Given that only detailed information about the rewards was known, and the existence had not been revealed for such a long time, I unconsciously focused only on avoiding collision with other hunters… It seemed that the tower ‘Laurel’ itself would not be easy to deal with.

She took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, and put the in-ear device in her ear.

“‘Laurel’ is opening now!”

“Hunters are rushing in recklessly!”

“I’ll inform you in advance that the inside of ‘Laurel’ is an area where filming drones cannot operate, so we can only broadcast the parts that can be observed from the outside! Ah! As I was saying!”

“Ageha is also entering the inside!”

“…What’s happening now?”

“It seems the Chinese hunter, Wei, has been bitten by a bug! We can’t observe it clearly from our side, but…”

“There’s a rescue team from the Hunter Association standing by in front of ‘Laurel’, but it’s difficult to enter inside…!”

“Meanwhile, Daphne still hasn’t moved!”

Listening to the commentators shouting as if their ears might burst, Seo Suji suddenly touched her device to play music.

In an instant, the noise she had been hearing in her ears disappeared, and a fairly fast-paced melody began to flow.

What she was listening to was old pop music.

Until the early days of entering the academy, she used to listen to music occasionally, but at some point, she had forgotten about it. The act of listening to music itself. This sensation of feeling the whole world through her ears.

A sharp male voice laid over the melody of bass, guitar, and piano quickly caught the beat, and just listening to that music changed the scenery before her eyes.

She could understand why the profession of singer hadn’t disappeared even in such a harsh era.

When rotating through the Sage’s Tower, she only had to think about dealing with her team and the tower’s boss, but while climbing ‘Laurel’, there were many people she had to face.

Her heart became anxious.

Thinking about what might happen to her precious colleagues right in front of her.

But she couldn’t back down. Because she had a job to do.

To claim this ‘Laurel’ faster than anyone else.

As Seo Suji glanced to the side, Saint and Peace, who had been waiting behind her, nodded and entered the tower.

They had already thoroughly analyzed the map.

The contents of the maps that Korea possessed varied and were uncertain.

Some maps indicated that there was a gatekeeper standing on the first floor, while others stated that it was just full of traps. But there was a commonality.

That there was always at least one detour somewhere.

Usually connecting the 2nd and 4th floors. Or the 3rd and 5th floors.

It was just enough of a benefit to skip exactly one floor. If used well, one could avoid encountering anyone.

‘If you don’t like conflict, why not make it so there is no conflict.’

That was Seo Suji’s mindset approaching this ‘Laurel’.

Seo Suji tapped her foot to the music.

Waiting for all the main figures she was most wary of to disappear to the second floor.

‘Oh, Lady!’

As one song ended and the next began, Seo Suji moved one hand to draw her weapon.

The ‘Shackles of the Extinct’, which had become her reliable weapon, wrapped around her hand familiarly.

Thump, thump, thump.

Whether it was because of the loud music ringing in her ears, or because she was facing a challenging task after a long time, it felt like the beating of her heart was transmitted throughout her body.

Thump, thump.

Starting to listen to music again was largely due to the influence of this recent break.

When playing board games, Saint always played various songs, and it goes without saying that console games were accompanied by BGM.

Naturally, old memories came alive.

It was good.

She clearly knew how arrogant it was to be wearing earphones and listening to music at a moment when she needed to focus on even one more of her five senses.

But thanks to the music, this moment felt more like a simple game rather than climbing a tower with a serial killer, making her feel much more at ease.

After all, when emotions get mixed in, even doable things become impossible.

‘The time I met you…’

Just as a female singer began to sing a sweet love song that didn’t match the fast beat, she received a signal from Peace.

Seo Suji, at a speed that was hard to believe for someone who had been standing still until now, kicked off the ground and entered ‘Laurel’.

The goal of Team Daphne was to get Seo Suji to the top floor quickly.

Saint diligently cleared the path on the first floor, dealing with bugs as big as adult men with shiny black shells rushing at them, while Peace cut through the tentacles of plant-type monsters lunging at them and found the entrance to the detour.

