Chapter 169.

—Kueeek .

A red crystal spear shot forward, piercing the neck of a Lv . 1 Ribbon Pig . The pig collapsed with a painful roar .

Chae Nayun then pulled the spear out of the dead pig’s neck .

“…Dismantle . ”

With her soft murmur, the pig’s corpse split into meat and leather . Chae Nayun picked up the edible parts of the meat and put them in her inventory .

[Your inventory is full . ]

“Mm, can’t you fit more in?”

[No . ]

Chae Nayun’s inventory was filled with food she collected for the past four hours .

“…Nayun, are you done~?”

Yi Jiyoon’s voice rang out from behind her . She sounded tired and worn out .

“Yeah, I’m done now . What about you? Is your inventory full?”

“Huh? Oh, uh… yeah, mine is full too with food~”

It was clear that she was lying, but Chae Nayun didn’t want to dig into it .

“Let’s go back now . More people are gathering at the elevator . ”

Essence of the Strait’s team had already found an elevator five hours ago, but with Extra7’s advice, Chae Nayun had delayed setting off and began to hunt nearby monsters .

“Nayun, we have to go!”

However, none of the other guild members were interested in hunting . Even when Chae Nayun told them it was advice from her master(?) who was already on the 3rd floor, they only repeated telling Chae Nayun to hurry up .

Of course, their reactions were understandable . If other Players rushed into the elevator while they were busy finding food, it was entirely possible for their elevator to get stolen .

“How many people do we have?”

Despite the Essence of the Strait members’ uncooperative attitude, Chae Nayun managed to obtain enough food to last the entire team 1~2 weeks .

“27… or maybe 28 . We have to hurry . If it fills up, a fight might break out . ”

Although Essence of the Strait had found the elevator first, other Players had also gathered because they delayed setting off .

Because of the messenger system, only one member of a group needed to find an elevator to get the entire group to come over . It wouldn’t be surprising if a huge group arrived at the elevator soon .

“…Okay, let’s go . ”

Chae Nayun decided to go back .

“Ehew, good . Follow me~”

Holding the red crystal spear in her hand, Chae Nayun followed Yi Jiyoon .

The two of them ran and arrived at the elevator in just 15 minutes .

It was obvious to anyone watching that Essence of the Strait’s members were unhappy . It was clear that they were annoyed but holding back because Chae Nayun was Yoo Yeonha’s friend .

Still, Chae Nayun ignored their gazes and stood in front of them .

“Chae Nayun, you delayed us by five hours . Five . Whole . Hours . ”

This time, however, it seemed they had something to say .

Chief Officer of Essence of the Strait’s Tower Subjugation Team, high-intermediate rank grade-2 Hero, Kim Youngjin, stood in front of Chae Nayun .

“… . ”

“Don’t you have anything to say to us?”

“I suggested hunting together, leaving behind one team to defend the elevator and taking shifts . ”

“What?”

Kim Youngjin frowned intimidatingly .

“Like I said, we need to stock up on food for the 3rd floor . ”

“…The 2nd floor’s administrator said that the 3rd floor is a residential area . You think a residential area will be low on food?”

“… . ”

Chae Nayun didn’t reply . Extra7, who was already on the 3rd floor, told her to stock up on food .

However, she didn’t want to explain the same thing again and again . She knew her words would only be seen as an excuse because of their bias .

“We’re delayed because of you . Do you understand that?”

“…Yes, sorry . I won’t let it happen again . ”

As such, Chae Nayun simply dropped her head and apologized .

Following the chief officer’s orders .

That was one of the conditions Chae Nayun accepted to get the Tower’s entrance ticket .

“…Tsk . ”

Kim Youngjin didn’t say anything more and opened the elevator door . Following him, the other members of Essence of the Strait entered the elevator, and some other bystanders also got in .

The last person to get in the elevator was, unsurprisingly, Chae Nayun .

[Departing to the 3rd floor . ]

There were 29 people in the elevator .

Not only were they stuck in a small space, but the atmosphere was extremely awkward as well .

Thinking about having to stay in this suffocating atmosphere for four hours, Yi Jiyoon clapped her hands and tried to lighten up the mood .

“R-Right, so, um, did you guys meet anyone famous in the Tower?”

“Famous?”

“Yeah . I’m sure there are many famous Heroes, mercenaries, and hunters in the Tower… so?”

Everyone ignored Yi Jiyoon, making the atmosphere turn even more awkward .

“… . ”

‘Shouldn’t they say something since we let them join our elevator?’ Yi Jiyoon grumbled inwardly .

“I met someone . ”

At that moment, a man wearing a black robe raised his hand .

