An Awakened credit loan of 100 million won.
A general credit loan of 30 million won.
A government support loan for the Awakened of 100 million won.
A support grant for the Awakened of 20 million won.
A credit loan for clearing the 1st floor of 20 million won.
In the past, I would have had to visit the bank in person to handle all this, but these days, everything can be processed quickly from home with a single click.
Adding the 20 million won I painstakingly earned today while enduring all that sexual harassment, plus the roughly 16 million won I already had from the government support grant…
[Tower Bank: Remaining Balance 296,645,002 Won]
"Wow…"
- Holy shit…
- Wait, why the sudden loans?
- What? Is that balance for real?
- Wow, she gets an amount of money some people will never see in their lifetime just for being an Awakened lol
- If you're so salty, go challenge the Tower yourself ^^
- Guys, that's almost all debt… She has to pay it back, why are you talking like it's a grant?
Ignoring the chat, which was blowing up, I immediately entered the Awakener Market.
'There's no way I can clear the 2nd floor with this body anyway.'
The gimmick of the 1st floor was just taking a beating, so I survived thanks to my defense-focused traits and my past life's experience. But from the next floor on, the real combat begins.
Enemies will constantly target my sluggish body, and if I can't fight back, I'll die.
'I have to gobble up everything I can get my hands on.'
Unlike in the past when I could only window-shop, my identity had already been automatically verified by climbing the Tower. I quickly purchased the elixirs I had already picked out.
[Hobgoblin's Inner Core: 20,000,000 Won]
Effective only when Strength and Agility stats are 30 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Strength Stat +1
Agility Stat +1
[Earth Golem's Core: 30,000,000 Won]
The core of a naturally occurring Earth Golem. Can be consumed when Defense stat is 20 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Defense +1
[Reinster Family's Low-Grade Elixir: 40,000,000 Won]
The most basic elixir made by the Reinster family. Effective when all stats are 20 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Strength +1
Agility +1
Defense +1
First, I bought the ones with the best effects for their price. Like with any product, cost-effectiveness is important, but prices are also determined by rarity, so a more expensive elixir isn't always better.
- Holy shit, how much is she spending?
- My head hurts....
- wtf
- You were really 'serious' about the Tower, huh?
- Fuck, but if she dies after all this, who's gonna pay back the money? lol
- Well, if they didn't give out loans like that, no one would climb the Tower these days.
- Wow.... crazy.
"Everyone, it's not over yet. I'm spending all of this today."
[Blue-Maned Wolf's Heart: 50,000,000 Won]
The heart of a special species that only inhabits the northern part of the Arcadia Empire. Effective only when Agility is 20 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Agility Stat +1
[Kamasylvia's Jewel: 50,000,000 Won]
The jewel of the wyvern-species Kamasylvia, which inhabits the Ugrim Mountains. Can be consumed when Strength stat is 15 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Strength +1
[Drake's Refined Blood: 100,000,000 Won]
Refined drake blood mixed with evening primrose at an appropriate ratio. Can be consumed when Agility stat is 12 or below. Maximum of 1 can be used.
Agility +2
These were all elixirs that had to be consumed early on, or they would lose their effect later.
'This is why it costs so much damn money to raise a single rookie…'
Even with a major corporation's sponsorship, it's not easy to develop one new Awakened. And even after pouring in this much money and feeding them all the best stuff, most of them die along the way.
"Phew… This should be enough for now. I'm out of money, so… shall we stop here for now?"
[Tower Bank: Remaining Balance 6,645,002 Won]
My bank balance, which was nearly 300 million won, plummeted to 6 million in an instant.
- Wow.....
- You really are serious about the Tower.
- 300 million just evaporated, fuck.
- The amount of money Awakened spend is on another level.
- Just watching the money disappear makes me dizzy;;
- A woman serious about the Tower, a Tower-serious woman lol
"I'll be counting on your support from now on!!"
I stood up again and bowed my head deeply.
After that, another wave of donations came in. Although it wasn't as much as when I was being sexually harassed, the messages this time were generally filled with warm words of encouragement.
Right, this is the kind of normal Awakened streamer broadcast I originally had in mind.
After a short fundraising session.
"And there's more to do today. Let's head out."
In fact, the main event for today was an IRL stream.
As I stood up, a black, disc-shaped donut camera on top of the computer automatically rose to follow me.
- ????
- You're going out?
- An IRL stream??
- You're really going out?
- Address.....
"Sigh, you all know it anyway, right? Masan Building, Room 203. Come if you want~"
There was nothing I could do about my address already being leaked. I was already short on cash and taking out loans; I had no intention of abandoning a place that was completely free for a year to move somewhere else.
