The sharp, cold scent of snow.
Underneath it, faint threads of wet old wood.
Tower Floor 6. The Den of the Violent Snow Rabbit.
Why was he here?
No need to go back far — just minutes ago.
The final verification step required before signing the contract, they’d said.
They’d wanted to run one simple test.
But it was anything but simple, and it turned out to be more than one.
The moment he heard Training Rooms 1 through 12 he cut them off.
“Why does that need to happen?”
Wasn’t it obvious?
They’d said Special Floor TF team.
The Special Floor record was accessible and visible.
Numbers and percentages, right there in plain sight.
So what was the verification for?
“Someone will inevitably ask. ‘Why Kim Woo-joo of all people.'”
“Because of third place?”
He offered the most plausible answer.
“In practice, it’s for the external audit documentation.”
A different answer came back.
“Special Floor records get buried under new records within about a month. But if there’s a test record — the question of why it was you gets answered cleanly, and any procedural concerns dissolve like snow.”
“That’s right! It’s so the mainstream faction inside the Association can’t make an issue of it later — we’re getting ahead of them!”
True.
And the system screen could only be viewed by Awakened — photographs couldn’t capture it.
Still.
“Could I just run a Tower floor instead? I need to clear Floor 6 today anyway. I’ll wear a bodycam. How many minutes would be enough to serve as proof?”
The bodycam, obviously, would accidentally end up in his pocket.
The system notification sounds inside Towers could be recorded — recording the time display would count as evidence.
“Yun Jin-gi! There should be a spare bodycam in the third drawer!”
“Yes sir!”
Yun Jin-gi sprinted out.
For reference — the Association, in its capacity as a government institution of the highest order, operated until 3 PM.
But today?
The contract conversation had somehow pinged back and forth and burned through a solid hour.
For a homebody like him, going home without finishing everything on today’s list was simply not an option.
Completely unacceptable.
He needed to see Park Si-woo today too, not just these two.
Not just a visit — he had things to ask, and he’d come to the Association specifically with the intention of switching weapons.
Time was starting to feel tight.
Which was exactly why he’d quickly called for Floor 6.
Training Rooms 1 through 12?
Just walking there would eat up all his time.
And honestly — he was also eager to try the new skill Track as soon as possible.
Which required being inside a Tower.
“Time-wise…… as fast as you can manage would be great.”
Oh Won-taek smiled broadly like this had worked out better than expected.
The reason Woo-joo was pressed for time was that he needed to catch Park Si-woo before he finished his shift.
Which also meant — Oh Won-taek and Yun Jin-gi’s own finish time wasn’t far off either.
Back to Floor 6. Den of the Violent Snow Rabbit.
He remembered swearing, after intruding into Hong Je-hun’s snowy mountain, that he would never voluntarily enter anywhere with snow again.
The world didn’t operate on his preferences.
“Ugh. Cold!”
If it were a repeat run he’d have dressed properly — but this was his first clear of Floor 6.
The moment he stepped in, his entire field of vision went white.
Seoul outside the Tower right now? Peak summer.
Him? Short sleeves and shorts, obviously.
His summer sneakers, eager to absorb the snow, immediately started going cold in a way that promised to turn his feet numb, and he——
“Good to finally find a use for this.”
The last Cold Resistance Elixir, which had been sitting as dead inventory for a while since no cold floors had come up, finally got to serve its purpose.
“Right! Let’s go!”
[Tower (Korea) Floor 6 record change!]
— 1st place: Kim Woo-joo. 8 minutes 01 seconds 05.
“We’re done, right?”
Drip. Drip.
The Cold Resistance Elixir kept his body temperature from dropping — but it didn’t stop snow from landing on him.
Which meant everything that had been snow was now meltwater, and he was dripping it across the reception room floor as he looked back and forth between the team lead and Yun Jin-gi.
The two of them exchanged a look of barely contained shock at each other, then——
“Confirmed.”
Yun Jin-gi opened first.
And Oh Won-taek paused in thought for a moment before——
“Thank you for your effort!”
A polite acknowledgment to start.
