Episode 12 (1)
The demon suddenly stopped in its approach, now standing right in front of Yoon-seok. It was about to say something when Yoon-seok charged forward in a madman’s assault. With his broken sword, he began cutting and stabbing the demon at random. The demon’s blood covered him, but Yoon-seok didn’t care.
“A trivial move!”
The demon’s body began to be covered in wounds and injury. Of course, its body was quickly recovering, but…
The rate it received damage soon overtook its rate of recovery. Confusion spread across Yoon-seok’s face.
‘What’s happening?’
If the demon chose to use his blood explosion, Yoon-seok would burst to pieces in an instant. But for some reason, the demon seemed focused only on recovery.
Pop-!
Pop-!
There were intermittent explosions, but their power was incomparable to when the demon exploded his arm. They were small explosions that were more like warnings, not actual offensives, and the demon was trying to push Yoon-seok away, as if it didn’t want to get caught up in it.
Suddenly, Yoon-seok’s eyes lit up. This time, the broken blade, cut short like a dagger, was more convenient. He continued to draw in closer and began stabbing away like he was possessed.
“This tenacious child…!”
An expression of helplessness grew stronger on the demon’s face, but Yoon-seok didn’t stop attacking. The more helpless the demon felt, the more advantageous it was for him.
His injuries caused by the small explosions? Yoon-seok ignored the pain as he continued to stab and cut at his opponent. Then, a feeling of incongruity emerged.
‘Why are you so focused on protecting that part?’
One of the demon’s arms was dangling. It would have helped if the demon to heal that arm so it could push away Yoon-seok. However, it was using its remaining arm to protect its abdomen and focused its regenerative powers there.
‘I don’t know what it is, but that’s what’s important, right?’
Yoon-seok bit the demon’s neck.
“Hey, you crazy human!”
The demon staggered and fell. While biting its neck, Yoon-seok clasped his legs across the demon’s so they would fall together.
Dump-!
Their bodies were stacked together, covered with fresh blood. Yoon-seok, now attacking from above, was frantically piercing the man’s stomach.
Whoops-!
Whoops-!
Whoops-!
His jagged blade pierced through the demon’s abdomen again and again. Yoon-seok felt that his arm was about to go numb, but he didn’t stop. And then.
‘What is this? A marble bead?’
The tip of the sword struck something hard in the demon’s lower abdomen. Yoon-seok struck the point once more.
Kang-!
It was a sound that neither flesh nor bone could make; it was something harder.
Pop-!
Pop-!
Pop-!
The demon began releasing stronger explosions, unlike before. However, Yoon-seok kept fighting even when his legs were blown off.
‘This is it!’
He finally found the demon’s weakness.
Pop-!
Pop-!
Yoon-seok’s internal organs were exposed through the torn flesh, and his arm was turned to rags. However, he continued to strike the marble bead with his sword.
Kang-!
Kang-!
Kang-!
Kang-!
It was tougher than expected.
Pufuhhh-!
The demon spat blood on Yoon-seok’s face; it meant that it was ready to blow his head off. Yoon-seok lowered his sword without hesitation.
Qwajik-!
Finally, the marble bead broke.
“Ugh, you will…human….”
Yoon-seok watched the demon’s body wilt as blood sprayed all over him. He couldn’t believe what just happened.
‘I…won.’
* * *
“Victory.”
“You will receive 8,000 AP as a reward.”
「The unique skill b Predation} is activated. 」
「Acquire one of your opponent’s skills at random. 」
「Obtain the unique skill {Blood Pact}. 」
「You will receive 1 coin as a promotion reward. 」
「Teleporting to the 3rd-floor waiting room. 」
「Prepare for the next duel. 」
Yoon-seok arrived at the 3rd floor, panting heavily from mental exhaustion. He had been pushed through his limits. As he calmed himself, he stared at his broken sword. It had been restored to its original shape, just like his body.
‘OK. It’s all over now.’
He could still feel the pain from the last battle, but it was done. Now, he had something else to do.
