Chapter 351 – Ironshield

When the space shattered, Gi-Gyu found himself on the 79th floor of the Tower.

[You have entered the 79th floor.]

As usual, Gaia’s voice rang in his ears. This was a normal occurrence whenever a player entered a new floor.

‘

Gaia.’?

Gi-Gyu thought about her, certain that she had summoned him in the dimensional gap.

“Was she asking for help?” Only Gi-Gyu had entered the space, and the Angel Guild members had been transferred to the next floor.

“I think I get it now.” He realized that something was wrong with Gaia.

‘

But why?’?

She was a God-like existence. She may have been exiled to the Tower, forced to maintain it forever, but she had stolen God’s power and had embraced Chaos. Using her unimaginable power, she had given humans the ability to fight monsters.

“This isn’t the time to be thinking about these things.” Gi-Gyu stopped his train of thought. He was here for a particular reason, so he had no time to waste when he was already late enough.

“I guess it’s over there.” The first group Gi-Gyu found was the Angela Guild players.

“Deputy guild master!”

“Please wake up!”

“Keep supplying magic!”

“We must survive!”

The Angela Guild members screamed.

***

“Where are we?” Kang Ji-Hee looked around and asked. A moment ago, that monstrous man had solved the door-blocked problem by simply destroying the door. And since they had the same goal, they had then jumped into the exposed entrance.

They needed to get to the next floor.

But when they arrived, the Angela Guild players couldn’t hide their fear, confusion, and despair.

“Deputy guild master…” one male player whispered. “Is this… really the 79th floor?”

Everyone gaped in shock.

Kang Ji-Hee muttered, “This doesn’t make sense…”

Unlike what was known to the world, the Angela Guild had successfully conquered many of the higher Tower floors. Not just that, but they often crossed the 79th floor to deliver supplies to the two deputies and the White Warriors. So they knew the 79th floor very well.

“Put up your barriers!” Kang Ji-Hee yelled. This floor didn’t look like the 79th floor they frequented. Their experience told them that this was a dangerous place.

“What… happened here?!” Kang Ji-Hee wondered out loud. Since the barriers were now active, she could study her surroundings. The black fires around them died down.

“Is this really possible?” one of the players whispered. All of them were thinking the same thing.

‘

I don’t know,’?

Kang Ji-Hee thought in despair. She didn’t have any answers for her fellow guild members.

The players began shouting desperately.

“The 79th floor is collapsing…”

“It’s hard enough just standing here. The pressure is too much!”

“All of us are losing our stamina!”

“The barrier isn’t going to last!”

The ground underneath was caving but not from an earthquake.

‘

It feels like something is eating up the floor.’?

Kang Ji-Hee could no longer feel the ground as if it had disappeared. Vacuity filled the area around.

Just then, they saw someone flying toward them in the sky.

***

Gi-Gyu announced, “I guess all of you made it.”

Thankfully, the Angela Guild members didn’t raise their weapons again.

What they had experienced just now couldn’t have been common, yet they hadn’t panicked. They had been trained well enough not to confuse their allies with enemies.

“...” Kang Ji-Hee couldn’t speak. ‘

I could feel he was powerful, but this is…’?

Kang Ji-Hee continued to study Gi-Gyu. Because of their previous battle, she knew he was powerful, but she now had another question.

‘

Is he even human?’?

The way he had flown toward them was an incredible sight. And Gi-Gyu didn’t seem surprised by how the 79th floor looked. He also wasn’t affected by the dark energy that filled this place. He looked around as if he were in an exciting neighborhood.

‘

I’ve never seen someone so powerful except for the guild master.’?

Kang Ji-Hee was so deep in her thoughts that she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. Just then, an explosion occurred far away, but she couldn’t even tell how far away this explosion was.

Kaboom!

Dun dun dun dun dun.

The ground around the barrier resumed shattering.

“We need to keep moving,” Gi-Gyu announced, making Kang Ji-Hee jolt.

“Ah… Of course,” she replied.

“Can you move? If you don’t wish to, you can stay here. I’ll inject my energy into the barrier, so it should last until the battle ends,” Gi-Gyu offered.

“But this place is collapsing,” Kang Ji-Hee replied. “Even if the barrier lasts, we’ll end up isolated if we stay. And we also can’t leave since I can’t see the entrance anymore.”

‘

If we don’t follow this man, we might get stuck here forever.’?

Kang Ji-Hee was trembling in fear.

This place was in the middle of nowhere. If Gi-Gyu didn’t return, only death would take them away from here. Kang Ji-Hee was anxious, and Gi-Gyu could feel every bit of it.

‘

Just how did this woman become a deputy guild master of the Angela Guild?’?

Gi-Gyu wondered. He had sensed how nervous she had been on the 78th floor, and her nervousness had only increased since then.

As a deputy guild master of the Angela Guild—the world’s greatest guild—Kang Ji-Hee lacked in many ways. It wasn’t about power; she had enough potential. However, her mental state was fragile. It was evident that she couldn’t endure all the confusion around her. The other Angela Guild members here were comparatively much calmer.

“Deputy Guild Master, are you okay?!” The Angela Guild players seemed to see Kang Ji-Hee as a source of emotional comfort rather than an actual leader.

‘

They aren’t blindly following her. They don’t expect her to make all the decisions,’?

Gi-Gyu thought in confusion.

