Home was the best.
The moment he walked in, he turned on the air conditioner and collapsed onto the floor.
Like he’d just come back from a day of manual labor. Like he’d been wrung out into a damp towel.
“Good grief. Everyone else goes into a Tower once a day. How many times did I go in today.”
Even with Strength stats applied inside the Tower, exhaustion was exhaustion.
He’d ground himself down this hard — how could he possibly not feel it?
Still.
Inventory.
Looking at the elixirs filling the last three slots of his inventory, the fatigue eased just a little.
He was lying there, enjoying that small comfort, when——
— Buzz.
A phone vibrating, shattering the silence.
Who texts at this hour?
One buzz — a text, not a call.
But he had no friends. Any text coming to him was going to be spam.
He ignored it and went back to lovingly contemplating his elixirs.
— Buzz.
Another buzz.
“Spam has no manners these days.”
Even the vibration felt like a waste.
No one was going to contact him anyway.
He picked up the phone to switch it to silent.
[Sender] : 010-****-1234
— Awakened Kim Woo-joo-nim ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ
“Oh?”
Not the spam he’d braced himself for.
-nim — so probably Association staff?
He scrolled up quickly and read through the rest of the messages from the same number.
The main content: something about an incorrect detail in his registration paperwork, please visit the Association again at your earliest convenience.
And the last one: a question asking whether he was entering the Special Floor tomorrow.
He didn’t bother replying to the paperwork part.
He typed a single brief word in response to the last message and sent it.
Yes.
The following day.
Penthouse of a luxury hotel in Beijing.
A man with disheveled, slightly wavy hair stood in front of a mirror, giving his appearance one final adjustment.
“Enchanter Zhuge Qing, sir — are you ready?”
Three heavyset men in all black, radiating a cold and dangerous energy, had come for Zhuge Qing early that morning.
“Yes. The items I’ve prepared for the Chinese rankers have already been sorted and handed over, and I’ve loaded enough supplies for the mid-level Awakened we’ll encounter inside into my inventory as well.”
The hardest adjustment when Zhuge Qing first came to China had been this.
In Korea — and every other country — Enchanters operated in a service model: selling items to Awakened, buying materials from them, an exchange of mutual benefit.
In China, the state paid the Enchanters in money and TC, and the Enchanters supplied items to Awakened for free — no payment required from individual Awakened.
Tiered distribution, naturally.
By rank?
No.
By Tower performance?
No.
Good rank and Tower performance did help, to be fair.
But what ultimately mattered most was: how close are you to the current regime?
Well…… none of that is my concern. China’s well-known for giving special treatment to high-caliber Enchanters and Awakened they’ve brought in from abroad.
“The Chairman is very much looking forward to this Special Floor’s results.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
Zhuge Qing smiled.
China was already a major Awakened power.
The state-grown Awakened program had a compulsory, authoritarian edge to it — but that was precisely what had enabled rapid growth.
However low the ratio of Awakened per capita, with a population that large, the sheer number of potential Awakened was proportionally higher.
Mass deployment.
Send large numbers of Awakened into Towers, earn TC, use that to craft and upgrade items, send stronger Awakened to higher floors for greater rewards, repeat.
All I’m doing here is adding one more ladle to the pot.
The Special Floor was a national-scale party.
Having more Awakened to begin with was already an advantage going in.
Add a generous supply of quality items across the board — raising the overall average — and the ranking moved up on its own.
And the Enchanter who could make that possible was Zhuge Qing.
Production speed no one else could match — that had been the trait other countries had coveted too, not just China.
“We will place in the upper rankings today and going forward. I’ve brought out items I kept hidden and never handed over to Korea — all of it, everything.”
In truth, he’d sold weapons Korea’s rankers couldn’t use anyway due to incompatible styles — at premium prices — but Zhuge Qing kept his mouth clean.
It wasn’t the deceiver who was in the wrong. The deceived was simply foolish.
The moment the Special Floor opened, every Korean Awakened of A-rank or above entered.
