He couldn't just let this slide anymore.
Leaving things as they were was no longer an option.
Either that bastard would die, or he himself would—there was no choice but to settle this to the bitter end.
Thinking back, it had always been like this.
The summoner—that bastard—was always one step ahead.
Plans they had painstakingly devised were effortlessly neutralized, and then he would climb over their heads and mock them.
Just when they reassured themselves—this time it won't work, it's impossible, he'll definitely fail—he would succeed, as if to spite them.
The moment he arrived, he dropped a meteor and killed Karatos.
He dragged out a Gigant and trampled a colossal monster.
In an equivalent exchange deal, he detonated a nuclear weapon.
Even the supposedly impossible phoenix was cleared using fire engines.
The Undead Bone Dragon was finished with just two people: a holy knight and a gunner.
Then he used the Dragon Hearts obtained that way to forge a demonic sword and shield, and killed the 88th-floor Sand Dragon.
On the second repeat clear, he had a mage film the fight while he and his summoned beings sat comfortably in a viewing stand, eating, drinking, and chatting like they were watching a baseball game.
And just when it seemed like it was finally over—
an abrupt climb to the 89th floor.
He was going to clear a half–demonic dragon that had just been contracted and wasn't even fully prepared yet?
[Is there any chance of stopping him on the 89th floor? Could our contractor kill him?]
[… If anything, he'll clear it.]
[I see.]
There was no need to ask further.
The answer was obvious.
He had cleared the Sand Dragon with just one Gigant.
If the summoned beings—who had only been standing back and watching—joined in alongside the Gigant?
The free-contract dragon would be nothing more than grilled lizard on a plate.
Rage surged up.
His mind went blank with fury.
That damn elevator.
That damn inheritance.
That damn summoner.
Even now, the image of him laughing, chatting, and fooling around was unbearable.
Everything he did grated on his nerves.
Did administrators not have emotions?
Just looking at him was painful.
It was already too late to endure this with patience.
Kill him.
He must be killed.
Even if it meant burning his soul away.
Even if it meant mutual destruction.
Causality, my ass.
Tower rules?
What's wrong with breaking them a little?
[I can't watch this anymore.]
[… S-should I turn off the hologram feed?]
[No. That's not what I mean.]
He would clear the 89th floor.
He would receive the rewards and celebrate with his summoned beings.
Just imagining it was enough to drive one insane.
[Swap the tower monsters.]
[Swap them?]
[Swap the supervisors of Floors 89 and 90. Open the back door and redeploy them.]
[What? W-wait!]
[Designer, that violates the rules—]
[Do it! That's an order.]
[Think again. Don't let your emotions—]
[Fuck! Do it when I tell you to! Do you want to die?]
Administrators were not equal.
Neither in rank nor in authority.
[I'll take full responsibility. Move the new free-contract dragon from Floor 89 up to Floor 90, and bring the Floor 90 dragon down.]
This was serious.
Punishment was inevitable.
[If this fails, our souls will be erased.]
[Then it just has to succeed. Do you really think the Floor 90 boss will lose to them?]
Of course not.
As a single entity, the Floor 90 supervisor was a being no one short of a god could oppose.
[… All right. Executing redeployment.]
At this point, all they could do was pray for success.
If the summoner died, they could somehow cover it up.
Usually, causality vanished along with the subject when the subject was erased.
An ancient dragon—
a title given to dragons that had lived for at least ten thousand years.
A dragon's life was long and tedious.
It was incomparable to the short-lived races that couldn't even survive a hundred years.
Their very concept of time was different.
To a dragon, a hundred years was a very short span.
They would sleep once and wake up to find a century gone.
Sleep ten times and a thousand years passed; a hundred times, ten thousand years.
Thus, dragons filled their boring lives with long slumbers.
Or occasionally descended into human civilizations for amusement.
But even that grew dull.
Sleeping wasn't fun anymore, and entertainment lost its charm.
And on top of that, there was the mission they were burdened with—
dragons as beings of harmony and balance.
That, in truth, was his greatest dissatisfaction.
