## Chapter 147 – Ascent
The next morning, we began the climb right away.
“Have a good trip!”
“Woojin, be careful!”
After loosening up my wrists and ankles, I started towards the summit.
The terrain was entirely rocky.
It was my first time climbing a mountain like this.
So, it felt somewhat unfamiliar, but in the end, it wasn’t much different from regular hiking.
‘The initial part isn’t too difficult.’
A cool breeze blew, making it feel like a pleasant outing.
The twins often came to play around this area.
But that leisurely hike didn’t last long.
Whoosh-
Suddenly, the wind started to blow.
At first, it felt like, ‘The wind’s a bit strong?’ but the higher I climbed, the more powerful it became.
It blew fiercely, striking my body from all directions.
Swish-
The wind grew even stronger, and at a certain point, it became difficult to keep my balance.
Around that time, while walking alongside the water channel, I found a white mark on the ground.
It looked like it was sprayed with paint, leaving an × mark on the rock floor.
[Someone left a mark. It seems they left it to remember that it’s better to move through the water channel from here.]
‘The wind is definitely too strong to walk.’
Even now, standing straight occasionally made my whole body sway. Going any further on foot might be really dangerous.
‘I might be able to withstand a normal wind, but the problem is the sudden gusts.’
If I lost my balance in that wind, I’d immediately roll down the mountain.
‘There’s no need to not follow the path that a pioneer cleared after trial and error.’
I bought goggles from the [Store] and jumped into the water.
Strangely, the water was deeper than in our settlement, and the current was stronger and more abundant.
Normally, water should become less and shallower as you go upstream, but this place was the opposite.
Feeling the stronger-than-expected current, I pushed against it and went straight up.
‘My stamina has increased a lot.’
+
〈Status〉
Name: Jung Woojin
Strength: 14.2
Agility: 11
Stamina: 228.3
Physical Resistance: 80%
+
I didn’t realize it when I was riding on top of women and shaking my hips all day, but going upstream made it clear.
My stamina was abnormal.
‘I could do this for three days and nights?’
I had so much stamina that I didn’t get tired no matter how much I moved.
Rather, it was frustrating.
I had plenty of stamina, but the speed of movement was slow, so it was frustrating.
‘My strength is too low compared to my stamina.’
Only slightly higher strength than an average man.
Even lower than men who have trained their strength.
So, there was a sense of incongruity.
My body didn’t get tired no matter how much I moved, but the power to push against the current felt frustrating.
‘Let’s get some help from drugs.’
[You have consumed ‘Elixir’.]
『Elixir (100%): Given when daily sales exceed 100 million won. When consumed, all stats increase by 100% for one hour. Can be stacked. Single use.』
An item that can be received as a gift whenever daily sales exceed 100 million won.
I had been saving them because there wasn’t really any use for them, and I had accumulated 139 of them.
[All stats increase by 100% for 1 hour.]
‘What’s the point of saving them? I should use them at times like this.’
Feeling the power surging through my body, I roughly pushed against the current.
With the much faster movement, it was finally fun to move.
Still, climbing the mountain was not easy.
Most women couldn’t even think about it, and even men had to rest several times while climbing.
‘By the way, I should be arriving soon at this rate. Why haven’t I arrived yet?’
It’s already been 3 hours since I started moving along the water channel.
It was said to take 5 hours, and I’ve been climbing non-stop at an overwhelming speed, so I should have arrived by now according to the calculations.
But the water channel still continued.
I took my upper body out of the water and looked up at the upper reaches.
A distant view was visible.
There was still a long way to go.
I don’t know how much is left. The clouds, or rather the fog in the middle of the mountain, obscured the view above.
‘I definitely haven’t passed the summit.’
I looked down.
Maybe there was an error in the information.
Instead of going all the way to the summit, there might be a flatland or basin in the middle that could be used as a base.
‘…I don’t see any suitable place.’
I looked back at the path I had taken, but I didn’t see such a place.
Swish-
‘Crap.’
I quickly bent down and braced myself in the water against the fierce gust of wind from behind.
‘The wind is really strong up here. I almost got grabbed by the scruff of my neck and thrown down there.’
It was only because of my strength that I didn’t fly away and held onto the rock, but other people would have been swept away in an instant.
