A Fragment of the Black Knight's Armor
At first, mouths fell open.
Then everyone rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
From the 41st floor through the 50th floor—ten consecutive floors—were simultaneously updated to SSS+ rank.
Even watching it with his own eyes, the result felt unreal.
Se-yeon, who tilted her head, rebooted her phone.
The screen didn't change.
"So there really was a compression ticket for the 41–50 floor range after all," she muttered.
She couldn't help but chuckle.
If someone had told her they were going to compress ten floors at once, she would have glued herself to the runner and nagged them all day like a machine gun.
No wonder Jin-hyuk had kept it hidden.
Still, ten floors—that had to belong to someone utterly insane.
"How do you feel about this, Chief of Strategy?" Lee Chang-gi broke the silence in the meeting hall.
With his trademark smug smile, he looked at Han Ji-won.
"Are you still upset about Flix's A-Space Bag and the player Jo Gang-tae who drifted away because of it? The floors Jo Gang-tae cleared were just surpassed a moment ago."
"That's…."
"I think everyone here understands why compression tickets have been treated like garbage. If someone had used such a compression ticket to fuse ten floors, you can only imagine how absurdly powerful the resulting floor could have been. Yet the Runner cleared it at SSS+."
Lee Chang-gi cast a glance at Director Kang Young-hoon after a brief pause.
"He was just slow to start. It's not a matter of lacking ability. Given ticket constraints, it might take a month or two more, but I believe the Runner will eventually overtake the other rankers. What about Hunter Cheon Se-yeon's opinion?"
"I'm one hundred percent in agreement. If I had coins to bet, I'd go all in on the Runner breaking the highest floor record," she said.
"Me too," Jin Yun-ho added casually.
Lee Chang-gi continued, smiling.
"As the Strategy Chief said earlier, I think the Runner needs special management. Currently the Hunter Bureau sets support caps depending on the trial floor. I propose we lift that cap just for the Runner."
"Chief Lee! Exceptions undo rules and lead to chaos! The Runner might be an extraordinary case, but—"
Han Ji-won raised a hand, stopping Kang Young-hoon mid-rebuke.
After a soft exhale, Kang Young-hoon spoke.
"Make the Runner special. From now on, remove any ceiling on support provided to the Runner. Chief Lee, Team Leader Jin Yun-ho—use whatever means necessary to get the Runner to floor 93 as soon as possible."
It was the first exception since the Player Hunter Bureau was founded.
Except for Han Ji-won, who frowned, no one objected.
The shock of seeing ten floors all update at once still lingered.
"I'll do my best," Lee Chang-gi answered, sinking back into his chair with a smile.
Kang Young-hoon wasn't a fool.
He knew that the cost of the Runner failing would be far less than the national loss if an uncleared floor 93 were to destabilize and spread.
'Speaking of which, Yoo Jin-hyuk—what a person,' Lee Chang-gi snorted while looking at his phone.
'This guy isn't right in the head.'
In the meeting he spoke as if everything were under his control, but honestly, he was hard to predict.
How strong would someone have to be to pull off something like this?
All they could do was hope that Runner Yoo Jin-hyuk kept climbing without getting stuck or breaking.
Sunlight filtered through the blackout curtains.
Nearby, Kancho's snoring rolled like a little drum.
Jin-hyuk opened his eyes and quietly stared at the ceiling.
'Peaceful,' he thought.
After a long day, that sweet, heavy sleep felt like heaven.
He got up groggily and went into the living room.
There was a delicious smell in the air—Momo was waving her hands in a flashy manner on top of the stand.
"Momo's cooking!"
Momo flashed a chubby thumbs-up when she spotted Jin-hyuk.
He returned the thumbs-up and collapsed onto the sofa.
He seriously considered opening a restaurant someday—"Momo's Diner," perhaps.
"You should look forward to today's meal," Elia said with a meaningful expression.
What could be so special?
Beep-beep.
The door lock clicked and Se-ira came in, sweating all over from her morning training as usual.
"Smells good."
"It's going to be amazing!"
A large hot pot full of fresh vegetables and appetizing meat was set on the table.
The sheen on that meat looked…unusual.
"Is that beef? Did we have such fancy beef at home?"
"It's imugi meat!"
"Oh?"
For a moment he'd forgotten.
They had taken more than the heart from the imugi they'd killed—aside from the scales, meat, and eyes Elia took, there were plenty of other parts.
"What's for dinner, nya?"
Kancho padded out of the room rubbing his eyes, his fur flattened on one side so his hair looked lopsided.
"Imugi meat."
"Isn't it poisonous, nya?"
"Momo doesn't know. She just thought it looked tasty."
"You mean we might die as soon as we eat it, nya?"
Darc chimed in last.
Because of that, even though the stew had begun to boil, nobody reached for their chopsticks.
Everyone waited for someone else to taste it first.
