Babel Network
[Congratulations, Korea!]
[Babel Tower ━ Floor 38 cleared!]
[Guild "Dawn" rings the bell of victory.]
[Nation: Republic of Korea ━ Babel Tower Floor 39 has been unlocked.]
It was around 11 p.m.
People who were wrapping up their day all lifted their heads at once.
A few drifted toward the windows and peered out into the distance.
A faint bell.
Jioh opened his closed eyes.
It was the bell tolling from the Tower.
When a party reaches the final gate of a floor in the Babel Tower, a single bell appears at the end.
The moment the raiding party that has overcome every trial rings it, the next floor opens and the conquest is officially complete.
That feeling in your hand when you ring the bell—crazy addictive.
Gyeon Riok, Jioh's younger brother, used to call it the ultimate catharsis and smile.
No matter how many times they crossed a mortal line, no matter what price they paid—
He said the rankers who kept climbing the Tower like mad were probably already addicted to it.
Babel Network
▷ Local ─ Republic of Korea
▷ Domestic Ranker Channel #1
| 3 |
Alpha: Good work. Twilight^^
| 8 |
Dawit: fr that bastard's tough as hell... he pulled this off in a day
| 12 |
Sangsang: Luck helped. Since we bailed mid-run, this was our third attempt in a row. Regrettably, looks like there'll be no ranking shifts though. :D
| 6 |
Yasik King: &/&:/ where u at u horoㅗsaekki drop ur coords right now u £%}+₩
| 4 |
White Bird: As you all know, next is Floor 39. Being the last of the 30s, the difficulty will be brutal. To prevent needless casualties, I'd like the top elites of each guild to gather, same as on Floor 29.
| 8 |
Dawit: ㅡㅡ hey #1 u seeing this? heard you were in Seolleung today how long u gonna keep up that mysticisn fr im dying here
| 1 |
Jio: ㅇㅅㅇ
| 1 |
Jio: mysticisn (x) mysticism (o)
| 4 |
White Bird: It's 주의 not 주이. (It's "mysticism," not "mysticisn.")
| 8 |
Dawit: cuz of all u speling-nerdz i can't do this ranker gig from up top
| 5 |
Bambi: Jio-nim, where are you right now
Gyeon Jioh always lurked in the channel, but he would pop up to answer when it was Dawit.
Because Choi Dawit was Jioh's absolute fave.
Every time he saw him, his heart warmed. You could say he was balm to the body and soul.
Turns out I'm not dumb, I just didn't study; my brain's not half bad.
For all our self-esteem, only kids like Choi Dawit should be allowed on TV and such.
Then Madam Park might finally realize how bright her daughter really is.
Bzzzz.
Mom's Boy│010-7351-xxxx
━ x Month xx Day ━
ya
ya ya
aren't you coming home
wow seriously you live only for today; are you a mayfly??;;
Jioh rolled onto his side.
A darkened room. The ceiling was low.
Baek Dohyun's place was a separated-layout one-room studio near a university district.
It was fairly neat, like its owner's temperament, but it screamed broke.
Honestly, unexpected. With that clean-cut look, he didn't seem like he'd ever suffered.
Baek Dohyun, who had cheerfully given his only mattress to his guest, had laid out bedding by the kitchenette.
His white T-shirt as he lay turned away made his shoulder blades stand out sharp.
Gyeon Jioh had excellent night vision.
"Feels a bit late to ask this, but."
"...Weren't you asleep?"
"Do you live alone?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Mm, I have no siblings.... And I lost both parents in an accident when I was young. I lived with my uncle's family through middle school, then I've been on my own since."
"Like this—alone?"
"Yes, like this—alone."
Baek Dohyun's voice had a trace of laughter. It was plain, matter-of-fact.
"Then school—no, are you working?"
"I started working earlier than my peers. I quit a few days ago because of circumstances, though. Anyway, is this a sudden background check?"
"It's a strange guy's house; I should at least know something."
"It's the same on my side—an unfamiliar woman—so that's unfair. I don't even know your name."
Jioh lifted his head, surprised.
"You don't know my name?"
"I don't. 'Jio'... and 'Magician King.' Oh, and that you're an early-birth-year twenty—that's what you told me on the way here. That's all I know."
"Hmmm."
The sound up close made Baek Dohyun's eyes fly open. Yikes.
At some point, Jioh was crouched by his pillow, chin propped on his hand, looking down at him.
Only the moonlight from the window silvered the dusk.
Curled small with a rounded back, Gyeon Jioh really did look like a cat.
As if… uncannily, like he weren't "human."
He looked infinitely young and, at the same time, infinitely seasoned.
Under that moonlight, there was something about personhood—something unreadable to human eyes.
It was uncanny.
"After you acted like you knew me so well."
"...Ah."
"You regressed, you said. How come you don't know?"
"This Oppa really doesn't know a thing. You don't even know what I can see, and you want to hand me your name?"
"...I don't know it exactly, but I've had a similar experience."
We met.
I asked his name.
When he answered, he smiled like he suddenly knew everything. He even showed the face he'd hidden.
That smile left such an impression he could never forget it.
Baek Dohyun swallowed.
Too close....
He wanted to sit up, but he couldn't.
His gaze, from where he lay, slid from Jioh's brow to his lips. Gyeon Jioh let out a short laugh.
"So you two weren't intimate at all."
Baek Dohyun answered.
"I wanted to be... that close."
But the distance was too great.
No matter how famous he became, no matter how he rose as a divinity.
Long before all that—since ages ago—this person had been at the summit. The immovable owner of the throne.
He was simply unreachable.