It was definitely not a normal wind.
It was strange.
A fierce gust of wind was swirling around the mountain as if protecting it.
I peeked my head out of the water and watched the fierce wind for a moment, then turned my gaze back to the upper reaches.
‘Then what’s the problem?’
The way to find the answer to the problem is simple.
Go back to the starting point and look again.
I opened the [Encyclopedia] and went back to the past.
To the time when I went to the entrance of the rocky mountain with Yuhana and looked at the records.
‘Hmm?’
And while looking at each item, I found an error.
『However, the road is rough, and there is always a strong wind, making it difficult to stand, and it is steep. To avoid the wind, you have to swim up the carved water channel for 5 hours. But the current is so strong that even a strong man finds it very difficult.』
The number ‘4’ was subtly left in front of 5 hours.
I thought it was just a trace caused by weathering, but on closer inspection, it was 4.
In other words, it would take a whopping 45 hours to go up the water channel to reach the summit.
‘It’s understandable why even an adult man would find it difficult.’
I think I know now why he hesitated to choose the option of going to the summit.
Purely in numerical terms, it’s two days.
If you calculate rest time, etc., it means you have to climb for 3-4 days with a tight schedule, depending on the case.
It was a difficulty that even an adult man would be afraid of.
Of course, it was not a story that applied to me.
‘I have to go back quickly and take care of the girls’ pussies and asses. Let’s finish it today and go back.’
Thinking of the women who were eagerly waiting for their master to return, I pushed up with strength.
That’s how I reached the fog in the middle of the mountain.
And as expected, it began to become clear that it was 45 hours.
There were traces of people.
Backpacks, radios, rifles, etc.
Various items were abandoned by their owners and were sadly enduring the passage of time by the waterside.
‘Did they throw it away in the middle because it was heavy?’
It wasn’t just things that were left behind.
Skeletons were also found.
The remains of people, which had been found one or two at a time, suddenly increased, and at some point, about twenty were found at once.
The place was surrounded by high rocks.
It blocked the wind blowing around, so it was a stable place to come out of the water and rest.
‘This isn’t the summit that the recorder left behind, is it?’
I looked up at the upper reaches. There was still a way to go.
However….
‘It’s almost like a waterfall.’
The final steep slope remained until the summit.
Even an adult man would not find it easy to climb.
‘In short, the people here are those who failed to reach the summit and were dropped out.’
I carefully went out of the water and looked at the skeletons.
There were various skeletons.
I thought there were only adult men, but that wasn’t the case.
Those who fell here before us seemed to have better teamwork than us.
Some had very long hair, and some had very small bones.
That means there were kids too.
I picked up the bones one by one and checked their condition.
[Corpse that died 8 years ago.]
‘8 years… it’s been a long time. It’s somewhat different from something that’s less than a year old.’
This was the second time I had seen human bones.
I had seen the math teacher’s a few months ago.
‘Back then, my heart was pounding and I was surprised.’
But now that I’m indifferent, I guess humans are creatures of adaptation.
As I examined the bones one by one, the [Encyclopedia] gave me more information about them.
[Cause of death: Starvation]
The cause of death was mostly predictable.
[Cause of death: Hypothermia]
If you can’t eat properly and rest in a place like this with a wet body, you’ll get hypothermia right away.
Even in the hot summer, the wind chill on the top of the mountain is low.
But spending the dawn in a place like this?
If you fall asleep wrong, you’ll go quickly.
“Hmm. This is….”
I frowned as I looked at the skeleton.
[Cause of death: Homicide]
[Corpse damage: Damaged with something sharp and heated with fire]
The human desire for survival is strong.
So is the desire for food, which is directly related to it.
Maybe if we were in the same situation without any ability, some of us would have done this.
‘Some might have done that during the typhoon.’
I took my eyes off the skeletons that weren’t wearing any clothes. There was no need to see more.
Instead, I looked more closely at the skeletons wearing clothes.
From military uniforms to suits to tank tops, they were wearing quite a variety of clothes.
And among those old clothes, there was one thing that stood out.
A very small child was wearing expensive clothes, and there was a pattern embroidered on the handkerchief in his hand.
‘Is it a company trademark? It’s too fancy and familiar for that.’
