______
Title: At this point, can we just trust Floor-574 a little!
Author: Anon(431F)
Floor-574 is seriously too pitiful.
Getting screwed over for no reason…
Did he actually do anything wrong?
He pushed a brand-new newbie who'd been possessed for all of one minute to climb higher floors.
He butted in while a natural same-species named account was teaching stat distribution.
He told the newbie some hero they'd never even seen would be weak and basically scammed them.
He gambled with a newbie's life telling them to push to floor 50 on basic attacks.
Honestly must feel so unfair ㅠㅠ
[Comments]
Anon(312F): Is this actually a backhanded compliment? Everything except the last one was right though?
└ Anon(429F): Average brainless Floor-574 fanboy lmaooooo
└ Anon(431F)(OP): I wrote this as a variation of a variation of a past exam question?
_______
Floor-574's claim that climbing to floor 50 was fine had enormous reach.
It spawned all manner of garbage posts and split the Gallery down the middle.
Public opinion was roughly fifty-fifty.
Considering he'd been treated like a complete cult leader at first, it was a massive reputation boost.
But.
My own feelings were moving in the opposite direction from public opinion.
Because a vague thought had been nagging at me.
*Do I actually need to climb fast?*
The decision to stop climbing and commit to training wasn't because I'd gotten less scared.
It was because of something I'd been dimly thinking about—and it had just become clear.
I wrote a post.
______
Title: Something I realized after climbing to floor 9...
Author: Anon(9F)
Raising floor count doesn't seem like it helps survival much.
Doesn't matter whether the hero is originally weaker than me, about the same, or stronger.
1. If the hero is weaker than me
I'll win anyway, so there's no reason to run upward.
2. If the hero is about the same as me
Even if I level up by climbing, the hero will kill the same mobs and grow the same way coming up.
No matter what floor we meet on, it ends up as a same-level matchup.
3. If the hero is stronger than me
They're stronger than me, so there's no floor I can climb to that they can't reach.
I die either way.
So the conclusion is that unless I can escape above floor 100, training is probably better.
_______
I waited a bit, then hit refresh.
[Comments]
Fenrir: So you're saying you need a variable other than tower-granted EXP to get stronger relative to someone at the same level. Smart.
└ Anon(9F)(OP): Exactly. Thanks for summing it up.
└ Anon(351F): Good analysis. I only ever thought about the hero not coming at all—never thought about it this way.
└ Anon(431F): But if there's more than one hero, wouldn't climbing the tower give less EXP per person so they wouldn't get that strong?
└ Anon(9F)(OP): If they combine forces they'd probably be roughly comparable?
└ Anon(654F): That's honestly an unknowable variable. Someone in our group would have to have partied up before to know lol
Various things were said, but no definitive conclusion emerged.
My post was just theorycrafting anyway.
Fenrir: Whatever the case, I'm unconditionally in favor of training.
└ Anon(231F) Fr let's rest a bit.
Anon(541F): But the hero might just never show up at all, you're way too worried about the hero
└ Anon(145F): Honestly this is probably the most likely scenario.
*"The hero might never come, huh…"*
It was something that had come up a lot from the very beginning.
But I figured those thoughts only existed because no one in this Gallery had ever actually seen a hero.
The hero was treated like an urban legend here, so that made sense.
From my perspective down in the low floors, though, the hero felt less like a ghost and more like a serial killer.
"I guess the perception gap is as wide as the floor gap."
Just then, one comment caught my eye.
Anon(774F): But climbing the tower lets you earn money too, so there is a way to get stronger relative to the same level. You can gear up from the Golden Carriage.
Huh? Gear up with what??
"What is this, buying a rifle at the PX…"
└ Anon(9F)(OP): Why are you only telling me this now. I wrote that whole essay for nothing.
└ Anon(774F): nah but there aren't many items that make you that much stronger. The ones that do exist are insanely expensive. And there's no guarantee the current Golden Carriage stock will have anything that fits you.
So that's how it is.
Whether to call it fortunate that I can't get that much stronger.
I was chewing on that bitter thought when a comment from the Death God named account appeared.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: For you, creating your 1st circle right now is more important than anything else!
└ Death Note Grand Canon: With your base stats, it would have taken a week of meditation.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: However, if you invest all 12 of your remaining stat points into Intelligence, you will surpass the threshold of 27 Intelligence, and three days will be more than enough to obtain a single circle. If you have talent, even one day may suffice!
