Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Hidden condition.

Even for me, who was knowledgeable in many areas, it was unfamiliar.

Perhaps that was only natural.

‘Climbing the Tower would be one thing, but I never had much interest in monster evolution.’

I only knew how to defeat monsters. Who could have imagined I would end up raising one?

I had never dreamed of it.

“H-Hajin! I think I can evolve now.”

Poing hopped around with a deeply moved expression.

Getting stronger was a good thing.

If Poing grew stronger, it would certainly add momentum to climbing the Tower too.

But was this something to make that much of a fuss over?

When I asked because I found it strange, Poing answered.

“Yeah! Evolution is really hard. I’ve occasionally seen someone do it once, but I’ve never seen anyone do it twice.”

“Really?”

Well, if the one involved said it was good, then I supposed that was how it was.

I had no reason to refuse either.

If Poing grew stronger, it would help our combat strength too.

Then climbing the Tower would become easier as well.

Unless Poing ate the wrong thing, grew up wrong, and hit puberty or something, anyway.

As long as nothing like that happened, it was a gain.

[Use Monster Evolution Ticket?]

“Of course.”

When I pressed accept, the ticket scattered into powder.

At the same time, Poing’s body floated up into the air.

PAAAT!

“Uh, uh... this feels weird!”

A five-colored radiance shone brilliantly.

Perhaps finding its own body fascinating, Poing raised both hands to eye level and stared at them blankly.

Watching that sight from the side, I had similar thoughts.

It was definitely different.

I was not particularly well-versed in monster evolution, but even at a glance, this was no ordinary sight.

I strongly felt certain that it was different from the previous evolution.

“Uh... uhhh?!”

The moment Poing’s body was swallowed by the five-colored radiance.

[Rainbow Servant Slime → Rainbow Slayer Slime evolution complete.]

Ooh!

Along with the system message, Poing burst out through the five-colored radiance.

I quickly scanned Poing from head to toe.

Phew, thank goodness.

Nothing had changed!

I had been anxiously worried about what I would do if Poing grew outwardly and entered puberty, but it seemed that worry had been needless.

On the other hand, Poing was completely dejected.

I was worried something had gone wrong during the evolution.

“I... evolved, but nothing changed.”

So that was all.

It was a trivial issue.

“Why would you say nothing changed?”

“Huh?”

“You got a horn here.”

A horn bulged out on one side of Poing’s forehead.

No, could I call this a horn?

It was a bit awkward to say this, but.

‘Isn’t this closer to a lump?’

Its shape was one thing, but the soft texture made it feel even more that way.

Well, that was limited only to the external change, and what mattered was something else.

[Skill: Become Flexible → Transformation evolution complete.]

[Transformation - Blends into surrounding scenery.]

A new skill had appeared.

Judging by the description, it seemed like a stealth-type skill.

The details were something we could test later.

Something else had drawn my attention.

[Rainbow Slayer Slime (Poing) Lv.1]

[Trait: Slime Bone]

[Owned Skills: Devour, Transformation, Acidic Fluid, Killing Intent Detection]

“Trait?”

What was this?

Unlike skills, I could not get a feel for it at all just by looking at the name.

‘Judging by the name alone, it seems like it has something to do with that lump-shaped horn.’

Thinking about it alone would be a waste of time.

Asking was the fastest way.

“A Trait called Slime Bone appeared. Do you know what it is?”

“Slime Bone?”

Ah.... It seemed Poing was not aware of it either?

Just as I was feeling briefly disappointed.

Poing spoke first.

“Wait a second. I’ll try using this Slime Bone thing.”

Poing clenched both fists and strained with all its might.

It strained so hard that its face turned bright red like a tomato.

Then.

Bzzzt.

Poing’s horn began slowly emitting light.

Around the time I was waiting with anticipation, wondering what was about to happen, the amount of light coming from the horn rapidly decreased.

Once it completely went out.

“Mm... I don’t really know either.”

Poing shook its head firmly.

It seemed figuring out its identity immediately would be difficult.

There was no need to be impatient.

“You only just evolved, so we can take our time figuring it out. It isn’t urgent.”

“Really? Okay!”

Poing answered while fiddling with the lump—horn that had risen on its forehead, as though it felt awkward.

