Yodle's Forest
He stared at the scattered packaging containers.
Tuple Sirloin.
Thanks to some unexpected windfall, he'd gone all out and splurged on sirloin.
"It's amazing."
"Right?"
Seira leaned back against him with a face full of utter satisfaction.
At first, her expression had stiffened a bit since it wasn't the promised chicken.
But the moment he fed her a piece of medium-well sirloin, her face had instantly lit up with happiness.
"I wish we could eat like this more often."
That was impossible.
Even bought with slush funds, the Tupple sirloin was so ridiculously expensive that his hand had trembled.
"It might be doable once we climb the tower harder and the quality of items we get improves?"
"Can't you just buy everything with that card?"
Jinhyeok pulled out the check card he'd swiped like crazy all day.
To Seira, it must have looked like an endless spring.
She had no idea that the balance had dipped below 500,000 won from buying all those tower-exclusive items.
"It doesn't get refilled automatically, so you can't buy anything without topping it up. Anyway, since we're on the topic..."
Jinhyeok stood up.
"Let's head to the Myth Tower."
The unlock condition for the Myth Tower's 1st floor was clearing the Despair Tower's 5th floor.
The requirement was met, so there was no reason to delay.
Was it because he'd stuffed her full of expensive beef?
Seira nodded and stepped up beside him.
[Entering the Myth Tower 1-1 floor.]
So this was what they meant by each floor being subdivided.
The dim semi-basement room vanished, replaced by a lush green meadow dotted with trees.
He took a deep breath.
The spot instantly brought to mind the word phytoncide.
[The Yodles are a race full of mischief and caution. This is Elena, the forest where the Yodles live in groups. Traps are set up everywhere. Navigate through them safely and enter the Yodles' village! Time limit: 10 minutes. Countdown begins.]
A hourglass appeared overhead.
"I'll cut them down."
Seira's hand went to her sword.
She looked ready to clear the trees for visibility in one clean sweep.
Jinhyeok shook his head and stepped forward.
"Master, I wouldn't recommend taking the lead."
"It's fine here. No monsters show up."
He crouched low and scanned the ground.
"It doesn't look good."
She didn't argue, simply acknowledging it.
"Follow behind me."
Seira tilted her head as she obeyed the order.
It seemed like they could just charge straight through, so why bother with this cautious approach?
And as if to demonstrate the reason...
As Jinhyeok advanced slowly, he picked up a small pebble and tossed it.
Kwaduduk!
A massive harpoon shot up from the ground.
If they'd been standing there, it would've been skewer city.
"Looks like you should take point after all, Master."
Seira admitted it readily and quietly guarded the rear.
From then on, Jinhyeok crawled forward in a practiced prone position, dodging traps.
There was a gap between playing on a monitor and reality, but it wasn't much different from when he'd played the game.
After crawling far enough to exit the zone, Jinhyeok looked around.
The system hadn't exaggerated about the increased difficulty.
Not only were there an incomparable number of traps compared to his playthrough, but now there was a time limit too.
He roughly gauged the distance between their current spot and the destination, then shrugged.
Considering how the traps would only get denser, it was going to be tight.
Time for a bit of tough love.
"Seira."
He pointed at the forest with his finger.
"See those leaves or grass that look red? Stepping on those will launch logs or boulders from the front or sides. We're gonna run while only stepping on those."
The tricky traps—like exploding poison mushrooms spewing spores or needle-like venom darts—were all behind them now.
What remained were instant-death ones, but simple in mechanism.
"I'll smash whatever comes flying."
"Yeah. I'll call out the directions as they come."
"Understood."
He positioned himself behind Seira's back.
And he pulled out the iron shield he'd bought from the armor shop.
He'd have to block the debris from the stuff she smashed himself.
"Let's go."
Seira drew her sword and bolted forward.
She adjusted her stride to match her sluggish master.
Kwaaaaaa!
The instant she stepped on the red patch, a massive boulder came hurtling.
He knew Seira would destroy it, but his legs still went weak.
Even with the shield up, getting hit by that thing would be instant death.
Kwajak!!
Sword energy burst from Seira's blade.
The boulder shattered into fragments mid-air, scattering.
He deflected the falling debris with his shield while directing Seira on the next path.
The two pressed on relentlessly, traps triggering without pause.
'She's insanely fast.'
Even as he hurried to keep up, he couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration.
When he'd played solo in the game, disarming each one had taken forever.
But with Seira, this kind of bold breakthrough was possible.
"Can't I chop down the trees? They're blocking the view."
"No trees. You'd lose the path."
The Yodles' forest was essentially one giant mechanism.
Chop down trees recklessly, and the way vanishes—you can't reach the village.
Jinhyeok had once tried setting the whole thing ablaze during his playthrough for a laugh.
He'd ended up lost, wandering in circles all day before resetting.
