The Protagonists Are Murdered by Me - Chapter 178

200 independent challengers entered the dungeon first before the 40 members of Wings of Heaven Guild. For the entire journey inside the dungeon, all the challengers were silent, those who were chatting were all the members of Wings of Heaven Guild. Afterall, why should they chat with each other? They know that those who were walking next to them, or standing in front or behind them would soon die.

In the midst of this despairing and choking silence, Malea trudged along. However, unlike the people around her, she was calmly assessing their captors.

‘There are 20 long-distance classes, 7 tanks, and the rest are supporters….’

Malea’s eyes darted towards their equipment now. They were all wearing level 3 equipment, in other words, they were challengers that had climbed at least 30 floors. As someone with only level 0 equipment, she wouldn’t even dare to dream of defeating them.

‘Besides, I heard that the movement speed increase option is attached on the boots beyond level 3.’

Malea bit her lips tight. The equipment obtained from the Tutorial Tower becomes extremely effective as the level goes up. For example, goggles and glasses would greatly increase vision as well as reaction speed, boots boost agility and speed, armor increases defense and endurance, while weapons naturally overwhelmingly increase attack power.

Moreover, while level 0 equipment has an attack power of 0-9, level 1 equipment has a defence power of 10-19, hence, it was almost impossible to damage a level 1 equipment using a level 0 equipment no matter how hard you try, let alone  against a level 3 equipment. It would be no different than hitting a rock with an egg.

‘Resisting or running away is impossible. Is there really no other answer than finding the door of truth?’

Because Malea was the one who put herself in this situation, she did not get frustrated or think of giving up. Rather, she kept trying to find a way to survive somehow.

-Come on, the game starts now~! Doo-to-do!

The inside of the dungeon was wide enough to be considered as a huge cavern. There were more than two hundred doors scattered here and there. Moreover, the whole dungeon was extremely unique. Normally, the ground of the room should always be located ‘underneath’ the feet. However, in this space, the ground is everywhere. It didn’t matter whether it’s above, below, left, or right; wherever your feet landed, that was the ground. When someone climbed the stairs to the ceiling, the ceiling would become the floor for them, it also applied to the wall.

It would be a very rare space in real life, but in this tower, it was a common sight. The phenomenon was called ‘euclidean topological space in the spatial plane’. A concept discovered on a peculiar planet named Ase, which had failed to implement the theory in that world, but succeeded in bringing it to reality in the tower.

Wonderful?

Beautiful?

No words could express Malea’s feelings regardless of how many times she saw the phenomenon in front of her. But unfortunately, now was not the time to admire it.

– Can you see it~?! So many fake doors! However, there is only one true door amongst all! If you choose the false door, you know what will happen, right?

“Ugh…”

“Damn fairy…”

-Then, game, start!

The rabbit fairy exclaimed excitedly. When Malea heard it, she thought that maybe the fairy was happy because it probably knew which door was the door of truth.

“Move in order from the front and open the door.”

“Shit!”

“You rotten bastards…”

“If we’re lucky, no one will die and it might end quickly.”

Independent contenders gnashed their teeth and did what they were told since they knew resisting was useless. Three challengers, who were chosen in order to open the door, put their hands on the handle. They were sweating profusely as their faces turned visibly paler.

Immediately after… Except for one, the other two doors suddenly turned into huge mouths and opened wide. Moments later, hundreds of jagged teeth were exposed and instantly coloured in crimson red as a total of seven challengers were chopped into bits and pieces.

“….!!”

The noise in the surrounding suddenly died down. Everyone was silent at the terrible sound of flesh and bone being chewed, mixed, and digested. Many were stumbling to the ground while puking out all of their breakfast.

The expression of some of the Wings of Heaven Guild members also became rigid at the scene. But, the challengers above the 30th floor did not show any reaction. Perhaps they did not find any value or interest in their deaths.

“Actually, I didn’t even expect the real door would come out. So, what are you doing? Keep moving!”

