Chapter 20

Chapter 20

20. Alpha Male vs. Beta Male

Tower of Fate, 25th Floor.

Endless Desert.

Fist entered the 25th floor immediately and crossed the desert.

‘He should be somewhere around here.’

Then a gigantic scorpion came into view in the distance.

‘The boss. Haven’t seen that thing in a while.’

There was no reason to bother with it.

His only objective was the massacrer.

‘Crimson Rain.’

Still, it was along his path, so he decided to casually take care of it.

Truthfully, something like the 25th-floor boss.

Wasn’t even enough to count as a snack for Fist.

‘Though that was only true until yesterday.’

In Fist’s opinion, the most dangerous things in the Tower were monsters.

Because with the PvP system, if a hunter killed you, your equipment might break.

But at least your life was spared.

If a monster killed you?

No mercy.

You simply died.

‘Might as well warm up.’

Fwoosh!

Fist wrapped flame-like energy around his hand and approached the boss.

* * *

I had no idea how long I’d been walking through the middle of the desert.

“I’m exhausted...!”

I was getting close to developing blisters.

Then, far beyond the horizon, a massive silhouette appeared.

‘Is that it?’

A giant scorpion-shaped monster.

Probably the boss of this floor.

‘Finally found you.’

This was the first time I had ever seen a Tower boss monster in person.

No, it was the first time I had seen any monster in person.

My hands trembled.

B-b-b-b-brrr.

I cautiously closed the distance to the boss.

And gripped Laser No. 1 tightly with both hands.

‘At this distance... I should hit it, right?’

I’d never learned how to shoot.

But if I sprayed enough shots, it would die eventually.

I trust Laser No. 1’s performance.

With trembling hands, I immediately pulled the trigger.

Pewpewpewpewpew!

Fssss-!

The laser pierced straight through the scorpion’s body.

The boss monster’s massive body collapsed onto the sand, sending clouds of dust into the air.

[You have slain a ‘High-Rank Soldier.’]

[You have obtained Contribution Points (x800).]

“Oh.”

I exclaimed in admiration.

“So the boss here is a High-Rank Soldier.”

Satisfied, I looked at the system message, then started walking toward my next objective.

* * *

Fist’s house.

He opened his eyes.

A familiar ceiling, familiar walls.

Familiar furniture.

“...I’m alive.”

He sat up.

There were no wounds.

But one ring on his finger cracked apart and fell to the floor in pieces.

Clink! Clatter, clink.

‘It broke.’

Fist stared blankly at the fragments.

Then opened his inventory.

‘Gone.’

Every piece of low-grade gear he had been wearing was gone.

One Tower Knights Squad Leader Ring—the one that had just shattered.

A B-Rank necklace.

Several pieces of casually equipped armor too.

He had gone in as though heading out for a short stroll, wearing only whatever was handy.

‘At least I didn’t bring anything expensive.’

But strangely, that didn’t comfort him at all.

Maybe that had been the reason he lost.

If he had worn his S-Rank equipment.

He probably would have survived.

But the reason he hadn’t was simple.

‘There was no reason to.’

Not until now.

‘I.’

He didn’t feel like he had lost.

Of course, by the outcome, he had.

More precisely, he didn’t want to consider it a defeat.

Because he hadn’t even gotten a proper fight.

He had to admit one thing.

‘I let my guard down.’

That was the correct way to put it.

He had been careless.

And.

He had underestimated his opponent.

Treated him as a joke.

‘Crimson Rain.’

He had even thought that nickname sounded ridiculous.

Even if the guy had massacred hundreds, Fist had assumed he was only strong against groups.

And that one-on-one, there was no way he could beat Fist.

However.

‘I didn’t even get to make eye contact with him.’

No, to be precise, he had seen him.

Right before the infamous ‘Crimson Rain’ poured down.

In the final instant.

For just a moment, beneath the hoodie and mask.

He had seen.

Those vicious, murderous eyes.

‘Did he see me?’

Impossible to know.

Fist thought back to the moment.

Like reviewing a previous battle.

He remembered the instant he was about to punch the scorpion boss.

Pewpewpewpewpew!

An ear-splitting high-frequency sound rang out.

As Fist threw his punch at the boss, his eyes went wide.

Red beams filled his entire vision.

‘Crimson Rain.’

Fist had no time to react.

No—more precisely, there had been nowhere to dodge.

Red beams came from every direction, pouring down like sunlight in a desert with no shade.

The next moment, Fist woke up at home.

It had been one-sided annihilation.

Nothing more.

“...Ridiculous.”

Fist laughed quietly.

Not in self-mockery.

Not in anger.

Just a laugh of acknowledgment.

‘For underestimating my opponent, I got off cheaply.’

Because he was still alive.

‘Next time, though, it won’t end like this.’

Still, there was one thing he couldn’t understand.

‘Why didn’t I notice him?’

Even if the man was an S-Rank hunter, there should be no way to escape Fist’s senses.

No, there was one possibility.

‘Assassin.’

If he was an assassin specialized in erasing his presence and hiding.

It was possible.

‘An assassin capable of launching massive area-of-effect attacks.’

He had never encountered an enemy like that.

He had to admit it.

For now, ‘that man’ would be difficult and troublesome to deal with.

‘I’ll postpone revenge until later.’

Fist placed the shattered ring fragments in his palm and stared at them for a long time.

Tower Knights Squad Leader Ring.

25,000 Contribution Points.

His other gear had also been worth tens of millions each.

But he didn’t even care.

Those were things money could replace.

For Fist, that meant nothing.

‘I can earn the Contribution Points again.’

If losing 25,000 points meant he had fallen behind others, then he had fallen behind.

If it meant he had been left behind, then so be it.

At that moment, the person occupying Fist’s mind was Crimson Rain.