Kwajik! Kwaduduk!
How many boulders and logs had she cleaved through?
A massive dead tree loomed ahead.
And as they reached it...
Ding!
[All trap sections cleared! Remaining time: 5 minutes.]
[Myth Tower 1-1 floor cleared!]
[Player Yujinhyuk's level has risen! Current level: 6. All stats increase.]
[The area beyond is the Myth Tower 1-2 floor section.]
[Entry condition: Clear Despair Tower 11th floor.]
[You reached the destination without damaging the forest or getting lost even once. Special reward for 1-1 floor clear granted.]
A box materialized in mid-air.
He snatched it up quick and opened it, revealing a single compass.
A ridiculously simple design: a circular space with just a needle, no markings.
For some reason, the glass face featured an infuriating Yodle face etched on it.
[Yodle's Compass acquired! Points to any desired destination, wherever you are!]
Pointing to destinations from anywhere. An impressive function, despite the looks.
And it wasn't tower-exclusive—it worked outside too.
[Exiting the Myth Tower!]
The moment they emerged, he pulled the compass from his inventory.
"Nearest convenience store."
The needle pointed straight to the GS25 right in front of his place.
"Seira Kinkaiton standing spot."
This time, the needle didn't budge.
Looks like the compass could only find locations, not people.
A smile tugged at his lips unbidden.
This would come in handy for tower climbs ahead.
He turned at the feel of eyes on him.
Seira, disarmed now, was staring blankly.
"Wanna get chicken?"
Seira nodded without hesitation, so he pulled out his phone.
Today, it was seasoned braised dakgalbi.
While Jinhyeok and Seira were devouring their seasoned braised dakgalbi.
A small but fierce debate was unfolding on the site for everything tower-related.
The battleground was the comments section of a single post.
Despair Tower 5th floor, cleared in 1 second. SSS+ rank.
The post's views were skyrocketing, landing it at the top of the hot board.
@ 5 seconds on floor 1 is already impossible—how the hell did they clear floor 5 in 1 second?
@ Isn't it just that 1 second passed right as they entered? Stepping in and clearing instantly still doesn't make any sense.
@ I took a whole day on floor 5? Is this a bug?
@ Where's the bug in the tower? Separate from that, a day on floor 5 is total overkill. Did you awaken as an earthworm or something?
@@ What the fuck, man?
Most comments were reactions of disbelief.
It was understandable.
The fastest clear record for floor 5 so far had been 5 seconds.
And that was only F-rank, so the gap to 1-second SSS+ was enormous.
Too unrealistic to accept, yet it was proudly registered in the tower's official records, so denial wasn't an option.
For players with no clue what happened, it was bound to give them headaches.
Especially confusing were the players who usually obsessed over climb records and loved time attacks.
"What the hell is this, really."
One of them, Cheon Seyeon, furrowed her brow.
She was currently tackling floor 83 of the Despair Tower.
Since max floor progress wasn't public, no one knew if she held Korea's highest.
But it was definitely top-tier globally.
For fun, she'd dropped back to floor 5 once, setting a 5-second record.
Her level was so high compared to the floor's difficulty that it ranked F.
She pondered floor 5 for a while, tilting her head, then shook it off.
"Doesn't make sense."
Even if she went back now, beating that record would be impossible.
If everything aligned perfectly, she might shave the time a bit.
But the rank was the issue.
Unless her level dropped to single digits—which it never would—that rank was unattainable for life.
In other words, no matter how hard Cheon Seyeon tried, this was an impossible feat.
"It's really grinding my gears."
She tsked lightly.
She never bragged outright, but she took immense pride in being a floor 82 clearer.
The confidence that she wouldn't bow to anyone in comparison was part of it.
In fact, thanks to her floor 82 clear and high sync rate, she owned a luxury officetel in Seoul's Hannam-dong, a high-end foreign sports car, and piles of designer goods.
Memories of envying others felt distant in her enviable life.
But now, someone had casually done what even she couldn't.
Watching it made her stomach boil.
Tok. Tok. Tok.
Tapping her mouse with her finger, Cheon Seyeon shrugged.
"But this is probably it, right?"
Similar sentiments filled the comments.
They figured this mystery person's shortest-time update would end at floor 5.
The reason was simple.
Clears via plain monster subjugation ended at floor 5.
From floor 6 on, complex mazes or forest paths appeared, adding navigation elements on top of combat.
No matter the speed or power, that absurd clear time was structurally impossible.
"Huuu."
Cheon Seyeon let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through her hair.
Her gut still churned, but she'd hold it in.
It was just floor 5. Just floor 5.
"Whoever you are, let's say you only outdo me up to floor 5."
She muttered words that wouldn't reach, then turned off the monitor.
She had no doubt.
A situation like this—getting upstaged again—would never happen.
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T/N:
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