Perhaps because the student body of the International High School was so unique, it taught slightly different things than general high schools.
In economics class, we memorized each company’s trademarks or logos and information about the company.
In world history class, we studied the background and growth process of major families or companies.
The curriculum itself was all focused on that.
It was a pattern that was quite familiar to my eyes after going through that process.
‘Where did I see it?’
As I thought about it, the [Encyclopedia] gave me the answer, judging that I wouldn’t be able to come up with the answer myself.
[Luzgard family crest]
***
Luzgard family.
An internationally renowned financial family that is economically prominent, comparable to the Shinyuri Shinyejin twins’ family, a major European family.
The wealthiest and most secretive family in the world.
A place where official measurement is not even possible because the property is so large and scattered in various ways.
Some say that the family is manipulating the current world economy from behind.
[Remains of Cesar Luzgard.]
[Heir to the Luzgard family who disappeared from Earth 10 years ago.]
This confirmed that the incident 10 years ago was related to this world.
I don’t know if ‘that boy’ was working on it at the time, like when I was, but that didn’t matter to me.
‘It’ll be useful to keep it.’
Maybe it could be a pretty good link when I go back to Earth later.
I took the car out of the inventory and took Cesar’s remains.
And I stood in front of the last gate and looked up at it.
Now is the last height.
The summit was just up this cliff-like waterfall.
I put on climbing gloves suitable for rock climbing and grabbed the rocks tightly with both hands and went up against the water.
‘Now is the best. It’s not boring and it’s fun.’
I had a lot of fun with rock climbing for the first time in my life.
Of course, I used to do sports climbing often when I was in International High School.
It was a facility that had everything so that there was no sport that I couldn’t do, and it was a place that made me do everything.
That’s why I was able to enjoy it easily even though it was my first rock climbing.
Of course, the biggest reason is this overflowing strength.
‘It’s almost over.’
I don’t know how high this place is, but the clouds were already under my feet.
The weather is getting cooler.
The time is 3 p.m. I left at 7 a.m., so I moved for about 8 hours.
And the end of all that was beginning to be seen.
I was about to reach the summit, having traveled in just 8 hours the distance that others would take 45 hours.
‘I used 8 elixirs, but at this point, it’s not a waste. I can check the top and go back to the kids today.’
Thinking of going back and having sex with the kids as soon as possible, I pulled up the last spurt.
And finally.
Thud.
‘Arrival.’
I put my hand on the edge of the summit.
I had finally reached the highest point in this world.
Perhaps that’s why I felt a strange sense of accomplishment.
Curiosity too.
It was the moment when I was about to stick my head out of the water and pull my upper body over it to see what the top of the mountain was like.
Click.
Suddenly, a gun barrel appeared in front of me.
It aimed at my forehead and fired without hesitation.
“!!”
It had a silencer, so it sounded like air was escaping, but it was a gun.
My head was immediately thrown back and I was swept away by the water and fell down the waterfall.
“…….”
I floated quietly in the water, and after confirming that it was covered in fog, I grabbed the wall and hung on.
And I burst out laughing.
“…Shooting from the start. This welcome is too much.”
In fact, I could have responded right away.
The fact that all stats increase by 100% means that agility also increases by that much, and agility literally means that movement becomes faster.
According to the laws of physics, increasing strength should increase speed, but agility is not.
It gets strangely faster, deviating from the laws of physics.
It’s as if I’m the only one in this world who’s fast-forwarding.
So I could have taken the gun and subdued the opponent, but I didn’t.
‘I won’t die from a gun anyway.’
I just waited until the end to see how it would turn out.
And the opponent moved.
Instead of threatening me or asking me something, he suddenly fired a gun.
It means that he will treat me as an enemy regardless of who I am.
I checked my forehead, which was not even scratched, and loosened my neck from side to side.
‘Well, thanks to that, it’s easier for me to respond. I had to conquer this island anyway, but I was worried about how to treat the natives who suddenly popped out.’
But he shot me from the start.
It was even better. I had a reason to trample on the opponent’s camp with peace of mind.
“Especially the person who shot me just now. It was a blonde female soldier in her mid-thirties, but well, that’s good.”
Let’s eat a white horse once besides Seohee.
