The Tower's Master (2)

If you're going to show me something, why show me such a ridiculous scene?

This guy was out here having dinner with his colleagues while, on my end, I had almost died.

I took my finger off of the (View) button and started to think to myself.

Dimension R-1354.

If that Choi Soo-hyun was the Choi Soo-hyun that I knew, then the chance was high that the dimension that would be used as a stage for this battle would be Kang Han-kyul's dimension.

'There are gods that use aliases here, too.'

There were Hunters that followed those gods.

If they killed monsters or cleared dungeons, they'd receive Merit Points. If you offered up your Merit Points to the god that you worshiped, you were able to use a proportional fraction of that god's power. 

This was what I'd heard during my Hunter's education.

"The god who has the most Merit Points on the day of the decisive battle will become this dimension's ruler."

But this was something that I'd never heard of when I was receiving my training.

I now understood why there were so many gods that hid their identities in this world.

I had no idea what happened here, but according to the system, it looked like I was also able to join the challenge to become the 'dimensional ruler'.

"Haha."

I pushed back my bangs that were matted with blood and smiled ruefully.

I'd gone around and around only to end up all the way here. But if I did well here, there was a chance that I could bring down the gods that brought me to this point.

Because they said I was qualified.

It's not like I was entering this competition illegally or anything.

And with that, I stopped worrying.

"Participate."

[Your registration has been completed.]

[You have been recognized as a new challenger.]

[Please enter your display name. You can only register your display name once. Your display name cannot be changed. Your choice of display name will not grant you any additional power.]

"Soter."

['Soter' has been registered as your display name.]

Those were all the notifications that I could see for now. I opened my status window.

[Kang Han-kyul (Soter)]

- The master of the 'Tower of Trials' dimension.

Job Title: Representative (5%)

Strength: C (1%)

Stamina: C (2%)

Mana: D (10%)

Healing: D (21%)

Merit Points: 480

Skills: <Guardian's Protection> <Soter's Divine Blessing>

The status window was definitely different from before, probably because I'd now gained an affiliation.

Right as I was about to close the status window, I saw another status window next to it. When I moved my hand to the side, the second status window popped up.

[Community (Soter)]

Job Title: Administrator

Notice Board:

- Empty Notice Board (0)

It seemed to be a space for communication between Hunters belonging to the same affiliation.

When I went in with my administrator privileges, I could set everything from the name of the notice board to the grade designation and the ranking of bulletin boards by grade. It'd been less than an hour since I'd made this, so of course there weren't any posts on it yet.

'The big-name gods must have huge communities.'

That was kind of like having access to inside information. As a latecomer, this was definitely a disadvantage for me.

[Soter]

Divine Name: * * * * *

Level: 1

Attribute: Darkness

Ranking: 15487th Place

Dimension: Tower of Trials

Cumulative Merit Points: 0

Followers: 0

Traits <Guardian's Protection> <Soter's Divine Blessing>

As soon as I opened my status window, I quickly hid the divine name.

'So embarrassing!'

Even though I was the only one who could access my status window, there were still things I myself didn't want to see.

A divine name can immediately tell you a god's disposition. There's no other name that fits me as much as that divine name, but that didn't mean I wanted to see it.

To me, that divine name was part of my black history.

[Dimension Management]

Name: Tower of Trials

Description: A dimension that has been neglected for a long time. It seems the owner has returned at last, but it looks like he lacks any form of conscience.

Dimension Conquest Rate: 0%

No information on this dimension.

"Isn't this description a little too much?"

It hurts my poor pitiful heart!

After swiping through all the status windows, I could finally see my surroundings clearly again.

* * *

I buried those four people in a small flower bed at the entrance to the tower.

Even if I were in my prime, bringing the dead back to life wasn't something I could do.

"Something feels off."

The time we'd spent together was only about a day in all, and I couldn't even say that these four dead people had been entirely friendly towards me.

I'm not such a soft person that I feel things like sympathy for my enemies, but I'm not so cold-hearted that I'd feel impassive towards the deaths of people that I'd been on the same side as for a while.

I cast my bitterness aside, and went to put my hand on the large door.

[The 'Tower of Trials' has recognized its owner.]

[Upon clearing a floor, you will become that floor's owner.]

[Entering the 1st Floor.]

[Goblin Village]

Floor Number: 1st Floor

Goal: Destroy the goblin village.

Rewards: 1st Floor Administrative Privileges

The dungeon information was a little different than before, but the layout was pretty much the same.

After closing the status window, I took a look around at my surroundings.

I was greeted with the familiar scenery of fields and forests. If I had to name a difference from last time, I could only say that this time, I was here alone, not in a group.

Outside of the forest, a goblin came into view.

"It's pretty similar to what I saw in the dungeon."

I quietly unsheathed the two daggers that were hanging at my waist.

