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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Tower
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The situation that had just erupted was swiftly brought under control by Sergeant Steven’s words.
After all, it was time for the most important event in this place to begin.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, the prisoners quietly or idly followed their respective guards.
They were surprisingly orderly.
The only ones showing any confusion were the new inmates.
“Ah, newbie, you don’t have to follow us. Just stand next to your assigned prisoner.”
At Sergeant Steven’s gesture and wide grin, I found myself walking beside the male lead.
The Tower.
*‘I suppose this is the most baffling process the prisoners experience here.’*
First-timers would find it hard to understand.
Why they had to enter the Tower.
Why they had to endure such things inside.
Even I, who knew the novel, had felt the same way.
It served a dual purpose: to break the spirit of the hot-blooded, trouble-making prisoners, and to facilitate their management by dividing them into grades.
And.
*‘It also serves to control the prisoner population.’*
The 100-floor Tower had different trials on each level.
And now that the leadership had changed, the trials would likely be different from when I was here.
The prisoners had been split up, as each grade had a different entrance and was led by different guards.
“Hey.”
I turned my head. Helios was standing at the very end of the line.
The trembling men right in front of him must have been the new inmates who arrived just before him.
Every exposed part of their bodies was red and bruised.
*‘Looks like they had one hell of a welcoming party.’*
Even with his de facto seniors in such a state, the male lead’s expression was unperturbed.
“Hey.”
Impressive. A protagonist is truly built different, it seems.
“That thing from before, how did you do it?”
“What thing?”
“Just now… creating that large shield.”
Ah.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know about ‘Kia’?”
“…I know.”
Right. It would be absurd not to know about a power used by half the nation.
“I’ve seen my knights, no… I’ve seen people around me use it a lot. But I’ve never seen anyone create something like that so quickly. How on earth did you do it?”
I was about to answer casually but stopped myself.
“You should be more worried about surviving than satisfying your curiosity.”
“…Does that mean you can’t tell me?”
“No. We’ve arrived at the Tower.”
At that, Helios looked up.
A massive gate stood before them.
This was the entrance for the lowest-grade prisoners.
“Just focus on staying alive.”
“…”
Of course, there was absolutely no way the male protagonist would die on the first floor.
But the manual said a guard should know how to properly intimidate the prisoners.
*‘I know what the theme of the trial on the first floor will be.’*
Although the specifics changed each cycle, the main theme remained the same, so knowing it would be helpful.
But there were too many eyes watching for me to tell him.
I thought for a moment before speaking.
“Be careful not to get torn apart and eaten. Especially your ‘legs’.”
“…”
Once all the prisoners were inside the gate, the guards would head to a waiting room through another entrance to monitor the trials.
“Well then, see you if you survi—”
Before I could finish, Helios’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm. I could have easily avoided it, but I didn’t.
I was curious to hear what this man, whose expression had suddenly turned urgent, had to say.
“…If I survive?”
Facing the darkness, his violet eyes gleamed unnaturally, like lanterns.
After a brief silence, I spoke slowly.
“If you survive, I’ll tell you how I made that shield.”
“…”
He’ll let go now, right?
But his long, elegantly shaped hand did not release me.
“…Where will you be?”
“This instructor is a guard, so I’ll be watching my assigned prisoner, won’t I?”
“…Right. So you’ll be watching.”
I considered warning him about calling a guard ‘you’.
But then I remembered that back when I was an inmate, not a single prisoner addressed the guards properly.
*‘I can’t force him to do something I couldn’t do myself.’*
I shrugged and pulled my arm away.
*Creeeak.*
The massive gate swallowed the prisoners whole.
* * *
“Newbie! First time in the Tower?”
When the prisoners enter the Tower, the guards go into a waiting room.
Therefore, this was Mint’s first time here.
She had often seen guards looking down at the prisoners through the windows from above, though.
Mint glanced at the window and saw the prisoners who had entered the Tower on the floor below.
She confirmed Helios’s location and then turned her head.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kein Dust. The general manager for the lowest grade.”
He was a large, bulky guard.
“You can call me Sergeant First Class Kein.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Sergeant First Class.”
The guard with the scruffy beard was a new face. He was someone Mint hadn’t seen when she had cleared the lowest floors.