“Wow, really?”

“Yes . ”

“Who?”

The man smiled at her question . Until then, Chae Nayun wasn’t interested in their conversation . She was simply looking through the auction house for any useful items and wondering if she should sell her red crystal spear .

“I saw Fenrir . ”

“…!”

But at that moment, Chae Nayun’s head shot up . She seemed to have been struck by a bolt of lightning .

She turned her head and looked at the black robed man .

Jeronimo’s mercenary, Fenrir .

Chae Nayun knew who he was . There was no way she wouldn’t . In this world, there was only one person who could wield a gun so well .

“Ah… really?”

In truth, people who were in Cube with Kim Hajin all knew about this . However, Yi Jiyoon pretended to be oblivious out of courtesy .

“Um, was he strong?”

“Yes . ”

The man smiled bitterly and took off his robe . Yi Jiyoon blushed when she saw his handsome face resembling Legolas .

“My friend and I almost died picking a fight with him . He was quite scary . ”

“Oh… I see…”

“Yes, I suspect he’s the strongest one in the Tower . If you ever meet him, don’t try to fight him . You’ll die . ”

Enchanted by the man’s handsome appearance, Yi Jiyoon nodded blankly .

Gzz—

Chae Nayun clenched her teeth . The hand holding the spear shaft turned white .

Kim Hajin was here .

Just hearing this caused blood to rush to her head, filling her with all sorts of complicated thoughts .

“Ah… dammit . ”

Her head seemed to be splitting in half . She felt like she was going to lose herself in this intense pain . Rage and fear rose up from her heart, as did hatred and sadness . Doubt seemed to devour her rational thinking .

There’s no way he killed Oppa . There must have been a misunderstanding . Such thoughts flashed through her head, breaking apart intermittently . She believed only what she wanted to, yet there were things she just couldn’t come to believe . Such things drove her crazy and stifled her breath…

“My, my head…”

An unbearable headache struck her . It felt like a hammer was beating on her head .

In the end, Chae Nayun smashed her head against the elevator wall and collapsed .

“Eh? N-Nayun?!”

Yi Jiyoon quickly helped Chae Nayun up . However, no one else was interested in her . Even the members of Essence of the Strait backed off and glanced at the chief officer to take care of this situation .

“…Ha, what a mess . ”

Kim Youngjin sighed . Just how long did he have to take care of that silver spoon?

“Argh, my head hurts too…”

He massaged his sore temples .

**

[3rd floor, residential area – 「Prestige」]

[TIP! To purchase citizenship, find a guard . ]

We were currently walking through Prestige .

As we got closer to the center of the city, less and less NPCs were sprawled on the ground and more proper buildings began to appear .

“What’s that?”

After about 40 minutes, a tall wall with a large gate appeared in front of us .

“It’s a gate, it looks like . Let’s go near it and see . ”

When we walked closer, a guard stopped us .

“The inner city is off-limits to non-citizens . If you want to go in, show us your proof of citizenship . ”

“… . ?”

Everyone except me blinked in confusion . Soon, Cheok Jungyeong began to crack his knuckles . I quickly stopped him .

“Stop, you won’t be able to beat him . ”

“Haha, kid, are you looking down on—”

“Ask the system . ”

“Ask what? I’m sure it’ll say…”

Cheok Jungyeong stopped talking . He should have gotten a system alert just now that read something like this .

—All guards inside Prestige receive 250% boost in their stats .

We were only at the 3rd floor, but guards were at least Lv . 5 . With a 250% stat boost on top of that, we wouldn’t be able to defeat them until we become strong enough to clear the 6th floor .

“…Uhahaha, that only makes me want to fight more . ”

“Shut up and stay put . ”

Jain restrained Cheok Jungyeong who was smiling mischievously .

The guard spoke once again .

“You can pay 1000TP to register as a temporary citizen or return to the outer city . ”

“…What do you guys want to do? I plan on buying the citizenship . ”

I turned around and asked the others .

In truth, I was only asking out of courtesy . Citizenship was an extremely important aspect of Prestige as you couldn’t do anything without it .

“I have 1000TP . ”

“I told you, I think I can beat him in a fight!”

“I don’t have a lot of TP . ”

Jain, Cheok Jungyeong, and Boss spoke respectively .

“Then I’ll pay for Cheok Jungyeong and Boss . ”

I took out three 1000TP banknotes from my inventory .

“What about me?”

“I know Jain-ssi is rich . ”

“…I should have said I was poor too . ”

Jain pouted as she took out 1000TP .

