An abandoned factory in Incheon.
In the middle of it lay the Function Cult Leader, both arms bound, mouth gagged, collapsed on the floor.
The ones who had kidnapped him were a group of underworld players and organized gangsters.
They didn’t interrogate him or even speak to him; they simply tied him up and sat in the corner fiddling with their phones.
“Hey, did that guy really see the Function?”
“Idiot, don’t ask weird questions. You’ll get hurt.”
“But I’m curious, man. He’s the Function Cult Leader, right? Doesn’t that mean he at least knows the Function?”
“Does it work like that?”
“If not, why would China want to buy him?”
They spoke of the man as if he were merchandise.
The moment they arrived at Incheon Port with the kidnapped cult leader, barely one or two minutes passed before word came that a boat had reached the coast.
“It’s here.”
“Payment?”
The masked man tapped out a message.
It demanded the mid-payment.
Considering they had spent nearly three months infiltrating that damn pseudo-religion for this job, they deserved a bonus.
Ding.
“Mid-payment confirmed. Drag him over.”
“Hyung-nim, this is really my last job. I’m out after this, got it?”
“Yeah, yeah. But mark my words, you’ll be crawling back asking for work in a few months.”
Everyone sitting around snickered at the masked man’s words and stood up at once.
“Mmph… mmph! Mmphhh!”
The Function Cult Leader was dragged away.
Something was wrong.
He was almost certain the NIS and the government had promised to protect him.
Tears streamed down his face as he was hauled toward a clearly suspicious fishing boat.
Even with the gag, he screamed with all his might.
“Ugh… shut up already. Old man, you wanna get beaten unconscious?”
“You had your fun running a cult while pretending to be the Function… should’ve lived honestly.”
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!”
“Live a bad life and you get divine punishment.”
Rage toward the government that had promised him safety boiled inside the cult leader.
But even a moment’s thought made it obvious.
Why would the government spend taxpayer money and risk agents’ lives to rescue a lunatic who tried to start a cult?
It wasn’t profitable at all.
Even though he had actually met the Function, no one could have predicted that.
Trying too hard to save him would only look suspicious.
“A motorboat has arrived at Incheon Port.”
“The Function Cult Leader is moving.”
“Roger. Keep tracking and monitor the situation.”
Of course, the NIS was tracking the cult leader’s location in real time.
They could arrest those clearly armed underworld players, but it was smarter to identify them and put them on the wanted list.
Catching them later for bigger crimes or higher-priority targets was the wiser move.
The man dragging the cult leader stopped in front of the boat.
Four Chinese men were aboard.
“Here, check the face. Right guy?”
The Chinese muttered among themselves, then nodded.
“What the hell are these chinks saying… just send the final payment!”
At the man’s roar, someone who seemed to be an interpreter spoke, and the Chinese talked among themselves again.
Then one of them laboriously tossed a black cross-body bag containing the final payment onto the pier.
The man unzipped it, grinned broadly.
It was stuffed full of 50,000-won bills.
Satisfied, he jerked his chin.
“Send him.”
“Mmph! Mmmph! Hnngh!”
The Function Cult Leader prayed earnestly.
If there truly was a god, he swore he would live righteously from now on, never tarnish the name of the Function again, and live for the world.
Just save me this one last time.
“Sigh…”
When the cult leader sat down refusing to board, the underworld player kicked him without mercy.
THUD!
The faces of the Chinese on the boat instantly darkened.
They looked ready to draw weapons in anger.
The suddenly hostile atmosphere made the Korean players raise both hands and step back slightly.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down. He wouldn’t get on, what were we supposed to do?”
“Damn, they even care about the merchandise condition? Good thing we didn’t beat him up on the way.”
The NIS was watching the entire scene in real time.
“They received the money and loaded him onto the boat.”
“Copy.”
The tense underworld players slowly pocketed the cash and backed away step by step.
The boat immediately turned and headed out into the Yellow Sea.
“Uwaaa… uwaaaaa…”
The cult leader sobbed nonstop.
But the words he heard were completely different. A man who appeared to be a Korean interpreter spoke fluent Korean.
“Welcome, Cult Leader of the Function…”
“Let us pray together. For the Second Coming of the Function and the ascension of the Magic Tower!”
Shockingly, the ones who “rescued” the Function Cult Leader were Chinese followers of the Function faith.
When that line came through the tiny recorder attached to the cult leader’s clothes, everyone at NIS was dumbfounded.
Second Coming of the Function… ascension of the Magic Tower?
It seemed China had fallen even deeper into cult madness than Korea.
“…Alright. Stand down.”
And so the Function Cult Leader incident officially ended under the pretext of “continued monitoring.”
***
Rumors about Choi Junseok spread like wildfire.
Thanks to the stories that came directly from the highly trusted Kim Cheolgon.
At the same time, the fact that Choi Junseok had shown zero fear against the 9th-ranked player even in the real world left a strong impression on the other players.
