My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 25

========== CHAPTER 25 ==========

[Current Eliminated: 58,942]

The threshold of the massive North Gate was right before them. Gyeol’s party, who had been advancing by twisting the necks and breaking the wings of the rushing gargoyles, finally stepped into the shadow of the Tower.

The moment the darkness of the entrance was about to swallow them, Gyeol shouted sharply.

“Kwon Do-geun, cast a barrier over our heads! Make it thick!”

“Y-yes, yes! !”

Kwon Do-geun reflexively reached out his hand. In his mind, he had already pictured himself as a hero in a movie blocking tens of thousands of arrows. In an instant, condensed streams of water swirled above the party members, forming a massive dome-shaped water membrane.

It was the very moment they fully entered inside the gate.

Kwareureung! Kwa-a-ang!

A blue-white lightning bolt poured down from the ceiling and struck Kwon Do-geun’s Water Curtain head-on.

“Ugh…!”

The barrier shook violently along with an eardrum-splitting explosion. Water droplets splattered everywhere from the impact of the lightning, and Kwon Do-geun’s arm trembled as if in a spasm. But Gyeol didn’t give him time to stop. Because he had witnessed the tiles on the floor beyond the barrier twisting grotesquely.

“Lee Seong-ha, now! Everyone, up!”

“May the Lord’s protection lift you high…!”

As Lee Seong-ha chanted the blessing in a benevolent voice, he slammed his staff hard against the floor. In an instant, the gravity pressing down on the party members reversed, and their bodies soared into the air like feathers.

Kugugugung!

It was a split-second difference. As soon as they lifted their feet, the hallway floor that had looked solid collapsed entirely downward. From the bottom of the bottomless abyss, thousands of sharp silver spears shot up like the teeth of a hungry beast.

“Hiiik!”

Kang Hoon screamed. The blue spear tips grazed right beneath the soles of their feet as they flew through the air. If not for Lee Seong-ha’s precise gravity manipulation, they would have ended up as pincushions.

The five people who crossed the air finally landed sliding onto the stable marble floor beyond the forest of spears.

Kwang-!

As soon as they stepped down, the massive North Gate behind them closed heavily, cutting off the pandemonium outside.

[Notification: First 10,000 entrants completed.]

What unfolded before their eyes was the endlessly massive and magnificent lobby of the Tower. Dozens of mana chandeliers were emitting a soft light from the ceiling, and hunters who had arrived earlier were gasping for breath all around.

“…I survived.”

Kang Hoon sat down on the floor and squeezed out the words. Lee Seong-ha adjusted his priest’s robes and returned to his gentle, saint-like expression, while Kang Ji-hyun clenched her hand holding the staff, as if the trembling hadn’t subsided. Kwon Do-geun seemed to have no energy left to speak and just sat down where he was.

Gyeol calmly checked his watch and looked back at the entrance. Screams of tens of thousands were still coming from beyond the door, but the door allowed to them would not open again.

“Good work.”

Gyeol’s gaze scanned every corner of the lobby. Thousands of hunters sitting on the floor gasping for air, and bizarre things were floating above their heads.

They were not inorganic cameras. They were massive eyeballs with bloodshot, twitching muscle tissue, wet eyelids, and pupils that constantly dilated and contracted while scanning the surroundings.

Thousands of grotesque eyeballs were attached to each hunter’s head, monitoring their every move. Kang Hoon shuddered as if goosebumps were rising from that gaze that clung persistently as if to suck out the host’s soul. However, in that bizarre scene, Gyeol felt a sense of incongruity.

‘…As expected, only I don’t have one.’

Eyeballs were following everyone around like shadows, but only above Gyeol’s head was it clean. As the System had forewarned, he was not a ‘voting target,’ so even the Tower’s surveillance system was treating him like an invisible person.

Gyeol stared into the void with coldly sunken eyes and called the System internally.

‘System, answer me.’

[Yes, please speak.]

‘The Tower’s “eyes” are attached to all 10,000 hunters, but only I was excluded. This isn’t something possible just because you changed my settings. It means you interfered with the Tower’s rules themselves.’

Gyeol’s eyes narrowed.

‘I’ll ask you. What is your relationship with this Tower? The fact that you could exclude me from the preliminary voting target… isn’t it because you are the Tower’s system itself, or you possess authority beyond that?’

Gyeol was convinced. The power of the Tower he had seen before his regression was absolute. If it were an entity capable of manipulating such Tower rules, the System could not be a mere auxiliary tool. Gyeol immediately threw the most crucial question.

‘And one more thing. The Tower descending two months earlier than scheduled—did you have a hand in that too?’

The causality that began to deviate from his memories before the regression. If the System were an entity capable of controlling even the timing of the Tower’s descent, this might not be a simple auxiliary system, but the architect of all this tragedy.

