LIGHTNOVELONLINE ◎ Climbing Rules Chapter 0.
All the Awakened are called Climbers, and the minimum criterion for choosing a Climber is whether one can kill.
◎ Climbing Rules Chapter 1.
Though 90% of the Awakened are law-abiding citizens, it’s recommended for them to clearly recognize their superhuman status and report their awakening to the association of each country.
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Inside the Tower, modern technologies like firearms cannot be used. Technically, it’s because the conditions aren’t met. Cases where modern science can be leveraged are few and far between, about as many as you can count on ten fingers.
Therefore, naturally, internal filming is difficult, and we have no choice but to recreate based on the Climbers’ experiences. Some Awakened with special jobs manage to secure the environment inside the Tower, or fulfill the conditions to enter with a camera and film.
Climbers account for only 2% of humanity.
But, considering 2% of 8 billion people is roughly 100 million, it’s not so few.
Anyway, although it’s challenging to aid those climbing the highest floors, it’s crucial to minimize the casualty rate of rookie Climbers just starting to ascend, prompting nations to collaborate, share information, and devise various countermeasures.
This means information about the Tower can be accessed from the outside as well.
As often depicted in novels, in our reality, the Tower does not prohibit revealing details about its interior or prevent leaving once entered, nor does it incite slaughter among Climbers. In some sense, the TOWER of our world might be considered quite kind.
“Wow…”
Every Climber claims they’ll never forget their first entry into the Tower.
Wakamou was feeling the truth of those words.
An unrealistic scene standing in the middle of a forest, with no sound of birds or insects. Modern VR can’t express this level of reality. The texture and color are different. As a Clipper, my comparison is virtual reality, so please bear with it.
‘Still, it feels like I’ve truly logged into Virtual Chat with an avatar.’
If I’d entered in my original body, I’d feel like I’d truly become an Awakened.
Logging into the virtual chat with a hastily made 3D model and exploring the world makes it feel like the quality has been massively upgraded, so I wasn’t extremely excited.
Even though terminal illness stories today usually provide a time frame of a month to a year, my life is worse than a mayfly, living less than 19 hours a day, which might explain my gloom.
“No! Some Climbers have jobs that don’t even require entering the Tower, so why do I have to do this???”
As explained earlier, not every Climber has a job involving fighting the Monsters in the Tower. Even [Artist] is far from combat, right? There are Awakened who assist by crafting if you bring materials from outside the Tower or [Porters] who enter to gather and collect resources in the Tower without meeting specific conditions.
Of course, there’s no actual job called [Porter].
Climbers have the means to enter floors regardless of their levels and can share things like common skills from specific organizations the Tower designates, known as ‘Companion.’ Thus, not just in the Tower, Awakened can thrive in various ways outside the Tower too.
Indeed! Though incomprehensible, the Tower calls them Climbers but doesn’t force them to climb!
If you want to climb, go ahead? Are you neglecting it? Sure~ die. It crumbles on its own if it collapses.
Mr. Tower! How much time do I have left?
19….
19 days?
19 hours.
What the heck, you b*stard?
There’s no such thing as putting a sword to your throat and threatening you to climb! That’s how it was with the information Wakamou had about the Tower and the Climbers.
“No, am I the favorite idol? The Tower’s chosen supreme idol? Would they brand you the world’s top VTuber, and then people would lash out, asking what right a punk like you has to be a VTuber, burning all day…?”
Scary… even without doing anything wrong, having to deal with emails all day accusing you of being anti for not clipping this or that. If the Tower picked the best VTuber and provoked globally, a new Voldemort might be born on the internet, truly.
SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1Y2VIUWZiVkQ1UHFPVnhKWjVSVlBpeTFVYWxBQkVGeXRsQ01adm9UbHBBcg
“Ugh….”
What I dreaded more than the pressure to climb the Tower was the invisible sword-wielding users’ online bullying!
“Stay calm… count the Virtual YouTubers…”
Murmuring the full names of about 70 YouDuber consisting of Virtual Stars, male members of Virtual Live, different generations, Otherworld Idols… Stellamiss… I decided to accept reality. I wasted an hour denying reality after entering the Tower, having spent time watching streams.
“There truly is no tutorial Fairy, huh….”
Hello. I’m the tutorial Fairy.
The time limit is 24 hours. Good luck, then.
Don’t kid yourself~ let me out! Boom, goes the head, and someone watching would go ‘Is this where it begins…,’ but there’s nothing like that.
There’s nothing like that, and you bet your life climbing the Tower in a VTuber’s body as a Clipper… is this truly right?
‘For now…’
The Tower I entered using the [Enter Tower] skill is the highest 100-floor Tower, the most informed ‘Incheon Tower.’ Floors start from the 30th, varying up to the 99th floor, but 100 is the max floor. The reason for choosing this one is that many Korean Awakened are attacking it.
‘The only way to leave a chosen Tower without conquering it is to give up climbing.’
Doing so resets all gained stats and prevents re-climbing the given Tower.
With such considerations, I chose a 100-floor Tower aiming to climb as much as possible.
“Since a collaboration café opened in Incheon… if worst comes to worst, I can get out through the Tower to Incheon, saving bus time. With such a big body, buses are an issue too…”
After serious deliberation, I decided. The 70-floor Tower in Busan was tempting but pointless since I couldn’t go to Japan. The issue was that you could only choose a Korean Tower due to nationality. Different nationalities require going directly to the chosen Tower. Had that been possible, with 19 hours left, I’d have conducted a VTuber tour until I died to relieve my resentment.
