Chapter 4

Chapter 4. Truth (2)

I'm a natural!

That's what I wanted to say.

"No need to answer. Once this is all over, the answer will come out on its own."

B-rank Mage, Park Chang-seok.

The bastard had no intention of leaving me alone, it seemed.

Without giving me a chance to speak, he sent goblins hurtling at me without pause.

That ominous feeling intensified again.

SLASH—.

I severed the throat of a charging goblin and looked toward Park Chang-seok.

No matter how I thought about it, something was wrong.

At this point, I couldn't shake the thought that he was trying to kill me.

No— I was certain of it.

'This son of a bitch is seriously trying to kill me.'

Swinging the sword had sharpened my senses, and my gut feeling had reached its peak.

And with that, I identified its true nature.

Flash!

[Killing intent confirmed.]

Killing intent.

What I'd been sensing was exactly that kind of aura.

'The sword's enlightenment...... that must be why.'

The countless messages that had appeared when I first grasped the sword.

Even though I couldn't summon the swords themselves, the enlightenment of the swords remained with me.

My body and mind simply hadn't fully processed them yet, but—.

'So they just become part of me as I swing the sword.'

The senses were only the beginning.

I was adapting to the sword at an insane pace.

Just like this—.

SLASH, SLASH! SPLURCH—.

I swept through the battlefield with the deft movements of a battle-hardened veteran.

Wielding the small [Baby Sword], I killed goblin after goblin.

Decisively and cleanly.

Like a refined knight.

I acted steadily, with disciplined precision.

By the time I'd cut down several dozen goblins—.

"Huh??"

The ominous aura the mage had been radiating vanished at some point.

He was staring at me with eyes ablaze.

"That skill! That ability!!! You were a natural after all!!! Wow—. The sword summoning was just a bonus ability and the swordsmanship was the real deal!!! That's insane, what the hell is that bladework?"

This guy.......

"So you survived some insanely brutal trial too, huh? Damn—. How many decades of training does it take to use a sword like a ghost like that?"

A genuine Awakening supremacist.

The moment he confirmed I was the real deal, he'd done a complete one-eighty.

The ominous aura, the killing intent— all of it had vanished completely.

"You fight well. And you don't even flinch— your mental fortitude is definitely something else! I saw you waving around that pathetic little sword and figured you were a fake—."

The mage rambled on and on.

While insulting my small and precious Baby Sword, no less.

"I went and put a fellow natural in a bad mood for nothing. At that level already, you might be a monster on par with that Sword Emperor geezer who went missing in the Tower......"

Regardless of how he was acting now, this was the same man who'd been trying to kill me moments ago.

I glared at Park Chang-seok with a sharp gaze.

"If I offended you by releasing killing intent, I'll apologize again."

He bowed his head.

Honestly, a B-rank Hunter in his third year since Awakening would have built up considerable strength.

Even if I was promising, he'd probably be strong enough to beat me in a fight.

And yet he was acting like this, which meant.......

'Either he's rated me absurdly highly, or he's the type who treats naturals exceptionally well.'

I was bitter, but I reluctantly nodded.

Because he'd started rummaging around for something.

"If you've just Awakened, you're probably going to need money for all sorts of things......"

I should still be angry, right?

That thought lasted about a second.

He pulled out a crude paper ticket.

"This is a Tower entry pass. You know what that is?"

Gates appeared on Earth.

They corroded the surrounding area and spread bizarre, anomalous phenomena.

The Tower, however, existed in an unseen place.

'He's giving me a Tower entry pass?'

The Tower was singular and unique.

Its name was simply 'the Tower.'

Despite the plain name, it was an extraordinarily special place.

'A single entry pass costs over a billion won?'

Far too generous a compensation for mere killing intent, let alone actual attempted murder.

I swallowed my anger.

"You're just giving this to me?"

A billion-won ticket, just like that.

I'd heard that newly Awakened set the purchase of that ticket as their goal while clearing Gates.......

"I always go all-out supporting real juniors. As for fakes, well......"

B-rank Mage, Park Chang-seok.

He trailed off.

The implication—.

'Has he actually offed some before?'

As I was making that conjecture—.

"I want to kill them bad enough, but I can't actually do it. It's a world where the unawakened oppress us, after all."

"Oppress?"

"Well, you'll find out eventually."

Hunter Park Chang-seok left those cryptic words behind as he exited the Gate.

* * *

Awakened Management Bureau, Yeouido Branch.

"Here's the evaluation report."

"Done already?"

Section Chief Kang Seol-a reviewed B-rank Mage Park Chang-seok's report.

[Shin Si-woo Test Results]

—Combat Potential: SSS

—Growth Potential: SSS

A top-tier evaluation.

