Chapter 46

— The participants are moving again after their break! The second floor of the Tower of Proof resembles the inside of a Gate—like a dungeon! And if you look closely into that darkness, you can just make out the silhouettes of terrifying creatures waiting for them!
— That’s right, seven types in total, ranging from rank-3 up to near rank-1 monsters, all waiting for prey!
— The second mission is “Monster Wave Defense”! The teams must hold their ground against incoming hordes. Only the three parties that rack up the highest kill counts within the time limit will earn the right to ascend to the third floor!
— Note: all monsters are magical clones. Unless their true weaknesses are struck, they’ll vanish like smoke without awarding any points. This was designed purely for participant safety—by the two of us! Isn’t that right, Hans?
— Hans?
— My apologies. We’ve just received word that he stepped out to check equipment onsite. Odd, isn’t it? Why would he be there…?
— We’ll cut to a short commercial! Please stay tuned, everyone!

The administrators told viewers to wait as they dealt with the broadcast issue.

Meanwhile, I tried again to confirm with Baek-seon whether Yoo Se-byeol’s name had been erased, but she couldn’t tell.

With only her right eye intact, she could no longer read Naberius’s ledger.

“I can’t see ‘baek-deaths’ again until my eye regenerates.”

“……”

“You’ll keep your promise, right?”

Predicting the future was never simple, so I couldn’t expect more. Judging from Seol Si-heon’s reaction earlier, Se-byeol was safe for now.

I brought Baek-seon along to rejoin the group.

The sudden addition of a Transcendent-level Awakened left everyone stunned.

“What do you mean, Hayan? You’re saying she’ll join us for the second mission…?”

“You can’t just drag in outsiders on your own whim!”

What? Coming from you, that’s rich—you’re outsiders too, aren’t you?

With everyone but me acting like they were on the same side, it was downright frustrating.

On top of that, the event rules stated a party could have at most eight members.

If we included all the Old Gods’ Wound guild members clustering around Se-byeol, one of us had to be cut.

“I’m confident I can help.”

“Ahem. Of course, Baek-seon-nim would strengthen us, but this isn’t a decision to make lightly.”

“I don’t know any monster strategies, but I can call up your dead friends and have them cheer you on. That should boost morale.”

“……”

Just like that, what had been a thorny issue suddenly turned simple.

Convinced he couldn’t block Baek-seon’s entry, Seol Si-heon immediately shifted his target to me.

“Then it’s decided. You’re out.”

“And why is that?”

“No need for two mages in one party.”

“I doubt we need seven warriors more than two mages.”

“Which Tower are you from, anyway? With that shabby robe, are you some kind of black mage?”

“Everyone, calm down! There’s no need to fight—let’s talk this out, okay?”

“There’s no need for you to step in, miss. Leave it to us. Just wait a moment.”

As Se-byeol stepped in to mediate before the party was finalized, Baek-seon sent me a Channel message.

『The mission starts soon. Want me to settle this?』

She clearly disliked the squabbling; even seeing the conflict seemed tedious to her.

But her methods of “settling” things were always extreme enough to worry me.

『If it causes a big scene, the organizers might throw us out.』

『That’s no problem. I just need your consent.』

My consent? What was it she needed my permission for?

『Well? This is the quickest way to end it.』

『…As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.』

After a moment’s hesitation, I gave her the go-ahead.

Baek-seon moved.

One step, two steps.

Her frail gait looked like she might collapse at any moment, yet she approached me.

When her gaze met mine, I felt a soft weight on my left arm.

Cold as a corpse, devoid of warmth—but heavy enough that I knew she was leaning on me.

“Enough. You guys play among yourselves. I’m going with him.”

“What…?”

“We got pretty close before lunch. See you on the third floor—if you can make it that far.”

She tossed the words like a declaration of war, aimed at Yoo Se-byeol, who had been glancing nervously this way even as she argued with Seol Si-heon.

Baek-seon had announced she’d leave the party with me.

Seol Si-heon, thinking it didn’t matter if Baek-seon left as long as I was cut, actually brightened.

But before he could nod, one of his underlings collapsed to the ground.

“No helping it, then. If Baek-seon-nim insists, the rest of us will—”

“Look. A seat just opened.”

— Thud!

It happened in an instant.

Too fast to catch properly, but the fallen man’s jaw glowed red as if he’d been struck by something heavy.

“Si-heon-nim, Cheol-min just collapsed!”

“An ambush!?”

“Miss, did you see anything?”

“Hmm, maybe the food was poisoned? I’ll go call a healer.”

“……”

“Anyway, we’ve got a vacancy now, so we’re all going together. No one has any complaints, right?”

Maybe it was just my imagination, but her eyes looked even more lifeless than usual.

As Yoo Se-byeol went off to report the injured man to the organizers, Baek-seon let go of my arm and murmured:

“I don’t even need to check—I can tell. Your name almost got written into the ledger just now.”

“You mean that guild member?”

“No. I mean you.”

The second mission went smoothly.

None of the other teams had managed to assemble a party as strong as ours.

The key to Monster Wave Defense was seamless coordination—holding the lines against endless swarms of monsters.

But for Awakened, each with different abilities, moving in perfect sync with strangers you’d only just met wasn’t easy. Even elite strike squads from the biggest guilds couldn’t fill all eight slots with their own people.

