novelTutorial 100th floor (1)
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Chapter 295 - Tutorial 100th floor (1)
Tutorial 100th floor (1)
"Wuuu.. wuuu..."
Tears dripped down Kirikiri's chin, and I could see the sorrow on her face. Regardless of whether I cared or not, I felt troubled.
Wouldn't anyone else feel the same? When a person you know cries right next to your ear, your mind is bound to be disturbed.
The reason why Kirikiri was crying is simple. It was for a cake, as usual. I bought her a cake as I'd always done, but this time she was annoyed by Yong-yong, Hochi, and even Seregia, who was rare to see.
Naturally, the amount of cake was too small for the four. Kirikiri played a trick, thinking about how Yong-yong and Hochi ate the cake every time. She was supposed to take her share of the cake in advance.
Unfortunately, Seregia took what was in her hands, an act that even Ho Chi and Yong-Yong wouldn't stoop to. Thanks to that, Kirikiri came to me and started crying.
I didn't need to figure out why she was crying next to me. Yong-yong approached Kirikiri. He looked restless, an expression of regret plastered on his face, probably due to him eating a little bit of the cake.
In the end, I bought another cake to settle the situation.
Kirikiri stopped crying and grinned."Thank you!"
Surprised by Kirikiri's instant change in attitude, Yong-yong's eyes widened, and I placed him on my lap. Then I looked at Seregia, who was approaching Kirikiri.
"Seregia, it's not good to eat what's in other people's hands." Seregia glared at me fiercely for a moment and then disappeared.
I felt like I'd seen a ghost filled with resentment.
"Why glare like that at me?"
"Scary, " I mumbled to myself, but then I heard Kirikiri talking. Was she humming about her victory against Seregia?
"Amazing."
It was weird. Why was Kirikiri calling her amazing? Though, I wasn't surprised by that. I did feel that Seregia was amazing.
The act alone of showing up and disappearing in this area, which was practically Kirikiri's territory, proved it.
"I think she's hiding in such a way that we can't notice."
"Yes, " Kirikiri mumbled incoherently. She then took a big bite of the cake and continued, "It's amazing. Very good."
I nodded. Again, I was amazed, too. Even I wasn't confident in copying Seregia's tricks. Perhaps no god would be able to imitate them either.
Seregia's appearance and disappearance were something that no one could reach even if they had enough power.
"The God of Slowness would love it."
"God of Slowness? Doesn't the God of Slowness value the proof of existence?"
Kirikiri shook her head."The God of Slowness doesn't judge directly. Everything is relative to him."
The more I knew, the more complicated it got. What if the present me got to re-experience the 40th floor, where I had known nothing about the God of Slowness?
I might get a glimpse of something I never noticed back then.
"How was the 90th floor?" Kirikiri changed the subject.
"It wasn't good." I could answer with certainty. It wasn't good.
"After the 90th floor are the stages that require you to demonstrate your ability and strength, so it will be fine."
After the 90th floor, the stages needed us to prove ourselves, irrespective of the powers obtained from the Tutorial. They were stages that tested how much I'd grown, and how complete and confident I was.
It was already a meaningless test for me. Even if I excluded all the stats and skills gained from level-up and clear rewards, there would be little change to my total amount of power.
But the intentions of the stages were clear. The Tutorial gave the challengers a gun, but it didn't want a challenger who just knew how to pull the trigger. It required them to have a minimum level of aim and to keep maintaining their gun.
That was why it checked my ability at the end of the stage: to check if I passed the minimum standards.
Not only the Hell difficulty, but the latter half of all stages were like this.
There was a challenger of Easy Difficulty, who climbed the floors only with the Order of Vigilance's support and failed to pass the stages in the second half.
"But doesn't this overlap with the 35th-floor stage?"
The 35th-floor of Hell Difficulty level was a stage where all the abilities gained in the Tutorial reset. It looked back at all the stages that the challenger had gone through.
"I told you back then. The 35th floor was not a stage to overcome. It was a stage to escape."
Kirikiri lashed out at me.
"You were reckless then. You didn't have to clear the stage in that risky manner; you just had to get through it."
Before entering the 35th floor, Kirikiri advised me not to crash because it was dangerous. Of course, I did just the opposite.
"What could I do when the only other option left was to surrender? That word isn't in my vocabulary."
If I didn't think it would work, I would have had no choice but to find another way. But it did work.
Kirikiri mentioned the stages I had passed before, starting from the 35th floor, where I was too reckless, didn't listen to her advice, made a mistake, quickly cleared the stage, and did more than expected.
I retraced what I'd experienced and felt, as I progressed through the stages one by one. I looked back on the past, along with Kirikiri.
There was a reason why Kirikiri, who usually liked to talk only about the future, talked about my past.
[Lee Ho-jae, 99th floor]
The 99th floor. Now there was only one floor left to clear. It was time to leave the Tutorial.
* * *
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[100th-floor stage will begin. ]
Description: Get ready to wake up from your long dream.
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I was in the dark. It was a strange unknown darkness. Not the kind that occurred without light, but a darkness that blocked my view; darkness that narrowed my perception.
A stale smell permeated my nose. I turned around and laid flat on my back to avoid the stench from the pillow.
Slowly, I raised my hand. I pulled it out of the rough quilt and felt my chin. It was prickly.
My mouth felt uncomfortable. It was probably because I only drank soju and slept the day before.
