The Player that Can’t Level Up

“What?” Go Hyung-Chul asked in confusion.

“I said Master is coming this way.”

“...” Go Hyung-Chul stared at Haures as if he was being absurd. Haures looked tired, but he wasn’t hurt. He was also carrying an armful of food.

‘Well, you can’t exactly call it food, but…’ Go Hyung-Chul knew that not many things in the Tower were edible. Occasionally, certain floors could give birth to decent ingredients, but that wasn’t where they were. Consequently, all Haures had brought was monster meat, fetid mushrooms, and a few other strange things.

Haures reacted to Go Hyung-Chul’s confusion offhandedly. He gestured toward the Red Players and ordered, “Prepare the meal.”

They had seemingly done it before, often.

“T-thank you.” The Red Players drooled over what Haures had brought and began cooking immediately.

‘I guess…’ Go Hyung-Chul watched them work quickly. The Red Players were mostly criminals who had run to the Tower to avoid being captured by the association. Since the association controlled the Tower’s entrance, they couldn’t leave freely. Therefore, they had to get most of their food from the landmarks.

‘Or just eat whatever they can find. So they must be used to this.’ Go Hyung-Chul guessed that these Red Players had lived a self-sufficient life just like they were doing now. The only difference was that, being high-level players, these Red Players had subordinates who used to do their cooking for them. Still, they were more familiar with cooking these strange ingredients than Go Hyung-Chul.

While the Red Players were busy cooking with their tools and skills, Go Hyung-Chul asked Haures, “So Kim Gi-Gyu is coming right now?”

Haures, who was resting, replied, “Yes.”

Haures looked a little better now, but with his amazing sight, Go Hyung-Chul could see that Haures was still shivering, which he was trying hard to hide.

Ignoring this on purpose, Go Hyung-Chul continued, “How can you tell? I know you’re synced with him, but you still shouldn’t be able to tell something like that. Or do you have a special skill?”

Their current floor seemed disconnected from the outside world; the fight between that unknown player and Ironshield seemed to be to blame. The sync was a special ability, but this shouldn’t have been enough for Haures to know where Gi-Gyu was. They were still connected to Gi-Gyu but couldn’t communicate with him. Plus, Haures was in bad shape, just like Go Hyung-Chul.

Haures explained, “Well, I suppose you could say that. I forced one of the monsters on the 69th floor to surrender. I can tell this monster met the master since its connection to me has been severed. The monster is powerful enough not to get killed easily, so I can tell the connection didn’t break because it is dead. I also gave it a clear order, so I’m sure he met Master.”

Go Hyung-Chul brightened visibly.

“Hmm… But there is another problem,” Haures announced, making Go Hyung-Chul frown again. Go Hyung-Chul guessed that Haures’ special power must be to frustrate people.

Haures continued, “I went near this floor’s entrance in case there is a way to escape, but…”

Haures’ face darkened as he added, “For some reason, the entrance is blocked.”

“The entrance is blocked?” Go Hyung-Chul knew more than your average human, but this was the first time he had heard something like this.

“I am certain Master can get through it one way or another, but”—Haures rose and walked up to Go Hyung-Chul—“it might take longer than we anticipated. Since we are still alive obviously only because of you, I’ll give you the rest of my sorcerous energy.”

Go Hyung-Chul watched Haures quietly as he felt powerful sorcerous energy entering his body. He saw Haures’ face become visibly gaunt, but he just silently looked away.

“Just when will he wake up?” Go Hyung-Chul muttered as he watched Hal, who still had his eyes closed.

***

“Kirrrk!” the lizardman, the ruler of the 69th floor, purred like a cat.

“You want me to take you with me?” asked Gi-Gyu.

“Kirrrk! Kirrrk!”

“Hmm…” After Gi-Gyu had synced with the lizardman, he had learned a lot from it. ‘I didn’t know Haures had this kind of ability.’

