A Wimp's Strategy Guide to Conquer the Tower

At last, the method for clearing the giant-monster zone had been revealed to the entire world.

Not just through news articles, but through actual clear footage uploaded to YouTube.

The video showed Player Gerald clearing the floor while giving commentary, like a streamer.

It wasn’t footage from his first clear of Tower No. 1.

That run had been too rough.

Instead, it was footage from his second clear—America’s Tower No. 2.

— That’s Behemoth. I’m going to take it down now... This is the mana-gun. And this sharp thing here is the delayed-drill round. Pretty big bullet, right?

Click!

Gerald loaded the mana-gun.

— Alright, here we go.

He took aim.

— Don’t curse me if I miss. The vibration when injecting mana is no joke.

BANG!

— Jesus! Missed. Again.

BANG!

Another miss. Two shots wasted.

— Grrrrraaah!

Behemoth charged Gerald ferociously.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

— It’s locked onto me. I’ve got to land this one.

BANG!

Thunk!

— Oh! Hit! Since it’s a drill round, as long as it hits, it pierces Behemoth’s hide easily.

SPOT!

Using Blink, Gerald—who had the spellsword trait—opened up the distance.

— Why does it still look fine? Right now it probably just feels like a needle prick. ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Wait about five seconds...

BOOM!

Part of Behemoth’s body exploded.

— See? Delayed explosion. It’s like a bunker buster. It doesn’t explode on the surface—it drills in and detonates inside.

But one shot wasn’t enough.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Behemoth charged again in fury.

PATPATPATPAT!

Gerald desperately kept his distance.

BANG!

— If you’re going to hunt Behemoth, remember this: mobility is key. Whether it’s skills or items, prioritize mobility before entering.

Thunk!

Another delayed-drill round hit.

— It’s also good to practice outside beforehand—especially controlling the vibration when injecting mana.

Despite its wounds, Behemoth stubbornly kept chasing Gerald with massive strides.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

It was fast.

Fast enough to catch him if he slipped up.

— Now you see why I keep talking about mobility? Escaping is more important than shooting.

PATPATPATPAT!

Run, gain distance—then—

BANG!

Run the other way—

BANG!

BOOM!

Some shots hit.

FWOOSH!

Some missed.

After playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek across the entire 81st floor—

— Grrraaaah!

THUD!

Behemoth collapsed.

Clear achieved after fifty minutes.

— Haa... done.

Gerald’s ragged breathing filled the mic.

— It’s not that hard. But remember this—mobility and accuracy. As long as you have those two, the mana-gun and delayed-drill rounds will do the rest.

Before exiting, he added one last thing.

— You’ll need about ten hits, but as you can see, it’s really hard. So buy plenty of ammo. Even twenty rounds might not be enough.

And one more warning.

— If it feels impossible, quit immediately. You can always try again. Nothing’s more important than your life.

With that, Gerald’s video ended.

The reaction was explosive.

The world became a little safer.

A path had opened to break through the 81st-floor range and push the Tower-collapse deadlines back even farther.

Governments and state-sponsored players around the world began preparing their strategies based on Gerald’s footage.

And as for the mobility he emphasized—

Items with movement-speed options skyrocketed in price.

Players with mobility-related traits rose in value as well.

Reservations for mana-guns flooded the Korean Awakening Administration.

Even if clearing wasn’t immediately possible, players needed to personally experience the vibration and recoil during firing.

Juhyeok also watched the video on White Tower Floor 17.

It was good that the mana-gun worked—

But the ammo consumption per kill was too high.

Even for a bullet business, this was excessive.

“Isn’t there a way to help players overcome the vibration? Modifying the mana-gun isn’t possible, right?”

El, the magitech engineer, replied,

“It’s an inherent limitation of the mana-gun. For now, that’s the best it can do.”

So it couldn’t be helped.

“Even the ultimate mana-gun owned by Master Bei has tremendous vibration and recoil. You can tell just by how his body sways every time he fires.”

