Chapter 444: Ninety-Third Floor, Waiting Room (2)

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

By now, I was used to Natalie’s habit of answering questions before I even asked them.

Without much hesitation, I added, “Really? So I don’t need to worry about them at all?”

“Yes. Just think of them as tools that will be helpful in the future. You won’t have to accumulate debtors the way Eternal Feast did. You can simply use them when necessary. Also, their deadlines are still a ways off.”

“

Oh?

Can you actually see the contents of the contracts?”

From the way she spoke, Natalie seemed to know the details of the debts I had inherited.

She nodded. “To some extent.”

Whereas I could only sense them faintly, as a dimensional witch, she could apparently perceive them in far greater detail. I was curious about that information, but before I could speak, Natalie shook her head. My expression had given my thoughts away.

Since she had made her stance clear, I didn’t press further. If it wasn’t possible, then that was that. The contents weren’t what mattered most anyway.

“So, to summarize, I can use them once I conquer the tower?”

“Yes. I’ll also handle the debt collection process, so you won’t need to worry about that either.”

Even so, I couldn’t help but feel a flicker of unease. Eternal Feast was a third-class god, yet the debtors had betrayed him. The memory of his furious face was still vivid in my mind.

“Just to be sure, can I call in those debts whenever I want? What if they refuse to pay?”

“That won’t be an issue. The contracts are certified by the tower. The penalties for failing to repay on time are enormous. It’s far better for them to settle the debt.”

“Will they really repay them properly, though? Just look at Eternal Feast’s circumstance.”

“What happened on the ninety-second floor occurred due to the trial’s special conditions. The tower itself intervened.”

Sensing that I still wasn’t sure, Natalie added that even if deadlines remained, reducing the amount of debt being repaid still guaranteed some return. Gods could petition for adjustments, but the tower rarely approved them.

Hearing this, I was convinced. It was exactly as I had suspected—the tower had interfered on the ninety-second floor. It was only natural. Against a third-class god, if the tower hadn’t provided even that level of support, the fight would have been impossible to begin with.

Eternal Feast’s fury now seemed all the more understandable. If the contracts were so flimsy, he never would have placed faith in them.

Natalie continued, “Besides, Omniscient Thunder Axe stands behind you. With the tower’s certification, ignoring the contracts is simply impossible. And since they’re gods, they’ll inevitably be of use.”

She wasn’t wrong. Unlike Eternal Feast, who had fallen into the tower’s trap, I had solid backing. Whatever form it took, support was still support. Having it was far preferable to having nothing at all.

Although my initial doubts had been settled, a different question soon rose in their place.

“Then how did Eternal Feast manage to acquire so many debtors when the restrictions are so strict?”

Considering the thousands of years he had lived, it hadn’t seemed unusual at first. On second thought, however, the situation was less straightforward. If I were a god, I never would have signed such contracts. Which could only mean that Eternal Feast’s skill at negotiation was far greater than I had assumed, though the specifics on how he had accomplished it over and over remained a mystery.

As I wondered, Natalie calmly explained as if it were obvious, “Eternal Feast proved his reliability a very long time ago.”

“Reliability?”

“It means he never forced repayments or abused the agreements. He would accept only a tiny amount of interest and extend the contracts instead.”

“So essentially, what he built at his own expense is now something we’re reaping.”

On Earth, it was no different from a low-interest loan with virtually no risk. For gods seeking his help, it would have been ideal.

Natalie smiled and nodded. “That’s exactly right.”

For the time being, the matter of the debts was resolved. It wasn’t something I needed to think about immediately. After all, I couldn’t even do anything until after I conquered the tower. Also, even then, Natalie would manage them.

With that in mind, I shifted the subject, “So what exactly happened to the Eternal Feast? Did he get punished because he messed with causality?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing else?”

“Not as far as I know. He experimented with the research that appeared in your trial, and the tower caught him for it.”

That much I had already suspected, though I still harbored doubts. “The tower didn’t intervene in another way, did it?”

“Well...” Natalie trailed off. It wasn’t that she was trying to hide anything; she just wasn’t certain, either. “I can’t say for sure. It doesn’t seem like it acted directly. Perhaps it hoped things would unfold that way, but that’s all.”

It seemed like Natalie’s conclusion wasn’t far from mine, and to be honest, only the tower knew the truth. Even she couldn’t know everything.

Natalie changed the subject with a faint smile, “Anyway, you really did well. Even with his strength restricted, facing a god couldn’t have been easy.”

“Come on. I defeated Endless Furnace, too, didn’t I?”

“But Eternal Feast was a third-class god.”

“Well, that’s true.”

It had been difficult. I didn’t ever want to experience someone blasting a hole through my chest again. For a moment, I hadn’t even been able to breathe.

By this point, we had said all that needed saying about the trial. When Natalie gestured, Gehenna and Hyang, who had been waiting in the distance, approached.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

I raised my hand. “Hyang, how have you been?”

“Good!” Hyang nodded from behind Gehenna, her face bright and delighted at my arrival.

It was a welcome change, evidence of the familiarity we had established.

I smiled back at her, then met Gehenna’s gaze. “You did well this time.”

“What do you mean? You bore most of the burden. For me, it was a chance to stretch my limbs.”

“Really? Then how about training together later?”