“Don’t mention it. Is there maybe a blanket somewhere? Places like cafés and PC rooms usually keep a few loaners.”
If there was one, could he have it.
“I’m going to freeze to death.”
Going to freeze to death.
Inside the Tower, the Cold Resistance Elixir had been working, and all the running around had generated enough body heat that past the initial entry it had actually been warm rather than cold.
But now that he was out — the elixir effect was gone, his clothes and skin were soaked through with ice water, and the air conditioning was blasting directly at him. No surviving that combination.
He was shaking — full-body, embarrassingly visible shaking, the kind he’d be embarrassed about even by his own standards.
“Oh! You must have gotten a cold map!”
Yun Jin-gi caught on quickly and brought a blanket.
Light blue background with cute rabbits printed on it.
The Association’s taste……?
He was briefly distracted by that inane thought as he swaddled himself in it.
Eventually the ridiculous shaking eased and his breathing settled. Then, feeling a faint but distinct sense of something off, he looked up.
And met the eyes of two people staring at him intently.
“What?”
“Congratulations on the Floor 6 record!”
Yun Jin-gi finally delivered the congratulations.
Then Team Lead Oh Won-taek, after a brief pause, very naturally——
“By the way, Awakened Kim Woo-joo-nim. Would registering your grade as A-rank be all right?”
He was trying to drop Woo-joo’s D-grade up to A-rank.
But the way he phrased it — like it was some kind of concession — lower it to A-rank?
“That ‘high‘?”
He deliberately stressed high when he said it, and Team Lead Oh Won-taek looked mildly puzzled.
“Awakened Kim Woo-joo-nim?”
“Yes?”
“You’re aware that the Special Floor only allows A-rank or above entry……”
Oh. He’d already given himself away there.
He’d been so caught up in wanting to test the new Elixir God skill that he’d ignored everything else.
“And today’s Floor 6 record — at that time, it would be read as S-rank by anyone, domestic or international. We’re trying to note that you met the rabbit inside the Tower as justification for lowering it to A-rank. It appeared that you preferred to keep your grade lower rather than have it registered higher.”
“That’s right! Honestly we didn’t expect you to clear it this fast either!”
Yun Jin-gi chimed in.
Then added——
“And you won’t be at a disadvantage, Awakened Woo-joo-nim! The higher the registered grade, the higher the tax reduction rate!”
Oh. That was a thing?
Looking at the spending habits of certain rankers and their just give me all of it energy — you could roughly estimate what they were earning and spending.
That much income meant that much in taxes, and that much sensitivity to the tax rate.
The Association’s version of a perk, designed to appeal to exactly that.
“At this point the people who were in the Special Floor know I’m A-rank or above anyway, right? So lowering it further would look strange.”
Unfortunate, but it was done.
You had to let the train go when it had already left the station.
“Then we’ll keep the grade as A-rank and the trait as Body Enhancement.”
Not pressing for his real information even though they were entitled to — and genuinely not touching anything that didn’t look jarringly wrong from the outside. They had to be curious, but they weren’t asking.
He found that convenient.
And so, by mutual agreement, they completed the contract.
“So — about the housing……”
Last thing. He asked the question that actually mattered most to him right now.
He needed a concrete date before he could commit to spending everything he had on a weapon today.
“Oh, don’t give it another thought!”
“That’s right!”
Both of them grinned with matching confidence.
“We’ll have it cleaned top to bottom and send you the key and address within a week!”
Guided by Yun Jin-gi to the elevator that required a card to operate, he came down to the ground floor.
“Hyung! Let me drive you home!”
“Why am I your hyung? And I have things to do! Thanks for picking me up today!”
He left Yun Jin-gi behind and immediately bolted for the basement.
Current time: approximately 2:30 PM.
Association closing time: 3 PM.
He needed to see Park Si-woo.
Recovery potions and similar items used by the general public were sold in the ground-floor Association shop.
The specialty items for Awakened were handled by the Enchanters in the underground shops.
“Oh?”
Mid-sprint. Someone spotted him first and pointed.
