Out of the fifteen people we encountered, only four possessed combat-oriented talents.
Whether they deliberately concealed their abilities to avoid being forced into battle, I couldn’t say.
At roughly one-fourth, the proportion was lower than I had anticipated.
Furthermore, every one of them was a ‘Tower Abandoner’ (TL Note: A term for those who gave up on climbing the Tower during the tutorial), having exited the tutorial without ever ascending the first floor of the Tower.
Now, a Gate — a direct threat to their lives — had appeared before those who had forsaken the Tower to avoid risking their lives.
“I won’t ask you to fight directly by my side. However, if a monster suddenly appears behind us, or if any slip past me, I expect you to defend yourselves.”
To those four, I distributed ordinary-grade, reliable weapons: swords and spears.
It was fortunate that I had excitedly roamed the tenth floor on the day my inventory first appeared, stuffing it with various miscellaneous items.
After all, none of the weapons I typically wield—my whip, boomerang, or yoyo—are suitable for a novice.
“Alright then, let’s move.”
I was hardly an elementary school student.
Yet, playing the role of a ‘neighborhood boss’ (TL Note: A Korean term for a child who leads a group of friends in playtime) felt strangely peculiar.
Even I knew next to nothing about this Gate.
“Excuse me, but what’s your name?”
“Just call me Leader.”
“Leader. I may not possess combat talents, but I can fight. Would it be possible for me to receive a weapon as well?”
The firefighter stepped forward.
Given his profession, he likely maintained a consistent level of physical fitness, and his tall stature suggested excellent physical conditioning, making him perfectly capable of holding his own.
I issued him a weapon as well.
“What about me, then?”
Young-soo inquired.
Unlike the firefighter, Young-soo was merely tall; he was scrawny and clearly someone who had built a wall between himself and exercise, making him seem ill-suited for combat.
Moreover,
“You’re going to stick right behind me.”
Leaning close to his ear, I whispered softly.
“Unlike the others, you’re my top priority for protection.”
Originally, my mother was supposed to be the one caught in this Gate.
So, until we escape this Gate, Young-soo was my mother.
‘Waaah. Mommy. Feed me.’
“If you clumsily wield a weapon and cause trouble, it’ll be even harder for me to protect you.”
“Oh, alright.”
He flustered again, his breathing becoming erratic.
‘Didn’t he know that unwavering resolve and a mind like still water (TL Note: ‘Myeonggyeongjisoo’ refers to a calm, clear mind, often used in martial arts contexts) were the most crucial aspects of combat?’
‘Such a rookie.’
“Seriously, let’s go.”
Pulling the wrist of the bewildered and dazed Young-soo, I quickly made him follow behind me before setting off.
A labyrinthine corridor, identical to the one we had seen earlier, stretched endlessly before us.
At the first fork in the path we encountered, a woman stepped forward.
“I’ll mark our path so we don’t get lost!”
It seemed she was an art student, as she possessed a can of lacquer spray.
She used the spray to draw X-marks on both walls of the path we had traversed, leaving a clear trail.
“Excellent. If anyone believes they can contribute to our survival, please step forward like her. We are, after all, bound by a shared fate.”
“Th-thank you.”
Upon receiving my praise, the woman appeared overjoyed, almost to the point of collapse.
‘Was she so immersed in the situation that she felt like a soldier praised by their commander?’
As we chose the right-hand corridor and proceeded, I sensed the approach of multiple flying entities from a distance.
The sound of wings beating echoed from far down the bent section of a T-junction.
“There are enemies. Flying monstrous entities. More than five of them. Stop here, everyone, and wait.”
To secure a safe distance, I halted the group and advanced alone for about twenty meters.
“You, however, need to follow.”
Correction.
I brought Young-soo with me, advancing twenty meters to stand in the middle of the T-shaped junction.
‘Didn’t I say it’s safest by my side?’
‘Couldn’t he understand that simple sentence?’
“They’re here.”
Monster bats swooped down upon us.
These were not cute, ordinary-sized monster bats, but gigantic ones, easily three meters tall.
