Conquering the 「Demon King's Tower」!
As a basic rule, the 「Demon King's Tower」 can only be entered once per day, and this applies equally to all 「Breakers」 around the world.
Each section has an entry level limit—a system-enforced rule designed to prevent stronger players from bullying lower-level ones.
Naturally, the higher the floor, the greater the difficulty and the higher the risk. Because of this, most 「Breakers」 tend to approach each floor with great caution. After all, their own lives are on the line…
That had been the common understanding—until very recently, at least.
But then—
Ding!
[Global Announcement: A new Korean record has been set for conquering the 2nd floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
Another world-record announcement ringing out!
And then, the very next day—
Ding!
[Global Announcement: A new Korean record has been set for conquering the 3rd floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
And again the following day—
Ding!
[Global Announcement: A new Korean record has been set for conquering the 4th floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
It was as if the global announcements were heralding the arrival of a new era in climbing the 「Demon King's Tower」—all of them world records, no less…
***
“At your service! Hamin-nim, you worked really hard, sir!”
“At your service! Bellamon-nim, you did great too~”
After finishing the 4th-floor conquest, Ha-min and Bellamon returned to his studio apartment and wrapped up their day with a salute to each other. This was already the fourth time! The tower conquest was progressing smoothly.
One difference, though, was that Ha-min’s willpower had grown noticeably stronger—and by a lot at that…
Of course, all of this was because he now had a clear goal.
The 「Purification Stone」
To be honest, Ha-min's personality was closer to that of a coward… no, he was just a coward. He had hoped to awaken as a recovery-type 「Breaker」 for his mother's treatment, but that wasn't the only reason.
Safety first! Looking at the stats, recovery-type Awakened had overwhelmingly higher survival rates in the tower.
To be honest, without Bellamon, Ha-min wouldn't have been able to clear the tower like he did now. No matter how powerful 「Absolute Command」 was, it wasn't a cure-all.
At least up to now, its use had clear limitations. Plus, currently, there was only one attack option available: Annihilation. It was a near-divine attack, sure, but it targeted only one enemy—and came with a limited number of uses.
Right now, the remaining uses of 「Absolute Command」 stood at just 1.
In other words, despite its overwhelming power, it was a 「Unique Trait」 that was highly inefficient for tower climbing.
Still, thankfully, Ha-min had his second 「Absolute Command」: the Demon Army Compendium! From it came the loyal Bellamon, who was leading the charge in the tower conquest.
Every battle was wrapped up by Bellamon alone. By the time Ha-min came to his senses, the floor was already cleared.
Isn't this way too easy?
The 「Demon King's Tower」 had several restrictions in place to prevent high-level players from bullying lower floors. A prime example of these restrictions was the level limit. The maximum entry level for each floor was the current floor number plus 10. That meant for the 4th floor, players up to level 14 could enter. And this level limit applied to the Breakers themselves.
Oh? Then...?
Exactly. There was one exceptional existence that fell outside this rule—and that was summoned creatures.
Summoned creatures were beings directly contracted with summoner-type 「Breakers.」 They had no concept of levels at all. Moreover, some summoned creatures possessed incredibly powerful unique abilities—one world-famous summoner-type 「Breaker」 had even summoned the 「Elden Phoenix,」 displaying tremendous power in a large-scale raid.
Of course, that didn't mean everything was perfect. Naturally, only a handful of Breakers could summon such legendary creatures, and maintaining them consumed enormous amounts of magic power.
In other words, no matter how incredible the being, it couldn't be kept summoned for long periods.
Some 「Breakers」 equipped legendary-grade items to compensate for this drawback, but even then, the limitations were clear.
The stronger the summoned creature, the greater the magic power consumption—a perfectly logical trade-off.
But what about Ha-min's case?
Bellamon's power.
No matter how much of a clueless newbie Ha-min was, he could tell that Bellamon's power was anything but ordinary. The rank of "private" didn't suit him at all—he possessed overwhelming strength.
On top of that, the most absurd part was the magic power consumption. At the very least, Bellamon didn't operate on Ha-min's magic power. He was simply able to act freely within a set time limit.
Why on earth?
Who knows???
He had no idea. It just was that way.
'The more I think about it, the more broken this is.'
Even Ha-min thought this crossed a line.
First 「Annihilation,」 then the 「Summon」—Ha-min's 「Absolute Command」 was beyond what mere words like "amazing" could describe.
"What's wrong, Hamin-nim? Sir?"
"Oh. Nothing."
Still, this wasn't the time to be picky. Why he had these abilities wasn't what mattered. What truly mattered was Ha-min's goal.
The 「Gold Medal」
And… the 「Purification Stone」
Those were the only things that counted.
***
『National Disaster Response Headquarters』
This place had been on high alert for the past few days.
And the reason was obvious.
[Global Announcement: A new world record has been set for conquering the 2nd floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
└ Whoa, amazing!!
└ Two in a row?
└ That guy's insane, right?
└ What kind of player is that?
Up to that point, they thought it was plausible. There had been similar cases in the past.
