Level Up With the Gods
Chapter 7

***

Yuwon flopped down on the mam worm’s lifeless body.

He was surrounded by the bodies of all the earth worms he had killed in the past hour.

“Wow, you really killed all of them.”

The messenger was back.

Yuwon applied the medicine he had brought in his pocket all over his body and threw it behind him. “It was a bit of work.”

The bodies of hundreds of earth worms were scattered throughout the room next to the mam worm.

Even Yuwon wasn't able to avoid injury when facing so many.

“Would you like me to treat you?”

“Would that be one of my rewards?”

“Yes, it would be.”

“Then no thanks. I’ll recover quickly once my health points increase.”

It was a good excuse to use up some of the rewards that Yuwon would otherwise have been owed. The messenger seemed disappointed.

It took a while.

After the fight ended, Yuwon had sporadically treated his injuries and recovered health points while he waited. It ended up being over half an hour before it finally came.

The messengers probably had a long discussion.

“I’d like to give you a round of applause first. I’m surprised that a regular human could come this far in tutorial no.2.”

Messengers managed the tutorials, and their other job was to give fair rewards and penalties for those who did anything outside the tutorial’s parameters.

Yuwon killed the boss of tutorial no.2. The mam worm wasn't meant to be killed here because it helped maintain the ecosystem. Whatever reward he had earned wouldn't be listed.

“And the reward?”

The mam worm was a monster that didn't normally start appearing until tutorial no.5.

“It looks like you’ve already figured out how this world works.”

“Roughly. I made it this far. It just makes sense to get rewarded for special actions.”

“Does it? Many people here don’t seem to know that. Well, you seem pretty special.”

The messenger was dragging out the conversation.

“So, the reward?” Yuwon asked again, annoyed.

“You can choose one of three options.”

“Go on.”

“First is the permission to skip to tutorial no.5. In this case, we will give you the information you would’ve learned in tutorial no.3 and no.4 along with clearing rewards.”

That was a useless reward.

Yuwon wasn’t interested in skipping the tutorials at all. Tutorial no.3 was especially necessary.

They’re being sneaky...

The messengers could probably guess how fast he could clear it and assumed he wouldn't be interested.

Yuwon quietly waited for the messenger to continue.

“Second is points. Currency is always the most important thing in any world, right?”

The messenger made a circle with his fingers.

Points were power and money. This reward wasn’t so bad.

“And third?”

“The last option is a link to Olympus.”

Yuwon’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t expected to be offered such a thing.

“...Olympus?”

“Tutorials are nothing more than a starting point in this world. The vast tower is filled with great forces and countless beings with god-like power.”

This was really unexpected.

He couldn’t believe Olympus was being mentioned by the messenger, the tutorial’s middle manager, or that it was disclosing such things.

“I will recommend you to Olympus. Olympus is one of the forces that rules the tower. If you receive their support, you will be safe in the tower even after you leave the tutorials.”

Yuwon scoffed at the recruitment pitch.

“Olympus, huh...?”

Kronos, who’d sent Yuwon to the past, had originally been a ranker affiliated with Olympus.

He would be able to climb the tower safely and faster than he’d expected to with their support.

“I’ll take the second reward.”

[Reward will be provided.]

[You obtained 10,000 points.]

It might not have had apparent lasting benefits, but the number was unbelievable.

It was a quite satisfying reward.

Yuwon, it seemed, was the only one satisfied.

“Are you sure?” The messenger’s face twisted into something that resembled displeasure.

But Yuwon had no intention of taking it back.

“Yeah.”

“Think carefully. Since you haven’t used your points yet, I will give you a chance to change your mind. I know you don’t know about Olympus, but you might regret it lat—–”

“Hey, messenger? Why don’t you get your act together? Aren’t you scared of what the manager will do to you if you get caught recruiting for Olympus?”

The messenger’s eyes widened at the mention of the manager.

“I’m sure this wasn’t agreed upon with the other messengers, let alone with the manager.”

“How do you know about—?”

"Did other messengers get similar offers too? Were they only paid off by Olympus? Or heaven? Deva? Or Lemegaton?"

