◈ The 103rd top lord (2)
Just right. The reporter snapped her finger and immediately returned to the battlefield on the 49th floor. Topju started walking around for a bit.
On all sides, people fighting fiercely stood stiffly. For some reason, Top-joo looked at them with unimpressed eyes.
“It was a shock. Because my common sense is broken apart from what I can’t understand. Naturally, the nonsensical stories I heard from you came to mind. From then on, after resetting, I have been waiting for you.”
Then I stopped walking and looked back at Seo Ji-han.
“Do you know how much I have heard from you?”
“I heard everything from the fact that you were a pro gamer to the saying that this world is a virtual world called ‘game’ on Earth. Well, I think you called this place another world.”
“···okay. Now I know what you mean. How things turned out.”
Game, ‘The 103rd Tower.’
Recognizing that this world was a game on Earth, Top-ju started talking with Seo Ji-han from then on. So, while the reset was repeated, the bibliographers of the previous round who succeeded in reaching the top master continued to pass on their knowledge.
Seo Ji-han recalled the system that welcomed her when she first came to this world.
‘It was clearly stated as a ‘tutorial’.’
The system guided me slowly as to what to do first. And in addition to the ‘butterfly effect’, ‘privileges’ helped him survive in this world. Maybe it was the gift that the bibliographers of the previous episode left for themselves in the next episode.
“There is one thing I want to make sure of. So, did you create the ‘system’ for me?”
“no. And that’s something I don’t know.”
“What? Then the privileges and the system…. No, you know this too.”
Seo Ji-han looked at Top-ju’s expression and sighed.
This time, the expectation was wrong. In any media, this would have been a development that we left to ourselves in the next episode. I felt a strange disappointment.
“Whether it’s the system or ‘my own ending’, is that something that has nothing to do with me? I tried to find out who brought you for that, but I couldn’t figure it out. I wondered if there were other strangers like you, but there were none.”
“I really know everything. Now that I have nothing to explain, is it better?”
I didn’t know that I could rhyme until my own ending. If this happens, it is safe to say that Seo Ji-han has no more information to share.
Then a question popped into Seo Ji-han’s mind.
“for a moment. Then you could have helped me a little. Do you know how many times I almost died? With a little help, we could have made the situation better than it is now.”
From ‘Hard Mode’ to ‘Hell Mode’. In a worldview that was more arduous than the original, there was no room or choice. I always had to do my best to barely clear the scenario, so I couldn’t even dream of an ideal result.
It was clear that the situation could have been better if Top-joo had endured the erosion and helped even a little. But at those words, Topju shook his head.
“There have been a few times like that. But if you do, you are always dead in the beginning.”
“He’s dead…?”
“Scenario, ‘Attack of the Necromancer’.”
At that time, it was just the beginning. It was the first crisis in which two scenarios overlapped.
“Even after clearing ‘Suspicious Village’, he acted leisurely, but he was caught by the dead bodies raised by Arihan Hector and enjoyed it.”
“Okay. Maybe it’s not easy…”
“maybe? Since the concept of insurance was born, of course it is. Besides, you know I can’t intervene after that.”
Seo Ji-han had no choice but to reconcile her memories by looking back. It is the time when the erosion that descended with the disaster will attack the tower’s front lines in earnest. If the top lord intervened on the ground at that time, the erosion would accelerate further and would result in immediate destruction.
“As a result, you could only see me when you never had contact with me. Just like now.”
“How was everyone who met you?”
“Everyone was confused. Realizing that ‘my own ending’ was not cleared.”
When the ominous prediction came true, Seo Ji-han closed her eyes tightly. In the end, they did not clear the previous round. Even though Park Noah was raised and brought in, the conditions were not met.
“After talking to me, I went back and lived my life here until erosion destroyed the world, and I fought to the end. Well, he stood still and did not accept death.”
“Whoa. …for now, let me ask you, is the world not the end you want?”
Seo Ji-han sighed in frustration.
“Then I will reset this world as well.”
At least I could tell that this ending wasn’t what he wanted. Does resetting reset everything you’ve done so far? I felt a sense of emptiness, but I also felt a sense of relief and contradiction.
In the first place, Seo Ji-han is a stranger to return to.
It would be a good thing if the dead came back. Above all, there is a possibility that Seo Ji-han in the next round will produce better results than she is now.
‘······what?’
It was then that Seo Ji-han realized why they had told the truth to Top-joo even at the risk of death in the previous episode. He must have now recalled the same thing he was thinking.
‘haha. Did you invest this time and pass it on to me in the next round…?’
Investing in possibilities.
Seo Ji-han couldn’t help but smile bitterly. If it was me, it was my behavior.
“after. So when are you going to reset? Are you going to wait until you reach the 100th floor?”
For some reason, Topju shook his head. And he uttered shocking words.
“I don’t reset anymore. This is the last time.”
The word last was ominous. Serge Han was startled and asked the words he had heard.
“···last? What does that mean?”
“Literally.”
Topju smiled bitterly with a tired complexion. It was then that Seo Ji-han realized a sense of incongruity. That’s the difference from the playable characters I’ve developed so far.