A silence heavy enough to be felt flowed for a moment. Before long, the mechanical sound ringing in his head was drier and colder than usual.

[Answer: Your speculation is not true.]

‘Are you denying it?’

[This System is unrelated to the Tower’s operating system, and the timing of the descent is a naturally occurring phenomenon due to the planet reaching its mana density threshold. Also, your exclusion from voting is merely a bypass route using the Tower’s “blind spot,” not a direct modification of the laws.]

‘Don’t lie. There’s no way such perfect exclusion is possible just with a blind spot. And reaching the threshold? Does that mean causality changed because of my regression?’

But the System did not answer anymore. Silence that was neither affirmation nor denial. It was like a silent warning not to ask any further.

Gyeol gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. This mysterious System that made him regress, kept Lee Seong-ha as an exception, and now even made him avoid the Tower’s eyes. It was definitely hiding some massive truth.

“Gyeol-hyung? Why are you looking at the void so scarily?”

When Kang Hoon asked cautiously, Gyeol finally relaxed his expression. The eyeballs around them were still persistently observing the party members and rolling their pupils.

“It’s nothing. The next stage will begin soon. Seong-ha, manage your expression. Those eyeballs are broadcasting your ‘benevolent’ face to the whole country without missing a single second.”

“…Understood, little lamb. The Lord’s eyes are watching over me.”

Lee Seong-ha replied, forcing up the corners of his mouth that were twitching. Above his head, one eyeball approached, narrowing its bloodshot pupil as if interested.

Gyeol lifted his head again and looked at the high ceiling of the Tower. It didn’t matter what the System was hiding. Once he reached the top of the Tower, he would be forced to face all the truth. Whether it be the master of the Tower, or this lump of a System whispering in his head.

[YouTube Live: Hunter World News Real-time Breaking News]

(Viewers: 5.4 million)

“…Breaking news just in. We have reports that 8,000 Awakened have been wiped out in the West Gate sector alone. Look at the screen. Ah, this is too horrific. The gargoyles are… the limbs of the fallen hunters… Please, turn the camera away!”

[Real-time Chat]

RIP_Earth: Was I the only one who saw the streamer FireFist die just now? His head just got ripped off by a gargoyle…

Shadow88: Who were those bastards pushing from behind when the mine exploded? They’re no different from murderers.

NoMoreTower: Is it really okay to broadcast this? Kids are watching too, it’s too cruel…

Justice: Everything is being broadcast live, including the screams for help. The Tower must have been made by a devil.

[Community: HunterNet – ‘Real-time Selection Match’ Board]

Title: Did you see the situation at the South Gate 5 minutes ago? It was a living hell.

Author: SurvivorX | Views: 1,980,412

“Remember the guys from the Ares guild, ranked in the top 50? Their shield bearers formed a formation, but when thousands of gargoyles poured out of the Tower walls, they just got crushed to death. The sound of shields shattering and bones breaking came through the mic so clearly, I almost threw up. They say there’s a river of hunters’ blood in Seoul Plaza right now. 10,000 people? This isn’t a selection, it’s a slaughter.”

[Comments 12,492]

Anonymous1: True… Especially the person who was 10,001st when the door closed at the end, got stuck in the door gap… Ah, just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

Anonymous2: But amidst all that, I did see some skilled ones. Did you see that team at the North Gate earlier that was strangely relaxed?

Anonymous3: Ah, that guy in the priest’s robe? He was crushing gargoyle heads with his staff… He seems to have a nice personality, but his combat power was insane. Anyone know his name?

Anonymous4: The guy with the mask next to him was no joke either. Lightning was falling, and he blocked it with water… Everyone else was screaming, but he was moving quietly alone, it was kind of creepy.

Anonymous5: I found the guy in the suit scarier. There were corpses scattered all around, but he didn’t even blink and just checked his watch? He doesn’t even seem like a hunter, and he doesn’t have an eyeball above his head… What is his real identity?

[Twitch: General Gaming Streamer ‘Pung-wol’ Reaction]

(Viewers: 450,000)

(Staring at the screen while covering her mouth) “…Oh my god. Look over there. That ‘Steel Heart’ person, who was famous as a 1st generation hunter… just got dragged up by a gargoyle. (Silence) Viewers, I’m sorry. I can’t broadcast this anymore. This isn’t a sport. It’s just hell.”

[Chat]

HolyCrap: 60,000 people died in 10 minutes? Does this make sense?

Fear: The eyeball cameras doing close-ups on the faces of dying people is really gross.

Mystery: Huh? Who is that female hunter shooting light arrows? She pierced three gargoyles by herself?

User01: That team has been visible for a while now. A priest, a witch, a masked man… It’s like they’re in a different world. Everyone else is in despair, but they’re just in a mood like they’re taking a walk.