“So, Hajin, are we going up to the next floor again?”

Poing’s eyes sparkled.

An expectant gaze.

Since Poing had evolved, I understood wanting to know how much stronger it had become compared to before.

I would probably feel the same way.

However.

“No, this is it for this time.”

Our original goal had been the 15th floor.

We had already achieved that goal.

Besides.

“We used up the Wands I brought while fighting the monsters earlier.”

By firing off magic, I had used up the Wands too.

The only thing left was one spare Wand.

It was not impossible, but well?

‘Blink is on cooldown too.’

For that reason, I judged that climbing any further from here would be excessive.

“Then we’re leaving the Tower...?”

Ah.

It was not climbing that was the problem. Poing was sad about separating from me.

Well, that was understandable.

‘Without me, Poing was alone in the Tower.’

With no one to talk to, it would be boring.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“It’s a promise! You have to keep your promise, okay? And the cotton candy you talked about before too...!”

“Of course.”

I kept promises once I made them.

Perhaps the schedule would even be faster than I had expected.

[Exiting the Tower.]

***

Immediately after leaving the Tower.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar ceiling of the rental dormitory.

Entry into and exit from the Tower took place in the same location.

Because of that, certain accidents happened.

They were known as Tower exit accidents.

It was not anything grand, like going missing into another dimension while exiting the Tower.

It was more like being unlucky enough to get into a traffic accident right as one returned to Earth.

Or falling because the building had been demolished—small accidents like that.

For Chosen with overwhelming physical specs, they were minor matters.

However.

“That doesn’t apply to me.”

With my physical abilities, one wrong step meant a sprain, and one mistake meant a fracture.

That was why I chose the rental dormitory.

‘This is the safest place, at least.’

Even if it was someone else’s home, it was still my nest for now.

The moment I lifted the blanket to slowly get up.

“Huh?”

A quiet voice slipped out.

Something was strange.

There was no way it should be this cold.

It was definitely early summer.

That was the season right before I entered the Tower.

But the air in my room was no different from autumn.

Time flowed the same way on Earth and in the Tower.

The time I had spent in the Tower was, at most, two days.

This could not have happened.

Unless Earth had met its end.

My eyes, which had unconsciously gone to the ceiling, caught sight of the wall-mounted air conditioner.

WHEEEEE.

The air conditioner fan was spinning furiously with a loud roar.

“Fuck.”

KYAAAAAAAAAH!!

I screamed inwardly.

Had my eyes gone bad?

Why was the air conditioner on?

While I was climbing the Tower, no one should have been in the room.

Thump.

It felt like my heart had dropped.

It was like the feeling I had when I went to a cemetery in the middle of the night as a penalty game.

No, ghosts could not physically touch me.

But electricity bills and progressive electricity rates could devastate my life.

‘This is driving me insane.’

Compared to before, I had paid back a lot of my debt.

But that did not mean I was in a position to run the air conditioner 24 hours a day at full blast at 18 degrees.

The water had already been spilled.

There was no turning it back.

This month, I had no choice but to tighten my belt and live frugally.

I turned off the air conditioner and switched on the news.

‘It has been quite some time since I entered the Tower.’

Information gathering was essential.

Busy, busy modern society.

Forty-eight hours was enough time for MZ to fall into AZ.

[‘South Korea Security Emergency’ Chosen Kang Seong-jin sparks controversy with ‘supports the Chinese Dream.’ remark]

-He’s insane. Of all countries, he supports China?

-I heard there are rumors he’s naturalizing in China too.

-For real?

-LOL. Does China accept just anyone? As if they’d accept a guy like that. At best, he’s just an ordinary mediocrity born in the wrong era of Pingkkyu Gyongdyu.

-I heard he was even in the same Dungeon where Pingkkyu Gyongdyu made a huge contribution this time.

-Was he trying to tag along?

-Tag along, lol. He was at the scene and all he did was cut down four or five skeletons.

Kang Seong-jin?

He was a Chosen whose name I had occasionally heard in passing.

He was one of the top ten Chosen in South Korea.

‘Wasn’t he said to have strong pro-China tendencies?’

Any other country would be one thing, but China of all places?

Unforgivable.

Judging by the comments on the article, other people’s opinions seemed similar to mine.