└ Anon(321F): Nagging machine go brrr lol
└ Anon(431F): He's so scared the newbie will bail that he keeps repeating himself lmaooooooooo
└ Anon(377F): How convenient that it's exactly 27 lmaooo look at him lying just to get them to dump everything into Intelligence.
Right. Three days.
That should be fine.
The thought of the hero entering while my eyes are closed is terrifying, but… he also said he'd excommunicate me if I ignored his advice again, so I have no choice.
Training begins.
I checked the Death God named account's comments.
Death Note Grand Canon: When you still your mind through meditation, you will see something within the abyss.
└ Anon(9F)(OP): What am I supposed to see?
Death Note Grand Canon: …It is the place from which you will draw your circle. To be precise, you must see the Black Sea.
The Black Sea, huh.
I wondered if it was a visual of the ocean filled with crude oil instead of water.
But whatever it was, it seemed like a random thing to involve in making a circle.
Someone asked a question.
└ Anon(151F): The sea? What do you mean draw a circle? Isn't a circle something you build inside yourself?
└ Anon(351F): A magic student has entered the chat
└ Anon(710F): Magic and Black Magic are different. With Black Magic, you don't make the circle yourself.
I asked a question.
└ Anon(9F)(OP): So I just fish out a circle from that sea?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Correct. Sink your mind into that jet-black boundless sea, and then dive within it to draw out a circle.
└ Makanong: Splish splash sounds fun ^ㅡ^
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Know this: the larger and heavier the circle that comes to your hand, the better. However, once you have grasped a circle, do not release it, no matter how small it may be.
└ Anon(9F)(OP): Understood.
└ Anon(132F): Why didn't you tell them to look for the sea sooner? Could've mentioned that from the start.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: It is never good to announce the result in advance. Doing so only causes the practitioner to imagine the result. The Black Sea is not something you conjure through association. It is something you see directly.
└ Anon(132F): Then you might as well not have mentioned the sea at all lol
└ Anon(131F): Probably worried they'd wander off in the wrong direction if it was too vague
*"A black sea… but I mustn't imagine it."*
Try not to think of an elephant, and an elephant is exactly what you'll think of.
*"This is going to be pretty hard."*
First, I opened my stat window and dumped all 12 points straight into Intelligence.
[Intelligence stat has increased by 12.]
"Hmm…"
I felt like my head had cleared just the tiniest bit, but there was no visible change.
I checked the posts one last time before starting meditation.
_____
Title: Watching the newbie power-level
Author: Anon(432F)
Makes me feel good too.
Pushing all the way to floor 9 in a single day is genuinely satisfying.
From my perspective at floor 432, the stats and floor count are adorably small, but somehow it looks cool.
Maybe because theoretically they can eat all the gold and EXP from floor 1 all the way to floor 999.
Feels like their future is wide open.
Hope they escape just like this.
[Comments]
Anon(520F): After hyping this up, the feeling's gonna get weird when they actually catch up to your floor count lol
└ Anon(432F): nah I'd be happy, I bought in at the bottom with this post.
Anon(512F): I feel sick from how fast it's going.
Anon(710F): I want to see them use Black Magic soon. So hyped to see their first reaction to an instant-kill skill.
______
Everyone seemed to be watching my growth with a kind of proud satisfaction.
I was grateful.
But I was puzzled.
*"What does 'bought in at the bottom' even mean?"*
I wrote a post.
______
Title: It's nice that you guys want good things for me, but.
Author: Anon(9F)
What does it matter to you all whether I climb higher?
___
It was a fundamental question.
Comments came quickly.
[Comments]
Makanong: Ugh… doesn't matter, you say… I'm hurt…
Anon(418F): Ah, you still don't know what it means to reach floor 1000.
Fenrir: There's a Demon King on floor 1000.
└ Fenrir: If you win the promotion match on floor 999 and climb to floor 1000, you become the new Demon King.
└ Fenrir: Becoming the Demon King means you gain control of the tower. If you open the doors of every parallel-universe Demon King's Tower, the rest of us can all escape from our towers too.
*"The Demon King gives up his throne through a promotion match?"*
So even the Demon King isn't exempt from the law of the jungle.
It was a little late in coming, but I'd learned something new.
*"Because one person escaping means everyone escapes—that's why they're rooting for me."*
The flip side of that was that no one had escaped yet, but…
I didn't worry about that.
Because I was going to be that one person.
I set my scythe down on the floor and sank to the ground.
"I'd better get this done first…"
Meditation, attempt 2.
