Chapter 328: Tutorial 80th floor (1)

Kirikiri granted the wish and attached the condition that I should clear all the Tutorial stages.

I was reluctant. The biggest reason I’d remained in the Tutorial was to think about the wish I’d ask of her. But Kirikiri advised that I still had a lot more to gain from the Tutorial.

Of course, I decided to finish the Tutorial stages as she advised. Kirikiri’s advice was generally correct, and there was nothing to lose by accepting her help. It had always been like that, and it would continue to be so.

Stage clearing was easy. Although Yong-yong and Hochi were entirely in charge of the attack, they were clearing five or six stages a day. We did so even though I was not in such a hurry to attack.

Yong-yong enjoyed clearing the stages. He took excitement in seeing the worlds of various stages as if he were at a theme park. The old man and old lady weren’t particularly interested in the stages, and neither was Seregia.

I was a little uncomfortable this time. The 70th-floor stage had a consistent concept, and a native god appeared on every stage. Those gods crashed and created a hellish environment.

The challenger had to either evacuate and protect people from the Hundred Gods Temple or survive until a new divine being of the Hundred Gods Temple appeared.

It was different from the other stages. I felt like I was experiencing propaganda rather than a stage.

It was as if they were showing how horrible the power of uncontrolled gods could be, and by doing that, they seemed to be praising the Hundred Gods Temple gods. It was as if the system was necessary for the Hundred Gods Temple gods to exert their influence.

However, it was contradictory that most Hundred Gods Temple gods who had designed the stage wanted to get out of the system. I had to find out more about the relationship between the gods and the system.

I hadn’t gotten all the information yet, and I couldn’t even ask Kirikiri. Before entering the 60th floor, I spent all the information points I had. To ask new questions, I had to clear the stage and earn them again. Maybe Kirikiri’s remark that I needed to clear the stage also meant that she wanted me to gather more information.

* * *

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[The 80th-floor stage begins.]

Explanation: A source has been drifting in outer space towards a planet whose name is unknown. It recently crashed into the planet, quickly devoured everything in the area, and destroyed the planet.

The Hundred Gods Temple’s investigator reported something dubious about the source, unlike the usual ones. The Hundred Gods Temple wants to send you to retrieve the source and discover what is unique about it.

-Clear Conditions:

1. Eliminate the Source.

2. Investigate the source.

╚═══════════════╝

“It’s a different stage than usual,” Hochi mumbled.

It was different. Perhaps the concept had changed once we arrived at the 80th floor. Unlike the 70th floor, which mainly displayed the gods, the 80th-floor’s theme focuses on the source.

First of all, it was unusual that the source had reappeared. The 80th floor was set in the wilderness.

I could see the source in front of the summoned place. The power emitted and the appearance of a centipede gave away the fact that it was a source.

“What should we do?” asked Hochi, looking back at me.

If Yong-yong’s job was to use his strength to clear the stage, Hochi’s job was to plan the attacks. But Hochi asked me for advice every time he saw something for the first time, or whenever he had to deduce something.

The reason was simple. Hochi had no enthusiasm to spend his time in deep thought to clear a stage. Like Yong-yong, he enjoyed clearing the stage and experiencing new worlds, but he was much less motivated.

“Just kill it for now.”

“Just kill it? They want us to investigate.”

There were two clear conditions for the 80th floor: eliminating the source and investigating it.

The important thing here was that the first condition was killing, and the second condition was an investigation. The sequence of clear conditions was not random.

Perhaps it was only after the source got eradicated that a proper investigation could be carried out. Some abnormalities about the body needed to be investigated only after killing the source.

“Then, I’ll do it!” Yong-yong raised his hand.

Hochi smiled and told him to do so. Yong-yong fired his power at the source. The source was just as explosive as the power was.

╔═══════════════╗

[Stage failed.]

[Returning to the waiting room.]

