Juhyeok and his companions returned to the penthouse.
They put the dining table and chairs back where they belonged.
'No matter how I think about it, this is insane.'
Rajiks had become SSR.
Two things had changed.
First.
Earth items could now go into Rajiks's subspace backpack.
It wasn't that Earth items were absolutely forbidden from entering the Tower.
Clothes you were wearing, shoes, hats, smartphones, body cams, pistols—there were items that were allowed.
This was called a "personal item classification."
Small, lightweight items you could hold in your hands.
But no matter how small an item was, it couldn't be stored in the Tower-exclusive inventory.
Players simply carried those items in with them.
The Tower-exclusive inventory was only for items received from the Tower.
Now, all of that had changed.
As long as the size was reasonable, the limits were gone.
An all-purpose worker and an all-purpose porter.
You could put almost anything into Rajiks's backpack.
Second.
Item detection ability.
When Rajiks was R (Rare), he could only smell ore.
But now that he was SSR, his item-search ability seemed to have advanced by at least two stages.
That was probably why he'd found the Blink Ring and the fragments.
Juhyeok took the ring out of his inventory.
It was covered in scratches, likely from the passage of time.
Fortunately, it wasn't rusted.
'Blink, huh… let's try it.'
As soon as he put the ring on, the method of use surfaced in his mind.
A kind of short-range teleportation.
Long distances were impossible.
About three meters was the limit.
"Blink!"
Flash.
Juhyeok, who had been in the living room, appeared in the kitchen.
'Whoa!'
Let's keep going.
Blink, blink, blink, blink…
Flash, flash, flash, flash…
Like a ghost from a horror movie, Juhyeok's figure popped up all over the house.
"Ugh, I'm getting dizzy, sir."
"Hoeee…"
"Truly an excellent art of shifting forms and positions."
"The warrior is relieved. The summoner is now safer."
Had he used it about five times?
Ten consecutive uses were possible.
It recharged once every two hours, but there was no need to use it all up.
And then there were the Unknown Rune Fragment (1/7) and the Unknown Ticket Fragment (1/5).
Judging from the item information, the rune was one-seventh of a whole, and the ticket one-fifth.
So far, the runes Juhyeok knew were the Rune of Level-Up, the Summoned Rank Increase Rune, and the Trait Enhancement Rune.
As for tickets, there were Tower Jump Tickets, Skill Cooldown Reset Tickets, Multinational Tower Access Tickets, and Guaranteed Rank Summon Tickets.
Of course, that couldn't be all.
They said that as you climbed higher floors of the Tower, items that had never appeared before would start showing up.
What if the Unknown Rune Fragment turned out to be a Trait Enhancement Rune?
What if the Unknown Ticket Fragment was a Skill Cooldown Reset Ticket?
And what if these fragments could be combined?
'That'd be a jackpot of jackpots.'
In fact, there was something Juhyeok had been worrying about while clearing up to the 60th floor.
The opportunities to receive perks were steadily decreasing.
There were currently 61 Platinum Badges in his inventory.
By calculation, he would receive a perk on the 64th floor.
And after that?
The next one would be the 69th floor.
If he used a Multinational Tower Access Ticket, that would be the 68th floor.
But from the 67th floor onward, you couldn't just brute-force your way through.
You had to climb slowly, in line with the conquest deadlines.
When would he even reach the 68th floor?
He only had one Multinational Tower Access Ticket left.
But with Rajiks's ability?
Runes and tickets that you normally could only obtain as perks or Tower clear rewards—already extremely rare to begin with—could now be created through "gathering."
After realizing that, how could he just sit still?
First, they needed to see whether fragments of the same type would combine.
"I think we need to enter other floors too. To look for fragments."
The summoned nodded at Juhyeok's suggestion.
"What about the 61st floor? The uncleared upper floor, I mean."
It was a decent idea, but they also had to consider an S++ clear.
"Let's go there with the holy sword."
After coordinating schedules with Deputy Director Jeon Gwang-il.
"Then should we go to the 60th floor? I bet tons of people died there."
"Well…"
That wasn't a great choice.
The 60th floor was where the Wyvern Lord and Venom Wyverns appeared.
Naturally, many people must have died there.