And I had, in fact, produced results worthy of it.

"H-he killed all 83 goblins by himself? In just three minutes? Ooh—."

After reading the detailed breakdown, Section Chief Kang Seol-a looked at me with astonished eyes.

"Si-woo, you really did become an incredibly powerful Awakened!"

That's right.

I had become a highly prized commodity in the marriage market, the kind that would receive a special S-rank rating.

A young man under thirty.

An Awakened with the potential to become immensely powerful.

"You'll probably get an A-rank designation without objection. The SSS here is strictly a potential assessment, so don't read too much into it. You know you need to build up actual results to climb higher, right?"

"Of course."

I could rack up results quickly too.

Because Mage Park Chang-seok had given me a [Tower Entry Pass].

My level hadn't gone up even after killing 83 goblins.

The Tower, however, was different.

'The best place to level up.'

In exchange, it was a pretty grueling place.

I couldn't go in empty-handed like this.

So—.

"Seol-a noona."

I looked at Section Chief Kang Seol-a cautiously.

Using the title I only ever let slip when thoroughly drunk at after-work gatherings.

That's how important what I was about to say was.

"Hmm? Since when do you call me that at work? Let me guess— you want to borrow money?"

The problem was.......

Section Chief Kang Seol-a's intuition was on another level.

That's right.

I needed to borrow money right now.

"You said you had 40 million in savings, right?"

"Y-you're seriously going to borrow it?"

"The thing is......"

I had become someone who could earn 40 million in the blink of an eye.

But I didn't have any money right now.

And it was urgent.

Flash!

「1st Sword, Reinhardt Euclid. [1/100]」

—Enter the Tower and communicate with your Ego Sword!

That was the message that had appeared after I'd finished the combat test.

I'd swung the sword earnestly, and [1st Sword, Reinhardt Euclid]'s value had grown by 1, triggering a quest to enter the Tower and summon him.

Reinhardt aside.

It meant I could see in person the magnificent, massive greatsword he'd been holding at the end.

'I get to hold a sword I raised with my own hands?'

I couldn't resist.

Section Chief Kang Seol-a summarized my profound motivations quite simply.

"So what you're saying is, you want to buy a 40-million-won suit of armor just to hold that sword of yours? Because the Tower is dangerous?"

"That's right."

"And your own money?"

I let out a deep sigh.

"Well......"

I might have become a natural Awakened myself, but this was a situation where I couldn't help but curse natural Awakened.

"My apartment's got all my money tied up because of that lunatic patriot."

"Ah......"

After the first Gate Catastrophe, S-rank, SS-rank, and SSS-rank Awakened had appeared in succession.

The Republic of Korea even had one SSS-rank Hunter.

Commonly known as: the Patriot.

"That nutjob said he'd abandon Seoul if the average apartment price didn't drop below a billion won, so—."

The government had imposed real estate loan restrictions.

"—You're in that redevelopment unit!"

"Yes. That's right."

I'd inherited a rundown villa when my parents passed away.

Twelve years had gone by since then, and in the meantime, the area had been slated for redevelopment. I'd recently paid the additional costs and secured a new unit allotment.

In short, every last won was tied up in the apartment.

"Right now, I couldn't sell it even if I wanted to."

Loan restrictions, tax hikes on high-value apartments.

All manner of legislation was being enacted and enforced overnight under the 'Patriot Special Act.'

"The Patriot......"

An SSS-rank Hunter.

And one of the few beings capable of wielding power even outside the Gates.

He possessed the bizarre ability to summon historical figures of Korea as Constellations.

"He really is a good person, but he's way too extreme."

Japan no longer claimed Dokdo as its own territory.

Five years ago, the Patriot had summoned the Constellation Yi Sun-sin.

Yi Sun-sin summoned twelve super-massive aircraft carriers and set part of the Japanese archipelago ablaze.

"He's got the nickname 'Nationalist Hunter,' but he's harsh on his own countrymen too."

The public smoking ban.

Execution of corrupt politicians.

Erasure of pro-Japanese collaborator corporations, and so on.

The Patriot actually killed them.

'He's a good-natured villain, I suppose......'

South Korea had become reasonably clean.

Corrupt politicians died.

Rapists and murderers died too.

As a result, violent crime had vanished.

Perhaps that's why the Patriot had recently been fixating on trivial matters like housing prices and the stock market.

Anyway.

"I'll lend you the 40 million."

After hearing all of this, Seol-a noona reluctantly agreed to break her savings and lend me the hefty sum.

What an incredibly generous noona.......

"I'll pay you back with generous interest."

I bowed my head deeply and left the Awakened Management Bureau.

The [Tower] could be entered from anywhere, so I planned to go in from home— the place where I felt the safest.

