Chapter 375

It would be fine if the counter stopped at three hundred thousand, but it did not stop there. It kept going up higher and higher until it was about to hit one million viewers.

[Alert: Your G-Tube streaming rank is too low!]

[Alert: You may no longer accept more viewers!]

Siegfried reached one million viewers in the blink of an eye, but he was not able to accept more viewers as he was still a noob streamer. The streaming platform would have increased his cap if he regularly streamed, but that was not the case.

Besides, it was nearly impossible for noob streamers to have one million, no, forget about one million, one thousand viewers on their first live stream.

“I-Is this for real?”

He was shocked after seeing the viewer counter reach one million as he did not expect so many people would be interested in watching his Sky Tower raid livestream.

“Hyung-nim! Jackpot! You hit the jackpot!” Seung-Gu exclaimed.

“Y-Yeah… I didn’t expect a million people to come watch…” Siegfried muttered while still in disbelief.

It was then.

—Gmanager007: Hello?

He received a message from one of the moderators of G-Tube.

—Gmanager007: Due to the sudden influx of viewers, we have temporarily increased your viewer cap to five million.

—Gmanager007: Happy streaming ^^;;

It seemed that the massive influx of viewers had raised a flag in the system, and one of the moderators immediately intervened.

‘But will I be able to fill five million people? I think just a few thousand more will come in, and that’s it,’ Siegfried found the moderator’s intervention to be unnecessary.

It was indeed amazing that he was able to garner one million viewers in an instant, but having more than that was plain impossible—

[Alert: You have exceeded two million viewers!]

[Alert: You have exceeded three million viewers!]

[Alert: You have exceeded four million viewers!]

[Alert: You have reached five million viewers!]

[Alert: You may no longer accept more viewers!]

Four million additional viewers entered his stream the moment the moderator increased his viewer cap to five million.

“W-What’s going on…? I’m scared…” Siegfried muttered while absolutely confused.

A new dungeon was indeed an amazing discovery, but he did not expect five million people to flock to his first-ever livestream.

However, there was one thing he did not take into consideration, and that was his fame.

Siegfried had made quite a name for himself after winning the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament and being crowned the first king among gamers, and he was the mastermind behind the demise of the mighty Genesis Guild. On top of that, he was also the one who had Chae Hyung-Seok's despicable deeds during a raid.

It was a given that people would flock to watch when the gamer shrouded behind a veil had suddenly announced that he was going to livestream. In addition, G-Tube had kind of advertised his live stream by placing him on the platform’s front page, which allowed him to instantly fill the increased five million viewer cap.

Five million was not a big number when taking into account that the game was being enjoyed by three hundred million people.

“I think you should greet the viewers, hyung-nim,” Seung-Gu said.

“I-I guess I should…” Siegfried replied awkwardly before he opened the interface tab and clicked on Smart Camera.

Wooong!

A camera the size of a baseball appeared from a magic circle and filmed Siegfried.

“Kyu! I see other Adventurers use that! What is that, owner punk?”

“This? It’s called a camera, but this is used to film me exclusively.”

“Kyu?!”

“If you say hello here, then it will erm… The people in the other world can see us through it. Of course, I can share the entire screen, but that’s going to be in third person view, so…”

“Kyu?! What are you talking about?”

“Just think of it as greeting someone,” Siegfried said before he looked into the camera and greeted, “H-Hello.”

This was his first time livestreaming, so he looked extremely awkward.

“Nice to meet you. Ah, so… Hmm… Thank you for tuning in and…”

It was then…

[Alert: JanJanBody has donated 100 US Dollars!]

A viewer donated one hundred United States Dollars to him.

“Ah! Thank you, JanJanBody-nim—“ Siegfried was about to thank the viewer, but he was stunned by what followed.

[Alert: Alcantara has donated 2 US Dollars!]

[Alert: 911 has donated 9 US Dollars!]

[Alert: Zingers has donated 300 US Dollars!]

[Alert: HwanYi has donated 1,000 US Dollars!]

[Alert: Din:( has donated 20 US Dollars!]

Hundreds of viewers started donating left and right, making it difficult for Siegfried to thank every single one of them.

“Erm… That is…”

Thanks to that, he started stuttering like a lagging computer or a buffering video.

“Why don’t you just do what you planned to do, hyung-nim? I don’t think you can thank every single one of them…”

“S-Should I do that?”

“I mean, you don’t plan to become a full-time streamer, right? Also, it’s not like you’re desperate for money too…”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Siegfried listened to Seung-Gu’s advice and posted an announcement stating that he could not thank everyone due to the sheer volume of donations before heading to the entrance of the Sky Tower.

“I’m going to focus on the raid without making any speeches,” Siegfried said before he inserted the key he received from Amundsen into the keyhole of the Sky Tower’s entrance.

Creak…!

Then, the gigantic doors of the Sky Tower opened.

“I’ll go in first,” Siegfried told his comrades as he entered the Sky Tower.

Creak…!

Thud!

The doors closed shut behind him as he entered the Sky Tower.

***

“What?!” Siegfried exclaimed in disbelief.

[Sky Tower: First Floor]

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

“What’s going on?! Hey!” he banged his fists on the doors, to no avail.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Not only did the doors not budge an inch, but there were no keyholes on the inside. The doors were also so thick that he could not hear any sound from the outside.

