An izakaya where the third round of the Hunter Bureau staff dinner was underway.
Sipping on sake, Se-yeon checked her phone.
Is he doing this on purpose? Playing hard to get? Or is he just genuinely indifferent?
Jin-hyeok, who hadn't even been gone from home that long, had once again stopped reading her Kotalk messages.
Come to think of it, she had noticed he barely checked his phone these days—unlike normal people.
Maybe it was because he didn't use social media; he never took photos of his food, either.
He really is a masterpiece of laziness.
One of the biggest shocks to her sense of normalcy had been laundry.
While eating sushi, Jin-hyeok had proclaimed with full confidence:
Since living alone, he had never once folded his laundry.
— ????.
Se-yeon's chopsticks had frozen mid-air as countless question marks filled her mind.
Her normal understanding of the world was that after washing and drying clothes, one neatly folded them and put them away.
Jin-hyeok, on the other hand, simply wore whatever he grabbed off the drying rack.
He even said the leftover clothes helped him gauge when it was time to do laundry again—killing two birds with one stone.
Now that she thought about it… it kind of made sense.
Anyway, he's definitely not ignoring just my Kotalk.
He had to be ignoring everything.
Otherwise, she might actually get angry.
"Huh? What is this?"
"That can't be right. Is it a glitch?"
"Team Leader, please look at this!"
The table grew noisy out of nowhere.
Already tipsy, Jin Yun-ho waved them off.
"What is it now? Don't show me anything. Even if you tell me to go, I'm not going."
"It's not that! It's a Runner! A Runner!"
At that word—Runner—Se-yeon's eyes snapped open.
Before anyone could say more, she hurriedly opened the Tower website.
"Uh…"
It didn't take her long to find the source of the commotion.
It was plastered in huge letters the moment she entered.
A whole four floors had been cleared in one go on the Hall of Fame.
Naturally, the Tower website was in utter chaos.
Posts related to it were being uploaded at a breakneck pace.
She tapped the one at the very top.
@ What is this? How were four floors cleared at once?
@ Did different people do them at the same time?
@ How is that possible? Consecutive floors cleared at SSS+ on the same day?
@ Even quadruplets couldn't pull that off.
Arguments about what really happened went back and forth.
And then a comment dropped like a hammer:
@ The Runner probably used a Compression Ticket.
@ Who the hell uses that???
@ Isn't that something you use only when you're heading to your death and want to go out with style?
As she scrolled through the endless replies, Se-yeon shook her head.
Yoo Jin-hyeok… that insane man.
When he said he would use a Compression Ticket, she assumed maybe he'd combine two floors.
But four? All at once?
"Whaaaaat!!"
Apparently, Yun-ho had just seen it too.
He shot to his feet with a shout.
His knee slammed into the table, spilling drinks and food, but he didn't even flinch.
He looked across the table at Se-yeon.
She shrugged lightly.
She did tell Jin-hyeok not to use it that way, and he went and cleared it with SSS+ like a slap in the face.
From now on, she wouldn't even be able to tell him not to do something.
But seriously… how does he do this?
She clutched her head.
Asking about Tower mechanics or class details was taboo.
So even if she wanted to ask him, she held herself back.
But curiosity was driving her insane.
A Compression Ticket wasn't simple addition.
Merging three floors didn't mean difficulty went from 1 to 3—it became 5 or 6.
How did she know?
Because she'd once used a Compression Ticket herself on the 40-floor zone, desperate to climb faster.
She'd never been stuck on any floor, so she confidently compressed three floors.
— KWAaaaaaah——!!
What came afterward was unlike any Tower she had ever known.
Monsters that used to be cut in two with one strike now needed a dozen hits.
Attacks she'd brushed off with Holy Knight blessings now landed as bone-shattering blows.
And that was just the warm-up.
It was far harder than usual, but she didn't want to waste the ticket or her daily entry, so she pushed on, somehow surviving and clearing monsters.
And just when she thought she saw the light at the end—
He appeared.
A named monster not even recorded on the Tower site.
A knight named Kalista, wielding a massive sword over three meters long.
If I met him now, I'd beat him.
But back then? She didn't stand a chance.
Kalista swung that multi-hundred-kilogram blade like a toy.
When she tried to block a vertical strike, she genuinely thought she would be flattened and die.
His swordsmanship was incredible as well; she couldn't find a single opening.
He was an impregnable fortress.
…Tch.
Kalista was the first to ever defeat Cheon Se-yeon, renowned as both a hidden-class holder and one of Korea's future champions.
Remembering the bitterness of that day, she emptied her glass.
At least it was a 30-floor-zone ticket this time.
If Jin-hyeok had used a 40-floor-zone ticket, he would've definitely encountered that guy.
An asymmetrical threat that no player in that zone could possibly defeat.
Kalista was a mountain—one you walked around unless you had a death wish.
"Haaaah…"
After staring at the Tower site for a while, Yun-ho let out a sigh heavy enough to break the floor.
