Chapter 58 - Choi Jiwon Is Too Strong (9)

“Give me one.”

“...”

“I said, give me a reward.”

Archangel Raphael’s face instantly twisted... or not.

His expression was the same as ever. If anything, I felt the smile on his lips had deepened.

“Well, how would you like me to reward you?”

Just as I’d expected. That was in keeping with the goodwill he’d shown me all along.

Rather than turning stern or getting angry, Archangel Raphael passed the baton to me, as if inviting me to make an offer.

I couldn’t afford to misunderstand the situation. The one doing the explaining was at a disadvantage; the one listening held the upper hand. The one making the proposal was at a disadvantage; the one deciding held the upper hand.

If I made an unreasonable demand, all he had to do was dismiss it with, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” and I’d be back to square one.

In other words, the important thing was for me to propose an appropriate reward in return. I needed to suggest something neither excessive nor inadequate.

“I’ll take whatever you give me.”

Which was why I dug in my heels and declared I’d take whatever he offered.

Racking my brains over what reward would be appropriate would mean playing right into his hands.

In a negotiation, I had to keep the conversation moving at my own pace.

“... You’ll take whatever I give you?”

Archangel Raphael was maintaining a friendly stance toward humanity, at least on the surface.

He couldn’t exactly shortchange me with some utterly worthless piece of trash now. He had his dignity as an archangel to consider.

In other words, the burden of deciding what constituted an appropriate reward had fallen back on Raphael.

My counterproposal also carried some of my irritation: I didn’t want to lose this battle of wills with the archangel.

“How interesting.”

I didn’t know how much of my reasoning he’d seen through, but Raphael shrugged.

SNAP!

He snapped his fingers, and a silver ring appeared in midair in a flash of light.

“To be honest, even I cannot ascertain your exact condition, Mr. Junho. Father has placed restrictions on that information. But judging by what I can see, I believe this is the reward you need most. I can promise you that on my honor.”

I carefully took hold of the ring floating in the air.

“... Its stats aren’t showing up.”

“Isn’t discovering things for yourself part of the fun?”

“... If you factor in not knowing what it does, this still isn’t enough. I think I’ll need those three Diamond rewards you mentioned earlier, too.”

“Of course.”

I’d said it wasn’t enough, but... instinctively, I knew otherwise.

The ring in my hand was steadily giving off a cool, somehow sacred energy. As Raphael had said, it couldn’t be an ordinary item.

I silently closed my hand around it.

“Well, then... it was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Junho.”

Our conversation had reached its conclusion.

But just as Raphael was about to say goodbye, I noticed the sign-carrying angel trembling in his grasp.

“... That angel you’re holding.”

“Yes?”

“What’s going to happen to that one?”

“... Nothing beyond a little punishment. A light punishment for dereliction of duty.”

“...”

But the sign-carrying angel’s trembling body and pale face told a different story.

It wouldn’t end with a simple “punishment.”

“Just leave that angel here. We need someone to guide people anyway. And now that the city’s ruler is gone, won’t you need someone to make sure the rules are followed?”

“...”

Archangel Raphael gently released the sign-carrying angel.

“Th-thank you!! Thank you, climber!”

Leaving behind the angel, whose face had instantly brightened as it thanked me, Raphael spoke.

“Well, then... congratulations once again.”

With a peculiar smile, Archangel Raphael vanished in the blink of an eye.

The baby angels filling the sky disappeared as well.

The square, which had been filled with hymns and trumpet calls, instantly returned to empty silence.

“Ugh...”

“Fuck... my head...”

Around me, Players began coming to one by one.

The sacred atmosphere of moments before was gone without a trace. The square was back to its shabby old self.

“...”

“Um...”

After cautiously watching me for a while, the sign-carrying angel tentatively spoke up.

“I’m truly grateful, but... why did you save me...? No, no, not that I’m complaining...”

“... Just because.”

I couldn’t stand the sight of that angel, but I’d gone out of my way to save it because...

I felt Raphael was making it take the blame.

Angel or not, I didn’t like seeing someone used as a tool.

Because I felt that humanity, too... was being toyed with by God.

-Hey, I cleared Floor 2, but it was kind of different from the posts here? There were these weird instructors and missions and stuff... Are you guys climbing a different tower from me?

-Apparently Choi Jiwon struck a deal with an angel and got it changed.

-Who’s Choi Jiwon?

-The unofficial strongest person in the world. She’s the woman who fought Floor 2’s hidden boss one-on-one and won.

-Bullshit. Michael Jeter from the US is stronger.

-I lurk on American forums too, and I heard Jeter got his ass kicked by the city’s ruler? Doesn’t that make Choi Jiwon stronger?

Three weeks after the US president acknowledged the tower’s existence, the hottest topic in Player communities worldwide was a Korean woman: Choi Jiwon.

-She’s just ridiculous. I thought I’d gotten pretty strong after getting my trait, but that woman’s a straight-up monster.

-I couldn’t even see her swinging her sword... Really made me realize how far out of my league she was.

Far too many people had witnessed Choi Jiwon’s showdown with the city’s ruler.

Absurdly skilled with a sword. Wore her hair in a ponytail. A beautiful Asian woman. Korean.

She’d drawn so much attention while roaming the city for her “revolution” that a fairly detailed description of her appearance had spread among the Players.

