Sizzle-
The sacred fire that formed the gatekeeper’s body scattered, its essence dissipating into ash-like particles that swirled in the air.
As a precaution, Se-un raised his right hand. A dark red light emanated from the stigma on his hand, drawing in all the surrounding ashes.
– Grrr….
Then, Ruin’s cry echoed, seemingly after a long silence.
It appeared Se-un’s strategy for defeating the gatekeeper had been correct.
As soon as he absorbed the ashes, he felt a surge, indicating the divinity of the stigma had increased even further.
– The constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ is surprised, asking if that was also something he could eat.
– The constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ smacks his lips, regretting that he should have helped if he had known this would happen.
“Ah, the sacred fire…….”
However, a problem arose. With the gatekeeper, who managed the sacred fire, gone, the trial on the 81st floor began to destabilize.
Still, the angel wasn’t completely incompetent.
Whoosh!
“This is annoying! Ugh. I can’t help it. I’ll have to hold on until you guys leave…….”
She stepped forward before anything catastrophic occurred and directly intervened to maintain the sacred fire.
As Se-un watched, preparing to leave, the angel urgently called out to him.
“Ah, wait a minute!”
In truth, something was weighing on his conscience.
If the gatekeeper had been a mere boss monster, it wouldn’t have mattered. But it was the primary force maintaining the trial on the 81st floor.
It was more of a structural component than a monster.
Since he had destroyed such a thing, he worried that the angel, essentially the manager of the trial, would complain.
“Thank you!”
“……What?”
Unexpectedly, words of gratitude were offered.
“When the sacred fire went berserk and rushed at me, I really thought, ‘Oh no!’ It’s unlikely, but if the Tower of Babel was damaged even a little…… Ugh! How terrible!”
Instead of reprimanding him, she expressed her thanks.
Se-un listened, somewhat bewildered. Noticing his confusion, she continued.
“Ah! Don’t worry about defeating the gatekeeper! That thing is recreated anyway when the next trial is created!”
“Recreated?”
“The owner of the Tower of Babel has always done that! Especially, this time, it seems like it had to be disposed of anyway because it burned too much sin and even generated impurities!”
The gatekeeper’s fire had become murky over time. Se-un had assumed it was corrupted because it couldn’t withstand his attack and lost its temper, but that wasn’t the case.
‘Well, it couldn’t have been made so carelessly.’
This raid was being challenged by three guilds simultaneously.
Diablo, Qinghai, and Valhalla Guilds.
Since three guilds with excellent combat power were challenging it, the difficulty of the trial increased, and that reaction must have affected the gatekeeper.
The impurities Se-un saw were likely the embodiment of that reaction.
‘Then, can I accumulate more divinity by repeating the 81st floor?’
If the gatekeeper was recreated anyway, it seemed possible to accumulate divinity.
However, as if sensing Se-un’s thoughts, the angel shook her head and denied it.
“If you’ve been marked this much, you won’t see the gatekeeper even if you come back! All the sins have already been burned!”
“What if I accumulate sins again?”
“Wow, how blasphemous! That’s a very bad idea! Then you’ll be burned again, but it’ll probably be blocked somehow!”
She didn’t explain the detailed principle, but perhaps even if it wasn’t the ‘owner of the Tower of Babel’ that the angel mentioned, the system would intervene?
Accumulating divinity through such loopholes was something the management office would have to prevent.
Well, in any case, everything turned out well in the end.
“Ah, this is a reward!”
“A reward?”
One pure white feather fell from her wings.
The feather fluttered in the wind and landed on Se-un’s palm.
“What is this?”
“If you collect them all, something good might happen……!”
It was a feather that Se-un before regression had never received.
Well, Se-un at that time didn’t have much of a relationship with the angel.
The angel at that time only played the role of announcing the start of the trial and judging the player when the trial ended.
No matter how friendly she was, he couldn’t have a proper conversation with the angel.
“What exactly happens?”
“Who knows? Collect them if you’re interested!”
“How do I collect them?”
“Who knows? I don’t even know who my sisters will give feathers to? I couldn’t collect them even if you told me to! Probably!”
“How do I…….”
“You have to figure that out! Well, I’ve given you the reward! That’s the end! Now, hurry up and go in! To the path of brilliant light!”
She didn’t seem to want to tell him more.
He was curious about its use, but there was no way to know.
Se-un guessed that it was a reward that could be received from an angel by clearing the trial in 1st place or through a specific situation, and turned away from the angel.
He was instinctively drawn to the hidden piece, but there were too many things to do in the Tower of Babel to waste time in such a place.
Whoosh-
As he approached the Tower of Babel, the sacred fire that had been burning hotly subsided, and a golden door appeared.
The door opened wide as if welcoming him.
Se-un put the feather in his arms and entered the door, and as expected, messages popped up one after another saying that he had finished the trial in first place.
* * *
The 1st floor of the Tower of Babel.
A hall appeared that was just the size of what he had seen from the outside.
If there was anything suspicious, it was the golden doors on all sides, including the wall that Se-un had just entered, which numbered more than twenty.
Clearly, when viewed from the outside, there was only one door to the Tower of Babel. But when he came inside, the number of doors was so large that it didn’t make sense.
Many of those who saw it for the first time thought it was for decoration.
‘That’s the trial of the 82nd floor.’
Se-un knew the identity of those doors.
He thought the trial would start right away, but there were those who had almost simultaneously entered the Tower of Babel, following Se-un.
