## Chapter 243 – 243. Tutorial Floor (15)
#243. Tutorial Floor (15)
Administrators are those who carry out the missions assigned by the Tower.
They exist for the Tower’s balance and the Constellations’ amusement, such as selecting player candidates or testing players trying to climb the Tower.
The raggedy guy I met on the sixth basement floor and the rabbit doll I met on the Tutorial Floor belonged to that group.
“W, what is this?!!!”
The rabbit guy, who hadn’t shown his face even once except for the first day, finally popped out.
His flustered appearance was quite a sight to see, but I didn’t have the leisure to keep watching.
Maintaining and controlling the fire was a task that required a considerable amount of concentration.
As I said before, the trees in this forest are basically non-flammable. Even if a fire starts, it only causes a momentary combustion reaction and doesn’t spread to the surroundings.
In order to set fire to a forest made of such trees, magic power must act as a flammable gas.
If I were to stop supplying magic power, the fire would go out before long, and then the monsters gathered around would rush to the camp all at once.
Even if that happened, protecting the three wouldn’t be too difficult.
But casualties within the camp would be unavoidable.
I wouldn’t care too much if that happened, but to make a good impression on my prospective clan members, I had to avoid it as much as possible.
I reduced the number of monsters so that the survivors in the camp could handle them.
Black flames filled all directions.
It was a flame I was handling, but the more I looked at it, the more I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was vicious.
The wildly burning black flames were incinerating monsters and killing the earth.
It was as if the flame itself had a will, using the corpses of monsters as fuel to inflate its size.
It was like a fragment of hell that had descended into the world.
「Black Flame
Category: Authority
Rank: C
A flame with a faint divine power.」
It didn’t look like a flame imbued with divine power at all.
I’d believe it if it were demonic energy instead.
It felt like the fire element I was handling was being covered in black. Thanks to that, it became as strong as the lightning element, but it also became more difficult to control.
If I didn’t have experience handling the lightning element, I would have struggled for a while.
“H, hey. You!!”
Just when I was adjusting the flames to make the monsters rush to the camp, I heard an unpleasantly shrill voice.
As expected, it was the rabbit doll, the administrator of the Tutorial Floor.
He seemed urgent.
But I didn’t feel the need to answer. When I ignored him, he got angry and distorted his face fiercely.
But an doll is just an doll.
He wasn’t threatening at all.
“Hoo… Since you’re an ignorant human, I’ll have to show great generosity. Um, your name is Kang Hyun-woo?”
The situation in the camp could best be described as fierce.
The screams echoing from all directions were desperate.
Yoo Ah-rin and Baek Ji-hyuk, including the combat team, were protecting the survivors in the camp and steadily reducing the number of monsters.
On the other hand, Lucifer, assisted by Lee Se-rin, continued a one-sided massacre.
Every time she swung her sword, a spectacular sight of monsters’ heads flying off unfolded.
“Okay, Kang Hyun-woo. I know you’ve been hiding your skills. I don’t particularly like humans, but I wouldn’t fail to give preferential treatment to someone with ability.”
I carefully watched the surrounding situation and gradually reduced the range of the fire.
Those who were mindlessly hunting monsters might not know, but the camp was in a precarious situation right now.
Even if the number of monsters was increasing, they were all breaking through the walls made of flames and rushing towards the camp.
This was a clear anomaly.
No matter how much they were monsters, they were still in the category of living things.
And one of the most basic instincts of living things is the desire to survive.
To throw themselves into the flames just because of a provocation skill?
If that were possible, hunters with provocation skills would all be the most important people protected by the state.
“Well… I don’t like that your traits and skills are all D-grade, but your magic power itself seems to be high, so it’s not too bad. There are few mages on the market, so there must be many places that want you.”
If this continued, the camp might be swept away at once by the rushing monsters.
To prevent such a situation, it was better to concentrate firepower around the camp rather than covering a wide area.
“Don’t ignore me!!”
An aura of killing intent that almost disrupted my concentration suddenly enveloped me.
Reflexively turning my head, I saw the administrator there, his face so distorted that it was hard to call him an doll anymore.
“How dare you ignore me not once, but four times, you human?! I was being nice, so you thought you were something-“
“Shut up.”
I instantly increased the output of magic.
At this rate, I wouldn’t have to worry about monsters rushing in for a while.
