Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes. ‘I see... So the World Tree is the Administrator of the 4th Floor.’
The ‘finest delicacy’ Erebo had kept bragging about had been the World Tree. If the Administrator had died just like that, it would be understandable why the System errors had appeared.
“There’s something I want to know,” Seo Jun-Ho said.
“Please, ask away. I’ll assist you as best as I can.” Manager Han nodded.
“Can I really defeat something not even a Floor Administrator could?”
Gray from the 1st Floor. Reiji from the 2nd. Ignis from the 3rd. They all gave off an aura that proved they were powerful beings. He thought the 4th Floor’s Administrator would definitely be at least as powerful as them.
‘If Erebo really did eat the World Tree...’
Didn’t that mean the 4th Floor Master was as strong as a Floor Administrator? That wasn’t something just one Player could handle.
“Oh, I should explain that to you.” Manager Han stroked his chin and thought for a moment. “First of all, it’s true that all Floor Administrators are those who have reached transcendence.”
“What’s that?”
“I cannot explain in detail, but all you need to know is that they are amazing beings.”
Jun-Ho nodded hesitantly. “Please continue.”
“Yes. But more importantly, all Transcendents have different levels of offensive power. For example, among Players, every Player’s fighting power will be different even if they’re all level 100. Correct?”
“I think I understand now.”
If there were a level 100 elemental user, a level 100 physical-enhancement type, and a level 100 healer, there would be a clear difference in fighting power between them, even though they were all at the same level.
“The World Tree is known as the tree of wisdom. She created the elves and became the God they worshipped, which was the main reason she was able to become a transcended constellation.”
“...So in other words, she doesn’t have much fighting power?”
“She isn’t just weak; she has no combat capability at all. Zero. Zilch. It’s because she’s a tree.” Manager Han continued. “Of course, that didn’t mean her defenses are weak. Moreover, the high elves have always been protecting her.”
Despite that, Erebo still managed to eat her.
“So they got through her defenses.”
“...Yes. Erebo’s army of cockroaches killed the elves’ mother.” Manager Han let out a heavy sigh and tugged at his tie, feeling stuffy. “Now, let me ask you a question. Just what did the World Tree leave you?”
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho thought for a moment, wondering if he could tell this man about the diary.
- It should be alright. I do not sense anything bad.
Keen Intuition advised him quietly. The former’s predictions were pretty accurate these days, so Jun-Ho quickly made his decision.
“She changed my Quests.”
“If you’re okay with it, may I ask about the changes?”
“Of course...”
As soon as Seo Jun-Ho gave him permission, a semi-transparent window appeared before Manager Han. He skimmed through it, and his face went pale.
“Oh, my freaking—”
Seo Jun-Ho blinked at his reaction. The only thing Seo Jun-Ho could see just now was the description of the first Quest. “What’s wrong?”
“No, how is a single Player supposed to—has she gone senile?” He looked up at the Player, trembling. “I simply cannot understand. No matter how powerful of a human you are, it is impossible to accomplish all of these at once. Has she left you anything else?”
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho then retrieved the diary from his Inventory and showed it to him.
“Hm, this book is made from the roots of the World Tree. It seems that her plans were quite thorough.” Manager Han had been acting all businesslike, but now, he looked at Seo Jun-Ho with pity. “Are you... Are you truly okay with this? It will be painful.”
“There’s nothing I can do even if I’m not okay with it,” Seo Jun-Ho replied, calmly putting away the diary. “If I don’t do this, we’ll have to wait decades or centuries doing nothing anyway.”
“I will try to expedite it as much as possible,” Manager Han said like a true government worker.
However, Jun-Ho could already tell the outcome. After all, Manger Han didn’t look convincing.
“I believe that there’s a reason why the World Tree left this to me,” Seo Jun-Ho said.
Manager Han nodded. “Because there is none other like you, Seo Jun-Ho.”
Even as the fated enemy of Erebo, he was the only one whose mind wouldn’t shatter.
‘...He won’t break.’
Manager Han sneered at himself. Just because something didn’t break after a major blow didn’t mean there was no damage at all.
‘More precisely, he simply CAN’T break.’
His sanity would twist, bend, and suffer. Even if Seo Jun-Ho himself wanted to break, he simply wouldn’t be able to. This was likely why the World Tree had chosen him.
“Don’t lose heart...”
That was all Manager Han could say at the moment.
***
“Quest window,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered, having returned to his room.
[First Quest]
Requirements: Maintain 95% Overclocking output for one hour.
The look in his eyes deepened while he was staring at the description.
‘Before this, all you had to do to fulfill the First Quest was to simply collect ten marbles.’
Now, it had changed into a more personal task—one that only he could do.
“Ninety-five percent...” Frost had grown a lot taller, so she could see the Quest’s content herself, which were displayed about as high as Seo Jun-Ho’s ribs. “How much is the highest output you can use right now?”
“Ninety-two percent...”
“Then, there is not much left to do!” She said, face growing bright.
However, Seo Jun-Ho’s expression remained dark. “Even now, I can’t maintain a ninety-two percent output. I can only hold it for about two to three seconds at the longest.”
