Karen Whitaker watched the man who had just arrived.
It had been a chaotic moment, but she clearly remembered the process of his arrival.
The ice that had crossed the sea, and the man who had moved across it at an incredible speed.
Seeing the ice fragments scattering along his path, it wasn't teleportation.
He had simply moved at a speed so absurd it was comparable.
'What did he awaken as to be capable of this?'
The terrifying cold of the ice, speed bordering on teleportation, and martial arts that would be believable even if called a hidden class.
Even after considering various possibilities, no suitable class name came to mind.
*"What kind of person is the Runner? Would I be able to recognize him if I met him?"*
She had asked Yoon Se-won playfully before they parted.
Yoon Se-won had replied with a mysterious smile.
*"Yes. He's the kind of person who, the more you look at him, the more question marks arise. Unresolved question marks."*
At the time, she thought he was just answering carelessly, but that wasn't the case.
The more she thought about it, the more the question marks didn't disappear but kept multiplying.
It was certain.
That man was the Runner.
For some reason, her heart swelled as she caught her breath.
Then, an unexpected sound rang out.
*Ding!*
[The creator of the sanctuary, Nekiel, summons the section from floors 81 of the Tower of Despair!]
[This is a deal made between Nekiel and the Cheonil Order through the Tower of Despair!]
[The condition set by the Tower is one: the country in question must have completed a clear, resulting in no monsters remaining!]
[The Tower has judged that this section, filled with divine power and free from contamination or curse elements, will not adversely affect the country upon transfer!]
[The Cheonil Order and Nekiel paid a great price to the Tower of Despair for this transfer!]
[As the overall transfer speed has been accelerated, an advantage will be granted to the country upon clearing this transfer!]
[The transfer of floors 81 to 90 to the country of South Korea begins!]
'What is this now...'
Karen's eyes wavered at the sudden barrage of messages.
A deal between the Tower of Despair and the real world.
Even though she had accessed a vast amount of information in the United States, she had never known something like this was possible.
After removing the control net, she took out her phone.
The alarm was ringing like crazy.
She checked the information arriving one after another.
The system message from a moment ago hadn't spread only to the uninhabited island.
The target was all of South Korea.
The unprecedented event of ten floors transferring simultaneously had thrown even other countries into chaos.
Just as she was about to report the current situation to her superiors.
*Kwaaaaaaah!!*
Light spreading across the sea drew a boundary.
It was so immense that everywhere within sight was filled with light.
The section of floor 81 began to reveal itself there.
"Oh my..."
"Jesus..."
Murmurs arose from all around at the sight that left them no choice but to call upon a god.
Instead, Karen turned her gaze.
To the Runner, who was facing that mighty being, Nekiel.
"Hmm."
Jin-hyeok looked around at the floors being transferred.
Perhaps because all the floors were filled with divine power, the dark sea brightened in an instant.
It felt like a massive squid fishing boat had appeared.
'What is he aiming for?'
He rubbed his chin.
As the system had just said, there were no monsters in the 81st-floor section.
In other words, even if the transfer was completed, there would be no reinforcements to aid that bastard in battle.
'He calls himself a god, so there's no way he did this without thinking.'
At the possibility that came to mind, he pulled out the Soul Reaper.
[Black Shadow Island]
He precisely aimed at Nekiel's neck and drew a line.
Normally, the head should have gone flying.
"It's useless."
Turning around, he saw the neck and head squelching and reattaching.
Even after being cut by the Soul Reaper, seeing that, it seemed to be a different mechanism from Rakshasa, who consumed accumulated souls to recover.
"As long as my sanctuary is established, I am immortal."
The bastard had possessed excellent regenerative abilities even before.
But now, it felt amplified several times over.
It seemed the sanctuary was acting as a kind of power bank for him.
In fact, when his head was recovering, one of the transferred floors flashed with light.
"I hear you have a leash called synchronization rate. A leash that makes you, no matter how strong in the Tower of Despair, become ordinary here. What lowly beings are you? To be restricted by another being. Aren't you no different from slaves?"
Nekiel twisted the corners of his mouth and spread his arms wide.
"Then serve me! Worship and adore me! Then I will grant you power befitting that!"
While scratching his ear at the barking sound, he also had this thought.
This damn Tower of Despair, if it's going to apply the synchronization rate, why is that bastard who crawled down from the Tower the only exception?
Nodding at how unfair the world was, he quickly formulated a plan.
If the transferred floors were acting as power banks?
Then all he had to do was clear the transfer.
Then they would disappear as if they had never been transferred.
"I can hear the sound of you scheming from here. You're thinking of dealing with me while eliminating the transfer, aren't you?"
Startled, he looked at Nekiel.
Mind reading?!
If not, just how much information did that traitor to humanity, Min So-yul, give him?
That bastard, who had been holed up in the sanctuary, knew all sorts of things.
"How foolish. You don't even know why I summoned the sanctuary."
*Kuuung...!!!*
The energy bursting from Nekiel's body was scattered across all the transferred floors.
Since transforming was the norm for these guys, he immediately tried to cut him, but he recovered quickly.
"In all these places, the followers who followed me are buried. I will raise them again and appoint them as the vanguard for creating my world."
The size of the energy grew explosively, and the transferred floors vibrated violently.