* * *

[You have cleared the 1st Floor of the Tower of Trials]

[You have acquired administrative privileges to the 1st Floor as a reward.]

Since it was similar to the other dungeon named 'Gobin Village', clearing it went without a hitch.

"This is miserable."

Even if the level of difficulty was low, of course it was still hard for one person to do what was supposed to be the work of four people.

'Honestly, that was close.'

Now that the battle was over, I could tend to my body covered with wounds. After sheathing my daggers, my legs grew weak and I collapsed onto the ground.

[1st Floor]

You have obtained administrative privileges.

Administrator: Kang Han-kyul

Other settings are available.

When I went to check, there were various other settings including the difficulty setting.

"I can't be bothered with this right now."

It really felt like I had become the administrator of a game. After drinking a small recovery potion, I prepared to leave the 1st floor.

It was right at that moment.

"Is someone there?"

Sensing a strange presence, I looked around. After becoming the admin of the 1st Floor, I had gotten rid of all the goblin corpses.

'So there should be no one on this floor but me.'

Even though I'd sensed a presence, I hadn't gotten the feeling that they were nearby.

'At the outskirts of the forest maybe?'

Even after opening the map, I couldn't find anything. 

"Is it a ghost? Ah, I don't really like ghosts."

This wasn't a joke, I really felt uneasy about ghosts.

After closing the map, I headed towards where I had felt the presence. When I found myself in an empty open space, I saw a stranger.

'They look young.'

The boy was leaning against a tree, trembling while staring at the goblin corpse fallen in front of him. From the fact that he was covered with dirt and had cuts all over his body, you could tell how fiercely he had fought to kill just the one goblin.

That terrified face was one of a boy who had killed a living thing for the first time in his life.

As I got closer to him, I realized that what he was wearing was a school uniform. It was in a style that I'd never seen before, but I thought that this was the kind of school uniform you'd often see in Korea. And from his appearance, he looked like a Korean person as well.

'I should've erased all the goblins here.'

I had no idea what had happened. 

Covered in tears and snot, the boy mumbled as he spit out all kinds of curses.

"...Bastards, those fucking bastards. Piece of shit. Urk—"

While looking at the corpse, he turned and retched out everything that was in his body again. At the sight of him, I thought of what it was like when I first shifted dimensions.

After killing my first goblin in the Devil's Forest, I spent over a week alternating between crying and throwing up.

In retrospect, at the time, I didn't even have any survival skills, so it would've been easy for me to have fallen prey to some monster. I was lucky to have survived.

In his terrified panic, the boy didn't even notice that I'd approached him. I started to talk to him.

[Hello there, are you alright?]

"Ah, AHHHH!! Who's there! Ahhh!!"

He screamed so loudly that I was almost scared to continue speaking. With his back still against the tree, he looked wildly around in all directions before running towards the goblin's corpse.

When he got there, he frantically pulled out the dagger that was stuck in the goblin's chest. After falling on his behind when the blood sprayed out from the goblin's body, he grasped the dagger and ran back to the tree.

"Who, who are you? Where are you?! Where are you?! Come out!"

Sitting with his back against the tree, he screamed aloud as he swung his dagger out in front of him.

It was nowhere close to the right direction. Is he insane?

I walked half a turn around the tree and approached him from the front. He was wearing a school uniform, so it'd be fine to speak to him informally.

[In front of you.]

At my response, his face went white. He opened his mouth and spoke in a trembling voice.

"D-Don't lie!! Where are you?!"

[I'm really in front of you.]

"Don't play games with me!"

He thrust out his dagger in my direction. I wasn't in the mood to just stand there and get stabbed, so I moved slightly out of the way and held out my hand in order to grab his arm after the attack had missed.

At that moment, my hand brushed straight through his.

[What?]

"M-My hand, just now… Wh-What just happened?!"

Startled by my muttering, the boy dropped his dagger to the ground.

He quickly tried to pick up the fallen dagger, but his hands were shaking so much that he kept dropping it. I saw that even his hand had been injured, and I shook my head.

'No matter what I do, it doesn't seem like he can see me.'

At first, I thought that this guy was just a memory that resided inside the tower. 

At the moment, this tower was broken. An entire dimension being in a state of disrepair was far from the level of a broken-down machine. Among other things, warping of time and space were possible errors that could occur. With that in mind, it wasn't impossible that someone who entered the tower in the past would be able to meet me in the present.

'What exactly happened here?'

No matter how I looked at it, the boy in front of my eyes seemed like just a typical Korean high school student. I couldn't help but wonder how a kid like him came to be trapped in this tower.

While I kept my mouth shut, the boy spoke after looking around at his surroundings.

"Who the hell are you? Wh-Where are you?"

As he spoke these words aloud while looking in the completely wrong direction, I became sure of it… Right now, this guy couldn't see me at all.