Chapter 40 Administrator b 3}
It was a space brimming with traces of life, such as tables, cupboards, cooking appliances, chairs, a sofa, and picture frames. Although it was a family home, it emanated a slightly different feeling. The place looked like a cottage. He didn’t see any standard modern technologies. Everything was manually operated and antique as if he were taken to a house back in the Middle Ages.
“How’s the tea? Are you okay?”
To be honest, it was way too bitter for Yoon-seok, who had a sweet tooth, but he nodded along without expressing his thoughts. The important thing right now wasn’t the taste of tea. As if Yoon-seok’s innermost thoughts were visible, the Lady of Liberation smiled.
“It’s still confusing. I understand. Everyone did say so. Now that you’ve settled, I’m going to explain everything. Is that okay?”
“Yes, please, Lady of Liberation.”
“Just call me Elle.”
She made sure to point out to call her Elle instead of her formal title.
“Judging from how your future has changed because of your choices, the future you saw was real. You lost something precious while ascending the Tower, and you were betrayed after granting his wish.”
Elle brushed off Yoon-seok’s request for further elaboration. To be exact, she said she couldn’t say if she’d wanted to, but…Yoon-seok couldn’t even tell if it was true. So, he decided to ask something more practical instead of questioning her clairvoyance.
“…You guys…no, what are administrators?”
The critical question he’d had since the start of the Wish Auction. Elle started explaining without making any excuses this time.
“The Tower has existed for so long that even immortals don’t know where it came from. Administrators are Challengers who’d reached the final level, I included.”
Elle said she’d once climbed the Tower as a Challenger and fought to protect her dimension.
“What’s at the top of the Tower?”
Elle put on a wry smile.
“I said we’ve reached the final floor, not that we won the last trial. So all the administrators are those who were defeated.”
He also asked what the last trial was about, but this time she drew the line, saying, “I can’t answer that because of the restrictions placed on me.”
Subsequently, a little explanation followed, and he came up with a conclusion. They died in the final trial and became a part of the Tower, given the role of administrators by the Tower itself.
“Administrators are not divine beings. I’m just an admin, working to fulfill the Tower’s goal.”
“Goal?”
“What else can there be? Someone at the top of the Tower is waiting for a Challenger to overcome the final ordeal. Over and over again.”
It seemed that the admins acted as mentors to help challengers climb the Tower more efficiently, but that didn’t make any sense to Yoon-seok.
“If an admin must nurture a challenger, isn’t that out of range?”
“First of all, remember the principle. Nothing’s free in the tower.”
She didn’t answer the question. Yoon-seok nudged her to explain further with his eyes.
“It’s not an admin’s duty to train a challenger. It’s a kind of welfare given by the Tower.”
An administrator could ask a challenger for a wish during their life span. However, if you have already achieved your wish through another challenger, you may wish for another.
“So that you know, the Heavenly Warrior’s desire was never fulfilled.”
“So, what’s good about fulfilling a wish?”
“We can get back the WP we bid on the contracted challenger with interest. The more difficult the desire is, the higher it multiplies.”
-To reach the final floor of the Tower. That’s all I want to ask for.
-I desire to kill 10,000 challengers.
-My desire is no different from yours, to kill the Heavenly Devil and the King of Steel.
Out of those who chose Yoon-seok, these were the only three wishes that were survival-related and were achievable with a moderate level of difficulty.
“The Heavenly Warrior. What was his desired difficulty?”
Invincible. For Yoon Seok, who jumped into the world of swordsmanship, it was a spell that made his heart pound. Elle smiled under Yoon-seok’s curious gaze.
“That would be similar to having all three desires combined.”
He wondered how difficult it would be, but all those crazy desires combined…while Yoon-seok was surprised by the weight of that position, Elle went on to talk about the value of WP.
“WP is like AP for admins. We can use it to pray for our wishes to the Tower. For example, it is possible to leave the Tower and return to our original bodies.”
However, Elle said, it was only possible if a Heavenly Warrior-level type of wish was granted multiple times.
“Maybe that’s why. If it’s the realm of creation that resurrects the original body, physical extortion would be much cheaper than that.”
“…?”
Yoon-seok sensed something in Elle’s tone. She didn’t deny it after recognizing what Yoon-seok was thinking.
“Yes, that’s right. He used WP to steal your body. Still, maybe he’d had a bit of conscience left. He did fulfill your wishes.….”
Yoon-seok then asked what his wish was, but Elle said she couldn’t answer. Feeling suffocated, he began to ask rather aggressively.
“Then why didn’t you ask me for anything?”
“…”
“Can’t answer due to constraints? When you answered about all the other’s desires?”
As expected, this woman had something up her sleeve. After having such thoughts, Yoon-seok was stunned by Elle’s sudden reply.
“I couldn’t beg for anything else. Because that was the only desire, I had.”
To live without any obligation, without anyone wanting anything from you. That was the most intense desire she ever had? What kind of life had she led?
“Is there a trap or something that I don’t know about? Like the difficulty level is super high, or why haven’t you achieved it yet?”
“No, not really. The desire does relate to the challenger’s personality or belief, but anyone can fulfill it.”
Feeling distrustful, Yoon-seok tried to come up with a few assumptions, but they all felt off.
“But why do you still have this…?”
Yoon-seok stopped talking. After seeing Elle smiling, he realized that it was a question that he didn’t have to ask.