Even in the moment the world ended.
So this closeness now, Baek Dohyun honestly could hardly believe it.
"We spoke exactly once. After that, I only saw him a few more times in passing, from far away. ...About today—I'm sorry for acting on my own."
"Jio."
"...Yes?"
"Jioh."
On the channel, once you set your nickname you can't change it.
Plenty of rankers ended up with serious cringe histories because they didn't know that, but thankfully Jioh wasn't one of them.
True to his taste for simplicity—even with his name.
"Ji, oh. My name."
"..."
"So it's not like you don't know me at all."
So don't make that face.
It makes the viewer feel weird, Mr. Protagonist on your second run.
"This is driving me nuts."
"Why?"
Guild 〈Babylon〉.
One of the nation's Big Five, a small, elite guild composed entirely of upper-echelon rankers.
Top-rank Gyeon Riok led the team as its young head.
True to the guild of a standard-bearer for the straight-arrow purist school, it was also famous as a congregation of hardcore purists obsessed with conquering the Babel Tower.
"Why do you think? Because of the damned bane of my family."
"That Noona of yours who's doing a third go at the exam?"
"Keep it down; it's embarrassing. I'll kill you."
〈Babylon〉's vice guild master, rank 12 Sa Sejong, gave a dry laugh.
"What's there to be embarrassed about? What's wrong with a third try?"
Why do you keep saying third try? Gyeon Riok clicked his tongue irritably. Then, as if serious, he muttered,
"It's not necessarily all Gyeon Jioh's fault. The universities are weird too. She didn't study, sure, but the kid's got decent innate brains. Maybe it's admissions corruption or something?"
"...Oh really?"
"Hyung, think you could look into it? Your family's a chaebol, right. Don't you have some dark backchannel with the college scene or whatever?"
That crooked siscon brat.
Not the first day dealing with this. Sa Sejong smoothly steered the topic back on track.
"But why your Noona?"
"Gchleuh."
"What?"
"She ran away from home!"
This damn no-answer freeloader cat.
Couldn't very well yank out all his fur. Did she really run away? Has she lost it, when the world out there is this dangerous?
Gyeon Riok started pacing back and forth restlessly.
Guild members who were filing in for the meeting hour took one look and murmured. What's with him, does he need to pee? Why whine like that instead of going to the bathroom?
"What's wrong with the leader?"
"His Noona ran away from home, he says."
"Well now. A Noona can run away. Imagine how stifled she was. You don't know the plight of the eldest daughters of Korea."
Domi, a guild member who had no idea what kind of human Gyeon Jioh was, spoke with sympathy.
Naturally, Gyeon Riok burst out in rage. Damn it, say something after you actually know something!
"She left without even a card!"
"...?"
Huh?
At the guild master's illogical, contextless, out-of-the-blue outburst, the members fell into a status ailment.
Seeing their reaction, Gyeon Riok looked like his rage was boiling over.
He thumped his chest and launched into a speech.
"You don't grasp how serious this is? Mom cut her cards, so she walked out dead broke with empty hands! In this world whipped by the spring cold snap, she stomped out in three-striped slippers, for real, leaving her spoon mid-bite!"
Are you psychopaths?
Shuddering at his comrades' inhumanity, Gyeon Riok whipped around.
Even as he spoke, his mind had already started screening 〈The Matchstick Girl: Third-Time Examinee Gyeon Jioh〉.
With a doubtful, cautious tone, Domi asked around,
"Is he, like, crying right now...?"
"I'm truly disappointed in you all..."
It's exhausting serving a twenty-year-old boss.
Clicking his tongue, Sa Sejong looked at the back of his twenty-year-old superior bracing himself against the wall.
He'd stormed out of the Tower mid-raid in a fit before; now he'd wreck the mood right before a meeting.
Sure, it's a time of wild mood swings, but at this point it's a wonder the guild hasn't collapsed yet.
If he weren't S-rank, they'd have plotted a revolt already. Why do monsters all have personality defects.
If only he could grill those Constellations about their taste once—he'd die with no regrets.
The Hunter world's rare voice of reason, Sa Sejong bitterly organized the file folders.
[Official proposal: Big Five guild cooperation on the Babel Tower Floor 39 offensive]
[Guild Babylon ━ Proposal to reinforce forces (recruit rookies) regarding the "Tutorial"]
From the finally opened Floor 39 to the fast-approaching Tutorial season—
Major events were right around the corner, yet 〈Babylon〉's meeting seemed a bust today as always.
Same time.
There was another person suffering because of that Gyeon creature.
"...."
Baek Dohyun took in the apartment's dungeonification after just two days and fell silent.
Starting with the TV that was on even though nobody was watching.
Empty ice cream tubs stacked in layers, half-finished cups of juice and cookie crumbs, towels still damp and crumpled any which way...
And above all, that heaving pile of blankets.
Under the headphones, a small back-of-the-head wiggled as fingers pounded the keys.
Yap, yap! She even supplied mouth-made sound effects.
Thud.
The takeout chicken and ice cream bags fell from both of Baek Dohyun's hands.
"Oh, you're back? Is it Hägen* Dazs for sure this time? If you brought Na*ru again like last time, the next train is the boneless line, boneless line."
Jio scampered over, rustled through the bags, then scampered back.
Back to exactly the way it was, without a hair out of place.
...Was caretaking always this hard...?
[Trait "Butler Taken for a Sucker" has been added! Fighting!]
Mother and Father in heaven.
I, Baek Dohyun, twenty-five this year, on my second life—
With one moment's choice, I seem to have opened the gates of irreversible childcare hell.