╚═══════════════╝

The next moment, we returned to the waiting room. What the heck, man? They told me to kill the source, so I got rid of it, but why did I fail?

I was puzzled. I merely followed instructions, but I was taken to the waiting room without notice.

Before entering the 80th floor, Kirikiri had not explained the stage. Yong-yong looked at me with perplexed eyes, wondering what he’d done wrong, while Hochi was waiting for an explanation.

I didn’t understand the situation, so there was only one thing I could say. “Let’s do it again.”

Through the portal, we entered the 80th floor again.

╔═══════════════╗

[The 80th-floor stage begins.]

Explanation: A source has been drifting in outer space on a planet whose name is unknown. It recently crashed onto it. The source quickly devoured everything in the area and the planet…

╚═══════════════╝

I skimmed through the explanation. The clear conditions remained the same.

“Hey, explain it to me.”

“Um… it’s…”

Hochi asked me for an explanation, but to be honest, I didn’t understand the situation either; however, I didn’t want to reveal my cluelessness.

“Are you in a situation you can’t figure out?”

“No, it’s not that… The…”

I needed time to organize my thoughts. Damn it. I’ll just think about it while spouting bullshit.

I began to speak slowly so I could think a little more. “First of all, there are two possibilities.”

“Oh, what are they?”

“One is that this may not be the source.”

This case was not very likely. The only source I could see around here was that giant centipede. That centipede and my party were the only beings alive on this planet.

“Second…”

“Second?”

Yong-yong had made an overly powerful attack. Normally, considering the 80th floor’s difficulty level, the average challenger could never produce that much power. Because of that, the system could have suffered an error.

I was afraid that was the case since I couldn’t think of anything else.

“Then I’ll try to attack it gently,” Hochi replied, after hearing my explanation.

But that wasn’t easy either. That source had an unusual energy barrier around it. The source was sucking in and absorbing all the powers around it.

The fact that the planet’s ground was a dry wasteland and no signs of life may be due to the centipede’s unique ability.

It was not just absorbing the life force of the planet but the life force of everything nearby. Just getting close to it would make the challenger look like a lifeless mummy. Even if a long-range attack was launched, the centipede would be difficult to attack.

If you attacked that source with a half-hearted move, it would be absorbed and used as nourishment. The source had been decimated because Yong-yong had made the source explode with a single blow.

But it was strange. To ignore the absorbing ability of the source and make it explode at once was difficult enough. A typical challenger on the 80th floor wouldn’t even be able to deal a significant blow to that source.

“Oh, now I get it.”

The first clear condition was a fraud. It gave the condition of killing, and let the challenger attack the source. The source absorbed the power of the challenger, and then the challenger would die.

It was a clear condition, but it was not surprising that it was confusing, considering the design of the Hell Difficulty’s Stages, which wanted to f*ck the challengers over.

“Then what should we do?”

“Just attack it. Let it absorb energy quickly and grow.”

Yong-yong understood me and began to attack again at the source. It wasn’t an explosive attack that killed the source in one-go. A more primitive and basic attack—a fireball the size of a soccer ball—headed to the source.

The source trembled, absorbing more energy every time Yong-yong hit a fireball towards it. It was unsettling to see him shudder every time it got hit. It was all the more so because it resembled a giant centipede.

Unlike me, Yong-yong liked seeing the centipede wriggling. “Cute!” Now, Yong-yong’s aesthetic tastes were being questioned.

When Hochi and I called Yong-yong cute, did he think that the word cute was an all-around compliment that could be applied to all situations? If he believed that the centipede was cute, the situation was a little serious.

Yong-yong fired a fireball at the centipede. He was having too much fun and completely disregarded my anxieties.

The centipede ate the fireball, which was an action akin to a child throwing fish feed to a goldfish. Of course, Yong-yong was the child, but the centipede wasn’t a goldfish either.

