Chapter 17

Chapter 17.

The skies around the world turned gold.

A system message was forcibly broadcast to every awakened person's retinas.

The Hall of Fame.

Those illustrious names.

Every time their own nation's name appeared, people erupted in cheers.

But.

"NONAME?"

"Why does the first-place name look like that?"

"Insane. Look at the score. Double the gap from second place!"

An overwhelming first place that had emerged amid the sudden Great Cataclysm.

That existence alone was salvation for humanity.

But the champion hadn't revealed their name.

Behind the scenes, those lurking in the shadows had a similar reaction.

The gods' avatars.

"......990 points?"

"That's impossible."

"Not realistically achievable."

They couldn't comprehend it.

Countless avatars had waged near-genocidal battles, clawing for every last point by any means necessary.

And yet, 990.

Nearly a perfect score.

"What kind of lunatic could......"

But the shock didn't end there.

The Episode 2 rankings appeared immediately after.

[1st: NONAME]

[Score: 1,100]

The avatars rubbed their eyes.

They thought the numbers were wrong.

"Eleven hundred?"

"Is that even a possible score?"

"No way. A thousand is the ceiling."

It didn't add up.

It was a systemically impossible figure.

The maximum obtainable score per episode was capped at 1,000.

No amount of flawless play could exceed that.

"A bug?"

No — the system didn't have bugs.

Then there was only one answer.

'Limit breach.'

An achievement that surpassed even the parameters the system had set.

"NONAME......"

Who in the world?

What god's avatar wielded such authority?

This wasn't some ordinary lesser or mid-tier god.

To demonstrate this level of caliber, at minimum.

The beings seated in the deepest reaches of the gods' garden.

No — something that surpassed even them.

'Could it be one of the Twelve Sovereign Gods?'

......Choi Taemin's brow furrowed.

He couldn't even begin to imagine who it might be.

Even after Episode 2's conclusion, the gap was stark.

Choi Taemin, who'd placed fourth, had scored a mere 500.

He was the avatar of a high-ranking fire god, no less.

He'd personally triggered disasters and slaughtered every summoned monster he could.

Yet first place sat at 1,100.

More than double the difference.

It didn't make sense.

A being of an entirely different dimension was looking down from above.

Unless it really was one of the Twelve Sovereign Gods.

But there was no way one of the Twelve would participate in the 'game.'

"Who is it? What kind of bastard......"

Choi Taemin ground his teeth.

His pride was wounded.

He'd believed he wouldn't lose to anyone in Episode 2.

Then someone had appeared and crushed him by an overwhelming margin.

Jealousy. Envy.

Avatars across the world were rattled.

That was when.

Before the eyes of the shaken avatars, another message appeared.

This one wasn't gold.

It was blood-red — an ominous warning.

DING!

[Bearing grave tidings.]

Every avatar's gaze locked in place.

Grave tidings?

The next line froze their thoughts.

[The master of the tower's 27th floor, 'Lesser Blizzard God Caligo,' has been slain.]

[His existence has been completely erased from Asgard.]

"......!"

Silence.

Everyone stopped breathing.

After Kartal, now Caligo.

'Slain,' it said.

Even the timing was uncanny.

One god died every time an episode began and ended.

......Was someone deliberately hunting gods?

But no god yet suspected the killings were happening on Earth.

An avatar on Earth couldn't kill a god.

The only way to kill a god was to destroy them directly inside the Tower of God.

At least, within their understanding.

***

The tower's 34th floor.

And the 27th floor.

The gods' investigation team combed the scenes in silence.

They scanned the floors, analyzed the ambient mana.

But the results were dismal.

"......Nothing."

The investigation chief — the 'God of Tracking' — shook his head.

"Not a thing. Not a speck of dust, not a drop of blood."

It was bizarre.

These were battles between gods.

Inevitably, cataclysms should erupt, space should tear, and residue of divinity should remain.

But both sites were clean.

As if the rooms had never had an occupant to begin with.

"Evaporated. Both Kartal and Caligo."

A team member's hand trembled as they drafted the report.

"No traces of external intrusion, no traces of internal combat."

If not for the system message declaring them slain, one might have assumed they'd simply fled in the night.

"Common factors?"

The chief asked.

"Two. First, both were gods of the 'Natural' lineage."

Earthquake and blizzard.

Unmistakably natural-disaster gods.

"Second, both were active participants in the current 'Earth game.'"

Silence passed.

This was the strongest lead.

Someone was targeting gods mid-game.

"Could damage to their Earth avatars have affected the main bodies?"

"Theoretically impossible. An avatar is merely a terminal — an entity independent of the main body. Even if feedback occurred, the damage wouldn't be severe enough to annihilate the main body."

A reasonable assessment.

Then only one possibility remained.

Someone was conducting covert assassinations inside the tower.

"The problem is...... we don't know their avatars."

A team member sighed.

"Nobody knows what names Kartal and Caligo used on Earth, or where they were stationed."

The gods' anonymity.

The fundamental rule of the game — and the minimal safety net they maintained for one another.

Concealing your hand.

That had come back to bite them.

"We need to secure the avatar roster of every god currently in the game, immediately."

One investigator proposed.

"As it stands, we're helpless. We don't even know who's being targeted or where the killings are happening."

"It'll be rejected."

The chief said flatly.

"No god is going to disclose their information over two dead lesser gods. They're too arrogant. They'll each believe they're different."

A pessimistic mood.

