When the Rune Necklace of Liberation first appeared,
there was a time I talked about it with the Mad Demon.
He said there were cunning bastards who had deliberately released this item into the world.
I asked who they were, but he didn't give me any details.
As it turned out, they were the Administrators.
The ones lurking behind Diamat, the ones who will do absolutely anything to bring about the collapse of the Tower.
What on earth is their goal?
Why are they doing this?
Could it be that they were the ones who built the Tower in the first place?
Even Diamat couldn't give an answer to that.
She only said that such beings as Administrators exist, that they were the ones who ordered it, and that their ultimate goal was the elimination of summoner players.
'What a joke. Why eliminate me? All I did was climb the Tower. Trying to scare people for no reason.'
Of course, I trust my summoned beings.
Still, honestly speaking, I can't help but feel uneasy.
Anyway, this modest-looking restaurant waitress in her thirties, Lingling—
Diamat released her polymorph and returned to her true form as a succubus.
And not just any succubus.
She was a queen.
A femme fatale's beauty, a tail swaying obscenely, and a scandalously revealing outfit that looked like something a hardcore cosplayer would wear at a comic convention.
When she twisted her body slightly and begged to be spared, my heart practically dropped out of my chest.
It was a fatal temptation for a weak-willed man.
I almost blurted out, "Of course I'll spare you!"
She was definitely a dangerous enchantress.
A beauty capable of toppling nations.
The perfect phrase to describe Diamat.
But now she was asking to defect?
Honestly, I was dumbfounded.
She was a Tower monster.
What is she, some North Korean spy trying to defect?
'…Hmph.'
When you think about it, though, it does make a certain kind of sense.
If you look at it one way, Diamat was a Tower spy—someone dispatched to Earth on an Administrator's mission to sow chaos and division.
'So that's why she's using the word "defection."'
What should I do?
"P-Please, spare my life."
Honestly, I don't even know why she's acting like this.
Despite being a Tower monster, her will to live is incredibly strong.
She's just a soul anyway.
Even if she dies, she'd reset and come back to life.
"If I die outside the Tower, my soul is destroyed. I can't be revived."
Ah!
I see.
So dying inside the Tower causes a reset, but dying outside doesn't.
'She took on a massive risk just by coming out here.'
And in the end, she got caught.
"Comrade leader, this bitch—once a traitor, always a traitor! Did she think we were that easy? Don't make me laugh!"
Kosak had suddenly possessed the spirit of a Minister of the People's Armed Forces again.
Diamat waved her hands frantically in denial.
"I-I'll never betray you. No, I can't. Just please accept my defection."
"You never let a black-haired beast into your home! Hey, look at her! Her hair's pitch-black!"
Well, it is black.
"…I made this decision knowing the risks."
What risks?
"By breaking my contract with the Administrators, I'll receive a penalty. My qualifications as a ruler will be revoked."
That probably meant her stats would drop.
She was willing to endure that just to survive?
"What do you think, Lord Mad Demon?"
"This old man will always support the summoner's decision. The path you choose is the right path."
What about Gyeondallae?
"I am suspicious as well, but if the system itself oversees defection, I believe it may be worth trusting."
Veronica, Gobang, and Bardin also spoke up.
"We should accept defectors. It lowers the enemy's morale."
"She looks frail, but she may still be of use."
"My lord, she is a repentant lamb."
Juhyeok's heart began to sway.
The more, the merrier, right?
The more allies, the better.
Besides, defectors are treated as a separate group from the catalog list.
That means I can increase their numbers without needing expansion rights.
'There might be others who want to defect besides Diamat.'
If I accept her defection, Diamat would be freed from the Tower.
Then what about Kosak's father, Hartmann?
That thought kept bothering me.
At the Earth players' current level, reaching the ultra-high-difficulty mission on the 77th floor is unrealistic.
But as time passes, as players grow stronger, or if players above level 80 repeatedly challenge missions until they reach ultra-high difficulty…
'It could be cleared.'
What if Kosak's father, Hartmann, ends up being killed by a player?
That is absolutely unacceptable.
Could he also be freed through defection?
So I asked Diamat.
"It's impossible. Hartmann and I are fundamentally different."
Different how?
"There are two types of souls belonging to the Tower. Ones bound by contracts, and ones bound by force."
Hmm.
"I'm under a contract, but the other souls in the Tower are no different from enslaved captives. They probably don't even understand their own situation."
She went on to explain.
Diamat manifested on Earth for a specific mission.
To sow chaos, incite conflict, and divide the world—high-level operations requiring subtlety.
For active judgment, free will is necessary.
That's why she came out under a contract.
Bound souls, on the other hand, have no free will.
At first glance, it sounded plausible—but was that really true?
Then how do you explain Haeryeong, Gyeondallae's master?
She was aware of her situation and of the Tower itself.