But then—
[Global Announcement: A new world record has been set for conquering the 3rd floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
└ Holy crap! That's nuts...
└ That actually works? That's not cheating?
└ Three in a row? Can you believe it?
Something that had never happened once in the tower's entire history.
And that wasn't the end of it.
[Global Announcement: A new world record has been set for conquering the 4th floor of the Demon King's Tower.]
└ You crazy bastard!!!
└ He's completely lost it!!
└ Who the hell is this?!!!
People began to panic. World records four days in a row??? No matter how low the floors were… this was an unprecedented event in the tower's history.
It was a first not just for Korea, but for the entire world. And it was almost certainly the work of a single unidentified individual.
└ Wow, so are we a leading 「Demon King's Tower」 nation now?
└ Insane… I've never seen anything like this. Announcements back to back….
└ I don't know who you are, but keep it up!!
└ Hey! What if they're not Korean? lololol
└ Come on, it's obviously a Korean. Isn't that just common sense?
└ Kyaaa, this national pride is intoxicating!
Of course, there was negative sentiment as well.
The lower floors of the 「Demon King's Tower」—the threat level was relatively low, so that was understandable.
There was a saying that the real climb began from the 10th floor. Floors below 10 were largely considered a tutorial.
Unlike the tower's early days, both skills and technology had advanced, so many speculated it was a coincidence born from a combination of an Awakened's unique skill and technique. But people knew what this really meant.
Just a single Awakened?
It wasn't that simple. The higher the floor of the 「Demon King's Tower,」 the more terrifying the danger became.
The current time limit for clearing the highest floor was 6 months.
If the deadline was missed, a 「Magic Rift」 would occur, and unpredictable magic beasts would pour out from it.
The recent 「Magic Rift」 that had occurred in Korea was exactly that. And once a 「Magic Rift」 happened, the difficulty of the next attempt on that floor would increase by one level.
In short, the upper floors of the 「Demon King's Tower」 were like time bombs that could go off at any moment.
The upper floors weren't something that could be conquered just by having a large number of Awakened. Sure, there were some floors that allowed joint assaults, but what mattered most was a single capable Awakened—that was the core of it all.
That was why securing outstanding Awakened was the top priority for every country in the world.
This was precisely why the Korean government, along with other nations' governments, were putting all their efforts into finding him.
...
「National Magic Disaster Response Headquarters」
Team Leader Park, along with a number of agents, were gathered in one place.
"We can't be 100% certain he's Korean yet, but judging by the initials he left in the system, we can infer with fairly high probability that he is Korean."
"That makes sense. Most people wouldn't use those initials for no reason…"
Team Leader Park was convinced that the Awakened was active in Seoul.
A Korean record—and a world record at that.
There was no way this was a coincidence. And more decisively, the initials he left in the system… they were practically a declaration that he was Korean.
Those initials were—
「K」
That's right—the name Ha-min had registered with the system after setting the 1st-floor world record was none other than 「K.」
"But why「K」of all things? There are so many other options…"
"Maybe he's trying to send us a message?"
"I think so too. It seems like he's sending a message to the world. A Breaker of that caliber wouldn't just use「K」because he happened to be Korean."
"What does the Intelligence Analysis Team say?"
"Yes, sir. They've compiled a total of 212 possible meanings related to「K.」Please take a look at this chart."
Ding!
A vast array of names and interpretations appeared on the screen—from English to German to Latin, all densely packed with relevant content.
"Hmm… That's way too many. Can't we narrow it down?"
"This is actually the trimmed-down version."
Everyone who saw it couldn't help but be taken aback.
"We'll have to go through them one by one, no matter how tough it is. Clearly, he sent that message with the intention of us understanding it. We need to figure it out! Understood? This will be our clue to finding him…"
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone's voice was filled with determination. They were that serious about finding K.
Just then—
"Um… couldn't it just be because「K」is trendy these days?"
Someone spoke up. Instantly, silence fell over the conference room.
…
…
"You mean like「K」-pop or「K」-dramas—just「K」as a trend?"
Team Leader Park asked back. But even the agent who had spoken wasn't entirely sure.
"Uh… I just meant maybe it doesn't have any deep meaning."
A counterargument came immediately.
"No. This is a message. A message to us—no, to the entire world."
"Right. Most strong figures at that level tend to be eccentric…"
"I agree. Someone this powerful wouldn't act without meaning. Even the way they breathe probably has a hidden purpose."
"Right… yes. So then, what exactly does「K」mean?"
The minority opinion was quickly drowned out. And once again, they dove into heated debate.
…
But—
…the truth was always cruel.
The reason his name was「K」?
It was simply because, ever since he was a kid, that was always the name he entered at the arcade when a game ended.
He just used「K」because his last name was Kang—there was absolutely no other meaning behind it.
The people at the NAMBH had no way of knowing that.
How deflated would they be if they ever found out the truth?
So…
Sometimes, what you don't know really won't hurt you.
…
"Agh! Why are my ears so itchy?"
Ha-min, blissfully unaware, was the only one whose ears just happened to itch for no reason.