I rolled around a bit in my smelly bed, and only after the alarm started to sound, did I finally get up.
I went to the bathroom and washed my clothes roughly, not even using soap. I shaved quickly, took out my comfortable sportswear, and left home.
I waited for the villa's little elevator. The elevator door opened, and I could see the people inside.
A young lady held a baby. I got on the elevator and leaned against the metallic wall. The baby in the mother's arms looked at me with big, round eyes.
I flashed a smile.
There were so many sad laws in the world. One of them was even if I liked someone, the other person may not like me back.
I'd experienced it many times, but this law had applied to me once again. The baby burst into tears when he saw my smile, and I apologized to the mother.
The door of the elevator opened. I greeted them roughly and left as if I were running away.
I went to the restaurant in front of my house and ordered a dish of white rice.
It was a tasty dish at a reasonable price, but I got too used to it. I was so used to it that I almost got tired of it.
A lady, who made eye contact while sitting at the table next to me, asked if it was delicious.
Of course, I said it was delicious. It was delicious, although I was tired of it.
I paid the bill, left the restaurant, and went to the convenience store in the next building where the part-timer was dozing off.
I knocked on the counter to awaken the sleeping part-timer.
The part-timer stood up in shock, thinking I was a customer. He sighed in relief as soon as he saw my face.
"You don't have a guest with you, right?"
"Yes, fortunately."
Of course, for a part-timer, that was a good thing. As for me, the boss, I felt annoyed.
"Why aren't the other part-timers here yet?"
"They'll be late today. I got a text earlier."
This guy had been working at my convenience store for more than half a year. I hired him and gave him extra pay, entrusting the management of other part-timers to him.
It was almost like I left all the troublesome work to him.
"Okay, I'm going."
"Yes, Hyung. Take care."
"Okay. Learn to rip off well."
I heard a whimper from behind me. I ignored it and left the convenience store.
He didn't know jack about ripping off.
After checking the convenience store, I went to the local park. I warmed up and ran slowly along the park road. After a while, I ran out of breath and couldn't run anymore.
I flopped down on the park bench. It was still.
I could only hear the wind, the birds, and the rustling of fallen leaves on the floor. There was no one passing by the park, probably because rush hour had already passed.
In the middle of the park, surrounded by tall buildings and apartments, I sensed this familiar feeling.
This was the end, the end of my day. It was peaceful, quiet, and calm.
And it was boring as hell.
Now all I had to do was go back home, pick up the soju bottle, leave the TV on, and kill time.
What did the Tutorial want to show me? Did it want me to remain here, manifesting dreams of my peaceful past? Did it want me to remember my initial intention?
My initial intention was to escape from this peaceful hell so I could go wild and crazy again.
I didn't know what it wanted to show me. What would the other challengers feel here?
That was also unknown.
"Disappear."
The scenery disappeared along with my mana. I was sitting in a small stone chamber, not a bench in the park.
"What happened?" asked Hochi.
"I saw my old self."
"How was it?
I ignored Hochi's question.
No matter how much I wanted to tell him, it wasn't something good for him to know.
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[Tutorial Hell Difficulty level, 100th floor cleared. ]
[Checking for additional rewards. ]
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The clear message on the 100th floor was quite simple. I'd heard it many times already.
The additional reward was a purple crystal. It was singing that Kirikiri would need me.
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[Please select one designated item before returning to Earth. You can only take one of the items you used in the Tutorial. ]
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Designated items allowed the challenger to take an item they had used in the Tutorial.
It was common to bring along the equipment that you had used until the end. Some others would take out elixirs or potions, but in my case, I didn't have to choose.
All the items in my possession were under the protection of my domain. I just had to take everything out.
"How do you feel?"
"How do you feel?" I asked Hochi back.
"How do you feel about going back to Earth?"
"Well, I'm sure you feel more than me, leaving the Tutorial like this."
It's true.
"How do you feel, then?"
"I think it all unraveled when I left the 61st floor. Right now... Well, I just don't think much of it."
I wanted to keep it that way.
Hochi grumbled, saying it was a bland reply and then took Yong-yong in his hands. It seemed that he was discussing things with Yong-yong before we reached Earth.
It was fun to talk to Yong-yong. It was his first time on Earth, and chatting about different experiences was exciting.
Watching the two of them, I felt another gaze on me. It'd been a long time since someone had watched me like this.
Kirikiri insisted on the abolishment of the problematic system.
But at the same time, she'd talked about civilizations that could have been safe thanks to the system, explaining its necessity. The gap between her opinions meant that there was one more problem that Kirikiri had not told me yet.
It was a problem that the current me couldn't solve or even touch.
"Hochi."
"What?" asked Hochi, who came up to my side.
"Are you ready?"
Neither Hochi nor Yong Yong Yong nodded.
Yong-yong stepped in between Hochi and me. I held Hochi's hand with my left hand and Yong-yong's hand with my right hand.
Hochi and Yong-yong seemed a little nervous, which I could understand.
No matter how powerful Yong-yong was, moving to a new world that he'd never seen before would cause anxiety.
That's what life was about.
Just like when I first came into the Tutorial, I was happy and scared.
"Now, let's go out."
Holding Yong-yong's small hand tightly, the three of us went into the portal together.
And with that, I cleared the Tutorial.
Tutorial Floor 100 (1) Finished
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