I glanced at Hochi to ask him what he thought of the situation. But rather than worrying about Yong-yong, Hochi was preparing a small fireball to shoot at the centipede.

Hochi was a little shy, but he still sent his fireball to the centipede. He pretended to be calm on the surface, but he looked excited from having made a fireball.

Come to think of it, Hochi was no less of a child than Yong-yong. After Yong-yong and Hochi entertained themselves by shooting fireballs for a few minutes, the centipede’s wriggling reached its peak.

It expanded so much that the ground it was standing on trembled. And it wasn’t just that. Something was awakening inside the centipede.

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[Clear conditions have changed]

Description: Despite the desperate efforts of the investigators, they failed to eliminate the source.

The Hundred Gods Temple confirmed the source’s abnormal behavior through investigators and decided to send a new apostle to stop it.

Due to the unexpected situation, it’ll take a considerable amount of time for the apostles to arrive at the scene.

Survive from the source until the apostles arrive.

-Clear Conditions:

1. Survive until the apostles arrive.

2. Eliminate the Source.

╚═══════════════╝

It was expected. There had been cases like this before. When the source first appeared, the stages were held in the same way. It was similar to the 40th floor.

The source had now stopped shaking. All its movements had halted, including its quivering. It now resembled a stone statue or a pupa.

There was no sign of change outwardly, but I knew what was going on in there because I’d been through it before.

“Then, that’s it, right?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” I answered Hochi’s question.

It was ‘that’. I couldn’t explain it in a word, but the source was evolving.

The source’s host’s most prominent characteristic was that its own power ate it upon the source’s evolution.

The cost of taking on a source will only eat away everything visible to gain more power.

Becoming a monster that had lost reason and only thinking about eating the enemy in front was the source I’d seen. But that centipede was on edge, resisting the source’s devouring power.

It was trying to get rid of its primal desires. Its sense of reason, which had already been eaten up by the source, was about to awaken again.

“Wiggley, you can do it!” Yong-yong called out in support of the struggling centipede.

When did you even name it?

After a while, a new Wiggley was born in the body of the centipede. Inside the entirely still centipede, something was crawling out of the centipede’s shell.

Our eyes were concentrated on the figure. Hochi and Yong-yong were curious about what would come out from there. I was also curious about it.

What would a person who had changed to a source look like when they had just regained their sense of reason? Would they look like how they were before they became the source? Was it the same centipede monster? Were they a completely different monster? Or, as I did, could it change itself?

I was excited and curious after a long time.

“Wiggley!” It was not until Yong-yong broke the centipede’s shell and shouted aloud in an enthusiastic voice that it responded to Yong-yong.

“Kyeeeak!”

It was an ordinary monster. I sighed in disappointment, and I clenched my hand into a fist.

╔═══════════════╗

[You have cleared the 80th floor.]

╚═══════════════╝

* * *

Perhaps because I killed the centipede monster, Yong-yong looked a little depressed. Did he really think the centipede was cute?

Hochi was soothing Yong-yong.

The stage had already been cleared, and the portal had appeared, but Yong-yong would not move until he was feeling better. I felt sorry for killing the centipede and watched Hochi and Yong-yong. Suddenly, a message came.

It was Park Jung-ah.

[Park Jung-ah, 90th floor: We’re in trouble!]

Big trouble? Well, maybe there was another day of great harmony. I hoped so.

[Park Jung-ah, 90th floor: The stage is blocked. No matter what I do, I can’t get into the stage. Now all the challengers are stuck in the waiting room and the residential area.]

Oh, that’s what she meant. Come to think of it, I didn’t tell Park Jung-ah in advance.

[Park Jung-ah, 90th floor: No information was pre-announced by managers. No clues. I can’t even meet the managers because I can’t get on a stage. Do you know anything?]

[Lee Ho-jae, 80th floor: That’s because of me.]

[Park Jung-ah, 90th floor: …Uh, what?]

Tutorial 80th Floor (1) Finished