Chapter 39: Rapid Changes on Earth (4)

 

My plan to infinitely consume pills may have failed... but that’s okay.

 

The pill hasn’t disappeared. I can always give it to a Player later to win their favor.

 

Or I could give it to Choi Ji-won.

 

I haven’t suffered any loss. My pill is safe, and my Strength stat has increased by a whopping 10 points.

 

Thinking you’ve lost when you’ve simply gained less is a bottomless pit.

 

“Um... So what’s the next experiment?”

 

My initial plan may have failed, but I had a Plan B ready.

 

Namely, utilizing the convenience of the first floor.

 

The first floor is a place where anything can happen, where you can obtain anything you want.

 

The downside is that anything created on the first floor won’t persist outside of it... but what if the item doesn’t need to be taken outside?

 

“Shaolin Temple’s Great Restoration Pill.”

 

I imagined the greatest elixir of the martial arts world, the Shaolin Temple’s Great Restoration Pill, which increases your inner energy just by eating it.

 

“...”

 

But no matter how hard I tried to imagine, nothing appeared on my palm.

 

I hadn’t exactly bet on this working... but it’s a bit disappointing nonetheless.

 

Then what about a book instead of an elixir?

 

“...Heavenly Demon’s Divine Skill Manual.”

 

I imagined the ultimate martial arts manual I knew of. Whenever I read martial arts novels, Heavenly Demon always came up as the strongest.

 

“Oh?!”

 

Suddenly, an old book materialized in my hand.

 

This is it... the ultimate martial art that, once mastered, allows one to subjugate the world. A martial art that could demolish everything, tower and all!

 

“...What?”

 

However, upon reading it, I found that the contents were nothing more than hot air.

 

There was no information about martial arts—only seemingly profound insights filled the pages. Upon closer examination, it was just a poor compilation of lines I’d read in web novels.

 

“...Does He not recognize martial arts? Is he a Christian God?”

 

So this time, I imagined a ‘legendary swordsmanship manual only direct descendants of the Huang Royal family can learn.’ But just like the Heavenly Demon’s manual, the content was a random mishmash of characters.

 

Yeah, this confirms that easy shortcuts like this won’t work.

 

“Um... this time, organize the swordsmanship techniques that Choi Ji-won taught me into a book.”

 

When I imagined the swordsmanship of Choi Ji-won, which I relatively well understood, a proper book materialized.

 

Everything I had learned from Choi Ji-won was neatly organized in it. Even a layman could grasp the basics of the sword just by reading this book, or so I felt.

 

It seemed like if I were to create a manual, it had to be based on something I knew well.

 

Of course, since it was content I already knew, there was no need to read the manual again, and it was not something I could show to others. So… It seemed useless.

 

“Huh?”

 

Wait, could this actually work?

 

“...Berserker’s Pill.”

 

I imagined the elixir in my right-hand duplicating.

 

Then, a second Berserker’s Pill materialized in my left hand.

 

“...Aha.”

 

It seems the restriction on consuming duplicate unique items was likely to guard against the creation capabilities of the first floor.

 

After all, the items from the tower could also be created, not just items that exist in the real world.

 

Now that I think about it, the idea of keeping regressors in check didn’t make much sense; It’s not like there were regressors other than me.

 

“There are two main possibilities… “

 

First, I can create items that I have ‘seen’ once.

 

Second, I can create items that I possess.

 

“Berserker’s Ax.”

 

But judging from the fact that the ax the angel showed me didn’t appear, it seemed that only items I currently possess could be duplicated.

 

I’ll need to conduct more experiments to know for sure... but this much is already a significant gain.

 

If I could just get my hands on some performance-enhancing drugs or buff items, I could go full-throttle at the start of each floor.

 

“Well, that’s enough for items...”

 

My surrounding space, which used to look like a one-room apartment, began to warp and slowly transformed into a white, lab-like setting.

 

This was the training space I had imagined.

 

Thanks to the first-floor feature, where almost anything that modern technology could feasibly achieve is possible, the space was designed for various types of practical training.

 

What I needed to do was simple.

 

Slash well, dodge well, and practice to always be cautious.

 

At first, I thought about consulting outside experts, but I soon realized that it was meaningless.

 

My combat style, where even a graze meant regression, had to be different from others.

 

The goal must be to not take even a single hit and to subdue the opponent.

