Nepas’s intention was obvious.
They planned to use the pressure they held through their control of the floors to turn the currently shifting public opinion back in their favor.
By making it so that only those hostile to them were barred from entry, they were providing the government with an excuse to claim they were powerless to intervene.
In that case, our response was simple.
[Floor 1 Administrator Leon has applied entrance conditions.]
[Any Awakener who supports the Demon Clan is prohibited from entering Floor 1.]
[Floor 2 Administrator Leon has applied entrance conditions.]
[Any Awakener who supports the Demon Clan is prohibited from entering Floor 2.]
If they were going to create an excuse to support them, I simply had to create an excuse to oppose them.
It wasn’t about creating a clear public opinion in favor of them, but rather about creating a path of choice that would make people stop and think at least once.
And then.
-Flash!
Leon immediately tore the ticket and moved to Floor 6.
Now that he had grasped Nepas’s intention, it was a battle of speed.
He needed to clear the floors quickly so that he wouldn’t be caught by the other side’s restrictions.
If he conquered the floors first, even if Altain ended up managing them, he wouldn’t be subject to those limitations, so we could rest easy for a while.
And.
‘I also can’t just stay still.’
Until now, I had done my best to teach Leon as if I had retired from the front lines.
But now that the enemy’s schemes were clear, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.
“Rip!”
I tore the ticket.
The floor where my previous conquest had stopped was Floor 50.
Naturally, I was moving to conquer that remaining floor—Floor 50.
[You are challenging the Tower of South Korea, Floor 50.]
The sensation of crossing dimensions and the familiar message.
Everything was not much different from before.
Except!
[The challenger’s abnormal strength has been measured.]
[Portions of the difficulty and method of the trial are being readjusted.]
I heard an unexpected message.
“…Readjustment?”
This was something I hadn’t experienced while clearing up to Floor 49.
It made sense, as the trials of the Tower were supposed to be given equally and fairly to everyone.
Of course, there were cases where the difficulty suddenly spiked to Very Hard or higher, but I had accepted that since it could change depending on my capabilities.
However, this was different.
It said the trial method itself was being readjusted.
That meant the content of the trial could change.
And that suspicion soon turned into a conviction.
[Due to the challenger’s abnormal strength, the difficulty of all trials is adjusted to ‘Nightmare’.]
[By adjusting the minimum difficulty, difficulties of ‘Eerie’ and above are unlocked.]
[The original trial method is discarded, and a trial suitable for the challenger is automatically applied.]
However, it wasn’t a forced application.
[Do you agree with the difficulty of readjustment?]
[If you do not agree, the trial from before the readjustment will be applied.]
Looking at it this way, most people would choose the difficulty from before the readjustment.
But.
[If you select the trial after it has been readjusted, you can receive even richer rewards.]
The Tower had thoroughly analyzed my personality.
Richer rewards.
In fact, I had recently been feeling that something was lacking.
Even if I passed the highest difficulty, Eerie, the rewards weren’t quite satisfying.
Just then, the Tower, seeing through that, was asking for my consent to the difficulty adjustment.
“…Interesting.”
The Tower’s provocation piqued my interest.
And so.
“I agree.”
I expressed my consent to the readjustment of the trial.
[You have expressed consent to the trial readjustment.]
[The readjustment of the trial is applied according to the challenger’s consent.]
[The base difficulty of Floor 50 is replaced with Nightmare.]
[Depending on your future performance, you may experience difficulties above Eerie.]
Shortly after that.
-Sssssss!
My surroundings began to change.
The scenery unfolding around me… it was.
“This place is…?”
It was a familiar place.
A small village.
The village, which could house 100 people at most—no, my appearance was.
“The anonymous old swordsman!”
The anonymous old swordsman who had awakened the Sword of Will within me in the past.
I had transformed into him, the man who had devoted his entire life to the sword and passed on the spark of enlightenment to me.
[Kasnar the old swordsman was a man who served his entire life as a soldier of the Asran Kingdom.]
[Dreaming of becoming a Knight, he escaped his village and joined the soldiers of the Asran Kingdom, but that was nothing more than a dream. He lacked the talent to handle Aura.]
[However, unwilling to lose his dream, he experienced numerous battlefields and combats as a soldier of the kingdom.]
[During that long time, he grew old and infirm. Thus, he was eventually forcibly discharged under the judgment of his superiors that he could no longer perform his duties.]
[He has returned to his hometown village.]
Through the messages from the Tower, I learned that the man I had remembered as the anonymous old swordsman was named Kasnar, and I learned of his circumstances.
That alone was a huge gain.
The old swordsman.
I had been curious about the information regarding the man who gave me enlightenment all this time.
‘I didn’t know the Tower’s trials would help in this way.’
While I was inwardly happy about the facts I had learned, the messages continued.
[The old swordsman, who returned to his hometown, polished the Sword of Will he gained through his previous insights. Thus, he finally reached the level he desired, but his joy was short-lived! Dark clouds began to loom over his hometown.]
It was then.
“M-Monster!”
“It’s an invasion! The Demon Clan is here!”
The villagers, who had been smiling and grateful for the small things despite having nothing, now had terror in their eyes.
Screams began to leak from their mouths incessantly.
Outside the village.
