The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

[The old man has completed the elixir!]

Not long after sending Han Geonu off alone, a contact came through.

“I’ll give you 1 hour. Bring it quickly.”

[O-One hour? That’s way too tight…]

“For every minute you’re late, that’s one hit.”

[Fuck…]

“You got a problem?”

[I’ll be there right away.]

“Alright.”

Hanging up the phone, the corners of Sungwoon’s mouth curled up.

Now that Tears of Belos was finished, it was time to climb the 2nd floor.

“Sungwoon-ssi. I brought the hamburger combo meal you asked for.”

Jang Byungjun set down a paper bag containing the hamburgers in front of him.

“You know, I could have just picked up the take-out myself.”

“No need. You just focus on climbing the 2nd floor, Sungwoon-ssi.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Before the elixir arrived, Sungwoon had considered stepping out for a bit, but Jang Byungjun strongly dissuaded him and went personally instead.

His reasoning was that there might be guys trying to pick fights like before, and that he shouldn’t waste stamina while preparing to climb the 2nd floor.

Additionally, Jang Byungjun assigned five extra staff members from the Management Section to perform escort duties for Sungwoon in shifts.

Of course, they didn’t come inside the home; rather, they guarded the perimeter to prevent outsiders from recklessly approaching.

‘Not bad.’

Even with the padlock applied, it wasn’t like 100% security could be guaranteed, after all.

“Ah, speaking of which, someone claiming to be your friend arrived on the 1st floor.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It was Awakener Seo Jaepil, who is active in the Horus Guild. How should we handle him?”

Sungwoon chuckled.

“Handle him? He really is my friend, so you can send him up.”

“Understood.”

Jang Byungjun bowed his head and left.

Not long after, Seo Jaepil rang the doorbell, and Sungwoon let him inside.

Walking in, Seo Jaepil sat on the sofa with an absurd look on his face and pointed out the window.

“Hey, what’s with the people outside? Why are they blocking people from coming in?”

“They said it’s bodyguards.”

“Bodyguards? Man, you’re getting tightly managed right from the lower floors.”

“Since I finished both the tutorial and the 1st floor with EX-Rank or higher, isn’t that only natural?”

“Wow… You know that comment just now sounded seriously obnoxious, right?”

Tutorial EX-Rank.

1st floor EX+-Rank.

Seo Jaepil knew that Sungwoon was the protagonist behind those scores.

Even so, he couldn’t stop Sungwoon’s half-joking comment from feeling annoyingly obnoxious.

“What’s the point of getting jealous over something like this?”

“I don’t know. What am I supposed to do when I’m fucking envious?”

Jaepil had received his invitation earlier, joined a large guild, and reached the 13th floor with full support.

Even so, the emotion of jealousy poured out like a waterfall.

Sungwoon was receiving a completely different level of management alongside marvelous achievements.

Seeing just this made Jaepil realize that being overtaken was only a matter of time.

“So did you come here to complain about that?”

“That’s not it, but…”

Honestly, it was half and half.

Half congratulatory, half envy and jealousy.

He knew how embarrassing it was not to be able to sincerely congratulate his friend, but controlling it was truly not easy.

“How long do you think this will last?”

Suddenly, Sungwoon’s expression turned serious.

“Huh? What do you mean all of a sudden?”

“You remember when the tower first appeared, right?”

“The beginning… Yeah.”

The tower that appeared under the pretext that the dimension’s lifespan had run out.

It was said that reaching the top was the only way to revoke the deletion.

In truth, the vast majority of climbers weren’t climbing the tower to prevent that.

At first, they were forced to climb after receiving an invitation, and afterwards, many lost their original purpose, intoxicated by absurd power.

Naturally so, as over ten years, the world hadn’t regressed to a noticeable extent; rather, many aspects had developed using mana as a new resource.

In fact, high-end apartments like this were focused and designed to be operated with mana to enhance the quality of life.

Beyond this, mana was exerting a massive influence on human life.