The leader of the expedition was a man who had his body covered with level 4 equipment. For the challengers on the 10th floor, it can be said that he was akin to a god. There was no one who could disobey him, so the remaining 193 independent challengers slowly moved forward.

Malea bit her lip and forced her brain to think.

Is this ignorant way the only option we have? It can’t be.

The Tutorial Tower was a mysterious world oriented to ‘challenge’. Therefore, there must be some answer to every mystery it gave. Even if the Wings of Heaven Guild couldn’t find a way to do it, and just used this ignorant method, it doesn’t mean there’s no other way.

“Wait…” So, Malea tried to sound her opinion towards the expedition leader.

“What? Are you trying to waste my precious time?”

“No, please hear me for a second. Rather than doing it like this, how about doing it a little more efficiently? For example, letting everyone choose the door? someone might find the answer if they’re lucky.”

“…why should I listen to you?”

To his words, Malea shrugged her shoulders and replied. “We have a higher chance of dying rather than escaping anyway, think of it as giving us the right to choose our own grave. You know better than us that we have a slim chance of escaping, right? How can we get away from ‘rankers’?”

In fact, the term ‘rankers’ referred to great challengers who had climbed up to the 50th floor or higher, but some guild members’ lips couldn’t help but twitch as they heard how Malea referred to them.

The expedition leader’s lips also twitched ever so slightly and said. “Fine, I’ll go with your suggestion. But! If any of you think of secretly wasting your time doing nothing, I’ll throw you into a door myself.”

“I understand.”

Malea sighed. She had created a situation where she could choose the door she wanted, but the core problem still remains.

‘How the hell do I find the door?’

Even the leader of Wings of Heaven Guild who had conquered up to the 56th floor, could not find the answer. So, how could she, a challenger of only the 10th floor, find it?

‘No! I have to think about it! even if this tower is unkind to the challenger, there’s no way they can create an unclearable challenge.’

“It’s over there.”

“…….!”

Malea trembled as someone suddenly whispered in her ear. She glanced behind her and saw the short pretty girl from earlier looking up at her from below.

“Sorry?”

“The third pillar across the bridge, the second one from far right. It’s written there.”

“Yes?”

A girl named Aracelli pointed her finger carefully. The place she pointed at was neither a door nor a hallway, but a mirror on the other side of the pillar which was slanted in a very weird angle as if it had been deliberately moved that way. There were letters engraved in the mirror, and thanks to the angle, Malea could see the letters.

[Go this way.]

However, the writing was too sloppy, and the content was also not convincing enough.

Who wrote that?

“Do you believe in such mischievous writing?” Malea asked as she looked at Aracelli.

“Yes. That’s Professor’s handwriting.”

“Who is that…”

Malea couldn’t believe Aracelli’s words. It made no sense to risk your life for some unverified piece of information like this in the first place. However, because she didn’t have any other clues right now, she couldn’t help but grab Aracelli’s arm and pulled her to the place directed by the words. She was certain there was something special there because of the fact there was a written word in this space.

[Why are you acting so slow? Look down to the right.]

“What….”

A chill crawled up her spine as she read the words which were directed here once again as if whoever wrote it knew what she would do. Then, she looked down to her right just like what the words told her to, hoping she would find nothing.

[Jump down!]

Such words came into her sight.

Malea was seriously creeped out now and could feel a headache incoming. However, before it could even arrive, the shout of the expedition’s leader rang out.

“What are you doing! Come on, move!”

The moment she looked up, she could see more words in the mirror which weren’t seen before because of the angle.

[Ignore that stupid expedition leader and run quickly, Malea!]

“Crazy, crazy, this is really crazy…!”

Eventually, Malea tightly closed her eyes and followed the words, jumping down. At first glance, the height alone was around 11m, so she was afraid that she would suffer fatal damage when she landed. But surprisingly, the gravity when she fell kept changing and slowing her descent, resulting in her being able to land intact on the ground.