"Haeryeong was a special case. She had experienced a transcendent realm, and her soul had already surpassed the human level. She could have left the Tower at any time."
That matched what was said about her background.
She had reached the very brink of ascension.
"The reason she didn't leave the Tower was her own choice. Regret, lingering attachments, anguish, atonement, repentance, guilt—she punished herself. Haeryeong didn't want to be freed."
I think I understand.
Her beloved disciple Gyeondallae had died, the Heavenly Empire had fallen, and in her weakened state she had been subdued by her fellow nine-tailed fox and forced to consume a human's liver.
But after meeting Gyeondallae, all of her lingering attachments disappeared.
And so, with the Mad Demon's help, she retraced a path she had once experienced before.
Then what about Hartmann?
Even though he was the same LSSR grade, he had failed to transcend the limits of humanity.
Bound to the Tower, he was merely placed on the 77th floor as an objective.
Therefore, there are only two ways to free Hartmann's soul from the Tower.
Either he raises the rank of his soul and escapes on his own like Haeryeong did, or the Tower itself releases its binding.
Could the Administrators do that?
If they can, I'd really like to meet them at least once and talk it out.
Anyway, the time to decide has come.
Should I accept Diamat's defection, or reject it?
[Do you accept the defection request of the Monster Lord Diamat?]
Honestly, I'd already decided.
I can tell at a glance.
'Why wouldn't I accept this?'
The outline of an achievement was razor-sharp.
The achievement reward was right in front of my eyes.
'Achievements over perks.'
The age of perks is over.
Let's go—into the age of achievements.
Come to me, all of you.
I'll take everything in.
"Accept the defection request."
[Initiating the defection procedure of the Monster Lord Diamat.]
[The contract between Diamat and the Tower Administrators has been nullified.]
[Diamat's soul rank has fallen from Succubus Queen (LSSR) to Lesser Succubus (R).]
Huh?
'What the hell....'
The penalty for contract termination.
That's a big one.
She dropped three entire tiers, from LSSR to R.
A queen demoted to a commoner.
[The 80th-floor boss monster has been replaced with Nightmare, the Black Horse of Nightmares.]
The 80th-floor mission changed too.
A vacancy had to be filled, after all.
[Converted defectors must show absolute obedience to the summoner player and the summoned beings.]
Discrimination.
She has to follow the orders of summoned beings too.
'Does that mean she has to obey Blood Wolf as well?'
If she's ranked below a dog, that's just miserable.
[Marking the converted defector.]
A mark?
At that moment—
Bzzzzzt!
"Aaagh!"
A tattoo was carved into Diamat's forehead.
It flared with light, then seeped in and vanished.
[Defection complete.]
[A Converted Defector category has been added to the status window.]
Ding!
Diamat's information appeared before my eyes.
Name: Diamat
Rank: R (Rare)
Type: Succubus (Dream Demon)
Manifestation Time Limit: 10 hours
Satisfaction Rating: None
Resummon Cooldown: 3 hours (applied after dismissal)
[Converted defectors are also counted toward the simultaneous summon limit.]
[Current simultaneous summon limit is 10. You are exceeding it by 1.]
Right.
Seven here, three at home.
That made ten already.
Adding Diamat made eleven.
[Converted Defector Diamat has been forcibly dismissed.]
Pop!
Diamat vanished to rebalance the numbers.
Well, having one more ally isn't bad, but...
'What am I supposed to do with an R-rank lesser succubus?'
She's way too weak.
Can she even hunt monsters?
Next—
Ding!
[Achievement: You are the first to accept the defection of a soul belonging to the Tower.]
"Yes!"
Just as expected, the achievement popped.
[Distributing achievement reward.]
What is it?
[Achievement: A new item has been added to the basic menu of the White Tower, Floor 17.]
'Hmm.'
Another White Tower–related reward?
A new item, huh.
The basic menu had Environment, Communication Tower, and Generator.
I'd already run all three at least once.
'What's the new one?'
Well, I'll find out when I go into the White Tower.
'For now, let's head home.'
Another hurdle cleared.
Though there are still unresolved issues.
Pop!
Juhyeok and the summoned beings returned to the penthouse.
I let them rest after all the hard work.
'Time to settle accounts.'
First, the badges.
Up until now, the accumulated badge count was 106.
Physical badges: 17.
This climb cleared Floors 75 through 80 of South Korea's Second Tower.
Excluding Floor 77, which didn't give a badge—
That brings the total to 116 accumulated badges.
Physical badges: 27.
Ten new badges added.
That's enough for two perks.
'Will something good come out?'
Something like a catalog expansion ticket.
But Juhyeok shook his head.
Now that he knew of the Administrators' existence.
They were clearly keeping him in check.
In this situation, would they really give him a good perk?
Maybe he shouldn't expect a catalog expansion ticket at all.
