The Gray Spider didn’t feel like she had ever felt a cool breeze in her life. In the fall, she was fine with the scent of maple leaves because they barely had any scent. Spring was refreshing, but the water smelled fishy in summer. Because she was alive, she found everything to be disgusting. The Gray Spider wanted to die whenever fall arrived. Witch. Who even came up with the name? In the language of this world, the word “witch” didn’t simply refer to a mage who could use magic. Niglus—Kukulu, the magic.[1] The word had all sorts of connotations of disgust and contempt, like forsaken, blasphemous, the twenty-third, and cursed. The word “woman” didn’t also just refer to sex in this world. Firstly, there were more than four sexes in this world. The usual distinction of man and woman didn’t apply here. She was Mirgal. A somewhat appropriate translation would be gray. In this world, where the three primary colors[2] dominated, Mirgals could only produce offspring by receiving seeds from other sexes. The cursed species of gray was the witches. The season in which the Gray Spider was born was fall. “You poor thing. Why did you choose to be born in this world?” Her mother probably didn’t know what she was saying. She had failed to recognize the true value of her newborn child. The child understood everything the mother had said because she was born with the blessing that allowed her to remember everything she ever saw and heard. As a matter of fact, the child had already heard and felt many things while in the womb. The mother had given birth to a genius but didn’t know it. A handful of water, a little bit of blood, the gaze that looked down on her, and the hand that touched her forehead were sympathies disguised as love, resignation pretending to be comfort, death masquerading as life. And then, there was the smell. The child picked up on the smell of her mother and the scent of autumn. “Why did you come here?” The Gray Spider hated the world. —I have nothing against the Magic Tower elder. To me, emotions are actions, Zombie. It’s just that they’re often unnoticeable from the outside, but that’s also an act in a way. Do you think I’m just living the way I feel? Well, that may be the case for people who live just because their life hasn’t ended yet, but not me. The Guardian crossed his arms. —It was entirely my decision not to care about the elder. If I had invited her to climb the Tower with me, she would have followed me. If I had asked her to be my friend, she would have, but I decided not to. I didn’t do that with just the elder! I didn’t make a single ally. —Because countless people in this world don’t even have a chance to find one. The Guardian looked up at the Magic Tower. —Friends are luck. Even lovers are coincidences. Kim Zombie, you’ve found many colleagues, made friends, served your teachers, and met your lover. It’s all thanks to luck. These are treasures that you’ve worked hard to acquire, but the fact that people like you are born is a miracle in itself. I climbed the last step and left the cave to look up at the same spire that the Guardian was staring at. —Don’t think that everyone has that kind of luck. Some people never have anyone by their side throughout their life. Some people are not lucky until they die. Many expect something from their lives but only get betrayal. Those people eventually give up. They find no reason to try any more or climb any higher. The Magic Tower looked truly demonic.[3] A building usually served as a home. It had doors and windows, allowing the residents to go out into the world and see the outside. However, the Magic Tower’s spires had no doors or windows. From top to bottom, they were completely covered in black. It wasn’t a shade that reflected the sunlight, but one that swallowed it. That was why the Magic Tower resembled a body, not a building. It wasn’t an extension of the world, but a will to reject it. The towers, shaped like fingers, rose from the ground and stretched toward the sky. —I wanted to show those guys that it’s okay if you don’t have any colleagues, it’s okay if you don’t find the love of your life. I counted the seconds in my mind. Twenty-three, twenty-two, twenty-one... —Even if fate doesn’t grant you any luck, that’s still fine. —You can still rise, regardless of everything. —Look! I’m the Sword Emperor. I’ve reached higher than any of you. Why? I definitely didn’t do it for the people who watched me, and absolutely not for the guys who lived through this era alongside me. They can go fuck themselves! —I had no allies. The same could be said about