My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 02

========== CHAPTER 2 ==========

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.

In my past life, that sky had a black tower embedded like a scar, mocking humanity. But the current sky was just dazzlingly blue.

Go Gyeol stared up at that clear void without even blinking, then soon moved on.

His destination was a small church in the XX Parish. It was a cozy space that would be packed if about fifty people entered. As he opened the heavy door and stepped inside, light passing through the stained glass was pouring holily onto the altar. Under that light, a man was kneeling, praying earnestly.

Go Gyeol approached without a sound, knelt beside him, and awkwardly clasped his hands together.

“Believer-nim. You must make the sign of the cross first.”

It was a soft, low voice, as if it could forgive all the sins in the world.

When Go Gyeol raised his hand and then hesitated, the priest whispered with his eyes closed.

“Forehead, chest, left shoulder, and then right shoulder, in that order.”

When he clumsily made the sign of the cross as instructed, the question followed.

“What have you come to pray for?”

“For the peace of humanity.”

At Go Gyeol’s answer, the priest finally opened his eyes and looked back at him. A gentle smile hung on his lips.

“You are a crazy bastard.”

“…That doesn’t seem like something a member of the clergy should say.”

“How could it be a sin to tell the truth to a real crazy bastard?”

The priest tapped Go Gyeol’s shoulder and stood up. The black cassock, the priest’s uniform, brushed against the floor with a sarak sound. Go Gyeol also rose to his feet and followed behind him.

The path to the small quarters where the priest stayed, behind the church, was a neatly kept garden. As soon as they entered the quarters, the atmosphere around the man changed 180 degrees along with the sound of the door closing.

“Cut the crap and get to the point. What is it?”

The soft tone and polite speech from just a moment ago were nowhere to be found. He, who was sitting sloppily on the sofa and straightening his cassock, was no longer the priest Lee Seong-ha, but the Lee Seong-ha that Go Gyeol knew.

Go Gyeol took the tea he poured and met his gaze, which was staring intently at him.

“I regressed.”

Silence flowed for a moment.

Lee Seong-ha reached out and touched Go Gyeol’s forehead.

“You don’t have a fever. Did this bastard really lose his mind?”

“Get off.”

Go Gyeol nervously swatted his hand away.

“I believed the bullshit you spouted, but you can’t believe me?”

“Hey! You have to say something that makes sense for me to believe it! Would you believe that if it were you?”

“Is it any less realistic than the time Jesus suddenly appeared and gave you a revelation saying, ‘It is your fate to become a priest. Quit everything and become a priest’?”

“…….”

Lee Seong-ha snorted as if he were dumbfounded. Go Gyeol let out a deep sigh and hardened his expression.

“Lee Seong-ha. I’m not joking right now. I really, truly regressed.”

“What is the reason you’re so sure you regressed? Isn’t it just a severe case of déjà vu?”

At those words, Go Gyeol took his phone out of his pocket. The letters [PM 04:00] were clear on the plain, empty screen.

“Exactly one minute from now, a B-rank Instant Dungeon will open within a 1km radius of here.”

“What?”

Lee Seong-ha’s eyes widened.

Go Gyeol stared at his phone screen without a word. In the illusion of hearing the ticking of the second hand, the numbers finally changed.

[PM 04:01]

It was at that very moment.

Ppi- ppi- ppi-

Breaking the silence, both of their phones simultaneously let out a sharp alarm sound.

[Emergency Disaster Text]

[Dungeon Safety Information Department] As of this time, a B-rank Instant Dungeon has occurred in the XX-myeon area. Nearby residents are advised to refrain from going out and to take safety precautions.

Lee Seong-ha looked at his phone, where the disaster text had appeared, and then at Go Gyeol’s face with a dazed expression. His pupils shook violently as if an earthquake had hit them.

At Go Gyeol’s silence, which seemed to ask if he still couldn’t believe it, Lee Seong-ha wiped his face with his hands and asked in a trembling voice.

“You… you really regressed?”

“Want me to tell you more?”

At Go Gyeol’s question, Lee Seong-ha shook his head and raised his hand.

“Forget it. It’s not like I didn’t believe you at all earlier. It’s just… it was so absurd.”

The Go Gyeol he knew was someone who lived as upright as his name, sometimes even frustratingly so.

