My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 32

========== CHAPTER 32 ==========

Unlike the first rest period, the second one flowed peacefully. It seemed as if the Tower was guaranteeing the 12 hours it had promised, for once.

Once the hunters, soaked in blood and dust, had gotten enough sleep, rumbling sounds began to be heard here and there in the lobby. Especially the close-combat hunters who had moved their bodies violently felt hunger much faster than others. The steamed buns and few pieces of meat distributed yesterday had long since been converted into mana and disappeared.

Hwang Tae-ja moved as if he had been waiting. The food boxes, strictly guarded by Hunter Bureau hunters, were opened, and distribution according to the number of people began once again.

Go Gyeol and his party members also mixed into the middle of the line and received food. It was still just a meat-filled steamed bun, dried meat, and one low-grade potion.

“……Sigh, we’re supposed to hold out on this again?”

While the meal continued quietly, a large hunter who was receiving rations finally exploded. He threw the plastic bag handed to him by a Hunter Bureau employee onto the floor and pointed at Hwang Tae-ja.

“Hey, Hwang Tae-ja! Are you kidding me? Who’s this tiny amount supposed to satisfy! I saw it earlier, you Hunter Bureau bastards smelled like you were grilling meat inside! Are you stuffing your own faces while farming us like livestock?”

At his shout, the gazes of the hunters eating turned toward Hwang Tae-ja in unison. Hunger paralyzes reason and breeds suspicion.

“Come to think of it, the Hunter Bureau guys’ lips looked greasy earlier, didn’t they?”

“They said they were saving our supplies for the 100 people later, but what if those 100 people are all their own family?”

A few hunters chimed in, exuding a murderous aura.

Kang Hoon and Lee Seong-ha, who were sitting on the floor chewing on steamed buns, watched the scene with interest.

“Oh, is internal strife finally breaking out? Go Gyeol, Hwang Tae-ja might get hit at this rate, right?”

At Lee Seong-ha’s question, Go Gyeol took a bite of his steamed bun and answered indifferently.

“Don’t pay attention to it. We don’t have time to waste on such petty fights.”

“Aww, but it’s pretty fun to see the Rank 1 guy getting cursed at…….”

As Kang Hoon craned his neck to watch, Go Gyeol murmured quietly.

“It’s going to start soon.”

Go Gyeol glanced at his wristwatch. 11:59:45. It was only 15 seconds until the 12-hour rest period ended.

10, 9, 8…….

It was the very moment Hwang Tae-ja raised his hand to calm the angry hunters.

Biiiiii—!

A buzzer sound that tore through the eardrums struck the lobby. Those who were fighting, those who were eating, and those who were suspicious all froze in an instant.

[Notification: Rest period has ended.]

[Selection Match Stage 5: Trust on the Edge of a Cliff]

[Rule: The area of the lobby will shrink by 10% every minute.]

“……Huh?”

Before someone’s stupid exclamation could even burst out, Kwa-ang! With a deafening roar, the marble floor at the edge of the lobby began to fall into the darkness in its entirety.

“Aaaack! The floor, the floor is disappearing!”

Screams erupted from the hunters flocking to the center. The hunters who had been fighting over the Hunter Bureau’s favoritism forgot their anger from just a moment ago and scrambled inward, clawing to survive.

Go Gyeol calmly stuffed the remaining piece of steamed bun into his mouth and stood up.

“Alright, now it’s time to show you what a real fight for territory is.”

Kwa-a-ang!

Every time the edge of the lobby sank into the darkness, thousands of hunters screamed and rushed toward the center. The area disappearing by 10% every minute was too terrifying. The justice and suspicion that had been argued over regarding the distribution were nowhere to be found. Only the primal murderous intent that I must push others away and take that spot filled the lobby.

“Hyung, people over there are…!”

Kang Hoon pointed at the scene where people were screaming in terror, but Go Gyeol coldly pressed his shoulder to make him sit.

“Don’t look. Focus only on our spot.”

Go Gyeol had already marked the coordinates of the safe zone that would remain until the end based on his memories from before the regression. Moving their spot earlier was precisely because of this final hurdle. It wasn’t a monster or a test, but purely luck.

One of the things needed to climb the Tower was luck.

“Do-geun-ssi, spread the fog. Just enough so that our team’s appearance is blurry. Ji-hyeon, lay the thorn vines low at the edge of the fog. If anyone approaches, just trip their ankles.”

Kwon Do-geun’s water fog enveloped the party members, blocking the view. While numerous eyeball cameras moved busily to capture Hwang Tae-ja’s flashy massacre and desperate struggle for survival happening in the center, the Gyeol team moved carefully through the thick fog.

“Seong-ha-ya, increase the gravity under our feet. So that even if someone pushes, we won’t be pushed.”

“Understood. By the Lord’s mercy, I shall root us to this land….”

Beyond the fog, a living hell unfolded. The number of people, which had been over 1,000, rapidly decreased to 800, then to 500. People pushed each other off the cliff, and those whose strength ran out fell into the darkness in vain.

