TL: Hanguk
“I’m leaving now.”
After harvesting the bananas, Sejun waved to the monkeys as he left.
Ook!
The monkeys bowed as they saw Sejun off. Next to them, there was a bunch of bananas each. It was the reward for the first harvest.
And the animals that followed Sejun were carrying bananas in their arms, heading toward the waypoint on the 77th floor of the tower. It wasn’t that they couldn’t put them in the void storage; they were snacks for the journey.
Sejun, Black Rabbit, and the Golden Bat, who were riding on Cuengi’s back, diligently peeled the bananas, and the flesh was fed to Cuengi and the wolves.
“Here you go.”
The banana peels were given to the Black Minotaurs.
Moo!
The Black Minotaurs, pleased with the banana peels, liked them more than the flesh.
“Sejun, we have arrived.”
“Already?”
While peeling the bananas for the animals, they had arrived at the gorilla village guarding the waypoint on the 77th floor of the tower.
“Nobody’s here?”
The village was completely empty because nobody had taken it over since Cuengi cleaned it up. Usually, other monsters would have claimed this place immediately.
However, the 77th floor was currently overflowing with strong beings, such as the Black Minotaurs, 80th floor wolves, and Cuengi.
Moreover, their recent treasure hunting activities, looking here and there on the 77th floor, made the monsters believe they were showing off their power, causing them to hide in their nests, trembling in fear.
Snap.
Thanks to that, Sejun casually approached the floating red crystal and raised his hand.
[Waypoint of the 77th floor of the tower has been saved.]
[Loading other floor’s saved waypoint.]
[Saved waypoint (1)]
-99th floor
“It’s done!”
Finally, there was a place to move through the waypoint.
[You have registered the 77th floor waypoint after the 99th floor.]
[You have achieved the first achievement in the tower’s history of going down from above.]
[You have acquired <Title: Retrogressor>.]
“Retrogressor?”
As Sejun was about to check the title,
[There is no being guarding the 77th floor waypoint currently.]
[As a Mid-level Administrator of the Black Tower, you can appoint a boss to guard the 77th floor waypoint.]
“Hmmm… I can appoint a being to guard the waypoint?”
Sejun pondered. Since there was a banana farm on the 77th floor, he would frequently visit. Wouldn’t it be more convenient if someone from their side managed it?
“Elka, bring the monkey village chief.”
“Yes!”
Elka rushed to the monkey village and called for the village chief.
Sejun intended to charge a registration fee later when he allowed hunters to register at the waypoint, so the boss guarding the waypoint didn’t need to be strong.
However,
Thud. Thud.
“Uh?!”
What Elka brought was a gigantic monkey. The monkey village chief was surely petite, about 1m tall, but he had grown to 2m with a muscular body in just a few hours.
Unbeknownst to Sejun, they were a species called Banana Monkeys, and they grew stronger by eating bananas. When the banana trees were healthy in the past, they had dominated the 77th floor.
As a result, the plan to station the wolves here was quickly abandoned.
“From now on, you guard this waypoint.”
As Sejun appointed the monkey village chief as the 77th floor waypoint boss,
[The Banana Monkey, Ookil, has been appointed as the being to guard the 77th floor waypoint.]
Ook!
Thud.
The Banana Monkey Tribe’s chief, Ookil, bowed deeply, moved by Sejun’s favor. He not only returned the bananas to his people but also gave back the 77th-floor waypoint.
“Then I’ll go. You all come up quickly too.”
Kreong! Kreong!
[We will go soon! Don’t get sick in the meantime, Dad!]
After appointing the 77th floor’s boss, Sejun spoke to Ookil and the animals and selected the 99th floor as the destination.
Poof.
Sejun disappeared in an instant.
And then,
Kreong!
[Let’s go quickly!]
Moo!
Cuengi and the Black Minotaurs went to the 99th floor,
Pyeak!
“Let’s go!”
Black Rabbit and the wolves moved to the 55th floor.
A moment later,
Woohoo!
Realizing the strong beings had left, the Orangutan Tribe’s chief gathered his followers and challenged Ookil, the boss of the 77th-floor waypoint, but
Ook!
Ookil, having eaten a banana, was truly strong.
Thwack! Thwack!
Ookil quickly overpowered the Orangutan Tribe’s chief. Other tribal chiefs challenged him afterward, but no one could defeat Ookil.
***
“What’s the situation in Africa?”
Han Tae-jun asked while video calling with Ngũgĩ.
“Currently, about half of Nigeria and Cameroon have been occupied by locusts.”
“Already?”
“Yes. Because of the grain that was in the food warehouse in Lagos’ port…”
The locusts had devoured all the food that had been loaded for export in the harbor. Despite having an abundance of food, their reproduction rate was incredible. The number, which was several hundred thousand, had increased to nearly a billion in just a few days.
“Also, yellow spots are starting to appear on the bodies of the locusts.”
“Hmm… It seems like evolution is approaching.”
Han Tae-jun had heard from Theo that when the number of locusts increased, their color would change, and they would evolve. And when they evolved, it became really tough.
When they were green locusts, there was no difference from regular grasshoppers, and even a child could easily kill them. But when they evolved into yellow locusts, they became so strong that even an adult couldn’t easily kill them.
“For now, it might be a good idea to cut the leaves of the sturdy blade green onions and create a defense line around the border of Nigeria and Cameroon.”
“Understood. I will hurry and rescue the people and build the defensive line!”
Ngũgĩ quickly responded and quickly hired workers to start cutting the sturdy blade green onion leaves planted in Kenya.
Whirring.