“Haaaahhh…” Malea let out a relieved breath as she plopped down to the ground. Meanwhile, she could see from the corner of her eyes that Aracelli had gracefully landed next to her.

“Stay strong. You don’t want to die here, do you?” Aracelli smiled.

“Yes…” Malea nodded her head, then she quickly thought back to the words she read earlier.

‘Was it written with a magic marker? In terms of the liquid’s dryness…’

It should have been written around 6 months ago.

But why was it written as if the writer knew about my current circumstances?

‘What the hell……..’

“Hey, Malea, let’s move. We don’t have time to rest.”

“Yes? Okay.”

Araceli grasped Malea’s hand and led her.

“Eugghhh!”

“Sa, save me!”

Meanwhile, numerous screams continued to resound from somewhere else.

Inside the dungeon called the Door of Truth, there were numerous traps except for the ‘door’, and those screams were probably from people who were being attacked by it.

‘That’s right, I don’t have time to worry about stuff like that now. I have to focus on matters at hand..’

At that time.

“Duck!”

“Uh-huh!”

Malea slumped forward as she was kicked. She was sure it was Aracelli who did that. Then a sharp guillotine suddenly passed over her head.

“Cr… crazy…!”

Without giving Malea time to be surprised, Araceli said. “Crawl seven steps forward. Hurry!”

“Yes!”

As Malea followed her words and swiftly crawled forward, Aracelli once again said, “Roll three times to the right!”

Malea couldn’t afford to think why she said it. She just did what she was instructed to.

To her amazement, three poles suddenly came down on the spot where she had been lying down just moments ago.

“Now get up and walk. After twelve steps, turn your head!”

Shortly after twelve steps, a stone statue of Medusa which could turn anything into a stone with a single eye contact appeared in front of her before instantly disappearing. Thanks to the precise timing of the turn, she was able to avoid being turned into stone.

“Good. Now go straight to the right. On the third block, briefly cling to the wall and then go straight.”

“…”

“Here, count one, two, three and run! Then jump from the first pole!”

“Aww! So, something just rubbed against my ankle…!”

What the hell is this girl? How did she know all this? Malea glanced at Aracelli as she continued to move. She was walking leisurely while reading something that looked like torn paper.

“No.”

“Yes?”

“You can’t see this yet. The ‘probability’ would be consumed enormously if you read it. If something goes wrong, Professor could be in danger, so you should never look at this, understand?”

“Ah yes…”

“Hmm. By the way, you are the type of person who writes a diary very meticulously, huh? But, why do you chew gum sixty times before spitting it out?”

“I was originally meticu- No, how did you know about that? Just who are-”

“Nevermind that, get down!”

“…!”

Bang!

Malea banged her head into the ground as she did what Aracelli told her to. Blood was dripping from her nose. Moreover, she couldn’t even ask what she wanted to ask.

‘I’ll find out about it someday! Really!’

With that determination, Malea ran and ran again to survive. For some reason, she could trust whatever the mysterious girl told her to do.

* * *

60th floor, Metro City 3193.

While wearing sunglasses, Yoo Seodam sat on the roof of a building and looked at the night view full of neon signs underneath. In the Tutorial Tower, there was basically no life except for the AI ​​system called ‘NPC’ and the challengers in this futuristic city.

As he was enjoying the sight of flying battleships in the night sky above and numerous self-driving cars galloping along the transparent road, a gray-skinned android dressed in a maid uniform suddenly approached him and held out a tray towards Yoo Seodam.

-Challenger Yo…Yoo Seodam, I b…brought the ri…rice cake soup.

“Oh yeah. Thank you, but stop stuttering.”

-That, it’s not programmed, so I…I can’t.

“Just download it.”

-Well, A…already do…download it. B…but it’s m…my ha…habit so I…I ca…can’t fi…fi…fix it.

“…Is that something a computer should say?” Yoo Seodam said as he rose from his seat. Then, he activated his stage point. It was technology which could take him anywhere in the whole 60th. As the concept of the floor was ‘Time war between humans and machines’, the time zones of every point were different.

