The Player that Can’t Level Up

Gi-Gyu had been anxious since he lost contact with Soo-Jung. Afraid he might lose her again, he answered hurriedly, ‘I can hear you.’

-Good. We must’ve escaped his territory.

‘His territory?’ Gi-Gyu had many questions, but Soo-Jung’s quick message gave him no time to ask any.

-As I said before, we need help. We are stuck here.

Soo-Jung’s voice was cold and heavy, and Gi-Gyu listened carefully. He was afraid to say anything, worrying it might sever the connection again.

-We meet Yoo Suk-Woo here… This is…

Despite Gi-Gyu’s utmost focus, their connection was unstable. He couldn’t hear a lot of Soo-Jung’s words. They were communicating through Lim Hye-Sook or Shin Yoo-Bin’s sync with Gi-Gyu. A multitude of things could interfere with such a connection.

‘It doesn’t sound like they’re in a good situation.’ Gi-Gyu tried his best to strengthen his sync.

-Dammit. I can’t talk for long. We gotta move. Are you still listening?

Soo-Jung asked in a panic.

‘I can hear you! Keep talking!’ Gi-Gyu yelled, but it seemed that Soo-Jung couldn’t hear him.

-Fuck, I think we got disconnected again. We are… at the moment… hiding from … Your family is… separated from Yoo Suk-Woo. Don’t worry… I think they’re safe.

Gi-Gyu’s heart fell again.

-So far anyway… So… H…urry…

Soo-Jung’s voice became even more disjointed.

-We are currently at—

At that point, the connection was completely severed.

“Fuckkkk!” Gi-Gyu screamed angrily, making the entire Eden vibrate.

***

What was going on? Why do they keep getting disconnected?

Gi-Gyu had endless questions. Thankfully, he now knew that his family was relatively safe. Until a minute ago, he had feared that the Caravan Guild could attack his family anytime. He had become powerful now, but he knew that if his family were here and an enemy attacked him, they would only be a hindrance.

But so far, no one had tried to attack his family. His family home in the Bukhan River area was heavily protected, but it was still strange that no one had even tried to attack it. The Caravan Guild had built a secret branch there, but…

‘It was never after my family.’ Gi-Gyu knew that when the Bukhan River had been filled with lava, his enemy was only after him, not his family.

‘And even when Ha Song-Su and the others fought while I was away, they never went after my family.’ Oh Tae-Gu had been forced into staying in Gehenna, while Oh Tae-Shik and Yoo Suk-Woo had escaped with Gi-Gyu’s family. But even then, Gi-Gyu’s family was never directly targeted. This was why Gi-Gyu had always felt certain that his family would be safe.

“But I was careless,” Gi-Gyu muttered. He couldn’t understand why he had been so relaxed. He had no reason to let his guard down and realizing that his mother and Yoo-Jung might be in danger now, he couldn’t help but feel guilty.

But it seemed that Lou and El disagreed.

“This isn’t your fault,” said Lou.

“I agree, Master. You shouldn’t blame yourself,” El added.

However, Gi-Gyu’s fury had shaken the whole Eden. And that was why Lou and El had come to find him.

El seemed to have read Gi-Gyu’s thoughts because she continued, “You had a good reason to believe your family was safe, Master, and… I believe you thought it would be safer for your family to be away.”

Thanks to Lou and El, Gi-Gyu began to calm down. “You’re right, El.”

Indeed, El was correct. Gi-Gyu had been second guessing himself, but he had all the reasons to believe that his family wasn’t being targeted, so he had let his guard down.

“I truly believed that they would be safer with Tae-Shik hyung and Suk-Woo,” said Gi-Gyu. The entire world was in turmoil, and although Gi-Gyu didn’t know where his family was, he had believed that they would be safer elsewhere. This was why he hadn’t been in too much of a hurry to find them.

‘Subconsciously, I hoped they couldn’t be found.’ Gi-Gyu admitted to himself. He felt that it would be best if his family stayed away until the war was over.

“I’m not saying this because I blame you. I agree that this isn’t your fault at all. But…” Lou seemingly held a different opinion. He looked troubled, but Gi-Gyu patiently waited for him to continue.

Lou ultimately shook his head and said, “No, never mind. I shouldn‘t be saying this. Anyway, you still don’t know their location?”

Gi-Gyu shook his head. “Old Man Hwang and Paimon are analyzing my sync with them to locate them. They are working hard, and I think they’ll find Soo-Jung in time.”

“I’m glad. But I think you already have a guess as to where they are,” Lou replied. “Let’s go get ready.”

With each step, Lou’s body began to change. He started while looking like a child, but by the time he took his first five steps, he had returned to his original form—The king of all demons and hell.

“I guess we’re going out to save your family,” Lou announced and left the room.

El rose as well. “I’ll go get ready too, Master.”

“Hoo…” Gi-Gyu sighed. Now alone, Gi-Gyu felt a little calmer. After Lou and El had left, Gi-Gyu began thinking.

“Kronos…” Soo-Jung hadn’t told him who was chasing after them, but Gi-Gyu felt he knew the answer. Only one person he could think of could corner Soo-Jung, Lim Hye-Sook, Shin Yoo-Bin, and Yoo Suk-Woo, and even interfere with their sync.

Kronos.

Now that Gi-Gyu felt calm, he remembered how Kronos had warned him not to trust Soo-Jung. Kronos had said that she might not be on Gi-Gyu’s side.

***

“Just as I suspected,” Gi-Gyu whispered. He had come running when Old Man Hwang had told him that he had figured out Soo-Jung’s location. “So she’s in the Tower’s basement.”

Old Man Hwang had explained that Soo-Jung had last communicated from under the Tower.