“If we settle for reality, everything will crumble beyond recovery.”

“Dude, why are you talking so scarily?”

For Seo Jaepil, it wasn’t easy to sympathize with Sungwoon’s words.

Earthlings around the world weren’t complacent with reality; they were working hard to climb the tower.

Although several crises had come over the past ten years, the climbers had pooled their strength to overcome them.

As time passed, the level of top rankers was bound to rise, providing the driving force to overcome even greater crises if they came.

Yet Sungwoon seemed to view the future very pessimistically.

“I mean that we always have to consider the worst-case scenario.”

“So you’re saying instead of wasting time being envious, I should work hard climbing the tower?”

“Quick on the uptake.”

Sungwoon snickered, and Seo Jaepil let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, so how do you actually reach EX-Rank?”

This was the main point.

From what he heard, the play Sungwoon demonstrated had changed so that no one else could execute it.

How on earth could something like this happen?

“I don’t know.”

“Wow! That’s really fucked up of you. I heard you super confidently declared you’d get EX-Rank!”

“No, I seriously don’t know.”

“Huh? Why don’t you know?”

“When I received the Tutorial EX, it told me. How to finish the 1st floor with an EX.”

“Ah…”

Seo Jaepil looked at Sungwoon with a momentarily uncomprehending face before sighing as if realization struck.

Sungwoon had merely followed the method to obtain EX as well.

Not knowing what came after that meant he was in the same boat as himself.

Ding-dong—

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

Seeing as the staff didn’t stop him, it seemed Han Geonu had arrived.

Sungwoon stood up from his seat and opened the door, finding Han Geonu standing there sweating profusely.

“You came quickly?”

“You told me to come quickly… Said you’d beat me up if I was late…”

Han Geonu handed a red elixir over to Sungwoon.

Checking the elixir, Sungwoon nodded.

It was definitely the completed Tears of Belos he had seen in his past life.

“Good job. Go to Team Leader Jang-nim soon to get item and supply support, then start climbing.”

“C-Can’t I rest just a little bit before going…”

His condition was far too poor to say he had simply run here.

“Did something happen?”

Only then did Sungwoon check on Han Geonu’s well-being, and Han Geonu confessed everything as if he had been waiting for the chance.

“That damn geezer told me to try drinking one elixir, and after I drank it, I ended up like this…”

“An elixir?”

“Yes… It was an orange elixir. He said drinking it would help with climbing.”

Since they’d be seeing each other often in the future, he must have thrown in a bonus service.

That old man.

He must have liked this transaction quite a bit.

“Any changes?”

“No… I just feel like I’m going to die.”

“That’s probably because it hasn’t fully absorbed yet. If you wait a bit, you’ll recover on your own.”

“Yes…”

“Alright. Rest up before you go.”

Since he had faithfully carried out the errand, giving him a bit of rest was more than reasonable.

At Sungwoon’s permission, Han Geonu was about to take off his shoes and step inside before pausing.

“Thank you. But who’s inside?”

“Hello… Hm?”

Reflexively standing up to bow, Seo Jaepil paused and tilted his head.

Does he look somewhat familiar?

Ah, isn’t that the guy who drew massive aggro at the Association and got blacklisted?

“Looks like you know who he is?”

“How could I not? He’s quite famous.”

At those words, Sungwoon smirked, while Han Geonu looked bewildered for a moment before his face flushed bright red.

“Back then, there were circumstances…”

“Ah, it’s fine. I don’t really care about that stuff.”

Seo Jaepil waved his hand dismissively.

“Ahem, well then, I’ll be taking my leave.”

He was going to rest for a bit before leaving, but it suddenly felt awkward.

As Han Geonu turned to leave, Seo Jaepil reacted quickly.

“Huh? No, it’s fine. I was just about to leave anyway.”

The guy’s condition didn’t look great, so it wouldn’t be right to make him leave because of himself.

