Chapter 19

Chapter 19

19. No Taking It Back

My house.

“There’s seriously no answer here.”

Tower of Fate, 25th Floor, Endless Desert.

I’d already burned through three top-grade mana stones.

And still no Contribution Points.

Naturally, I hadn’t cleared it either.

[The 25th Floor, ‘Endless Desert,’ is a concept floor with an extremely vast stage.]

[Long-range attacks from outside the gate are extremely inefficient.]

The message was giving me a hint.

“So you’re telling me to go inside myself.”

Instead of firing Laser No. 1 through the gate, it wanted me to enter and kill the monsters personally.

‘Me?’

The Tower seemed desperate to shove me inside somehow.

‘Honestly, I can understand why.’

If I gave someone an EX-Rank ability.

And they refused to climb the Tower.

I’d probably get annoyed too.

To be honest, I have no talent for combat.

More accurately, I’ve never even tried it.

Until now, I’ve only stuck the muzzle through and pulled the trigger.

I’ve never once thrown myself into danger personally.

Why?

‘Because it’s dangerous.’

Sure, I understand why people might expect something from an EX-Rank hunter.

But being cautious with my life isn’t exactly a bad choice.

‘Should I just give it all up?’

The thought suddenly crossed my mind.

I’d already made enough money to live comfortably forever.

Two S-Rank weapons and nearly 100 billion won in cash assets.

And now Contribution Points were coming in pretty nicely too.

‘Do I really need to go out of my way to suffer?’

Forget the oil business and everything else.

Couldn’t I just travel around nearby countries and spend the rest of my life relaxing?

‘That has its own romance.’

I was lost in thought when.

Bzzzt.

My smartphone vibrated.

“Hello.”

-Hey, it’s me.

It was the loan shark.

“Yes. What is it?”

-I finished the rental contract for an offshore drilling rig. Exploration should begin soon.

“Oh, that was fast.”

-We need to move fast. So you prepare too.

“For what?”

Me, prepare?

He was supposed to handle all the work.

-Put every bit of money you have into this.

For a moment, I was speechless.

“...All the money I have? Why?”

-One exploration run costs hundreds of billions. Equipment rental, labor, fuel, permits—once you start counting, there’s no end.

“Still, putting everything in is a little...”

-Hey. I already put my entire fortune into this. Took every loan I could get too.

Something suddenly felt wrong.

“What? Why would you go that far...?”

-Because I trusted what you told me.

The call ended.

“...Huh?”

I felt uneasy.

I immediately checked the corporate account.

[F&C Refining Corporate Account]

[Balance: 30,000,000,000 won]

“What?”

Thirty billion won had just been deposited.

For reference, F&C Refining was the company the loan shark and I had established jointly for the oil business.

Anyway, the thirty billion in the account was money the loan shark had shoved in as his share.

‘Wow, this crazy old man really...’

I had no idea he’d go this far.

He’d taken out loans and dumped the borrowed money straight in.

‘Now there’s really no backing out.’

No take-backs.

The game had already begun, and the money was in.

I couldn’t suddenly say I wanted out.

If I did?

‘Boss, I think I’m just going to quit.’

‘Now?’

‘Yes.’

‘That won’t do. You need to get hurt a little.’

‘Gasp!’

The image that flashed through my head sent a chill down my spine.

‘I might wake up on a deep-sea fishing boat.’

And never set foot on land again.

‘That can’t happen!’

Let’s calculate.

‘If I dump all my money into the refining business?’

Including the eighty billion I lost because of Lee Geonho, that’s nearly 160 billion won.

‘Divide that by my four-billion-won hourly wage...!’

A whole forty hours!

I’d have to work another forty hours just to break even.

“Haa...”

A sigh escaped me.

‘The world just won’t leave me alone.’

Maybe because I’m a talent worth four billion won an hour.

I decided to postpone the romance of a leisurely life.

“I guess I have to go in.”

There was no other choice.

Standing before the 25th-floor gate, I steeled myself.

‘Fine. I’ll become one.’

An oil tycoon!

* * *

Friends Capital office.

“Hyungnim.”

One subordinate cautiously spoke.

“What.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Speak.”

“Why did you go all in on this? Is there really... oil in the East Sea?”

The loan shark said nothing for a moment.

Then he looked out the window and slowly spoke.

“I’ve survived in this business for over twenty years.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve seen every kind of person there is. Scammers, gamblers, braggarts. But.”

The loan shark lit his cigar and inhaled.

“That kid is different.”

“Different how?”

“He’s hiding something enormous behind that clumsy exterior.”

The subordinate tilted his head.

“Isn’t that exaggerating a little?”

“Exaggerating? Remember Kim Jong Un dying?”

“...What?”

“That happened right after that bastard did something. Same with that S-Rank hunter Lee Jinho dying. Same with Lee Geonho becoming a debtor owing over 100 billion won. All of it.”

The loan shark, ‘Friend,’ had seen Divine One’s Hunven posts long ago.

The subordinate’s expression gradually stiffened.

“No way, to that extent...”

“If twenty years around gambling dens and loan-sharking taught me one thing.”

The loan shark set his cigar on the ashtray.

“It’s that you can feel it in your bones when a game is about to get big. And whenever I’m around that bastard.”

He grinned.

“I always feel it.”

“S-So that’s why you put in your entire fortune?”

“Yeah. Even borrowed on top of it.”

A chill ran down the subordinate’s spine.

