Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Wow, it’s the 98th Floor!”

A smile came to Woo-jin’s lips.

Having been trapped on the 99th Floor for over ten days, Woo-jin had been resigned to the idea that he would spend the rest of his life trapped on the 99th Floor until the day he died.

But then he happened to discover the Administrator Passage.

Seeing a door leading not to the 99th Floor, but to the 98th Floor, felt strange and made him happy.

That was when one brilliant thought occurred to him.

“Blackie!”

“What is it, nyah?”

“Is the floor below this the 97th Floor?”

“That’s right, nyah.”

“Then if I go down through the passage, I can go all the way to the 1st Floor?”

“That’s right, nyah.”

I knew it!

Woo-jin’s guess had been correct.

The passage used by Tower administrators to move around extended from the Tower’s 1st Floor all the way to the 100th Floor.

“Is the passage connected to Towers of other difficulties too? Like if you go down farther from the 1st Floor, the 100th Floor of the Hell difficulty Tower appears!”

“As if that would happen, nyah. The passage is blocked, nyah.”

“Ah…….”

Tch.

Woo-jin smacked his lips.

“What were you thinking, nyah?”

“I was thinking I could dig a tunnel down from the 99th Floor of the Mythic difficulty Tower to the 1st Floor of the Normal difficulty Tower, then clear the 1st Floor of the Normal Tower and return to reality.”

Blackie narrowed his eyes as if he found this absurd.

“I’ve never seen an adventurer who schemes as hard as you, nyah! The Tower is designed as a system where you honestly climb upward, nyah. You must not go against the natural order, nyah!”

“Hey! If you’re going to say that, then me being on the 99th Floor in the first place is wrong!”

“Th-that... I don’t really know either, nyah. And even if the Administrator Passage were connected and you went all the way down to the 1st Floor of the Normal Tower, you would still have to clear the 99th Floor of the Mythic Tower to return to reality, nyah.”

“What? What does that mean? I just have to clear any floor, don’t I?”

The mission given on each floor.

In other words, once one completed the Objective, they obtained rewards and returned to reality. An adventurer who returned to reality could enter the Tower again and challenge the next floor after the one they had cleared.

Would it not be the same if he entered another floor through the Administrator Passage? Woo-jin had naturally assumed he would receive an Objective, then if he accomplished that Objective, he would obtain rewards and return to reality.

However, Woo-jin’s guess was completely wrong.

“Adventurer. Look at your Status Window, nyah.”

Name: Lee Woo-jin

Level: 1

Abilities

- Strength: 3

- Agility: 3

- Stamina: 3

- Magic Power: 3.07

- Resistance: 0.022

Skills: Soil Tilling Lv. 3, Seed Planting Lv. 3, Harvest Lv. 2, Cold Resistance Lv. 1, Cooking Lv. 2, Stealthy Footsteps Lv. 1, Fire Resistance Lv. 1, Dark Adaptation Lv. 1

Coins: 6,353

Difficulty: Mythic

Floor: 99th Floor

“I saw it.”

“What does it say there for Difficulty and Floor, nyah? Doesn’t it say Mythic 99th Floor, nyah?”

“So why?”

“The Objective assigned to you belongs to your current Difficulty and Floor, nyah! Even if you go to another Difficulty or Floor, no mission will be given to you, and naturally, you won’t be able to clear it, nyah. Returning to reality will be impossible too, nyah.”

Blackie thought Woo-jin would fall into absolute despair.

An adventurer trapped in the Tower.

The moment his hope shattered, the psychological damage would surely be enormous.

Perhaps he might not be able to get back up anymore.

He might even ask Blackie to kill him.

But Blackie’s prediction was wrong.

“Aww. It was nice while it lasted.”

“...That’s it, nyah?”

“Why?”

“I thought you’d be terribly disappointed and frustrated, nyah.”

“Why would I?”

“You thought escape might be possible, but then realized it was impossible, nyah. It’s only natural to be frustrated, nyah.”

Woo-jin clicked his tongue.

“Then I’ll just eat well and live well here. If I just sit still, I’ll only be cold and hungry!”

Blackie was dumbfounded.

What was this stupidly positive attitude?

Even he, an administrator, had struggled terribly with shock, loneliness, and frustration after being assigned to the Mythic Tower. Yet a level 1 adventurer was showing such a positive attitude, and it left him utterly bewildered.

“Then what’s on the 98th Floor?”

“I can’t tell…….”

Blackie, who had been about to say that he could not tell him, clamped his mouth shut.

If he said he would not tell him, there was a 99 percent chance this adventurer would say, “Then I guess there won’t be any more Churu for you either.”

And there were no other administrators here.

There were only the two of them in the passage.

POP!

The manual appeared in front of Blackie.

“Wait a moment, nyah.”

The administrator manual contained the Objectives of each floor of the Tower.

Blackie licked his front paw as he turned the pages one by one.

Woo-jin quietly moved beside him and took a look.

[98th Floor Objective]

- Defeat the Doppelganger (0/1)

“Doppelganger? Is this that thing that supposedly looks exactly like me?”

“You know about doppelgangers, nyah?”

“Roughly. Someone with the exact same face, height, weight, and so on as me. For reference, there’s a joke that if you meet one, you’ll die.”

Blackie checked the details about the doppelganger.

Ordinarily, an administrator should have memorized and kept in his head the Objective of each floor, the monsters that appeared there, and the traps.

