Chapter 357: Eighty-Third Floor, The Void (7)

[Uncover the truth, then decide. Time remaining: 42 hours 12 minutes.]

How shall I continue?

The noisy city went completely still. There was no noise, as if everyone were holding their breath. In that silence, it was hard to get the words out.

It wasn’t because I was nervous, nor was it because I hadn’t thought about what to say. I just wasn’t sure if what I was about to say was really the right thing.

After the brief silence that followed the chaos, murmurs slowly began to rise from outside.

“Is that the guy who...?”

“What do you mean by ‘that guy’? That’s a god standing there!”

Word about me had already spread while I was bringing people back from the Void.

They had seen the lightning storm that wiped out the monsters in an instant. Some had even seen me clash with forces from other bases. Some people thought that I had kidnapped the chairman, while others had swarmed the government building because I showed up with him.

Some probably came because of the broadcast, too.

The other cities were probably just as chaotic, which was why I had ordered the guards to shut every dimensional gate in this complex.

Other militaries could show up, but that was a problem for later.

I readied myself.

There was no point in hesitating any longer. The more I thought about it, the more it would cloud my judgment.

“Some of you may recognize me. For others, this might be your first time seeing me.” I looked straight into the camera lens. “As the chairman mentioned, many forms of life exist beyond this planet, and I’m one of them.”

I didn’t call myself a god. Even with the limits surrounding my divine authority, I figured this would be better. I wasn’t a real god yet, and saying it myself felt awkward.

Besides, having a so-called god appear on a live broadcast seemed ridiculous. In a world as technologically advanced as this one, an unknown force was more frightening than a named one.

“I’ve come because your world and the chairman crossed a line.”

As far as I could tell, this world didn’t have gods. Even when I took the chairman down, I hadn’t seen anyone wield divine energy.

Not even the chairman himself.

That would also explain why the Void hadn’t directly invaded through a dimensional gate.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

A world without gods was perhaps like Earth, a space designated as part of a greenbelt.

That made my message to them simple.

“Dimensional travel, or traveling to another planet by any other means, is still far too dangerous for your world.”

I was a climber, not the god of this place. I couldn’t keep coming back to look after them. Therefore, if they wanted to avoid disasters like this in the future, this couldn’t happen again.

“To be exact, it’s not just dangerous. It wasn’t ever meant to be allowed.”

I glanced at the chairman.

“He’s told you the general story, but there’s still a lot missing. The dimensional gate he found was a trap. One of the monsters admitted it earlier. If I hadn’t come, your world would’ve been wiped out.”

I made sure I emphasized the word “wiped out.”

There was no need to spell out every detail—leaving a few gaps would make the fear sink in deeper.

“The good news is, as long as you don’t reach beyond your world again, they won’t come back.”

After a deliberate and short pause, I continued, “If I had to give myself a title, I’d say I’m a guardian and a judge. And this may be the only chance I’ll get to step in. Please, don’t let your greed push you into reaching for things that aren’t yours.”

I didn’t skip out on warning them.

“There are countless beings out there in space. Some of them are gods, even if you don’t believe in them. Moreover, there are far more than you can imagine. Without one of your own to protect you, there’s no way for you to stand against them. Even if your resources are running low, keep living the life you have now.”

Some people would consider my actions as irresponsible, but there was no other way. This was the best I could offer.

“Until the day a god appears in this world.” I looked around and nodded to reinforce my point. “What the chairman and his leadership did with dimensional development may not technically be illegal. With the resources running dry, I’m sure many of you pinned your hopes on it. But sacrificing your people and your fellow citizens also can’t be considered legal.”

Now it was time to wrap things up.

“I’ll leave their punishment to you. Please judge them according to the laws of your world. That’s all.”

I had done everything I could.

Even I couldn’t know if the Void could launch another invasion since they now had the excuse of being attacked first.

However, with their apostle dead and their forces in retreat, it didn’t seem likely.

As I was turning to step out of the camera’s frame, the man behind me suddenly asked, “A-are you our god?”

I had brought him with me from the very first forward base to relay internal broadcasts throughout the facility. It sounded like he had asked that based on what he knew I had accomplished.

I turned back to face him.

“I-I just don’t understand. You summoned thousands of lightning bolts from a clear sky. You controlled shadows as well. But you say you’re not a god?”

At some point, the camera had turned toward me again.

“Well, it’s not something I get to choose. Maybe it could happen one day.”

“What do you mean, ‘it could happen’? Is it because we don’t have enough faith? Because we forgot the gods long ago? If we believe in you, will you become our god?”

I shrugged.

Even I didn’t know the answer to that.

The man added, almost to himself, “There’s footage from the forward base! The capital, too! If we show that to the people, their faith in you may—”

I listened quietly. It wasn’t a bad idea. No, more than that, it was actually a good one.

Even if I didn’t become this world’s god, if my actions spread widely enough, I could still gain divinity.

I had assumed that acquiring divinity in such a technologically advanced world would be more difficult, but perhaps it would be easier than expected. If the recordings remained, the legend could live on and be passed down through generations.

