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Chapter 359 – Climbing the Tower (3)

Lou looked back at the path they had followed. “This is just as I expected.”

They had been moving quite quickly—actually, as fast as they could—but they still hadn’t encountered or seen a single creature.

“It seems there aren’t any survivors,” El replied.

“Well, I guess we were wrong to assume any human could survive here.”

The energy here overwhelmed even Lou and El, and they felt even the strongest player would have difficulty breathing here. And the only thing they had seen so far was bones and carrion.

“Is this place connected to other worlds as well?” Lou wondered because the grotesque corpses here weren’t human alone.

They were currently inside a dimensional fragment called Gehenna, the route to which they had gotten from the Global Players Association headquarters in America.

The president of the GPA, Bloody Emperor, had told them the location. Lou recalled the conversation they had with him.

“We discovered it coincidentally,” explained Bloody Emperor, one of the first five high-rankers. But he was now a different creature because of Andras, Mammon, and others. Bloody Emperor was one of the first whose body the demons had stolen. A powerful demon now resided in his body.

‘He used to be an incredible player,’?thought Lou.

Luck, fortuity, kismet, and such played no part in Bloody Emperor becoming one of the first five high-rankers. Even after a demon had stolen his body, his soul had refused to dissipate. The soul remained inside the body, hidden, slowly feeding off the demon’s greed, becoming avaricious and ambitious itself.

But, of course, no one was immune to pain. After being tortured in a way that was much worse than death, Bloody Emperor had given up all he had known about Gehenna.

He had explained, “We have known for a long time that we could travel to different fragmented dimensions from the dimensional gap in the Tower’s basement.”

Considering the GPA collected and maintained information on everything player-related, this shouldn’t have surprised anyone. They had known about the Tower’s basement but had just chosen to keep it a secret.

Bloody Emperor continued, “We received the coordinates by sheer coincidence when we sent dozens of scouts to the Tower’s basement.”

It turned out the GPA had to send dozens of player scouts to death’s maw to get those coordinates. One could only imagine in horror how many must have died to procure that. Information was important, but it just couldn’t justify what the GPA had done.

But unlike Heo Sung-Hoon, who had shuddered in anger, Lou had remained unaffected.

“We have the coordinates for the entrance to this place, but there is no way to return from it. By that place, I, of course, mean Gehenna.” According to Bloody Emperor, one could enter Gehenna but not leave it. However, one might ask next how they even learned the coordinates then. Or how was this place selected as a prison?

“We learned the coordinates thanks to the one person who managed to escape from Gehenna,” Bloody Emperor explained, and everyone gaped in shock.

El smiled when Lou muttered, “That bastard has been everywhere.”

Kronos—the only person to ever escape from Gehenna. Of course, this Kronos wasn’t their enemy Kronos. Bloody Emperor had referred to Gi-Gyu’s birth father, Kim Se-Jin, whose code name was Kronos.

After the deaths of many player scouts, Gi-Gyu’s father had decided to explore the Tower’s basement alone. He also had another reason—a secret one—for doing so. After returning, Kronos had given the GPA the coordinates of the strange place he had found.

Bloody Emperor continued, “We decided to name it Gehenna. Kronos suggested that it was a good idea to send all the criminal players to this place.”

At that time, Kronos was a powerful and influential figure. Unable to ignore that sending more scouts would result in more deaths, Bloody Emperor had accepted Kronos’ suggestion. Afterward, they had stopped exploring the Tower’s basement. And thus, Gehenna had become the last home for the world’s most heinous players.

Lou stopped reminiscing and said to El, “Let’s get going.”

El nodded, and they resumed crossing the desert of fire at an incredible speed.

***

‘The Tower’s collapse must have something to do with Kronos, and…’?Gi-Gyu believed Lee Sun-Ho was involved as well. Gi-Gyu and the rest had put some distance between them and the crumbling ground thanks to their speed; sadly, they were soon stuck again.

“This door is blocked too,” Gi-Gyu announced. They were currently on the 84th floor, which was impressive. They could reach this place quickly because of Fenrir and the dragons’ speed. On top of this, the floors were suspiciously devoid of tests.

They stood at the entrance that led to the 85th floor.

“Let’s rest for a while.”

When Gi-Gyu suggested that, Kang Ji-Hee replied happily, “Thank you so much!”

Kang Ji-Hee quickly dismounted Dark, and when she felt solid ground beneath her feet, she couldn’t help but be ecstatic.

‘I guess the journey was difficult,’?Gi-Gyu smiled bitterly before turning away because he understood how she must feel. He also saw the other Angela Guild members muttering among themselves.

“I almost died just now…”

“I would rather hunt nonstop than ride that thing…”

Then, one of the Angela Guild players turned to look back and whispered, “Hey, but we got lucky, didn’t we? We got a much better ride than them.”

The Angela Guild players all glanced at the Red Players, who began puking violently the second they dismounted Fenrir. Like vomit Picassos, they painted a disgusting picture on the ground.

“Hmm…” Gi-Gyu stared at the door. He had chosen to stop for three reasons. The first being the change in Lim Hyun-Soo’s condition. Gi-Gyu raised his hand to send white light toward Lim Hyun-Soo, who was still on Dark’s back. He quickly absorbed the light, and his breathing stabilized.

‘Interesting.’?Gi-Gyu was surprised. Initially, it had seemed like Lim Hyun-Soo wouldn’t even survive the journey. His condition had been so dire that Gi-Gyu had given up on saving him altogether and had instead decided to read his memories.

