Dimensional Energy Storage Facility Control Room.
After cutting off the hologram transmission, the controller's expression stiffened completely.
[Controller, how did the negotiations go…?]
[Failure. He refused. Prepare countermeasures. Issue an all-hands mobilization order.]
[Y-Yes, understood.]
In the end, an unprecedented situation had occurred.
They had been completely blindsided.
[Hoo… this is a mess.]
The dimensional energy storage facility was a place no player could ever reach—and must never reach.
Why?
Because this area had been completely isolated from the start.
It was not a space connected to Earth No. 1,001's Black Tower, 91st floor.
Was the Black Tower insane?
Allowing player access to a core security zone?
This place was one of the very reasons the Black Tower existed.
A restricted zone—authorized personnel only.
So where was the area originally connected to the 91st floor?
The Demon Realm, where the Great Demons lived.
That was how the Tower floors were originally designed.
Players sent from the Black Tower's 91st floor would be transferred to the Demon Realm.
Then, pre-contracted Great Demons would face the player one after another.
Great Demons.
Baal, Mammon, Mephisto—those kinds of monsters.
That was what the "Great Journey" meant.
A mortal human stepping into vast, incomprehensible, transcendent worlds like the Demon Realm or the Highlands.
If a human went to the Demon Realm, death was guaranteed.
How could a human possibly face beings like the Great Demons of the Demon Realm?
That was why players were given mission save tickets.
To support frail players and give the Great Demons even the slightest handicap.
Then what did the Great Demons gain by connecting the Demon Realm to the Black Tower?
When a world neared destruction and entered an apocalyptic state, the Great Demons would emerge through the Black Tower's openings.
They would feed on the remaining human life force and siphon small amounts of dimensional energy.
Of course, the Great Demons had never actually fought players.
No player had ever reached the 91st floor.
They simply waited until a world collapsed, then came out to consume life force and dimensional energy.
That's how it had been on Earth No. 675.
Its Black Tower was also connected to the Demon Realm.
When all the Black Towers collapsed and Earth No. 675 passed the critical point into full apocalypse—
The Great Demons freely indulged themselves, feasting on over two billion surviving humans.
They came and went as if it were their own home.
Even though the world had completely fallen.
Then, out of nowhere, the Black Towers regenerated, forcing all Great Demons and dragons back out.
Normally, the Earth summoner should have gone to the Demon Realm.
That would have been the natural course.
But suddenly, the Demon Realm unilaterally terminated the contract.
They severed their connection with the Black Tower.
Why all of a sudden?
Breaking the contract meant accepting an enormous penalty.
The Black Tower asked for an explanation.
The response was—
– Through Earth No. 675's Black Tower 91st floor, we observed a player.
– We detected an aura no human should possess.
– You failed to disclose this information beforehand; therefore, contract termination is justified.
– That player is connected to terrifying worlds.
– If we get involved with him, the Demon Realm will be destroyed.
– The Great Demon God, the God of the Sword, and the Monkey God might come knocking.
The Black Tower immediately dispatched staff to the Demon Realm to restore the contract, but the Great Demons were adamant.
They didn't want to be erased.
And so, the connection to the Demon Realm was severed.
Presumably—
When the summoner first appeared on Earth No. 675's Black Tower 91st floor and received the Trait Enhancement Rune as a reward—
The Great Demons had indirectly encountered the player through the 91st-floor space connected to their world.
They must have sensed something ominous.
And shortly afterward, the contract was terminated.
[Cowardly bastards. Great Demons, afraid of a mere human.]
What kind of beings were Great Demons?
Creatures that could kill a summoned like Lrssal with a flick of a finger.
Such beings were commonly called Transcendents.
Yes.
Great Demons were Transcendents.
And yet they were afraid?
[What are the Great Demon God, the God of the Sword, and the Monkey God, anyway?]
As a result, the 91st floor was left hanging.
The 92nd floor, the 93rd floor…
The Black Tower was now scrambling to find a replacement for the Demon Realm.