Go Gyeol checked the real-time survivor count via his tablet.

[Survivors: 142… 118… 105….]

Finally, a heavy silence fell over the entire lobby, along with a buzzer sound.

Biiiiii—!

[Notification: Selection Match Stage 5 ended.]

[Confirmation: Final 100 survivors confirmed.]

As the fog slowly lifted, the vast lobby had disappeared, leaving only an area about the size of five or six basketball courts. 100 hunters standing sparsely in that narrow space. Go Gyeol’s party members were standing safely in that spot, clutching each other’s clothes.

Hwang Tae-ja, who was wiping his greatsword while covered in blood in the center, scanned the surroundings and discovered Go Gyeol’s party.

Like stones that had been there from the beginning, their appearance of having survived quietly without a single dishevelment sparked suspicion in Hwang Tae-ja’s eyes, but soon after, 100 pillars of light descending from the ceiling blocked his view.

“It’s done. We made it in without standing out.”

With Go Gyeol’s low words, the light carrying the 100 true Pioneers who would represent the Republic of Korea was shot up toward the upper floors of the Tower.

Kwa-a-ang—!

The white flash emitted as the Tower’s massive entrance closed covered the Seoul Plaza. And a moment later, an unbelievable sight unfolded where the flash had cleared.

“Uh……? Am I alive?”

“Hey, get a grip! Didn’t you have your arm cut off by a gargoyle earlier?”

Thousands of hunters who had been brutally slaughtered inside the Tower or had fallen off endless cliffs were lying on the plaza floor around the Tower with bewildered expressions. Even though their clothes were torn and they were covered in dust, there wasn’t a single scar on their bodies. Even those who had their necks pierced by the doppelganger’s sword earlier were touching their necks and gasping for air, perfectly fine.

That scene was broadcast to the whole world via real-time drone cameras.

[Community: HunterNet – Real-time Hot Board]

Title: Wow, crazy, was the Tower just a virtual reality simulation?? Everyone came out alive, holy crap

Views: 5,492,103 | Likes: 102,941

Did you guys see the plaza broadcast just now? The kids who had their guts spilled and arms and legs cut off earlier all crawled out perfectly fine.

Everyone was crying and making a fuss about it being a human slaughter show, but it was just a selection match elimination, lol.

Look at the scale of these Tower bastards… It’s like they filmed a massive hidden camera prank on the whole world?

[Comments 12,492]

Omong-agassi: Wow, what a relief… I was crying earlier watching my favorite hunter die ㅠㅠ

Cherry-dan: But the fact is, the Tower didn’t actually intend to kill humanity. It seems like it just weeded out the unqualified.

Baduk-nuni: It was so realistic for a simulation that the trauma must be insane… But now only the real elite 100 are left, right?

The Tower entrance instantly became a scene of chaos. Hundreds of reporters and cameramen who had been waiting swarmed like bees toward the notable individuals among the 100 survivors.

“Hwang Tae-ja Hunter! A word on your thoughts on passing in 1st place, please!”

“Shin Sae-byeok Hunter! You showed the most dazzling performance as a female hunter, an interview please!”

“Kim Eun-ho Hunter! You’re the only one from the management agency to survive!”

Amidst the crucible of confusion where flashes poured and shouting went back and forth, Go Gyeol checked his watch indifferently. He signaled to Kwon Do-geun, who had pulled his mask down deeper, and Kang Ji-hyeon, who was hiding her staff inside her clothes.

“Now is the time. Slip out quietly.”

Go Gyeol pushed through the crowd via the outer route he had scouted in advance. Taking advantage of the fact that people’s gazes were fixed on Hwang Tae-ja, who was floating in the air enjoying the interviews, Go Gyeol and his party members headed toward the underground parking lot as if hiding in the darkness.

Click.

The door of the black van that Go Gyeol had parked opened. As the party members scrambled to get in, Go Gyeol sat in the driver’s seat and started the engine. The van slipped out of the noisy area around the Tower and entered a quiet road.

“……Sigh.”

A deep sigh of relief burst from Kang Hoon in the back seat.

“It’s really…… really over, right? Hyung, we’re not going to die, right?”

“At least for now.”

At Go Gyeol’s short answer, Lee Seong-ha loosened the collar of his priest’s uniform and lay back crookedly.

“Hey, Go Gyeol. But did they really send all those people back alive? You knew, didn’t you?”

“I knew. The preliminary round is a kind of showcase. That’s why they sent them back alive.”

Go Gyeol’s eyes, visible in the rearview mirror, were still cold.

“But from the 1st floor, it’s different. From there on, you really die. Since the simulation is over now.”

At Go Gyeol’s cold pronouncement, the atmosphere in the car, which was about to become cheerful, tightened again. Kang Ji-hyeon stared blankly at the night view passing by outside the window, and Kwon Do-geun clenched his trembling hands tightly.