Fifteen combat-type Awakened. Thirty Enchanters. Not even a hundred total.
The Enchanters outnumbering combat-types might seem strange — but it was because the combat Awakened mortality rate was disproportionately high.
In the early days of the Towers, combat-type Awakened had outnumbered Enchanters by about three to one.
And stepping inside the Special Floor for the first time, Woo-joo thought:
Looks like a ruined temple.
Everything was new and interesting.
And quite a few familiar faces.
He’d never expected to see this many Awakened in one place.
Every intrusion he’d ever done had been one-on-one.
“Oh for — a temple, huh.”
Someone behind him let out a curse while taking in the surroundings.
He knew that voice and that way of talking.
He turned slowly. Sure enough — Seo I-an, gleaming silver armor and all.
“Hey. Hong Je-hun.”
“Yes?”
“Try breaking another pillar and see what happens.”
“I’ll be more careful today.”
Hong Je-hun answered calmly. Whatever she found unsatisfying about that, Seo I-an clicked her tongue sharply and moved away.
But — the boss?
He’d heard it was just: go in, deal damage for ten minutes, come out.
So why was everyone standing around in clusters chatting?
Wasn’t this supposed to be some kind of national team event?
Why was the energy this lax?
Some people didn’t even have weapons in hand — the most notable example being Seo I-an, currently pressuring Park Si-woo the Enchanter with demands of give me all the hammers you have.
“Awakened Seo I-an, did you perhaps leave some hammers in my care?”
Park Si-woo smiled pleasantly as he responded.
“JUST HURRY UP I’M IN A RUSH——”
“Hahaha.”
Seo I-an advancing. Park Si-woo retreating smoothly.
Enchanters apparently had high Agility — Park Si-woo’s backwards pace was just a little faster than Seo I-an’s forward one. Judging that the gap wasn’t closeable, Seo I-an reached both hands back toward the twin swords on her back.
“Wait, hold on! Non-combat type! I’m non-combat!”
Absolute chaos.
Anyway — the boss?
He’d heard it was just deal damage for ten minutes and leave.
Looking around, he spotted another familiar face.
Hwang Gyu-beom — the hungry man.
He couldn’t approach him all friendly and familiar since he wasn’t in rabbit mode right now, but still——
“Excuse me, hello.”
“A face I don’t recognize! Are you a new Awakened?”
He’d greeted him first, and Hwang Gyu-beom smiled warmly in response. Right — this man would react exactly like this.
“Yes. I Awakened a few days ago. But the boss——?”
He asked indirectly, and the man grinned.
“The boss rises up naturally from the floor two minutes in — unless it’s a labyrinth map, you don’t need to go searching. It’s basically a stationary dummy, so you just hit it until time’s up and then leave!”
“So in practice it’s less ten minutes and more eight — like a damage meter test?”
“A damage meter? Well…… yeah, eight minutes of actual combat time, I’d say!”
Made sense. Knowing Seo I-an’s temperament, if the boss were immediately available she’d already be in its face instead of chasing Park Si-woo.
The two minutes felt like a warmup period of sorts.
For him, it was actually convenient.
He needed time to drink elixirs.
“It’s your first time — I’ll stay with you today!”
“I’d really appreciate that!”
“Oh! By the way, my name’s Hwang Gyu-beom! Call me whatever you like!”
“Yes sir!”
He was glad he’d approached him.
He’d felt uneasy about it being his first time here, but his nerves steadied — about as much as Hwang Gyu-beom’s greatsword.
“This is more of a social gathering than I expected, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought everyone would just come in, immediately start dealing damage without saying a word to each other, and leave when time was up. I didn’t think it’d feel like a meetup.”
Hwang Gyu-beom laughed heartily at that.
“I thought the same thing my first time. Anyway, let’s start getting ready!”
He said that and began lightly stretching.
Looking around, others were doing the same — warming up, checking weapons, and some were already loading capsule recovery potions into their cheeks in preparation for any emergency——
Why would they need to dope?