- lol crazy bitch
- You'll get arrested if you go there, guys.....
- You saw that review, didn't you?
- Yeah, can't go anyway~ fuck
- For real, that place is famous lol
As I opened my door and went down to the first floor, I saw security guards who gave me a slight nod in greeting.
I set the broadcast to automatically blur the faces of everyone but me and turned the camera around.
"See? Come on over if you think you can get through this!"
With this level of security, I could afford to be confident.
Huge, burly guards in blue security vests were standing armed from the entrance, maintaining ironclad surveillance.
- Holy shit, where is this place?
- Look at their builds;;
- Would you go if you were them?
- Fuck, is this the presidential office?
- Is it a national secret security zone?
- What the hell kind of building is this;;
- Shit, that's not a real pistol, is it?
- It's probably a gas gun.... no way lol
"Well~ that's classified, so I can't say. Shall we head to our destination, then?"
I turned the camera back to myself and walked outside confidently.
My destination was the Awakened-exclusive training center.
As befitting an Awakened-exclusive facility, it was located near the Tower, about a 10-minute walk from my place.
"If anyone tries to find me, I'll unblur your face and put you on blast. Just watch from home, everyone. Got it?"
- Kk
- Panbungis are all talk behind a screen anyway lol
- They'd probably freeze up and not say a word if they actually met you lol
- I'll just watch from a distance.
- I'll go right now and fuck you like a dog, you bitch (This message has been deleted)
- Dude, have some self-control lol
- So where are you going?
"Do you think just eating elixirs is enough? I have to train!"
Today, I was going to meet him.
Choi Tae-soo.
The man who ran the Awakened training center where I trained and worked out with him until the day I died in my past life.
Just in case, I searched for him yesterday, and he was still there.
'Shall I go see if the punk grew up well?'
My first encounter with a connection from my past life.
He wouldn't recognize me, but that didn't matter. We could just get to know each other from now on.
*
10 minutes later.
I was worried a few people might push their luck and show up, but thankfully, that didn't happen.
Some people who seemed to recognize me glanced from a distance, but no one approached me to say anything strange.
I even passed by the police station I was once taken to, and the people who had been glancing and following me scattered in an instant.
And so, I arrived at the Awakened-exclusive training center.
"Huh? What is all this?"
The building was in a strange state.
The exterior walls of the four-story building, which was entirely used as a training center, were messily spray-painted with ominous red graffiti like 'SEX OFFENDER', 'DIE, MURDERER', 'RAPIST, GO TO HELL', and 'CRIMINAL SCUM'.
"What the hell?"
Could something have happened to him?
- Oh? That place is.....
- Do-hee, you can't go there.
- no no no no no
- Don't go there;;
- Ah, that place?
- no no no
The viewers seemed to know what had happened.
'It can't be…'
Despite the viewers' protests, I ignored them and entered the building.
'Tae-soo would never do something like that…'
He was a man who ran his training center with more integrity and conscience than anyone. The idea of him being a criminal was unbelievable. I would see with my own two eyes and judge for myself.
Ding~
The business was still open, it seemed. The door opened, and I stepped inside.
'Oh? There he is.'
Choi Tae-soo was sitting alone at the counter.
Even while seated, his massive, bear-like frame and bulging, muscular body seemed to radiate intimidation. His expression wasn't great either; just sitting there, he was a threatening presence.
There were no customers working out inside, and a desolate air filled the space.
But I was about to change the mood.
"Excuse me, hello?"
'Long time no see, you punk.'
I walked closer, met his eyes, and greeted him cheerfully.
"Who're you?"
He, who had been spacing out, looked at me with wide, surprised eyes.
'Hehehe, your friend came back as a stunning beauty, you bastard!'
"I'm here to sign up."
A smile formed on my lips at the thought of teasing him while we worked out.
However, as soon as I mentioned signing up, his expression changed completely.
It was the look one would give a mortal enemy. Is this what a beast looks like when it's angry?
"We don't accept women. Get out, now!!!"
"What? What do you mean?"
What was this all of a sudden?
In my past life, he was the one who stressed how important training was for women, even getting a female-exclusive secret manual and offering special discounts for women to try and increase his female membership.
And now he was suddenly rejecting women?
'I thought he'd be happy to see a woman show up!?'
"I mean what I said, so get out!!!"
"No, wait a minute. Hold on… Hey!"
In the end, as I stood my ground, he forcibly pushed me by the back and threw me out.
He was a high-level Awakened who had climbed to the 49th floor. I tried to plant my feet and resist, but I was pushed back helplessly, barely managing to stay upright after losing my balance and almost falling to the ground.
Ding~
"Don't even think about coming in here if you're a woman!!!"