“You... Who are you, really?!” The messenger’s voice shook.

He had never shaken a messenger as a mere participant. “Thanks, messenger,” Yuwon said, his expression tinged with bitterness.

It didn’t matter which organization paid off the messengers. The tutorials were supposed to be completely separate from the tower. He couldn’t just brush off that Olympus was already getting involved.

“Thanks to your blabbering, I realized another duty I have here.”

You could do anything with points in this world.

[You are requesting a private meeting with the manager.]

[You used 1,000 points.]

The subway station began to shake.

The messenger looked at Yuwon, trembling. “W-wait! What did you just do...?”

“I requested a private meeting with the manager.”

Yuwon looked at the gap being opened.

[The manager accepted your private meeting request.]

“He’ll be here soon.”

The manager would naturally be interested in a participant that stood out like this, so Yuwon wasn’t surprised.

“A private meeting request in a tutorial…”

A body-crushing, vast presence made its appearance from deep in the station. The manager looked rough and shabby in spite of his obvious power. The only thought that came to Yuwon’s mind was that he looked like a huge panhandler with a long beard.

“For a thousand points?” The manager laughed long and hard.

It would be funny. In any other place, he wouldn’t have been able to buy a private meeting, even with tens of thousands of points.

But he is a tutorial manager on the lowest floor of the tower.

The tutorial was a type of gate.

The tutorial manager selected people to enter the tower. Managers ruled only the lowest floor. Although who they really were wasn’t properly known, they clearly had power comparable to top rankers.

“S-sir…” The messenger’s voice shook upon the manager’s appearance.

The manager walked in front of Yuwon as if he didn’t even see the messenger.

“So, you requested a private meeting? With me?”

The manager hid his energy. If he hadn’t been suppressing it, then Yuwon would’ve struggled to even breathe.

“I’m Yuwon Kim, a tutorial participant.”

The manager laughed again. "I’ve heard about you. You killed over a thousand in tutorial no.1."

“That’s correct.”

“When my underlings checked, they didn’t find any evidence of cheating or abnormalities. Although that’s the strangest thing about you.”

So it wasn’t just the messenger that couldn’t help but be interested in him.

“How did you know about my existence? How did you know to request a private meeting?”

The manager was suspicious.

“I believe there is a rule in tutorials.”

“Rule?”

“Participants should acquire all information regarding tutorials using their own ability without managers intervening,” Yuwon continued. He had to look up at the manager, who was well over six feet tall. “It’s you who made this rule.”

The manager looked into Yuwon’s eyes.

No one could speak lies to the manager in the tutorial because of his power.

“...I see.” The manager shortly dismissed his suspicion.

It didn’t matter how he acquired this information. It wasn’t an issue as long as no one intervened to give him the information. Yuwon then redirected the manager’s attention elsewhere.

“But it looks like the tower has intervened here.”

“Here?”

“The messengers.”

The messenger who was watching the situation let out an awkward laugh.

Given that he kept glancing at Yuwon, it seemed like he was begging him to keep it a secret.

That was never going to happen.

“Olympus made contact with the messengers.”

“Olympus?”

“Yes. I was just offered the support of Olympus as a reward.”

The manager’s face crumpled. The manager looked at the messenger as if he was asking if that was true. As soon as they made eye contact, the manager’s arm swung wide and instantly smashed the messenger’s body.

The body of the messenger, who looked like a clown, had become a dripping smear.

“Damn Olympians... They’ve infiltrated this far?” the manager murmured, tapping off the blood on his hands.

The manager’s eyes turned red in an obvious display of extreme displeasure.

Teeth bared, he stared at the smashed messenger for a while before turning his gaze back to Yuwon.

“Thank you. I got to cut out something rotten because of you.”

The manager wasn’t naive enough to think that this would be the only messenger.

Yuwon smiled in reply before continuing. “The second rule of the tutorials is that participants’ actions and outcomes during tutorials are rewarded based on their level of greatness.”

Yuwon looked at the messenger’s remains.

“I called you here using the proper amount of points, and I technically killed the corrupt messenger through you.” Yuwon looked into the manager’s eyes. “What do you think about that?”