[Metro City, Void Battleship takes you to 2979.]

After a moment of closing his eyes, Yoo Seodam was greeted by ruins of numerous buildings which had been completely destroyed underneath the sea of ​​fire, even though it was the same city as moments before. However, since the stage he was in currently was already cleared, there were no monsters left.

The only thing bothering him was a huge battleship above which was slowly descending while occupying half of the sky. That battleship was a very important part of the story on this floor because it symbolized the defeat of humans and at the same time signaled the arrival of the machine age.

Even so, for Yoo Seodam, it was only a side dish for his rice cake soup.

“I hope Aracelli is doing well.”

While he was climbing the tower, he had left a few pages of the diary to Aracelli and spent some leisurely time with her on the lower floor while creating the ‘magic textbook’, which was the original purpose why he came to this world.

Unlike in the past, where she had always arrived first, and given him support, this time, she arrived after Yoo Seodam. That was why he could finally repay some of her help by giving her something like a ‘bus’.

(T/N Bus is a game term for power levelling if you don’t know. In this, a higher level player carries the lower level player to power up.)

From the 60th floor onwards, it would become more difficult to do so, because going to the lower floors was restricted until the stage was cleared. However, giving up the stage progress and going down was also impossible because he had to check the unique growth of the protagonist ‘Wigen’.

‘I have to be patient and wait. To hunt Wigen, Malea’s help is essential. …I already marked everything in the diary while climbing the tower, so they will be arriving soon.’

After thinking about it for a while, five shadows appeared from the sky afar. Since there was not a single living thing here, it was obvious who came.

The protagonist, Wigen. And his party members.

“It’s you again, Yoo Seodam?”

“Uh… It’s been a long time, right? It’s nice to see you after 3 hours of separation.”

“Just move away.”

“I’ll do so. But, where did one of your friends go? You were originally a party of six.”

“I threw him away because he was kidnapped by the Machine Corps. There’s no need or reason to save some baggage. Need another answer?”

I did expect it, but still. He was a total psycho who sought extreme ‘cider’!

Is your party holding you back? Throw them away.

Is there someone in his party who is bothered by his opinion? Kill.

But no one could stop him.

After all, Wigen possessed a cheat skill that allowed him to communicate with the ‘fairy of tutorials’, the omnipotent beings who made this giant tower, and monopolized all kinds of information within it.

Even Yoo Seodam with his future record did not dare to fight head-to-head against the power of information. ‘Malea’s Tutorial Diary’ only records what happened to her in detail, and there was no record of any dungeons or events occurring whatsoever. Furthermore, even if he knew the future, it would be difficult for Yoo Seodam to use it; It was because the act of preoccupying the future knowledge is a serious violation of ‘probability’.

“Yoo Seodam. You too, stop your foolish act and join my party. You are worthy, unlike the other useless bastards.”

“Uh-huh, you want this big bro to bow to you and crawl under you? Not a chance.”

“Don’t you know? To break through the 60th floor, we must cooperate with each other.”

“Can’t I just stay here on the 60th floor? After all, interfering with you is the funniest thing.”

“Words just don’t work with you… Seriously.”

Wigen drew out his black sword. He was going to fight Yoo Seodam in earnest.

However,

Wheeing! Wheeing! Wheeing!

Suddenly, sirens echoed from the void battleship above. Then, a message was sent out to the whole world.

– Night of the Machine has arrived.

– Annihilate all humans living and breathing on this earth.

– Annihilate!

In an instant, blue light covered the earth. It was scanning for any sign of life left. From what Yoo Seodam knows, soon, the moment a life signal was detected, they would bombard it with laser bombardment. He had to move to another stage point quickly.

Then, Yoo Seodam looked at Wigen who had a sour expression on his face. It seems like he had realized what Yoo Seodam was doing; obstructing him from entering the dungeon. However, unfortunately for him, Yoo Seodam’s body had started to disappear.

“Rotten bastard…”

In many ways, he was an evil man until the very end.