↳ Seol Ha-rin: Can you just talk casually with me first? hh
↳ Anon (643F): Uh…
I got the feeling things were starting to go slightly sideways.
*This is going to be such a hassle…*
↳ Seol Ha-rin: You talk casually to everyone else, so why are you being formal with me?
↳ Anon (379F): Well, that's…
↳ Anon (643F): Newbie's just being polite to the people teaching her stuff lol
↳ Anon (234F): Selective courtesy lmaooooo
I had no choice but to play along.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Okay, fine. I'll drop the formality from now on.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: …So that means we're friends?
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Yeah.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Yay! I haven't had a real friend since coming to the tower, so I'm really, truly glad to meet you again!
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Yeah, me too hh…
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Honestly, opening up first took a lot of courage for me… Thank you for accepting…
↳ Anon (643F): Newbie's inner monologue: what am I supposed to do with this…
↳ Seol Ha-rin: That's not it! She said she was happy to meet me too, didn't she?
↳ Anon (566F): Yeah yeah, totally.
↳ Anon (649F): At this rate she probably had no friends in her past life either.
↳ Anon (324F): lmao for real, suddenly confessing your inner feelings like that is way too much pressure lol
Seol Ha-rin continued, seemingly unbothered by the snide remarks.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Let's share the clothes they sell at the Golden Carriage PX every month and have fun together hh
"This isn't going to be easy…"
↳ Anon (643F): Newbie's current inner monologue: This isn't going to be easy…
↳ Anon (435F): Live commentary lmaooooooooo
↳ Anon (248F): She just wanted to leech the lessons but now it's turning into a whole thing lmaooooooo
↳ Anon (466F): But since newbie's also a girl, she might actually like dressing up, you know.
↳ Anon (349F): You think?
The Gallery rats were cackling and poking at my insides, but I gritted my teeth and typed.
Best to just go along with it quickly and get to the point.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Yeah, sure…!
↳ Anon (643F): Translation: Yeah, sure…! Now shut up and teach me magic.
↳ Anon (324F): lmaooooooooo
↳ Anon (247F): No but for real, it's vacation time right now and she needs to start grinding hard—this is a massive waste of time.
Only then did Seol Ha-rin seem to realize the situation I was in, and she hurriedly apologized.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Oh, right! You have vacation time! Sorry, I didn't mean to waste it…
↳ Anon (279F): She needs to get stronger fast before the next invaders show up…
↳ Anon (723F): Newbie might look fine on the outside but she's probably a wreck inside because of the invaders. Even this time, it would've been dangerous without the Treasure Keeper.
↳ Anon (543F): If it were me, my mental would've already shattered lol
Various worries about the invaders kept piling up.
It was true that I couldn't afford to waste time during vacation.
But unlike what the Gallery rats were thinking, my fear of vacation time running out wasn't actually that great.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Invaders don't scare me that much anymore, so it's fine.
↳ Anon (564F): ?
↳ Anon (312F): What are you talking about, you almost died lmaooo
↳ Anon (249F): She's gotten weirdly zen about it.
↳ Anon (431F): Two experiences and now she's not scared anymore, damn
↳ Anon (643F): Remembering how she was so scared on floor 1 she bolted straight up lol
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Stressing out about it only hurts me, so I decided to think of it that way. It'd just lower my training efficiency.
↳ Anon (312F): Look at that mental fortitude ;;
↳ Anon (464F): She's not wrong though
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): If weak ones come, I kill them. If invaders come that I can't handle, then that's just unfortunate, I guess…
↳ Anon (461F): Death ⟨ kinda sucks tho yeah
↳ Anon (710F): Sounds like she'd actually welcome weak invaders lol
↳ Anon (351F): Nah, she just sees invaders as walking exp packs at this point, doesn't she?
↳ Anon (543F): Walking exp packs lmao
↳ Anon (732F): At least she's not being complacent. That's a relief.
Amid the joking responses, one weighty question was thrown in.
↳ Anon (348F): But don't you feel guilty? You were human, weren't you.
"……"
Thanks to everything that had happened on floor 100, I'd settled on a certain policy.