‘But his condition is improving as we go higher.’?It wasn’t a significant difference, but the fact that Lim Hyun-Soo now wouldn’t just drop dead any second was shocking. He could accept more Life from Gi-Gyu with each floor they ascended. And that was why Gi-Gyu had chosen to stay here and help him recover a bit.

The second reason was that the human players were exhausted. Gi-Gyu raised his hand again to send out Life to the Angela Guild members and the Red Players.

“Huh…?”

“Haa… That feels so much better…!”

The players sighed in relief as their bodies absorbed the white light. Being professional players with superhuman powers, they weren’t as tired from riding Fenrir and the bone dragons as they were from dealing with the sorcerous energy constantly being exuded from their rides. Gi-Gyu knew these players needed rest.

“Kirrrk.” The lizardman came running toward Gi-Gyu.

“Good job.” When Gi-Gyu patted its head, the lizardman purred happily.

“So you like it.” Haures walked up to Gi-Gyu with a good-natured smile.

“Yup, thanks Haures.”

The lizardman was a more impressive creature than Gi-Gyu had initially thought. Earlier, Haures had explained to Gi-Gyu that making this monster surrender had been harder than making all the Red Players surrender.

Haures asked, “Are you worried about something?”

Go Hyung-Chul had also come by after looking into others to ask Gi-Gyu, “Is it because of what’s on the next floor?”

Gi-Gyu nodded to both of them. He continued to look at the door which led to the 85th floor. “There is something on the next floor.”

And that was the third reason they had stopped. He wasn’t sure if others could feel it, but he sure could.

‘It’s a beast.’?Gi-Gyu couldn’t be certain of the creature’s identity, but he could sense that the door kept something with incredible power at bay.

‘What could it be?’?Gi-Gyu wondered if it was Lee Sun-Ho—a very real possibility.

“Something feels strange,” Gi-Gyu added. The Tower was collapsing, its tests had disappeared, and Lou and El had traveled to Gehenna. So many unbelievable things had happened, so anything was possible at this point.

Gi-Gyu clenched his fists. ‘I also have enough strength now.’?

The creature on the next floor was powerful, but Gi-Gyu knew he could handle whomever or whatever it was.

“I can do this,’ Gi-Gyu whispered.

“What?” Go Hyung-Chul asked because he hadn’t heard Gi-Gyu.

Instead of answering, Gi-Gyu announced, “We’ll move soon after everyone has recovered. Since we have traveled so fast, we have some time to spare, but the Tower hasn’t stopped collapsing.”

“I’ll let everyone know,” Haures replied and left.

“By the way…” Gi-Gyu turned toward Go Hyung-Chul. “I’m sure everyone is doing well, right?”

Gi-Gyu thought of those he had left behind. Brunheart had told him earlier that Heo Sung-Hoon and the rest on Earth were doing well. Taking down the entire Caravan Guild meant Heo Sung-Hoon, Tao Chen, and the others would be overwhelmed with paperwork. But they were all capable people and would take care of the situation well.

Go Hyung-Chul replied, “Of course they are. You heard Brunheart, too, didn’t you? Earth is finally becoming more stable and finding peace.”

When the players had realized the Tower was collapsing, they had blocked the entrance completely. They were now waiting for Gi-Gyu to give proper orders.

Go Hyung-Chul continued, “Apparently, more gates are appearing, but our Earth players are more capable than they get credit for. After all, the remaining players on earth are the best of the best who survived so many battles. I don’t think you have to worry about Earth.”

“All right.” Gi-Gyu had already heard all this before, but hearing it again from Go Hyung-Chul reassured him nonetheless.

After some time passed, Haures announced, “Everyone has recovered.”

It hadn’t taken long since these players were all very talented. Of course, although their physical state had improved, their mental exhaustion couldn’t be helped. Ignoring the players’ groans, Gi-Gyu announced, “We’re heading out.”

Then, he stepped toward the gate, ready to take another gate off its hinges.

***

“This is seriously too interesting!” Lou grinned widely. His appearance was that of a good-looking man, yet he looked creepy. The recipient of this gruesome smile was shivering in fear.

“That’s enough, Lou,” El admonished. She was like a ray of sunshine to the man trembling in front of them.

“T-thank you.” The man kept bowing to her, but he couldn’t stop shivering. The powerful energy from El and Lou was too overwhelming.

“I think you’re mistaken,” El said to the man coldly. “If Lou can’t decide whether to kill you or let you live, I would vote that we kill you.”

El used to be the queen of all angels, so those words from her mouth seemed odd. But she meant what she had said. “Because what you did to my master was far worse. You deserve to be punished.”

“Ackk!” The man tried to back away, but his feet refused to work.

“That’s enough playing around,” Lou said with a grin.

El looked confused as she asked, “We were playing just now?”

“You’ve become a demon,” said Lou as he studied El’s face. He became tense again and turned toward the man, who looked even more nervous now.“How are you still alive? Are there other survivors here?”

Lou’s hand suddenly turned into a long black sword. He placed the sword, which was exuding dark sorcerous energy, against the man’s neck and warned, “You better answer us truthfully. So your name is… Yeon Nam-Ju, was it?”

Yeon Nam-Ju was the bastard son of an important figure in the Phoenix Guild. After attacking Gi-Gyu, Yeon Nam-Ju had been sent to Gehenna.

“I remember you not having arms and legs, so tell us what happened.” Lou’s voice sounded determined. Yeon Nam-Ju knew that if he weren’t truthful, all his limbs would be cut off again.