“We’ll go with you,” Kang Ji-Hee decided quickly.

‘

Well, at least she’s decisive.’?

Gi-Gyu nodded.

Just then, they saw the ground, which had been collapsing, changing again.

“Huh? It’s returning to normal?” Kang Ji-Hee and the Angela Guild members stared at Gi-Gyu in shock. Gi-Gyu had his hand raised and was emanating strange energy. He was seemingly doing the impossible task of restoring the ground.

While they stared in awe, Gi-Gyu explained, “I can’t maintain the ground for too long. You need to move fast. I’ll go ahead first.”

“Pardon?” Kang Ji-Hee still looked dazed.

Fwoosh!

Before she could say anything else, Gi-Gyu’s shoes shone, and he disappeared into the sky.

“Deputy Guild Master! We must go now!” a guild member shouted. It was only then that Kang Ji-Hee could finally think again.

“Let’s move out!” she ordered.

***

‘

I can’t abandon the Angela Guild.’?

Gi-Gyu decided. Kang Ji-Hee and the Angela Guild players were a burden to him. If he abandoned them, they would die eventually. But he refused to do this for one reason.

‘

I need to meet Lee Sun-Ho.’?

Gi-Gyu kept them safe because only they could lead him to Lee Sun-Ho. Gi-Gyu could’ve read their minds after forcing them to sync with him.

‘

But something feels unstable.’?

The power Lee Sun-Ho held was a mystery. Harming his guild members before a big upcoming battle was an unnecessary risk. Gi-Gyu decided to get the necessary information from them after resolving the current situation.

‘

And I’ll keep taking them with me, or I’ll sync with them if necessary.’?

It would all depend on the level of the Angela Guild member’s cooperativeness.

‘

Lee Sun-Ho is an important piece of the puzzle.’?

Gi-Gyu felt sure that the change in the Tower and Gaia had something to do with Lee Sun-Ho.

“But even more importantly… This place is really collapsing.” Thanks to Hermes, Gi-Gyu flew faster than modern airplanes that ran on magic crystals. Still, the explosions seemed far away.

Kaboom!

He had refused to look confused in front of Kang Ji-Hee and the others, but he was actually having difficulty understanding the current situation. This was his first time on the 79th floor, but he could sense something was wrong. After all, a certain energy occupied every floor of the Tower, but that energy was very subtle here.

‘

Instead, it’s filled with Chaos.’?

Gi-Gyu was surprised by the amount of Chaos here. He had never seen a floor like this in the Tower; he got a strong feeling that something was devouring this entire floor.

Gi-Gyu could come up with one explanation.

‘It might be Ironshield.’?

Gi-Gyu had been told that Ironshield had gained the ability to prey on anything. Since Ironshield had been spotted on this floor, the current strange situation must be connected to him somehow.

Gi-Gyu felt a little nervous, but at the same time, he was grateful to his synced creatures. He was especially thankful to Hal, the head of the Drake-Knight Order. Gi-Gyu could feel that they had gotten stronger and were fighting bravely.

As Gi-Gyu sprinted forward, all he saw was terrible destruction around him. This couldn’t have been just Ironshield’s doing. This must have happened due to Ironshield’s fight with the unknown player.

“Kwerrrk!” Suddenly, Gi-Gyu heard a monstrous roar. He knew that he was getting close. He didn’t stop or slow down, even when he caught a glimpse of a few familiar figures.

All he did was put his intense emotions in his fist and rush toward the battlefield of dragons, knights, and a giant.

“Kwerrrk!” The giant swatted the powerful dragons as if they were flies. But the knights didn’t cower away. It appeared that they were protecting someone because they swarmed toward the giant, who was so much bigger.

The dragons kept falling to the ground from being slapped by the giant, but the head of the order commanded, “Get up! Our master gave you more power than you think!”

“Yaaahhhh!” The knights and the dragons rose again with a yell to fight the giant. They jumped into fires and Chaos without fear.

Just then, the man who looked like the head of all knights pulled the reins of his black dragon and screamed, “Grandmaster!”

Kaboom!

A loud explosion occurred, and the dragons and the knights became silent. In front of them stood Gi-Gyu, who was covered in the mangled flesh of the giant. Gi-Gyu announced, “Sorry I’m late.”

“Kyaaaaa!” This time, the scream didn’t come from the knights or the dragons—it came from the giant. It was big enough to bring about the apocalypse, but it now had a huge hole in its chest because of Gi-Gyu’s attack.

“Grandmaster! We have been waiting for you,” Hal replied.

“Good job, Hal.” Gi-Gyu stood next to Hal.

The Dark Dragon was trembling in fear of Gi-Gyu, who was unintentionally emitting bloodthirst. It didn’t fear the giant, but it obviously felt intimidated by Gi-Gyu.

“Hal.”

“Grandmaster. I am at your command,” Hal knelt and replied. Meanwhile, the giant was thumping its chest as if in pain. But the giant appeared to have a fantastic regeneration power because the hole in its chest was already healing.

Watching the giant, Gi-Gyu said seriously, “Your horse… I mean… drake—No, I mean…”

Gi-Gyu stuttered for a while, but in the end, he grinned and ordered, “I’m borrowing your dragon.”

“...!” Before Hal could answer, Gi-Gyu grabbed Dark Dragon’s reins.