That was true.

Even so, he shot it well.

Then again, Master Bei was a true mana-gunner by class.

Meanwhile, Cossack looked pleased.

He grinned at Juhyeok.

“Player Gerald did great. Worth saving him. He even told people to buy plenty of ammo. Business will be booming. Probably more profitable than the holy sword.”

Was this guy possessed by the money devil?

“And while watching the video, I got an idea.”

“What kind of idea?”

“Mobility. Why don’t we solve that for them?”

“How?”

“We sell potions or elixirs that enhance movement speed, bundled with the ammo.”

“...”

What else was he trying to sell now?

He really was possessed.

“Summoner Bong, you should ask Mari directly. If I say it, I’ll just get cursed at.”

Honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea.

Not just for profit—but for safer clears.

“Alright. I’ll ask her.”

“Yes, sir!”

Cossack couldn’t stop smiling.

“You really like money that much?”

“There’s a lot to spend on. Just making the magic sword base alone costs a fortune. Where do you think that money comes from?”

True enough.

A sixty-meter adamantine giant sword.

Even ignoring the materials, the labor costs alone would be absurd.

But could it really be made?

They would make it.

They had to.

There was plenty of time.

Until it was finished, they just wouldn’t climb any higher.

Anyway—

“Oh! Cossack!”

“Yes?”

“Can you go to North Korea and meet Chairman Kim Injung? I’ll take you to the Pyongyang Black Tower.”

“Sure. What do you need?”

“Just ask for a few nuclear warheads... modified so they can detonate with a button press, like before.”

“That’s easy enough, but... where do you plan to use them?”

“Well, in Earth No. 675’s Black Tower... maybe if a dragon shows up?”

But Cossack shook his head.

“Won’t work on dragons. They’re smart. They’ll block it from the start.”

Probably true.

If they recognized it as a nuke and clung to it, there’d be no answer.

“Well then?”

“Let’s just detonate it anywhere. At least it’ll scare them.”

After entering the Black Tower and using the Ring of Tower Exit to send Cossack to the factory in Pyongyang, Juhyeok went to see Mari.

He knocked on the door of her house.

Knock, knock.

“Mari?”

Scurry!

He heard her behind the door.

Ding!

She answered through the tablet messenger app.

: Yes♪

He opened the door halfway and slipped something through the gap—

The Tongue of Gremory, obtained on the 80th floor of Earth No. 675.

“It’s the tongue of Gremory, Lord of Monsters. Use it if it’s useful as a material.”

: Oh my! This is wonderful! The completion rate of the magic sword will go up even more. You’re the best, Summoner♥

“Hahaha, sure. Oh, right—I wanted to ask something.”

: Anything at all.

“Is there some kind of medicine that can boost a player’s mobility?”

: There is! A Supreme Elixir of Agility, and a Potion of Instant Speed Burst.

“Can you make them? We want to distribute them to players renting mana-guns.”

: Got it♡ I’ll make them.

“Haha, thanks as always. And if you ever want anything, just let me know.”

: In that case—

“Yes?”

: You said you commissioned the former commissioner to make the magic sword base, right?

“Yeah, I did.”

: The production team decided to change the materials.

“What to?”

: Instead of adamantine, we’ll use Gigant body metal. And during casting, high-grade Magic Stones will need to be melted in as well.

“That’s fine.”

Gigant metal—dismantling two of them would be enough.

“How many high-grade Magic Stones?”

: At least 200 tons of high-grade Magic Stones, and during the enchantment process you’ll also need about 30 kg of top-grade Magic Stones.

This was insane.

Two hundred tons of high-grade Magic Stones and thirty kilograms of top-grade ones?

Trying to make a magic sword would bankrupt the household.

Should he never have said he’d do it?

But he couldn’t show weakness now.

“Don’t worry about anything, Mari. Just focus on your research. I’ll take care of everything.”

: Okaaay♡

Damn it.

