Chapter 11: 11

Act 6

After they finished their meal, they left to get a few beers at a pub . Coincidentally, Shin Su-yeong did not have to work the next day, so she could let go and stay out for longer .

Su-hyeun hurried to bed after returning home a little after midnight . He woke up again in the wee hours of the morning and left his room after finishing his preparations .

“Su-hyeun, you’re leaving?”

Shin Su-yeong met Su-hyeun at the front door with a disheveled face . Wanting to leave quietly, Su-hyeun nodded and said, “Yes . I’ll be back . ”

“You said you’re going on a trip? For how long?”

“I’m not sure yet . I’ll head to wherever my feet take me . ”

After his exam results were released, Su-hyeun had said that he would be going on a trip . As much as he studied over the past year, Shin Su-yeong did not oppose it .

“Don’t stay out too late . And call me when you can . ”

“Don’t worry . My phone will be switched off, so don’t call me . ”

“You’re doing it again . ”

“It’s not the first time . I’ll be back . ” Su-hyeun grabbed his backpack and left . As if it were a daily routine, Su-hyeun took a deep breath before heading deep into the mountains .

It took a while . Although it took just a little over a year, he still made it here .

Tenth floor . It was the minimum criteria he had in mind . He had no intention of breaking it himself . But Su-hyeun realized that his initial goal was harder to achieve than expected .

It took longer than I had expected . His goal was to clear all the trials with almost perfect records . He thought it would be possible to complete the tenth floor within a year when he was clearing the first two floors . But it eventually took over a year . The level 10 trial was much more formidable than anyone could have imagined .

Rip—! Once again, Su-hyeun opened the doors to the Tower of Trials .

* * *

The city on the tenth floor was always dark and dull . Unlike the city on the second floor, it was hard to even come across a dweller in this empty and quiet place .

The world that people avoid the most . The Tower of Trials was a world packed with numerous floors, and each floor had its own world . Although it was a gigantic tower, each had its own environment, climate, and culture .

Amongst them, most would avoid the tenth floor . The sun never rose, and the dwellers always looked depressed . Even those who wanted to forget and live anew in the tower also avoided the tenth floor .

Su-hyeun walked north to the ends of the tenth floor, where the route was blocked by a black wall . People often called this place the “end of the world . ” There was a massive portal in front .

“Are you going in?”

A gatekeeper was guarding it . A middle-aged man with a long, stiff face sat on the floor and looked up at Su-hyeun . He was the gatekeeper who guarded the portal .

“Payment . ” The gatekeeper reached out his hand towards Su-hyeun . Others may have misunderstood him as a beggar asking for money, but Su-hyeun knew .

He was the so-called informant, the one and only informant who would provide you with legitimate information about the tenth floor . How he knew the details of each awakener’s trials was a mystery . However, the information he gave was credible .

Su-hyeun grabbed his outreached hand . And…

[You have used 5,000 achievement points . ]

Quite a bit of achievement points were used in a flash . Even though Su-hyeun had accumulated quite a considerable amount of achievement points as he ascended the floors, using this many points was still quite a burden .

But Su-hyeun made the payment in a heartbeat . The gatekeeper’s eyes grew . “You’re quite generous . ”

“Because you’re that valuable . ”

The gatekeeper smiled at his answer . “Thanks for the compliment . Which trial do you wish to attempt?”

“Level 10 . I want the highest difficulty . ” The gatekeeper’s eyes grew even bigger . His expression had changed drastically as compared to his stiff face .

As his expressionless face returned, he said, “It’s as if I’ve taken a hit . I must provide you with some information after receiving so much . ”

It seemed that paying the gatekeeper a high amount was the right choice . The gatekeeper felt conflicted for a while, contemplating on what information to provide .

Hopefully, it’s a piece of valid information… . For those who climbed the tower, the tenth floor was a form of crisis .

This was because the trials’ difficulty jumped every 10 floors . Some would say that the 11th and 12th floors were more manageable than the 10th . Moreover, Su-hyeun was challenging the trial with the highest level of difficulty .

No one had yet to clear the level 10 trial at the 10th floor as of yet, to Su-hyeun’s knowledge . Normally, certain sections on the tenth floor have their level of difficulty reduced by one or two levels .

It was a tip that could be easily obtained through Abyss Online, but Su-hyeun knew how harmful it was . If the difficulty gets lowered once, the following floors would also become a crisis .

