Chapter 120 - Hero (2)

King.

“Uh...”

The corners of my mouth lifted. Wasn't there something about people instinctively smiling when confronted with the unexpected?

I looked around. The Black Dragon leader, the Inquisitor, Viper, the Paladin, the Count. I met their eyes in turn.

“... You're joking, right?”

“Of course.”

Of course, the Black Dragon leader said. I wanted her to follow that with something like, “Of course I'm joking.” But what came from her lips was completely different from what I'd expected.

“Of course we aren't about to adopt a monarchy at this late stage. You may not know this, Death King, but we poured our hearts and souls into the Tower's current system... We built it through failure and frustration, over and over again.”

“In our own way, we are striving to realize the ideals of anarchism. Aha. The ‘guilds’ operating in the Tower are actually a type of cooperative...”

“Enough. That discussion won't help the Death King.”

The Paladin cut him off.

“A king is merely a symbol. But symbols wield real power. Kim Gongja, you already possess that power. Seeing your name, trusting your character, as many as a hundred thousand ordinary people enter the Tower in a single day.”

“...”

“Even the Black Dragon leader has never accomplished that. You're the first. There is no precedent for a hunter in the Tower possessing this much power!”

Only then did I realize that the Paladin was more worked up than usual.

She was always calm and composed. The only time she had raised her voice was during [the incident on the twelfth floor], now forgotten by everyone, when they had all succumbed to paranoia and tried to eliminate one another.

Yet now, even she was excited.

And she wasn't the only one.

Except for the Inquisitor, every major Guild Leader was caught up in a strange fervor. They struggled to keep that heat from flaring into frenzy. But their excitement was laid bare in the eyes they turned toward me.

“We couldn't have handled an influx of this size before. We didn't have enough food. But now [we] have secured enough land and trade routes... It'll be difficult, but we can feed them.”

“Above all, we have [experience],” the Count said.

“It is nothing to boast of, but every Guild Leader here has lived through chaos. The Paladin is a displaced wanderer from a fallen nation. The Black Dragon leader is an orphan from a country turned into a shitshow by civil war, while the Inquisitor and Viper were kicked around by the mafia and thugs from childhood. I was born in the poorest village in the world. Everyone gathered here is an ‘expert in troubled times.’”

“That's right,” the Black Dragon leader muttered.

“Only we can deal with a crisis like this. No country, no nation in the outside world could do it. But [we] can! We've overcome worse chaos than this!”

“...”

I swallowed. I could feel the Guild Leaders' fervor in full.

They had abandoned the old world and fled to a new one. And even after reaching the pinnacle of that new world, they had never let go of their desire to build a new world.

“Death King, we can do this.”

Dreams.

“Let's accomplish what no country in the outside world has managed. A slightly better place. Let's build a world where the people driven out of the world outside, the people who fled here, can breathe a little easier!”

Ideals.

“We know what it means for a society to collapse. That's why we can keep ours from collapsing.”

The Paladin, who had fled a country in South America.

“We know what it means for people to split apart and wage war. That's why we can avoid civil war.”

The Black Dragon leader, who had survived the war-engulfed Black Sea region.

“We know what violence is. That's why we can use it.”

The Inquisitor, raised in an Eastern European mafia organization.

Viper, who had grown up in a Chinese triad.

“We know what poverty is, and that's why we can defeat it.”

The Count, born in a garbage village somewhere in India.

“Let's show them, Death King,” the Black Dragon leader said.

“Let's show people that we can build a slightly better world!”

And I realized something.

The person who had changed the Guild Leaders was none other than me.

This had never happened in the previous world. In the world where the Flame Emperor monopolized first place... the Tower had remained nothing more than the Tower.

A refuge for those who had lost hope.

A paradise for criminals and death-row inmates.

In the previous world, I had never once seen the Black Dragon leader speak of [a new world] with her eyes shining as they did now. Not in any magazine photograph. Not in any recorded interview.

Her eyes had always been cold, their warmth long extinguished.

She had changed because of me.

“...”

My heart pounded.

“I...”

The world my Master had dreamed of.

“Tell me what I need to do.”

I could change the world.

“... Yes. Yes. I thought you'd say that.”

The Black Dragon leader smiled gently. There was trust in the way she looked at me.

“You just need to keep being yourself. That's the most important thing. We can teach you the ins and outs of politics one step at a time.”

“Ahaha. From a slightly cynical perspective, that could mean we intend to monopolize actual power while the Death King continues to serve as our figurehead!”

“... Well, I won't deny it. But if I could hand this position over to someone else, I'd do it in a heartbeat, you know? Shall I tell you how many violent crimes are happening every day right now?”

“Oh, crimes committed under the guise of religion are extremely common too! Over the past ten days, twenty-one extremist terrorist plots have been uncovered before they could be carried out!”

“Let's stop talking about this. We'll only end up feeling sorry for ourselves...”

Hmm.

So the most important thing was for me to be myself.

'In that case.'

I looked around.

“Librarian! Librarian! Where are you?”

My voice echoed through the enormous library. Then a small shadow peeked out from behind a bookshelf the size of a house. It was the constellation [Shut-In Librarian], whom I hadn't seen in a while.

“What are you doing over there? Come here for a moment.”

“B-but... but, you see...”

The Librarian's lips trembled violently.

“Would a lowly creature such as I dare behold the Death King's august countenance? I would sully your eyes. Please regard me as nonexistent, as nothing more than dust drifting through the library...”

“Oh, don't start this bullshit again. Just get over here.”

“Ugh. Urk. Uhh...”

The Librarian floated limply toward me, long sleeves fluttering. They looked just like the ears of a dejected Maltese puppy.

“Please, speak...”

“Bring out the book we'll tackle as our next stage.”

“Which apocalypse do you desire?”