He was thrilled that Jin-hyeok had surged upward—but:
It is time. We must find the Runner!Those who suspected the Runner until now will disappear. The divine one who conquered four floors in one strike with a Compression Ticket! His radiance is real!Korea's top three broadcasting networks declare a nationwide search for the Runner!Even the U.S. and China have joined in! Each network is mobilizing all resources to secure an interview with the Runner!
The unprecedented attention spelled danger.
For content, some people would risk their lives.
They would use any means necessary to hunt Jin-hyeok down.
Among them would be those trying to recruit him—or force him into national service.
Even if they can't immediately connect Jin-hyeok to the New Cali-ho incident…
It wasn't safe.
What if someone suggested the Runner could wield various weapons?
The influencers who had been on that ship would suspect Jin-hyeok first.
After thinking for a long time, Yun-ho grabbed a bottle with a fierce expression.
"T-Team Leader?!"
Ignoring his startled subordinates, he upended the whole bottle in one go.
"Khuhh!!"
Resolute determination hardened across his face.
Come find him if you want. I'll hide him no matter what.
Even if waves crashed and tsunamis rose—
Yoo Jin-hyeok, the Runner, was now undeniably Korea's future.
So even if he had to smash cameras and crack skulls—
He would protect him.
[You are exiting the Tower of Despair, Floor 40-4!]
Jin-hyeok stretched lazily as he stepped out of the Tower.
His face was the picture of bliss.
"Too easy."
Compression Tickets had a terrifying reputation, so he'd been a little nervous.
But the threat level wasn't even close to challenging his party.
"Is that a new sword?"
Seira bent forward to examine the blade Jin-hyeok carried.
"How does it look?"
"A fine sword. It feels infused with magic."
That part was a bit disappointing.
If it had magic he could actually use, he could enjoy the weapon's damage-boosting passive.
But aside from Quick Shield, Jin-hyeok had nothing that used mana.
"Seira, so here's the thing—I want to try using Ganjiang-Moye and Salamanca together."
"The weight seems similar, so it should be fine. Starting today's training, I'll teach you the difference between single-sword and dual-sword styles, and what movements to watch out for."
"As expected of my master."
He lifted a thumb in approval.
Just then, Momo scurried over to inspect Salamanca.
"This expensive! Could buy bigger house!"
Maybe because she'd seen so many Korean news segments about housing prices, Momo often compared item value to real-estate costs.
"I'm going to use this one. And Momo."
Jin-hyeok ruffled her hair.
"I'm not going to buy a bigger house with my money."
"Then how get bigger house?"
Jin-hyeok glanced around the officetel he had moved into less than 24 hours ago.
"Who got us this house?"
"Team Leader Uncle!"
"Right. So who'll give us the next house?"
"Don't know!"
"Honestly, I don't know either. But it's definitely coming. Someone will give it to us. So we just wait."
"Wooooow!"
It wasn't an empty dream.
Jin-hyeok was also a user of the Tower website.
No one knew the Runner's current value better than he did.
So he was certain:
If he waited, not just a rental, but a real home would fall from the sky.
Satisfied, he raised his hand.
"Elia! Question!"
"Go ahead."
He pulled out a strange alchemy box from his inventory.
"Oh? That's interesting."
"Can you take a look? What kind of potions can I make with it?"
"I've never seen this one before. Let me have it. I'll examine it."
Elia's eyes gleamed sharply.
Her innate trait, Primordial Curiosity, was definitely kicking in.
Jin-hyeok quickly pulled the box back out of her reach.
"Don't break it."
The Star Workshop was filled with things she'd shattered while playing with them to satisfy her curiosity.
But this box was different.
He still had one use left.
"Really? That was close."
Elia quietly put away the hatchet she had been about to pull out.
Why was that her first examination tool?
"I'll just look with my eyes."
She took the box and inspected it from every angle.
"Hm."
She still looked slightly dissatisfied that she couldn't disassemble it, but her curiosity was at least partly satisfied.
"Do you have a specific potion you want to make?"
"Yep. A potion of eternal youth."
The lounging companions all turned toward him.
Especially Darc the Undying, who smirked with interest.
"Oh? Master, you're aiming high. Good, good. That's what my master should aspire to."
Nodding, Elia inspected the box once more.
Then Jin-hyeok asked something that had suddenly crossed his mind.
"Elia, could you make a potion of eternal youth?"
"No. Impossible."
She shook her head without hesitation.
"There are realms even the greatest alchemists must never touch."
She pointed at his heart.
"The realms of life and death. Touch that, and you'll see hell. Some couldn't accept that and kept trying to revive the dead, but in the end, they all saw hell and admitted it was impossible."
"Hmmm. Then this box probably can't make it either."
"Not necessarily. This box contains a special power that can break past certain rules."
She then pointed at Darc.
"But it can't fully surpass them. Something like his full immortality is out of the question. Still, if it's just eternal youth, then maybe."
"Ooh! Then can you recommend three materials?"
"Of course. I'll choose the best eternal-youth ingredients I know. I want my master to live a long, long time."
A bright smile spread across Jin-hyeok's face.
He was going to start right away.
He would create the elixir even Qin Shi Huang could not obtain—
the medicine of everlasting life.
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T/N:
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