I said nothing and simply smiled.

Then, as if to confirm that this was the tower’s intention all along, a notification window appeared.

I shifted my gaze toward it.

In the hologram, it appeared as if I were staring off into the distance—not a bad way to make my exit.

[Congratulations. Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has conquered the eighty-third floor of the Tower of Ordeal, the Void. Achievement points will be calculated.]

***

[30 hours 21 minutes until the rest period ends. Please take a rest.]

In the thirty minutes since entering the waiting room, I had quickly cleaned up and entered the training hot spring.

The eighty-third floor hadn’t been especially dangerous. If anything, it felt like a warm-up for a more difficult trial.

Still, I had used a considerable amount of the divinity and mana I had gained, and my overheated circuits were only just now stabilizing.

Ha Hee-Jeong had yet to return to the waiting room. It seemed like the eighty-fourth floor was taking some time.

Then again, I had finished the trial rather quickly.

Hmm.

My thoughts were still stuck on the eighty-third floor. It wasn’t out of regret, but due to a sense of something left undone. The thought lingered that I could have explained it better or made a different choice.

Even after thinking it through again, no clear solution came to mind. Still, I reflected on it anyway because I felt like I would need to keep doing that from now on.

There is rarely ever a clear answer in life.

It was a thought I had formulated before. There was rarely such a thing as pure good or evil. Everyone had their reasons, circumstances, and backstories.

Each decision had been my own, but now, I wanted to revisit them with more care. There would only be more situations like this ahead.

The same went for the trials. Early on, most of them had been simple—survive.

Lately, though, things had changed. More often than not, I was asked to dig into the hidden truths of each world, to learn what happened, and then choose what to do.

If that was the direction the tower was heading, I needed to sharpen my judgment. Even if perfection wasn’t possible, I still wanted to do my best.

Now that I think about it, something doesn’t add up.

The tower always seemed to know everything, and that was true for the eighty-third floor, too. It knew which world had fallen into the trap and who had set it. It had all the answers.

So why doesn’t it just tell me everything outright? If it wanted me to save them, why did it hide that behind a hidden mission? Just to make it a hidden mission?

No, that didn’t feel right.

It reminded me of something I had thought of before, that the gods had joined forces to pressure the tower. Generally, I had noticed that high-class gods were the ones targeting other planets, and chances were, they weren’t doing it legally.

Perhaps it wasn’t that the tower chose to stay quiet, but that it didn’t have the freedom to speak. Perhaps all it could do was deliver the truth to me through hidden missions.

It seemed like a solid possibility.

That lines up with what I have been wondering about challengers.

Back before entering the tower, the tower’s message at a bar had mentioned something about a “law.”

Who came up with the rules that govern the gods and the tower?

It probably wasn’t the tower itself. Most likely, it was the gods. They were using those policies to keep the tower and the lesser gods in check.

A long time ago, back in the slums, a mad doctor had mentioned some primordial god.

This first god could have drawn some kind of boundary, and perhaps that was why the gods hadn’t completely crossed the line. That was probably why the tower buried things in hidden missions.

Now that I think about it, a lot of hidden missions are tied to saving people.

A chill ran through me.

Could the tower have been sending out calls for help all along? Perhaps the warm voice had only been free to speak the moment I became a challenger.

Come to think of it, a few gods had recognized me as a challenger by now.

Does that mean they all know?

The weight of the word challenger settled on me again.

If my guess is right, many gods will be hostile toward me.

If they had created the laws binding the tower and the worlds, they would have no reason to welcome someone like me. After all, they had established those laws to protect their own interests.

Assuming those laws needed a majority vote to pass, more than half of the gods were probably selfish. They likely didn’t see me in a good light.

I didn’t just have to watch out for gods whose plans I had ruined—including Kalain—but any god I didn’t know.

Aside from certain ones who had helped me, like my sponsor, Ha Hee-Jeong’s sponsor, and the gods like Fenrike and Paraktus who had gained something from me, any of the others could be enemies.

No, even my patron couldn’t be trusted completely, so even my own sponsor wasn’t off the table.

Master of the Five Carriage Wheels, though, who had sent Ha Hee-Jeong back in time, was clearly on our side.

However, Omniscient Thunder Axe’s position wasn’t as certain. I just didn’t have enough information to trust him blindly. The odds of him being my enemy were low, but he could still be hiding something.

I thought that Kalain would be the worst of them all.

It suddenly struck me how strange it was.

Come to think of it, Kalain had also been a challenger. Moreover, he had carried a powerful grudge, too.

After reaching the top of the tower, what kind of choice did he make?

There was no way he had bowed to the existing gods. The Kalain I had seen wouldn’t have done that. If he had, he never would have become a first-class god. Therefore, he had stood up to them in some way.

What does Master of the Five Carriage Wheels want from us?

I still didn’t know. The only thing I was sure of now was that there were at least three major forces at play.

Kalain, the existing gods, and Master of the Five Carriage Wheels.

Whatever was happening behind the scenes of the tower, I couldn’t even begin to guess.

I sank deeper into the water of the training hot spring.