Chapter 15 · 10 min
Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Korea University Hospital.
This was Korea’s finest medical facility exclusively for Climbers.
The treatment costs were so expensive that mostly veteran Climbers used it.
And at such a place.
Famous figures began to gather.
The real elites, people even veterans rarely had a chance to meet, were arriving.
It began with Wol Hayeon.
Soon came Kang Yosik, Bi Mujangjeon, the Mad Monk...
Patients passing through the hospital stared in shock and hurried out of their way.
Every one of them was a top-tier Climber.
Beings beyond rankers.
“Hmm. Why would such huge figures come here? Are they buying Korea University Hospital?”
“You don’t know? Those people were classmates in Academy Class 13!”
“What? Them?”
Even at the Climber Academy, which had consistently produced outstanding graduates, Class 13 had been exceptionally bizarre.
“Apparently, they were all legendary during their school days.”
“For what?”
“Beating up seniors.”
“?”
“I’ve heard about it too. The legend of Class 13 putting upperclassmen in their place is famous.”
“That sounds more like a horror story than a legend.”
Screeeeeech!
A sports car swerved to a stop at the hospital entrance, and the final figure appeared.
Gasp!
The Climbers recoiled.
“You bastards have too much free time or what? We’ve still got ages before the meeting time. Why are you already here?”
Cheongyeol’s mad dog, Cheon Ryujin!
The infamous chaebol delinquent had also been a member of Class 13.
As the Class 13 alumni crossed the hospital lobby, patients parted like the Red Sea.
“G-Gasp. Class 13, Destroyers of Seniors...!”
Even highly skilled Climbers avoided eye contact and cleared a path.
Ninety percent of the reason was Cheon Ryujin.
“Hahah! Traveling with this lunatic has always made things convenient in this one respect...”
Top-class bounty hunter Kang Yosik cackled, and everyone agreed.
Cheon Ryujin dug in his ear with an expression that said, ‘Is some dog barking?’
“We’re here for a visit. We made a reservation.”
Wol Hayeon informed the reception desk, and they were allowed into a private room on the top floor.
They had come today to visit a classmate.
[Room 1801]
[Ji Wuchang]
The moment they entered the room, dense mana flowed solemnly through the air.
It was not an effect provided by the hospital.
It came from the patient lying in the bed.
“Ha. This damn bastard... Is he a biological battery? How much mana is he pumping out?”
Cheon Ryujin muttered, but the patient gave no response.
“Wuchang. We’re here.”
Wol Hayeon placed a bouquet on the table, but the patient did not react.
He was asleep.
The members of Class 13 visited the hospital every year, but Ji Wuchang had never welcomed them.
That had continued for ten years already.
“...”
Outside the room, gossip-hungry spectators lingered around.
They wanted to catch even a distant glimpse of the infamous Academy Class 13.
Class 13, said to have been like a natural disaster.
They had been trouble from the moment they enrolled.
Their personalities were so hopeless that every single one of them was constantly at risk of expulsion.
The person who had united Class 13 was Ji Wuchang.
A singular existence even among geniuses.
Ji Wuchang was unprecedented.
There were countless stories about him.
“Ji Wuchang is the one who created the Ji Wuchang Strategy Guide, right?”
“Of course. He wrote the thing people call humanity’s book of prophecy.”
It was a famous and true story that the floor-by-floor strategy guide Ji Wuchang had privately written as a student was discovered years later and shocked the entire world.
The strategies found back then were still being used as standard methods today.
Ji Wuchang himself had fallen asleep before ever seeing his strategies put to use.
A sleep from which he could not awaken.
Society went wild.
Ji Wuchang was poisoned!
No!
Ji Wuchang was an alien!
He retired and is relaxing somewhere!
All kinds of bizarre rumors spread, but no one approached the truth.
The classmates gathered here knew it.
“Ha, this fucking unfair bastard won’t even age by himself. Did he become a frozen human or something?”
“Hey. Cheon Ryujin.”
“I’m right. It’s fucking weird. If someone lies in a hospital for years, they’re supposed to waste away like a skeleton. Why does this guy still look perfectly healthy?”