Still, let's open them.
You never know.
Maybe something good will drop.
[Perk granted for accumulating 110 Platinum Badges.]
[Perk: 1 ton of Advanced Magic Stones has been added to your inventory.]
'....'
That's harsh.
One ton of advanced magic stones is something you can easily mine just by entering and exiting the 76th floor.
Next!
[Perk granted for accumulating 115 Platinum Badges.]
[Perk: Rune of Converted Defector Rank Increase has been added to your inventory.]
'Oh!'
This one's decent.
Speak of the devil—
Accept a defector, and you get a perk perfectly suited for it.
'Unless it's a blessing enhancement, it'll be done in a day or two anyway.'
I should just give it straight to Diamat and tell her to raise her rank.
R? What is that, an egg?
At the very least, she should be SR.
I've checked the perks.
What's left?
The achievement reward.
A new item added to the basic menu.
[You have entered White Tower, Floor 17.]
[Loading owner menu.]
Juhyeok touched the [Basic] menu floating as a hologram in midair.
What got added?
Then a new item appeared.
'What?'
An elevator?
What is this now?
By installing an elevator, you can move to other floors of the White Tower.
The elevator will only stop at authorized floors.
Installation cost: 1,000 tons of advanced magic stones.
'W–Wait....'
This was completely unexpected.
An elevator.
You can go to other floors of the White Tower?
If you go there, what's there? No—who's there?
White Tower floors are allocated to players.
I was assigned Floor 17.
The owner of another floor would also be a player.
'No way....'
There's no chance another Earth player has been assigned a White Tower floor.
Then maybe it's not Earth—maybe it's a player from another world.
There's no doubt that other worlds exist.
Places where Black Towers exist.
The summoned beings have always said as much.
'Could this be dimensional travel?'
No way to know without the funds.
I'll only find out once I install the elevator.
'This could be fun.'
The installation cost definitely isn't.
'1,000 tons of advanced magic stones, huh.'
Let's scrape together everything we've got.
The Tower Administrators were in an uproar again.
[Haaah!]
[This is driving me insane.]
[Hoo… we keep getting breached in the strangest places. There's no way to stop it.]
[Diamat—how dare she betray the Tower?]
[Giving her free will in the first place was a mistake.]
[That couldn't be helped. Without free will, the mission would've been impossible. The problem is that she used that freedom to defect.]
[That idiot—she goes out and gets caught without accomplishing anything.]
[Who could've known Gyeondallae had learned something like a tracking unit?]
[Anyway, this is bad. The achievement reward is an elevator.]
[Installing an elevator is one thing, but this is way too fast.]
[Exactly. If it were a connection made after Earth was nearly destroyed, it wouldn't be a problem—but connecting while it's still intact…]
[At this rate, he'll be able to interfere with projects underway in other worlds.]
[That's terrifying.]
[The Tower Administrators of other worlds are going to protest. They'll ask what we were doing while he grew this much.]
[If it's just protests, that'd be a relief. They'll mock and ridicule us.]
[We need to show that we did something.]
[How?]
[Make the 81st floor an impossible floor. Completely impassable.]
[Hmm… that won't work.]
[What about raising the difficulty once, as a special event?]
[That's difficult too. It violates causality.]
[Then we just talk to the party involved. If he agrees, causality would be satisfied, wouldn't it?]
[Huh?]
[You're right. If it's done by mutual consent, there's no issue with causality.]
[He already knows about our existence anyway. Wouldn't it be fine to meet him once?]
[Hmm....]
The Administrators' deliberation dragged on.
Diamat was taken care of.
The perks and achievement rewards were checked.
So, what now?
First, the item received as the reward for the 79th floor.
The Rune of Summoned Being Rank Breakthrough should be used on Kosak.
During the two weeks Kosak is gone, the plan is to send Vice President Bae, the vampire Jephet, Blood Wolf, and others to North Korea in his place.
But not right now.
Juhyeok climbed to the 77th floor with the summoned beings.
They quickly dealt with the prisoners and thoroughly cleaned up the area.
Then Kosak faced his father, Hartmann, once again.
"…Rian?"
"Father?"
"Is this heaven? Or an illusion?"
"It ain't an illusion or the afterlife. This is the Tower."
"The Tower…?"
"Anyway, drink this medicine first."
Kosak made Hartmann drink a vitality-restoring potion he'd gotten from Mari.
This wouldn't actually heal him.
Hartmann's damaged origin core—the vessel of his life force—was already shattered, so even if it was filled, it would just leak right back out.
It only bought them a little time.
A conversation between father and son.
This was actually the third time.
But every time, the situation was the same.
After painstakingly explaining everything and getting him to understand, Hartmann would die shortly after.
Then, upon re-entering the Tower, everything would reset and start over from the beginning.
'At this rate, it'll never end.'
Isn't there some kind of solution?