Once one started, one would never be able to advance further . Instead, one would continue to find ways to lower the level of difficulty .

Su-hyeun decided that it would be better to pay more to the gatekeeper to continue receiving reliable information and challenge higher difficulty trials than to reduce them . The still contemplating gatekeeper finally said, “Beware of the village chief . ”

“The village chief?”

“That’s all I can say . I wish you all the best . ” The gatekeeper ended the conversation .

The information felt a little off . It was too vague to be worth 5,000 points . The prices of intel seemed to increase as the level of the trials gets higher .

Beware of the village chief… . Su-hyeun repeatedly reminded himself of those words . There was no reason for the gatekeeper to lie to him .

“Thank you . ”

Su-hyeun walked towards the portal . The view before Su-hyeun turned white as he stood on the portal, and a familiar message popped up .

[Kim Su-hyeun, the 10th-floor trial begins now . ]

[Please choose the level of difficulty . ]

[Level 1 ~ 10 . ]

[The level of difficulty and rewards obtained increases as the level gets higher . ]

It was the start . A good amount of nervousness filled his chest every time a new trial began . He always gave the same answer .

“Level 10 . ”

[Level 10 . The 10th-floor trial starts now . ]

The white scene before him changed once more . The landscape of a village appeared before him . The sky was black . A dark atmosphere and stale air filled the village, similar to a simple and quiet countryside .

Su-hyeun looked up to the sky . The landscape looked strangely familiar .

[The trial begins now . ]

[You have entered an unfamiliar village . The village is now in a massive crisis . ]

[Rescue the village . ]

[And survive . ]

[The reward varies according to your performance . ]

The trial’s explanation was straightforward . He wondered if there was a better explanation, since it was frustrating that it did not provide clear instructions . There were loopholes in the explanation .

Rescue the village . Survive . Survive what?

He recalled the gatekeeper’s words . He said to take extra notice of the village chief .

He thought that he should find the village chief first . A warning to be careful of the village chief could have also meant that the chief would be the key to clearing this trial .

Step, step—

Su-hyeun started walking into the village . Instead of looking around the village, Su-hyeun looked up at the sky . Su-hyeun’s face darkened . “It feels… more familiar here . ”

The awkward black sky seemed to be inked . The black sky felt different from a moonlit sky . Su-hyeun had not seen this sky for over a year .

He suddenly felt awkward at the thought of a clear, blue sky . The color of this sky, which he often saw in his illusions, felt more familiar . It was the same for this village .

Step, step—

He then felt eyes on him . It was one of the strangers looking at him . A skinny mother with a baby in her hand, an old man, and a few other men . They stood at a distance, unable to get close to Su-hyeun . They looked frightened in the dark .

People . It wasn’t the first time he met people in the trials . But it was his first to see such realistic expressions and reactions . It felt that way for their familiar reactions .

I have definitely… He recalled . In the future, he had felt similar eyes from a particular village .

“So that was it . ” He seemed to have understood what the theme of this tutorial was . This place must have been part of their destroyed world . No, more accurately, it was a world close to destruction .

“Excuse me . ” Su-hyeun smiled and approached the villagers .

The villagers did not hide their defensive response towards Su-hyeun . When the child tried to approach Su-hyeun, the mother pulled him back .

My, I’m hurt . As it was his first time to see people so afraid of him, he did not know how to respond .

Su-hyeun sighed before continuing . “I want to stay here for a few days before leaving . Is there any way I can do that?”

The question was directed towards everyone, but not one of them responded . It would have been better to point out someone to talk to…

“Where is the village chief?”

…like the village chief . A commotion stirred amongst the people as he questioned . It seemed the people, too, thought that it would be better to talk to the village chief .

Su-hyeun observed the villagers silently . He was certain about one thing just by observing them .

They are uncomfortable with outsiders . It could be from their experience .

Drugs, murders . The societal problems that surfaced in a collapsing world . It was the same, even though the civilizations are different . Human nature was not much different anywhere .

It was a pity . It would have been better to cooperate and help each other out at times like this .

It’s a utopia . Anyone could paint a utopia in their minds, but it was literally nothing more than just an ideal world . Such worlds would never exist unless the evil in human nature was removed .

The man who Su-hyeun was waiting for finally appeared .

“I’m the village chief here . ”

A hunchbacked old man walked out towards Su-hyeun .