“Hyungnim. Isn’t that gambling?”

“It is.”

The loan shark smiled leisurely.

“But I didn’t bet on that bastard.”

“What?”

“I bet on that bastard’s ‘luck.’”

The subordinate wanted to ask more.

But he saw the expression on the loan shark’s face and kept quiet.

Utter certainty.

The loan shark had proven it time and again.

Whenever he looked like this, his judgment eventually turned out to be right.

* * *

Tower of Fate, 25th Floor, Endless Desert.

[Entering the Tower of Fate 25th Floor.]

Sand crunched beneath my feet.

Yellow desert stretched in every direction.

There was nothing all the way to the horizon.

“...It really is huge.”

The words slipped out on their own.

This felt completely different from simply sticking a gun barrel through a gate from outside.

‘What if I die?’

I’d bought the Tower Knights Squad Leader Gloves for emergencies like this.

‘Damn. Should I have prioritized armor?’

Accessories increased durability too.

But if I had known things would turn out like this, I probably would’ve bought armor first.

Even though it was PvP gear, it was still D-Rank equipment, so it should provide good defense against monsters around the 20th floors.

‘Not that I want to test it.’

Either way, I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding.

“First... let’s walk.”

Whoooosh-!

That was when I realized something.

“Achoo!”

The desert at night after sunset was freezing cold.

And the fine dust was terrible.

Though technically, it was probably blowing sand.

That was why I’d brought a hoodie and mask too.

Anyway, I hugged ‘Laser No. 1’ tightly and started walking through the middle of the desert.

“I’m counting on you, Laser No. 1.”

If I didn’t have this, no way in hell would I have entered the gate—no, the Tower.

* * *

At the same time.

Somewhere in the Tower of Fate.

Crunch!

“Aaagh!”

A massive fist blazing with flame-like energy.

“W-What the hell is this monster?!”

“Run!”

Every time the fist landed, blood sprayed through the air.

“No chance. Hup.”

Whoosh!

The man took a deep breath and punched into empty air.

BOOOOM!

Energy that could hardly be believed to come from a human fist slammed into the fleeing hunters.

[You have slain Low-Rank Soldier (x6).]

[You have obtained Contribution Points (x600).]

The man conquering the Tower with nothing but his fists.

‘Fist’ frowned at the message.

‘Farming nothing but Low-Rank Soldiers is boring.’

Fist narrowed his eyes.

He had swept hunting grounds up and down the Tower countless times.

Yet everything he found was tagged ‘Low-Rank Soldier.’

‘No bite. No nutrition.’

If possible, he wanted High-Rank Soldiers.

At the very least, Mid-Rank Soldiers.

‘But what are the odds of running into one?’

He occasionally saw ‘Mid-Rank Soldiers,’ but even those were rare.

And spotting another ‘High-Rank Soldier’ like himself would practically warrant shouting that he’d struck gold.

‘Well, it’s only the first day.’

Hunting someone of the same rank meant taking on the same level of danger.

Even so.

‘Grinding Low-Rank Soldiers alone isn’t enough. Doesn’t even register.’

Any news around?

Sometimes Hunven users posted sightings when someone was going wild with PvP—no, PK.

While browsing Hunven.

One particular post caught his eye.

[Title: Another Massacre Apparently Happened in the 20th-Floor Range]

-Content: This time the scale is insane. Witnesses say at least several hundred victims. Believed to be one person.

The comments were all similar.

-How many times has this happened now

-Is that victim count for real? Most rankers couldn’t even do that

-That isn’t a ranker anymore, that’s basically a natural disaster

-What even happens?

┗Most victims say everything turns red like crimson rain is pouring down. Next thing they know they wake up at home

Fist’s eyes narrowed.

‘That many victims?’

By simple calculation, the person had to be at least A-Rank.

Possibly even S-Rank.

Or.

‘Maybe he specializes in massacring weaker opponents.’

There were plenty of abilities that were weak one-on-one but excellent against large numbers of people weaker than the user.

Fist feared no one in a one-on-one fight.

But in a ‘point competition’ like this, he was disadvantaged.

‘This PvP Contribution Point system threw hunter balance straight into the trash.’

But what could he do?

Awakening as a hunter was unfair from the beginning.

The corner of Fist’s mouth slowly rose.

‘No. This is actually better.’

Massacre specialist?

Someone like that was perfect prey.

The more feared the opponent, the more valuable the reward for defeating them.

‘They called him Crimson Rain. If I kill that guy, I’ll leap far ahead of everyone else.’

Fist immediately headed for the 20th-floor range.

He searched floor by floor.

21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th.

All the way through the 29th in order.

But he couldn’t find even a trace.

‘Why isn’t he here?’

Fist frowned.

If he had searched the entire 20th-floor range with a fine-toothed comb and found nothing.

There was only one possibility.

‘...Don’t tell me he’s actually on the 25th floor?’

The 25th Floor, Endless Desert.

A concept floor everyone avoided.

There was little prey, the visibility was too open for ambushes, and monster density was low.

It didn’t drop particularly rare or valuable items either, so once cleared, there was virtually no reason to return.

It was like a floor designed simply to say, ‘From now on, stages this huge can appear too.’

‘Why would someone like that be there?’

Why would someone capable of massacring hundreds of hunters in seconds go somewhere like that?

Fist was puzzled.

But.

‘There’s no other explanation.’

Certain now, Fist headed for the 25th floor.