“How can a person not flinch in front of that giant?”
“Just seeing him smile when he’s in a good mood makes my legs go numb.”
They laughed, half-joking, half-serious.
“But is Choi Junseok really not the Function?”
“If he were the Function, he would’ve just said so. If he wanted to hide it, he wouldn’t have appeared so openly beside us.”
“True. How many countries are after the Function? I heard even the cult leader disappeared.”
“Brother Function… the upper floors are scary, please save us…”
“I feel like I’m unintentionally becoming a Function follower.”
“That’s called being ‘Function-penetrated.’”
“Function-penetrated?”
“It means you’ve been permeated by the Function, dumbass.”
“For real though… is it true the Function cult turned into a legitimate volunteer organization?”
“I heard so. And get this: their official sponsors are the Player Management Office and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, lol.”
Players also began to grow curious about the supposed government secret weapon trio.
“At least it means the country wasn’t sitting on its hands.”
“My older brother’s cousin’s younger sister’s friend’s dad is supposedly an NIS-affiliated player.”
“…Dude, at that point it’s just a stranger.”
“Anyway, that’s the rumor. Honestly, during the gap period between Incheon and Suseo towers, Korean players were secretly raking in foreign currency overseas… there’s no way the government just watched that happen.”
“Fair point.”
“At the same time, there might be professional state-affiliated players who only climb foreign towers so we never hear about them.”
It was just that the existence of government-affiliated players, which players had quietly suspected all along, had finally surfaced.”
In the Player Settlement where top players gathered, talk of the Function and Choi Junseok never ceased.
Choi Junseok’s party, including Lee Nayeon, casually cleared the 27th and 28th floors in record times of just over three minutes each.
Of course, they could have broken the records even further.
But to maximize leveling, they had delayed or avoided using the holy sword until the very last moment, which resulted in those times.
As always, the Function broke through two floors at a rate of two per day while keeping an eye on the “great rift” Kim Cheolgon had mentioned.
And soon enough, that rift revealed itself.
The biggest change came from North Korea.
Faced with South Korea’s all-out sanctions that were practically wartime measures, North Korea, tail between its legs, declared that, as part of its apology, it would tolerate any South Korean climbing of the Kaesong Magic Tower.
In other words, Korean players now had two choices.
They could stop climbing the Suseo Magic Tower under the pretext of climbing the Kaesong one instead.
At the same time, the tension that had hung over the player community seemed to vanish in an instant.
North Korea essentially declared defeat by stating it would no longer provoke or show hostility toward South Korean players.
Accordingly, the Player Management Office changed its policy once more.
They dissolved the temporary Player Settlement that had been funded with an enormous budget.
As Team Leader Kang explained the situation to Choi Junseok, the latter was momentarily speechless.
That’s how it is.
“So you’re telling me to get out?”
Well… this place was actually going to be operated as a hotel; we just rented it with the budget.
“Hah… wow.”
Honestly, leaving around now is the perfect time to leave without raising suspicion and to properly debut you into player society.
Roughly half of this entire operation had been to ensure the temporary safety of players.
The other half had been to infiltrate Choi Junseok among the top-tier players.
Since both goals were beautifully achieved, there was no further need to waste budget.
Didn’t over 6 billion won come in yesterday or so? Flex with that.
You could buy a house and still have plenty left. I’m jealous.
For once, Team Leader Kang added his honest personal opinion.
With 6 billion, he might be able to buy a decent penthouse in Seoul’s wealthiest districts; a super-luxury one would still be iffy.
He could probably buy a high-end apartment and have money left over, though.
In any case, no matter how big the hotel room was, it never truly felt like “his,” only borrowed, so it had always felt stifling.
“Understood.”
So that’s why it’s been chaos out there.
Choi Junseok glanced out the window and saw players noisily gathered outside the hotel.
No wonder the entire settlement had been so loud; everyone was taking commemorative photos and socializing before leaving.
It felt like the end-of-training-camp vibes at a player academy.
Lee Nayeon, who had been quietly watching them, spoke.
“They’re looking for us.”
Sure enough, someone was shouting through a megaphone they’d gotten from who-knows-where, making the whole settlement ring.
“Player Choi Junseok! Where are you! Come out and take a picture with us!”
At least fifty people were gathered, calling for Choi Junseok.
It had only been a day since his talk with Kim Cheolgon, yet he had already been accepted and welcomed by the player community in a positive light.
They were yelling in every direction trying to find him.
“Nice warm send-off.”
Of course, Choi Junseok didn’t actually go down for photos.
A message arrived from Lee Jiyu, who would never join such childish group photos.
Ding
You’re getting a place, right?
I’ll help. I know the rich neighborhoods pretty well ♡
Come to the lobby once the crowd thins out. Let’s go house-hunting.
Finally, one of the original goals of climbing the tower was about to bear proper fruit.
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