When the Tower appeared, and it was discovered that each floor had missions, the Guilds began to cultivate specialists for each floor. It wasn’t difficult. To climb the Tower, one had to complete the ascension mission and then use a Tower Ascension Ticket.
In other words, no matter how many missions you cleared, as long as you didn't tear the ascension ticket, you could remain on that floor forever.
“The floor specialists are highly skilled individuals. After all, you can’t become a specialist with just ordinary talent.”
If that was the case, all that was left was to give a talented Hunter a suitable carrot to make them stay on that floor.
“But if they were truly overflowing with talent, the Guild wouldn’t have left them as floor specialists. Yes, that’s the reality of it. In the end, they had talent, but not the talent to pioneer the Tower.”
However, to speak of the cold reality, that talent was nothing compared to the Frontier Class, who were currently pioneering the Tower, or the Esquire Class, who were preparing to take their place. This was even more true for the 1st floor. After all, wasn't it the stage where the weakest of creatures, goblins, appeared?
The 1st floor specialists of the Comet Guild knew this fact all too well. They knew the difference in talent, and by now, they had fully acknowledged and accepted that fact. They no longer felt any envy, jealousy, or resentment toward the pioneers climbing higher.
“My goodness.”
[You have defeated 99,999 goblins.]
But faced with the result Park Jin-soo had produced, they couldn't help but feel a sense of overwhelming distance. 'Is this even possible?' The talent Park Jin-soo had displayed before them was just that impossibly distant.
It wasn't just a matter of being strong. To begin with, the maximum level one could reach on the 1st floor was level 10, and no matter how strong you got within that limit, it didn't make much of a difference.
Furthermore, the 1st floor specialists were people who possessed a relatively high level of item settings, experience, and status windows for that level range. There was no way there could be a huge difference in their foundations. But Park Jin-soo displayed a level that transcended the dimension and common sense of such specialists.
'He's living in a different concept of time.' It was as if Park Jin-soo’s time flowed differently from others. You could tell just by watching.
For him, the world flowed slowly. That wasn't all. Within that slow world, Park Jin-soo showed what could only be described as the most optimal movements.
While everyone else was fighting a fierce life-or-death battle with the goblins, Park Jin-soo was dealing with them like Neo from The Matrix. And all of this was proven by the number of goblins Park Jin-soo had caught. 'He catches ten for every one we catch.'
Park Jin-soo had turned the other eight people, excluding himself, into mere extras.
“Everyone worked hard! Wow, you guys are really good. I was impressed!”
Park Jin-soo said with a deep smile, his eyes and mouth visible through the blood-red, crimson-stained mask.
“Ah, you worked hard too.”
At the same time, he offered his thanks to Kim Jae-byeong, who had now become a corpse.
“Thanks to you screaming so well, I was able to lure a lot of goblins.”
The corpse of Kim Jae-byeong receiving those thanks was missing a total of twenty fingers and toes.
“It would have been better if you hadn't died of shock midway through.”
Even that was the result of him dying partway through. If not for that, Kim Jae-byeong's corpse would have been in a state that one could not dare to look upon now. At that fact, the remaining eight people felt a chill run down their spines.
Even though they had seen all sorts of terrible things in the absurd and nonsensical space called the Tower, the scene Park Jin-soo had shown them was on a different level. That didn't mean they looked at Park Jin-soo with disgust. On the contrary, everyone looked at him with eyes full of wonder.
'We survived thanks to him.' In the world of the Tower, the one who produces results, the one who allows others to survive, is the greatest existence. In that world of the Tower, it was no exaggeration to say that Park Jin-soo was a god.
To them, Park Jin-soo spoke.
“Now, then, let’s get ready.”
'Right, it's time to go.' The moment they heard his words, the eight survivors steeled their resolve. 'The Floor King.'
If they just caught one more, the nine survivors here would become the first in the Tower’s history to defeat a Floor King. They didn't know exactly what the result would be, but if things went as everyone expected, the people gathered here would be remembered as heroes of human history. Of course, everyone knew.
Hunting the being known as the Floor King would be no easy task. That's why they needed to be prepared. 'It's a good thing I left a will.'
'I've held on for a long time. It's time to die now.' They needed the resolve to willingly run towards death.
To them, Park Jin-soo said.
“Alright. Let’s go back then. Let's tear our Return Tickets.”
“What did you say?”
He was suggesting they give up on challenging the Floor King.
“What do you mean by that?”
Lee Ji-soo immediately shot back a heated question, and at her retort, Park Jin-soo tilted his head.
