Yena, with tears in her eyes, finally handed over the golden key and chose the crimson key.
She opted for experience points instead of money.
It might be unexpected for someone who lost 900 million won to cry, but Yena is also the one who spent it ‘herself.’
Whether the Master of the Altar deceived her or enchanted her with plausible words, the choice ultimately lay with Yena.
No matter how much higher Immensus ranked and how much power he had compared to Yena, he couldn’t force her actions as long as she was under ‘management.’
In the end, Yena wanted growth and the broadcast benefits that came with it, and she had the audacity to choose experience points over 1.3 billion won.
“This is right… It must be right…”
I had deliberately given Yena the choice.
From my position of holding Immensus’ leash, I could have given Yena both experience points and money, but that wouldn’t do.
‘It would be too annoying to just give everything away.’
The territories I received as ‘compensation’ from the Empire.
Even if she tends to overspend a little, I believed she would manage well given her experience running a guild, but does it make sense to burn 900 million won in one gacha pull?
Moreover, it’s not even like 900 million is just pocket change for someone like Leo.
900 million was a significant amount even for Yena, who is a streamer and a ranker.
If it were up to me, I’d want to take back the territories I gave her, but for this one time, I decided to let it slide.
‘There’s not really anyone else to give it to either.’
“All right. Get up, Miss Yena. It’s time to work hard and rise.”
“My 1.3 billion… well, 400 million isn’t my money, but still, 1.3 billion…”
“121 is what matters. Does 1.3 billion really matter?”
“…Is that so?”
“Exactly.”
[LOL]
[Go Yena]
[Choosing experience over 1.3 billion, not easy]
[As expected, it’s Yena’s land]
[But she received sweet compensation for the deception, right?]
[So why not report it?]
[Pulling a fast one was crossing the line though LOL]
[Should really throw them in for deception]
Yena stared blankly at the air before fiercely shaking her head and getting up from her seat.
Looks like she finally regained her senses.
“Phew. Okay. But what did Lady Lily and Lord Leo receive?”
“Similar stuff.”
Having finished our meeting with Immensus, Leo and I returned to the 80th floor and spoke with the Master of the Altar.
Although I did business with the Master of the Altar, the conversation was taking place in the Spiritual World, a first for the viewers, Leo, and the Raccoon.
Like Yena, the Master of the Altar acknowledged his mistake and offered a choice between experience points and money; both Leo and I opted for experience points.
Of course, Leo chose experience points over money, and although I had already received information, I still needed to appear like I was getting something on the surface.
“It’s experience points over money. I already got the information, but on the surface, I still need to receive more.”
“If I had to choose one, obviously it would be experience points.”
“They say if you stick this key into the box when you reach the top of the tower, you’ll gain experience points. The way they said it makes me think they’ll definitely give it this time.”
“…Will it be 121? If I don’t get it, that’s seriously unfortunate.”
“If they don’t give it, I might have to report them.”
Yena, who sounded deeply concerned, still had a chance.
This isn’t just a family matter or a guess; since it’s part of the deal with Immensus, as long as Yena climbs to the 100th floor, she’ll surely reach 121.
Unless Immensus suddenly goes insane, it’ll definitely happen that way.
‘It’s going to be a bit tough for Yena.’
Yena’s eyes sparkled as she immediately headed toward the 81st floor.
“Alright! Then let’s go right away…!”
“Before that.”
“Huh?”
“What’s your growth rate?”
Yena’s hopeful expression froze rapidly.
This tower, this altar, isn’t just a place you can climb mindlessly.
Before reaching the 100th floor, you ‘must’ fill your growth rate to 100%.
If you fail to do that, you’ll lose all growth and progression layers, falling back to the 1st floor and starting all over again.
Yena looked down at her palm with trembling pupils.
She climbed the tower with anger and buffs, but if she ascends too quickly, she can’t fill her growth rate.
[Huh?]
[? Hahaha]
[No way]
[Yena doesn’t have a growth buff and just climbed?]
[What?]
“Oh. Damn.”
“What percentage?”
“……”
Yena looked down at her palm helplessly.
The number written on her palm was…
“…65%?”
■
At the 80th floor, she had 65%.
Given that some great person who climbed the tower in the past filled their growth at 100% on the 89th floor, Yena’s growth rate was notably low.
Leo is at 81%, and I’m at 87%, after all.
Even this number is considering that I didn’t grab all the growth points quickly.
Yena shook her head with a face that looked like she might cry.
“Is this a dream? Please tell me it’s a dream.”