“But, it’s really pathetic. The only skill is [Idol’s Body]… even the most common [Fighter] class has combat support skills like [Smash] and [Light Footsteps].”
I heard it comes with battle support skills.”
“Isn’t it worth giving more if it’s an Idol selected by the Tower?”
With that lament, a cheerful sound of “ding♪” accompanied the appearance of a translucent window as I took my first step on the first floor.
[Climbing the 1st Floor of Incheon Tower]
– First step as a Climber! Get used to it by catching an [Oil Slime] and lighting a fire.
[Platinum Achievement Condition]
– Use the captured slime as material to light a bonfire (0/1).
“…..Huh?”
My ears perked up and then fell.
“E─h??”
Raising my eyebrows and tilting my head, I opened my eyes to show my confusion. So, is this showing the strategy for the 1st floor? Is this the quest I have to complete?
“Platinum achievement, seriously?”
It was a sight that made me doubt my eyes. Can you actually achieve it like this?
From what I’ve researched, the strategy for the 1st floor of Incheon Tower is resolved by defeating a single slime that appears. After that, when you go up to the 2nd floor, it’s basic to choose the development direction you will take as you receive your rewards.
“The achievement condition… isn’t it too easy…?”
Maybe it’s an information issue. Once you kill the slime, it’s assumed that there are no monsters on the floor, so the strategy is considered complete, creating a door to the 2nd floor. Hence, there’s hardly any reason to sit down and light a fire with the dead slime’s body.
“I did hear the ‘Legendary Class’ was really extreme…. But is it okay to be this way?”
For classes like [Wizard] or [Archer], they say staffs and bows with arrows were in their inventory, respectively. So, there will be something good for me as well, just like the others who don’t have these.
Boing, boing.
While I was pondering, a black liquid monster wobbled and bounced out. Do I just step on it? After easily stepping on it, it squashed with a squishy feeling like stepping on a ripe banana. It felt like killing a bug, but… I guess as I keep climbing, I’ll be fighting and killing those that look more human?
It’s not for nothing the minimum qualification for a Climber is to have the mentality to kill a person.
“Wait, is it because I’m only interested in VTubers, that’s why it only worked for me…?”
Even if VTubers meet the Climber standards, fighting myself doesn’t seem practical?
Grumbling, I picked up fallen dried branches from the ground and put the slime’s body on top of them. Starting a fire was… a complete struggle, only managing to light it after absurd efforts. Rubbing my hands together to generate friction started the fire. Perhaps due to its flammable nature, a small spark quickly turned into a flame.
“I’m seriously not getting tired!”
Even after 30 minutes of rubbing there’s no fatigue! The flame even touched my face as it caught, but I wasn’t really hot. Is this what it means for my entire body being 100% made of Mana? Well, what’s good is good as I thought, sitting in front of the first campfire I ever made.
‘How many views would this get if I uploaded it…’
About 5 minutes passed?
[The 1st Floor of Incheon Tower is open to all humanity upon achieving the Platinum Condition!!]
The inside of the tower rang with an elegant voice, sounding like the speaker would have a beautiful face, although whose voice it was remained unknown. Everyone around Incheon Tower could likely hear it, and the color of the 1st floor from the outside view would have changed too.
And this was one of those truly rare conditions I’ve spoken of.
When a floor is conquered with Platinum, it allows non-awakened Climbers access too.
Every resource and material inside can be harvested, using construction machines if needed, and the 1st floor can be used as a kind of bunker. The condition to maintain this is simply the survival of a Climber who achieved a Platinum level.
So now, Wakamou owned the 1st floor!
He secured real estate beyond real estate in the tower!
Just by sitting in front of a campfire for 5 minutes!
[Climb to the 2nd Floor of Incheon Tower?]
Having finished what I was there for, I decided to go straight up to the 2nd floor.
[Mana: 49,371].
There wasn’t even a moment to savor the pleasure of accomplishing the floor!
As I hurriedly ascended, seeing my Mana stat return to [Mana: 70,587] along with the “all injuries healed” alert made me sigh in relief. A lifespan of 19 hours… not even a full day, and I had to keep climbing the tower like this chased by time.
“Now that I think about it, this Mana stat matches my channel subscribers”
Seeing the minor rise of 3 left me astonished in various ways.
“Let’s check the 1st floor strategy rewards first”
Feeling a bit more relaxed now, I even had some anticipation!
Since it was a Platinum completion, the reward must be amazing, right?
Whether it’s attack skills or weapons or whatever, I’ll get at least one thing!
[Reward increases due to Platinum Strategy of the Tower].
[The Tower re-evaluates the Climber’s information….].
[The Tower modifies information about Earth’s professions through the Climber].
“Huh..?”
[Choose 1 Reward]
[Flame of the Idol]
– Uses Mana to create a flame.
[Video Recording]
– Enables the link for recording within the tower on the Climber’s channel.
“Of course, it’s number 1, come on. Did the tower misunderstand what a VTuber is by modifying my profession after seeing me? Can the tower do this?”
It was ominous when they mentioned modifying Earth’s profession information, clearly misunderstanding what a VTuber Idol is about. While towers are enigmatic, I didn’t expect it to give such a strange skill─ of course it’s the attack skill!!
[Acquired Skill [Video Recording]!].
“Ahaha can’t hold it back haha”
It’s decided; I debut as a tower VTuber starting today.
This relates to my survival after all!
Anyway, this is my blue pill(?)! If I brazenly convince people, it’ll work somehow!
“An unbeatable VTuber who’ll never be seen with the red pill!!”
When encountered outside, let’s claim it’s a VTuber cosplay.