“And the basement of the Tower is where we suspected Andras may be.” Old Man Hwang looked grim. The information was alarming, and Gi-Gyu’s anger and other emotions were seemingly affecting the blacksmith too. Old Man Hwang also deeply sympathized with Gi-Gyu’s worry for his family.

‘The Tower’s basement…’ Previously, they had indeed calculated Andras to be there.

“It’s also where we thought Kronos may be,” Gi-Gyu replied. This had been their ultimate destination for a long time. At this point, it became certain that Kronos was after Soo-Jung and the rest.

“But why did Soo-Jung go there?” Gi-Gyu wondered. As far as he knew, she had gone somewhere else to find Suk-Woo. So why was Soo-Jung in the Tower’s basement?

“Maybe she was just following the trail he left behind? I can only make a guess.” Old Man Hwang still seemed serious. “But more importantly… This is the Tower’s basement we are talking about.”

Gi-Gyu nodded. He wanted to kill Kronos and had wanted to for a long time, but one reason stopped him from following his heart’s desire. And it wasn’t simply because he lacked enough power and needed time to become stronger.

Old Man Hwang continued, “The Tower’s basement is filled with fragments of numerous dimensions. Entering one specific dimension is a challenging task.”

The fragments of all the dimensions the Tower had swallowed were currently in its basement.

‘It’s like a graveyard.’ While Gi-Gyu had been searching for Andras, he had learned that Andras’ headquarters were in the Tower’s basement. And that was why he had focused on gathering information about this place. Thankfully, Eden also had several players who had explored the Tower, so he could also question them.

One of them was, of course, Old Man Hwang.

“When I think back, I think it was a terrible coincidence that I arrived at Lord Paimon’s territory,” said Old Man Hwang. When he had explored the Tower’s basement, he had ended up falling into Paimon’s land; here, he had met his wife and had his son.

“That’s not the only problem.” Old Man Hwang looked even more concerned. “You already know, don’t you? The fragments of different dimensions in the Tower’s basement… Because they don’t have enough power, the flow of time in each of them is different. This might be why your connection to Soo-Jung is unstable.”

The basement was different from the rest of the world. The basement was a dimension graveyard, so the time flow difference between the many fragmented dimensions was a given. However, none of the dimension’s flow of time was like Earth’s.

“Even now, there is no way to reach a specific dimension,” Old Man Hwang added. This was why Gi-Gyu couldn’t attack Kronos yet. This made the Tower’s basement the perfect place to hide.

‘And this place especially suits Kronos.’

Kronos could control time and space, so the Tower’s basement was the perfect hideout.

“Dammit,” Gi-Gyu swore.

“However, the dimension Kronos is in should have a time flow comparable to Earth’s,” said Old Man Hwang. After all, Kronos could twist the time of any dimension to match the time on earth. “Just don’t be impatient. We must do one thing at a time.”

Old Man Hwang shook his head once. It looked like he was feeling less burdened now. “Besides, Soo-Jung and Hye-Sook noona… I mean, Lim Hye-Sook and Shin Yoo-Bin aren’t weak. I’m sure they can survive until you arrive, so don’t worry.”

Old Man Hwang had tried reassuring Gi-Gyu, but it didn’t help.

“All right,” Gi-Gyu replied quietly.

***

Fwoosh!

A gate materialized and scattered away quickly before Gi-Gyu, who looked unhappy. He could normally open a gate before anyone he was synced with, but the power seemingly wasn’t working right now.

“Useless,” Gi-Gyu muttered. He was trying to send the reinforcements to Haures, but the gate wasn’t opening. Was it because Haures was on such a high floor of the Tower?

There appeared to be many interferences. Gi-Gyu could open the gate, but it kept closing quickly, which meant it would be too risky to jump into. And when he tried to open a gate to Soo-Jung’s location, he failed every single time—this was much worse. It only made a static noise like a TV, most likely because she was in a completely different dimension.

“It’s not gonna work.” Gi-Gyu decided that he had no choice but to travel the old-fashioned way. But he was glad he didn't have to worry about Haures and Go Hyung-Chul.

“I’m ready,” Bodhidharma, who now went by Kim Se-Jin, said calmly from behind.

“Hello, there,” Gi-Gyu greeted.

“I will leave whenever you give the word. It shouldn’t take long to reach the 79th floor,” the monk replied. It hadn’t taken Haures and Go Hyung-Chul long to reach the 79th floor. Since Gi-Gyu’s reinforcement was even more powerful, it was expected that they would reach this floor even more quickly.

“Grandmaster.” Hamiel arrived.

“Haa… Whenever my brain asks me to address you as ‘Master,’ I want to rip my mouth apart,” Michael stood beside Hamiel. These two were also part of the reinforcement team. Gi-Gyu trusted that Bodhidharma, Michael, and Hamiel should be enough to help Haures and Go Hyung-Chul inside the Tower.

Bodhidharma reassured Gi-Gyu, “Don’t worry too much. Everything will work out the way you planned.”

“I shall serve you faithfully, Grandmaster.” Hamiel knelt on one of his knees in front of Gi-Gyu.

Michael shrugged and whispered, “I’m sure your family will be fine.”

Gi-Gyu looked at all three of them and replied, “Thank you. All of you.”

Now, Gi-Gyu needed to focus on how to reach Soo-Jung. Just then, Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened. “...!”

“What’s wrong?” Bodhidharma asked in concern, seeing that something was clearly wrong.

“Their signals…” Gi-Gyu whispered.

“...”

“Haures and Go Hyung-Chul’s signals have suddenly weakened,” Gi-Gyu continued.

“Does that mean they are at death’s door?” When Bodhidharma asked, Gi-Gyu nodded.

“Yes…”

Gi-Gyu thought the problem inside the Tower was about to be resolved, but it looked like it was actually worsening.