I typed it out in the Gallery for the first time.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): If I hesitate out of guilt and end up getting killed, won't that just mean more victims in the end?
↳ Anon (435F): What do you mean?
↳ Anon (543F): I think she means it's better for them to die by her hand and become exp for someone fighting the Demon King than to get killed by some monster on a higher floor lmaooooo
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): I'm trying to kill the Demon King and destroy the Demon King's tower, so killing invaders as efficiently as possible might actually be the path that saves more lives in the end.
↳ Anon (246F): That mindset is absolutely legendary lmaooo
↳ Anon (639F): Utilitarianism, damn
↳ Anon (543F): I mean, once you enter the tower you're basically dead anyway, so yeah
The Treasure Keeper—who had shown me goodwill right up until the moment it realized I'd deceived it.
The instant it died at the hands of those black-stained fingers, I knew I had to kill the Demon King. No matter what.
↳ Anon (324F): It's a lot, but hey, good luck.
↳ Anon (248F): Hell yeah, what ambition
↳ Anon (643F): That mindset is genuinely insane.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Seo-yun really does want to kill the Demon King from the bottom of her heart…
As the various reactions poured in, I muttered to myself.
*The policy of squeezing out maximum efficiency stays the same.*
It simply meant I wouldn't let myself operate in a panic state because of invaders.
What I needed to start right now was clear.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Ha-rin, you said earlier I was short on circles. If I get more circles, I can learn the skill that lets me equip two artifacts at once, right?
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Yeah, that's right. Mental Fork requires 3 circles.
↳ Anon (100F) (OP): Got it. I'll go get a circle and be back.
↳ Seol Ha-rin: Good luck!
↳ Anon (643F): Curious how many hours she'll cut it in this time.
I closed the Gallery.
3rd circle.
It took 1 hour for the 1st circle, 2 hours for the 2nd.
So the 3rd?
If I just grabbed the first one I found, it wouldn't take long—but I wanted to take my time with this one.
For the 2nd circle, I'd compromised on the selection because I was pressed for time.
I'd decided not to do that anymore.
I turned to the Blood Knight waiting behind me.
I opened my inventory and laid out a set of objects.
"Blood Knight—similar to last time, but this one's going to take a bit longer. Every time you complete a lap around the corridor, move one of these items to the other side. Once you've moved them all, wake me up."
⟨…By your command…!⟩
With that 24-hour safety measure in place, I sat cross-legged on the floor and closed my eyes.
"Haah…"
I exhaled deeply and focused my consciousness on my dantian.
*
*
*
Submersion.
My consciousness sank into the darkness.
This part was remarkably fast. Probably because my Intelligence stat had gone up.
After that, the Parched Wasteland spread out before me, just like before.
A familiar sight by now.
"Let's see…"
But there was something different from last time.
The black rings were scattered far more sparsely this time.
Probably because this was the 3rd circle.
"…Shall we begin."
I kicked off the ground and leaped.
Shwoooosh—!
At the same moment, the edges of my vision warped.
"…!"
Blindingly fast. I was startled by my own speed.
With every step I took, the earth cratered beneath me, and the recoil launched my body forward with tremendous force.
"I think I'm going over 200 kilometers per hour…"
I was getting a real feel for how much my Agility stat had risen.
"Black Shift."
I made sure not to forget to use the teleport every time the ribbon's cooldown reset.
At the same time, I concentrated mana into my eyes.
Doing so let me perceive nearly a 1-kilometer radius in a single sweep.
The search efficiency was incomparable to when I had the 2nd circle.
"Oh…!"
Before long, a fairly large ring came into view.
I approached quickly and gauged its size.
"…No, this won't do. This one's about the same as the 2nd circle."
Not a bad size, but it didn't satisfy me.
I hadn't been searching for very long yet, either.
*Definitely finding one that's noticeably bigger than the 1st circle.*
With that decided, I headed in a single direction and kept going.
Some time passed.
One thing began to feel suspicious.
"They're thinning out…"
It seemed like the number of rings scattered around was decreasing.