“Thud, thud, thud, thud!”
Dust spread along with the sound of the earth shaking.
It was a march of death, as a considerable number of troops—the Demon King’s Legion—approached to devastate this village.
‘Ah!’
In that moment, I realized.
Back when I had left the Demon King’s Legion and was wandering, that was the period when the legion was beginning its activities in earnest.
That meant this place, Kasnar’s hometown, could be trampled by the Demon King’s Legion at any time.
‘It seems this place was turned into a wasteland by the Demon King’s Legion after I left.’
Kasnar and the people of this village were annihilated by the soldiers of the Demon King’s Legion who had come to advance across the continent.
The Sword of Will.
After confirming the existence of that sword needed to become a Legion Commander, I had immediately returned to the Demon King’s Legion, so I hadn’t seen the villagers or the end of Kasnar the old swordsman afterward.
Of course.
‘Even if I had seen that result, their fate wouldn’t have changed.’
Because of the personality splitting performed by Salmora—no, Nepas—I had no room to care for humans, nor did I have the heart for it at the time.
Therefore, even if I had known that process, I wouldn’t have stopped the destruction of Kasnar and the village.
In fact, I might have eliminated Kasnar myself, judging him to be a potential threat.
And now, the past I hadn’t encountered was being reenacted.
[Become Kasnar the old swordsman and stop the approaching Demon King’s Legion.]
[To obtain more rewards, you must hold out for a long time and eliminate as many of the invading Demon King’s Legion as possible.]
[You can also earn extra points by defeating executives of the Demon King’s Legion or unknown entities.]
At first glance, one might think it was a very easy task.
But if that were all, the difficulty readjustment would have been meaningless.
[This trial is very special.]
[Power restrictions are applied, sealing all of the challenger’s abilities.]
[You will perfectly possess Kasnar and can only use his abilities.]
In that moment.
-Whoosh.
I could feel the strength draining from my body.
It was a forced rule set by the Tower and that rule wasn’t something even I could ignore.
[Sword of Will (10): Manifests the Sword of Will to cut down enemies. However, in Kasnar’s current physical and mental state, it can only be used ten times.]
[—Physical condition has significantly worsened after demonstrating the Sword of Will to an anonymous individual.]
As expected, Kasnar could not perfectly manifest the Sword of Will.
And as for the reason.
‘It’s because of… me.’
He knew I was watching.
That was why he had overexerted himself to showcase the Sword of Will, leading to a state of physical and mental fatigue.
And the settlement for what happened in the past was being carried out now.
“Grandfather!”
A voice reached me while I was checking my status.
It was a child.
An incredibly simple boy with a dried snot trail on his upper lip was looking at me.
“Hurry, hurry, run away! Mom said we’ll die if we stay here!”
I didn’t know the boy’s name.
But he was a child I had often seen while observing Kasnar.
He was the only one who had approached the man everyone else ignored.
“Teo!”
At that moment, a woman who appeared to be the boy’s parent hurriedly snatched up the boy called Teo.
“What are you doing here? We have to run away quickly!”
Clutching her son with an urgent voice, she hastily left the village.
“Grandfather, run away!”
Even while being carried, Teo reached out toward Kasnar and shouted for him to flee.
I watched that scene.
“Run away!”
“Aaaaah!”
“Ugh—”
The peaceful village was instantly filled with terror and screams.
It was inevitable.
Before anyone knew it, the Demon King’s Legion had reached the outskirts.
No matter how much they struggled, the fact that everyone would die at the hands of the Demon King’s Legion would not change.
Except.
“Step—”
The story would be different if I were here.
-Slide.
I lifted the old sword in my hand.
Its edge was chipped in places like a saw.
If I were to strike with this sword, it would likely break rather than cut anything.
The problem wasn’t just the sword.
-Throb
My body.
Right now, my physical form was forcibly adjusted not to mine, but to Kasnar’s.
My martial power and strength accumulated outside the Tower were all neutralized.
It wasn’t just a level lower or similar; it was a body ruined and even aged by decades of combat.
A body naturally incapable of manifesting Aura.
Of course, the same applied to being unable to use Magical Power or divinity.
That meant.
‘…The Mind Sword is the same.’
I had hoped that perhaps the Mind Sword might be possible, since my mind was the same even if the body had changed, but not at all.
[High-output energy is forcibly restricted.]
I only heard the same message whenever I tried to use the Mind Sword.
That was right.
My body, my mind… everything was in a sealed state.
I was in a situation where I had no choice but to rely on the Sword of Will possessed by Kasnar—and even that could only be used in a limited capacity.
But.
‘I can’t stop the Demon King’s Legion with just this.’
The Demon King’s Legion finally revealed itself.
As the vanguard for the advancement across the continent, their numbers were substantial.
It wasn’t a level that a single old swordsman could handle.
The goal of this trial was likely to use the Sword of Will as efficiently as possible to eliminate a certain number of the Demon King’s Legion.
But I would not be satisfied with that.
‘The past…’
I will change it.
Even if it was nothing more than an illusion created by the Tower’s Trial, I would stop this terrible event that had occurred because of me in the past.
To that end.
I took one step forward.
It was the first step of will toward the Demon King’s Legion rushing in with terrifying momentum, and a reckless advance to change the past.