"Oh—me."
The group's court lady, Jin-hyuk, picked up a piece.
The meat's glossy promise didn't lie.
As soon as it hit his tongue it gently melted.
It was so savory and clean that even top-grade beef couldn't compete.
Ding!
[You ate the thousand-year imugi's meat! Strength permanently increased by 1!]
"Oh?!"
"It was poison after all, nya! Our chubby little captain poisoned us!"
"Nope!"
'I'm not dead yet, Kancho,' he said, shooting Kancho a sad-eyed smile.
"Not poison—eat up. It's delicious, and your stats go up."
"Really, nya?!"
Kancho's eyes sparkled and he was the first to grab another piece.
He chewed slowly, savoring the flavor, then shouted a word he remembered from somewhere.
"Mimi!!!"
Kancho gobbled down the meat in a panic.
Se-ira, Darc, and Elia followed suit, each grabbing meat.
Momo kept pouring fresh meat into the pot even as she ate.
"This is amazing."
"What is this meat? I thought imugi meat would be tough."
"It's delicious, right?"
Jin-hyuk ate a few more pieces of meat and vegetables.
Meat that increases your stats as you eat it—what a generous imugi.
'I want to hunt it again someday.'
He promised himself he'd meet it again someday and kept eating until his stats stopped rising.
"Phew. That was great."
Patting his full belly, he stretched out on the soft sofa.
He pulled the fragment of the Black Knight's armor out of his inventory that he'd acquired the day before and used it.
A message popped up.
[Legendary hidden quest 'Trace of the Black Knights' activated!]
'What? A legendary hidden quest?'
Legendary quests had appeared before, albeit rarely, and though details weren't always revealed, rumors said top rankers were attempting some of them in Korea.
But a legendary quest that was also hidden—this could be the first in Korea, maybe in the world.
He slid the quest window open.
As expected, the clear conditions weren't limited to one.
Except for the condition he had to complete now, everything else was question marks and ellipses.
So it was impossible to grasp the content or total number of objectives in advance.
"Enter the 6th floor of the Tower of Myth."
Ding.
[Starting the hidden quest changes the 6th floor of the Tower of Myth! The previous 6th floor will be moved to another floor!]
'Oh?'
That was a feature he hadn't seen before.
The Tower of Myth really felt like a living, organic creature the more he looked at it.
He tapped his fingers while waiting for his friends to finish eating.
Even at the start his heart was pounding.
His first legendary hidden quest—what new spectacle awaited?
He couldn't wait to find out.
He smiled in anticipation.
[Entering the 6th floor of the Tower of Myth — The Room of Swords.]
A wide circular chamber.
Jin-hyuk appeared at the center and looked around.
The place was similar in atmosphere to the castle he'd been to yesterday—clearly aged.
Three statues stood in the room.
Before each statue was a small round pedestal.
Now that he saw them up close, the silhouettes of the statues resembled Se-ira.
"Se-ira, are these statues of the Black Knights?"
Se-ira, who had been standing blankly, nodded.
"I think I know who they are."
Se-ira stepped closer and reached out.
Despite centuries having passed, faces and names and memories resurfaced.
She smiled naturally.
'The system is being unhelpful as always,' he thought.
Se-ira knew the identities of the statues, but the system offered no mission text, not even a hint.
After the 6th floor entry condition was completed, the quest window showed no further reaction.
It was basically saying: figure it out yourself.
"Feels like an equilateral triangle, maybe."
Elia rubbed her chin and smiled as if entertained.
"What could that mean?"
"Who knows. A triangle can mean a lot of different things. Depending on the context it can represent order and balance, or in other cases chaos and destruction. If the owners of the statues were the Black Knights…Se-ira, is there anything unique they had? Anything that sets them apart?"
"Like weapons they used, for instance?"
Hearing Elia and Jin-hyuk, Se-ira fell into thought.
All three had used nothing but swords.
"There's one thing. They were all bogu wielders," she said.
Ding!
No sooner had Se-ira finished speaking than the quest window changed.
[Trace of the Black Knights]
The Room of Swords is complete.Place the three relic blades and the room will be completed.
All the question marks and ellipses attached to the quest vanished at once.
He'd expected a chain quest with many linked parts, but it turned out that gathering three swords alone would clear it.
Of course, the process itself would likely feel like a linked quest, but still.
[The Tower of Myth 6th floor mission 'Investigate the completion conditions for the Room of Swords' has been completed. The 6th floor is cleared.]
[From now on, the 6th floor of the Tower of Myth is accessible without tickets.]
[You may proceed to the 7th floor of the Tower of Myth.]
Jin-hyuk exhaled and glanced between the three statues.
A grin full of anticipation spread across his face.
Three bogu-level swords—to be called bogu at all made them rarities.
That was enough to set a man's blood alight.
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T/N:
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