Something damp swept across my cheek.
Lick. Lick.
A familiar sensation.
More insistent than usual today.
"Ugh… Mongie… stop it…"
Dogs must know how to read clocks.
Whenever I slept in, they'd lick my face to wake me up with uncanny precision.
"Mongie, just a little longer…"
Half-asleep, I mumbled and reached out to push Mongie's face away.
'Huh…?'
Something was off.
Mongie's snout was way too big.
A chill ran through my entire body.
And the shape of it—an alien curve.
"…!"
Right.
I'm possessing the goth-lolita girl.
This is floor 25 of the Demon King's Tower.
'So what's been licking my face is…'
Flash!
The moment my eyes opened, I jolted upright in a panic.
[Fatigue Penalty: Ended]
"WHOA! What the—!!!"
"Hiiieee—!"
Startled by my scream, the beast reared up on its front legs and cried out.
"…A horse?"
Two horses.
The one that had been licking me—still pushing its muzzle toward my face—was a jet-black horse with irises so dark even the whites of its eyes were pitch black.
Clatter—
Beside it stood a horse made entirely of bones, tilting its head as it stared at me.
"What are these two…"
Visually, they seemed to be on Team Demon Army, but I was still confused.
I looked up at the ceiling.
"Did they come down from an upper floor?"
Why had they suddenly appeared on my floor?
Had they woken me up to stand watch or something?
More than that—I'd heard the Demon King's Tower was one-way, meaning you couldn't go from an upper floor back down to a lower one…
I crawled along the floor and scooted backward.
As I did, my field of view widened, and beyond the two horses, I spotted something.
"A carriage?"
A golden carriage with absurdly extravagant decorations was connected to the horses by their reins.
"Ah. So this is the Golden Carriage…"
It clicked.
This was the mobile shop the Gallery users had talked about.
The one that came on payday.
"……"
I stared blankly up at the carriage.
"Huh?"
"Wait—"
"Oh…"
My lips trembled.
"Are you kidding me. Three whole days have passed?!!!!"
My scream rang out across floor 25.
Whinny!
The horses startled, stamping their front hooves and thrashing about.
I rushed over and stroked their necks to calm them down.
"Whoa… easy… sorry for scaring you…"
Then I opened my hologram and checked the time.
"It's real… three days have passed. I thought I'd just dozed off for a bit…"
So a Death God was a living creature that needed sleep.
After the meditation, my mind had been so clear I'd assumed I didn't need anything like that.
I hadn't even been hungry.
Grumble—
Right now… for the first time, I was.
"I thought I lived on morning dew…"
I'd been under the delusion that this body was some kind of fairy-like being that transcended the human condition.
What an embarrassing mistake.
"Why was the Hero even worried…"
All that frantic urgency about needing to flee to the upper floors as fast as possible—it looked ridiculous now.
For the moment, I pulled up my hologram and logged into the Gallery.
The Gallery was, as expected, in complete meltdown.
______
Title: It was fun while it lasted…
Author: Anon (741F)
{Full-body photo of the girl with the scythe}
She will forever remain in our hearts as the eternal dopamine GOAT.
Rest in peace…
[Comments]
Anon (431F): 9 floors in a single day was genuinely insane…
Anon (315F): ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Anon (741F): Back to reading garbage posts I guess, ffs
______
They'd gone ahead and made a memorial portrait.
The Gallery users had declared my absence a death.
"This makes it even scarier to show up now…"
______
Title: But are we actually sure she's dead…? Isn't it still possible we don't know?
Author: Anon (312F)
Am I the only one still in denial?
[Comments]
Anon (148F): It's been three days and you still can't let go. Just accept it.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Wait, what even happened three days ago. I missed it
Anon (312F) (OP): I thought starting on floor 1 meant something special since it's a floor nobody's seen before… damn…
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Wait there was a floor 1?? That's insane
└ Anon (731F): Bro write your Golden Carriage review before you go digging through old posts…
└ Anon (431F): Fr, do your job first. You only show up on payday anyway.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Did someone assign me a review?
______
There was a username I'd never seen before.
Must be the Golden Carriage specialist.
I made a mental note of the name, then backed out and checked the other posts.
One title made me flinch.
"Huh…"
______
Title: Death Note Grand Canon, 574F—ban these absolute pieces of shit already, for real.
Author: Anon (312F)
These two assholes kept pushing her to climb recklessly and told her to off herself and all that crap, and now a newbie's dead because of it.
