After clearing the 20th floor, the three returned to the hotel.
The person who was most excited by Lee Nayeon’s performance was Song Hana.
She grabbed her hand and kept hopping around, unable to stop gushing.
“How did you clear the 20th floor all by yourself!? Amazing!”
Lee Nayeon remained composed.
Choi Junseok was equally stunned.
She cleared the 20th floor without summoning the Holy Sword?
Even the Yoo Junghyuk inside Choi Junseok didn’t add words, but he was just as shocked.
They had cleared the second floor of Shibuya Magic Tower in Japan and created chaos, and almost immediately after, they cleared the 20th floor here.
When the emergency ended and the Suseo Magic Tower Hall of Fame was reopened, players everywhere—especially those inside Player Inside—went wild.
The reason was simple.
If Hamsu was the one who cleared Shibuya Magic Tower in Japan, he would have to get from Japan to Suseo within two minutes.
At the very least, he’d have to be within visible distance of either Suseo or Shibuya Magic Tower.
[Yo, who can get from Japan to Suseo in 2 minutes? Even Hamsu can’t do that lol]
‘No way! Our Hamsu hyung can do it!’
‘Is there still anyone doubting Hamsu?’
[Current time Japan: “Is it really us?” (second wave)]
‘The scary thing is it actually might be them lol’
‘Just spam LOL, a black van will be parked in front of your house.’
Players’ opinions seemed split.
Some thought the Hamsu-level record in Japan meant a real irregular had appeared there.
Others thought Hamsu had used some method to shuttle between Japan and Suseo.
[What if he took a jet to approach Shibuya Tower, entered, then returned?]
‘It’s not “what if”, it’s “it’ll happen”, you human.’
‘Wanna experiment? I’m curious.’
‘lol he’d fall into the sea.’
‘That’s impossible; some crazy person tried jumping off an elevator and died actually.’
‘So it wasn’t a jet then?’
‘If it was a jet, wouldn’t Japan have noticed? lolol’
‘Can’t you just parachute from a stealth plane?’
‘You think parachuting gets you from the East Sea to Suseo in 2 minutes?’
‘Oh, really?’
From plain fools to unexpectedly cold-headed players doing rare insightful analysis, the chat was noisy and entertaining.
Choi Junseok watched the Player Inside posts and news and felt satisfied that the smokescreen had worked better than he expected.
“I’ll wash up first and come out.”
As soon as Lee Nayeon and Song Hana went into the shower room, Lee Nayeon’s unique sensing ability detected that Team Leader Kang Jinsu had arrived on the hotel’s first floor.
“Team Leader Kang Jinsu appears to have arrived.”
“Okay.”
Whether Kang Jinsu showed up or not, Choi Junseok summoned a fairy dragon to sort out the 20th-floor rewards.
A black dragon that looked content blinked and looked up at Choi Junseok.
When he cautiously lifted the puzzled creature, it rubbed its head against Choi Junseok’s chest and made a garrling sound as if pleased.
As Choi Junseok stroked its back, he grabbed Kkamdori’s tail and gave it a sharp tug as always.
Then there was a click and snap of bones aligning, and Kkamdori opened its mouth wide and began to spill out items.
Most of the items that porters would dismantle and collect were, by and large, being retrieved on their own.
Even things that would seem unnecessary tumbled out in a flurry.
Ghoul fangs and claws.
Items porters usually don’t bother with.
Unless the Tower’s Mystical Exhibition or research specimens took a ghoul whole into a bag, these were odd pieces.
“A lot came out.”
Team Leader Kang froze at the sight when he knocked and came in cautiously as usual.
“…Now you even summon dragons?”
“Calm down, they’re just items.”
Kkamdori, choking as if something was lodged in its throat, made a gurgle noise, so Choi Junseok tugged its tail again.
More magic stones and items rained down.
They were the magic stones guaranteed as lower-floor fixed rewards.
Although the scattering magic stones were small, combined they weren’t an insignificant amount.
Kkamdori let out a satisfying belch and blinked, looking first at Team Leader Kang Jinsu and then back at Choi Junseok.
Kang Jinsu smiled for the first time in a long while at the creature’s almost-questioning, adorable eyes.
He was surprised that he smiled; it had been a rare occurrence.
“You were supposed to be held by the National Intelligence Service for some time last time. You were released quickly, huh?”
“Would a talent like me be held for long?”
There was a hint of ease in his tone—as if the situation was settling.
“So what brings you here?”
“North Korea and Japan’s terror and provocation acts in Korea have ceased. They’re probably monitoring further, but…it’s probably thanks to you, Junseok. We are deeply grateful.”
“Kuh—hum… here, uh—ahum… is gratitude only said with words? Ahum.”
Choi Junseok’s playful manner made Team Leader Kang grin broadly.
“We should be able to repay the cost of the magic stones we borrowed last time.”
That was an enticing offer to hear.
He had requested 5kg of magic stones, but what had been sent was about 6kg.
At about one billion won per 5kg, they were offering roughly twelve hundred million won in repayment value.
Of course, that price applied if players or related companies bought it; the state’s buyback price for players would be far less.
Still, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
For Choi Junseok, this incoming revenue wasn’t all there was.
As expected, more questions followed.