[Enter the chat room on the 3rd floor.]
He then read the conversations one by one, examining the atmosphere. Soon, a familiar nickname caught his eye.
-Demon 666: Even if you lose all your coins, you don’t die. You would only lose your memories of being here.
Yoon-seok, frowning, quietly checked the chat room.
[Current number of participants 1,481/8,912]
In the chat room on the 3rd floor, the total number of people wasn’t even 10,000.
‘There were over 30,000 people on the first floor.’
It must mean that many people died, but seeing this, Yoon-seok couldn’t help but feel proud. Most of them never made it this far. However, Yoon-seok defeated all his enemies and arrived here. He had no self-esteem and was looked down upon because of Kang Hyung-woo.
‘How about this one?’
Yoon-seok checked the Earth chat room. There were only seven people active, out of about forty remaining challengers from Earth. Compared to the other dimensions, which had thousands of challengers, it was a very small number.
Those challengers from other dimensions seemed better at fighting than those from Earth.
‘Perhaps it’s all about the mindset.’
No matter how similar physical conditions were, those who have lived in a place ruled by law and order had worse chances to win in a battle with no rules.
‘Perhaps that’s why most of Devil 666’s victims were from Earth.’
How many challengers were deceived by the words of the Devil 666 and threw themselves to their death? There must be thousands.
‘At this point, it’s almost like a slaughterer….’
Fortunately, the challengers on the 3rd floor weren’t as simple-minded as those on the 2nd floor.
-Hero A: Demon 666, that bastard is still a bastard even here.
-Jinjin Nam: What is he trying to do?
-Heukwoo: Devil, let’s stop. I guess it doesn’t work here.
Most of the participants were cynical toward him. Perhaps, it was because the number of challengers from Earth had dropped so far that his words lost their persuasiveness. Yoon-seok shuddered and turned off the chat room. Now that he had confirmed that the malicious rumors hadn’t eroded the 3rd-floor challengers, it was time to move on to the next business.
「You have acquired a new skill. 」
Yoon-seok checked the Unique Skill he had obtained by killing the demon.
Rank E — Explodes the user’s enchanted blood.
Rank F — You have dominion over your blood. As long as the core is intact, you can physically recover. Stamina is consumed according to the loss rate.
Judging by the E-Rank ability, it seemed that the demon had taken a Unique Skill growth elixir costing 5,000 AP.
‘By the way, the core? Are you talking about that marble?’
Yoon-seok soon realized that he felt a strange aura under his stomach.
‘If it breaks, I will be unable to use this ability.’
Yoon-seok cut his palms with the blade of his sword, just like what the demon did. He then experimented with the oozing blood.
“Is it roughly like this?”
Yoon-seok smiled bitterly after practicing for a while with blood explosions, then healing his wounds. He could do it, but the process was more difficult than he thought. He shook his head as he thought about the demon.
It wasn’t as easy as you made it look.
It would probably take some time before he could handle it as skillfully as the demon did.
「Next duel in 22:34:45. 」
Yoon-seok made up his mind and approached the stone tablet with a purpose. Then, he opened the shop window and opened the Convenience category.
*Return Ticket (Rank F) – If you tear the ticket, you can return to your original world for 24 hours.
Selling price: 300AP
Yoon-seok bought it without hesitation. He currently had 9,000 AP, so he could afford to buy one.
‘There’s something I should prioritize above all else.’
When his father’s factory caught fire, Yoon-seok suffered from panic disorder. There were episodes when his heart raced like crazy, he couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t see anything but the dark. At one time, it was so severe that he had to rely on drugs.
Still, he never had hallucinations like those he suffered here.
‘My symptoms have gotten worse.’
It was understandable. The Tower of Heaven was a place full of stimuli, where lives come and go, blood was shed, and people were pushed to their limits. Even a person who was both mentally and physically healthy may find it difficult to stay sane.
In such a place, Yoon-seok must fight and win. And to do so,
「Your purchase has arrived. 」
He must finish his business with Kang Hyung-woo.
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