* * *

"So this really was...... the special and bizarre experience all along?"

It was only after Awakening that I realized I'd been undergoing a profoundly special experience all this time.

For twelve years, I'd been playing [Raise a Sword] on the same computer.

Click—.

[————]

And my computer wouldn't turn on.

In fact, not a single person in the current world still used a computer.

I'd been so absorbed in 'Raise a Sword' that I hadn't even noticed such things.

"It's absurd, honestly. A computer that doesn't even have internet access......"

Flash!

[World_NET]

I called up the personal internet.

Commonly known as [WorldNet].

A holographic screen materialized before my eyes.

They called it the internet, but in reality, it was a high-performance computer.

'The reason AI became obsolete after the age of Awakened arrived.'

The 'Mysteries' that had descended upon the entire world after the Gate Catastrophe— this personal computer was one of them.

AI and the old internet had lost any possibility of further development after server rooms were corroded by Gates.

So now, WorldNet was the default.

'An ability granted to every person in the world in the form of a Status Window.'

People used it for gaming, social media, everything.

Keyboards and mice were auto-generated.

You could even type with your thoughts.

It could be summoned in a compact form like a smartphone, and calls and texts were possible too.

An all-purpose smartphone-slash-computer, essentially.

'And it's free.'

[Awakened] had access to several special functions exclusive to them.

Flash!

[Auction House]

I entered the Auction House.

To purchase the equipment I needed before entering the [Tower].

'I need to officially clear Gates to receive the government's encouragement stipend.'

The nation even gave Awakened an allowance.

If you found Mysteries in Gates, they'd buy them at high prices.

On top of that, purifying corroded land earned you compensation equivalent to 50% of that territory's assessed value.

The pay matched the life-risking work.

[Beginner Full-Body Armor: Instant Purchase Price — 40,000,000 won]

And matching those earnings, the prices were obscenely high.

'Insane.'

So the cheapest armor really was 40 million.

That wasn't a joke after all.

I pressed the [Purchase] button.

The [Beginner Full-Body Armor] from the Auction House was sucked into my inventory icon.

Once I entered the [Tower], I'd probably be able to equip items from my Status Window.

"Is that all the prep I need?"

Without a moment's hesitation, I tore the [Tower Entry] ticket.

* * *

Flash!

A mechanical voice rang in my ears.

Beneath my feet, a green safe zone appeared.

A circle, three meters in diameter.

I quickly willed myself to equip the [Beginner Full-Body Armor] from my inventory.

Flash!

A thin layer of armor materialized over my body.

There were no specific stats, but it was armor with enough defense to block attacks from an orc-level creature.

'Better than nothing, at least.'

I surveyed my surroundings.

The [Tower] was the space that could grow an Awakened's power the most.

A place that recreated the [special and bizarre] experiences from one's Trial of Awakening.

'The Sword Emperor went missing here, didn't he?'

The 78-year-old Sword Emperor— Kim Hong-sik— who had completed 1,000 years of training and risen as Korea's first S-rank Awakened.

He'd broken through Floor 9 of the Tower at age 90, becoming SS-rank, then challenged Floor 10 and vanished.

Public speculation suggested he might have encountered something like a Room of One Million Years of Training, but.......

"In my case, well—."

My situation was decidedly safer.

[Raise a Sword] was, after all, a game with an actual storyline.

Floor 1 would simply be a recreation of the early stages.

WHOOOOSH—.

Looking around, a desolate fog hung thick in the air.

The starting point of [Raise a Sword].

The interior of the Abyss, where swords could be placed.

'Not just similar— it's an exact replica?'

A space that felt like pixel graphics rendered into reality.

It was basically just a cave.

Nothing frightening about it, aside from the fact that the surrounding monsters looked quite ferocious.

'In the first place—.'

Flash!

[1st Sword, Reinhardt Euclid, can be summoned.]

I had the sword that had most exemplarily saved the world.

Along with the NPC who had wielded it.

'Ego Sword Summon.'

I willed it naturally.

That I would transform the [Baby Sword] in my hand into [1st Sword, Reinhardt].

And then—.

HUMMM.

The sword vibrated.

Just as when I'd first grasped it, a distant sense of omnipotence settled into my body.

'This is the true power of the sword—.'

A blue glow rippled across the small [Baby Sword], and the sword's form began to shift.

RUMBLE—RUMBLE—RUMBLE!!!

A magnificent greatsword appeared, overflowing with dazzling effects.

RING!

A gleaming blue blade.

A pale sky-blue hilt with a simple yet restrained aesthetic.

And at the tip of the sword, a pure white jewel.

The jewel pulsed with light.

【I greet the supreme master of the sword.】

The voice of an old man reached my ears.