There still wasn't enough hard evidence.

Whether the killer was targeting game participants or the Natural faction specifically.

The investigation was going in circles.

A case lost in the labyrinth.

The only remaining thread.

"......Find out which god's avatar 'NONAME' belongs to."

There might be a connection to 'NONAME,' the new name on the Hall of Fame.

But even this was merely a 'possibility.'

No clear way to track it down, either.

And so, unable to catch even the culprit's shadow, the investigation was quietly fizzling out.

***

DING!

[The hierarchy will be adjusted to fill the vacancy on floor 27.]

[The master of floor 26 is promoted to floor 27.]

[The master of floor 25 is promoted to floor 26.]

.......

[The master of floor 1 is promoted to floor 2.]

Dominoes.

When the middle link broke, the gods below were forced up one step.

Rag was no exception.

Barely days after becoming Floor 1's master.

He'd done nothing and become the master of Floor 2.

And then.

[Floor 1 is vacant.]

[Ready to receive a new god.]

Floor 1, vacant once again.

But there was a problem.

Too little time had passed since the last trial.

There wasn't enough time to gather and screen new seeds.

The system made an efficient decision.

[The gap since the last trial is too short for a new examination.]

[Authority is transferred to the runner-up of the previous trial.]

[Darakan is appointed as the master of Floor 1.]

The underground waiting room.

Darakan, who'd been stewing in defeat, snapped his eyes open.

"......Huh?"

Was this a dream?

No — the system message was crystal clear.

Second place.

A humiliating 2 points.

He — thoroughly crushed and discarded by the monster called Rag — had become the master of Floor 1.

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Darakan roared with laughter.

Destiny.

This was surely proof that the heavens hadn't abandoned him.

Darakan strode to the door leading to Floor 1 and flung it open.

Light poured through.

He stepped forward, drunk on euphoria.

"Just you watch, Rag."

Darakan ground his teeth.

"How dare you look down on me?"

He hadn't forgotten the humiliation.

He'd find that bastard and grind him underfoot.

He was now the rightful master of Floor 1.

They were on even footing now.

No — he'd cultivate his floor to outshine Rag's and earn the gods' recognition. That would be enough.

"A measly one-floor difference — I'll close that gap in no time."

Darakan clenched his fist and opened his eyes wide.

And then.

"......?"

He was struck speechless.

It was empty.

There was nothing.

White ground. White sky.

Not a monster, not a blade of grass — a barren wasteland.

"Wh-what is this?"

Darakan's voice cracked.

He was at a complete loss.

What was he supposed to do here?

It felt like being a lone raft cast adrift on an endless sea.

***

Meanwhile.

FWIIIIING!

I blinked.

The scenery hadn't changed.

Still white ground, white sky.

If anything was different, it was the density of the air.

Slightly heavier, with a faint sacred energy.

'Floor 2, then.'

I was dazed.

All I'd done was kill one avatar on Earth, and I'd gotten a promotion as a bonus.

Two birds with one stone indeed.

A new message window appeared.

DING!

[Congratulations on your promotion to Floor 2.]

[Starting from Floor 2, 'nectar' will be periodically distributed.]

Nectar.

The drink of the gods.

The instant I saw that word, a memory surfaced.

Kim Insu.

Caligo's avatar.

The murky golden light he'd forced from his body just before dying, desperately pulling up divine power.

— Did you feed your avatar nectar?

His words echoed.

The puzzle clicked.

Nectar wasn't just a drink.

It was an energy source that maintained and amplified divinity.

Feed it to an avatar on Earth, and it served as a medium to temporarily channel the main body's power.

An item that served a similar role to the 'Fragments of the Broken Golden Rule' I used.

[As a promotion gift, 100 nectar is distributed.]

[On Floor 2, 100 nectar is distributed every 30 days.]

CLINK.

A number appeared in my inventory.

100.

Hard to tell if that was a lot or a little.

I approached the crystal at the center of the floor.

And opened the shop function.

[Shop]

· Plain grass (1 pyeong): 1 nectar

· Oak sapling: 2 nectar

· Lesser goblin summon: 5 nectar

· Clear stream (10m): 10 nectar

"......Stingy."

My brow creased.

100 nectar.

That was enough to lay some lawn and plant a few trees. Done.

Forget raising a goblin squad — I couldn't even afford a fountain.

And this was a month's salary.

Even the gods' world had its haves and have-nots.

'At this rate, when will I ever furnish the floor and climb higher?'

One of the conditions for ascending the tower was 'floor prosperity.'

How well you cultivated your floor and how robust an ecosystem you built — that was the key to promotion.

Reach the threshold and you could challenge the next floor.

But with this level of capital.

Just as I was about to sigh.

DING!

A new notification blinked in the corner of my vision.

['Exchange' has been unlocked.]

[Special items in your possession can be converted to nectar.]

Exchange?

Curiosity made me tap it.

A list of convertible items appeared.

[Heavenly Demon Armor] ↔ [5,000 nectar]

[Heart of the Frozen Wastes] ↔ [5,000 nectar]

'Looks like Mythic-grade items and above can be exchanged.'

So this was how you were supposed to grind for nectar.

'Wait.'

But there was one more item on the list.

'The Fragments of the Broken Golden Rule can be exchanged too?'

I absently checked the conversion rate.

And then.

"......?"

I doubted my eyes.

I looked again.

I counted the zeroes.

[1 Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule] ↔ [1,000,000 nectar]

"......Insane."