To fulfill that mission meant inevitably suppressing one's own desires.
It was no different from being unable to do anything at all.
The moment a dragon exerted influence on the human world, harmony and balance would collapse.
A hollow existence.
A meaningless life.
Why shouldn't dragons pursue power?
Was it truly so wrong to reign over the world with overwhelming might and trample inferior races beneath one's feet?
Was he meant to live his entire life castrated of desire, tending to insect-like short-lived species?
The moment he thought that, he fell.
He awakened to his identity as a demonic dragon.
Perhaps he was the only ancient dragon to ever become a demonic dragon.
How exhilarating it was to destroy the world as a demonic dragon.
He had done so here on Earth No. 675 as well.
The moment the boundary between the tower and the world disappeared,
he emerged outside and burned and destroyed everything in sight.
Once this project ended, a new life would begin.
He would move to another Earth and destroy that world.
But one day—
the world suddenly changed.
The Black Tower rose again.
As a result, he, who had been outside, was bound helplessly back into the tower.
Why?
When he looked into the cause, it was because of a single being.
One human who had crossed over from another Earth and registered as a player on this Earth.
Because of that man, the tower had regenerated.
He had to be killed.
Otherwise, he would remain trapped here indefinitely.
And at last, the opportunity came.
A request from an administrator to swap supervisors.
They would open the back door.
Go to the 89th floor.
Kill the player.
He accepted gladly.
Now, let's go.
To kill him.
[Entering the 89th Floor of the German Black Tower.]
The environment was a dense forest—
a thick jungle packed with trees.
"Bo-ong, Summoner-nim has entered the 89th floor. Guten Tag! Danke schön! Ich liebe dich!"
Originally, he had planned to stop at the 88th floor and go home.
But since he had come all this way, he figured he might as well take a look upstairs.
"Mr. Rajiks?"
"Ho-e!"
Ssssssh.
The Gigant was taken out.
Grrrrrk.
After raising it upright,
Juhyeok gathered the summoned beings.
"There's something I need to say before we start the raid."
"Go ahead."
"This maiden shall listen attentively."
"Sister Veronica Caliber! At attention!"
"Ho-e?"
The summoned beings looked curious.
Juhyeok slowly opened his mouth.
"After we clear the 89th floor, we're suspending upper-floor climbs for a while."
Originally, he had planned to sample the 90th floor too.
If it felt dangerous, they could just withdraw.
But judging from the administrators' behavior,
he had a bad feeling about entering the 90th floor right now.
"When you say 'for a while'…?"
"At least three years… maybe longer."
The summoned beings' expressions grew grave.
"Climbing the upper floors is ultimately the summoner's decision, but may we ask the reason?"
Juhyeok replied to the Mad Mage.
"I think we've lost our original mindset."
"Original mindset?"
"We've been climbing too recklessly. We weren't like this at the beginning. Back then, we said we'd tap every stone before crossing—and even avoid crossing stones we could cross."
"Ah!"
"Let's slow down. Slowly. We've earned plenty of money, and we've stacked enough collapse deadlines."
Up until now, they had been charging ahead too blindly.
Because it had been easy.
Because everything had gone exactly as planned.
But the moment things feel easy is the most dangerous time.
Comfort dulls people, and greed invites disaster.
It was time to buy a long-term parking ticket.
This was when a coward's mindset was needed.
And the biggest reason of all—
the limits the summoned beings had reached.
Clearing the 88th floor had made it clear.
Each floor felt heavier than the last.
The Mad Mage's Crescent Moon Aura had struck the Sand Dragon directly—
and failed to leave even a scratch.
The 9-circle archmage Mackenzie had abandoned his proud fire magic and was filming videos with Fly magic instead.
Despite being the party's tank, Gobang had done little more than trudge around.
And when was the last time Kosak had actually entered combat? It was hard to remember.
Juhyeok didn't like that.
Because of gimmick strategies like the Gigant,
the summoned beings had become nothing more than sacks of barley set aside.
With things like this, there was no chance for badge awards.
You had to earn merit to receive them.
