that, why didn’t you come faster and block it?”
“…Even if it’s just a special circumstance, it’s too dangerous to face her in person.”
Whatever the details, that explanation made one thing clear.
“Ah, you can’t come because you were too busy taking care of yourself?”
It wasn’t that they couldn’t come before it was all over, but they didn’t. Was the Queen that scary? For them to tremble and hide when the Queen was wrecking their front yard.
When Yoon-seok looked at him as if he were pathetic, the man let out a long sigh.
“I understand what you’re feeling, but why don’t you stop being sarcastic? That won’t benefit you.”
That’s true. There was nothing to gain. However, it was a little ridiculous to hear him say that, and it wasn’t like Yoon-seok was threatening him.
’Yeah, this is what these bastards are like.’
In the end, a challenger was just a tool to the Tower. Yoon-seok knew this fact better than anyone else. So it would be wise to use what he could rather than waste his emotions in useless places.
“So what’s the reward for the duel? There must be a problem since it hasn’t ended yet.”
Due to external intervention, his opponent disappeared. He wasn’t going to tell Yoon-seok he wasn’t receiving a reward, was he?
“Don’t worry about that. You will be compensated properly.”
“What about b Voracity}? That’s going to work, too, right?”
“…I’ll try to make that part normal somehow.”
“Somehow, it’s kind of suspicious… but I understand. How much longer do we have to wait?
“That… I don’t know.”
The man hung his head. In the end, though he came out as the person in charge, the final decision-maker was someone else.
“Please wait a little more.”
“Alright. Can I ask you a few questions while we wait?”
“You’re really…”
Yoon-seok proudly straightened his shoulders, and he looked at the man as if it was a justifiable request. Did it work?
“…Sure. What are you curious about?”
“What’s your name?”
“…Name?
“Yes. It’s kind of weird to ask now, but I didn’t hear your name properly then.”
Perhaps it was an unexpected question, but the man, who paused for a while, answered reluctantly.
“Hetin Ezomere. I’m telling you in advance because you might be curious, but my birthplace is a dimension you don’t know. Right now… it’s gone. Ezomere is long, so call me Hetin.”
“…I will.”
So he was weak to shameless retorts. Gaining new information about Hetin, the first admin, Yoon-seok, smiled.
“Hetin, I have a question.”
“…It’s strange for my name to be called. Can’t you just address me like you normally do?”
“Normally?”
“Don’t you people have that tone? Or just call me ‘you trash’ like when you’re angry…”
“I know your name. Why should we go through that again?”
Brushing off Hetin’s request, Yoon-seok naturally brought up his question.
“Anyway, when we met in Cheonma-dong, didn’t you say this was a twisted round?”
“I remember saying that.”
“What did you mean by that?”
At that time, Cheon-ma was the priority, but he was curious after they parted ways.
Twisted round. He could understand the word round because Yoon-seok knew there were many parallel worlds, but what did he mean by twisted?
“Are you asking because you don’t know?”
“Your tone is weird. Would I ask if I knew?”
“Let’s reflect on what you’ve been doing. Things that challengers can’t and shouldn’t do. Didn’t you do all those things?
Hmm, was that so? Yoon-seok didn’t know.
“I guess I was a bit calmer in another dimension.”
Yoon-seok decided to dismiss it and move on, but unfortunately, the other didn’t agree.
“Calm? You’re unusual.”
“For example?”
“There’s no need to go back far. When you broke the wall and arrived at the entrance, do you know how surprised we were back…”
Hetin, who tried to provide a specific example to Yoon-seok’s question, closed his mouth. Without missing that moment, Yoon-seok’s eyes began to shine.
“Entrance? No wonder it’s being protected by the system, so it does lead somewhere.”
“…”
No reply. His expression was normal, but now his mouth was stiff as if he had been swept away by the atmosphere and made a mistake.
“Where does it lead to?”
“…”
“The place the spirit keeper called a cemetery. Is it there?”
“…”
Hetin remained silent. And as usual, that silence was a good answer.
’As expected, so that was the entrance.’
Yoon-seok smiled, convinced that his guess was correct.
And it was then.
「Victory.」
When the phrase appeared before his eyes.
“I guess your Q&A ends here.”
“Unlike before, you’re quick on your feet.”
“Unlike before, you look disappointed.”
“Do I look like that?”
If so, it would be an illusion since he got very important information through this brief conversation.
Hetin sighed loudly again. However, perhaps he wasn’t the type to dwell on past feelings, as he changed the subject immediately.
“Are you thinking of going there right away?”
“I should. I can’t wait any longer.”
“I see.”
The keywords were missing, but the conversation made sense. They knew each other too well now.
“Then I wish you luck.”
Hetin disappeared. And from this point on, the waiting messages flooded in.
「40,000,000 AP will be paid as a reward.」
「Unique Skill b Voracity} will be activated.」
「You will earn half of your duel opponent’s total score.」
「92,000,000 AP is obtained.」
「Move to the waiting room on the 25th floor.」
25th floor. After all this, he finally arrived here. However, feeling strange for a moment, Yoon-seok smiled at the next message that appeared.
「Please prepare for the next duel.」
The stage for the final duel would not be held here but somewhere else.
「96:59:57 until the next duel.」
Returning to the waiting room, Yoon-seok checked the timer first.
“Ninety-six hours…”
It was different from before when months were given between duels. The next battle would be held three days later.
’…This is nothing like what Su-yeon said.’
Why did this change occur?
After thinking for a while, he quickly realized the reason. The Tower didn’t have that much time either. The Queen’s invasion started a month ago.
“We won’t have time to make many preparations.”
However, Yoon-seok had another matter to check first. Only about 150 rankers could make it to the 26th floor.
’Did everyone make it out alive…?’
Even if Yoon-seok had the confidence to go up several floors, he didn’t know what it would be like for his other colleagues. If those he barely gathered died, the damage would be enormous.
“…”
Yoon-seok nervously approached the tablet.
He regained his breath and confirmed their survival one by one through the ranking board. Cheon-ma, Lee Su-yeon, the King of Steel, Lavan, Sharon, Shama Liu, and even Eltas who had the lowest chance of survival…
‘Fortunately, seeing that all of them are alive, they didn’t go up against each other.’
Yoon-seok, who confirmed the names of all his colleagues, breathed out in relief. He was lucky that no one was left behind, to the point where he suspected the Tower secretly helped them from behind the scenes.
‘Still, it’s because they’re the ones who want the Queen dead.’
Yoon-seok, who finished checking the ranking board, swiped his tablet to check his points. Following the 130 million APs obtained from the duel added to his remaining sum, many points were sitting there. It was funny.
It felt like it was just yesterday he was contemplating whether to buy a 1,500 AP sword. He couldn’t believe he was now spending billions of points.
“Is this the end?”
Looking around the waiting room while recalling the past for a minute, Yoon-seok dismissed those thoughts and opened the store page.
「 Your purchase has arrived.」
「 Your purchase has arrived.」
「 Your purchase has arrived.」
「 Your purchase has arrived.」
It was time to start his last maintenance before the showdown.
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