Soon, the ground of the floors began to crack with a sharp sound.
From there, the monsters of that section, more precisely their corpses, crawled out.
Perhaps because they had died and been revived, their appearances weren't normal.
Scattered fragments had gathered and been pieced together.
The race was Lumend. Outwardly wrapped in light, but inside, they were rotting like undead.
In fact, when he first arrived on the uninhabited island, a few things that looked like undead had risen.
He put away the Soul Reaper and retreated far back.
"I don't have much mana left, but I'll suppress the energy as much as possible with my Demon Eye. It should buy us time until support arrives."
Eun Gang-seok looked around.
An enormous number of troops rising from all over the floors.
Combining all ten floors, it was truly a terrifying amount.
When Jin-hyeok didn't answer, Eun Gang-seok turned to look beside him.
"Wah!!"
Startled, Eun Gang-seok stepped back.
He had been wondering what was making that growling sound, and it turned out to be one of the undead that had risen earlier, held in Jin-hyeok's hand.
"W-why did you pick that up...?"
"I have something to try. Just a moment."
With a *whish!*, Jin-hyeok disappeared to the other side of the island.
He returned shortly after, but the undead in his hand was gone.
Where had he thrown it away?
"Please leave that guy alone. Let him keep raising them."
"Pardon...?"
As he made a questioning expression, Jin-hyeok gave a thumbs-up.
Swallowing dryly, Eun Gang-seok nodded.
If it were anyone else, they would have asked several times whether this choice was certain.
But this was the Runner, Yoo Jin-hyeok.
He trusted him unconditionally.
Jin-hyeok kicked off the ground again and flew forward.
*Thud.*
In the meantime, Karen Whitaker and her team, having finished reorganizing, approached.
Karen's face was full of questions.
An enormous army of undead was rising.
Even if they hurried to clear the transfer, it wouldn't be enough, so why wasn't he doing anything?
Of course, she wasn't in a position to question that, so she cautiously opened her mouth.
"We'll do our best to clear the transfer. We have enough data on the 81st-floor section."
Eun Gang-seok shook his head.
"Wait. Don't do anything."
"What do you mean... It would be right to split our forces and clear the transfer, even now."
It wasn't that she was this desperate for South Korea.
She had already made a huge mess of things.
If the situation escalated further here, the backlash would become unbearable.
Besides, she had to somehow get a share in resolving the situation to have a say later.
"If you won't do it, then we'll..."
*Sarak.*
Karen frowned at the energy enveloping the surroundings.
For some reason, Eun Gang-seok's Demon Eye was aimed at her.
"I said wait and don't do anything."
"That's not the right thing to do now..."
"Stop fighting."
The ever-cheerful smile vanished from Eun Gang-seok's face.
"You've caused enough trouble already. Don't stink it up any more and listen to the person who spared your life. If you can't, then I can't help it either."
Karen let out a low breath.
It wasn't a bluff.
Unlike before, when he was stalling for time, he now seemed ready to attack in earnest.
'What is with the people of this country...!'
The standoff, like walking on thin ice, continued for a long while.
*Kwaaaaaaah!!!*
A pitch-black energy surged from all the transferred floors.
*Kraaaaaaah---!*
*Kihaaaaaak!!!*
Amidst the energy, the cries of the revived beings echoed.
Cold sweat ran down Karen's back.
She thought that if hell existed, it would look something like this.
And she was currently at the center of that hell.
*Swish.*
Karen's eyes moved to Jin-hyeok.
That man, the Runner, was also standing in this hellscape.
But how could he be so relaxed and composed?
What on earth was his confidence based on?
Whether she knew of Karen Whitaker's complicated feelings or not.
"Oh."
Jin-hyeok, standing at the center of the transfer, let out an exclamation.
The monsters were originally of the holy or light attribute, but now they had become undead, the epitome of darkness.
"That's not even that many."
It was quite a lot, but compared to the final siege of Saintra, it was adorable.
Maybe it was because he wasn't a professional necromancer.
"Haa...! My legion...!"
Nekiel let out a breath as if in ecstasy.
The sanctuary in the Tower of Despair was destroyed and his followers were annihilated, but it didn't matter.
Here, another sanctuary and legion had been created, and their numbers would grow exponentially.
"It seems your body has frozen from my power."
Nekiel raised the corners of his mouth and stared at Jin-hyeok.
At first, he was attacking here and there, but now he had given up and wasn't doing anything.
Well, it was a natural reaction.
How could anyone maintain their composure in the face of this army?
"Drown, locked in my power."
Nekiel slowly raised his finger and pointed at Jin-hyeok, who was standing on the rock.
"Devour him."
*Kraaaaaaah!!!!*
A truly horrifying roar erupted.
The undead legion from all the transferred floors rushed towards Jin-hyeok, vying to get to him first.
At that tremendous advance, Karen instinctively stepped back.
They were all going to die.
Every single one of them.
"Good. Coming to me on your own."
Jin-hyeok, who had been watching with his hands in his pockets, smiled.
As the tidal wave of undead drew near, he slowly pulled out one hand.
He looked at the ring on his finger.
The time had finally come to use it.
The ring of the century's necromancer, Mortarion: Death's Mandate.
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T/N:
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