[Comments]
Anon (374F): Should've just let her dump points into Strength… looks like she went INT/MP and got wrecked;;;
Anon (231F): Wait, is it actually true you can get skills by dying?
└ Anon (114F): Fr, might be.
Anon (505F): The second news about the newbie went quiet, these guys immediately went dark. Disgusting.
______
The profanity was flying thick and fast.
The Death God teacher and Floor-574 were being publicly executed.
I felt a pang of guilt.
I quickly hammered out a new post.
"Better write this politely…"
______
Title: I'm sorry, I'm the one managing floor 25 of the Demon King's Tower…
Author: Anon (25F)
I'm not dead ㅠㅠ Sorry for worrying everyone. Took a while, right? Anyway, I've made it to floor 25.
Post.
One second. Two seconds.
The moment I hit refresh, the comment section exploded.
[Comments]
Anon (418F): ???????????????
Anon (148F): Holy shit you're ALIVE!!!!!!!
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Wait what, 25F??? That's insane. Hold on she's not dead?? I thought she was dead lmao
└ Anon (431F): She was on 1F before lol. Three days ago it was legendary. She hit floor 9 in a single day.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: ? How do you get to floor 9 in one day.
└ Anon (431F): That's what I'm saying lol
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Insane… going to read the posts from three days ago right now.
Makanong: Unnie ㅠㅠㅠ
Fenrir: God I seriously thought you were dead!!!!!
Anon (341F): Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit!!!!
Meowy: Was worried, meow…
Anon (241F): As long as you're alive, that's all that matters. Thank god, seriously.
Anon (312F): But why did it take so long!! I thought you were gone!
└ Anon (505F): What the hell happened on floor 25. Tell us right now.
A torrent of profanity and cheers, tangled up in fierce affection.
Everyone was dying to know what had happened.
I scratched the back of my head and replied.
└ Anon (25F) (OP): Well… it only took about half a day to clear through to floor 25, but…
└ Anon (312F): ?
└ Anon (648F): ??
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: EXCUSE ME??? So you got to floor 25 in a single day????
└ Fenrir: Then why did it take 3 days? Was there some kind of waiting mechanic?
└ Anon (712F): Sleep gas gimmick? Petrification? Illusion?
└ Anon (25F) (OP): No, it wasn't anything like that… I just… had a bit of a sleep situation… slept for 3 days…
That prompted a flood of question marks.
└ Fenrir: ?
└ Anon (148F): ??
└ Anon (418F): You… slept?
└ Anon (25F) (OP): I thought I'd just napped for a bit, but when I woke up three days had passed… sorry.
As I made my excuses, comments started rolling in with disbelieving laughs.
└ Anon (741F): Legendary. Legendary. Legendary.
└ Fenrir: As long as you're alive, that's what matters…
└ Anon (341F): Were literally crying and now acting all cool about it??
Just then, one of the usernames that had been getting publicly executed quietly made an appearance.
Anon (574F): Glad you're safe.
└ Anon (418F): Whoa, this guy wasn't actually gone lol
└ Anon (174F): Guess he was sweating it too lmao
└ Anon (566F): Was he actually worried about her?
└ Anon (354F): Welcome back, Brain Emperor.
└ Anon (431F): Ears perked, seated and ready.
└ Anon (443F): These guys were basically calling for his head and now they're rolling out the welcome mat?? lmaooo
└ Anon (354F): Did you not know everyone here runs hot and cold?
└ Anon (621F): The audacity lmaooo
A plain, no-frills survival check-in.
And shortly after, the other person who'd been fingered as the second culprit appeared.
Death Note Grand Canon: You have awakened safely! Tell me—have you encountered the Great Stone Tablet in the Death God Realm? Did you use Death's Edge Invincibility in a crisis?!!
└ Anon (25F) (OP): No, not yet. I literally just slept the whole time…
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Tch. You've wasted time.
└ Anon (25F) (OP): Anyway, I'm going to keep climbing. Got a good long rest in, so I feel great. The fatigue debuff is gone from my status window too.
└ Anon (25F) (OP): But do Death Gods normally sleep all at once like this?
I wasn't trying to blame him for not telling me.
Pure curiosity.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: That varies from Death God to Death God.
└ Anon (418F): DGBD (Depends on the God, Bro, Death-god-by-death-god)
DGBD. Not so different from humans after all.
The moment I thought that, a reply from Floor-574 came in.