Now it looks like it’s all boring. I’ve never made a face like that.
Top-ju looked around the frozen world. Just right. Each time you flick your finger, the standing background changes.
The meteor academy, the outside, the tower, the hell road, the temple, the black hawk, it was a familiar space where everyone stood still. The gaze of Tap-ju, who scanned the whole thing, seemed to be the last thing he remembered.
“I can’t do it anymore.”
If you play one game over and over again, you will eventually get bored.
“Are you going to give up?”
“uh. I forgot why I repeated this reset. I will finish it now.”
At least thousands of times, tens of thousands of laws. As I experienced it over and over again, my patience was worn out. The promise of not seeing a happy ending eventually faded.
‘···Then what will happen?’
This worldview is currently in unprecedented crisis. If I left this as it is…, I didn’t know what would happen. If you don’t reset it, you’ll have to attack the 103rd top stock in the end. Otherwise, the erosion will hit the ground and devour everything.
“Say no reset. So what do you plan to do next? People are coming up here to kill you, are you willing to die?”
“Hmm. die, what Isn’t it obvious anyway?”
Topju coughed and pretended. The target of the imitation was another self, ‘Park Noah’.
“Unbelievable. Was I actually the top owner? Who the hell am I!”
“I wonder if I was surprised by this nuance. I fight moderately, and when I die, it’s over. Now Park Noah will take over behind me, so I will take care of the rest.”
It’s not a fun play. When I didn’t say anything, Topju laughed.
“Or are you following me? You know the world as well as I do, Player.”
“That would be unreasonable.”
“okay. I thought so.”
Rather than saying it lightly, it was an attitude that already knew an answer would come.
“It must have been a question you’ve already asked me many times.”
“okay. Now you understand it well. But you need to know that. If Noah Park succeeds in my footsteps, will she be able to handle the rest of the work better than you?”
“No matter what you say, I have no intention of succeeding.”
“Hmm. What if people die here? As a player, I don’t feel any sense of guilt. If it were you, wouldn’t it be possible for everyone to have a happy ending?”
It sounds like a threat, but in the end it was self-help words.
I closed my eyes for a moment and thought. If I become a top owner and reset the world, will I be able to bring out a good ending?
‘There is a possibility.’
But anyway, it’s just a possibility. Having made that decision, I firmly shook my head.
“no. Nothing will change if I do it.”
“I may be successful someday, but I may forget my promise to see a happy ending before you. If that’s the case, the same thing will happen now, so it can’t be a fundamental solution, right?”
In response to my answer, Topju slowly shook her head. Contrary to the moment he had been forced to laugh, his expression had hardened before he knew it.
“I came down here as it was the last time, but in the end, there seems to be nothing else.”
“Top master. You know what I’m going to say to you, right?”
If you keep seeing me. Top-ju took his hand off his messy hair and looked at me. There was annoyance in those eyes.
“I will tell you not to give up. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard it.”
“Farewell, player. I’ll be waiting for you on the 100th floor.
Then, no matter what I say, I won’t be able to cheer him up. But there was still one thing left to try. I opened my mouth to confirm it.
Topju raised his hand at my cry. It was a gesture of attack if it bothered me more than this.
“Are you going to keep bothering me?”
“It’s important. Have I ever learned the magic of Ahat?”
“···no. As far as I can remember, this is the first time.”
That said, I may be the only one who has reached ‘my own ending’. I remembered the cracks in my room.
The only way to return to the original world.
‘If only I could get this guy out of the crack…?’
If that was possible, the ‘103rd Tower Master’ could have disappeared from this world without being inherited.
“you. If you could go to another world and get out of here, would you do it?”
“It’s not the best, but it’s the next best thing. It’s better than waiting for death and then repeating it again, right? Erosion is a property of being a tower owner, so if you go to Earth, the authority itself will disappear, and erosion will also disappear.”
To be honest, I don’t know if it’ll work or not. Still, it was enough to try to bring out the cooperation of Tapju.
Although the rift wasn’t ‘magic’.
There was no way I couldn’t understand the rules of this world. More than anything else, it means that if there is something unknown called ‘system’ that has called me into this world, it exists above Top Joo. It wasn’t impossible either.
“…I see something.”
There was a strange anticipation in the gaze of Top-ju, who said that. At the same time, it really meant that it was a last chance.
“Then players. bring the results I will be waiting for you on the 100th floor.”
“great. Oh, but before you go, turn this off and go.”
I pointed to my body. It’s a black flame that stays still.
Topju’s eyebrows twitched and flicked his fingers. Then the black flames wrapped around my body disappeared so easily.
“player. There is no more grace than this. This will be the last time I have a conversation with you.”
“okay. It will be awkward.”
Topju left those words and disappeared in an instant. At the same time, the stopped time begins to flow again.
“Get back!!!”
Loud noises were heard everywhere. The piercing noise paradoxically provided relief.
“Warrior. What have you done?”
The manager’s voice came from behind. It seemed to him that the black salt that had been swallowing up my body had disappeared without any warning.
I turned around slowly.
“A lot of things happened.”
First of all, I had to finish this.