-Isn’t this her? Looks exactly like her.

Then someone unearthed a photograph of Choi Jiwon taken at her father’s funeral, and her personal details spread in an instant.

Choi Jiwon. Her name was firmly etched into the Players’ minds.

-It never even occurred to me that changing a floor’s rules was possible... That’s one hell of an idea.

-Agreed. While we were just thinking about getting better rewards, she was thinking about changing the whole system.

Online, Choi Jiwon was also credited with changing Floor 2’s rules. Most Players had been knocked unconscious when the city’s ruler went berserk and hadn’t seen how the incident ended. Even the few who had remained conscious were subsequently put to sleep by the archangel’s power, burying the truth.

People even accepted as the official account that “Choi Jiwon miraculously regained consciousness after taking a blow from the city’s ruler, then subdued her with the last of her strength.”

Of course, given her personality, Choi Jiwon would normally have actively corrected such false rumors... but Kim Junho didn’t want to draw attention, so she simply accepted things as they were.

The repercussions of Floor 2 didn’t end there.

『 Who Is the Mysterious Ms. Choi? 』

『 [Goryeo TV] The Korean Who Has America Marveling, Japan Reeling, and China Trembling?! 』

Information restrictions kept ordinary people and Players who hadn’t reached Floor 2 from seeing the specifics, but they could still read indirect descriptions from other Players along the lines of “Anyway, she was fucking awesome.”

“Wow... What an impressive young lady... Getting recognition all around the world...”

“Our people really are our country’s greatest resource, aren’t they?”

And so ordinary citizens got thoroughly drunk on national pride without even knowing what Choi Jiwon had done.

“... Should I try heading to Floor 2 too? If I play this right and grab some attention, I could rake in the cash.”

“... So something happened on Floor 2...”

While Players lingering on Floor 1 watched Choi Jiwon bask in the national spotlight and debated whether to head to Floor 2...

“... That man was the real deal.”

“He could copy the hidden boss’s technique just from watching that short fight? Is that even humanly possible?”

“Choi Jiwon matters too. But that man matters even more. Keep an eye on that talent.”

The powerhouses who had endured the city’s ruler’s lightning were talking about Kim Junho.

They had clearly seen him subdue the city’s ruler with Flash Step. Choi Jiwon was impressive in her own right, but the impact Kim Junho had made was quite literally on another level.

Those with contacts hurried off to tell them about Kim Junho, and those stories were passed on to other rankers...

Though they didn’t know his precise identity, rumors of “Choi Jiwon’s helper with the unbelievable talent” quietly spread among the rankers.

“Jeter. Have you heard about Floor 2?”

Enough to catch the attention of the big names.

-Should I have tried for a Gold reward? It looked too hard, so I just took a Silver reward and left.

-The angel with the sign was cute lmao. So fucking nice too.

-Agreed. That asshole at the tutorial “judgment” was rude as fuck.

-Baron Licht << Think he’s a hidden NPC. He’s hiding in some corner of the city, but if you ask, he’ll buff you. The effect’s fucking amazing.

-Did you guys see the woman who used to be the city’s ruler? She’s so fucking pretty.

-Isn’t she that really hairy tanner’s assistant? Think I saw her this time.

-Can normal people use these low-grade potions too? Thinking of selling some.

“... Hmm.”

After making a full round of the online forums, I could see that Floor 2 had definitely improved.

The “no violence” rule and the newly introduced “instructor” system were getting rave reviews.

Some people even said Floor 0 had literally just tested basic qualifications, and Floor 2 felt like the real tutorial.

For latecomers setting out to climb the tower, Floor 2 would be an incredibly generous, rewarding floor where they could learn combat skills and collect rewards. With material resources practically unlimited, quite a few people intended to stay a long time and get used to fighting.

In the end, I’d succeeded in changing Floor 2’s system just as I’d originally intended. People no longer had to commit needless sins to earn good rewards.

“... Regression isn’t the answer.”

Regressing now seemed like a bad choice.

First, there was no guarantee I could reproduce the same situation.

Just look at the results.

Thanks to the archangel’s enormous concessions, I’d succeeded in completely reforming Floor 2.

Besides, I’d gotten every reward I could. I’d even picked up an elixir as my Diamond reward this time, so there were no rewards left unclaimed.

In other words... judging solely by the outcome of clearing Floor 2, I’d achieved the result I wanted. There was no particular need to regress.

My other concern was Archangel Raphael.

I couldn’t accurately gauge him at my level, but his strength was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even dream of standing on the same stage.

Now suppose I regressed and encountered Raphael again.

Could I perfectly recreate my reactions from our first meeting? Well enough to fool a transcendent being?

What if Raphael saw my reactions... and somehow deduced that I could regress?

For now, he seemed unaware of Regression itself, and he’d been consistently friendly toward me...

But there was no guarantee he’d act the same after discovering it.

In short... I was scrapping the idea of regressing and going through Floor 2 again.

That made my next step simple.

[Choi Jiwon] : The day after tomorrow, 6 p.m. Does that work for you?

[Kim Junho] : Sounds good.

I would head straight to Floor 3 without delay.

Before the world became an even bigger shitshow.

A Word from the Author (Author’s Afterword)

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Read Next Chapter