The further I went, the more that hypothesis was being confirmed.
Completely sparse.
There were definitely far fewer than where I'd started.
I ran another dozen or so kilometers.
And finally.
I reached a place where there wasn't a single ring anywhere.
"So there's a boundary to this space…!"
The moment I realized that, I couldn't help but think—I should map out this entire space.
"Let me draw a map in my head."
With that decided.
I finished calculating how long it would take to search every corner of this space.
"…I can do it."
*
A considerable amount of time passed.
It felt like at least three full days had gone by.
Pure, unadulterated grind.
The silver lining was that there was no thirst or hunger,
and since there was a clear end in sight, there was no mental strain.
It wasn't even a difficult task—the structure was simple: find the biggest one, and that becomes the only candidate.
Everything proceeded according to plan, and the search went smoothly.
*
About a week by subjective feel.
I succeeded in identifying the largest ring in the entire space.
It would have been impossible without the Magic Eye.
"The one 19 kilometers from here… was the biggest."
I headed toward where that ring was.
*
I confirmed it in person again.
"…It looks at least 50% bigger than the 1st circle."
Truly a specimen of historic proportions.
Honestly, the moment I saw this ring, I had a feeling nothing bigger existed.
But the time hadn't been wasted.
I now had the certainty that this was the largest one.
"Phew… finally."
I approached the ring and gripped it with both hands.
I lifted it.
Just like before, the ground stretched like melted cheese—
Crrrrrrrk—!
AAAAAAAAHHH—!!!!!!
Someone's scream rang out.
"Sorry."
With that apology, I yanked the ring free and pushed it into my dantian.
Whirrrrrrr—!
And I returned to reality and opened my eyes.
*
*
*
I checked the hologram time.
"11 hours…"
About half my vacation time had evaporated, but inside it had felt like a week, so it didn't feel like much time at all.
I now held 3 circles within my dantian.
But.
"Ugh…!"
A sudden wave of nausea surged up.
My dantian was in chaos.
The newly arrived 3rd circle couldn't mesh with the existing 1st and 2nd circles at all—it had broken free of its orbit and was running wild.
Even the 1st and 2nd circles, which had been rotating stably, had their axes twisted by the shockwave.
A gut-wrenching, skull-splitting pain.
"Hnngh…!"
But I had already learned the technique from when I'd settled the 2nd circle.
I immediately straightened my cross-legged posture and closed both eyes.
I mobilized my mana and forcibly compressed all three rings.
Hmmm—! Hmmmmm—!
I set the smallest 2nd circle as the center, and sent the 1st circle into the outer orbit around it.
Then I carefully threaded the largest, most unruly 3rd circle into the intersection point of the two rings, and let mana flow through like lubricant.
Screeeeech—!
Sssssss—
The three rings ground against each other, then gradually began rotating in a steady rhythm.
"Haah…"
Stabilization complete.
The nausea subsided, and a clear, refreshing energy circulated through my entire body.
I immediately opened the Gallery.
"Huh…"
The moment I opened it, I could see it was in an uproar.
[Title: When's newbie coming back? When's newbie coming back? When's newbie co..]
[Title: The separation anxiety is killing me for real.]
[Title: No wait this is actually normal lol]
[Title: Where'd the guy who said he'd hold his breath until newbie came back go.]
[Title: Anyone who bet 5 hours or under, get rekt]
Probably because I'd taken so much longer than last time.
It seemed like they'd even started betting on how long it would take me to get the 3rd circle.
I typed.
______
[Title: Got 3rd circle and stabilized. Done.
Author: Anon (100F)
Why are you all making such a fuss—you were the ones saying it shouldn't take under a day;;
Though I almost did cut it in 10 minutes this time.
The reason it took 11 hours is….
…
…
_____
I included an explanation of how I'd searched every single ring scattered throughout that space.
I hit refresh.
And as always, the hooks came flooding in, opening the floodgates.
↳ Anon (643F): ?
↳ Anon (276F): ????
↳ Anon (287F): lmaooooooooooooooo
↳ Anon (756F): Wait, that's actually possible? You compared every single circle in there?