Besides, he had only dropped by to see Sungwoon’s face before restarting his climb on the 13th floor anyway.

“Are you heading out to climb?”

“Perceptive bastard. Yeah. This time for real, I’m breaking through the entrance of the 13th floor.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“Yeah, sure.”

After Seo Jaepil left, Han Geonu rested for nearly an hour until his condition recovered to some extent, then contacted Jang Byungjun to ask for assistance in setting up his climb.

Left alone, Sungwoon fiddled with the completed elixir.

[Tears of Belos]

-Type: Consumable

-Grade: A+

-Attribute: Poison

-Upon consumption, increases resistance to Poison attribute by 30% for 72 hours (Effect may be minimal depending on user’s capability)

-Upon consumption, allows designating a struck target up to 3 times to inflict [Deep Poisoning] for 72 hours (Effect may be minimal depending on user’s capability)

-Remaining Uses: 5

If the resistance gained from the 1st floor was combined with the Poison attribute resistance, he would be able to endure for quite a long time even if poisoned.

And the most important option, Deep Poisoning.

It designates a struck target, poisoning them and sealing all their abilities for a short time.

Furthermore, 0.2% of health drains per second, and even if they try to heal themselves, the effectiveness is halved, making it far from easy.

‘However, since the boss lurking on the 2nd floor is a poison wielder, it’ll last 1 minute at most.’

Meaning they could break free from Deep Poisoning in 1 minute.

‘I’ll end it within that time.’

To finish with EX-Rank or higher, this elixir was an absolute necessity.

Moreover, unlike the 1st floor, the 2nd floor was designed so that it couldn’t be cleared quickly.

Therefore, thorough preparation had to be made in advance.

After double-checking the supplies he had requested in advance, Sungwoon popped open the stopper sealing the elixir.

A pungent stench wafted up, making his stomach turn.

Unlike in his past life, since he had never consumed the elixir, his body was expressing rejection.

Of course, Sungwoon lightly ignored that rejection and gulped the elixir down.

[Poison attribute resistance +30% applied.]

With this, his Poison attribute resistance reached 45%.

“Shall I head out then?”

It was time to set off.

[Would you like to enter the 2nd floor of the Tower of Ruin?]

[No party exists.]

[Do you really wish to start climbing? *Upon re-entry, evaluation score will be penalized.]

The same warning message he had seen when entering the 1st floor.

This time as well, Sungwoon lightly ignored it.

[Entering the 2nd floor of the Tower of Ruin.]

2nd floor of the Tower of Ruin.

Unlike the 1st floor, as soon as he stepped onto the 2nd floor, a terrible stench wafted over along with a faint headache.

‘Poison.’

The toxicity wasn’t strong enough to hinder climbing.

In the first place, if the toxicity were strong, climbers without poison immunity would have died en masse.

That didn’t mean it could be ignored, though.

‘Only by resisting the poison as much as possible will the clear evaluation score increase.’

This was precisely why he went out of his way to consume Tears of Belos even before starting to boost his Poison attribute resistance.

Thanks to the resistance value of 45%, the faint headache that had visited had vanished before he knew it.

[Would you like to start the sponsorship stream?]

Needless to say, just like on the 1st floor, a sponsorship stream could be started on the 2nd floor as well.

Sungwoon started the stream without even hesitating.

-Stream on

-Stream’s live? This is the guy, right?

-Channel name Yuseong, appearance protected as a mannequin. It’s definitely him.

-Hey hey! I entered the 1st floor following you, why am I blocked right from the NPC?

-Fuck, explain yourself!

Viewers pouring in as soon as it started.

It was fortunate that the range was limited to Korea since he was still climbing the lower floors.

Had it spread worldwide, the numbers would have been beyond imagination.

In truth, such worries were pointless.

Before long, the impact would pierce through the atmosphere and reach the cosmos.

“I will now begin climbing the 2nd floor.”

Sungwoon offered a greeting to the viewers and took his steps forward.