And in that gap—
The White Tower intervened.
In other words, this situation was not the Black Tower's intent.
It was the White Tower's.
This mission was designed by the White Tower.
The White Tower's power designated the starting point of the Great Journey not as the Demon Realm, but as the dimensional energy storage facility.
That was why he had come here.
Now that the summoner had stepped in, stopping him was impossible.
From now on, the summoner might even access other restricted zones.
He had to be stopped at all costs.
The mission presented to the summoner.
The choice at the crossroads.
It might have been an opportunity.
That was why the controller appeared before him.
Begging him to choose the right path.
To leave Earth No. 1,001 entirely and go somewhere without the Black Tower.
But the summoner refused without hesitation.
[Insolent bastard.]
Dimensional naturalization.
Retention of player awakening.
The ability to summon the summoned.
And ten billion kilograms of top-grade mana stones.
He even offered to take the summoner's family and relatives with him, using the full extent of his authority.
And the summoner rejected it all?
There was no other choice.
War.
He had to be stopped—here.
He had to be crushed.
[Has it started?]
[Yes. Combat has begun.]
[Display the hologram.]
He had to kill him somehow.
Even if it meant ignoring causality and constructing an inescapable trap.
But it wasn't easy.
The battle footage shown through the hologram—
The Gigant aside—
That green dragon—
The controller knew exactly what "defection" meant.
Tower Floor Free-Contract Managers breaking their contracts and siding with a summoner.
Naturally, there were restrictions.
Severe penalties applied.
Their power would be stripped, making them weaker than even ordinary summoned.
But what was that?
[How did it regain its power?]
[I—I don't know.]
It possessed the full abilities of an adult dragon.
It hadn't even been that long since it defected.
If anything, it looked stronger than before.
Power on the level of an Ancient Dragon.
Fwoooooosh!
The Green Dragon's poisonous breath poured down.
The storage facility guardians melted instantly.
[That's not ordinary poison breath.]
The guardians were creatures formed from dimensional energy.
No matter how strong a dragon was, it shouldn't have that kind of output.
[There seems to be some other power mixed in…]
Was it that power the Great Demons had mentioned?
[Deploy more creatures!]
When would the summoner use his save ticket?
He only had one.
They had to force him to use it now.
Before the dimensional energy repositories were destroyed.
[There's no way the repositories will be destroyed, right?]
[Impossible by human hands.]
That should be true.
Those weren't ordinary structures.
And yet—
He couldn't shake the unease.
The contract termination with the Demon Realm.
The power the summoner's group was displaying.
Then, suddenly—
[Uh.]
[Huh?]
[What?!]
[W-What happened?]
[Th-The repository…]
[What?]
[…It's been destroyed.]
[What?!]
The controller doubted his ears.
The battle had barely begun—
Already?
[You fucking bastard!!!]
This was bad.
Juhyeok watched the summoned fighting with a satisfied smile.
"Good thing I trusted them."
The summoned who once struggled helplessly against a Sand Dragon on the 87th floor were gone.
Invincible summoned.
And the converted defectors.
Zhuge Zaryong Kosak, a sword master versed in both pen and blade.
Mad Demon, rapidly approaching the level of an immortal.
Mackenzie, the Grand Mage of Flame, raining down azure inferno.
Gobang and Bardin, executing flawless combo attacks.
Major Bae, shooting with deadly accuracy even while standing still.
Mannyeon, laughing as she ran about, radiating extreme cold.
Baek Danya of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, supporting closely behind her.
Crackers and Diamat?
Diamat spread the domain of dreams, throwing monsters into confusion.
Then Crackers blasted them apart with poisonous breath.
As for the Gigant—
Surprisingly, it was the weakest.
It nearly fell multiple times, legs swarmed by centipede-scorpions.
Still, it was serviceable as a tank.
"They've changed so much."
The 90th-floor clear had been almost a cheat.
The Sword Immortal and the Great Sage's Buddha clones had done everything.