Haures was a famous hunter who had chosen to become a seatholder solely to hunt. So, perhaps the fact that he could also domesticate his prey shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Whenever Haures found a prey with a unique or special ability, he would make it submit to him. Unlike Gi-Gyu’s sync, his skill only used psychological influence to accomplish this.

“So you’re saying that Haures now knows I met you?”

“Kirrk! Kirk!” The lizardman was burning, but Gi-Gyu actually found it cute. He wondered if Haures had domesticated this monster for that reason.

“Hmm…” Gi-Gyu contemplated. As the ruler of the 69th floor, the lizardman was plenty powerful. This was why he had planned on sending it to Eden, but it looked like this monster wanted to accompany him to save his original master Haures.

“The problem is that we’re going to much higher floors. I feel like you might be able to survive, but…” Gi-Gyu didn’t have the time to slow down for this creature.

“Kirrk! Kirk!”

“I don’t have to worry about you? You can take care of yourself?” Gi-Gyu grinned because the lizardman looked confident. “All right, let’s go.”

Gi-Gyu didn’t know why, but he wanted to keep this monster close. Perhaps it was because he valued how much this monster cared about its master.

‘Or maybe I’m lonely. Who knew Lou and El’s absence would hit so hard.’

Gi-Gyu had come alone into the Tower, as he had left Lou and El in Eden for another mission. It was possible that Gi-Gyu just wanted a companion on this journey.

“Let’s go.” Anyway, the reason didn’t matter. Gi-Gyu decided to go with the lizardman but had no intention of slowing down for this monster. Gi-Gyu ordered the lizardman to go to Eden if they got separated. Brunheard had become powerful enough to assist synced creatures in returning to Eden whenever necessary.

“Kirrk!”

“Huh?” Gi-Gyu was about to leave when he noticed the lizardman hopping wildly. Suddenly, the monster’s eyes turned red—symbolizing the demonic race. The lizardman began growing. It melted down like lava before hardening, and its entire body grew as it turned hard like a rock.

“Kwerrrrk!” With a particularly thunderous roar, thousands of lizardmen erupted from the ground.

“Kirrrk!

“Kirrrr!”

***

The lizardman turned out to be much more useful than Gi-Gyu had expected. He felt silly for thinking that this monster might slow him down.

“Kwerrrk!” Whenever the lizardman roared, thousands of lizardmen erupted from the ground.

‘The most shocking thing is that I can’t sense them.’ Gi-Gyu’s senses were second to none, yet he couldn’t feel their presence. Gi-Gyu could guess why this was the case.

‘There are thousands of them, but they all are a part of that lizardman. That must be why.’

The main lizardman was seemingly like a shadow that could multiply. The thousands of lizardmen were like its incarnations. They were alive, yet they weren’t.

Gi-Gyu also believed that this lizardman wasn’t a simple floor boss. He hadn’t bothered with reading its memories in detail, but it usually roamed the floors 70th and above. Obviously, it knew the floors well, as once they reached the 71st floor, it led Gi-Gyu straight to the next floor’s entrance. It even killed everything in the way for Gi-Gyu.

Gi-Gyu remembered another creature that resembled this lizardman.

‘It gained a fragment of a demon and roamed different floors.’

It was the monster Gi-Gyu had met on the fourth floor, part of the tutorial floors. That monster had almost killed Gi-Gyu and had also given him enough courage to challenge the fifth floor. And that was when he had received his ability to sync.

The lizardman had the same demonic red eyes as that monster, which was unusually powerful. So Gi-Gyu guessed that they were similar in kind.

‘But I can’t understand why…’ Gi-Gyu stopped paying attention to the lizardman. He followed the monster, and while his body moved on autopilot, he wondered, ‘Why wasn’t there a test?’

There had to be a test on the 70th floor; Gi-Gyu had even prepared for it. So when the lizardman had insisted on following him, Gi-Gyu wondered how the lizardman would pass the 70th floor.