Moreover, Overclocking was a technique that would overload his body.
“Even when you overclock a computer, it’s hard to go above even 0.1% over a certain threshold...”
By increasing the output by just 0.1%, all sorts of bugs would appear, the heat would fail to regulate, and the parts would break.
Besides, they were dealing with a human body.
‘To be fair, my body is nearly superhuman right now...’
However, he knew that it wasn’t something he could accomplish in a day or two. Carving his body out would require at least several months.
‘And there’s a bigger problem here as well.’
pαпᵈα-noνɐ1·сoМ This was only the first Quest. His shoulders grew heavy just from the thought of how even more difficult missions awaited him.
But of course, this wasn’t all that bad...
‘Players who enter the 4th Floor have to clear a total of thirty Quests.’
However, the modified Quests the World Tree had given him were only five—five.
‘Five Quests of this caliber...’
Based on the content of the first Quest, it seemed that it would take him at least three months to clear a single Quest.
‘Since there’s five, that’s fifteen months. If I’m being generous, I guess it would take about a year and a half.’
And he still had 361 pages left in the diary...
A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.
‘If I just keep walking, I’ll reach my destination.’
Seo Jun-Ho closed the Quest window, and his eyes glinted harshly.
***
That evening, Seo Jun-Ho shared his circumstances with the party. He asked them to move on to the next city while he practiced his Overclocking.
‘Training is important, but it would be good to get as much information about our opponents as possible.’
He asked them to send him all the information they learned through the Community messaging system.
“Phew. I can finally catch my breath.”
When night fell, Seo Jun-Ho returned to his room and sat down, opening the diary. He read the entire thing again from the very beginning, trying to find anything he missed.
While he was doing that, the Frost Queen was watching dramas on the tablet.
All of a sudden, she tilted her head.
“Contractor! Contractor!” She waved him over while her eyes were fixed on the screen.
“What?”
“Come over here. Hurry.”
When Seo Jun-Ho approached her, the Frost Queen looked at him with innocent eyes. “How did this couple get a baby after going into the room? They are not even married.”
“What? Didn’t you learn this when you were a queen?”
“What nonsense! Along with court etiquette, I studied a myriad of subjects. I know everything!”
Was sex education excluded? Had the ministers babied her so much that they didn’t teach her about that at all?
“Um, how do people have babies in your land?” Seo Jun-Ho asked carefully.
“When a man and woman who love each other get married and live together, a wyvern brings them a child.”
Of course, that wasn’t true.
Seo Jun-Ho brought his hand to his forehead, and the Frost Queen seemed to have realized something.
“Goodness me... Then, how do the people of Earth have children? You do not have wyverns.”
“Storks... On Earth, storks bring people babies.”
“Ah, it is truly a mystical bird.”
With her curiosity satisfied, the Frost Queen smiled and went back to watching her drama.
‘I should put content restrictions on the tablet later, just in case.’
He would do it no matter what...
***
“Breathe in.”
Seo Jun-Ho was sitting in the middle of the empty aerobics room in the hotel. As he breathed slowly, the Frost Queen walked around him.
“Breathe out.”
“Hoo...”
“When you are ready, begin.”
Up until now, he had always worked on increasing his Overclocking output by himself. But after going beyond ninety percent, he desperately needed her help. If he couldn’t regulate the heat, he would directly die, so her help was a type of insurance.
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes and meditated. After undergoing Body Transformation, his body became like an exquisite device, and it became as marvelous as a small galaxy. The eight well-cleaned lanes of his magic circuits radiated this refreshing feeling he felt like there was a hole in his chest where the wind was passing through. And then, he mustered his magic.
‘I’ll run a lap of magic power infused with Frost energy around my body.’
The energy ran through all his circuits, which enhanced his physical abilities.
‘This superhuman strength can break a whole mound of boulders.’
When he squeezed his hands into fists, he felt a wave of confidence. He felt like he could take on the whole world by himself. In this state, he could easily cut through rock or steel using a sword even without Sword Aura.
‘This is the power of Overclocking at eighty-five percent output.’
It was the highest output he could maintain over an extended period of time.
‘Make the energy run even faster...’
The magic power circulating within his body started to speed up. It ran ten laps per second, then eleven, then twelve—the energy started speeding through his circuits with no holds barred.
“Keuk.” Seo Jun-Ho grunted, and he could smell the scent of burning flesh. His insides had started burning. Not even the Frost-infused energy could lower the heat a hundred percent.
‘Ninety-two percent...’
Thump. Thump.
When he started to feel his pulse reverberate, Keen Intuition cut in with a warning.
- Stop it, you lunatic!
He felt like his body was about to pop like a balloon. In the end, Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t endure it any longer and let the magic scatter.
“Contractor!” The Frost Queen rushed forward and grabbed his shoulder. She started pouring freezing energy into his body.
And just as Seo Jun-Ho felt relieved that she was there to help him—
“Bleeghh!”
He threw up charred tissues of his burnt organs. He gripped his chest from the intense pain and writhed for a long while.
“It is still this bad even though I helped him?”
The Frost Queen’s face grew concerned as she watched her writhing Contractor.
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