└ Anon (574F): If it's not a Death God trait, it's probably a tower trait. The status effect you described is something none of us have seen before. We have Weakness and Exhaustion, but 'Fatigue' wasn't a thing.
Fenrir: We just sit around in the Gallery…
Anon (431F): Fr, just lying around all day lol
Anon (574F): Looks like the tower's fatigue system kicked in. Could be something the Demon King set up because of the Hero. A mechanism to stop the Hero from climbing the tower recklessly.
└ Anon (431F): Brain Emperor theory machine go brrr
A fatigue system, huh.
As a gamer, it was a familiar and plausible explanation.
But why was a human fatigue system being applied to me?
Anon (25F) (OP): I'm not the Hero, so why am I getting the debuff…
└ Fenrir: Probably just applies to everyone, I'd guess.
└ Anon (431F): You're on the Demon King's shit list, that's why. Good luck.
Anon (25F) (OP): ?
└ Anon (351F): Don't give me that question mark face. You didn't figure it out? You should've caught on from being placed on floor 1…
└ Anon (751F): Floor 1 placement really can't be explained any other way than being out of favor.
So this Death God goth-lolita was on the Demon King's bad side.
There was no way to know. I hadn't inherited any of her memories.
Either way—if there was a fatigue mechanic, did that mean I could only climb around 20 floors a day?
"That's kind of a big problem."
Anon (25F) (OP): So I should assume there's a cap on how many floors I can climb per day? Like I can't just go up 50 floors in one shot?
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Probably fine if you drink a Fatigue Recovery Potion?
└ Fenrir: Right. Those exist. I always wondered who'd ever buy those.
└ Anon (351F): Please stop making it so obvious you've been lounging around…
└ Anon (439F): We never get tired so lol
So there were Fatigue Recovery Potions. That was a relief. I had plenty of money, so I'd have to stock up.
└ Anon (574F): The carriage just arrived for you, right? Two horses?
└ Anon (25F) (OP): Yes.
Those horses had woken me up.
Come to think of it, that was a stroke of luck.
The Hero's sword could've been the thing knocking on my skull to wake me up instead.
└ Anon (574F): What you need to buy—SSS-Rank Gear Chaser ← this person will help you
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: ?
└ Anon (481F): Sudden handoff, I'm confused lmaooo
└ Anon (351F): Brain Emperor, are you now delegating to named users as your assistants… Great Brain Emperor indeed.
└ Anon (481F): Insubordination incoming since they'll never actually meet lmaooo
└ Anon (574F): First, open your status window and check how much gold you're currently holding.
Current gold.
I tapped the currency tab sitting small in the corner of the status window on my hologram panel.
And then—
[Demon Army Regular Salary has been processed.]
[Floor: 25 / Amount Paid: 25 G]
A notification had been waiting, saying my paycheck had come in.
I felt a strange mix of emotions.
"I… became a salaried worker…"
Job secured.
My landlord would be thrilled.
Except for the fact that it was a 'black-collar' profession.
And… when I looked at it alongside the gold I'd received as floor-clear rewards, it was a pittance of a paycheck.
The floor-clear rewards from floor 2 through floor 25, increasing by 100 gold each floor, added up to exactly 30,000 gold.
And the monthly salary was 25 gold.
So the total…
[Gold Held: 30,025 G]
└ Anon (25F) (OP): I've got 30,025 gold.
The moment I posted that number, the reactions were explosive.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: How does a 4-day newbie have this much money lmaooooo
└ Anon (387F): Because she cleared everything from floor 1 on the way up.
└ Anon (394F): 30k gold in under a week lmaooooooo
└ Anon (418F): I knew it but it's still shocking lmaooo
└ Anon (721F): Give me your money give me your money give me your money give me your money
└ Anon (574F): Genuinely legendary. She'll be able to buy everything she needs on her first carriage visit.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: No… wow… I'm salivating.
└ Anon (433F): Hey, stop drooling.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: God I'm itching to build her a gear set, this is insane
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: I'll put together a full loadout for you, just wait. Let me write the carriage review first.
└ SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: Ugh, should I just skip this month's review? It's such a hassle.
└ Anon (751F): ? You have to do your job, man…
I was a little dazed.
30,000 gold must be enough to do quite a lot.
I walked toward the carriage.
"Inside here…"
I carefully pulled open the door of the enormous golden carriage.
Creak—
[Opening the Golden Carriage's stall.]
I took one look at the items laid out on the display shelves and couldn't help but suck in a breath.
"Wait…? Huh?"
The merchandise was something else entirely.