A Thriving Business (1)
In the end, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu gathered all four keys.
Up until now, it had never taken several days to clear a single floor, but on the 50th floor, it took them more than four days just to collect the keys.
Because of this, Seon Yul had already given up on breaking the record for the fastest clear of the 50th floor.
Anyway, having collected all the keys, Seon Yul came to the altar located near the center of the 50th floor to use them.
“So if we insert the four keys into this altar and turn them, the boss of the 50th floor gets summoned?”
Seon Yul asked while examining the altar.
“I’m not exactly sure either. I only know that the clear condition for the 50th floor is defeating the final boss, and that to summon it, you have to defeat four mid-bosses and collect four keys.”
“Then we don’t know what the final boss is?”
“Right.”
“Hm… should we prepare a bit before summoning it?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Thinking it was better to be safe, the two made various preparations, such as placing entrances to Absolute Space around the altar.
Judging from the difficulty of the mid-bosses, the final boss was very unlikely to be an easy opponent.
Of course, neither Seon Yul nor Cheon Li Yu was worried.
They still had leeway, and with preparations complete, they calmly used the four keys to summon the final boss…
Whiiiiing, thud!
…or at least they tried to. Instead of a final boss appearing, an enormous door made of an unknown material appeared.
And on that door was a single line of text:
[Open this door and proceed to the 51st floor. However, only those who summoned this door may use it.]
“Wait… this door was the final boss?”
“Whoa…”
The two wore bewildered expressions at the completely unexpected situation.
“So… do we just open it?”
Seon Yul looked at the door again.
It was incredibly thick and massive, clearly not an ordinary door.
“Feels like it won’t be easy to open.”
“Yeah. We went through all that trouble to collect four keys just to summon it… No way it opens easily.”
“Maybe there’s a specific method…”
When clearing the Tower, it was best to approach it like a game. So Seon Yul thought of this situation as part of a game and began analyzing it.
‘Usually doors like this don’t open with brute force, you solve a puzzle or find some special switch…’
Seon Yul pondered, while Cheon Li Yu continued observing the door with her Divine Eye.
But no matter how much they thought or searched, they couldn’t figure out how to open it.
“Let’s just try pushing it first.”
In the end, Seon Yul started with the most basic method.
He pushed the massive door with both hands.
Naturally, it didn’t move at all.
Seon Yul, already a high-level magic user, possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary human. Yet even with that strength, it didn’t budge… meaning either it was unimaginably heavy or simply couldn’t be opened by force.
‘In that case…’
To be sure, Seon Yul exerted even more strength, drawing power from every muscle in his body.
His muscle booster an added effect of his super regeneration ability activated, dramatically increasing his strength. For a brief moment, he could exert strength comparable to an ogre.
And at that moment…
Creak.
The door moved… just barely.
Only about 1 millimeter.
But since Seon Yul could only sustain that power momentarily, his strength quickly returned to normal, and the door returned to its original position.
“Uh…”
“What is it?”
“This… it moves.”
“No way… was it really just meant to be opened by force?”
“Maybe… but I don’t think it’s that simple. It feels like you’d need insane strength to open this.”
Stepping back, Seon Yul stared at the door.
“Maybe there are multiple ways to open it, and one of them is brute force…”
“What should we do? Try to find another method?”
Cheon Li Yu thought opening it by strength would be disadvantageous. She herself couldn’t contribute much physically, and Seon Yul’s abilities weren’t focused on pure strength either.
“Hm…”
Seon Yul thought for a moment. She was right, he couldn’t open it by pushing with his own hands.
But he still considered it because while direct force wouldn’t work, another form of “force” might.
“Let’s not waste time looking for another method. Let’s open it with force.”
“Huh? Force?”
“Yeah. I think it’ll work.”
The method Seon Yul thought of was simple.
The door didn’t have to be pushed by hand.
If opening the door was explained through action and reaction, then force was the “action.” As long as something exerted enough force to push the door, the reaction would occur.
In simpler terms…
“A bombardment powerful enough to push the door backward. That should work.”
“Ah…”
Cheon Li Yu nodded in understanding.
“Let’s prepare.”
Seon Yul believed it was entirely possible.