I considered haggling, but I was dealing with a guard . Guards were the most inflexible lot amongst NPCs . Haggling probably wouldn’t work on them unless it was at least at Lv . 10 .

“Here, 4000TP . ”

“…Confirmed . ”

The guard turned around and gave the money to a clerk who was waiting at the front entrance . The clerk wrote down the amount in her accounting book and produced four identification cards in the blink of an eye .

“Here . You are not official residents, so you will have to renew your identification card once a month for 700TP . If you lose your identification card, it will cost 1000TP to replace them, so keep that in mind . ”

We received our identification cards, which were proofs of our temporary citizenship .

Extra7 .

Boss .

PhantomThief .

Goryeo’sStrongest .

Our nicknames were written on our ID .

“How did they know our nicknames? We never told them . ”

“It’s probably that NPC’s Trait . ”

“Oh, NPCs have Traits too~?”

“We call them NPCs, but as far as the Tower is concerned, they’re humans just like us . ”

At that moment, a series of system alerts popped up .

[You obtained Prestige’s Citizenship . ]

[Common Player quests have been issued . ]

[1 . Undead Monster Subjugation]

—You will receive 50TP per 50 Lv . 1 undead killed .

—You will receive 75TP per 25 Lv . 2 undead killed .

—You will receive 100TP per 10 Lv . 3 undead killed .

—You will receive 125TP per 2 Lv . 4 undead killed .

[2 . Land Spider Subjugation]

—You will receive 50TP per 4 Land Spiders killed .

[3 . Demon Subjugation]

—There are 666 demons in Prestige . Each demon has a special bounty on its head .

“There’s a lot . ”

“There sure is . ”

Prestige wasn’t the prettiest city from the outside, but it was certainly a place where you could earn TP thanks to common quests for its citizens, Medea’s special quests, and other NPC quests .

However, these benefits would be the cause of its downfall .

The TP earned by Players would grant no benefit to the NPCs here and would only fill the belly of the administrator Medea .

Of course, I had no plans to let that happen .

Here, I wanted to see a different ending with Kim Suho .

Rather than destroying the world within the Tower, I planned to only destroy the shell that was the Tower .

This was the best ending I came up with during my three years of planning .

I planned to turn this Tower into a supporter of its own ending .

“Your inventories are full of food, right?”

“Yep, just like you wanted . ”

To obtain meat on the 3rd floor, we had to kill at least 66 demons . Before then, monsters and wild animals all spawned as undead, so we could only eat grass . That was the shortcut to losing vitality and stats .

“Aren’t you going in?”

Seeing us standing still, the guard asked as if to urge us .

“We will . But before that…”

I pointed at the building right next to the wall .

“How much is it for a building like that?”

“You should be able to buy it for 5000TP . ”

The guard answered my question . If I didn’t have citizenship, he probably would have ignored me completely .

“Why, do you want to buy a building?”

“Yes, I plan to . ”

“…Why?”

“I just thought it’d be nice to have a shop . ”

I answered Jain’s question . Afterwards, system alerts popped up .

[You can purchase the ‘Lv . 2 Wooden Building Outside the Inner Wall’ for 5000TP . ]

[You currently have 24000TP . ]

[Would you like to purchase this building?]

Buying buildings sure was easy in a world without real estate .

I clicked ‘yes’ .

[You obtained ownership of ‘Lv . 2 Wooden Building Outside the Inner Wall’ . ]

[There is currently nothing inside the wooden building . ]

With a single click of a button, a building became mine .

“Let’s go in . ”

“Hm? Don’t you have to buy it?”

“I already did . ”

“…What?”

Leaving my three puzzled companions behind, I asked the guard once again .

“Is it possible for us to meet the 3rd floor’s administrator?”

“No, it’s too early to have an audience with her . ”

“How long do we have to wait?”

“Just another week . ”

“…Hm . ”

In that case, there was no reason to go into the inner city .

I crossed my arms and fell in thought . Then I turned on my smartwatch to read the ‘abandoned settings’ in my settings book . These were the settings that I wrote in my settings book but never included in the real story .

===

[3rd Floor Residential Area NPC – 1 . Kiri and Henry . ]

*Brother and sister duo . Give them money or food to get the [Black Pouch] .

*The [Black Pouch] allows you to bring back one item from Earth .

*Kiri and Henry are both clever and have high growth potentials . Worthy of becoming named NPCs .

===

“…Oh right, these two kids were here too . ”

Kiri and Henry aside, the Black Pouch was quite a useful item .

Since I couldn’t meet Medea, I had about four days of free time . I should obtain the Black Pouch and go back to Earth to bring back the Goblin Tablet . That way, I could also meet Evandel .