“But there was no test… Why?” It seemed that the entire 70th floor had disappeared. When he had crossed the door to the 70th floor, Gi-Gyu had been transferred directly to the 71st floor. There was no test or landmark.

“Kirrk. Kirrrk.” The lizardman, which had shrunk to its original size, came to Gi-Gyu and explained.

“You passed that test a long time ago?”

“Kirrk.”

Gi-Gyu was surprised to hear that a monster could move to different floors, let alone pass the tests.

“Kirrk. Kirk.”

“But the 70th floor disappeared one day?”

“Kirrk.” The lizardman nodded.

The Tower had been changing for a while now. The rest of the world hadn’t noticed it yet, perhaps because there weren’t many players exploring the Tower's higher floors.

‘Or maybe there is another reason.’

After rescuing Haures and Go Hyung-Chul, Gi-Gyu knew he would have to have a chat with Sung-Hoon. They would have to check the other floors someday to see if all test floors had disappeared.

Gi-Gyu paused for a moment to look up at the sky. The 71st floor was a forest, and its sky resembled Earth’s sky.

‘Gaia…’

Could the Tower’s changes be related to something Gaia was experiencing?

“Let’s hurry.”

“Kirrk!” The lizardman began running again.

***

The distance to the next entrance increased every time they climbed to a higher floor.

‘I feel like I’m crossing an entire continent.’

Gi-Gyu guessed that each floor was now much bigger than the Asian continent. He needed to run the vast distance before reaching the next entrance.

“Thanks.”

“Kirrrk!”

Gi-Gyu had no idea how much longer it would have taken him without the lizardman. Thanks to this monster, he saved much time. Suddenly, Gi-Gyu also felt grateful to Haures, who seemed to have somehow predicted what would come.

‘He’s doing a good job.’

Gi-Gyu had ordered Haures to unite the Red Players and climb the Tower. After giving this order, Gi-Gyu should have checked on Haures occasionally. But it was evident that Haures had done a much better job than Gi-Gyu could have had expected.

‘Maybe I should’ve come here sooner.’ Even though he had the power to climb to the higher floors, Gi-Gyu had chosen not to enter the Tower until now.

It wasn’t just the missing 70th floor and the test that seemed strange.

‘The monsters are too weak.’

The monsters on these floors were much weaker than Gi-Gyu had expected. They were, of course, still too powerful to be defeated by other average players.

‘But Lee Sun-Ho and the Angela Guild shouldn’t have any problem reaching these floors. So why didn’t they?’ Gi-Gyu wondered. Remembering how powerful Lee Sun-Ho was, these floors should have been a walk in the park. Yet, even years after the Tower had appeared, no one had conquered these floors. Until now, Gi-Gyu had assumed the reason was that the monsters on the higher floors were too strong. At least, this was what all the other players had claimed.

But now that he was here, Gi-Gyu learned the truth.

‘It’s not that they couldn’t… They didn’t do it on purpose.’

It was obvious that Lee Sun-Ho and the Angela Guild had chosen not to conquer the Tower. They pretended it was an impossible task and had been lying to the world. The other high-rankers might have found it difficult to kill these monsters, but this couldn’t be the case for Lee Sun-Ho.

“Kirrk.”

“All right,” Gi-Gyu replied when the lizardman announced they were getting close. They were currently on the 78th floor and about to reach the entrance to the 79th floor where Haures and Go Hyung-Chul must be trapped. It took quite a long time, but not as much as Gi-Gyu had expected.

As the lizardman walked faster, Gi-Gyu easily followed behind. They were close to the entrance to the 78th floor.

Then suddenly, both of them stopped.

“...” Gi-Gyu frowned and concentrated. “What are they…?!”

Near the entrance to the 79th floor, he felt the presence of many players. These players weren’t weak by any means. They felt powerful and perfectly equipped. Gi-Gyu approached them to see who they were, and when he spotted them, his eyes widened in shock.

“...!”