But the real issue was whether anything had remained intact.
"Because of the poison pools on the 60th floor, both bodies and items might've completely melted away."
"Ah! Right, sir."
"Truly a wise judgment."
"Hoe!"
In the end, the best choice was—
"Let's go to the 59th floor. Just item searching this time too—no wyvern hunting."
"Yes, sir!"
[Entering the Black Tower of the Republic of Korea, 59th Floor.]
The moment they left the safe zone—
"Rajiks, I'm counting on you."
"Hoeeng!"
Rumble—Rajiks rolled forward at high speed.
Juhyeok followed using Shadow Step.
They paid no attention to the Lightning Wyverns flying overhead.
Kosak, Gobang, Gyeon-dallae, and Veronica stayed alert, providing cover fire with the magic gun.
It was quite a wide area.
Yet Rajiks rolled around effortlessly.
Then—suddenly!
He stopped short.
"Hoe?"
He seemed to have caught a scent.
Swish!
He pulled a golden pickaxe out of his backpack.
And started digging into the ground.
'He found something.'
What could it be?
An item? A fragment?
A tense moment.
Rajiks stopped swinging the pickaxe, then plunged his body straight into the deep pit he'd dug.
"Hoek!"
He pulled out a bent stick-like object.
What was that?
Juhyeok took the stick Rajiks handed him and checked the information.
Effect: Destroyed.
Limit: Cannot be repaired.
"Hm."
It seemed to be made of wood.
The World of the Elves, what…?
No further information appeared.
"What is this even used for?"
Gobang held out his hand.
"I think I know. I'll show you."
"Really?"
Juhyeok handed the stick over to Gobang.
"This is a bow used by herbivores."
A bow?
"If you bend it like this and string the bowstring on both ends—"
Crack!
The stick snapped cleanly in the middle.
"…Oh."
"Gah!"
"I-it broke, sir."
"Oh no."
"Ah!"
Rajiks's body trembled as his eyes welled up with tears.
He'd gone through all that trouble to dig it up.
"Hoeee…."
Kosak exploded in anger and lashed out at Gobang.
"I knew this would happen. Always showing off brute strength—Gobang must take responsibility. Worker Rajiks will never forget this."
"Sir Gobang! How could you be so careless! To break something the Absolute Supreme Farmhand worked so hard to find so easily—cutting off a finger in apology wouldn't even be enough!"
"Damaging supplies is a serious crime. You'll be court-martialed. Sergeant Veronica Caliber, under military law, arrest Gobang. Prepare for one hundred days of confinement."
Gobang looked utterly flustered.
Cold sweat poured down his face as he stumbled backward.
"I-I, the warrior… the warrior is… s-sorry."
Good grief.
Seeing him this panicked—this was the man who could grab a basilisk by the tail and slam it into the ground.
"All right, that's enough. Let's look for something else. It was a mistake, so you should forgive him too, Rajiks."
"Hoeeng."
Once Juhyeok stepped in, the situation quickly settled down.
Rumble—
Rajiks went back to searching.
He stopped short!
Sniffed again.
Then he swung the pickaxe—thunk, thunk, thunk!
This time—
"Hoe!"
Rajiks raised his tiny hand high.
"Oh!"
It was a stone fragment.
Then that meant—
Juhyeok quickly took it and checked.
It really was a rune fragment.
But its color and material were slightly different from the one collected earlier.
Even the completion count was different.
The previous one was (1/7); this one was (1/6).
Just in case, he tried pressing the two together.
'They don't combine.'
Different rune fragments.
No need to be disappointed.
Something similar would show up eventually.
Rajiks kept searching.
Before long, another ticket fragment appeared.
But again, it didn't combine.
'Don't tell me we can only collect fragments?'
Were they never meant to combine at all?
Then—
"Hoe!"
Another paper fragment.
"Well done."
Juhyeok took it and matched it with the ticket fragments he already had.
Slide—
"Huh?"
At last, the fragments fused together.
The item information, which had been Unknown Ticket Fragment, changed to—
"They combined!"
"They stuck together perfectly. Amazing, sir."
"Th-thank goodness."
"Congratulations."
"Supply Officer! Excellent work."
It was now certain.