“Boss, Jain, can you two go inside and look for a hideout?”

“A hideout?”

“Yes, just a place for us to stay . You can just rent a house . ”

“…Sure, but where are you going?”

“I’m going back to Earth for a bit . ”

Just like that, I let the three of them enter the inner city .

Then, I took out the Book of Truth and asked .

[Where are the NPCs ‘Henry’ and ‘Kiri’?]

The Book of Truth sucked in about 0 . 5 streaks of Stigma and displayed the location of Kiri and Henry in real time . They weren’t too far away, wandering around near the outskirts of the city .

I walked over .

After about 15 minutes…

“Buy some flowers~ they’re edible~”

I could see Henry and Kiri in the distance .

They were selling flowers . However, no one was interested or even capable of spending money for flowers . To make matters worse, the flowers in their basket were all withered .

“Flowers, buy some flowers~ they’re edible~”

“… . ”

I watched them silently .

I had nothing to say . Two starving children were trying to sell flowers no one wanted . Did it have to be so realistic?

“Haa…”

Sighing away any depressing thoughts, I walked over to them .

“Ah, um, flowers… buy some flowers…”

Kiri and Henry were startled when they saw me . It was understandable considering I was entirely covered in black clothes .

I took off my hood and mask and smiled brightly .

“How much are they?”

“Eh…? You’ll buy them?”

“Yeah . ”

The younger sister, Kiri, talked to me .

Kiri hesitated without being able to meet my eyes .

“…10, 10TP . ”

“Each?”

“Yes? Ah… um, no . Everything in this basket is 10TP . ”

Kiri gave the entire basket to me . Meanwhile, Henry was standing next to her, trembling in fear .

Did they think I wouldn’t buy anything if each flower was 10TP?

I looked at them silently, then discovered a black cloth peeking out of Henry’s back pocket .

That must be the Black Pouch .

“By the way, what’s that? That black thing . ”

I knelt down to Henry’s eyelevel and pointed at the pouch in his back pocket . Kiri turned to Henry nervously .

“This… this? Um…”

Henry began to fiddle with the pouch in his back pocket with a troubled expression .

“Um, this is… um…”

His small body trembled greatly as he contemplated on what to say . Soon, he came to a decision and took the pouch out .

“W-Will you buy this too? This pouch is really good!”

“O-Oppa! Dad said never to—”

“Shh . ”

The surprised younger sister Kiri stepped in, but Henry stopped her .

Kiri bit her lips with a sad look .

“How much is it?”

“This is a bit more expensive . It’s um… 200TP . ”

200TP .

I looked at Henry’s face . His cheeks were thin, and his eyes clearly showed that he was afraid .

I suddenly thought .

These two NPCs were created from the setting I abandoned .

A setting that was disregarded because I was too much in a rush to advance the story or because I was too lazy to write about it . What would have been their fate in the original story?

…They should have starved to death .

“Um, 150TP!”

Henry must have misunderstood my silence for dissatisfaction as he lowered the price on his own .

“Mm…”

“I-Is it too much?”

“No, I think it’s too little . ”

When I said that, Henry and Kiri’s faces lit up .

I took out two 100TP coins and gave one to Henry and other to Kiri .

Kiri and Henry took the shiny coins with their small hands . They stared at them blankly and swallowed their saliva .

“Ah, Oppa, give him the item . ”

“Oh right, h-here!”

Hearing Kiri, Henry gave me the Black Pouch .

“And um, take this too!”

Then, Kiri quickly gave me the flower basket she was holding .

“I didn’t buy this . ”

“You can have it! Um, these flowers are edible! If you want, I can also teach you where they grow . I’m the only one who knows about this!”

“… . ”

Kiri was too kind . Such a young girl was braver than her older brother . I couldn’t help but worry about them .

“It’s fine . ”

I shook my head . I put the Black Pouch away and tapped their shoulders .

“Hey, aren’t you two hungry?”

“…Yes?”

This time, they both put up their guard .

“You see, this Hyung is a building owner . ”

[Lv . 2 Persuasive Voice activates . ]

Although they were born and raised in a harsh environment, they were still children . My voice was more than enough to persuade them .

“…Building owner?”

“Yeah . Also…”

I took out my identification card .

“Wow, a citizenship identification card…”

“Uwoah…”

Henry and Kiri’s eyes shone brightly . Collecting money and buying citizenship . This must be their dream .

I spoke to them as warmly as possible .

“If you follow me, Hyung will make you lots of delicious food . ”

Since I wrote that they were worthy of becoming named NPCs, I had more than enough reason to bring them along . Not to mention, I needed employees to take care of my new building .

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