Red three-stripe tracksuit pants. Black three-stripe slippers.
Jet-black hair yanked up casually into a loose tie. Red horn-rimmed glasses.
Not the razor-sharp, imposing figure he associated with her at all — this was completely unguarded, completely off-duty.
He almost didn’t recognize her for a moment.
“Hello!”
He knew it was Seo I-an, but he played it like they’d barely met — because from her perspective, this was the first time meeting since the Special Floor.
“Kim Woo-joo!”
“Yes!”
“Do you have time right now?”
“Sorry?”
Out of nowhere.
He was briefly thrown, but quickly smiled in an easygoing way.
This was actually convenient.
He’d been wanting to talk to her too.
“Not right now, but I’m free tomorrow! Could I get your number?”
Right. Team members.
Special Floor.
A floor where base stats were fixed at 1 until the defense phase was cleared.
Which meant extracting efficiency required powerful single-hit skills, or rapid-fire skills with high individual impact — and those were exactly what rankers had no trouble pouring out endlessly.
And Seo I-an — Korea’s second-ranked Awakened.
If he framed this as a TF team formed in partnership with the Association — the word Association alone would earn a flat no from her, instantly. He knew her well enough to know that. So did every Awakened in Korea.
Which was why he was planning to frame it as partnering with him, not the Association.
That way — Seo I-an, who had no love for the Association.
And even Hong Je-hun, who stayed friendly with the Association mainstream.
Both could join his team without it feeling like a burden.
Only one person could enter the Association shop at a time.
Some Awakened who wanted to keep their capabilities secret preferred to have discreet conversations with Enchanters — that rule had grown out of that need.
As a footnote: Enchanters were bound by confidentiality clauses for the same reason, and all electronic devices were dead inside the shop — only the Enchanter’s walkie-talkie worked.
Anyway.
He’d come close to not seeing Park Si-woo today.
Something he’d only learned just now.
After Zhuge Qing’s defection to China, the Korean Enchanter hierarchy had settled into a two-person structure. One of those two was Park Si-woo, standing in front of him right now.
The other apparently went by the name Moon Ha-yeon — but that wasn’t the important part. What mattered was that he’d nearly missed seeing Park Si-woo today.
I thought just dropping a name would be enough to get in. Not even close.
When he’d asked to see Enchanter Park Si-woo, he’d been turned away at the door.
He was told he needed to either contact the Enchanter personally to make an appointment, or take his chances with the A-through-Z shop lottery.
Which meant his current situation — standing here having won that lottery — probably wasn’t the result of luck.
Thank Seo I-an for that.
Running into her before entering the shop had turned out to be the ticket.
A direct pass to Park Si-woo’s shop.
I’ve got a reservation — just come with me.
Thank you!
Turned out she had her moments.
The smile that slipped out, he didn’t bother suppressing — she responded with a smug shrug of her shoulders.
Right up until they reached Shop Z, met Park Si-woo, and he said only one person at a time in the Enchanter’s shop — when there’s a simultaneous arrival, the Enchanter decides the order, and pointed at Woo-joo.
“Park Si-woo, you ABSOLUTE ——! It’s almost THREE!!”
A completely unchecked torrent of expletives, coming as naturally as breathing.
It was only then that he understood.
The version of Seo I-an he got was the mellowed version.
“Hehehehe!”
And the one laughing like that was not him.
That was Park Si-woo the Enchanter.
He watched Seo I-an throwing herself around and getting dragged off by Association staff and let out a quiet sigh.
“Are you enjoying this?”
“Not enjoying it exactly — more like having fun? Hehehe!”
What was the difference, exactly? Some subtle distinction?
Park Si-woo answered, still doubled over laughing.
He narrowed his eyes and fixed him with a steady look.
Before long the giggling faded, there was a short ahem, and Park Si-woo settled back into a composed tone.
“Anyway — may I ask what brings you in after all this time?”
“Well, you did tell me to come back. If you meant it, you should have given me a business card instead of a Bronze Hammer.”
This man wasn’t entirely normal either, honestly.