“Did you get any major item from the Japanese Tower?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well… a first-floor hidden reward wouldn’t be small, but… China seems to have tried some contact with North Korea. That happened right after you cleared Shibuya Tower’s first floor.”
The whole explanation was long, but to Choi Junseok it was just their speculation—there was no way for him to know the inside story.
“Hmm, I don’t know the details, but I was going to tell you what came out. It’s this.”
“Ah!”
The moment Choi Junseok pulled an item from his inventory, Team Leader Kang covered his eyes and let out a single scream as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
But he couldn’t help reacting.
Item name: Magic Tower Staircase Selective Entry Ticket (Mythic)
Category: Consumable
Description: Allows entry to any desired floor of any Magic Tower. (Minimum 2nd floor ~ 100th floor)
If you enter a floor selected with this ticket, you cannot return by any means before clearing it.
(Return scrolls cannot be used.)
Team Leader Kang sank into a chair; Choi Junseok smiled wryly.
The more he saw him, the more his reactions felt more vivid the more they got acquainted.
“So this came from Shibuya, you say.”
“That’s correct.”
Kang nodded.
If it had come from Shibuya Magic Tower, the pieces fit together.
At the same time, Kang could accurately picture the transactions that must have occurred.
‘What had been circulating as unverified intel was actually true.’
That ticket had been purchased in China and sent to Japan, and the item manifested at the exact moment Choi Junseok cleared Shibuya’s first floor.
An item that lets even someone who cleared the first floor immediately challenge up to the 100th floor.
China probably used that as a stern warning to North Korea: don’t think you can keep treating the Magic Tower as a cash cow.
They were warning that Hamsu might even clear the 100th floor of the Kaesong Magic Tower.
It became clear that Choi Junseok needed tighter security for his protection.
“This item isn’t bound, is it? I want to buy it—please sell it, or have the state purchase it.”
It was lucky that Choi Junseok hadn’t tried to sell it on foreign auctions or to private brokers.
He was not the sort to make that mistake.
“Or swap it for a penthouse?”
“…Do you think that’s possible?”
A 100th-floor entry ticket was undoubtedly expensive.
But Choi Junseok’s goal wasn’t a penthouse worth hundreds of billions.
“Then I guess I’ll have to sell it to the Middle East. Ahem.”
“…I’ll at least consult with the Director. I can’t promise we can raise hundreds of billions, but—”
“For now that’s good enough for me. I wasn’t planning to sell it abroad anyway.”
It wasn’t out of patriotism; he simply recognized the risk.
People willing to kill over a player’s item for money were not few.
If hundreds of billions were on the line, they’d come back killing to take it.
It wasn’t a world where nations didn’t invade and terrorize for profit.
The risk was enormous.
“So, how’s the retaliation coming along?”
“We actually came to request cooperation on that.”
“Go ahead.”
“We don’t know exactly how Japan is related to North Korea, but we strongly warned them via Shibuya Tower. The remaining issue is to capture the infiltrated North Korean players remaining in Korea.”
They had publicly announced it as a North Korean operation.
North Korea denied it loudly, but that would change if prisoners were taken.
“You want us to help catch them.”
“Yes.”
“With Song Hana’s power?”
Kang nodded.
“I’ll take a hefty commission, then. Find a buyer for this and don’t take a middleman fee—how about that?”
“Of course. We’ll support you beyond that.”
“And sell it in a way that avoids a tax hit? Efficient and clean. You know the drill.”
Kang hesitated only briefly, then nodded.
“All right. Please help us this one time.”
Honestly, Choi Junseok hadn’t expected this.
He’d been asking a civil servant to wink at illegality—hardly a small request.
It sounded like something a man who once said no one can escape taxes and death wouldn’t say, but here he was.
By then, the main actors of this task, Lee Nayeon and Song Hana, had finished showering.
Song Hana waved cheerfully in casual clothes, smiling brightly, while Lee Nayeon bowed slightly and walked off to dry her hair.
“Hana.”
“Yes!”
Song Hana, in a good mood perhaps because of what they’d done to Japan recently, answered cheerfully.
“Is there a way to catch the North Korean players inside Korea?”
“Catch them? If it’s tracking…we might be able to.”
“Is it possible?”
Team Leader Kang’s eyes brightened with hope.
“If we track the brainwashed targets in reverse, it could be possible. To have influenced Korean players, they’d have had to come to South Korea… actually, I sensed something earlier out of curiosity.”
Song Hana walked somewhere and handed a talisman to Choi Junseok.
“Actually… I didn’t tell you because I was afraid I’d get scolded, but I extracted the magic power of the person we captured and made a tracking talisman from it.”
“Can you detect their current location too?”
“Yes, I can!”
Song Hana placed her hand on the talisman, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
“Uh… west coast… seems near a harbor. I can see a lighthouse… they’re hiding inside a shipping container right now. It’s dark.”
Kang immediately called someone on his phone, bowed slightly, then rushed out of the room.
“Am I going to get scolded?”
“You were probably going to be scolded for doing something without being told… Hehe… if you did well, go get your head patted.”
Choi Junseok ruffled Song Hana’s hair.
From where she was drying her long hair, Lee Nayeon peeked and then turned her head with a strange expression.