A guy who couldn’t even tell a proper lie, didn’t know how to cut corners, and was like a scholar who should have been born in the Joseon Dynasty.

He had guessed that it wouldn’t be an ordinary matter from the moment such a Go Gyeol suddenly took time off work and came to find him.

But regression.

It was a story that might appear in a fantasy novel, and his long friendship with him was actually an obstacle to nodding his head at once.

“Haa….”

Lee Seong-ha let out a long sigh.

“What on earth was the future you saw like?”

“The problem wasn’t the dungeon.”

Go Gyeol’s voice sank low.

“A few months from now, a tower will appear.”

“A tower?”

Lee Seong-ha’s brow furrowed. It was a word he was hearing for the first time.

“Yeah. A mysterious black tower that soars as if to pierce the sky. It proposed a cruel game to humanity. If we don’t clear each floor within the set time, gates open across the entire country, and monsters pour out.”

Lee Seong-ha’s expression hardened at Go Gyeol’s explanation.

“So… what happened?”

“The 87th floor of the Tower. The Republic of Korea was eliminated there.”

“What?!”

Lee Seong-ha jumped up from his seat. His cassock fluttered, representing his intense emotions.

“What about the rankers? What were Korea’s S-rank hunters doing! Did they all get wiped out?”

One corner of Go Gyeol’s mouth twisted, and a sneer escaped.

“They all ran away overseas. Every single one of them.”

“…That’s impossible. Why, such a thing…”

“Those guys. They’re only S-rank in name; they’re trash with no character and couldn’t do a damn thing.”

“The government… just let them be?”

“International Hunter Law Article 31. ‘Hunters have the freedom to change their nationality at will.’ They used that as an excuse and sat on their hands. The country was going to fail anyway, so they all ran away to save themselves.”

Lee Seong-ha closed his eyes. A horrific scene was painted before his eyes.

The Republic of Korea, where rankers, chaebols, and politicians all fled overseas saying there was no hope, leaving only ordinary people who knew nothing behind. And the monsters pouring down upon them.

“What is the cause of your regression?”

Go Gyeol silently took the White Jade Pendant out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table.

“This.”

“White Jade?”

“To be precise, it’s an item containing the Humanity Protection Program.”

Go Gyeol explained about System S7KD87, the Humanity Extermination Project, and the unknown forces opposing it. It was an unbelievable story, but unlike before, Lee Seong-ha listened to everything calmly.

“-that’s it. That’s as far as the information I can access goes.”

“What’s the possibility that the thing called a system is lying?”

Go Gyeol raised both hands and shrugged.

“Zero. If its goal were to exterminate humanity, would it have bothered to choose me, an ordinary person with no power? It would be a hundred times more efficient to sweet-talk a capable S-rank hunter.”

“That’s true.”

Lee Seong-ha picked up the pendant. The white jade with blood-red dots, unlike real jade, had the unrealistic lightness peculiar to an item.

“So, you’re going to do as that system or whatever tells you?”

“If I do nothing, the set ending is death. I have to do something.”

Disgust was mixed into Go Gyeol’s voice.

“When I died, a sharp tree branch was stuck in my heart?… Dying is one thing, but it felt disgusting. I don’t want to experience that ever again.”

“Oh ho. Then how did I die?”

“I don’t know. Because of the Loser Round, monsters poured out like a swarm of ants, so I didn’t even have the mental capacity to contact you.”

Click.

The white jade was placed back on the table. Lee Seong-ha leaned back deeply into his chair, covering his eyes with one hand.

An absurd story from beginning to end.

But he had no choice but to believe it. Putting aside the disaster text that rang as soon as his words ended, hearing about the desperate future of the ‘Tower’, it wouldn’t be strange at all if they met such an end.

“…What do you want me to help you with?”

At the question that finally came out, Go Gyeol answered as if he had been waiting.

“I’m going to become a Hunter Manager.”

“You? A civilian like you? Do you think this is a joke?”

Lee Seong-ha asked back as if he were dumbfounded.

‘Come to think of it, the term Hunter Manager didn’t even exist at this time.’

Go Gyeol chuckled and retorted.

“I wasn’t a hunter. But I know that world better than anyone.”

“……What are you talking about?”

“My last job before regression was a Hunter Manager. Dedicated to S-ranks.”