“What do I mean? I mean let’s go home.”
“No, right now, you mean.”
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to go hunt that Floor King thing like this? When everyone’s tired and starving to death?”
Park Jin-soo continued his explanation.
“We all know the conditions, right? We catch 100,000 goblins, we get a Ticket to Challenge the Floor King. We tear it, and we come back here, and we know how many we need to catch from here. So can't we just challenge it again then?”
As he spoke, Park Jin-soo nudged the corpse of Kim Jae-byeong, sprawled on the ground, with his foot.
“Besides, our plan got messed up because of this bastard when we came in, didn't it? Wouldn't it be better to go out, pick more trustworthy members, and challenge it again? We could prepare more thoroughly, and maybe go out and eat some chicken until we're sick of it.”
There were no objections to his explanation. It was sound reasoning. Hunting 100,000 goblins again was a bit crazy, but it was far more sensible than overexerting themselves to hunt the Floor King in their exhausted state and getting killed.
“And they say you can’t go back once you challenge the Floor King, right? Shouldn't we at least get out and give them this information first?”
Above all, the people gathered here had a duty to deliver this valuable information to the Comet Guild. In truth, there were no more questions after that. Not a single person wanted to die, and Park Jin-soo had given them the perfect signal and justification to flee.
There was no reason to refuse.
“Alright, everyone take out your Return Tickets.”
In front of them, Park Jin-soo tapped his own left chest, then took out the newly generated Return Ticket from there. At his action, everyone else followed suit and took out their Return Tickets.
“On the count of three, everyone tears them. Okay, one, two, three.”
Rip!
And the moment they heard ‘three,’ everyone immediately tore their Return Tickets.
“Chief Secretary, the expedition has returned!”
The moment he heard the sweet news of their return, Kim Jeong-bin immediately put out the electronic cigarette he was holding. However, Kim Jeong-bin’s expression was impassive.
'A failure.'
The goal of this expedition was to defeat the Floor King, and if they had succeeded, an announcement would have gone out to every Hunter in the world. But they had returned without any such announcement? That meant the Floor King raid had failed.
Of course, that didn't mean he was disappointed or in despair. 'At least that's a relief.' Rather, Kim Jeong-bin let out a sigh of relief at the fact that there were returnees.
Having returnees meant they could obtain information. And with information, they could simply try again. So, only one thing was important right now.
“What's the number of returnees?”
Just how much damage had they sustained? Even as he asked the question, Kim Jeong-bin’s expression wasn't good. The fact that so much time had passed since they challenged the Floor King meant the difficulty of the Return Mission was high.
Considering it was an unprecedented challenge that had never been accomplished before, the damage could be uncontrollably large.
“Well. There are seven.”
For that reason, the moment he heard the number, Kim Jeong-bin let out a small sigh of relief.
“Who are the three who didn't come back?”
“That is…”
However, the expression of the subordinate reporting to him was not good.
“Kim Jae-byeong, Lee Ji-soo, and that Park Jin-soo did not return.”
The most important person and the most skilled person had not returned. Kim Jeong-bin, however, was different. His expression didn't harden or change the moment he received the report.
Rather, he knew.
“They intend to catch the Floor King.”
'Wow, they disappear in a strange way.' Park Jin-soo blinked his eyes as he watched the Hunters disappear after pretending to tear their tickets. 'It's really no different from a game.
I don't know who made this, but they must have been dead bored.' Park Jin-soo's eyes soon stopped on one person.
'Huh?'
And then he spoke.
“Ms. Lee Ji-soo, why aren’t you leaving? Hurry up and tear your ticket.”
He spoke to Lee Ji-soo, who hadn't torn her Return Ticket, and at his words, Lee Ji-soo shoved the ticket in her hand right into her item window.
“Stop with the pointless games. I already noticed you were planning to take on the Floor King alone.”
At Lee Ji-soo’s words, Park Jin-soo also shoved his Return Ticket into his Inventory and said.
“Ah, was it that obvious?”
“It wasn't obvious. I just figured that a person like you wouldn’t just go back from here.”
It was just as she said. From the very beginning, Park Jin-soo had no intention of returning. There was no reason to.
He could catch the Floor King by just getting one more, so why would he go back now and wait for the next time? Going through all that trouble was definitely not Park Jin-soo's style, and it seemed that way to Lee Ji-soo as well.
“Sending everyone else back was unexpected, though.”