“Excuse me, Mr. Hwang.”
“Yes?”
“Why is everyone doping? You said the boss is a dummy, right?”
“Ah. The boss isn’t dangerous here. What’s dangerous is the other Awakened.”
“Sorry?”
People going after each other out of bad blood?
Skills could be used inside Towers — it wasn’t entirely impossible to imagine.
Apparently reading his thoughts exactly, the man let out a big laugh and explained.
“Getting caught by someone else’s skill, or getting buried under a piece of cover that someone cut through — that sort of thing happens from time to time. Just now that silver armor was telling that neat-looking guy something about breaking a pillar again, wasn’t she? That’s a reference to something that actually happened last month.”
He gazed briefly into the middle distance with a faintly nostalgic expression.
“……Mr. Hwang.”
“Yes?”
“Could I buy some capsule potions off you……?”
He hadn’t come in through intrusion — he’d formally entered the Tower.
Which meant he couldn’t just shout exit and leave instantly; getting out would take a moment.
Better to have capsule potions ready than having to stop and open a bottle in the middle of things.
“Capsule potions are……”
His gaze slid past Woo-joo to somewhere behind him.
Following the direction——
“Awakened Kim Woo-joo-nim. It’s good to see you.”
A low, steady baritone.
Park Si-woo, smiling easily, came into view.
“Good to see you too. But — do you sell capsule recovery potions?”
He’d never had to dope before. In other people’s Towers, shouting exit was always an option, so he’d never bothered. And his own Tower was still in the low floors — the only hazards were roots and rocks.
Which was why he’d never bought capsule potions.
“Of course. Why else would an Enchanter come into the Special Floor? Rapid resupply for Awakened running it.”
He said it pleasantly. The extravagant red handgun in his grip was extremely distracting, but Woo-joo filed that away for later.
“How much per piece?”
“500 TC.”
“For low-grade?”
“Low-grade is why it’s only 500 TC.”
He’d expected 200, maybe 250 at the high end. 500 TC?
“This guy. He’s charging the new kid a delivery fee.”
Finished with her hammer business, Seo I-an materialized beside him and shot Park Si-woo a look.
Delivery fee?
“Ah, come on. Not this again — it’s not my call, I’ve said this. The International Enchanters’ Association issued an official guideline: in the Special Floor, items are to be sold at double standard price, delivery surcharge included. What am I supposed to do?”
“And where did that ridiculous guideline even come from?!”
She’d apparently paid through the nose for the hammers.
Through the narrow visor of her helmet, only the area around her eyes was visible.
Her eyes were red — not from tears but from sheer fury, which was easy enough to read.
But.
“I honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s copying the rabbit? Going by the rabbit reviews, the merchant always has exactly what you need but charges a bit for it?”
A somewhat painful thing to hear coming from Park Si-woo.
Some kind of butterfly effect?
The rabbit’s own pricing habits had come around and turned into this exact markup landing on him.
“Yeah. Rabbit does charge on the higher side.”
Seo I-an agreed without hesitation.
“But I’d still want to see it again. I want to be the only one who gets to see it.”
Her head turned toward Hong Je-hun as she said the last part. Then——
“Anyway — new kid!”
Seo I-an spun to face him.
“Me?”
“Yeah, you!”
Their Awakened Seo I-an.
He’d assumed she dropped formal speech inside Towers because she thought of him as an NPC — apparently it was just her natural mode.
Though he suspected he was probably older than her. He should be the one using casual speech, if anything.
Being talked down to by someone younger felt subtly irritating. Was he turning into an uptight older person? Or was this straightforward resentment at Seo I-an showing not even basic——
“Don’t get gouged by that guy — buy from me. 250 TC per piece!”
——courtesy?
She’s always been the picture of courtesy!
He’d decided, from today onward, that informal speech was simply a sign of familiarity.
After all, the substance of what someone says — the bones of it — was what mattered most.