With such massive bodies propelled by their wings, the sound of their beating was akin to helicopter propellers spinning.
The corridor was wide enough, so I drew my whip.
I was reminded of the lament of the ‘Gimugal-ler’ (TL Note: A user from the Gimugyeol Gallery, a Korean online community) who had ‘sleeve-stuffed’ (TL Note: ‘Somaeneokgi’ refers to secretly placing something into someone’s sleeve, often used humorously for giving an item) this whip to me.
[I just use a whip as a weapon, but people keep mistaking me for a pervert.]
[It’s so unfair, I could die T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T]
In my opinion, the issue was likely less about the weapon itself and more about their demeanor or choice of attire.
After all, it seemed impossible to perceive such a fearsome weapon as merely ‘sexy’ solely due to its image.
*CRACK!*
The whip was the first weapon used by humanity to break the sound barrier.
The weapon I wielded was a destructive monster-killer, three meters long, with a thick iron plate embedded at its tip.
With every swing, a sonic boom erupted—the unmistakable sound of a fighter jet passing by, proof of its supersonic speed.
*CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!*
An unaware listener might easily assume bombs were continuously detonating.
And the results were much the same.
The bats’ bodies didn’t just break; they exploded.
Flesh fragments splattered everywhere.
The stench of blood mingled with the sound of explosions.
“Kyaaak!”
Even from a safe twenty-meter distance, merely watching me dispatch the monsters caused the women to scream.
The sight of monster flesh tearing open and spouting fountains of blood must have been utterly horrifying.
“It’s probably not my place to say, given I’m the one constantly detonating bombs, but making loud noises isn’t ideal.”
‘It’ll draw aggro.’
‘From the monsters lurking in the labyrinth.’
Having dispatched the five monster bats, I gestured to the people behind me.
“Let’s move quickly.”
“I can’t go!”
Seeing the giant bat corpses piled like small mountains, two of the women’s legs gave out, and they collapsed.
‘I was the one fighting, so why are the ones who only watched collapsing?’
‘Should I just leave them behind?’
The annoyance I felt was akin to eating a plain steamed sweet potato without water, when even blending it into a latte wouldn’t have been enough to satisfy. (TL Note: A Korean idiom expressing extreme frustration or a situation being far worse than it needs to be, like a difficult task made harder by unnecessary complications or lack of preparation.)
I wasn’t particularly patient with such things.
‘Yes, I’ll abandon them.’
The moment I made that decision, the firefighter stepped forward.
“I’ll carry them!”
‘But there are two women?’
With astonishing strength and stamina, the firefighter hoisted both women onto his shoulders, one on each side.
‘Not just his strength, but how broad were his shoulders?’
‘If I were an ordinary woman, I might have fallen for him.’
“What about the spray?”
“Here…”
One of the women whose legs had given out was the art student I had praised earlier.
Fortunately, a perceptive young man took the spray and left the X-mark.
And so, we pressed onward.
“You know, back when I was in the military, there was this time a wild boar stepped on a landmine and exploded…”
As we passed the bat corpses, a middle-aged man (TL Note: ‘Ajjae’ is a casual, sometimes slightly derogatory, term for a middle-aged man in Korean), seemingly in his fifties, abruptly began recounting a military anecdote that nobody was curious about.
‘If you’re going to open your “story bag” (TL Note: A Korean idiom referring to someone who tells many stories), why not do something impressive first?’
Neither I nor anyone else reacted.
The middle-aged man then addressed Young-soo.
“Student, it looks like you’ll be enlisting soon. Shouldn’t you exercise a bit more? To protect the country, you need a strong body!”
“Yes, I understand.”
‘Why is he even humoring him?’
‘He’s too kind for his own good.’
“Well, at least you won’t need to protect your girlfriend. She’s far too strong.”
‘…’
‘My concentration is getting broken.’
‘Because of this guy.’
“Could you please be quiet? If I can’t hear monsters approaching because of your incessant chatter, will you take responsibility?”
“Tsk, tsk. So prickly. I was just giving a compliment.”
After walking for a considerable time, we reached a three-way intersection.