others. Just to prove a point to them, I climbed the Tower to show them that it can be done! —No one has become of any significance to them, but they have already become significant to me. A noise crackled in my head. Someone was trying to send Aura Telepathy; of course, it was the Magic Tower. If anyone looked at their spires for more than twenty-three seconds, the Magic Tower responded. It was their security system and warning. Others shouldn’t dare to watch or even glance at them. I had used this unwritten rule during the timeline that my regression had eaten away. —Ah, ah. Mic test, mic test. Who are you over there? What are you looking at us for? Look away while I’m still talking. We’re under a lot of stress these days, you know? We don’t have time to play with every lunatic. Weeeellll, I personally like nutheads, capturing them, and torturing them, but lucky for you, we’re busy... Huh? What the...? His voice, previously thick with fatigue, suddenly became sharp. —You’re with the Assistant Writer! Ah, fuck, that damn fugitive! The aura waves grew stronger. As the Magic Tower spokesperson had said, the Assistant Writer was standing next to me. I wasn’t the only one who had broken the Magic Tower’s twenty-three-second taboo. The Assistant Writer also looked up at the magic tower as soon as she came out of the cave with me. “Youuuuu aaaaaaaare deeeeeeead meeeeeeeat! Where did you get the nerve to stick your head out like that? Huh? Then the loonyhead that is with you is... Are you the Death King?! You littler fuckers. Hey, Knee Socks! Go and report to the Spiders right now!” Well, it wasn’t just the two of us. “...? What the heck? So there are more than a couple of crazy guys out there today.” The aura waves rippled once again. The spokesperson, who had first directed his voice at me alone, then at the Assistant Writer, and then at someone else, now spoke to multiple people simultaneously. “Alright, so you all smoked something together, huh? Okay. Ha, this is fun! I thought you guys would do something someday, so I organized a punitive force in advance!” “The Magic Tower’s colonial garrison soldiers from the other Towers are also here now! Haha! Have you heard of the Bornthorn Marchioness? She was called to headquarters after three hundred years, so she’s very, very eager to fight! You guys will learn how many tiny blood vessels you have... Beeeep. Beep! Beeeeeep! —... in your bodies! What the fuck? Seriously, what is it? Hey! Hey!! Some of you guys are really eager... Well, forget it. Anyway, that’s not it. Let me share some good news with you. For the past several days, we’ve mobilized our elitist units. It’s been hundreds of years since we’ve had such a large force assembled! Hahaha! Great! Okay, look! I just got a report that the Falling Skies are ready to— Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep, beep! Beep, beep! Beep! Beep beep beep.Beep, beep! Beep! Beep! —Call the elder right now! This update is available on novel✶fire.net The refugees, everyone who had joined our Anti-Magic-Tower Alliance, walked out of the cave through its many exits. [The Incarnation of Love and Lust has declared war on the Magic Tower.] [The Last Sword in the Wilderness has declared war on the Magic Tower.] [The Lonely Seeker has declared war on the Magic Tower.] [The Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye has declared war on the Magic Tower.] [The Tear-Bringing Bell of the Dead has declared war on the Magic Tower.] [The Eternal Plains Warhorse has declared war on the Magic Tower.] Hunters had been holding their glasses in the open-air tavern. Followers had been walking down the street and bargaining with mat vendors, just like usual. However, they now all raised their swords in rebellion. Our declaration of war began with a look at the devil’s nest that had created an eternity of their own on the fiftieth floor without allowing anyone to glance at them. The Guardian laughed. —So, I have no regrets. I lived the way I wanted to live. I showed it to countless unlucky kids. “Go up! There is no one by your side now, but that is just a coincidence. Raise your middle fingers at those coincidences, and go up higher, just like I did. Up! Higher!” The Magic Tower’s spokesperson didn’t speak to me any further. All I could hear was him panicking and floundering. —Well, if people that I haven’t taken care of yet catch your eye, you can take care of them instead, Kim Gong-Ja. A howling scream echoed in the distance. It was a screech that refused to be a sound. Iron scraped against iron, and the five spires shook