With the cheerful chime of the door, he turned back, fuming with an enraged expression.
"Seriously… guys, what was that?"
'I'm supposed to be getting a one-month free trial for women…?'
I was forcibly kicked out in an instant without knowing why. What the hell? When did this guy become such a misogynist?
- lolololol
- Told you not to go.
- But that's unexpected, shouldn't he have accepted her right away?
- For real, what's with that pervert refusing her?
- Did he notice she was streaming?
- I thought that perv would be grinning and saying 'welcome,' but his expression was so dark;;
What in the world had happened to him all this time?
*
About five years ago.
After Lee Do-hyun's death, Choi Tae-soo felt that something was wrong.
'Do-hyun is dead? That's absolutely impossible…'
It made no sense for him to die. Choi Tae-soo knew he was a transcendent being who had escaped death, so he couldn't possibly accept it.
And even if he had died, the movements of the other major guilds were far too suspicious.
Erasing the records.
One by one, all records of Lee Do-hyun were disappearing.
When he asked why, he only received a vague answer: 'He was an enemy who betrayed humanity. But the matter is too grave to be made public.'
Later, the story changed to, 'He died fighting a boss monster.'
Unable to accept it, Choi Tae-soo continued to investigate on his own, but…
The great guilds, noticing this, attacked Choi Tae-soo in return.
Attacking him was very easy.
His trait,
As a support class, he thought this trait would be more helpful for training juniors outside the Tower rather than in actual combat, which is why he opened an Awakened-exclusive training center instead of continuing to climb.
At the request of female members, he would occasionally touch their thighs or arms during workouts to increase the effectiveness of their training. The guilds used this, bribing a few women to frame him as a sex offender.
By the time he was found innocent in court after revealing all his traits, the media and the public had long since branded him a sex offender.
Just as the trial, which had dragged on for one or two years all the way to the Supreme Court, ended in his acquittal, another woman came forward, repeating the accusation of sexual assault. The public, thinking, 'Oh, it's that guy again,' threw stones without even looking into the case properly.
Even his acquittal was reported by various media outlets as 'the tyranny of a high-ranking Awakened,' and women's groups even held protests.
After that, he refused to accept any female Awakened, but there was no way to win back public opinion, and he was left in a state of helplessness, not even knowing who to take revenge on.
*
"Hmm… so that's what happened?"
- Yep.
- So don't go.
- Do-hee, that place is a no-go.
- Even if you want to get sexually harassed, that's not the place.
- Don't go.
- If you're that desperate, just spread your legs for me, you fucking bitch (This message has been deleted)
- I know you're a pervert, but that place is a bit much;;
- Just listen when we tell you not to go.
All the public knew was the single fact that Choi Tae-soo had been sued for sexual assault. Of course, I absolutely didn't believe it. And knowing his trait, I was pretty sure I knew why he was embroiled in such a controversy and that it was all lies.
"No, I don't want to. I'm going."
In the end, I trust my own judgment. Ignoring the viewers' comments, I opened the door and went inside once more.
And…
I was thrown out again.
This time, I was crumpled up like a piece of trash and tossed onto the street.
Splat!
"Kkuek!!"
- No way, she's crazy;;;
- lolololol
- How can he throw a woman out like she's garbage? lol
- Turns out Choi Tae-soo is an advocate for gender equality after all lol
- How could he do that to a woman lol
- He threw her out with a look of fucking disgust on his face.
"Ughhh…"
'Fuck, that bastard Choi Tae-soo… even when I'm trying to take his side…'
And there was a crucial reason why I absolutely had to go in there.
'That's the skill book I gave you!!!'
It was one of the rewards from conquering the 70th floor.
[S-class Irene's Female Body Training Secret Manual]
A training manual for women created by the first empress of the Arcadia Empire.
Details can be confirmed upon binding.
Valid Targets (0/1), Bound Item.
A secret manual that only one person could use.
My past self couldn't use it anyway, and the fully grown female Awakened were already using manuals suited to them. So, I gave it to Choi Tae-soo, telling him to secretly give it to a woman he liked when one came along.
The fact that the details of the manual were hidden was a bit concerning, but I wasn't in a position to be picky right now.
I even got a lifetime free membership for giving it to him.
So…
'Give me back my shit, you bastard!'
I charged in again, but as expected, I was thrown out in the exact same way, landing on the asphalt.
Splat!
"Ugh…!"
I landed ungracefully on my back, legs spread wide with my butt in the air.
- lolololololol
- I told you to go somewhere else lol
- That guy is stubborn. If it were me, I would've accepted her with open arms.
- If it were me, I'd pick her up and…
- Ooh
- Tae-soo, throw her one more time for us.
It seems I need to change my strategy.