 

On top of that, my strength stat had increased by 10.

 

I couldn’t afford any mistakes, like injuring myself because I couldn’t control my strength.

 

“...Phew.”

 

Shall I get started?

 

.

.

.

 

After completing the training to my satisfaction, I opened the ‘Guidebook’ for the first time in a while.

 

I had only read the initial parts, never touching the latter sections.

 

Because my life for the past two months consisted of watching YouTube, playing games, eating chicken, pizza, and jjajangmyeon, and watching the news, I hadn’t paid much attention to the tower’s rules.

 

But now, it was time to ascend to the second floor. It would be only right to read the rules thoroughly once.

 

I flipped through the pages to the section labeled ‘Basic Rules of the Tower.’

 

3. Curious About the Basic Rules of the Tower?

 

The Tower is a miraculous creation formed through the united efforts of various archangels! We angels believe in the potential of humanity. We sincerely hope that the climbers will prove the value of humankind and gain the approval of God. From now on, you climbers will be challenging the limits of humanity. Sometimes it may be easy; sometimes it may be hard. You may even doubt, thinking, ‘Is this really the right way to judge humanity?’ For those of you who feel this way, I will now elaborate in detail! And accurately! about the intentions behind the Tower’s design! First of all…

 

“Seriously?”

 

This part was really the longest in the guidebook. Even skimming through it, the pages just seemed to go on and on.

 

Cutting through the pointless chatter, the essential content was...

 

1. Different archangels oversee every five floors of the Tower. Consequently, the atmosphere and the stage concepts also vary slightly. The archangels change in this manner: from the 1st to the 5th floor, then from the 6th to the 10th, and so on.

 

2. Upon clearing each floor, you return to the 1st floor. However, if multiple floors are connected, you must clear all of them before you can go to the 1st floor and rest.

 

3. Some floors allow entry at any time, just like the 1st floor.

 

4. Since it’s a floor-by-floor progression, one must adapt accordingly.

 

That’s the gist of it.

 

In reality, this was also the core information, and the rest was simply dressed-up excuses. The person who wrote the guidebook likely recognized how capricious this Tower is.

 

It’s clear that God is incredibly lazy: They wanted to bring about human extinction but left the task to the angels.

 

“...Hmm.”

 

I pressed down between my eyebrows and reread the guidebook’s contents.

 

The noteworthy point here is the fact that upon clearing each floor, you return to the 1st floor.

 

Why is that important? Because my point of regression is the ‘moment of entering each floor for the first time.’

 

Even if I clear the 2nd floor and return to the 1st, if I regress, I’ll start again from the 2nd floor.

 

It means I have to be cautious with the timeline. Once I enter the 2nd floor, I need to plan out my path up until the moment I enter the 3rd floor.

 

“Well, then...”

 

I’ve pretty much prepared for everything. Now it’s time to enter the 2nd floor.

 

Urgh.

 

I bit down hard on my cheek with my teeth.

 

It was quite challenging to overcome the discomfort... but it got easier with repetition.

 

There will come a day when I’ll urgently need to regress. This is my secret weapon for that occasion.

 

 

 

***

 

“Whew...”

 

Right before entering the 2nd floor, I withdrew all the money in my account, leaving only the bare essentials, and invested it in cryptocurrency—with a whopping 10x leverage.

 

The cryptocurrency I bet my entire fortune on was called “Mighty Coin.”

 

It would skyrocket in two weeks, and the reason was simple.

 

The nickname of the president of the U.S. Players Association was “Mighty Michael.” The coin soared simply because the adjective was the same.

 

It was an absurdly idiotic reason, but since that’s just the nature of the crypto world, I decided to go with it.

 

What mattered was the possibility of amassing wealth in the real world.

 

I didn’t urgently need money now, but there were no guarantees for the future.

 

It would be a crime not to utilize my foreknowledge.

 

“My physical condition is... good. My mental state is fine. I haven’t lost much time.”

 

I must’ve bought the crypto pretty fast because not much time had passed since I regressed. It’s almost as if I was going in right away.

 

After a quick condition check, I envisioned the portal leading to the 2nd floor.

 

Woosh.

 

A portal materialized out of thin air.

 

“...Shall we?”

 

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the portal.

 

It’s said that the survival rate is high... let’s see if that’s true.

– – – End of Chapter – – -

 

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