So Juhyeok had worried about the 91st floor.
But the summoned were completely different now.
He knew exactly why.
First, the memory-regression technique of Yama, ruler of the Underworld.
It synchronized the souls and bodies of the summoned.
Then the Immortal Peaches given by the Sword Immortal.
That mysterious energy seeped into their bodies.
All of it, slowly, without them realizing—
Led to explosive growth.
"I'm really lucky."
And not all summoned were even fighting.
Some remained in the rear with Juhyeok.
Gyeondallae further strengthened the summoned with her prayer ritual.
El focused on controlling the Gigant, while Rajiks—riding Blood Wolf—kept sniffing the air nonstop.
Jephet, currently the weakest since he hadn't yet consumed a blood crystal, had taken on a combat-record mission and was filming everything with a camera.
Our shut-in alchemist Mari stayed glued to Juhyeok's side, acting as his personal bodyguard.
Everyone was reassuringly dependable.
Well—although the number of centipede-scorpion monsters didn't seem to be decreasing at all yet.
Come to think of it, what a shame.
The Monkey King Buddha hairs given by the Sword Immortal.
He should've used them sparingly and saved some.
Even a single pinch would instantly wipe out these monsters.
"…Wait, are there any strands left?"
Juhyeok slipped his hand into his waistband and rummaged around.
He'd put them in his pocket, so if he was lucky—
"Oh!"
Something was there.
A rough, bristly texture in his hand.
He scraped everything together and pulled his hand out.
Amazingly—
"Yes!"
Ten strands of radiant golden hair stuck to the lining of his pocket.
"Any more…?"
Unfortunately, that was all.
"Use them now?"
No.
Save them just in case.
He carefully gathered them and put them back into his pocket.
Juhyeok continued observing the battlefield.
He had his own role to play.
Destroying the dimensional energy repositories.
All 146 of them.
"Tch… why didn't they just put them all in one place instead of making 146…"
Then a thought suddenly struck him.
Juhyeok spoke to Gyeondallae, who was continuously scattering talismans beside him.
"Princess Fairy."
"Please speak."
"Those 146 dimensional energy repositories—are they related to Earth's Black Towers?"
"I cannot be certain, but Earth has 146 Black Towers, and there are also 146 repositories here. It would be too coincidental to dismiss."
That made sense.
There was no way it was a coincidence.
In that case—
"Then what about Earth No. 675's Black Tower, 91st floor? As far as I know, Earth No. 675 only has one Black Tower."
"Ah!"
Gyeondallae looked as though something had clicked.
"Then perhaps the Great Journey mission of Earth No. 675's Black Tower required destroying only a single dimensional energy repository."
Ah, damn it.
They should've cleared Earth No. 675's Black Tower first.
Why did they start with Earth No. 1,001?
Up until now, all upper-floor climbing had been done on Earth No. 675's Black Tower.
If they'd just followed their usual pattern, they could've destroyed one repository and been done.
Ah well!
No point regretting it now.
They would've had to clear Earth No. 1,001 eventually anyway.
Once this was over, they could enter Earth No. 675's Black Tower.
If the theory was right, it'd be over quickly.
Just then—
El, the magitech engineer watching the front lines, spoke up.
"Summoner, the area is secured."
The centipede-scorpion monsters guarding the repository had been pushed back, leaving a lone pyramid-shaped dimensional energy repository standing by itself.
"Let's destroy it."
Juhyeok moved to the building with the summoned who had been waiting in the rear.
He activated Blood Jade Aura and tapped the surface of the structure with his hand.
"Hm."
It was quite solid.
Breaking it by hand would take a very long time.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
El summoned the Gigant.
– Combat directive input.
– Combat type: Structure destruction.
– Target: Opposing building.
The Gigant raised its massive fist—
Swoooosh!
And slammed it down onto the repository.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"…Tch."
Not even a scratch.
The repository was tiny compared to the Gigant.
If anything, the Gigant's fist looked like it might break first.