“He has a point. Look at the mana Wuchang is releasing. It hasn’t weakened at all from his prime.”
The members of Class 13 remembered the day Ji Wuchang collapsed.
That day, Ji Wuchang and the others had been exploring the middle floors.
The place known as the most profitable area in the middle floors.
「The Lost Fairy Kingdom」
Insane fairies shrieking wildly appeared there as monsters.
They no longer used magic like fairies.
They bit and clawed like beasts.
Every one of them had gone mad and lost all reason.
Thus, their kingdom had fallen long ago, leaving only insane fairies hiding among the ruins and attacking intruders.
On that fateful day.
Ji Wuchang looted a peculiar book item from a fairy.
It was written in the fairy language... and after Ji Wuchang read it, he collapsed.
From that moment onward, Ji Wuchang never woke again.
The members of Class 13 researched the book, but uncovered nothing.
All they managed to determine was its title.
<The Road to Carcosa>
What was Carcosa?
What was that book?
Nothing became clear.
“Damn it...”
Cheon Ryujin cursed.
Ji Wuchang, this vermin bastard, was alive.
Not merely alive.
He was surviving in remarkably good health.
His soul also existed.
It had simply sunk somewhere.
“No matter how I look at it, his symptoms are identical to Nightmare-7 patients. There has to be a solution somewhere.”
“Then that makes it even worse. Even the pharmaceutical companies can’t cure Nightmare-7.”
“What if Nightmare Stage 8 happens?”
“Ji Wuchang isn’t someone who’ll melt that easily.”
“We have time. Let’s keep searching together.”
They no longer felt the same sorrow looking at Ji Wuchang that they had ten years ago.
And that fact itself saddened them.
“Wuchang. Happy birthday.”
“We’ll come again.”
The Class 13 alumni celebrated Ji Wuchang’s birthday and left.
A gathering they held every year.
They could not remain in the hospital for long.
Because while Ji Wuchang’s time had stopped, theirs had never stopped for a single moment.
The members of Class 13 had already become central figures in the world.
Asia’s greatest Spirit Master.
A Tier-0 academy professor.
A bounty hunter said to make even evil spirits run away.
A negotiator with nonhuman Tower races.
One was simply a chaebol mad dog...
Even so, they were still waiting for someone.
Even those who had become the center of the world still needed a center of their own.
* * *
Pant, pant.
The crow-masked man and I ran like hell.
The bizarre creature pursued us, but we somehow managed to shake it off.
After escaping Carcosa, we soon reached an enormous lake.
The crow-masked man guided me to a cabin near the lake, and only then did we breathe a sigh of relief.
“It has been a while since an outsider appeared. Good to meet you.”
The man removed his crow mask, revealing a shockingly handsome blue-haired face.
“To introduce myself again, I am Ji Wuchang, born in a city called Seoul. Which dimension do you hail from?”
“I’m from Seoul too. My name is Han Jain.”
“What!”
Ji Wuchang jumped.
“A fellow countryman!”
He briefly explained this world.
This was a dream city called Carcosa, ruled by a strict monarchy.
“The mass of filth wearing the pale mask that you encountered belongs to the knight class. It is extremely powerful.”
The laws of this Carcosa.
Once you enter, you cannot escape.
You must live here forever.
[The lettuce’s duration is ending.]
[5 minutes until awakening.]
I was the exception.
I had smuggled myself in using Golden Lettuce, so I would soon be returning.
“I’m going back to Seoul soon.”
“What!!!!!”
Ji Wuchang looked utterly astonished.
“H-How? No outsider who reaches Carcosa can ever escape! You’re seriously 「the bomb」.”
“...”
This guy.
How old is he?
We compared our respective timelines and discovered that there was roughly a ten-year gap between us.
“Whew. So ten years have already passed. Living here erodes your sense of time. Some memories feel as close as yesterday, while others fade as though they happened ten thousand years ago.”
“Good grief.”
“Anyway, I enjoyed our conversation. Once you return, I’ll resume my patrol. Outsiders occasionally fall here besides you.”
“How do other outsiders reach Carcosa?”
