Chapter 138 Moorim (1)

「719:58:19 until the next duel.」

The duel timer that stopped at 0 since climbing to the 6th floor began to move again.

“…”

Yoon-seok, frozen for a moment, took a deep breath and began to put the current situation together. He was confused by the many changes arriving simultaneously, but this wasn’t the time to mill about.

‘What’s that?’

Tower of Duel, No.4. He met the criteria of the Tower of Duel and dimension fusion… the system phrases that appeared carried the nuance that there were several Towers in existence, now fusing into one.

‘Are we perhaps meeting the challengers from other towers in trials?’

A plausible hypothesis, but nothing could be properly confirmed. Ranking, the closing of the Tower, and the fact that 2,000 challengers reached the 20th floor were all shocks to Yoon-seok.

‘…Let’s check the ranking first.’

Although the system message did not kindly teach him what to do, Yoon-seok naturally approached the tablet.

Ranking

As expected, a new category was open.

‘Let’s do that…’

*10,000th Place. Predator – Earth

The nicknames and origins of numerous challengers, including Yoon-seok, appeared. In the previous phrase, it said 2,000 people, so how could he be 10,000th place? As he wondered, something caught his eye.

*9,998th place, 7th dwarf – Fedomia

*9,999th place, space captain – Taklan

Taklan and Fedomia both were dimensional names he hadn’t heard before.

‘…Is this what fusion meant?’

Yoon-seok slowly read the ranking board from bottom to top. Earth, Seheranbad, Kilian, and Moorim. In addition to those, a total of 12 new dimensions such as Taklan and Fedomia were added, bringing the total to 16.

‘A total of five must’ve been combined, with 2,000 people per tower.’

That calculation also roughly fits if challengers from the three dimensions for each Tower were gathered. According to Ragna, there were three dimensions until Earth and the current Tower he resided in appeared.

‘…Then what do they want?’

He was curious why the Tower gathered them together. But, as always, there was no way to find out right away. In the end, Yoon-seok focused on other parts rather than wasting his time.

‘Anyway, that’s that… so I’m last place?’

10,000th out of 10,000 challengers. What were the criteria? Force of arms? If so, it was difficult for him to accept. It wasn’t that there was no one stronger than his current self, but that would mean he was at the very bottom. That didn’t make sense.

‘Huh?’

He discovered a mark tucked up into the upper right corner of the ranking board.

Arrival Order

It was so straightforward that he was convinced immediately.

‘If this is the standard, it’s natural to be last.’

When he clicked on the sorting criteria, a drop-down menu with several other sorting criteria appeared. Yoon-seok decided to change the standards one by one and check the ranking board to see the differences. First, starting from the Record Order.

*5,621st Place. Predator – Earth (23 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws)

The ranking was much lower than expected. He came up to the 20th floor while only losing once, but this was it? No, didn’t this mean that the 5,620 challengers in the rankings above him had risen to the 20th floor without losing once? Yoon-seok began to laugh without even realizing it.

‘Are you saying that the standards are completely different from before…?’

Even the number of challengers who ranked the same as Yoon Seok was close to 2,000.

‘Interesting.’

New competitors were pouring in.

‘It’s better to have as much information as possible.’

Yoon-seok then confirmed the Rating Order. Fortunately, he ranked much higher than before.

*391st Place, Predator – Earth (SS )

Although there were 700 people in the same rank, still, this was considered top-ranked.

‘But does the rating mean evaluation by the Tower?’

For some reason, he thought so. The only difference was that it was a little more subdivided with an additional positive or negative indication. He burst out laughing again.

‘I think there are 390 people above me.’

How should he say this? It filled him with proper motivation. Yoon-seok decided to check the rest while he was at it.

Dimensional Order

This was the separate ranking of the challengers in each dimension present on the ranking board. Thanks to this, Yoon-seok was able to check the number of challengers who reached the 20th floor more easily by dimension. Kilian had 995 people, Moorim had 507 people, and 492 from Seheranbad. For a total of 2,000 people, including the 6 from Earth.

‘At this rate, I can’t help but believe it.’

There were so many challengers on the 20th floor.

‘Was it because most of them didn’t come to the plaza?’

He’d never seen or heard of a challenger who climbed to the 20th floor other than Cheon-ma in Union Square. To be honest, it was flabbergasting. Still, come to think of it, so was Cheon-ma.

Until she reached the 20th floor, she didn’t even get close to the square. He’d never heard about the King of Steel or the swordsman he met on the 18th floor, nor again of the mysterious challenger who orchestrated the massacre on the 6th-floor square. Even Yoon-seok only briefly went to collect information and rarely stuck around. He focused more on his growth than on socializing.