Meanwhile, only Rajiks's subspace ability had been emphasized.
That alone had carried the raids.
Juhyeok acknowledged how incredible Rajiks was.
But Rajiks wasn't the only summoned being.
Gobang, Gyeondallae, and now even the Mad Mage—
their presence was fading.
This wasn't right.
Tower raids had to be done together with them.
"As you know, the 90th floor definitely has something waiting for us."
"…"
"So stopping at the 89th floor feels just right."
"…."
"Let's take a good long break from tower climbing. How about traveling? Domestic, overseas—either works."
"…."
The summoned beings fell silent at Juhyeok's words,
all wearing heavy expressions.
Why were they like this?
He hadn't even made a big show of it.
"Anyway, let's start the raid. Dr. El?"
"… Yes."
"Gigant, advance."
"Executing."
Thump, thump, thump, thump!
The Gigant moved forward.
And as they entered the jungle—
Ding!
A mission appeared.
[89th Floor Mission: Defeat the Half-Demonic Dragon, Half Evil Dragon Krackers …..]
Half-demonic dragon.
Like half-and-half chicken?
It sounded easy.
But then—?
[… Half-Demonic Dragon Krackers, crack—, cr, cr, cr… de, de, de, defe— …]
"Huh?"
Why is the system message stuttering like that?
What's going on?
Suddenly—
Ding!
[An error has occurred.]
"Suddenly?"
Did those bastard administrators—
[Due to the personal circumstances of the Half-Demonic Dragon, Half Evil Dragon Krackers on Floor 89, tower mission generation is impossible.]
Monsters have personal circumstances now?
Then what's the player supposed to do?
[An administrator abused their authority to swap the mission targets of Floors 89 and 90.]
…What?
Did I hear that wrong?
"Haha."
This is unbelievable.
They're openly announcing abuse of authority through a system message?
[The mission will be changed.]
No.
This isn't right.
[Floor 89 Mission: Defeat the Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus.]
[Time Limit: 1 hour.]
[Completion Condition: Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus 0/1]
"… Apex demonic dragon?"
The Floor 90 boss has appeared on Floor 89.
Just hearing the title makes my skin crawl.
Juhyeok hurriedly pulled out a tower-raid mission reset ticket.
But—
[Due to temporary system maintenance, tower entry and exit will be unavailable for the next 1 hour.]
"… Wow."
A dead end.
Compared to this, the old equivalent-exchange deal was downright polite.
They're blatantly saying they want me dead.
"So they can play it like this?"
And then—
Flap, flap!
With terrifying wind pressure, a dragon flew in from afar.
"… Huh."
"… Mm."
"… This…"
"Fuck."
"Crazy."
"…."
It's huge.
Enormous.
A massive dragon, crimson from head to toe.
At the same time, an overwhelming pressure crushed the entire 89th floor.
Its mere presence was terrifying.
A tingling scalp.
Goosebumps rising.
Primal fear flooding in.
[World Announcement: Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus has appeared.]
A world announcement?
Who's even listening?
Flap. Flap. Flap.
Helcrasus slowly beat its wings, gazing down at the ground.
Suddenly—
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Gigant moved, sword and shield in hand.
Yeah—dragon killer!
Our Unit No. 2.
"Of course, you're the only one we can trust—"
That was when—
Fwoooooosh!
Without any warning, hellfire erupted from Helcrasus's throat.
Heat surged.
The 89th floor burned.
Ggrrk, ggrch, szzk, ggrrrk—
Melt.
The Gigant began melting from the head down.
...
Ah.
It melted.
Just like that?
The Gigant melted.
The shield melted.
The demonic sword melted.
"And I'm next."
Is this really where I die?
Thank you for watching.
See you in the next work—
But—
Whoosh!
Gobang expanded his body with gigantification.
Whoom!
The Mad Mage manifested Crescent Moon Aura.
Flutter!
Gyeondallae's talismans danced above Juhyeok's head.
Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing!
Mackenzie layered barrier after barrier onto Juhyeok.
Veeeeee!
Sister Veronica prepared an almost-light-speed projectile.