“Se-un! Are you okay?”
“Hahaha! That was amazing! To actually defeat that gatekeeper! I really couldn’t have imagined it!”
Yoo Seo-ah and Brin Jarr.
After Se-un finished the battle, the two of them also had no reason to stay on the 81st floor and immediately entered the Tower of Babel.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the others had not yet escaped from the 81st floor.
The system must have thought that it should cut off here once and immediately started the guide for the 82nd floor.
– Welcome to the trial of the 82nd floor.
– Theme: Good Deeds
– You have burned all the sins you have accumulated below and taken your first step into the Tower of Babel, heading to that high place.
– Accumulate good deeds to climb the Tower of Babel.
“……Good deeds?”
“This must be your first time.”
Just as Yoo Seo-ah was tilting her head, an angel slowly descended from above, as always.
An angel with an infinitely calm atmosphere, unlike the angel on the 81st floor.
As soon as she landed on the ground, she looked at the three challengers with eyes curved like a crescent moon and began to explain.
“Welcome, pure white souls who have burned all sins and entered the Tower of Babel. Now that you have finished ‘preparing,’ you must accumulate good deeds to climb the tower.”
“How do we accumulate good deeds?”
Brin Jarr might think that he is the only one who knows about the trial among these people, but in reality, Yoo Seo-ah is the only one who doesn’t know about this trial.
Perhaps feeling impatient about this, she immediately asked a question.
Fortunately, the angel smiled softly and accepted her question.
“There are various ways to do good deeds, but we have summoned those who need help from others for you. Everyone?”
Creak-
The numerous golden doors that he had seen earlier opened all at once.
From inside, people of different races, positions, and appearances, with no common ground, walked out one by one.
“Kieek…….”
A goblin wearing a large crown that didn’t fit his head.
“Grrr.”
A werewolf proudly revealing dozens of scars engraved on his body.
“…….”
An ogre silently looking at this place, holding a huge long weapon in both hands.
“Keeuk, heuk.”
Even a human gasping for breath as if he were about to die, fully expressing his pain.
After these people appeared, Yoo Seo-ah could guess the content of this trial.
The trial of the 82nd floor, good deeds.
That was to help those who came out through the golden doors.
“You can go to the next floor by helping only one of them.”
“Can we choose as we please?”
“Of course. However, they have received one restriction in exchange for reaching this place, hoping for salvation.”
“What is it?”
“A very minor restriction that they cannot tell you what kind of help they need.”
A very minor restriction?
No. To help one of them without knowing any information, this was a serious problem.
What if a player who is not a combat professional, like Go Chang-seok or Lee Ha-neul, faces a trial like, ‘Please defeat the monster that is trying to destroy the world!’?
What if a combat professional like Yoo Seo-ah or Kang Han-cheol faces a trial like, ‘The surface is polluted, so please create a shelter underground!’?
The angel was stating that serious restriction without any concern.
‘This is a problem even if it’s not a player.’
All those standing in front of the golden door appeared in this place hoping for salvation.
Whether all of this is real or an illusion for the trial, they have come to this place hoping for help, so they must meet a proper savior.
The restriction of not being able to say what kind of help they need was a greater burden for them than for the players, as their dimension was at stake.
“How is it, simple, right? Hehe.”
“Simple…….”
Yoo Seo-ah sighed.
It was an unreasonable trial, but receiving this much explanation in the trials of the tower was rather kind.
“Hahaha! That’s why the people of Plaka don’t tell you about the trials. The person who needs help changes every time you come!”
“I see……. Do you happen to have any know-how?”
“Know-how? I do!”
Without hesitation, Brin Jarr headed for the golden door on the left. Towards the ogre who was silently looking this way with a huge long weapon.
Brin Jarr, who stood in front of him and made eye contact with the ogre for a while.
“It’s about moving as your heart desires!”
Thump.
He stretched out his fist and bumped it against the ogre’s fist.
Anyone who saw it would think they were already friends.
Brin Jarr, who had finished his choice, immediately entered the golden door with the ogre.
Yoo Seo-ah, who was momentarily dumbfounded, asked Se-un.
“……Is that know-how real?”
“Of course not.”
As your heart desires.
Absolutely not.
Although there are restrictions, there were various hints in this trial.
“There, the old man’s skin. Can you see it?”
“Age spots…… No, is it poison?”
“Yes. I don’t know the details, but there must be problems related to poison or disease spreading in that place. You’ll have to deal with the source or end the disease.”
“Ah!”
“And that werewolf is…….”
“I can feel fighting spirit. And the wounds on his body. It must be related to combat, right? Rather than a boss monster, it’s about dealing with multiple enemies.”
“Yes.”
Understanding those hints and choosing the golden door was the key to the 82nd floor.
On the other hand, Brin Jarr was just moving according to his intuition.
‘But he chose well for that.’
The ogre that Brin Jarr chose had many remnants of monsters hanging on his waist. So it was highly likely that it was a problem related to monster hunting.
That kind of battle would be Brin Jarr’s specialty.
Yoo Seo-ah, who had heard the explanation up to this point, nodded as if she understood, looked around, and soon chose the goblin who was at the very front.
“I’ll choose that door. What about you, Se-un?”
Se-un nodded at her question.
In fact, from the moment the golden doors opened and those who needed help appeared, there was one thing that caught Se-un’s eye.
“I am…….”
Se-un chose the golden door.
Chapter 593