I settled into position.
The frilled skirt cascaded over my knees and covered my legs, and at the same moment my eyelids fell, cutting off my vision entirely.
*"Oh…"*
It happened immediately.
This was the moment I felt the effect of Intelligence that the Death God teacher had been singing about.
"It's calm…"
My head had been a complete mess before.
That wasn't a focus problem on my part.
The situation I was in had turned me into someone with an anxiety disorder.
No need to elaborate.
Starting with becoming a *female Death God*—everything had been spinning out of control.
But right now, my head was clean, like I'd taken ADHD medication.
The fog had lifted.
Stray thoughts vanished and my breathing slowed.
"Huu…"
Only the sensations of my body remained sharp.
Lower abdomen.
The dantian.
A heavy energy made itself felt deep in my lower belly.
The unpleasant remark about how having a uterus would make this easier—it was true.
I focused my consciousness there.
Like that.
Several minutes…
Several hours…
I lost track of how much time had passed.
And at some point I couldn't identify.
Something began to appear, faintly.
"…!"
It was breathtaking.
Like someone who had been blind their whole life opening their eyes for the very first time.
Not a metaphor—it was the truth. It was the first time I had opened my eyes inward.
A new eye had been born.
But its vision was still poor.
Blurry, like frost had formed on the lens of a window.
There was something to find with this unfamiliar visual organ.
The Black Sea.
Expecting the spray of waves, I sank deeper.
Slowly.
Little by little.
Deeper still.
More time passed.
Then it happened.
"…!"
Something made contact.
Even my sense of touch had synchronized.
It felt like a new body had come into being.
A landscape revealed itself.
"…?"
The view was hazy, but even at a glance, it was clearly not a sea.
What I felt at my feet was…
Solid ground.
Earth cracked and split as if scorched by a long drought.
"Incredibly dry."
A wasteland without a single drop of moisture.
*Reverse sea* seemed like a fitting name for it.
And scattered across this parched, fissured ground were several black rings.
"Looks like olive toppings on a pizza."
"…"
"These must be circles…?"
In context, that seemed more likely than olives.
It was supposed to be drawn from a sea, but it looked like I could just pick them up from here.
*"Bigger is better, right…?"*
Keeping that in mind, I surveyed the circles.
*"They all look about the same…"*
The sizes were more or less identical.
There seemed to be some size variation, but only subtly.
*"I'll have to walk around and pick."*
Trudge, trudge.
I walked for a good while.
But came up empty.
"Should I just grab whatever looks reasonably big…"
It felt like I'd been walking for nearly several hours.
Places like this, by universal law, either run several times faster or slower than outside time.
If the latter, I'd take a nap, but if the former, that's a problem.
My mind was growing anxious, and I was about to give up and grab something at random.
"What's that."
Far in the distance, I spotted something conspicuously enormous.
So large I thought it was an optical illusion.
I approached.
"Why is this one like this."
An unusually massive circle.
The other rings were earring-sized, but this one was the size of a large tire all on its own.
*Jackpot.* I hoisted the prize baby up in one motion—
And remarkably, the hypothesis that it looked like a pizza olive gained sudden credibility.
Strrretch—
The ground where the ring had been lying stretched out like pizza cheese as I lifted it.
Curious how far it would stretch, I raised it above my head.
That's when it happened.
ZZZZZZZZZT!!!!!!!!!!!
A thunderous sound of cheese tearing rang out.
And as if it were someone's body part being ripped away…
GYAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
A scream followed.
"It's not even a mandrake…"
Whirrrrrrr—!
The ring then began to spin, so I let go.
It spun so fast it kicked up a wind.
My hair whipped around.
I squinted.
The thing was drawing closer to me.
"Oh—"
It touched my lower abdomen.
I was a little scared, but I held still.
It bored in.
And then it was inscribed.
A slight pain.
"Ah!"
I cried out in surprise and my eyes flew open.
"Hah—"
Back inside the tower.
Not my studio apartment in Seoul.
The situation where everything had been a dream did not come to pass.
Maybe that parched land had been a dream too.
"…"
I flipped up my skirt and checked my stomach, but there was nothing there.
Feeling hollow, I closed my eyes on a whim.
And I realized something had changed.
Whirrrrrrr—!
A single enormous circle was making its presence known within my inner world.
I had become a 1st-circle mage.
"How much time has passed?"
I checked the holographic clock.
I was stunned.
An unbelievable amount of time.