He could not let this slide any longer.

Leaving things as they were was no longer an option.

Either that bastard would die, or he himself would. There was no other choice but to see this through to the bitter end.

Thinking back, it had always been like this.

The summoner—that bastard—was always one step ahead.

Plans they had painstakingly put together would be neutralized with absurd ease, and then he would climb right over their heads and mock them.

Every time they reassured themselves—this time it won’t work, this is impossible, he’ll definitely fail—he would succeed, as if just to spite them.

The moment he appeared, he dropped a meteor and killed Karatos.

He dragged out a Gigant and trampled a giant monster.

In a deal involving equivalent exchange, he detonated a nuclear weapon.

Even the supposedly impossible phoenix had been cleared with fire engines.

The Undead Bone Dragon had been finished off by just two people: a holy knight and a gunner.

Then he used the dragon hearts obtained that way to forge a demonic sword and shield, and killed the 88th-floor Sand Dragon.

On the second repeat clear, he had a mage film the fight while he and his summoned entities sat comfortably in a viewing stand, eating, drinking, and chatting as if they were watching a baseball game.

And just when it finally seemed to be over—

he abruptly climbed to the 89th floor.

He was going to clear a half-demonic dragon that had only just been contracted and was not even fully prepared yet?

[Is there any chance of stopping him on the 89th floor? Can our contractor kill him?]

[... If anything, he’ll clear it.]

[I see.]

There was no need to ask any further.

The answer was obvious.

He had cleared the Sand Dragon with a single Gigant.

If the summoned entities—who had merely stood back and watched—joined in alongside that Gigant?

The free-contract dragon would amount to nothing more than grilled lizard on a plate.

Rage surged up.

His mind went blank with fury.

That damned elevator.

That damned inheritance.

That damned summoner.

Even now, the memory of him laughing, chatting, and fooling around was unbearable.

Everything he did grated on his nerves.

Did administrators not have emotions?

Just looking at him hurt.

It was already too late to endure this patiently.

Kill him.

He had to be killed.

Even if it meant burning away his own soul.

Even if it meant mutual destruction.

Causality, my ass.

Tower rules?

What was wrong with breaking them a little?

[I can’t watch this anymore.]

[... S-should I turn off the hologram feed?]

[No. That isn’t what I meant.]

He would clear the 89th floor.

He would receive the rewards and celebrate with his summoned entities.

Just imagining it was enough to drive anyone insane.

[Swap the tower monsters.]

[Swap them?]

[Swap the supervisors of Floors 89 and 90. Open the back door and redeploy them.]

[What? ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) W-wait!]

[Designer, that violates the rules—]

[Do it! That’s an order.]

[Think again. Don’t let your emotions—]

[Fuck! Do it when I tell you to! Do you want to die?]

Administrators were not equal.

Not in rank, and not in authority.

[I’ll take full responsibility. Move the new free-contract dragon from Floor 89 up to Floor 90, and bring the Floor 90 dragon down.]

This was serious.

Punishment was inevitable.

[If this fails, our souls will be erased.]

[Then it just has to succeed. Do you really think the Floor 90 boss would lose to them?]

Of course not.

As a single entity, the supervisor of Floor 90 was a being no one short of a god could oppose.

[... All right. Executing redeployment.]

At this point, all they could do was pray it worked.

If the summoner died, they could somehow cover it up.

Usually, once the subject was erased, causality vanished with it.

An ancient dragon—

a title given to dragons that had lived at least ten thousand years.

A dragon’s life was long and tedious.

It could not be compared to the short-lived races that could not even survive a hundred years.

Their concept of time itself was different.

To a dragon, a century was brief.

It could sleep once and wake to find a hundred years gone.

Sleep ten times, and a thousand years passed. Sleep a hundred times, and ten thousand years vanished.

Thus dragons filled their boring lives with long slumbers.

Or occasionally descended into human civilization for amusement.

But even that grew dull.

Sleeping ceased to be enjoyable, and entertainment lost its charm.

And on top of that, there was the duty they were burdened with—

dragons as beings of harmony and balance.

That, in truth, was the thing it hated most.

To uphold that duty meant suppressing one’s own desires.

It was no different from being forbidden to do anything at all.