Including the fourth path we had come from, it was a cross-shaped junction.
“Retreat! Everyone, fall back! Wait behind me!”
Monsters were swarming in from all three directions, excluding the one we had come from.
We needed to move quickly.
‘This should hold the enemies back effectively.’
I took out my yoyo and set a trap in one of the paths.
A prison of string, difficult to breach.
Then, drawing my sword, I collapsed a section of one wall.
In this manner, I blocked two directions.
‘Only one direction remained.’
I prepared to face the monsters approaching from the front.
However, I also sensed the presence of monsters approaching from far behind us, from the direction we had originally come.
“Is this a cockroach nest? The number of monsters is endless.”
This was beyond my limits.
I could no longer be solely responsible.
“Those who received weapons! Prepare for combat in the rear! Enemies are coming from behind!”
“What did you say?!”
One man screamed, clearly not having anticipated actually fighting.
I had no time to wait.
“Hey, just follow me closely and try not to get hurt!”
After instructing Young-soo, I sprinted forward.
It was a judgment call: rather than waiting to be surrounded, I would advance, break through, then return to finish off the rest.
However, the man who had received a weapon made an impulsive move. “That way is safer!” he cried. “I’m going that way!” He then dashed towards one of the partially blocked paths, convinced it offered a better escape.
The problem was that neither the collapsed wall nor the yoyo-string barrier I had created was perfectly sealed.
Both had gaps large enough for someone to squeeze through if they tried hard enough.
A monster, bursting forth from beyond that flimsy barrier, killed the ‘trolling’ man (TL Note: ‘Troll-han’ refers to someone who acts foolishly or makes detrimental choices, often hindering a group, similar to internet trolling).
“Ugh, what an idiot.”
‘If someone dies after all this, there’s nothing more I can do.’
‘Yes! Now *this* is an enemy worth carving up!’
‘I’ve been waiting for this!’
The attack power of Yodo, the Ghost Slasher, was formidable.
The enemy that charged me head-on was none other than an ogre, armed with iron plating.
‘Just imagine how much its armor alone would fetch at a junkyard?’
‘It must weigh a ridiculous amount.’
This monster, even larger than the giant monster bats, stood over five meters tall and wore armor, making it formidable enough to grapple with a tank.
‘Of course, it would still die if hit by a cannon.’
*Swooosh—*
As everyone knows, a high school girl wielding a katana can easily destroy a tank.
‘A katana-wielding high school girl with only one month left until her expiration date.’
‘Calculate the number of times a sword must be swung to split an ogre in half.’
‘The answer is one.’
‘Because a single stroke is sufficient to divide an object into two.’
“Again, maintain a reasonable distance and follow me!”
Fortunately, this particular enemy seemed to be a boss-level monster, as it appeared alone, with no additional monsters accompanying it.
I returned to the spot where the ‘trolling’ man had died and slaughtered the enemies that had breached the string barrier and the collapsed wall.
There was no time to lose.
‘Busy, busy, busy.’
“Kyaaaah!”
“Firefighter!”
But this time, wails of distress erupted from the opposite direction.
The firefighter, who had charged headfirst into the enemies, contrary to the ‘trolling’ man who tried to escape alone, appeared to be severely wounded.
‘I apologize for not having learned the art of clone-jutsu!’
‘If only I had about twenty bodies, I could save these people no matter what foolish things they did, couldn’t I?’
In a rush, I threw my boomerang, blowing apart the monster rat that had bitten the firefighter.
‘If this isn’t a Weapon Master, then what is?’
“Seriously, this is insane.”
‘Who in their right mind pulls out a phone to record a video in this situation?’
‘Are they mentally ill?’
‘Fight with your bare hands if you have to!’
I hadn’t given him a weapon.
But the enemy was just a rat the size of a small dog, so why was he just watching instead of fighting?
“Mister! Don’t you dare die!”
‘I consider the death of that ‘trolling’ bastard to be his own karma.’
‘But I absolutely cannot tolerate this mister dying.’
‘If that mister dies, I won’t let it go.’