“Most fall this far after suffering through nightmares. Beyond the lake is a large shelter. I’ve taken it upon myself to evacuate outsiders there.”
No one had assigned him that mission.
He had chosen it himself.
Ji Wuchang was an extraordinary person.
[The lettuce’s duration is ending.]
[3 minutes until awakening.]
There wasn’t much time left.
I couldn’t just introduce myself and leave.
“Mr. Wuchang. I’m going to visit Carcosa again. Is there anything you’d like me to do for you?”
“Huh... You intend to come here again? You just saw what happens. If the knight class catches you, you’ll inevitably receive the 「Citizen Sentence」. And the knight class is nothing.”
“There’s more?”
“The Grandfather class. The Ambassadors. And above them stands the King—”
King.
He merely spoke the word, and the surroundings darkened slightly.
Simply imagining the King of Carcosa strengthened the connection between that being and us.
It was terrifying.
“You see? This place is that dangerous.”
“It is scary... but you’re working this hard too. How could I just stand by?”
Ji Wuchang smiled brightly.
Beam!
“Haha. Young Han Jain. You really are a good person.”
“I’m nothing compared to you... Anyway, I’ll visit often. Is there anything you want me to do?”
“In that case, could you bring me weapons? If we want to fight the knight class, the outsiders need to be armed.”
“What do you need?”
Scribble∼.
Ji Wuchang wrote me a note.
Probably a list of the weapons he wanted.
“Okay. I’ll definitely bring them.”
“I’m truly grateful. Heh. I wonder if my friends are doing well. They’re all missing a few screws, so I worry about them. Ah. I can’t let a guest leave empty-handed...”
He handed me a thick book.
Judging from the wear on it, he had treasured it for a long time.
“There is little to do here. I spent my time jotting down stories from when I climbed the Tower in my younger days.”
“Jotting things down...”
“It’s just a diary. I used to keep a climbing journal every day back on Earth too. Haha.”
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“It has no particular value. Personally, I recommend using it as a ramen pot stand.”
A ramen pot stand...
It would be useful to have one.
I’ll think of it as a souvenir from my trip to Carcosa.
“Thank you. I’ll definitely use it as a ramen pot stand.”
“Haha. You don’t even look displeased by such a shabby gift. I envy your character. Take care.”
“You too, Mr. Ji Wuchang...”
My time was up.
I was expelled from Carcosa.
My vision blurred, and before I knew it, I was back in my territory.
The clear blue sky was a welcome sight after that ominous yellow one.
“So I had some weird dream... Huh?!”
I was holding the note and the book in my hands.
The sky was yellow.
The stars were black.
A land ruled by kings and knights.
The dream city Carcosa...
I had actually visited it.
When I opened the book bearing Ji Wuchang’s fingerprints, I found professional-quality monster illustrations and neat handwriting.
======
[How to Fight the Floor 41 Cyclops]
[1. The Cyclops possesses monstrous strength, making it inefficient for a tank to endure its blows. Therefore, assign aggro to an agile party member.]
[2. Because the Cyclops has only one eye, its depth perception is poor. The agile aggro holder should exploit this fully, maintaining distance so that the Cyclops wastes its tremendous strength.]
[3. Assign one party member who specializes in fire attacks. This person should focus attacks on the Cyclops’s left knee and right arm.]
[4. With enough patient strikes, the Cyclops will eventually lose its balance and fall under its own tremendous strength.]
=======
Wow.
What is this?
You can tell an absurd amount of work went into it.
[Aqua... Spirit bookworm!
Q–(ᵔ.ᵔ Q )
]
[Aqua... Ueeeggh.]
Aqua got dizzy from the guide being too detailed.
“Wow! I got one hell of a ramen pot stand!”
I could feel Ji Wuchang’s consideration.
He must have felt guilty asking me to procure weapons.
Even though he had nothing, he wanted to give me something in return.
At this point, next time I visit, I should bring him a whole box of ramen.
He’ll like that.
“Geumsul. The Golden Lettuce seeds are growing properly, right?”
[Correct.]
“Let’s see what weapons he asked me to get.”
I unfolded Ji Wuchang’s note.
I Set Up House in the Tower, and Making Money Became Too Easy