But ‘Sword’s’ face came to mind too.

‘The world really is wide.’

And perhaps there were other nameless masters and rankers hidden somewhere in the Tower.

He closed his fist around the ring fragments.

* * *

Tower of Fate, 25th Floor.

Endless Desert.

[You have cleared the Tower of Fate 25th Floor, ‘Endless Desert.’]

[You may now harvest resources from this floor.]

“Yes!”

I clenched my fist.

Finally cleared it.

With this, the oil buried beneath the 25th floor—more precisely, the rights to extract it—were as good as mine.

I stared down at the ground beneath my feet for a moment.

‘Nobody could even dream that fifteen billion barrels of oil are buried under here.’

It wasn’t like anyone could bring exploration equipment or an offshore drilling rig into the Tower.

What kind of faces would people make if they found out?

Probably a face like mine.

“Hehehehe. Kekeke.”

Anyway!

‘Am I really about to become a citizen of an oil-producing country?’

A citizen of an oil-producing country?

No.

‘The owner of the oil!’

Oil tycoon!

Oil money!

A thought had crossed my mind earlier.

What if I couldn’t clear it and had to find some way to flee the country?

But.

‘No need now.’

Relief washed over me.

As soon as I got home, I called the loan shark.

“Hello.”

-What is it?

“There’s something I forgot to ask.”

-What.

“When does exploration start?”

A brief silence followed.

-The contractor hasn’t fixed the exact schedule yet.

“Really?”

-But it won’t take long. Earliest, we could start this week.

“Oh, that’s fast.”

-So prepare properly. And the money? We need to pay them before they begin work.

“I’m transferring it now.”

I immediately opened my banking app.

Corporate account transfer screen.

I was getting sick of counting how many zeros there were.

‘But if another zero gets added?’

Then it’ll become fun again.

‘Right. No take-backs.’

I pressed the button.

[F&C Refining Corporate Account]

[Balance: 105,000,000,000 won]

“One hundred five billion...!”

I dumped in all seventy-five billion.

‘I still have to pay taxes.’

The thought came to me belatedly.

‘Wait.’

If this fails, am I going to prison for tax evasion?’

‘Nah, no way.’

You don’t go to prison just because a business fails.

‘Me, a kind, exemplary citizen and talent worth four billion won an hour?’

Then the world would be wrong.

More importantly!

‘There’s no way this fails.’

The business wasn’t going to collapse.

Oil would come out of the East Sea.

‘It’ll gush like crazy.’

A satisfied smile spread across my face.

But what should I do until then?

‘First... I need more Contribution Points.’

The 25th-floor boss.

When I first entered the Tower and encountered it.

I was scared.

‘My hands and feet were shaking.’

And only one thought had crossed my mind then.

‘Complete the entire Squad Leader armor set, no matter what.’

If I had money, I could buy fairly decent equipment from the exchange.

But unfortunately, I had already invested seventy-five billion into the oil business.

Making tens of billions and still being short on money was almost funny.

Still, there was no problem.

‘As long as I have Laser No. 1.’

[Opening the Tower of Fate 26th Floor.]

As always, I pushed the barrels through the gate.

“It’s hunting time.”

Pewpewpewpew!

* * *

Hunter Association Headquarters.

Special Situation Room.

“The same pattern has now been confirmed throughout the entire 20th-floor range.”

An employee changed the briefing slide and continued.

“Red flashes. Wide-area annihilation. Same characteristics as the 20th-floor incidents.”

“Scale?”

“At least over one thousand victims. The number is still increasing while we compile reports, so an exact count is difficult.”

“First the 20th floor, then the 21st, the 22nd. We know exactly where he’ll appear next, yet we still can’t catch him?”

“He moves so unpredictably...”

The Association President groaned.

‘If only Sword could move right now.’

But ‘Sword’ was busy trying to establish herself at the top of the new order.

From the Association’s perspective, it was almost as if they had ordered Sword to kill people and farm Contribution Points.

Still, if this was unavoidable, shouldn’t the Association be the one holding the handle of this new order’s blade?

“We’re certain it’s the same perpetrator every time?”

“We can’t say with absolute certainty, but the probability is extremely high. At the very least, the firepower pattern almost perfectly matches the Gatling Laser.”

At that moment, someone raised a hand.

“But isn’t something strange? Weren’t all the Gatling Lasers we recovered supposed to have been transferred to the Americans?”

The Association President’s face instantly hardened.

He opened his mouth to speak.

Riiing.

The phone in the special situation room rang.

It was a direct call to the Association President.

“Yes. This is Han Sangho, President of the Hunter Association.”

-President.

“Yes.”

-Let’s bury this matter.

“Excuse me?”

-I don’t care what that person’s identity is. Find the person in the footage quietly, but make sure no one else knows.

“But...”

-What happens if the United States learns about this?

“...!”

-They’ll suspect that not all the weapons we promised were transferred, or that we secretly kept one for ourselves... won’t they? If one leaked accidentally, that’s an even bigger problem.

“That is... true.”

Whatever the reason.

If this became known, the United States would undoubtedly view South Korea as untrustworthy.

-The entire Korean Peninsula is sitting in the eye of a storm right now. If America turns its back on us over this one issue, jurisdiction over North Korea and everything else may disappear overnight.

The Association President had nothing he could say.

“Understood.”

All he could do was obey the order.

-I’m counting on you, President Han Sangho.

The Hunter Association President lowered the receiver and spoke.

“Control the press. Route all related witness statements through Association channels only. Suppress Hunven posts as much as possible before they spread.”

“Yes. But... is that even possible?”

“Sword isn’t the only S-Rank hunter in the Association.”

The reporting employee’s eyes widened for a moment, then he nodded.

“Understood.”