If you gathered fragments of the same type, they became a complete ticket.
The same would apply to runes.
All thanks to Rajiks.
He was unbelievably adorable.
Juhyeok hugged the dirt-covered Rajiks tightly and said,
"Rajiks."
"Hoeeng?"
"Don't ever go anywhere. Let's stay together for a long, long time."
"Hoeee…"
"Prepare the cheering toss!"
"Huek!"
The ball of fur shot high into the air.
"Don't throw him too high. You might aggro a wyvern."
"Hoeeee?"
At last, Juhyeok felt at ease.
SSR Rajiks—
He himself was the perk.
Beijing, China.
Special Intelligence Division for Tower Conquest.
Even within China's political circles, very few people knew this department existed.
Not even Central Party officials.
Naturally so.
They were kidnapping foreign players and forcing them into China's Tower conquests.
Only a handful knew—the Chinese President and a few Standing Committee members.
Director-General Lai Yuan, head of the Special Intelligence Division, was receiving a report from Deputy Director Xiao Jun.
"Did you find out?"
Lai Yuan's voice was indifferent.
Xiao Jun answered, sweating profusely.
"We compiled a complete list of Korean players. Using Gobang—the keyword mentioned by Crown Prince bin Sala—we're investigating players connected to him."
"Hmph."
Lai Yuan snorted.
"So you still don't know."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Let me ask you something."
Gulp.
Xiao Jun swallowed hard.
"You barely managed to clear the 59th floor by borrowing the strength of the Russians—but with our current players' capabilities, do you think we can break through the 60th floor?"
"…"
Xiao Jun couldn't answer.
Because he knew it was impossible.
"One failure can be tolerated. But not two."
Failure.
The incident where the Special Forces Brigade soldiers infiltrated into Korea to kidnap elite players were killed.
China's Northeastern Special Forces Brigade, led by Deng Guanlin—their finest elite operations team.
They had never failed a mission before.
They weren't the kind of team that could be taken down by the NIS—nor a team that would be wiped out so helplessly even if confronted.
And yet, they were annihilated.
By someone unknown.
"Xiao Jun. You go to Korea yourself. Did you think sitting here and giving orders would be enough? Bring them back no matter what—the Korean S++-grade clear record holder. If you fail, die there."
"…Yes, understood."
Japan was no different.
Prime Minister Kawaguchi took charge personally.
"Mobilize the entire Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office immediately. Don't bring me dead weight—bring me the real prize."
A being absolutely necessary for Japan's future.
"And look into the political side as well. Money is no issue. While you're at it, find out who owns the holy sword… it might be the same person."
It wasn't just China and Japan.
Every nation that was beginning to approach the higher floors started moving at the same time.
Go to Korea.
Find out who Gobang really is, whether he truly is the S++-grade clear record holder—and who the real owner of the holy sword is.
Crown Prince bin Sala of the United Arab Emirates arrived at Incheon International Airport on a private jet.
Because he'd announced his arrival in advance, reporters gathered like clouds.
Bin Sala smiled, answering their questions one by one.
It was an extremely rare sight.
"Your Highness, what brings you to Korea?"
"I plan to discuss the joint development of Korea and the United Arab Emirates."
"Is your purpose to request temporary naturalization for the upcoming 61st-floor conquest? Or to borrow the holy sword?"
"Not temporary naturalization. However, borrowing the holy sword is under consideration."
Questions about Gobang followed.
"What does 'Gobang' mean? Is it a person's name? Or the name of a group?"
"Gobang? I've never heard of it."
"But in the interview—"
"I never said anything like that. You must have misheard."
The reporters were relentless, but Bin Sala denied it firmly.
"What are your future plans while in Korea?"
"Nothing is scheduled yet. I'll be staying at the HG Hotel for now and decide later."
"And your planned departure date?"
"That hasn't been decided yet."
On the news, Bin Sala's expression was calm and relaxed.
It was already the third day of Tower searching.
Even today, they scoured two floors from morning onward, but there were no real results.
A few items that were broken or corroded and no longer functional.
If they at least said "repairable," like the holy sword, they could be fixed and used—but when it flatly said "cannot be repaired," there was nothing to be done.
