—Mr. Gong-Ja! His hand is a straight. You better fold this one.
“I’ll fold this round.” I dropped my cards on the table.
—Oh, he’s bluffing with a pair! Silly him. Silly! I think you can just call this round and kill him. Hehehe.
—Look what she’s got here! She has a two pair, but—uh-oh—your two pair is better! Gosh, this is so much fun. Let’s go, Mr. Gong-Ja! She’ll see who’s going to win!
—Whoa, he seems to be aiming for a full house. Don’t worry, Mr. Gong-Ja. I took a peek under the table just now to see the cards, but she’ll never get a full house even after the last card is revealed. Trust me on this one. Let’s go!
After around thirty poker hands, the Viper was shaking from anger, his face bright red underneath his eyepatch.
“Fuck! This is a fraud!” He sprang to his feet, rocking the table.
The other Hunters picked up their cups as if they’d seen it coming, preventing their coffees from being tragically spilled all over the table.
Hmm. Impeccable reflexes, I noted, impressed by what I‘d just witnessed.
“It doesn’t make sense! We’ve already done this over thirty times, but he didn’t lose even once! Bluffing doesn’t work either! I don’t know if it’s a passive Skill, but he’s definitely using one! I’m sure of it! This whole game is rigged!”
“Do you have proof of that?” I sipped on my hot chocolate, although it was lukewarm chocolate now. Well, it had a charm of its own . “Who knows? Maybe I’m a poker master. I’m deeply hurt if you’re accusing me without any proof. Besides, I want to be on your good side. I’ve always respected you.”
“Hey, is he really a Class F Hunter?” the Viper yelled, looking around at his fellow Hunters. “There’s no way he’s actually F! I bet he bribed the bureau guys to lie for him! That smug face belongs to a Class B Hunter at least!”
“Wow! How did you know I’m not a Class F Hunter?”
“I actually became a Class E Hunter yesterday. I was so busy clearing the tenth floor that I didn’t get to report to the bureau.” I smiled. “I’m flattered you have such a high opinion of me. By the way, I think you’re out of chips, sir.”
“Errr....” The Viper staggered toward the table where the eliminated competitors gathered and watched the rest of the game like.
“Welcome, Mr. Viper!” The Inquisitor, the first one to drop out from the poker, beamed at him. “I thought it was about time you were eliminated, so I ordered you another espresso! No need to be polite. Help yourself!”
“I don’t like espressos...”
“Yes, I know that! But being picky is bad, so overcome it!”
“Goddamn preacher...” The Viper slumped into his chair with a morose expression.
Three Hunters had survived until the end. I and the Black Witch were two of them. To my surprise, the Paladin was still at the table, too.
“Hmm.” The Paladin frowned at her cards.
She was known for her uprightness and fairness. In fact, her entire wealth had been d to orphanages. She was also working as the assistant leader of the Watchmen League, which had been founded to maintain order in Babylon, the Tower’s first-floor city; in the outside world, she would be similar to a police commissioner.
“I lost.” The Paladin put down her cards and sighed. “I was quite confident with my poker face. Mr. Kim, do you happen to have a mind-reading Skill?”
“Well, it might be a mind-reading Skill or it could be x-ray vision. Why don’t you make a guess?”
“...It’s so hard to deal with young Hunters nowadays.” The Paladin smiled bitterly. After a bow, she walked toward the dropout table.
“Hey! You shouldn’t give up that easily!” The Viper huffed and puffed. His mouth was dirtied by smears of espresso. “You should go after him like a tenacious hound regardless of whether it works or not! Are you going to let that conman rob you?”
“Conman? You’re too harsh on our new hero.”
“It’s obvious that he’s using a Skill!”
The Paladin shrugged. “I knew that when we started.”
“It would be strange not to notice. There’s no way a rookie Hunter would have suggested a poker game with us relying on raw luck. The challenge itself is a declaration of how confident he is that he can win without us discovering what kind of Skill he was using. And we accepted the challenge.”
The Viper gaped at her. “I-is that so?”