But something was a bit strange.

‘Why is my name showing up?’

Among the media comments, the name Pingkkyu Gyongdyu kept popping up here and there.

They said this person named Kang Seong-jin had been together with me in the Dungeon where I was active.

But there was no way.

What Dungeon?

I had been busy climbing the Tower until now.

There were strangely many similar comments to simply dismiss them as empty rumors and move on.

Feeling something odd, I searched for my name.

[Pingkkyu Gyongdyu defeats Bone Dragon alone.]

“...???”

That was the headline of the news article at the top.

Below it, similar headlines continued one after another.

There were so many that even after scrolling and scrolling, I could not see the end.

They were even articles uploaded this morning, or just moments ago.

‘Did paparazzi follow me or something?’

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart began beating wildly.

Because I feared my embarrassing dark history had spread across the whole world.

Immediately after tightly squeezing my eyes shut, then gently opening them and reading the news.

Phew, thank goodness.

After reading the article, it was not that paparazzi had followed me into the Tower.

I stroked my chest in relief.

The article simply said that I had killed a Bone Dragon and cleared a synchronized Dungeon.

“Looking at the time, it seems like it happened while I was staying in the Tower.”

Ah, don’t tell me.

‘The skeletons look like they’re moving that way. Yeah, if you look waaay over there, there’s a black gap, and it looks like they’re going there!’

Back when I climbed the 15th floor, Poing had once pointed at the undead army heading toward a black rift and said that.

Could the black rift I witnessed then actually have been a passage leading to Earth?

If I thought of it that way, everything made sense.

The fact that the Undead Knights on the 15th floor had manifested on Earth.

And the fact that while I was in the Tower, Earth’s Synchronization phenomenon had ended because of my actions.

No wonder.

-Send Pingkkyu Gyongdyu to the National Assembly.

-LOLLLLLLLLLLLL.

-Honestly, with this level of contribution, shouldn’t he be promoted to Seven Star? For real;;

-Huh! Pingkkyu Gyongdyu wasn’t Seven Star?

-Do you think every dog and cow can become a Seven Star? They have their own screening process too, so how dare some 15th-floor nobody... Silence!!

-Fact: From the 1st floor to the 15th floor, every current Seven Star was folded by Pingkkyu Gyongdyu.

-LOL. Now then, who exactly is “every dog and cow”?

These were comments on the article, and I thought there were a lot of mentions about me.

There was even this.

[Unread new messages exist.]

[1,531 messages]

While I had briefly gone to the Tower, quite a few messages had piled up.

Of course, among them, duplicates and bait messages would probably take up a fair share, but I could not ignore them.

I was scanning the message list when.

[A message has arrived from the Crisis Response Committee.]

Among the countless messages, I saw a familiar name.

I clicked immediately.

I had not yet checked the other contacts, but this was worth doing.

Because I had decided to form a mutually cooperative relationship with the Committee.

[Greetings, Pingkkyu Gyongdyu. This is Kang Han-seok. On behalf of the government, I would like to personally express my gratitude for your recent contribution.]

It seemed they had been watching this matter as well.

[In the future, we would like to maintain a close relationship with you...]

The content after that was so long-winded it made me yawn.

How on earth had he written this?

Squeezing this out could not have been easy either.

At any rate, if I reduced the message to one sentence.

‘We have received many favors from you so far. To repay them, we would like to invite you to dinner.’

It was understandable.

Even though they carried the grand name of the Crisis Response Committee, in the end, they were a group of civil servants belonging to the government.

One way or another, this was a matter that took public opinion into account.

“It probably doesn’t mean much.”

Standing in front of others with the name Pingkkyu Gyongdyu was uncomfortable in many ways.

What sort of humiliation would I have to suffer...!

Even if they tried to resolve it with money like last time, it would not work anymore.

Trying to buy me with money was no different from insulting Pingkkyu Gyongdyu.

[250,000,000 won in sponsorship funds has been deposited by the Crisis Response Committee.]

“...Huh?”

Good Lord, how many zeros was that?

[This is a small gesture of our sincerity. Please join us for dinner. We will take responsibility and escort you to the best restaurant in South Korea.]

...It was far too much money for me to scold them for insulting me.

Enough to pay off all the debt I owed.