The moment a dragon exerted influence over the human world, harmony and balance would collapse.

A hollow existence.

A meaningless life.

Why should dragons not pursue power?

Was it truly so wrong to rule the world with overwhelming might and trample inferior races beneath one’s feet?

Was it supposed to spend its entire life castrated of desire, tending insect-like short-lived species?

The moment it thought that, it fell.

It awakened to its identity as a demonic dragon.

Perhaps it was the only ancient dragon ever to become a demonic dragon.

How exhilarating it had been to destroy the world as a demonic dragon.

It had done so here on Earth No. 675 as well.

The moment the boundary between the tower and the world disappeared,

it emerged outside and burned and destroyed everything in sight.

Once this project ended, a new life would begin.

It would move to another Earth and destroy that world as well.

But one day—

the world suddenly changed.

The Black Tower rose again.

As a result, it, which had been outside, was helplessly bound back inside the tower.

Why?

When it looked into the cause, it all traced back to a single being.

One human who had crossed over from another Earth and registered as a player on this Earth.

Because of that man, the tower had regenerated.

He had to die.

Otherwise, it would remain trapped here forever.

And at last, the opportunity came.

A request from an administrator to swap supervisors.

They would open the back door.

It would go to the 89th floor.

And kill the player.

It accepted gladly.

Now then, let’s go.

To kill him.

[Entering Black Tower (Germany), Floor 89.]

The environment was a dense forest—

a jungle packed with thick trees.

“Boss Summoner has entered the 89th floor. Guten Tag! Danke schön! Ich liebe dich!”

Originally, Juhyeok had planned to stop at the 88th floor and go home.

But since he had come this far, he figured he might as well take a look upstairs too.

“Mr. Rajix?”

“WAAH!”

SHHHK.

The Gigant came out.

GRRRRRK.

After setting it upright,

Juhyeok gathered the summoned entities.

“There’s something I need to say before we start this raid.”

“Go ahead.”

“This maiden shall listen attentively.”

“Veronica Caliber! At attention!”

“WAAH?”

The summoned entities looked curious.

Juhyeok slowly opened his mouth.

“After we clear the 89th floor, we’re suspending upper-floor climbs for a while.”

Originally, he had planned to sample the 90th floor too.

If it felt dangerous, they could always withdraw.

But judging from the administrators’ behavior,

he had a bad feeling about entering the 90th floor right now.

“When you say ‘for a while’...?”

“At least three years. Maybe longer.”

The summoned entities’ expressions turned grave.

“Climbing the upper floors is ultimately the summoner’s decision, but may we ask the reason?”

Juhyeok answered the Mad Demon.

“I think we’ve lost our original mindset.”

“Original mindset?”

“We’ve been climbing too recklessly. We weren’t like this at the beginning. Back then, we said we’d tap every stone before crossing—and even avoid crossing stones we could have crossed.”

“Ah!”

“Let’s slow down. Slowly. We’ve already earned plenty of money, and we’ve stacked up enough collapse deadlines.”

Up until now, they had charged ahead too blindly.

Because it had been easy.

Because everything had gone exactly as planned.

But the moment things start feeling easy is when it becomes most dangerous.

Comfort dulls people, and greed invites disaster.

It was time to buy a long-term parking pass.

This was exactly when a coward’s mindset was needed.

And the biggest reason of all—

the limits the summoned entities had reached.

Clearing the 88th floor had made it obvious.

Each floor felt heavier than the last.

The Mad Demon’s Crescent Moon Aura had struck the Sand Dragon directly—

and failed to leave so much as a scratch.

The 9-circle archmage Mackenzie had practically abandoned his proud fire magic and was filming videos with Fly magic instead.

Despite being the party’s tank, Meatshield had done little more than trudge around.

And when was the last time Cossack had actually entered combat? It was hard to remember.

Juhyeok did not like that.

Because of gimmicks like the Gigant,

the summoned entities had started to feel like sacks of barley shoved off to the side.

With things like this, there was no chance for them to earn badge rewards.

They had to distinguish themselves in battle to receive those.

Meanwhile, only Rajix’s subspace ability had been emphasized.

That ability alone had carried the raids.

Juhyeok fully acknowledged how incredible Rajix was.