But Blackie had not done that.

Because he had never even imagined that an adventurer would come to the Mythic difficulty Tower.

[98th Floor Information]

- You, who have overcome countless adversities and trials and reached the realm of the superhuman.

- It seems no one can stop you now.

- Having grown stronger by winning battles against countless monsters and powerful foes who stood in your way, you have truly become a one-of-a-kind existence.

- Though who knows. If a dragon. And a ‘Lord’ at that, appeared?

- Just kidding! The Dragon Lord does not appear on this floor!

- Instead, depending on the situation, an opponent even more difficult than the Dragon Lord may have appeared.

- The ‘Doppelganger,’ known as the King of Shadows, can copy and use all the stats and skills you have built up until now.

- Good luck.

“So monsters like this exist too. That’s fascinating.”

“It’s terrifying, nyah! Did you not read the information, nyah?”

“I read it. But I don’t think it’ll be that scary for me. Can I go take a look?”

Blackie shook his head.

“It seems something is wrong with your head, nyah. If you go in, Adventurer, you’ll die instantly, nyah! If the doppelganger copies your abilities and skills…….”

He trailed off.

Now that he thought about it, this adventurer was not someone who had climbed in order through Normal, Hard, Hell, and Mythic. He was someone who had come straight to the 99th Floor of the Mythic Tower.

Blackie had not brought an item from storage that could scan an adventurer’s status, so he could not see the details. But if he made a rough prediction.

Naturally, his level was 1.

His Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Magic Power stats probably averaged 3.

Naturally, he would have no skills.

“Pfft! Pffft! He’s a weakling, nyah.”

“What did you say? Weakling? Isn’t that too harsh, no matter how you look at it?”

“It isn’t wrong, is it, nyah?”

“Tch. Well, that’s true.”

If it had been an ordinary adventurer who had reached the 98th Floor of Mythic difficulty.

They would have been a monster at level 398.

On top of that, they would have had extremely high stats, countless combat skills, and all kinds of S-Grade equipment covering them from head to toe.

If the doppelganger copied that adventurer’s stats and skills exactly, then from the perspective of the adventurer challenging the 98th Floor, it would literally be a ‘disaster.’ But if it copied Woo-jin’s current state?

There would not be a single thing dangerous about it.

Blackie took out the Administrator’s Key.

[Using the Administrator’s Key to open the Tower 98th Floor Administrator’s Door.]

CREEEAK.

The door opened.

What he saw was a plaza.

A plaza neither especially wide nor especially narrow.

If he had to compare it, it was about the size of a schoolyard.

In that place stood a single rippling black shadow.

Blackie went in first. The doppelganger recognized Blackie, but showed no hostility.

Step.

Woo-jin stepped forward once and entered the plaza.

Then the doppelganger looked at Woo-jin.

[The Doppelganger recognizes you.]

[The Doppelganger scans your Status Window.]

[The Doppelganger copies your abilities.]

Its height and physique began to change.

If one looked only at the shadow-like silhouette, it was Woo-jin’s spitting image.

Before long.

[Doppelganger][Lv. 1]

At the completed doppelganger’s level and stats, Blackie burst out laughing. Pfft! Pffft!

The doppelganger took a combat stance. Then it began running toward Woo-jin.

It was just the running speed of an ordinary adult man.

Tap-tap-tap!

Woo-jin did not fight it.

“Blackie, let’s leave!”

“You aren’t fighting, nyah?”

“What if I get hurt?”

Woo-jin had already gone outside the open Administrator’s Door.

Blackie followed him out into the passage.

Woo-jin tried to close the Administrator’s Door right away, but.

[You cannot move the Administrator’s Door.]

“Gasp! Blackie, close this!”

“It’s fine, nyah.”

The doppelganger could not advance any farther.

The door was open.

But as though there were an invisible transparent barrier, the doppelganger could not enter the Administrator Passage.

“Oh. It can’t come out here?”

“The Administrator Passage can only be used by administrators, nyah.”

“Then what am I?”

“…….”

I’m curious about that too, nyah.

---

They returned to the 99th Floor of the Tower.

This time, there were two of them, not one.

No, strictly speaking, there were currently ‘three’ on the 99th Floor.

Blackie blinked after seeing the environment of the 99th Floor.

The fields where vegetables were growing.

The sleeping bag on the floor.

The items placed in one corner.

At a glance, he could tell Woo-jin had set up a life here.

“I’ve never seen an adventurer like you, nyah!”

“You said you’d never seen any adventurer besides me in the first place.”

Woo-jin brought over the small box that had held Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

“Here.”

“What is this, nyah?”

“There’s nowhere to sit on the floor. You can go in here when you rest.”

“Hiss! As if I’d go into such a shabby place, nyah?!”

“Suit yourself.”

Woo-jin got inside his sleeping bag and rested.

Blackie considered going back to the Administrator Passage, then tried going into the box.

“……!”

Blackie’s eyes went round. (OㅅO)

The box was just the right size to press lightly around his body.

And there was a sturdy feeling, as though it was blocking him on every side.

His body temperature warmed inside the box.

It looked like a ragged piece of junk on the outside.

But the feel of using the box was better than any high-class cushion!

Purr, purr, purr.

Purr, purr...

Blackie naturally closed his eyes at the comfort and coziness he was tasting for the first time in his life.