“You’ll be in charge of the lowest-grade prisoners for your first year, so you’ll be seeing a lot of me.”
“Yes, I understand.”
*Is he a musculoskeletal Kia user?*
He was abnormally large.
Kein stroked his beard and grinned.
“I like to be friendly with the newbies. Next time you see me, call me ‘Big Bro’.”
“…I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard you correctly?”
Mint repeated the phrase the manual advised for such situations, under Section 3, Article 4 of ‘A Newbie’s Attitude’: ‘When you cannot hear your superior’s words.’
“Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine. Steven told me you’re quite the character. Why don’t you give it a try for practice?”
Mint hesitated for a moment.
Unfortunately, her ten years as a prisoner had completely wrecked the basic social norms she once knew.
The social knowledge and skills she had learned back in Korea had faded, leaving a blank slate.
But she had survived in this lawless place, so it was a small price to pay.
*‘So, do I call him that or not?’*
Mint pondered. He told me to, so shouldn’t I?
Her mentor, Sergeant Steven, wasn’t in charge of the lowest grade and had gone to a different floor.
The guards currently with her were all under the supervisor, Kein, and his subordinates.
In other words, they were all strangers, and Mint had no one to ask for advice.
Kein grinned.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just say it casually. Let’s practice. Come on, say it.”
He walked right up to Mint and, with a benevolent smile, said just that.
“Yes. Big Bro.”
“That’s too casual, you little shit. It’s ‘Hyung-nim’.”
“Hyung-nim.”
“That’s right. Say it again.”
“Hyung-nim.”
“Louder.”
“Hyung-nim!”
The benevolent smile on Kein’s face vanished, replaced in an instant.
“You son of a bitch.”
A sneer.
“You actually did it?”
Mint saw a leg flying toward her.
A kick to the shins, as they called it. An attack that would clearly strike her shin if she let it.
If she took the hit, her leg bone would definitely crack.
Mint lightly dodged the blow.
“…You dodged?”
A chilling silence fell over the guard room.
Kein’s expression was one of bewilderment.
*‘I kicked with all my might, though?’*
Kein, a user of musculoskeletal enhancement Kia, boasted physical abilities that were among the best of all the guards.
While he stood there dumbfounded, Mint slowly blinked her eyes.
“Why’d you dodge, you bastard?!”
“Because I don’t like getting hurt?”
*What is this insolent little punk?* Kein looked utterly baffled.
“This little…! How dare a newbie be so arrogant. When a senior tells you to do something, you do it!”
The other sergeants present had been holding back their laughter in anticipation of the scream that was to come.
But the unexpected turn of events made them freeze awkwardly.
*That newbie, what is he… a guy or a girl?*
“Stand up straight! At ease! Your only answers are ‘Yes’ or ‘Yes, sir’!”
“Yessir.”
“…”
Kein clenched his jaw so hard his chin dimpled like a walnut.
“Looks like you threw your weight around outside, thinking you were some big shot with Kia. But this place is on a whole different level.”
“…”
“Dodge again and I’ll have you thrown out. It’s not hard for me to kick out one newbie on my authority.”
He didn’t know who recommended this one, but a newbie like this needed a reality check.
And that was the role of a senior guard like himself!
—Or so, Kein Dust thought.
Meanwhile, Mint was having a different thought.
*‘The Warden told me not to cause trouble.’*
Getting kicked out would be a problem.
Mint decided not to dodge the leg that came flying at her again.
*‘He didn’t say I couldn’t use Kia, though.’*
Instead, she wrapped the Kia in her body tightly around her leg.
*‘How do you use musculoskeletal enhancement again…? Was it like this?’*
CLANG!
A sharp sound, unbelievable for a collision between two legs, rang out.
“Kuaaaargh!”
The result was stark. Kein was on the floor, rolling around and clutching his leg.
*‘Crazy, is that person’s leg made of…!’*
It was steel! The feeling was definitely steel! But how?
There were some with musculoskeletal Kia who could make their bodies as hard as steel.
But those people were definitely…
*‘Outside, that’s a skill only someone at the level of an Imperial Knight should have…!’*
Kein looked up, clutching his painful leg. He swallowed hard.