“Mr. Viper... It’s good that you’re dedicated to your training, but try to analyze the situation every now and then.” The Paladin looked down at the Viper with eyes filled with pity. “From the start, we had nothing to lose. Although a win would be a huge boon...it’s still good even if we lose. The rookie Hunter said that he’ll join all of our guilds. That’s a good outcome in its own way.”
“B-but what about our pride!? He’s a greenhorn, so how can we treat him—”
“Does your pride feed you?”
The Viper couldn’t refute that.
“It feeds you an espresso. Drink up, Mr. Viper!” The Inquisitor put the espresso cup into the Viper’s hand.
The last two survivors were the Black Witch, the Rank 2 Hunter, and me.
“This is good,” the Witch remarked as she examined her cards.
“I finally have a chance to talk with you.” The Black Witch raised the stakes. She was probably trying to provoke me. “I’m from Ukraine, or somewhere that used to be Ukraine, to be more accurate. After losing my family in a civil war, I’ve been living abroad all my life. As you may already know, there’s nowhere good for a woman to live alone.”
“You’re right.” I boldly raised the stakes higher.
The Black Witch hesitated for a moment but tapped the table a couple of times, signaling that she would accept my challenge.
The Countess, who had been acting as the dealer after she was eliminated from the game, revealed the cards.
“What are you trying to say, though?” I stroked my chin, pretending to ponder. “It’s difficult to find people in the Tower who don’t have a sad story, especially those who entered earliest. I’m an orphan myself.”
My hand had a single pair.
“...This place is like home to me,” the Black Witch answered.
Her hand was a flush.
“I’m from Ukraine. The OJP Sect leader is from China, and you’re from Korea... But none of that matters in the Tower and people don’t ask. We made it that way.”
“Yes. Thanks to the Tower’s blessing, we can understand what everyone else is saying. We’re equal contenders here. It’s more fair than it is in the outside world, at least.”
It looked like I was going to lose if I tackled her head-on, but I calmly raised the stakes.
“The outside world people seem to treat this place like a garbage can.”
“A rose can sprout even in a garbage can.” The Black Witch gestured to call the round without a second thought. “Mr. Kim. Once the countdown in the sky hits zero, all the media will be publishing a ton of articles about you. Your life will be completely different than what it has been until now. I hope you can deal with the change wisely.”
“That’s good,” I answered.
The Countess flipped another card onto the table.
“It’s not something to be proud of, but I like attention. That’s pretty much all there is to me. I want people’s praise, their respect, and their envy. I mean it.”
My hand was two pair now.
“...You’re honest. You seem to be completely different from the Sword Star,” the Black Witch commented.
Her cards were still a flush, meaning that I was at a tremendous disadvantage.
The Black Witch stared at me.
“I’m confident.” I looked up from the cards and met the Black Witch’s eyes. “Let me use this chance to make one thing clear: I’m not hoping to receive the same treatment as you guys just because I cleared the tenth floor. The twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth, fiftieth, and hundredth floor—I’m going to clear them all and conquer the Tower, no matter how long it takes.
“I can tell that you guys treasure the Tower. I respect that and I don’t want to fight you guys, but I’ll still consider you my competitors.”
I was going to build a legend that would capture everyone’s mind; always the one who climbed up to the highest floor in the Tower, the greatest hero out there. People would remember me, praise me, envy me, and feel jealous of me.
“I want to see the world beyond the Tower, not inside it.”
That was why I was going to climb the Tower.
“To be honest, I don’t really have time to attend to these refugees and food shortage issues. But if you need my reputation to solve the matter, use it. Do it as many times as you want, but help me climb up the Tower.”
I wanted to feel the sensation of reaching the zenith. I only got to taste it once after I had cleared the tenth floor, but...I already felt addicted. It was just that incredible!
“...Phew.” The Black Witch broke her silence with a sigh. “I was wrong. You’re exactly the same as the Sword Star.”
She used both hands to push her stacks of chips into the pot, which collapsed into a pile stretching into the center of the table. She was all in.