Whrrrl!
Mari's homunculi spiraled around Juhyeok.
"Light!!!"
Bardin planted his Radiant Shield before Juhyeok.
"Master!"
Diamat and Jephet threw themselves around him, hugging him tight.
"Hooaaargh!"
Shhhk, shhhk, shhhk—
Rajiks pulled everything out of his subspace bag—ore, mana crystals, household goods—building a wall of barricades.
And then—
Spot!
Kosak pressed right up to Juhyeok's side and whispered into his ear.
"Why the worry? No need to fret. There's a way."
"… Huh?"
"Use the Veil of Transcendent Concealment. Activate it, then Blink over there and hide. When the cooldown's up, reactivate it."
"… Mm."
"Just hold out for one hour. Then exit the tower and enter White Tower Floor 1. That's it."
Right.
The Veil of Transcendent Concealment.
An item that could even hide from administrators.
But what about them?
They'd be slaughtered by that absurd dragon.
"Then I'll dismiss the summons—"
"Don't. We'll die here. We'll cling on for an hour no matter what. Until you're safe, we'll hold that thing down."
"Ah—!"
We'll block it.
So run.
Now.
"We'll meet again on White Tower Floor 1 anyway. What's the problem?"
True.
As residents of Floor 1, even death would just turn them into spirits there.
"And you've got resurrection runes for summoned beings, right? Even without them, it's just a hundred days."
That's true, but—
"Remember this. As long as you survive, nothing changes. It just delays things a little."
…When you put it that way, it really is nothing.
They can die.
As long as I live.
"You really are a strategist."
"Hehehe. Like summoner, like summoned."
"Hahahaha!"
Juhyeok and Kosak laughed.
The others couldn't.
Stop laughing and run.
Use the veil.
Hide.
We'll hold it.
Please go.
Now.
But—
[Finished laughing?]
…We weren't done yet.
[So you're the summoner who drove the administrators to the brink.]
Yeah, that's me.
Bong Juhyeok.
[I'll acknowledge your nerve. To laugh even before me.]
Can't even laugh now?
Even old sayings say you don't spit on a smiling face.
Clearly a bad bastard.
[Because of you, the project was halted. Accept your punishment. I'll tear you apart.]
What?
Is clearing towers a crime?
Then why make them?
At that moment, Kosak tugged desperately at Juhyeok's sleeve.
"What are you doing? Activate the veil! Now!"
"… Ah—"
"Transcend! Hurry! Then Blink away!"
"Okay, okay—Transcend."
"Ahh, sharp thinking."
Transcend—yeah, transcend.
That'll fix everything.
Juhyeok quietly murmured—
"Transcend. Beyond. Random Summoning."
"… Huh?"
Why so shocked?
You thought I'd run alone?
Hide under the veil?
I can't do that.
[What?]
Helcrasus tilted its head.
[Is that your last will?]
"… Not exactly—"
Why is nothing happening?
Did they block random summoning too?
Then—
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
A massive shockwave shook the entire 89th floor.
[… What?]
CRACK—
Something was tearing.
Turning toward the sound—
Rip, rip, riiip—
A tiny crack appeared in the sky, right beside Helcrasus.
Like a fracture in glass.
Crack!
And from that fissure—
Rip—
Someone emerged.
...
A human.
Short-cropped hair.
Leather pants, leather vest, leather boots.
A red bandana on his head.
He was riding a motorcycle.
"A modern guy…?"
I summoned a transcendent—
and got an elderly biker?
Cool enough to get a thumbs-up if I met him outside.
But something's off.
He appeared in the sky.
He's on a bike.
Yet he isn't falling.
Still floating.
Looking closely—
There was something under the wheels.
"Swords?"
Two swords supported the motorcycle's wheels.
Floating.
Defying gravity.
Swords beneath the bike.
A bike above them.
An old man atop it all.
"Y-you… who are you…?"
Helcrasus asked.
The biker didn't answer.
He simply raised his right hand—
—and drew it down.
Then—
SLASH—
RIIIP—
Helcrasus was split cleanly in half.