together and raised their claws to tear the dark sky. It felt like my whole body was being torn to shreds. “It’s the Magic Tower’s Wail,” the Assistant Writer muttered. “It’s been hundreds of years since I heard it.” She swallowed hard. “When one of the towers cries, it’s a Sneer, a warning that rings when the power to conquer a city is required. When two of the towers cry, that’s Kick. That’s enough to conquer a floor. When three of the towers cry, it’s to conquer another world. When four towers cry, it means that... multiple worlds are about to be brought to their knees.” “All five towers rang just now.” The Assistant Writer nodded. “Yeah. It means ‘We don’t care who you are. Die. We’ll destroy you no matter what.’” Shadows fell over the five towers. As if someone threw a stone into the sky, ripples spread all the way to the horizon. However, the waves were so black that they swallowed the dark clouds of the fiftieth floor and the few rays of sunlight that had been leaking out. Something fell from the upside-down shadow. It was a black meteor shower. “Okay. There are times when war is called for. My Magic Tower isn’t so stingy that we’ll ignore the crying of hungry rascals. Cry. Cry if you want to. Do whatever you want.” Each and every falling meteor was a person. Mages, those called Spiders, all clad in black cloaks, poured down. I realized that the shadow covering the sky was a giant summoning circle. The Magic Tower also knew that war was coming and had prepared in advance. “For you, today may be a day that you’ve been waiting for a thousand years.” The witches landed in the middle of the city. The open-air tavern and the shabby shacks were destroyed. Countless meteors destroyed the streets. Screams echoed, and dust rose from all over the city. “But for us, this is just another day.” The black Spiders walked out from beyond the cloud of dust. Some were holding a head in their grip, some were playing with someone else’s severed arm as if it were a baseball bat, smiling. No scream or groan came from beyond the cloud of dust from which the spiders walked out. All I could hear was the faint sound of a building collapsing. “Is our prey’s name seriously Death King? The Tower really sucks at naming things.” “They’ve always been like that.” “They’ll always be like that.” The Spiders were far apart from each other. Someone broke down the western gate of the city. Someone else was in the tavern to the north. Another mage stood in front of the statue in the central square. Those who were farthest away were across the city, but they all talked as if they were all huddled together. “Maybe it’s a cooler title in the original language. Something probably got lost in the Tower’s translation. Who knows, maybe it’s the Harvesting-Scythe of the Underworld, the Dead-Consoling Priest, or anything that sounds miles better than Death King.” “I think you mean ‘worse.’” “Thank you. Nice to see you again. It’s been ninety years since I’ve seen you. I’m glad that you’re still full of yourself even after all those years.” “I do have a reputation for bringing inner peace to those I accompany.” “I hate to admit it, but let me tell you, Comrade! I missed your bullshit!” “That’s because you’re an imbecile.” “I feel like I’m back home now.” They naturally exchanged Aura Transmissions between themselves. The distance between them didn’t matter as the aura they emitted bounced across the city. My senses could sense the aura exchanged between thousands of Spiders. If I looked down at this sight from the sky... “... It would resemble a spider web,” I blurted out. The spider web covering the city froze. I felt a gaze–no, multiple gazes on me. “Are you the Death King?” thousands of mages asked. Their lips moved as their aura flowed. It was, so to speak, a violence of numbers. They weren’t particularly hostile or trying to curse me. Just the fact that thousands of Spiders spoke together at the same time made my mind shake for a moment. Okay, so these are the people that the Guardian dealt with. They’re the rulers of this city. My heart pumped boiling blood into my head. I held the hilt of the sword, which vibrated. Shiny, the Goddess of Protection, Hwia... When a butterfly threw itself into a spider’s web, only its wingbeats could determine whether it had just committed suicide or not. I smiled. “You have a good eye. I am Death King, the Sword Emperor’s heir.” Thousands of Spiders charged at me. 1. 마법(magic/魔法) has the same hanja as 마(demonic/魔) ☜ 3. Gong-Ja is thinking about the connection between 마법(magic/魔法) and 마(demonic/魔) since he’s Korean. ☜