Hundreds of machines were used to cut the leaves and transport them to the borders of Nigeria and Cameroon to create a defense line to prevent the locusts from escaping.
But some of the locusts had already boarded ships at the harbor and were spreading to other countries.
***
[You have arrived on the 99th floor of the tower.]
Moo!
The Minotaur King, who had been guarding the waypoint, greeted Sejun.
“Yes, long time no see.”
Sejun briefly exchanged greetings with the Minotaur King and then hurried to the farm, riding on the Black Minotaur 12.
Just then,
[The Tower’s Administrator says she’s glad you’re back.]
“Yeah. Was Aileen doing well, too?”
[The Tower’s Administrator says she has not been doing well.]
“Huh? Why?”
As soon as he asked, Sejun realized his mistake! He felt a dreadful chill from the message.
‘I shouldn’t have asked…’
While Sejun was shivering on Minotaur 12’s head from ominous feelings,
[The Tower’s Administrator asks who the woman in the brain-attribute object you carry is.]
Aileen asked, using difficult words.
“Brain attribute what?”
[The Tower’s Administrator yells, ‘Who’s that woman?’]
Sejun could feel deep anger from the message.
“That woman?”
While talking to Aileen,
Mooooo!
Minotaur 12, sensing the gravity of the situation, quickly ran and left Sejun at the farm before hurrying back.
And then,
“Ah! By brain-attribute object, you mean a smartphone.”
Looking at the screen of the turned-on smartphone, he could see who the woman Aileen was talking about was.
“The woman in this picture is Serang, a member of the girl group Moonlight Fairy…”
[The Tower’s Administrator anxiously asks, ‘What’s your relationship with her?’]
“What relationship? No relationship at all. Just a fan?”
[The Tower’s Administrator asks what a fan is.]
Zzzt.
Kaiser was glaring at Sejun from the side. One wrong word here could send him straight to the afterlife. He had to explain properly.
“Um… Someone who supports and cheers for them to do well?”
[The Tower’s Administrator says she understands.]
“What?! Really?”
The misunderstanding was cleared up much more easily than he expected.
[The Tower’s Administrator says a fan is someone who supports and cheers for a pitiful person to do well.]
In the background, Serang was wearing ripped skinny jeans, and the top was a loose hoodie.
From Aileen’s perspective, who didn’t know Earth’s fashion, Serang couldn’t even afford enough money to buy a scrap of clothing, so she was a beggar who wore torn pants and picked up a top that could be worn for the time being.
“Ah?! That… that’s right! Yes! That’s it!”
You could say it’s similar. Serang wasn’t very popular when he first became a fan. Maybe she was a little pitiful?”
[The Tower’s Administrator says she’s sorry for the misunderstanding.]
“No, it’s okay. These things can happen. More than that, I brought this for Aileen. It’s called a banana.”
Sejun quickly changed the subject.
[The Tower’s Administrator says thank you.]
[The Tower’s Administrator asks you to change the smartphone’s wallpaper to her picture later.]
“Sure, why not? I’ll take a good picture of you later.”
Sejun gladly agreed. He thought it would be cool to have a picture of a giant black dragon as the wallpaper.
[The Tower’s Administrator is pleased.]
Thus, having safely overcome the crisis, Sejun planted mango and watermelon seeds in the field in front of his house that he had brought from the 77th floor of the tower. Since he had collected all the seeds from all the mangoes and watermelons that the animals had eaten, there were about 200 mango seeds and 3000 watermelon seeds.
Swooosh.
“Grow well.”
As Sejun watered the spot where he planted the mangoes and watermelons, cheering for the seeds to grow well,
Kreong!
[Daddy, I’m here!]
Cuengi arrived and hugged Sejun’s leg.
“Huh?! How did you get here so fast?”
Even for fast, It was too fast.
Then
“Kyoot kyoot kyoot . I rode the light-speed merchant route with him.”
Hidden behind Cuengi, Iona peeked out her head and spoke.
Having received permission from the dragons to build a wizard tower on the 99th floor, Iona immediately went down to the 77th floor to get Sejun’s permission and met Cuengi there, and they came up together after hearing that Sejun was on the 99th floor.
“Sejun, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
Iona began to talk about building a wizard tower on the 99th floor.
***
Tower 75th floor shopping district.
“Where do I purchase the land deeds, meow?!”
After quickly completing trades with the hunters, Theo was wandering around the shopping district, asking where to buy land deeds.
“Just ask at the Wandering Merchant Association’s headquarters. They usually handle land deed trades.”
“Thank you, meow!”
Having obtained the information, Theo expressed his gratitude and hurried toward the Wandering Merchant Association’s headquarters when
“However, the mediation fee is a bit expensive, and only the elite wandering merchants can purchase land deeds. How about it? I was thinking of selling my land deed; want to trade directly with me?”
A snake-faced merchant kindly explained and asked Theo.
However
“I refuse, meow!”
Theo firmly refused.
“Alright, the fee is a one or two coin… what?!”
The snake merchant, who did not expect Theo to refuse, was taken aback.
“President Park told me not to trade with overly friendly merchants, meow! And I am about to become an elite wandering merchant, meow!”
Theo said so and headed for the Wandering Merchant Association’s headquarters.
And then
“Promote me to an elite wandering merchant, meow!”
He boldly shouted in front of the employee.
The promotion condition for becoming an elite wandering merchant was 10 million tower coins. However, his total accumulated sales amount had exceeded 15 million tower coins through trades as of today, easily meeting the conditions to become an elite wandering merchant.
However
“It’s not possible.”
“Why, meow?!”
He was refused.
*****
*****