Elaine’s role was to assist Seo Suji. Usually, Elaine, whose skills were closest to Seo Suji’s, often took responsibility for her rear, but this time he volunteered even more to escort the team leader.

Knowing his concern for Seo Suji’s safety even before coming to ‘Laurel’, Seo Suji let Elaine do what he wanted to do. It was also familiar.

Thanks to her teammates’ cooperation, Seo Suji climbed the tower as if running, without looking back. The detour they had seen on the map beforehand actually existed.

It was just a rocky area with barely any footholds, but the difficulty of the path wasn’t much of a problem for Seo Suji.

Seo Suji carved out a path by stabbing her knife into the wall, quickly clearing the way and considerately making it easier for Elaine to follow.

While spending a moment lingering, she noticed one side of her vision moving quickly.

[νόμος expresses deep interest in your actions.] [νόμος cheers for your actions.] [Νύμφη raises bewilderment at νόμος’s words and actions.] [Νύμφη expresses dissatisfaction with your actions.]

Since Seo Suji entered ‘Laurel’, one status window that had long been occupied by ‘Great Beings’ was moving at a speed that seemed about to burst with logs.

‘…I can’t turn off the status window during battle either. No, why are they so talkative? Don’t they have jobs? Please, why don’t you turn off your interest and find a healthy hobby?’

“Someone is climbing a tower with a serial killer and a cult group right now. Someone else is really leisurely.”

Unable to bear it anymore, she grumbled out loud and turned up the volume of the music.

‘The time I met you~ has become a day I can’t remember now~ But I’ll live towards that day again~ BOY~’

The cheerful music sound was quite helpful.

By the time she reached the third floor, the rest of the leading teams had not yet entered the third floor.

Mice with strange tentacles on their mouths, which she never wanted to encounter even in her dreams, welcomed her with horrifying screams.

[Trait 〈Thunder〉 activates.

12% chance to apply status ailment ‘Fear’ to 1 S-rank or lower monster entity within sight

Trait 〈Beast〉 activates.

8% chance to apply status ailment ‘Confusion’ to S-rank or lower monsters with the ‘Beast’ trait within a 10m radius]

Normally, when encountering monsters, more than 5 traits would activate at once even before engaging in battle, but now it was different.

It meant that the hellishly disgusting monsters spread out before her eyes were at least S-rank.

Unlike the ‘Sage’s Tower’, they said that ‘Laurel’ didn’t have a system where monsters gradually became stronger with each floor.

To think that S-rank monsters would be rolling around from the 3rd floor like this. Well, they’re really doing a great job.

“Did they design this Laurel to compete with quantity? They made it to be cleared, not to die in, right? And what’s with this monster design? Ah, really, this is too much.”

[Νύμφη smiles broadly at your words.] [νόμος stands up abruptly at your words.] [νόμος expresses dissatisfaction with your words.] [Νύμφη points a finger at νόμος in response to your words.]

‘See this. They’re acting like they’re watching a show. It’s really unpleasant.’

Seo Suji gritted her teeth.

She glared at the chatty status window for a moment and then gripped the ‘Shackles of the Extinct’ tighter. As she rushed forward with a roar, Elaine instantly followed behind her, providing support.

3rd floor.

4th floor.

5th floor.

6th floor.

Seo Suji steadily cleared floor after floor like that, quickly ascending to the upper levels.

The average time Seo Suji took to clear one floor was 1 minute. According to what Peace and Saint, who had reached the third floor, reported, unlike the Sage’s Tower, the monsters here respawned even after cleanly killing all the mobs on a floor and opening up the upper floor.

Fortunately or unfortunately, because of that, the second leading team following her also had to climb the tower struggling quite a bit.

Just as Seo Suji had finished off a bizarre spider monster with 40 legs on the 8th floor, a warning came through her in-ear device.

− Team leader! Be careful!

“Why?”

To Seo Suji’s nonchalant question, Peace and Saint quickly recited the current situation.

− Right now, Ageha is in the lead. Since you’ve cleared the floors, they’re just ignoring the respawned mobs and moving on.

− This crazy bastard, he’s using humans as shields. It looks like he’s trying to go up to the floor right above, he might run into you, team leader. Should we stop him?