“The fairy tale.”

“...”

The Librarian pressed his lips together. I continued, unperturbed.

“There's only one fairy-tale book among the apocalypses we were given. Please give me that one.”

“... Hmm. I see. What a curious connection.”

The Librarian's expression changed. His eyes narrowed halfway in a sly smile, as though he had never trembled with awe at the sight of me.

“Very well. This is the apocalypse you speak of.”

One of the books circling the Librarian swooped toward him. When he opened its cover, information about the apocalypse appeared.

+

[My Scapegoat, Our Scapegoat]

Genre: Fairy Tales

Difficulty: A-rank

Required Participants: 2 or more

※Serialization is currently discontinued.

Synopsis: Humanity in this world succeeded in creating a utopia. But maintaining that utopia required a special source of power. That power was the screams of an innocent child who had committed no sin, crying out in pain. Unfortunate though it may be, surely one innocent child should endure it for the perfect happiness of seventeen million people? Thanks to meticulously developed torture techniques and life-prolonging treatment, approximately five years' worth of screams could be extracted from each child. How efficient!

Reason for discontinuation: One hundred eighteen thousand years have passed since the creation of utopia. In the end, all the innocent children were used up. Deprived of its power source, utopia came to a halt.

+

'Yes.'

This was the apocalypse.

It had stayed on my mind ever since I first saw it.

“Everyone, I'd like to choose this apocalypse as our next stage.”

“Hmm?”

The Guild Leaders turned toward me.

Among them, the Black Dragon leader tilted her head.

“The fairy-tale book? I'm sorry, Death King, but I don't think that world had any noteworthy resources or territory. Its difficulty is rated [A-rank], too... Is there really any reason to clear it?”

“Yes, there is.”

I looked into her eyes.

“Until now, we've chosen apocalypses based on how useful they'd be to the Tower. The martial arts manuals preserved in [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] will strengthen the Tower's fighting power, and exchanges with the science-fiction world will greatly advance our science.”

The apocalypses we had cleared so far were as follows.

+

Floor 21: Great Library of Myriad Thoughts

Floor 22: Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon (Genres: Martial Arts Fiction, Fusion)

Floor 23: Chronicles of the Space Iron Knights (Genre: Science Fiction)

Floor 24: Diary of Dawn Lodge (Genres: Mystery, History)

Floor 25: Tales of Sormwin Academy (Genre: Romance)

Floor 26: Festival City Apocalypse (Genre: Sports)

Floor 27: The Epic of Bakery Street (Genres: Cooking, Management)

+

After completing the mission in [Tales of Sormwin Academy], I had stayed for a fortnight. During those two weeks, other hunters had cleared the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh floors. Every hunter with an epithet was pooling their strength and devoting themselves to clearing the stages.

Now only the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth floors remained.

'But.'

I had a plan of my own. If things went as I hoped... this twenty-eighth floor would effectively be the last apocalypse.

Keeping that plan in mind, I began to speak.

“Resources and technology aren't the only things that can be useful to us. Inquisitor, you said it yourself. The Tower's population is growing by nearly a hundred thousand people a day.”

“Hmm.”

“What we need right now is a rallying point. Unity.”

The Inquisitor blinked.

“I agree, but isn't that precisely why we propose elevating you, Death King? You are the Tower's rallying point. We will arrange a suitable position for you as soon as possible! We'll create an impressive office, such as [Head of the Guild Alliance] or [Council Chair], and install you in it!”

I shook my head.

Head of the guild alliance.

Some people would surely be tempted by a title like that. On the surface, it would look as though they had ascended to the highest seat of power in the Tower.

“That sort of sleight of hand won't do.”

“Oh? What do you mean by sleight of hand?”

“Not just me. Everyone here needs to win the people's support. I'm not the one who actually rules the Tower right now. You are. Only when you have their support too can the Tower truly come together.”

“...”

Silence fell around us.

The Inquisitor smiled.

“You have a point. But are you aware, Death King? We bear an original sin. We've done some tremendous things in the name of ending the Tower's chaos. And we continue to do them. Unfortunately, we have no moral legitimacy whatsoever!”

“... The Inquisitor is right,” the Black Dragon leader murmured.

“We've committed too many wrongs to serve as a banner.”

“Then do better from now on. No, please do better.”

“...”

“We're a team. I can't resolve religious problems as decisively as the Inquisitor. I can't deal with gangs the way Viper does, either. Politics, economics, public safety... I won't be as good at any of it as you are. I'm not being modest. That's simply the truth.”

But.

“I will never betray you. You can trust me.”

I was confident I could bring these capable people together.

“If problems arise between you, I'll mediate. If you need to talk, I'll provide a place for that conversation. Trust me. And become one team.”

“...”

The Guild Leaders remained silent.

I held up the fairy-tale book, [My Scapegoat, Our Scapegoat], for them to see.

“As you said, this apocalypse has no remarkable resources. No fertile land, either. But it does have [a sacrifice no one could find acceptable]. Everyone, we must not allow a sacrifice like this. By clearing this world, let's show everyone what kind of people we are.”

Yes.

This was a declaration of intent.

A declaration of how we would run the Tower.

We would not turn a blind eye to sacrifice. We would face it. Even if seemingly insurmountable obstacles lay in wait, we would break through them head-on.

We would show the entire world that we were [those kinds of people].

“Then we can earn their trust. We can ask the Tower's residents to believe in us.”

“I see. Trust in the administration?”

“Yes.”

I looked at each Guild Leader in turn.

“As it happens, this apocalypse requires two or more participants. Black Dragon leader, Inquisitor, Count, Viper, Paladin...”

The most spectacular all-star lineup in the Tower.

And my companions.

“Please fight alongside me.”

All of us would take part in this apocalypse.