On the other hand, our team was made up almost entirely of swordsmen from The Old Gods’ Wound. With nearly everyone trained under the same style, we cut through the cloned monsters with speed and discipline unmatched by anyone else.

“Coming your way!”

“Go for the legs only!”

“Conserve your sword aura, use formations against the spirit-type monsters! Hold out until Baek-seon-nim supports us!”

Their cooperation was precise, their formation flawless, as though they’d rehearsed it a hundred times.

Since Yoo Se-byeol had once been one of them, she slipped back into their rhythm with ease.

In the middle of it all, I acted as the control tower, overseeing the battlefield.

Through Channel, I relayed monster weaknesses and directed our movements.

『Seven Deathlinks incoming ahead. Their eye colors match—those ones share life force, so you’ll have to strike them all at once. Deputy Commander, you take the front.』

“Got it!”

Back during Division 1’s aptitude test, my results had been disappointing. But that was only because so little information about Archdukes was available to the public—not because I lacked knowledge.

And these were clone types, researched so thoroughly that their traits matched exactly with the ones I’d seen in the Demon Realm.

What firepower we lacked, Baek-seon covered with her support magic. Together, we kept breaking records as we went.

“We just broke a thousand points, miss! We’re the last team standing, and we’ve outscored all the others. Our pass to the next floor is guaranteed.”

『Don’t start chatting—it’s not over yet. Keep it up, or someone’s going to get seriously hurt.』

“Oi, get down from there! Acting all high and mighty with just one Channel connected, clinging to the ceiling like a bat!”

『I only climbed up to get a wider view of the battlefield. And conveniently, I can see twenty full-grown Tartaruga clones charging your way. There’s nowhere to run, so maybe just give up now.』

I tossed in the occasional bluff to keep Seol Si-heon on edge.

And then—the final wave hit.

Every monster type we’d faced so far poured out from the passage like a crashing tide. The sight was so absurd it made you wonder if this was even meant to be beatable.

Yet no one looked rattled.

“So this is the end?”

“Looks like it.”

“They did a damn good job making it feel real. I can’t tell the difference just by looking.”

“That’s because your training’s lacking. If these were real, the tension alone would feel completely different.”

“Not that it matters. If this were real, there’s no way we could’ve killed this many already. Just look at how many rank-1s there are.”

Clone monsters were nothing more than test dummies for measuring skill, never exact copies of the real thing.

Even if they landed a hit, all that reached you was compressed air from the generator.

And with all sorts of safety measures in place, the party members had already shifted into “final point farming” mode.

I, too, felt lighter watching Seol Si-heon stationed a good distance from Yoo Se-byeol.

The battles so far had been chaotic, but I hadn’t seen him do anything overtly suspicious.

Aside from missing that trap on the first floor, he hadn’t directly tried to harm her.

Had he given up after his attempts kept failing?

Or was my sixth sense dulled from being away from Mala-nim?

But then—who had poisoned the food?

‘Could it be that Yoo Se-byeol wasn’t the target from the start…?’

My spiraling suspicions were cut short when I noticed three massive monsters looming in front of Se-byeol.

Rank-1 Basilisks.

Their main ability was petrifying with a gaze that hardened muscle into stone.

And if they touched you, the corrosive venom rotted flesh into ruin.

The glint on their scales radiated such killing edge that there was no way they were mere clones.

Convinced of that, I shouted urgently through Channel.

『Fall back, now!』

“What?”

『Forget the clones—everyone draw the Basilisks’ attention away from the Deputy Commander! Seol Si-heon, you too!』

“O-oh…!”

As he rushed toward Se-byeol, one Basilisk’s head snapped toward him.

Locking eyes with a true rank-1 monster—something only an Upper Level Awakened could face alone—made his sword hand tremble violently.

I’d managed to divert some aggro, but still, two of the Basilisks charged at Se-byeol.

With clone monsters swarming everywhere, defending her properly was nearly impossible.

“Urgh, what the hell is going on!?”

“J-just hold on a little longer, miss!”

“Don’t come closer! Hayan, bring Baek-seon! And contact the Special Unit…!”

Blocking an A-rank monster with the Tentacle of Transparency was out of the question.

And with hundreds of cameras broadcasting, I couldn’t reveal any of the stronger tentacles either.

I dropped down from the ceiling and reached toward Baek-seon waiting in the rear.

But she only shook her head.

“Give it up. It’s already too late.”

“You promised me.”

“All I promised was to tell you the cause of death.”

Her hollow eyes carried a faint resignation, as if to say once a name was written in the ledger, erasing it was no simple task.

The organizers made no announcement to halt the mission, no orders to evacuate.

Whoever was behind this, the message was clear: once fate was set, it would not be easily escaped.

“And I already told you, didn’t I? That girl’s death is a gain for humanity.”

“Not for me.”

“And who are you to decide that?”

It was a question of what I could possibly do alone—but also a challenge, demanding to know whether I had the strength to save Yoo Se-byeol in this moment.

I hesitated only a second before answering with action.

Bringing my hands together, I unleashed Extreme Magic.

Not at the Basilisk devouring Se-byeol—but at Baek-seon’s head.