Looks like he’d have to mine even harder.

If he wanted to supply the materials for the magic sword base, that was unavoidable.

He had to climb the Tower diligently.

Thank goodness for the five daily Tower entries.

Was that achievement reward given for this exact reason?

Oh, right.

He should also check the privileges.

He had accumulated 150 Platinum Badges.

[You have accumulated 150 Platinum Badges. A privilege will be granted.]

[Privilege: Tower Clearing Mission Reset Tickets have been added to your Tower-exclusive inventory.]

Nice pull.

He already had more than ten from inheriting Max Kruger’s legacy, but—

The more, the better.

Cossack first stopped by the Mana-Sealing Scroll printing factory in Pyongyang and the automated Obesity Escape Bracelet factory.

The bracelets were now in pilot production.

If you placed a pre-made casing into the magitech auto-engraving device El had created, the patterns were engraved automatically, and finished bracelets popped out one by one.

Those bracelets were then fed into an inspection device to check for defects, and once they passed, they moved on to packaging.

It required a lot of labor.

No—more accurately, they employed a lot of people even where the labor wasn’t strictly necessary.

The demand was enormous.

They also had to be replaced every three months.

The Obesity Escape Bracelet alone could support the entire North Korean economy.

Once economic stability improved, reunification could proceed gradually.

After finishing the inspection tour, Cossack headed to the Presidential Palace in Pyongyang.

“Welcome, Comrade Cossack!”

“Chairman Kim Injung, have you been well?”

“No issues at all. Under the guidance of the great Supreme Player Comrade, our people are living full and satisfied lives.”

“Good! Anyway—”

Cossack explained his purpose to Chairman Kim Injung.

“... You mean nuclear warheads?”

“That’s right. With detonation devices installed, like before.”

“H-how many?”

“As many as possible! Scrape up everything you’ve got.”

“Oh...”

Chairman Kim Injung hesitated briefly.

“Well, it’s not difficult, but... is this an order from higher up?”

“You think I’d decide something like this on my own? It’s his command.”

“Then may I ask just one more thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“Where will the nukes be used?”

Cossack widened his eyes and said,

“To show nuclear hellfire to the counterrevolutionary scum—the Black Tower’s imperialist invaders, those tower-monster jackals.”

Understanding immediately, Chairman Kim Injung nodded firmly.

“Understood. I’ll prepare them at once.”

“Good. That’s reassuring.”

“Just give the word anytime! To mercilessly punish the republic’s mortal enemies—the tower monsters! Long live Juhyeok!”

“Long live Juhyeok!”

The two shouted together, facing each other.

“... But will nukes even detonate inside the Tower? I recall a World Announcement saying nuclear fission was prohibited.”

“There’s always a way. Don’t worry.”

After all, was there only one Black Tower in the universe?

The conquest of Earth No. 1,001’s Black Tower resumed.

No—calling it Earth No. 1,001 didn’t feel right anymore.

What numbers?

This was simply their Earth.

Juhyeok repeatedly cleared the 84th and 85th floors.

On the 84th floor, he mined high-grade and top-grade Magic Stones.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

“HNNGH!”

On the 85th floor, he hauled back Gigants.

“HAAAH!”

Their dimensional farmhand worked tirelessly—Rajix.

Even with five Tower entries per day, it wasn’t possible to haul back five Gigants.

Rajix’s subspace backpack was vast, but it could only transport one Gigant at a time.

If one Gigant was already inside, trying to add another simply wouldn’t work.

They had to dismiss Rajix, set the Gigant down in the White Tower, wait three hours, then go back in to haul another.

So at most, they could bring back two per day—three if they pushed it.

But even that was more than enough.

The 85th floor, where Gigants duplicated endlessly.

They hauled them back nonstop.

Even so, something felt strange.

What were the administrators doing?

Were they really just going to let this happen?

They had reacted instantly when a nuke detonated before.

“Are they really just letting us take them?”