“I was the first contractor. Yes, I didn’t sign anyone while I was earning WP as a basic allowance to bid in your auction.”
“…Why?”
Elle retaliated at Yoon-seok’s question.
“Would you believe me if I said that I didn’t want anything while I collected WP?”
Elle’s life desire. The pessimistic tone in her voice when she said she has no wish. Did he imagine it?
“…”
Yoon-seok went silent. There was no way to reveal whether Elle’s words were true or false. Thus, Yoon-seok laid the possibility that Elle lied ever since mentioning that it was her first desire. That was when the truth started piling up little by little.
“We don’t have much time. From now on, instead of asking questions, I’ll tell you about what you need to know and what I can tell you. Is that okay?”
“…Please.”
Elle continued to explain swiftly. There was not enough information to change Yoon-seok’s demeanor but it was mainly about the little things that might happen in the future. Maybe ten minutes passed in the meanwhile?
Soon after, Yoon Seok concentrated so hard that it reminded him of his school days when he focused on his lessons. And then…
It was his turn to take the blame he’d been waiting for. Give and take. Wasn’t the reason why Yoon-seok signed a contract with an admin in the first place because of this?
“You can meet me on the fifth floor. For the most part, use up all your WP now.”
Elle then opened up her powers shyly.
*Infinity – Your dimension disappears. Tickets associated with dimension shifts are available indefinitely. Price: 750,000 WP
*Limit Breakthrough – Avatar quality rises permanently by 70%. Price: 900,000 WP
*Heart of Liberty – Immune to physical and mental restraint and subversive effects. Price: 900,000 WP
*Lady’s Commandment- Dictates the scope of a certain place through magic. You can establish only one whole territory within the realm. Price: 1 million WP
*Leader of the Light – The more followers you gain, the stronger you become. Price: 850,000 WP
*Skill Synthesis – Matches skills that can be synthesized. The synthesized skill must be of origin quality. Price: 1.5 million WP
*Evolution – You obtain a rising evolution gauge that increases over time. Additional corrections are received according to your thoughts and actions. You can evolve once the gauge is full. Price: 1.5 million WP
*Clairvoyance – At critical moments, you can see the future. Price: 3.5 million WP
Elle had about thirty unique powers, but this was the summary of the most useful ones. The deeper Yoon-seok’s brows furrowed, the more embarrassed Elle became.
“I’m sorry, it doesn’t suit you, does it?”
“…It’s all right. I figured you might be more of a wizard.”
Yoon-seok tried to offer a helpful reassurance, but his expression was dark. No wonder he could barely skim through the list; almost half of the thirty powers were related to magic. He thought if there was no way for him to use them, but her powers were too distinct to be of any help.
Thanks to this, the idea of not choosing the Heavenly Warrior crossed his mind again. If Elle’s power, which didn’t even have the keyword magic, would be like this, what would his power be like given how plastered it was in martial arts? Yoon-seok shook his head.
‘It was a goblet full of poison anyway. This is better. It’s not like there’s nothing to use.’
Yoon-seok, as he was looking through the powers, asked Elle for additional explanations. There were basic explanations provided, but it was better to hear them from the owner herself. Let’s start with that one.
“Can you tell me what’s good about increasing quality?”
“The quality of avatars all starts at zero. It’s not that wide, but as the quality increases, the power produced on the same level of capability would be different. Most of all, if the quality increases, things can be handled outside the system. For example, the sword you use.”
Thanks to her kind explanation, it was much easier to understand.
‘I’ll have to buy this for now.’
Yoon-seok didn’t hesitate to buy it first.
「Limit Breakthrough is added to your soul.」
「Avatar quality is permanently increased by 70%.」
Following a 30% improvement in quality obtained the other day, now 70% more was added. Did that make it 100%? He didn’t know what the formula was like, but after the first 30% of vigor was activated, it likely meant he could now completely control his vigor.
“Skill Synthesize here says origin, what is that?”
“Origin refers to skills that aren’t listed in the Tower. If you make a raw skill today, you can make a new one next time.”
That meant he could create skills that weren’t in the system. b Predation} worked well for Yoon-seok, where he could obtain Unique Skills. However, since it cost 1.5 million WP, he’d have to go through the other skills before deciding to purchase it.
“Can I hear more about Lady’s Commandment? I have no idea what absolute territory is.”
“As the word suggests, it’s just a whole territory. You can’t use magic there, for example. Within this territory, no one in the realm can use magic.”
“Including myself?”
“Yes, including you.”
Even so, it must have been an incredibly great power, but there were obvious drawbacks. The greater the impact of the absolute territory, the greater the amount of magic consumed in maintaining the area.
“No matter how much magic recovery {Heavenly Body} grants you, it won’t last a few minutes with such a grandiose territory.”
“Even if my magic stats go up?”
“Yes, not just you, but the enemies also become just as strong as you within the realm. The territory is absolute, but magic consumption is also relative.”
Continuing, Yoon-seok asked about Heart of Liberty, Evolution, and Leader of the Light, all while Elle answered him kindly one by one. Currently, Yoon-seok had 2.8 million WP to spend. Compared to the average challenger, it was a generous amount, but he couldn’t have everything.
Take what you want and give up the others.
“I’ve decided.”
As always, the most important thing was efficiency.
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