"Stop."
"Yes."
How long would this take at that rate?
"Should we try installing a mana bomb?"
A mana bomb.
An item that detonated using only the power of pure mana stones, developed through magitech.
It might work.
But detonating it on the surface would drastically reduce its effectiveness.
Inside would be different.
"Hoeh!"
Rajiks seemed to have found something.
He pointed with a short finger at one side of the building.
"What did you find?"
Juhyeok turned his gaze.
"…That is…"
A circular pattern engraved on the building's surface.
There was a small hole in the center.
It looked like a keyhole.
"A locking mechanism?"
"That seems likely."
If they opened it, could they go inside?
Should they call Kosak, the lock expert?
Meanwhile, El and Mari examined the pattern while quietly talking.
A moment later—
Shrrrrrrrr.
Mari's tiny homunculi slipped into the hole.
"Oh!"
Opening it with homunculi?
Click, crack, clack, clunk, click!
Sounds of mechanisms fitting together echoed.
At the same time, the circular pattern rotated.
Krrrrrk!
A round entrance revealed itself.
"Wow!"
"Well done."
"Impressive."
"Hoeeee."
Embarrassed by the praise, Mari's long ears turned bright red.
Clap clap clap clap!
After giving her a round of applause—
"Let's go in."
What would be inside the repository?
Juhyeok cautiously stepped inside.
A wide hall appeared.
At the center of the floor stood a black cylindrical rod, about one meter long, embedded upright.
"What's this?"
He reached out to grab it—
Grab!
Mari seized his sleeve and shook her head firmly.
Then—
Chrararararak!
The homunculi wrapped around the cylinder, pulled it out smoothly, and laid it on the floor.
Good job, Mari.
She didn't even let him touch it in case it was dangerous.
That aside—
What was this thing used for?
It looked like a nuclear fuel rod from a power plant.
"So this is what they were storing?"
Apparently so.
There was nothing else inside the repository.
It needed investigation.
For now, they'd take it.
"Mr. Rajiks?"
"Hoeng!"
Sssht!
The cylindrical rod vanished into the subspace backpack.
Now all that was left—
"Dr. El, let's install the mana bombs inside."
"Yes, understood."
El personally installed the mana bombs.
One by one, rotating around—one, two, three, four, five.
"Let's get out."
They hurried outside and retreated to a safe distance.
Then Juhyeok pressed the detonator.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOM!!!!
The dimensional energy repository collapsed from within.
Ruuuuumble!
"…Did we get it?"
[Dimensional Energy Repository Destroyed 1/146]
They got it.
One down.
Well, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Far away—so distant the scale couldn't even be measured—
There existed a multiversal parallel world.
In that world was a place called the Underworld.
Also known as the land of the dead.
In the Hellfire Palace, where the beings of the Underworld carried out their duties, thick white smoke filled the air.
It came from the cigarettes smoked by King Yama, the judges, the reapers, and the messengers.
Another workday had ended safely.
Sinners judged, ordinary dead sent to reincarnation, virtuous souls escorted to the Heavenly Realm.
These days, even the Underworld had embraced work–life balance.
Employees clocked out on time to enjoy their leisure.
For that reason, Yama was bored.
There was no one left to entertain him.
"Shall I open the gate and go play in the Demon Realm for once?"
But a manifestation of Yama violated the laws.
He couldn't casually stroll into the human world.
The world itself might collapse.
But the Demon Realm was different.
And wasn't it another world entirely?
Who cared if it collapsed or not?
Still—
"Tch, I should restrain myself."
Honestly, there wouldn't be much to see anyway.
The moment he appeared, whether demons, demonkind, demon nobles, Demon Kings, or Great Demons—
They would all hide and refuse to come out.
Sure, he could just grab someone at random and play with them.
But he'd done that so many times already that he was sick of it.
Better to stay holed up in the Hellfire Palace.
Maybe watch a drama the Sword Immortal brought back from another parallel Earth.
And have a cold beer.
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