Chapter 9: Dimension Gate

“Sir, what do you mean… This isn’t fair! You know it takes forever to collect points by killing those worthless monsters. Please, don’t take them for granted!” Baek Hyun cried out.

“Hey, Baek Hyun, I’m giving this to you at this price because it’s you. You know I’m Hwang Kang-Woong, who’s also called Antoni Gaudi of this place!” Hwang Kang-Woong replied.

“But still, I think it’s too much to ask for 10,000 points. Killing one Skeleton only gives me 5 points! I only get 50 points for going around the entire first floor! That means I need to go around the floor two hundred times!” Baek Hyun yelled.

“Ha… Alright, alright! I’ll give you a discount because it’s you. Just give me 8,000 points then,” Hwang Kang-Woong offered.

Hwang Kang-Woong and Baek Hyun were having a scuffle in a large room on the 10th floor—the top floor. There were models and frameworks of various kinds of buildings installed in the large room. Besides, there were large maps and topography simulations all over the place.

“Mr. Hwang Kang-Woong, I’m Baek Hyun, the best sword mage on the first floor. Are you sure you won’t regret it later?” Baek Hyun asked.

“Keum!” Hwang Kang-Woong cleared his throat and thought for a bit.

“Do you really think you can get out of the first floor?” Hwang Kang-Woong had to consider the future, rather than just looking at what was there right now.

“Yes, of course. That’s what master told me,” Baek Hyun replied in a serious tone.

“To be honest, I think it might never be possible for you to leave the first floor,” Hwang Kang-Woong said in a subdued voice.

Baek Hyun nodded at his words because he also thought that Hwang Kang-Woong was quite reasonable. The challengers had thought that Lee Shin was so strong that no matter how much stronger the challengers became, Lee Shin would still be out of their league.

The tower had chosen Lee Shin as the boss of the first floor. Therefore, he could not leave the first floor. That meant the challengers could never get out of there too.

Baek Hyun did not want to lose his last hope. “But… The boss said it would be possible.”

“Yeah… But you also have to consider that he is a subordinate of the tower,” Hwang Kang-Woong argued.

“Isn’t that the same for us? We are stuck here in this first-floor waiting area too,” Baek Hyun countered.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Hwang Kang-Woong.

Baek Hyun decided to stop arguing with him. He knew that Hwang Kang-Woong’s point was perfectly logical. Lee Shin was a human made by the system of the tower; and in fact, whatever he said could have already been formulated according to the character rules set by the tower.

However, Baek Hyun, who had faced him several times, could not believe that Lee Shin was an artificial human being made by the tower. He was as human as any of the challengers there.

“But, even if you get to leave the first floor just like he said, that doesn’t mean you’ll become a ranker in the future,” Hwang Kang-Woong argued.

“You're right, but none of the challengers on the first floor have become as strong as us. I know we can break the record for every floor with an outstanding performance.” Baek Hyun’s words were also reasonable.

Countless people had already entered the waiting area on the first floor, and the number had already reached hundreds. And among them, Baek Hyun, who was standing in front of him, was undoubtedly one of the best.

“Okay, fine. Just give me 5,000 points, but no less than that,” Hwang Kang-Woong asked for a lower amount.

“Wow, thanks! I agree that you’re Antoni Gaudi of Korea! Please take good care of it! When the training ground is complete and I get stronger, I’ll support you on my way to the top. Haha!” Baek Hyun replied in an excited voice.

“That’s enough. You should get going,” said Hwang Kang-Woong

“Well, have a great day!” Baek Hyun left the room.

Hwang Kang-Woong stood up from his seat and approached the window to take a look at the village that was created in the waiting area on the first floor. It could no longer even be called a village. It got much bigger and received more residents, so it was considered a small town now.

The vast land had no owner, but there was everything in the Points Store. Moreover, the prices of ordinary furniture materials, food, or other products were not very high. In addition, the mountains, trees, and numerous types of stones in the rocky areas a distance away supplemented the building materials.

Hwang Kang-Woong, who never got tired, accelerated the construction process. When he first entered the tower, he was shocked that he could not climb it because the boss on the first floor was too strong. However, he got used to that fact quickly. He was more interested in the vast land and the odd-looking wooden houses and the furniture in several places. The open land where more people could live had caught his attention.

The people who lived there were modern people, and they wanted to recreate the environment in which they used to live. Hwang Kang-Woong could satisfy their needs.

Seeing his creations fill this place one by one made him more excited than climbing the tower. And after building many structures, he got the title ‘Architect of the Wilderness.’ By now, he had become the city’s richest and most outstanding architect in this village.

“Kang-Woong, did you really want to climb the tower, or did you just want to run away?” Hwang Kang-Woong muttered, his tone a bit resentful.

***

December was approaching and it had been almost a year since Lee Shin got his memory back. People on Earth, who were unaware of the situation inside the tower, had been waiting for the information on the tower from challengers who would come out of the Dimension Gate.

[The Dimension Gate opens 3 days from today.]

[On which floor would the challengers be right now?]