“A-Am I trapped…?” Siegfried nervously muttered.

“It’s no use.”

“Hiiik! You scared me!” Siegfried jumped and screamed before he squinted his eyes and asked, “W-Who are you?”

The torches within the tower lit up one by one, revealing the owner of the voice. It was an old man with his eyes covered by a blindfold, and Siegfried discreetly flashed his Rune of Insight at the man.

[Wurttemberg Carrera]

[An Ancient Legendary Blacksmith]

[He is a blacksmith, alchemist, and magician who first came up with the concept of artifacts.]

[Type: Super Named NPC]

[Level: 500]

[Class: God of Smith]

[Titles: N/A (Forgotten by people over time)]

The old man turned out to be a Legendary Blacksmith who had been forgotten by people and whose name no longer existed on the continent.

“A-a legendary Blacksmith?” Siegfried muttered to himself without thought, and this sent the chat room into a frenzy.

Most gamers would immediately think of a blacksmith as someone who crafted powerful items, and it was understandable why the chat room would go into a frenzy at the old man’s title.

Of course, Siegfried felt like going crazy as well.

‘Oh! A Legendary Blacksmith! He might sell some pretty powerful items!’ he exclaimed inwardly while expecting to obtain powerful artifacts from the NPC.

“G-Greetings…!”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Wurttemberg.”

“My name is Siegfried van Proa.”

“Van Proa? So you’re royalty.”

“Well, yes, I am royalty.”

“Why would a royal be here? I don’t think this tower is a place for people of precious lineage like you.”

“That is…”

Siegfried proceeded to explain his reason for coming here.

“I stumbled upon the key to this place, and I came to see what this tower exactly is. As far as I know, the ancient people created this to reach the heavens and—“

“Nonsense.”

“Pardon?”

“How can mere mortals reach the heavens by building a tower?”

“…”

“They would’ve been better off creating a floating island to fly up. Am I wrong?”

“I-I guess…?”

Siegfried couldn't retort to what Wurttemberg said. The ancient people were not stupid and had no reason to invest decades of their time constructing this tower just to reach the heavens. Of course, some might think it was possible the ancient people did try to reach the heavens with this structure, as the people of old tended to be that naïve.

However, that did not seem to be the case based on what Wurttemberg was saying.

“Then what is the purpose of this tower?”

“This tower can be considered as a training facility.”

“A training facility?”

“It’s the training facility of the empire’s young knights.”

“Why would they build a training facility like this…” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

Was there really a need to build such a huge training facility just for some young knights?

“You probably think they’re a bunch of imbeciles, right?”

“Yes,” Siegfried sincerely replied.

Why?

Because he sincerely thought they were a bunch of imbeciles!

It didn't make sense to invest so much time and money spent to build this huge training facility just for a few young knights.

“They are imbeciles. This tower was built by the Romanoff Empire to train their young knights, and they benefitted quite a lot from it.”

“And…?”

“Those young knights were called Graduates, and they were the pillars of the Romanoff Empire. No, I guess you can say they were more than pillars. After all, the Graduates were the symbol of the Romanoff Empire.

“Is that why they built this tower? For them?”

“Yes, the empire believed they could make their Graduates take one step forward through this tower, but…” Wurttemberg said before he smirked and continued, “The Romanoff Empire spent a significant portion of their coffers building this tower, and they were forced to close this place just three years after it was completed.”

“Why? They should have made full use of it after wasting all that time and money—“

“The Romanoff Empire fell.”

“Oh?”

“The empire declined due to the construction of this tower, and they had failed to stop their enemy’s invasion.”

“…”

“Aren’t they stupid?”

“I guess they put the horse before the carriage. It would have been a hundred—no, a thousand times better if they spent all that time and money on other things.”

“Exactly,” Wurttemberg replied with a nod and added, “But what’s the point of regretting it now? The empire fell, and this tower has been sealed for millennia.”

“I see…”

“Anyway, welcome to the tower.”

“Thank you.”

“You will be forced to challenge this tower now that you’ve entered.”

“What do you mean by challenge?”

“Simple. You will climb the tower and face the strong people on each floor,” Wurttemberg started to explain the rules of the tower.

Ding!

Then, a message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Climbing the Sky Tower]

[Ascend to the top floor of the tower!]

[Defeat the owners of each floor to ascend to the next floor.]

[Type: Hardcore Quest]

[Progress: 0%]

[Reward: Martial Spirit]

[Note 1: You will obtain the quest reward Martial Spirit after defeating the owner of the ninety-ninth floor Commodus.]

[Note 2: It is not possible to give up this quest before the thirtieth floor.]

[Note 3: You may purchase a special item from Wurttemberg with the Martial Spirit!]

“You may only leave this place alive after reaching the thirtieth floor. Then, you will be given a choice to continue or give up every ten floors after the thirtieth floor. Feel free to give up and return here on the thirtieth, fortieth, fiftieth, sixtieth, seventieth, eightieth, and ninetieth floor.”

“Oh?”

“And you will obtain an item called Essence of the Strong every time you defeat a floor’s owner. If you collect that essence and bring it to me, then…”

Another quest popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.