But Rajix was not the only summoned entity.

Meatshield, Gyeon Dallae, and now even the Mad Demon—

their presence was fading.

That was not right.

Tower raids had to be done together with them.

“As you all know, the 90th floor definitely has something waiting for us.”

“...”

“So stopping at the 89th floor feels right.”

“...”

“Let’s take a long break from tower climbing. Maybe travel for a while. Domestic, overseas, whatever.”

“...”

The summoned entities fell silent at Juhyeok’s words,

all wearing heavy expressions.

Why did they look like that?

It was not as if he were making some grand declaration.

“Anyway, let’s start the raid. Dr. El?”

“...Yes.”

“Gigant, advance.”

“Executing.”

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The Gigant moved forward.

And as they entered the jungle—

Ding!

A mission appeared.

[89th Floor Mission: Defeat Half-Demonic Dragon, Half-Evil Dragon Krackers...]

Half-demonic dragon.

Like half-and-half chicken?

It sounded easy enough.

But then—

[... Half-Demonic Dragon Krackers, cra—, cr, cr, cr... de, de, de, defe— ...]

“Huh?”

Why is the system message stuttering like that?

What is going on?

Then suddenly—

Ding!

[An error has occurred.]

“Suddenly?”

Did those bastard administrators—

[Due to the personal circumstances of Half-Demonic Dragon, Half-Evil Dragon Krackers on Floor 89, tower mission generation is impossible.]

Monsters had personal circumstances now?

Then what was the player supposed to do?

[An administrator has abused their authority to swap the mission targets of Floors 89 and 90.]

...What?

Did I hear that wrong?

“Haha.”

Unbelievable.

It was openly announcing abuse of authority through a system message.

[The mission will be changed.]

No.

This is insane.

[89th Floor Mission: Defeat Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus.]

[Time Limit: Within 1 hour.]

[Completion Condition: Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus 0/1]

“...Apex demonic dragon?”

The Floor 90 boss had just appeared on Floor 89.

Just hearing the title made his skin crawl.

Juhyeok hurriedly pulled out a Tower Clearing Mission Reset Ticket.

But—

[Due to temporary system maintenance, tower entry and exit will be unavailable for the next 1 hour.]

“...Wow.”

A dead end.

Compared to this, the old equivalent-exchange deal had been polite.

This was them openly saying they wanted him dead.

“So they can pull this kind of stunt too?”

And then—

FLAPFLAPFLAPFLAP!

With terrifying wind pressure, a dragon flew in from the distance.

“...Huh.”

“...Mm.”

“...This...”

“Fuck.”

“Crazy.”

“...”

It was huge.

Enormous.

A massive dragon, crimson from head to toe.

At the same time, overwhelming pressure crushed the entire 89th floor.

Its mere presence was terrifying.

A prickling scalp.

Goosebumps rising.

Primal fear flooding in.

[World Announcement: Apex Demonic Dragon Helcrasus has appeared.]

A world announcement?

Who was even listening?

FLAP. FLAP. FLAP.

Helcrasus beat its wings slowly as it looked down at the ground.

Suddenly—

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The Gigant moved, sword and shield in hand.

Yeah—dragon killer.

Our Unit No. 2.

“Of course, you’re the only one we can trust—”

That was when—

FWAAAAASH!

Without the slightest warning, hellfire erupted from Helcrasus’s throat.

Heat surged.

The 89th floor burned.

GRRRK, GRCH, SZZZK, GRRRRK—

Melt.

The Gigant began melting from the head down.

......

Ah.

It melted.

Just like that?

The Gigant melted.

The shield melted.

The demonic sword melted.

“And I’m next.”

Is this really where I die?

Thank you for watching.

See you in the next work—

But—

WHOOM!

Meatshield enlarged his body with gigantification.

WOOOOONG!

The Mad Demon manifested Crescent Moon Aura.

FLUTTER!

Gyeon Dallae’s talismans danced above Juhyeok’s head.

ZIIING! ZIIING! ZIIING! ZIIING!

Mackenzie layered barrier upon barrier around Juhyeok.

VEEEEEE!

Veronica Caliber prepared a near-light-speed projectile.

WHRRRRL!

Mari’s homunculi spiraled around Juhyeok.