‘Well, if everyone were the same, it’s not like I can’t understand…’

What Yoon-seok was surprised about was something else. Aside from the fact that Kilian’s mythical creatures, which rarely appeared in the Union square, accounted for half of the 2,000 people…

‘There are 6 people from Earth?’

He didn’t know that there would be so many people from Earth. Although it was only 0.3% of the population distribution, to be honest, the shock was even greater because he thought he was the only one. What kind of people were they? How had they never been identified on Earth?

Yoon-seok, looking through the ranking table of those from Earth with curiosity, suddenly tilted his head. A familiar nickname had appeared.

*5th Place, Grape Jam – Earth

He remembered it instantly.

‘You’re the agitator back then.’

The challenger appeared in the chat room and teased several challengers. He was amazed this person was still alive.

‘Anyway, considering that I’m last, I guess the ranking by dimension is just in order of arrival.’

Yoon-seok changed the standard to Rating Order again and focused on Seheranbad and Moorim. He wanted to check the rankings of the King of Steel and Cheon-ma. Though he didn’t know their nicknames, it was possible to guess who they were by their rankings.

And he found this.

*14th place, Steel Warrior(SSS) – Seheranbad.

At the time of the Wish Auction, he heard that the King of Steel’s evaluation was SS grade, but he had also grown while he ascended.

‘Other than this, there’s probably no nickname with steel in it.’

Shortly after, Yoon-seok saw even Cheon-ma’s nickname. It wasn’t a difficult task, as she was showing off her name at the top ranks.

*1st Place, Cheonma Zl Zone (SSS ) – Moorim

There was one thing that bothered him.

‘Why is it written in English…?’

The nickname was mixed with English. As Yoon-seok knew, Moorim didn’t even use the same alphabet. Moreover, why was the nickname so playful?

‘There must be a story behind it.’

If they met again in the future, he would ask.

’13 people ranked first in the Rating Order….’

In the Tower’s evaluation, they were equivalent to Cheon-ma. There were that many challengers who received the SSS ranking. One level down, there were as many as 90 people of the same rank as the King of Steel. How monstrous were they to receive a higher grade than Yoon-seok? Frankly, he couldn’t imagine it.

“…I need to be nervous now.”

720 hours later, the matching would start. It was likely to be random matching, too, and he even found out that many challengers might be stronger than him. From a larger point of view, nothing had changed at all. The things he had to do remained the same: growing as strong as possible in the meantime while preparing for the next competition.

‘Then the question will be how do I get stronger…?’

Yoon-seok drew his sword in the waiting room. Originally, he would always train whenever he had time, but he had been focusing on his stats ever since he gained Transcendence. However, he’d also reached his limit there, after strength and agility reach Rank S. The amount of effort needed to grow increased dramatically, now needing five years to level up.

‘It means that there’s a limit to the efforts I can make on my own.’

Of course, the duel ability of

u0007b Predation} could solve the problem with time. However, five years was a long time that even Yoon-seok, the training maniac, couldn’t consider easy. Furthermore, a 1 rise in strength or agility may not prove worth the effort.

‘It would be a better option to train with the sword for five years to grow stronger.’

He realized something after learning how to use Middle Qi. What he already had was overflowing. What was lacking was raising the potential of these abilities to the limit. And in that sense, the choice of receiving other trials for simple physical training or using WP wasn’t particularly attractive.

“…”

Yoon-seok pondered again and again how he was going to use his given month. Then, something flashed across his mind.

‘Cheonma-dong.’

The source of power allowed the challenger named Cheon-ma to become the absolute ruler of Moorim and stand tall even in a place where challengers gathered from numerous dimensions. He was going to look for it when he hit his limit someday.

‘This is not the time to relax.’

There was no guarantee that he would not meet a monster equivalent to Cheon-ma in his next duel, so his given month should be spent as meaningfully as possible. Even though Elle’s words rang in his mind…

Since

u0007b Divine Ultimatum} reached Rank A and his fate could change, wouldn’t the opportunity she told him about be resolved already?

‘So nothing will happen even if I go to Moorim.’

Soon, Yoon-seok made up his mind.

Ring! Ring!

Just as the emergency call system began to ring.

“…”

It would be good to travel to Moorim, but, come to think of it, he had something to do before that. Yoon-seok wasn’t the only one who was confused by the cataclysmic changes that arrived at the Tower.