Fragments were also hard to come by.
It seemed they'd need to go to higher floors.
Maybe there would be more in the 60s?
In any case, Juhyeok had used up all his Tower entry chances for the day.
The summoned were lounging around in the penthouse.
Ding!
A sudden message alert rang on his smartphone.
This is Jeon Gwang-il. If you're not busy, I'd like to meet you. I'm in the apartment's underground parking lot. The car number is…
Perfect timing—he didn't have anything else to do.
Juhyeok headed down to the underground parking lot and found the car.
"Welcome."
"Yes, Deputy Director."
Juhyeok got into the passenger seat.
"I came to give you something."
What was it? Something good?
Jeon Gwang-il handed him two large paper bags from the back seat.
"These are—"
"Yes. High-end luxury bags made by HG Fashion. One is a men's pouch, the other a women's handbag."
Oh!
At a glance, they were anything but ordinary.
With rainbow leather mixed in, they were dazzling to an extreme.
'But they stand out too much.'
How was he supposed to go out carrying something like this?
'Should I give them to Mom and Dad?'
But they wouldn't really suit their age.
"And this as well…"
Jeon Gwang-il showed him a card that looked like a wedding invitation.
"It's an invitation. In a few days, there'll be a Wildflower & Basilisk showcase at the HG Hotel. A fair number came in for the Administration Office. Many elite players are expected to attend."
A showcase—
An event with celebrities you only ever hear about.
"…Th-there'll be a lot of entertainers there too, right?"
"Yes. It's a showcase, after all. It seems mostly top stars were invited."
Meaning he could see, with his own eyes, people he'd only ever seen on TV.
'Wow… that'd be interesting.'
His ears perked up; his interest was piqued.
"If you don't feel like it—"
"No, I'll take it for now."
Juhyeok accepted the invitation and carefully slipped it into his inner pocket.
"Oh! Deputy Director—what's the schedule for the holy sword reservations?"
"In three days, a Norwegian state-affiliated player is scheduled to visit. One week after that, Russia, and then Saudi Arabia."
Three days, huh.
"Then after the Norwegian player uses it, could you hand the holy sword over to me for a bit? I have a use for it."
"Ah! Are you planning to challenge the 61st floor?"
"Yes. I'm thinking of going up. Just to the 66th floor."
"Understood. We'll have Team Leader Lee Min-a deliver it to you in three days."
It would probably be better to search for fragments on higher floors.
With that, all business was done.
Juhyeok said goodbye to Jeon Gwang-il and went back up to the penthouse.
Click—
He opened the door.
Gobang was watching TV with a stiff expression.
The moment he saw Juhyeok—
"Summoner, something is strange."
"What is it?"
"My name keeps coming up on TV."
"What?"
His name?
It turned out to be an interview with Crown Prince Bin Sala of the UAE, who was visiting Korea.
Juhyeok glanced sideways at Kosak.
But Kosak's expression didn't change at all, as if it had nothing to do with him.
Truly shameless. Shameless to the extreme.
At this point, he probably deserved another flick to the forehead.
Juhyeok said calmly to Gobang,
"Could someone be stealing your name?"
"Stealing? As in taking it?"
"Yes. Using your name instead of their own."
Gobang's face flushed red at those words.
"To steal the sacred name bestowed by the summoner—this warrior is enraged. Very angry."
The atmosphere turned ominous.
"…What would you do if you found out who it was?"
"I would break them in half at the waist."
That was a bit much.
"Wouldn't a forehead flick be enough?"
"Very well. If that is the summoner's will, I will restrain myself to a forehead flick."
Juhyeok grinned and said,
"Well, what happened was, back when I tried to negotiate for a trait enhancement rune—"
Spot!
Kosak dashed over in a flash using Shadow Step and whispered urgently.
"B-Bong Summoner."
"…What?"
"Please, just this once. I'll live an upright life from now on."
Well…
What should he do?
Let him off?
Author's Note
This is not a setting error.
The concept of "personal item classification" appears starting from Chapter 6.
Body cams, smartphones, gas masks, pistols—
You can carry those in.
They just can't be stored in the Tower-exclusive inventory.
It seems my explanation was insufficient.
I apologize for the confusion.