[Experts expect Cha Yu-Min to be on the 75th floor by now…]

[Even for Cha Yu-Min, people are thinking it would be difficult to reach the 80th floor.]

[How high did the challengers, who went in this year, climb?]

[Who is this year’s supernova?]

[The public transportation is already congested because everyone is gathering at Gwanghwamun.]

South Korea had already begun releasing all kinds of news articles on the Internet while waiting for the challengers to come out of the tower. Most of the articles were on how high South Korea's No. 1 challenger Cha Yu-Min had climbed. In addition, they were interested in what new items the challengers would bring from the tower.

Among them, there were quite a few people who wondered how high the new challengers who entered this year went, and whether a new supernova would come out this year. People on Earth could never guess what kind of news the challengers would bring.

It was a dangerous gamble to climb the tower. However, it could also be an opportunity to reverse one’s fate. The moment a person who reached the 50th floor came back to Earth, he or she would become the top predator on Earth and the hottest topic in the world as well.

However, there were countless people who had died in the process of going up to the 50th floor. In addition, there were quite a few people who could not progress further inside the tower and simply stayed there.

It had become normal for the challengers inside the tower to feel devastated and frustrated on hearing the news that their families had passed away. For the challengers inside the tower, the ones who could emerge from the tower were the messengers and witnesses of their legacy to their families outside. So, upon hearing such news, some tried to escape reality. However, there were others who decided to continue climbing the tower so that they could return to Earth to find their family, to confirm the news with their own eyes, or to get their revenge on the tower.

Nevertheless, people were willing to throw themselves into the gamble of climbing the tower. The prospect of gaining that absurd power after reaching the 50h floor was more attractive than anything else.

[Only one day left until the opening of the Dimension Gate!]

[What kind of miracle will the challengers bring this time?]

[How high did Cha Yu-Min, Shin Chang-Ho, and Shin Ji-Won get to?]

[The entire world is paying attention to Korea! Has the top ranker changed?]

[Shedding new light on Jonathan’s remark from last year in the U.S.! ‘Mr. Cha will not make it to the 80th floor.’]

[Would Vergo, England’s supernova, reach the 50th floor within 3 years?]

The opening of Dimension Gate was a significant event for every country around the world. The heat reached its peak when there was only one day left before the opening of the Dimension Gate. The whole world was on fire when the gates of each country opened. Among them, Korea was the most passionate.

***

[Exclusive! All of Korea’s challengers from this year are missing!]

[No news from any challengers on the first floor!]

[Is there a change in the tower? Did the difficulty level of the first floor change?]

[What is the truth behind the tower? Is it a bug or an error in the Korean tower?]

Korea was literally in chaos. The number of people who entered the tower in the past year was 978. However, not even a single person managed to climb up from the first floor. It meant more than just the disappearance or death of a person.

[Why did so many Korean challengers go missing?]

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

[Other countries around the world say, ‘There is no problem.’]

[The stagnation in Korea’s top rankers and challengers in the tower.]

[Korea, which was one of the top five countries in the 20th-floor national war, is falling off a cliff.]

[Will Korea collapse like this?]

[Is it just Korea? Or is this the beginning of the chaos?]

All the world’s attention was on Korea. Not only did Korean reporters gather, but reporters from other countries also began to assemble.

Gwanghwamun was literally swarming with people. The government was paralyzed, unable to deal with the situation and create order. People from all over the world contacted the government. However, the government was overwhelmed just trying to understand what was going on.

└ What is happening? Is this for real?

└ Shit! Korea is messed up now. It’s all ruined!

└ Then, what’s happening to the people who went in this year? There’s no way they could not break through the first floor!

└ The first floor is just a tutorial though. It does not make sense that they couldn’t break it… But I mean, considering that no one out of the 978 people came out, there could really be a problem in the tower. I guess the tower game is over now.

└ I think this is just the beginning. It started in Korea, but it will soon happen in other countries starting next year.

└ It’s the end!

***

It had been a week since the Dimension Gate opened. Normally, it was a time when the heat should have subsided a little. However, the interest had grown even more. That was because Cha Yu-Min returned to Earth a week after the Dimension Gate had opened. Besides, he was severely injured.

Those who waited for Cha Yu-Min, the top ranker, to come out of the Gwanghwamun spread the news all over the world as soon as he appeared.

Every word spoken by Cha Yu-Min was a scoop. In a situation where rumors were rampant, Cha Yu-Min’s words were the only oasis in the desert.

Click! Click! Click! Click!

The Gwanghwamun resounded with the clicks of camera shutters. A lot of questions were asked of Cha Yu-Min, but he did not give any answers.

“I will hold a press conference in 2 days,” Cha Yu-Min started his speech.

At Cha Yu-Min’s words, the noisy crowd became quiet in an instant.

“I am aware that Korea is in a mess right now. But, it’s not only Korea. The whole world is going crazy.” Every word that came out of his mouth was very calm.

His words were delivered very clearly even though he did not shout.

“I went to the first floor.” Cha Yu-Min’s words rippled through the crowd in a way that was beyond one’s imagination.