“Is it a compliment?” I asked.
“No, I’m insulting you. You two are both incredibly greedy.”
The last cards were flipped. Her hand was still a flush, while my cards were a full house.
“That is a compliment.” I grinned. “Thank you.”
“Then as we agreed, I’ll expect treatment equal to all of you.”
“Can I expect you to fulfill your duties since you’re also enjoying the rights?”
“Pardon? Oh, isn’t it a Hunter’s duty to climb the Tower? Don’t worry. I’ll continue to do my best.”
The Black Witch smiled bitterly. “You have awfully thick skin for a rookie Hunter...”
—Yeah, thick skin indeed, Zombie. If having thick skin was a Skill, yours would have been a Class S Skill.
...You’re seriously calling me Zombie right after the game is finished?
—Of course, you zombie! Mr. Gong-Ja, my ass! Zombie! Zombie! Zombieshit! I never knew how tragic it was to call you by your proper name, Zombie! I’ll never make a bet with you again, weasel! The Guardian flew around ecstatically.
I silently clicked my tongue at the Guardian. How could an emperor of swords be that ugly?
“Are you going already?” The Black Witch asked as I stood up from my seat.
“Yes, I am. The eleventh floor opens soon, so I need to get ready. I don’t want to fall behind.”
“We don’t know what kind of place the eleventh floor is. How are you going to prepare for it?”
Hmm. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to give them a hint.
Since I was now of equal standing with them, I decided that it would be useful to make them indebted to me.
“It’s role-playing,” I said.
“The theme from the eleventh to the twentieth floor is role-playing,” I repeated.
The Black Witch and all of the other Hunters gave me an intense look. It was only natural—the slightest hint could give a Hunter an advantage, so the information I gave them was invaluable.
“The hint was my reward for clearing the tenth floor.”
That was a lie. I hadn’t received it since it was going to be given after the countdown in the sky hit zero. However, I had the knowledge of the future, so I knew what was going to happen and had no reason to not use the knowledge.
“This is all I know.”
“...Okay. Thank you for sharing your information.” The Black Witch nodded. “I’ll make sure to pay you back for this later.”
Her remark made me look forward to the future.
After a good sleep in my hotel room, I headed outside. The plaza was in a festival mood. Hunters celebrated the fact that the tenth floor had been cleared after years. Some bars gave out free beers and those who were confident flaunted their singing skills in the plaza.
However, the one unanswered question continued to bother people.
“But who really cleared the tenth floor?”
“There still hasn’t been an official announcement yet...”
“Some people saw the guild leaders gathering in one place.”
“Have you seen the Sword Star’s video? His frown was really scary. ’It’s not me.’”
“Then who in the world is it?”
As I listened to the conversations of the people next to me, I had to hold myself back from laughing.
I’m right next to you.
I was among the crowd, right in the center of the festival. Nearly a day had passed since the tenth floor had been cleared. Meanwhile, the countdown in the sky continued to tick down, slowly but surely.
Some Hunters raised their free beer while others looked at the sky and talked about the mysterious champion. They were like people counting down to the new year outside the tower.
No one asked them to, but when the countdown in the sky reached ten seconds, the Hunters began counting out loud.
Seven, six, five... The Hunters’ synchronized shouts shook the plaza slightly. It wasn’t a new year, but everyone’s eyes were filled with anticipation for a new era.
I pulled out my smartphone and checked the news. It looked like the news embargo about me was still intact, because there weren’t any articles about me.
Just three seconds before the countdown hit zero, Babylon’s general news website released a flood of articles. Maybe they were hoping to publish an exclusive even one second before the other newspapers.
—Breaking News: The person who cleared the tenth floor is an unknown rookie Class E Hunter!
—Breaking News: The real name of the man who cleared the tenth floor is Kim Gong-Ja. He comes from Korea...
—Breaking News: The Hunter who cleared the tenth floor joined all of the Five Guilds at once.
—Breaking News: The Black Dragon Guild officially announces their welcome for the new hero...
I met the new era with a smile.