MPAWD 11

Chapter 11

‘Tower No-777?’

An SSS+ rank maze map that’s nearly impossible to get without being a flying race.
I broke through a wall here and got a special reward.
But the reward is… just a ticket to enter a tower?

Lee Kang-han felt a moment of disappointment—
then remembered the chat he’d seen earlier.

‘Wait, didn’t the viewers say that Iron Towers only go up to No. 99?’

Iron-grade towers only go up to number 99,
so people already had strategies figured out for them.

If that’s the case… then what’s Tower No. 777?

‘I should ask the chieftain or some people about this later.’

Thinking that, Lee Kang-han accepted the special reward.

And then another message appeared:

[Opening clear rewards.]
[Level increased by 3.]
[Gained 20,000 TP.]

Clear rewards were given for climbing all the way to the top of a tower.
For normal players, only low-difficulty towers could be cleared to the summit,
and even then, the average clear reward claim rate was only about 20%.

But Lee Kang-han had claimed them two times in a row.

‘Making money is easy.’

He’d already recouped half the TP he’d invested in the goblins.

Just as he was grinning—

[All rewards have been claimed.]
[Logging out from Iron Tower No. 31.]

With that message,
his body flashed with light—

Swoosh…!
—and he was back home.

Kim Joo-young, in the middle of eating chicken in the living room, looked at him with wide eyes.

“I’m back. The chicken’s still warm, right?”

“…Did you break a wall just to eat chicken?”

“Didn’t feel like finding my way. You know I’m bad with directions.”

“You’re insane… just eat. It’s still warm, just got here.”

Slide.

As Lee Kang-han sat down to eat,

Bzzz…

[The video from your real-time stream has been saved to the ‘Streaming’ folder.]

A message appeared in front of him.

“Oh, so the stream video saves automatically?”

“You got a message?”

“Yeah. Is this some hyper technology exclusive to the Infinite Tower?”

“Well, the channel creation pass costs 50,000 TP, so they’d better at least give you that much.”

Then Kim Joo-young explained video editing and uploading.

“Here, look. In the TowerTube settings there’s a feature to extract the video—send it to an editor, get it edited, then upload it.”

“Oh, you know this stuff well.”

“I do video editing for TowerTube as a side job after work.”

“Really? Since when?”

“About six months. After my dad’s Gangnam apartment investment tanked, he was too mentally wrecked to keep working…”

They had bought a Gangnam apartment with every penny they could scrape together—
and of all places, the Tower of Light appeared right there, wiping out their entire fortune.

Even if his dad knew logically he should keep working, mentally he just couldn’t.
So now Joo-young worked a second job at night.

“Hey, then could you edit mine too?”

“Yours?”

“Yeah. I’ll pay the going rate.”

“Well… top guilds have their own editing teams…”

“I can’t join a guild.”

“Oh, right. Fine. I’ll work on it—if you don’t like it, just swap editors anytime.”

Right then, Kang-han extracted the video and sent it to Joo-young’s email.

“I’ll edit it when I get home tomorrow.”

“Sure. No rush.”

With the TowerTube matter settled, Kang-han remembered the entry ticket he’d received earlier—
Tower No-777.

Maybe Joo-young knew something about it?

“Iron Tower No-777 ticket? Far as I know, Iron Towers only go up to No. 99.”

“Right?”

“Yeah. But I think Gold-grade Towers had a 777. If you got it, there’d be a treasure vault.”

Joo-young searched TowerTube for Tower 777.

Soon, videos popped up of people who’d gotten No-777.

[Hey, guys! 777! It’s 777!!!]
[Wow, I’ve been broke since I blew all my TP, but now… I finally got 777!]
[Whoa, did you see that? Opened a treasure chest and instantly got 10,000 TP on the spot.]

All of them were ecstatic.

The 777 Tower had a golden backdrop,
and dozens of giant treasure chests lined the floor.
Each chest you opened gave you 10,000 TP.

[Aw, only 5 minutes of time? Such a shame.]
[The chests are kinda heavy, they don’t open right away. But 10,000 TP each!]
[Still, I made 200,000 TP. No donations needed today, hehe.]
[And there’s a clear reward too? This is insane.]

It was basically a bonus stage—money and a guaranteed clear in one.

“Looks like they average about 200k TP… If I had three of those tickets, it’d be amazing.”

“But these people are Gold rank. Won’t Iron Tower No-777 give smaller rewards?”

“True, if Iron gave that much, everyone would be playing.”

Even if the rewards were smaller,
factoring in the clear bonus, it was still worth it.

‘I should use it tomorrow.’