As long as the door didn’t break, bombardment could still apply tremendous force to it.
In fact, even if it broke, it didn’t matter.
Opening a door by smashing it was still, ultimately, opening it.
Tzzt.
Seon Yul opened an entrance to Absolute Space in front of the door and prepared the railgun his most powerful physical attack aside from the gravity-based Hammer of God.
“Will it work?”
“Probably? If you convert the railgun’s physical force into human strength… it’d be stranger if the door didn’t open.”
Once ready, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu retreated a good distance and fired without hesitation.
Whiiiiing—THOOOOM!
The tungsten projectile, fired from only about 15 meters away, struck the exact center of the massive door.
KWA-A-A-A-A-A-BOOM!
At that moment, an immense force slammed into the door…
And the door… swung wide open.
BOOOOOOM!!
The force was too overwhelming to resist, and the door opened easily.
At the same time, a message appeared:
[You have cleared the 50th floor of the Tower of Life.]
[You have broken the fastest clear record for the 50th floor and obtained bonus experience and loot.]
[Use the open door to proceed to the next floor.]
“Huh? Fastest clear record?”
Seon Yul looked surprised.
“Well, yeah. This process couldn’t have been finished quickly. Five days is actually short.”
As Cheon Li Yu said, the previous fastest record was over seven days due to the complexity.
“Well, achieving it is what matters.”
Seon Yul quickly collected the reward box and moved to the 51st floor with Cheon Li Yu.
Like the saying “all roads lead to Seoul,” Seon Yul cleared the 50th floor in his own way, and once again set a new record.
***
Afterward, the 51st floor was much easier than the 50th.
They cleared floors 52, 53, and 54 in just 2–3 days each, reaching the 55th floor.
Naturally, they kept breaking speed records.
During this process, they realized something:
The Tower filtered climbers in intervals of 10 floors.
They had sensed it slightly at the 40th floor, but the 50th made it clear.
At this rate, the 60th floor would likely be the next major difficulty spike.
Currently, the highest cleared floor in the Tower of Life is the 59th.
Perhaps other climbers knew this, too… that’s why they were pausing there.
So Seon Yul decided to end this climb at the 55th floor.
There was little point in pushing to 59 unless aiming to break the record.
He planned to rest and aim for the highest floor next time.
Of course, that would require negotiation with the Tower’s administrators, but that was a concern for later.
Final results:
* Numerous loot items
* Seon Yul reached level 87
* Cheon Li Yu reached level 71
Cheon Li Yu also gained a new level perk at level 70… finally a useful one after many underwhelming perks.
Since perks were only granted up to level 100, it was about time she got a good one.
Satisfied with their progress, they returned to the shop.
But something was… off.
More precisely, there were far too many customers.
Jun Hyeok was running around, drenched in sweat, trying to manage them all.
“This is…”
Seon Yul froze at the sight.
Jun Hyeok immediately ran over.
“Help me out, quick!”
“Uh–okay…”
Without even speaking properly, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu began assisting customers.
The reason for the sudden surge was, of course, the magic stone mobile phones.
But that wasn’t the only reason.
People initially came for the phones, but then became interested in other Earth-104 items, and word spread rapidly.
Eventually, the store became this crowded.
After several hours, they finally sold everything and closed.
All three collapsed in exhaustion.
Serving customers was no easy task.
Jun Hyeok spoke first:
“Yul, you need to go to Earth-104 again soon.”
Seon Yul understood why.
They were almost out of stock.
“Yeah… but when did it get this busy?”
“It started about three days ago. Today was the peak. If you hadn’t come back, we’d be done for.”
“Almost out of phones, too?”
“Yeah. Maybe about a thousand left. Probably gone by tomorrow.”
“And everything else too?”
“Barely anything left. Even monster materials are almost gone. People say ours are the freshest… the warehouse is basically empty.”
“Then I need to go right away.”
Seon Yul stood up.
“Now?”
“Yeah. I’ll go now. You stay and help Jun Hyeok.”
“Got it.”
Planning a quick trip, Seon Yul left alone for Earth-104.
Business doing well was good, but this level of success was overwhelming.
Even Seon Yul hadn’t expected it to grow this much.
They would need to seriously revise their plans.
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