“It’s reality.”
“Nyaaaargh!!!”
Yena rolled around on the ground, flipping her belly in despair at Leo’s cold dose of reality.
The rabbits waiting in the rest area looked at her with pity, but she didn’t have the time to care about that.
She was just flailing in the face of a reality colder than the bitter cold.
[Hahahahaha]
[Yena Yena~]
[Today, Yena is on fire! Hahaha]
[Guess I have to go up again?]
[Yena Land Level-Up! Lmao]
[65% is really hopeless.]
[What do you expect if you don’t level up before going up?]
[Info) Yena took more than 10 days to get this far.]
“Hehehe…”
“There were more things to level up in the tower than I thought. Did you perhaps skip everything?”
“…I didn’t know, okay?”
Since I didn’t know!
“They told me to go up to the 80th floor, so I put everything aside and went up! If I had known I needed to prepare properly, I would’ve done everything I could!”
“Hmm… 65% is just way too low…”
“Wait, does that mean I have to go up again?”
“Don’t talk too casually like it doesn’t concern you!”
Sigh!!
Yena hissed at Leo, who was once again giving her a reality check, but Leo only wore an innocent expression.
Having become a Cat Beastman, Yena still faced Leo.
And Leo was practically a god, known as the most notorious penalty in Deoen.
Leo giggled and munched on the pudding that the spirit had brought.
“Eh~ it didn’t take that long…”
“…It took 10 days!”
“Isn’t that when you didn’t have any buffs? I bet you’ll go up much faster this time.”
The difficulty of Growth’s Altar is high, but that was before receiving buffs.
With hundreds of buffs on her, Yena was able to climb the tower just slightly slower than when Lily and Leo went together.
In fact, the evidence is that it only took 8 hours to go from the 67th floor to the 80th.
Feeling somewhat wronged, Yena turned to me after mumbling repeatedly.
“Am, am I really going up again?”
“Probably? If you could get at least 75%, I’d say give it a shot, but 65% is just too little.”
“No! But there are still 20 floors left, if I can just raise it by 2% on each floor…”
“Well, you see, the rabbit said you can’t fill up to 100% on the 89th floor.”
“……”
In reality, there were only 9 floors left.
No matter how hard Yena works on leveling up, she can’t fill 35% in 9 floors.
Unless she pours hundreds of hours into the rare Growth Room.
‘But if that’s the case, going up again is better.’
[Ah, haha, go up again, huh?]
[???: The path of growth is always treacherous…]
[Hahahahaha]
[It’s happening again.]
[Yena, Yena…]
[Yena got scammed, and now I have to climb back up?]
[Look at that no mercy gacha for the Rille! LOL]
[Where did the rabbit scamper off to?]
“…Geez.”
■
In the end, Yena reluctantly lost all her progress and went back down to the 1st floor.
You might think it’s excessive, but this place called the ‘Growth’s Altar’ isn’t a fountain of endless experience points.
Since she has the authority of the Master of the Altar, maybe she could move money or other equipment, but experience points must come with reasonable reasons and processes.
“By the way, that’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Just asking for experience points without any reason? I didn’t hide from those raccoons for nothing. If that was possible, I would have sold them for a price from the start.”
Experience points are resources that transform ordinary users into superhumans, and superhumans into god-like beings.
Naturally, there were limits even for the Master of the Altar Immensus when it comes to handling that resource, which is why they deceived with a gacha system.
“Isn’t it possible to just pump out experience points?”
“Correct. Well, up to a certain level, it can be done, but ‘Transcendental Realm’ won’t allow that.”
“Does the Transcendental Realm refer to after level 121?”
“You’re well-informed. If that woman truly wants to reach that realm, she has to climb the tower.”
Of course, if one were to completely rob Immensus or defeat the Master of the Altar, a huge amount of experience points would come in, but that wouldn’t be creating experience points.
It would simply be obtaining Immensus’s heritage, just like the other monsters they’ve defeated.
In the end, all the Master of the Altar could do was adjust the tower’s difficulty or increase the amount of growth points slightly.
That much would be enough for someone like Yena to climb all the way.
“By the way, I can’t talk about the raccoon right ‘now.’ Information about higher beings of Cheongsu level is taboo.”
“What can we do then? Shall I rummage through your mind? I think it could be easy if you just open your mind a little.”
“…Climb the tower.”
“Finally, the 99th floor.”
“Wow.”
Like someone close to a god climbed the Growth’s Altar a long, long time ago.
“Meet the ‘real’ master of the altar.”
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