Just as he was thinking that—

‘Ah…’

A sudden wave of sleepiness hit him.

* *

[Breaking News: The Heavenly Demon’s Shocking Update]
[Discovering a New Strategy for the Maze Map]
[Can you really break walls with your fists? Gold rank tests it out!]
└ Is this another fake video? No way you can break walls.
└ Full video’s on TowerTube, go watch.
└ LOL, walls break that easily?
└ Some players are already trying it, and it’s not working, hahaha.

“Wow, the wall-breaking video’s blowing up already.”

Even before his run was finished, the Infinite Tower community was ablaze.

“What time is it now?”

“8:45.”

“I’m getting super sleepy. Guess I’m done for the day…”

His eyes were already half-closed, his head nodding.

“Didn’t you stay up late last night?”

“Maybe because I was only in the tower for an hour today… I can’t fight the sleepiness.”

“So your sleep time really shifts by however long you were in the tower.”

Joo-young thought for a moment, then gestured for him to go to his room.

“Go to bed. I’ll crash on the couch after eating a bit more.”

“Hey, can you record me sleeping?”

“…You want me to film you screaming in your sleep?”

“I found scratches on me after sleeping yesterday. No break-in or anything. Just want to see what’s happening. My phone’s out of space.”

“Ugh… just get a new phone already.”

Grumbling, Joo-young set up to record in Kang-han’s room.

“If you wreck anything, you’re buying me the latest phone.”

“Got it.”

“Oh, seriously? Then break away, haha.”

Kang-han chuckled and lay down.

Sleep hit him hard and fast.
Before closing his eyes, he checked the clock—

‘Just past nine…’

Since he’d only been in the maze tower for an hour,
his bedtime had shifted just one hour later than usual.

What was the connection between the tower and this strange sleep pattern?

With that thought, he drifted off—

“…Huh?”

Above the sleeping Kang-han,
a blood-red portal floated in the air.

‘What the… why a portal?’

Joo-young had seen Kang-han toss and scream in his sleep plenty of times,
but never a portal above him.

And then—

Ssshhh…

Kang-han’s body floated upward and was sucked into the portal.

It vanished the instant he was gone.

“What the hell…?”

Was he just drunk?

After splashing cold water on his face, Joo-young returned—
but the bed was still empty.

“This is insane.”

Sobering up fast, he was still wondering what to do when—

Fwoooosh!

The portal reopened, dropping Kang-han back onto the bed.
This time, his body was covered in wounds.

‘So that’s why he had scratches yesterday…’

His clothes were intact,
but his face, arms, and legs were covered in deep cuts.

The blood had already dried; they looked more like scars of a battle-hardened warrior.

‘This is bad…’

Just as Joo-young was frowning at the sight—

Ssshh…

The scars vanished before his eyes,
his body returning to normal in seconds.

‘Am I dreaming too?’

Even while filming, Joo-young couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
It was too bizarre.

Then—

“Ughhh… aaaargh…!”

Kang-han suddenly screamed in bed,
and Joo-young felt oddly relieved.

‘Back to normal.’

The pained screaming that drew neighbor complaints—
as terrifying as it was,
it was better than seeing a blood-red portal appear.

‘Guess I’ll sleep now too.’

He left the phone recording and went to the couch.

After seeing his friend get sucked into a portal and return,
the taste for drinking had completely vanished.

The next morning—

‘No scratches today.’

Kang-han woke feeling refreshed.

‘Guess yesterday’s wounds were just a weird one-off.’

But—

“You’re up early… Hey, last night was insane.”

Joo-young, looking exhausted, played the recorded video.

Kang-han’s expression hardened instantly.

“…Why’s there a portal?”

“You’re asking me? How would I know?”

“This isn’t some AI fake, right?”

“Seriously? I was too busy drinking to make a fake video.”

Too real to be fake.
He watched himself get sucked in and spat out again.

It had taken exactly one hour.

‘Same as my tower time… and the delay to my sleep.’

And yesterday, his Heavenly Demon Physique rank had risen—
from FSSS to ESSS at its lowest.

Today it was still E~SSS.
So it didn’t go up daily.

‘But this portal and my physique… they’re connected.’

The blood-red portal was just like the one he’d seen
when summoning the Goblin Chieftain in the Ten Thousand Demon Battlefield.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

‘Better reread my skill descriptions.’

Just as he thought that—

Ding!

[You have acquired the skill ‘Heavenly Demon’s Dominion Step’.]

A new skill had appeared in his skill list.
Something he hadn’t had yesterday—
now gained after waking up.