I planned to bestow divinity upon Gehenna and Hyang, stop briefly by the forest, and then begin training. At present, only Gehenna and Poong-Wol could provide me with any real assistance. The fairies weren’t fighters, nor did I wish to involve them. They were tied to the forest. Natalie and Hyang weren’t suitable for combat either. That left Poong-Wol, a divine beast who was more on the supportive side, and Gehenna, the only one who could fight directly by my side. With the future trials uncertain, I needed to push Gehenna’s training further.

Whether or not she had grasped my intent, Gehenna readily nodded. “Sure.”

***

[3 minutes 48 seconds until the rest period ends. Please take a rest.]

Time in the waiting room passed in a dull rhythm of training and rest. Even then, I trimmed my breaks whenever possible, devoting myself to practice. Honestly, I even wished for more time to train. Four days simply weren’t enough to sort through all the insights I had gained from my battle with Eternal Feast.

Still, the results weren’t bad.

I had firmly mastered Heart Sword and discovered several new applications. I had also grown more adept at using causality. The fact that it was too precious to waste had actually helped me. Straining to extract even the smallest fragment of its power had forced me to improve.

Although I was still far from satisfied, I wasn’t disappointed. Given how briefly I had trained, it was a considerable achievement.

During my breaks, I did nothing but sleep.

I didn’t really like wasting time, but with none of the climbers to talk to, that tendency became even more pronounced. Glancing through the Community, which no longer received any new posts, had only occupied me for a short while. Without Ha Hee-Jeong, there was no one to reach out to either.

Perhaps excluding the climbers was the tower’s way of urging me to devote myself more wholly to the trials.

Not that I have idled.

In the end, training was the best way for me to pass my time, and I taught Gehenna as well.

I checked my gear. It was time to ascend to the ninety-third floor. I didn’t know what kind of trial awaited me. After facing Eternal Feast, I often found myself wondering how the tower was going to top that. Even with his strength restricted, he had been a third-class god.

Can my next opponent really be that much more powerful?

It made me suspect that the next trial involved wit rather than brute power. However, it was absurd to think every floor beyond the ninety-third would test only the mind.

Eternal Feast couldn’t be the only god who had messed with causality or committed some other crime. I would always have to be on guard for the next godly opponent, and when they did, the battle would be grueling.

I steadied my breath. It was time.

“Send me to the next floor.”

Just like normal, I was enveloped by a sensation of weightlessness. Hovering in a void, it took a few moments for the message to appear.

[Welcome to the ninety-third floor of the Tower of Ordeal: The Swamp of Time.]

[Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has been trapped in a world that will be destroyed in two seconds. Escape the world. Time remaining: 2 seconds.]

[Warning: Spatial skills can not be used.]

The warning flashed just as my vision brightened. The floating sensation vanished, and the ground met my feet. However, my body locked up. So did my mind. It felt as if my brain had gone blank. The world was set to collapse in only two seconds. Even with Clarity of Mind, I couldn’t suppress the jolt of panic.

[Time remaining: 1 second]

Damn it.

By the time I regained my focus, one second had already slipped by. I immediately activated Flash Strike, but didn’t stop there and layered the skill another three times. I poured out everything I had. Half the allotted time was already gone, and the rest I would have to wring dry.

It bought me another heartbeat to think, but time still flowed even within Flash Strike. I had triggered it almost exactly on the second, but the whole second had transformed into decimals.

Spatial skills are prohibited? Fuck.

I tried opening a portal, but of course, it didn’t work. I cast the thought aside. Recalling Poong-Wol’s ability to slip through spatial rifts, I summoned him, but no sign of his arrival appeared. The same was true for Gehenna and Natalie.

Escape the world.

How was I supposed to escape with less than two seconds?

I swept my gaze around me, but there was nothing—no people, no cities, only a barren plain. The reddish-brown expanse stretched beneath me, broken only by scattered stone pillars.

What should I do?

Factoring in the time I had already wasted thinking, there was barely any left. The pressure was suffocating.

Is this really the end?

My chest tightened from anxiety, and it felt like acid was burning a hole through my stomach. Grinding my teeth, I spread my senses outward. I felt nothing. Not a single presence stirred.

I skimmed the message again in desperation.

A perishing world. What will destroy it, though? Can it be avoided?

If I moved, perhaps I would find something. Unfortunately, my instincts didn’t even give the slightest hint.

There isn’t any time left.

My only option was to flee whatever form destruction took.

I kicked off from the location I had been summoned to and hurled myself forward. I activated my Lightning Transformation, and in an instant, I charged forward two hundred meters.

Thud.

A dull crash rang out from behind me, and the ground began trembling in its wake.

Kwoooong!

Then came the explosion.

The world turned crimson. A firestorm erupted, vast as dozens of skyscrapers fused into one. The earth convulsed, and my vision wavered. Even with Flash Strike, the explosion didn’t appear slow.

What the fuck.

I sprinted forward, desperate to outrun the apocalypse. It was futile. The inferno surged faster than I could move—even after stacking Flash Strike four times—all the while carrying a crushing force.

Can divinity mixed with causality withstand it?

There was no time to weigh the question. As the flames engulfed me, I raised a barrier.

Boom!

The impact rattled me, and the shield lasted only a single second. When it shattered, the fire consumed me, and I reappeared in a familiar location. My spawn point on this floor.

A message rose before my eyes.

[Escape the world. Time remaining: 2 seconds.]