But the fact that Park Jin-soo had given the others a chance was something even Lee Ji-soo hadn't anticipated. 'To think he was someone who valued human lives so much.'
Of course, at a glance, this was a very heroic and self-sacrificing act, but looking at the life Park Jin-soo had lived, he was by no means a hero or a martyr. He had said it himself several times. He was pissed off that a criminal bastard was walking around in front of him without receiving proper punishment.
So he killed him.
“I had to send them back. It's a dangerous place, isn't it? Where that Floor King thing is.”
Park Jin-soo replied to Lee Ji-soo's unspoken question.
“It would be a hassle if I took everyone to a place like that.”
“What did you say?”
“Huh?”
At Lee Ji-soo's subsequent retort, Park Jin-soo tilted his head and said.
“You saw it, didn't you? How none of them could keep up with my pace. I don't know about when we're just hunting goblins, but when going to hunt a stronger monster, isn't a partner who can't match your pace an obstacle? You knew that too, didn't you, Ms. Lee Ji-soo?”
There was no way Supervisor Lee Ji-soo, who had an eye for gauging Hunters, wouldn't know this obvious fact. So why was she questioning it?
“That is…”
Lee Ji-soo couldn't say anything in response. It was sound reasoning. Park Jin-soo's skills easily surpassed those of specialists who had spent years hunting only goblins on the 1st floor.
It was like comparing someone from a running club at Han River Park who gets told, "Wow, you run like a pro!" to someone who is told, "He's the best marathon runner in Ethiopia!" They were simply on different levels, and it was a major headache for people with such a skill gap to hunt together.
It wasn't a big problem against goblins, but the Floor King was a different story. In the end, those who couldn't keep up with Park Jin-soo's pace would inevitably be taken down by the Floor King. And that wasn't something you could just brush off as 'well, they're dead'.
It would be strange not to be mentally affected after seeing someone you'd shared life-and-death situations with for days get munched on by a monster right in front of your eyes. Above all, having someone who couldn't keep up with your pace loitering around would make the hunt even more difficult.
When there's one mouse, a cat will chase that one mouse, but if there are ten, even the cat itself wouldn't know which one to chase. In short, it meant it was better to eliminate variables. Lee Ji-soo knew this fact better than anyone.
That's why Lee Ji-soo stared at Park Jin-soo, at a loss for words, and Park Jin-soo also stared back at her intently. Their eyes met, and at that point, Lee Ji-soo realized something.
“Huh?”
She realized that the look in Park Jin-soo’s eyes was now saying, 'So the explanation is over, why haven't you torn your ticket, Ms. Lee Ji-soo?'
'This bastard?'
In other words, he was now saying that she, too, didn't match his level and would be a hindrance.
“I'm going with you.”
Her fighting spirit towards the Floor King ignited. At her reaction, Park Jin-soo rolled his eyes a few times, and the moment she saw it, Lee Ji-soo could tell one thing. 'So that guy’s eyes roll around when he's thinking about something.'
One of Park Jin-soo's characteristics.
“Do you have a problem with my skills?”
“Uh…”
Park Jin-soo couldn't answer the question that followed, and seeing that, Lee Ji-soo said.
“If I hold you back and you manage to get out of here alive, I'll grant you any one thing you want. Okay?”
“Okay!”
Park Jin-soo nodded at the deal, and at the same time, he shouted.
“Alright, let's go catch the Floor King now!”
A moment later, the two remaining Hunters heard it.
Kieeeek!
[You have defeated a goblin.]
The scream of the 100,000th goblin. And the moment that death cry echoed, Park Jin-soo could feel it.
“Wow.”
A feeling like someone was gently squeezing his heart with a cold hand. 'Look at this?' His Survival Instinct talent was telling him.
That the Floor King of this place was an extremely threatening existence. It was the same for Lee Ji-soo. Though she didn't have Survival Instinct, she, who had a good eye and an extraordinary intuition, felt it.
'I feel like I can't breathe.' And that sense of crisis grew immense very quickly. Thump, thump, thump, thump!
With heavy footsteps, the Floor King began to run.
'It's coming!'
Towards the direction where Park Jin-soo and Lee Ji-soo were. As the distance closed, the sense of crisis the two felt grew even larger, and soon, they heard it.
[The Floor King, Skull Breaker, has appeared!]
The notification rang out, and the moment she heard it, there was only one thing Lee Ji-soo could say.
“Run away!”
And the moment he heard those words, Park Jin-soo replied.
“I refuse!”
With that answer, Park Jin-soo ran towards the Floor King.