Side Story Chapter 145 - Tower of Creation (3)

Oh Kang-Woo’s consciousness flickered as he felt himself floating for a moment. His mind soon became clear and he began to hear sounds coming from all around him.

“I-Is this the Tower of Creation?”

“Hehehe! I can finally become an apostle too!

“

Sniff...

I-I never wanted to be here!”

Kang-Woo turned to the voices. There were tables and chairs in the large hall that resembled a ballroom and about two to three hundred people were walking around the hall as each of them reacted to the situation in various ways.

‘There was only one invitation letter, wasn’t there?’

Kang-Woo stared at them in confusion but soon figured out they were not from the Earth he knew— they were from the Earth where the Tower of Creation was located. He was surrounded by residents of the outer world, where the only thing it had in common with the Earth he was from was the name.

‘It looks like the people of the outer world also enter the tower through invitation letters.’

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes as he eavesdropped on people chatting or talking to themselves. There were all kinds of people gathered; it did not seem to be hard to acquire invitation tickets in their world.

Ding—!!

The sound of a bell rang throughout the hall. Everyone turned to the stage at the center of the hall. The stage floor opened and a rabbit in a slick tuxedo came out.

He yelled, “Greetings, candidates! Welcome to the Tower of Creation!!!”

‘A rabbit...?’

However, only his face was that of a rabbit; the rest of his body was that of a human, making him look more like a human wearing a rabbit mask.

“My name is Ritty!! I am the tutorial guide who will be testing whether you are worthy of climbing the tower!!!”

His name was just as cute as he was.

‘That aside, a tutorial, huh?’

Kang-Woo chuckled. He felt like he had entered a different novel.

‘For the title, let’s go with [I was the Demon King of the Nine Hells but woke up as a Tutorial Beginner?]. Million Page

[1]

, here I come.’

“First, why don’t I give you all a short explanation about the Tower of Creation?” said Ritty as his perky ears twitched. “The Tower of Creation is a mysterious place created by giants born from the Primordial.”

‘I knew it. It was made by Titans.’

“Each of you will be selected by a Constellation and climb the Tower with the sponsors and support they give you!” Ritty hopped down from the stage and smiled cutely. “The higher you climb, the bigger the corresponding rewards will be. For example, enough power to attain all you desire, or enough authority to make anyone bow down to you.”

The rabbit was spouting some cliché lines but such overused lines lit the fires in people’s hearts.

“Right, then~ Allow me to give you all a rundown of the tut—”

A woman raised her hand and interrupted Ritty, “Umm... who are those beings known as Constellations? I’ve heard about them a few times from the

outside

, but I have no idea...”

“Hmm. You are right, they are very secretive.” Ritty nodded cutely. He spread out his arms flamboyantly like a theater actor and shouted, “They are transcendental beings created by the Primordial giants— stars born to watch over our world!!! To put it simply, I guess you could call them gods.”

Ritty giggled.

“To become the brightest star as they had pledged to the Primordial giants who created this power, they will select you all as their apostles to help you climb the tower.” He blinked his shining red eyes and continued, “Haha. Hence, everyone in this room can be called the agents of the stars, Celestials!!!”

“...”

Silence fell in the hall once Ritty finished talking.

‘The brightest star, huh?’

Kang-Woo nodded, having fully understood.

‘In Earth terms, they’ll become a guardian deity like Gaia used to be.’

If that was the case, climbing the Tower of Creation was essentially a game played by the Constellations with the apostles as their avatars.

‘But of course...’

Kang-Woo was sure some complex and filthy acts that occurred in the process couldn’t be sugarcoated with such an analogy.

“Is that enough of an answer for you?” Ritty asked.

“Oh, yes. Th-Thank you.” The woman nodded with an awkward smile; she seemed to be considerably nervous.

“Hahaha! In that case.”

Ritty’s red eyes shone. The tuxedo-wearing rabbit courteously bowed to the woman.

Grab—!!

“Kurgh!! Gah!!!”

He then arrived right in front of her as if he had teleported and clenched her neck.

“Argh... Wh-What are...?”

“Who said you could interrupt me?” Ritty said in a chillingly low voice.

His cute and energetic energy had disappeared and was replaced with ferocious bloodlust.

“I-I’m sorry...”

“It’s bad manners to interrupt a guide when they’re fucking talking.”

“Kurgh... Urgh!”

Crack!

The woman’s neck in Ritty’s hand snapped. Ritty threw the woman’s body aside as if she were filth.

“Puhihi! Did you hear that, everyone~? Don’t act impolitely like her, okay~?”

Ritty winked as he hopped back up to the stage. The people in the hall stepped backward in pallor.

“S-Su-Jin!!!” shouted a muscular man, standing at the back, in shock.

He seemed to be acquainted with the woman who just died. He ran to the woman’s body and embraced her corpse.