Lee Seong-ha’s eyes went round.

“You? Cleaning up after those ill-tempered rankers?”

“Yeah. From contracts to schedules, dungeon and tower raid briefings, everything. I have it all in my head—who has what skill, who doesn’t get along with whom, and what items they’re weak against.”

A sigh escaped Lee Seong-ha’s lips.

“…So that’s why you were so well-versed in the rankers’ affairs. Even about them fleeing overseas.”

“The theory is perfect. But I’m just an ordinary person with no power right now. I need someone I can trust, someone I can lean on. That’s you, Lee Seong-ha.”

Lee Seong-ha fell silent for a moment at Go Gyeol’s serious gaze. This wasn’t a bluff. It was a meticulous plan born from desperate experience.

“…In the end, you’re asking me to be the bullet sponge who watches your back.”

When Lee Seong-ha grumbled, Go Gyeol smiled faintly.

“Rather than a bullet sponge… a reliable ally.”

“Hey. I’m a priest. A priest who guards the church.”

“Is there anyone other than you who visits this church?”

“Cut it out, seriously.”

At the half-joking, half-sarcastic remark, Lee Seong-ha kicked Go Gyeol’s shin with his foot.

“A priest hitting someone. Won’t God scold you?”

“Shut up. So, you’re telling me to be a hunter again, that thing called a system told you to do that?”

“Yeah. Making you a colleague was the system’s number one goal.”

“I’m so dumbfounded, seriously….”

Lee Seong-ha let out a dry laugh.

His original job wasn’t a priest.

An A-rank Gravity Hunter.

After awakening, because of his grandfather who was a military officer, he had been dragged into dungeons endlessly since he was a minor.

Endless slaughter, slaughter, slaughter…. Everything became meaningless and numb.

With his grandfather’s retirement, he used an injury as an excuse to retire, and he became a priest as if running away.

The peace he believed he had gained like that.

Until that damn friend of his, Go Gyeol, came to find him.

“Wow… I really need a cigarette.”

Go Gyeol chuckled as he watched Lee Seong-ha mutter while pressing his temples due to stress.

“I bought some knowing you’d say that. Want one?”

“Fuck off, you bastard.”

Go Gyeol, who lightly caught the flying tissue box with one hand, shoved the White Jade Pendant into his pocket.

“How long will the paperwork take?”

“…Do I really have to join?”

At the question containing his last lingering attachment, Go Gyeol answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“Yeah.”

“…If I join, what are the odds?”

“What odds?”

“If I quit being a priest like you said and join, what are the odds of being able to protect humanity!”

Go Gyeol crossed his arms as if thinking for a moment, then said nonchalantly.

“40%?”

“It’s only 40%?!”

“Isn’t 40% from 0% fucking huge?”

At that brutally realistic answer, Lee Seong-ha slumped his body into the chair with a long sigh.

It was a look of having all his energy drained. Seeing that, Go Gyeol smiled with satisfaction and stood up from his seat.

“When are you coming? If the parish won’t let you quit, just take a leave of absence for now. Once the tower raid is over, I’ll send you back to being a peaceful priest.”

“Fuck off.”

“Come to my place as soon as you’re done. You know? My place.”

“I said fuck off!”

Hearing his friend’s ferocious order to leave as just a tantrum, Go Gyeol waved his hand.

‘Even if he says that, if it’s the Lee Seong-ha I know…….’

As soon as he closed the heavy door of the church and came out, a message window floated before his eyes like a hallucination.

‘As expected.’

[Mission 1: Recruit ‘Lee Seong-ha’ – Success!]

[Mission success reward is being paid.]

[5 Gold has been paid.]

Jingle, jingle…

Just as he thought he heard the sound of coins dropping that didn’t exist in reality, an information window automatically turned on in front of his eyes.

[Current Holdings: 6 Gold]

“The reward is… really.”

Go Gyeol gave a dry laugh.

Gold is a currency that is only used inside the Tower that will appear in the future. Although it is a precious item that can only be obtained by catching monsters, the price of items is so murderous that 6 Gold couldn’t even buy the cheapest healing potion.

Just as Go Gyeol, who sighed and closed the information window, was about to get into his parked car.

A new mission arrived.

【Mission 2: Secure 70 million won in funds to establish a base.】