Because now I had to deal with the rabbit who was trying to cause a ruckus because he wasn’t getting attention.
“…Looks like you want to die.”
-!!
The killing intent from before was child’s play. The air suddenly became heavy and began to oppress me.
As expected, even if his appearance was that of a rabbit doll, an administrator was an administrator.
“Don’t be cocky, human. If I wanted to, I could kill you right now…”
“Try it.”
“…What?”
I took a step towards the administrator.
“Try killing me if you can.”
“…”
He was silent.
What was in his eyes as he looked at me was nothing but bewilderment.
Only then did the expression of the guy who had been looking down on me all along crack.
“How long did you think such threats would work?”
Administrators exert absolute power under the causality of the system.
But they are also strongly restricted by causality.
Of course, administrators can’t just kill player candidates indiscriminately. A test with unbalanced fairness cannot be established.
“From the start, the woman you killed on the first day wasn’t a real human, was she?”
「’The Saintess of Uruk’ is curious about your statement.」
“If an administrator intervenes and kills a player candidate, the test won’t be established. A test where the prerequisite of fairness is broken cannot exist. But if you just stand by, it will be difficult to control, so you planted a fake in advance and detonated it at the right moment, didn’t you?”
“H, how did you know…?”
「’The Dancing Destroyer’ bursts into hearty laughter.」
「’The Saintess of Uruk’ is impressed by your reasoning.」
「’The One Who Lives in the Swamp’ mocks the administrator.」
The flustered administrator took a step back. Should I say he flew back in this situation?
Of course, this wasn’t reasoning or anything. Lucifer had just given me a hint.
Of course, I thought it was strange even before I heard it.
I couldn’t find the fairness that the Tower spoke of in the unjustly killed middle-aged woman.
“If you’re an outsider, shut up and watch.”
“T, this…!!”
Bang!
The administrator, unable to contain his anger, broke an innocent tree and trembled.
“…You’re going to regret this.”
I gave the guy who was making ridiculous threats the middle finger.
The administrator, who glared at me as if he would kill me until the end, soon disappeared in a puff of smoke.
I had made an enemy of the administrator, but I wasn’t worried. If my guess was correct, there wouldn’t even be a need to.
“S, save me!”
“Kyaaak!”
“Maintain the formation if you don’t want to die!”
“I, it’s breaking through!”
I didn’t have the luxury to think deeply about what had just happened.
Because the hunt wasn’t over yet.
In the short time I had been distracted, the number of monsters rushing to the camp had increased significantly.
Fortunately, Lucifer and Lee Se-rin were safe. Rather, it was as if they had warmed up, and their hunting speed was faster than before.
On the other hand, Yoo Ah-rin seemed quite precarious. It seemed like there had been quite a few casualties in the meantime.
I didn’t care about the other guys, but Yoo Ah-rin was an exception. She was a clan member I had recruited with a contract, so I couldn’t let her die in a place like this.
Bang! Kwaang!
A fireball that cut through the air swept through the monsters around her.
At that moment, I met the eyes of Yoo Ah-rin, who was panting roughly.
She briefly bowed her head towards me and immediately continued hunting. Her sword was like a blue dragon soaring through the heavens and the earth.
‘Is it Variable Sword?’
The monsters, unable to respond to the ever-changing sword paths, were helpless against her sword.
Azure Dragon Thirteen Swords.
It was a sword technique worthy of its name.
But the more I looked at it, the more I couldn’t shake the feeling that something important was missing. Of course, I didn’t know what it was since I didn’t even know the gyeol of martial arts.
I was curious because it was the first time I had seen a martial art that used Variable Sword, but I didn’t get distracted by it.
After all, there would be plenty of opportunities to ask after this was over.
At least, now wasn’t the time to satisfy my curiosity.
How much time had passed in the midst of those desperate screams and explosions?
When the flames that covered all directions subsided and monsters no longer rushed in.
“…It’s dazzling.”
In the distance, dawn was breaking.
After the tutorial started, the seventh morning had arrived.
***
Of course, the hunt wasn’t over just because it was dawn.
As much as they lacked WP, the survivors dragged their tired bodies into the forest. Because the tutorial ended at noon.
It was obvious, but I didn’t need to do that.
「WP Owned: 76,127」
I had gathered about 6,700 WP through hunting in one night. The remaining 6,000 WP was from donations.
Adding the WP that the two had gathered, it exceeded 100,000.