About a week later, Juhyeok and his party entered the 85th floor again to haul out another Gigant.

They fired a mana EMP round.

BZZZ!

The Gigant froze.

ZIIING!

Sword Master Cossack and the Berserk Mage manifested their power and sliced through the armor plates, while El manipulated the Gigant’s mana circuits.

“... Hm?”

El tilted his head.

“What is it?”

“... I’ve found a circuit diagram I’ve never seen before in the Gigant’s central processor.”

“What?”

“Upon inspection, it appears to be a self-destruct circuit.”

Self-destruct?

“Please give me a moment.”

El carefully traced the mana circuit with his fingers and examined it intently.

Then—

“It’s definitely a self-destruct circuit. It’s designed to explode automatically one hour after combat begins.”

So the administrators had intervened.

If they had hauled it out without realizing that, it would have been disastrous.

Those sneaky bastards.

A stealth patch without any announcement?

“Can’t we just remove the self-destruct circuit?”

Like cutting the blue wire or the red wire—

That movie cliché.

“No. Attempting to remove it would trigger an immediate explosion. If we had more time, maybe—but right now...”

Damn.

What a waste.

Still, there was a silver lining.

When other players tried to clear Gigants—

There had been an unresolved issue with using mana-gun rentals to clear the 85th floor.

They could immobilize a Gigant for five minutes, but what came after that?

Once the five minutes ended, it reactivated.

You had to clear it during the immobilization period—but did any players have the ability to cut through the Gigant’s armor plates?

Armor that even Cossack and the Berserk Mage had to work together to slice through?

“Then if we just wait one hour, does the mission auto-complete?”

“That, I’m not entirely sure...”

Let’s test it.

When the Gigant started moving again after the EMP wore off, they fired another EMP round.

If it moved again, another.

Five minutes per EMP—

Twelve rounds would keep it immobilized for one hour.

After one hour passed—

[The Gigant will self-destruct shortly. Please evacuate to a safe zone. 10, 9, 8...]

At least it gave them a warning before the explosion.

Juhyeok and the party retreated to a safe area.

When the countdown ended—

BOOOOM!

RUMBLEEEE!

The Gigant collapsed from the inside out, like a building being demolished in a controlled blast.

[Giant Golem Magnus Gigant 1/1.]

[You have successfully completed the 85th Floor mission.]

[Reward: 85 kg of high-grade Magic Stones.]

Clear successful.

Immediately—

CLATTER! CLANG! WHIRRR!

“HUP!”

Rajix vacuumed up the scattered Gigant metal fragments like a vacuum cleaner.

“Heh. Even without telling him, he knows exactly what to do.”

Their thrifty farmhand.

That scrap metal could be given to Mari for magic sword production.

All in all, things had worked out.

It was actually easier now.

Just use EMP rounds and survive for one hour.

But hauling Gigants out was over.

Still, the gains were substantial.

When Juhyeok and the summoned entities returned to the White Tower—

“How many did we bring back?”

“Whoa!”

Sixteen Magnus Gigants stood lined up in the White Tower plaza.

“Beautiful. Just beautiful.”

And the storage corridors were filled with high-grade and top-grade Magic Stones.

But there was bad news too.

The 84th-floor ore vein in Tower No. 1 had already been depleted.

Partly because Rajix’s mining efficiency was absurdly high.

“We cleaned out the pantry.”

Only the 84th-floor vein in Tower No. 2 remained now.

That was worrying.

What if that got depleted too?

In the end, they would have to open the 84th floor of Earth No. 675’s Black Tower.

High-grade and top-grade Magic Stones were needed in far too many places.

“I’ll go in tomorrow, I guess.”

Just open the path.

Pick up some badges while he was at it.

That was when it happened.

FWAAAAASH!

The landmark at the top shone like a lighthouse.

That light meant—

“He’s here!!!”

It was Bardin.

The holy knight had arrived, having successfully completed his rank breakthrough.