“Light!!!”

Bardin planted his Radiant Shield in front of Juhyeok.

“My lord!”

Diamat and Jepetto threw themselves around him, clinging to him tightly.

“HOOOARGH!”

SHHK, SHHK, SHHK—

Rajix dumped everything out of his subspace backpack—ore, Magic Stones, household goods—building a wall of barricades.

And then—

SPOT!

Cossack pressed close to Juhyeok’s side and whispered in his ear.

“What are you worrying about? No need to fret. There’s a way.”

“...Huh?”

“Use the Veil of Transcendent Concealment. Activate it, then Blink over there and hide. Once the cooldown’s over, activate it again.”

“...Mm.”

“Just hold out for one hour. Then exit the tower and enter White Tower Floor 17. That’s it.”

Right.

The Veil of Transcendent Concealment.

An item that could hide even from administrators.

But what about them?

They would be slaughtered by that absurd dragon.

“Then I’ll Dismiss Summon—”

“Don’t. We’ll die here. We’ll hold out for an hour no matter what. Until you’re safe, we’ll pin that thing down.”

“Ah—!”

We’ll block it.

So run.

Now.

“We’ll see each other again on White Tower Floor 17 anyway. What’s the problem?”

True.

As residents there, even if they died, they would return there instead of being lost for good.

“And you’ve got Summoned Entity Resurrection Runes, right? Even without them, it’s only a hundred days.”

That was true, but—

“Remember this. As long as you survive, nothing changes. It just delays things a little.”

...When he put it that way, it really did sound like nothing.

They could die.

As long as he lived.

“You really are a strategist.”

“Hehehe. Like summoner, like summoned.”

“Hahahaha!”

Juhyeok and Cossack laughed.

The others did not.

Stop laughing and run.

Use the veil.

Hide.

We’ll hold it back.

Please go.

Now.

But—

[Finished laughing?]

...They were not done yet.

[So you’re the summoner who drove the administrators to the brink.]

Yeah, that’s me.

Bong Juhyeok.

[I’ll acknowledge your nerve. To laugh in front of me.]

Can’t a man laugh now?

Even old sayings say you do not spit in a smiling face.

Clearly a rotten bastard.

[Because of you, the project was halted. Accept your punishment. I’ll tear you apart.]

What?

Is clearing towers a crime?

Then why build them?

At that moment, Cossack desperately tugged at Juhyeok’s sleeve.

“What are you doing? Activate the veil! Now!”

“...Ah—”

“Transcend! Hurry! Then Blink away!”

“Okay, okay—Transcend.”

“Ahh, sharp thinking.”

Transcend—yeah, transcend.

That should solve everything.

Juhyeok quietly murmured—

“Transcend. Beyond. Random Summoning.”

“...Huh?”

Why were they all so shocked?

Did they really think he would run off alone?

Hide under the veil by himself?

He could not do that.

[What?]

Helcrasus tilted its head.

[Is that your last will?]

“...Not exactly—”

Why was nothing happening?

Did they block Random Summoning too?

Then—

KWA-BOOOOM!

A massive shockwave shook the entire 89th floor.

[... What?]

CRACK—

Something was tearing.

He turned toward the sound.

RIIIP— RIIIP— RIIIP—

A small crack had appeared in the sky, right beside Helcrasus.

Like a fracture in glass.

CRACK!

And from that fissure—

RIIIIP—

someone emerged.

......

A human.

Short-cropped hair.

Leather pants, leather vest, leather boots.

A red bandana tied around his head.

He was riding a motorcycle.

“A modern guy...?”

He had summoned a Transcendent—

and got an old biker?

If he had met him outside, he might have given him a thumbs-up for looking cool.

But something was off.

He had appeared in the sky.

He was on a bike.

Yet he was not falling.

Still floating.

Looking closer—

there was something beneath the wheels.

“Swords?”

Two swords were supporting the motorcycle’s wheels.

Floating.

Defying gravity.

Swords beneath the bike.

A bike above them.

An old man atop it all.

“Y-you... who are you...?”

Helcrasus asked.

The biker did not answer.

He merely raised his right hand—

and brought it down.

Then—

SLASH—

RIIIIIP—

Helcrasus was split cleanly in half.