“Good job.”
I approached Lee Se-rin, who was sitting on the floor.
She was on the verge of exhaustion because she had used too much magic power. I handed her holy water.
“T, tha… ah…!”
As if her tension had been released, Lee Se-rin almost dropped the holy water bottle. I had no choice but to feed it to her.
Lucifer frowned as if she didn’t like the sight.
“You’ll get wrinkles if you do that…”
“I won’t.”
I had a conversation with the prickly Lucifer and enjoyed subtle skinship with Lee Se-rin.
“Hmm?”
Someone was approaching.
It was Yoo Ah-rin.
She was limping, as if she was in bad condition. Well, it was natural since she had been wielding her sword against monsters all night.
In fact, she was doing well considering her circumstances.
A total of 23 people survived when the day broke, with 4 people dying overnight and several others seriously injured.
“Why?”
“…I wanted to express my gratitude.”
Yoo Ah-rin’s eyes, who was limping on one leg and fidgeting with her swollen wrist, were not much different from when I first met her.
I liked her calmly sunken black eyes.
Although her clothes were rags, if she was pretty, all the trivial problems would be solved.
“You don’t have to worry about it.”
“But…”
“I didn’t help you for free anyway, did I?”
Ding-
「The fulfillment of Article 15 has been confirmed.」
「The contract has been concluded.」
With the screen that appeared at the right time, a different light appeared in Yoo Ah-rin’s eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she bowed her head towards me.
“…I’m lacking, but please take care of me in the future.”
“What should I call you in the future?”
Yoo Ah-rin, who was sipping the holy water I gave her, asked with an innocent expression.
Well, there’s nothing more important than titles in human relationships.
So I had something prepared in advance.
“Call me Master.”
“…Pardon?”
“I said I’d teach you martial arts.”
Of course, I don’t have the ability to teach anyone yet, but everyone has a first time.
And for some reason, I was confident.
I was confident that I would become a top martial arts instructor.
“Should I call you Master too…?”
“You don’t have to, sis.”
It was a bit much to be treated with honorifics by someone older than me. Is it because the genes of the Eastern Land of Courtesy are flowing?
“B, but…”
I hugged Lee Se-rin’s shoulder, who was looking sullen.
She flinched.
“I like it when you call my name, sis.”
“…”
Lee Se-rin nodded without saying a word.
I secretly touched her earlobe, which was flushed red, so that Lucifer wouldn’t see.
***
Bang!
The wall was dented by a fist like a cute cotton swab. It was the residence of Lepupu, the administrator of the Tutorial Floor.
“How dare, how dare a human…!!”
Even though he had made a mess of his residence because he couldn’t contain his anger, his emotions showed no signs of calming down.
Rather, it was burning more fiercely like a fireplace with firewood in it.
The insult he received from a mere human had shattered his pride.
“…I’m going to kill him.”
As Kang Hyun-woo said, it was impossible for an administrator to touch a player candidate.
Of course, if it was a normal method.
It wasn’t just the Constellations who could use WP to escape the restrictions of causality.
Although the thought of using the WP he had worked so hard to collect to take revenge on a mere human made his insides twist.
But he had no intention of giving up.
‘Anyway, I can collect WP again through a deal with ‘them’.’
Lepupu’s eyes were stained with bloodlust from the madness of revenge.
But his revenge would never be realized.
Even until the moment when the lifespan of the universe runs out.
Saaa-
At that moment, an unknown darkness swirled in his residence.
A strange emotion settled in Lepupu’s eyes, who was urgently guarding his surroundings.
It was fear.
The jet-black darkness gradually took shape and soon arrived in front of Lepupu.
“Y, you are…”
The alien feeling that didn’t feel any vitality and the coldness that made his hands and feet feel cold caused an instinctive rejection.
Just like he was a mid- to high-level administrator, there was a clear hierarchy among the administrators.
From the lowest-level administrators without ego to the high-level administrators with a status comparable to that of a Constellation, and further to the 10 highest-level administrators called ‘Decagram’, who are called the limbs of the system.
The one who appeared in front of him was a member of Decagram, the grim reaper who oversees the death of all transcendents in the Tower, and the administrator of the sixth basement floor, Mor.
The fact that he had revealed himself meant only one thing.
‘S, surely…’
It was to announce that the judgment of the system, which is more stern than anything in all creation, had been handed down.