“You fucking rabbit head bastard!!!”

“Hm? Do you two know each other?” Ritty asked.

“We are apostles of the Constellations!!! Agents of the stars, like you said!!! So how could you kill the agents of the Constellations as you like?!!”

The muscular man glared at Ritty.

“Pfft,” Ritty chuckled mockingly. “Apostles?”

He walked over to the man holding the woman’s body, exuding bloodlust like before as he smiled.

“You’re just lowly candidates who haven’t been selected by the Constellations yet. Apostles? Agents of the stars? That may be true down the line, but you’re mere insects at the moment.”

The muscular man glared at the rabbit as he held the woman’s corpse. “I’ll... make you regret this later.”

“Puhihihihi!!! You make me regret this later?” Ritty laughed as he reached for the man’s head so quickly that the man had no chance to react. “There’s no need for that.”

“Kurgh, arghh!”

Ritty’s shining red eyes filled with deathly bloodlust.

“There won’t be a

later

for you.”

Crack!

The muscular man’s head exploded. His shattered skull and brain matter splattered all over the ground.

“Puhihihihi!!”

Ritty’s slick tuxedo was covered in blood. He cackled madly as he turned to the candidates in the hall.

“It seems... we’ll have to sift through some of the impertinent insects joining us.”

Ritty hopped back onto the stage and stretched out his right arm as he looked down at the candidates. He extended all of his fingers.

“Five. As the price for the arrogance of two people, five of you will be killed to set an example.”

“Wh-What the hell are you talking about?!”

“You don’t have the right to do something like—”

Slash!! Splatter!!

The heads of the two people who complained were split in half and they fell to the ground. Playing cards that split the heads were stuck on the ground.

“KYAAAAAAAAHHH!!”

“Wh-What the fuck?!”

No one even managed to catch Ritty pulling out playing cards from his left sleeve and throwing them at the heads of the two people... no human, anyway.

“Three left.”

Ritty folded two of the five fingers he had extended. He glared at the screaming people as his perky ears twitched.

“How long are you going to keep screaming for?”

“...”

A deathly silence fell in the hall.

‘Dayum, he sure knows how to set the stage.’

Kang-Woo, watching silently with his arms crossed, was highly impressed with the rabbit. He could tell this was not Ritty’s first time doing this based on how expertly he quelled the chaos.

‘That aside.’

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and looked down at the corpses on the ground.

‘Why are they doing that?’

Every manhwa or novel had the people killed first because they acted exactly like that.

‘They could’ve survived at least halfway if they did nothing.’

Kang-Woo shook his head, unable to understand.

“S-Save me!!! Arghh!!”

“Two left.”

“Kyaaaahhhhh!! Wh-Why?!! What did I do?!!”

“One left.”

Ritty’s slaughter continued as Kang-Woo was in thought. The heads of a man and woman who were hiding under a table rolled on the floor.

“Lastly...” Ritty turned to a young man calmly crossing his arms as if he couldn’t care less about the slaughter occurring inside the hall. “You.”

“Me...?” Kang-Woo tilted his head as he pointed at himself.

Ritty cackled. “Puhihi! You deserve to be executed for not paying attention to what’s happening in front of you!” He hopped toward Kang-Woo as his red eyes shone and asked, “Do you have anything to say? Since you’re the last one, I will do you a favor and listen to them.”

“Anything to say, huh...?” Kang-Woo smirked as he scratched his head. He had something to say for sure. “Why are you doing this?”

He said what he had been thinking earlier and tilted his head in genuine wonder.

He stepped forward as he remarked, “You could’ve survived at least halfway if you did nothing.”

“Huh—?”

Fingers appeared in front of Ritty’s red eyes before he realized it. The fingers stabbed his eyes before he even had a chance to think.

“AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Ritty screamed in agony as he crouched.

Blood as red as his eyes flowed from his destroyed eyeballs. Kang-Woo grabbed the crouching Ritty’s two long ears.

“W-Wait a—”

“I don’t give a shit about how many heads you smash or cut off.”

He ripped out Ritty’s ears.

“But you shouldn’t have touched me.”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

Ritty rolled on the ground as blood spurted from his eyes and where her ears used to be. Kang-Woo did not bother finishing him off since he couldn’t kill his guide for the tutorial.

“Just get the fuck started with this goddamn tutorial already. Ain’t nobody got time to waste here.”

Kang-Woo stepped on the collapsed Ritty’s head and smirked.

Riiing!

Just then, translucent message windows appeared in front of Kang-Woo.

[The ‘God of Rupture’ shows interest in you!]

[The ‘God of Love’ criticizes your cruel actions!]

[The ‘God of Games’ claps in enjoyment!]

‘The hell’s with these guys?’

1. Million Page refers to a section of the webnovel/webtoon site Kakaopage where series with over a million total readers are displayed. ☜