The Hero Returns

Act 6

The Palm Leaf Fan.

Or the title of a "Sage."

Only then did Su-hyeun check out the words on the floating card. The words that appeared on it were about the title of a "Sage," as well as the detailed explanation of its effects.

[Title: Sage]

* A title only bestowed upon the greatest among all humans who learned the Sage Arts.

* Raises the proficiency of the Sage Arts by 30%.

* Raises the effects of the Sage Arts by 20%.

* Raises the effects of the "Breathing Technique" by 20%.

* Could overlap with another title.

"…"

Su-hyeun confirmed the title's effects and froze for a moment there.

From the get-go, he wasn't all that interested in acquiring a title. If he was told to choose between a title and the Palm Leaf Fan, then his mind would have leaned toward the latter for sure.

But now that he finished confirming the effects of the title, the scale in his mind evened out once more.

"I can overlap it with another title?" he mulled inwardly.

The biggest reason for his mind to sway was none other than the last "effect" of the title written in the description.

Normally, you could only use one title at a time. If he chose the "Sage" title, then his original "Hero" title would vanish.

No matter how tempting the "Sage" title was, it wasn't quite good enough for him to discard the "Hero" title for it. Its effects of raising the proficiency and effectiveness of the Sage Arts certainly were very attractive, but they weren't all that better compared to the "Hero" title in the end.

However, the story would greatly change if overlapping the titles were possible.

"Are you conflicted?" the administrator asked, but Su-hyeun couldn't reply.

However, that was enough of an answer in itself. Being unable to choose immediately indicated the level of his dilemma, after all.

"Just which one should I...?" he kept asking himself.

About five minutes later, Su-hyeun finally settled the dilemma between the two items.

"I've made up my mind."

He then extended his hand to one side.

Grab—

What his hand grabbed was the Palm Leaf Fan.

While holding on to it, Su-hyeun said, "I'm choosing this one."

"Won't you regret this choice?"

"At the end of the day, it's nothing more than a 'Sage' title, isn't it?"

Su-hyeun recalled what the Bull Demon King had said to him right in the final seconds.

"Aim to reach godhood."

Although he heard them in dreamy haziness, the intent behind those words was still engraved deep within him.

That suggestion seemed like a completely hopeless dream. However, that was what the Bull Demon King wished for, and Su-hyeun was thinking of giving his best shot as well.

"I'll eventually earn that title sooner or later."

"Sage," it was the title given to the greatest practitioner of the Sage Arts among humanity.

Without a doubt, that title was incredible. However, it was also something he would inevitably earn during his pursuit to reach godhood, just as the Bull Demon King had told him to do.

On the other hand, he might not have another opportunity to get his hands on the Palm Leaf Fan like this.

Most importantly...

"This Palm Leaf Fan, I'm guessing my big brother gave it to you. Am I wrong?"

Su-hyeun had figured out how the administrator ended up with this fan, which was a property of the Bull Demon King, in the first place.

"You wouldn't have been able to forcibly take it away from him, after all."

"You know very well."

"Well, no matter how much I think about it, I don't believe you guys are stronger than my big brother."

Although it happened for the briefest of all brief moments, Su-hyeun "faced" the Bull Demon King right after his magical energy reached the ninth level.

Even then, he couldn't see the depth of the Yogoe's true strengths.

On the other hand, the administrator before him gave off a different feeling. Like he would be able to touch this "person" if he chose to reach out—Su-hyeun got that kind of feeling.

That's why he didn't believe that this administrator had taken the Palm Leaf Fan away from the Bull Demon King by force. No, the Bull Demon King must have "given" it to him.

"The Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven told me this…" The Administrator stared at the Palm Leaf Fan held tightly in Su-hyeun's hands and muttered, "He said, he wanted to prepare a parting gift for their last brother, you, so that you won't get bullied or beaten up by someone else."

"…"

"He didn't get the chance to give it to you in person since you left without saying a proper goodbye, so he requested me to hand it over to you. And that's why I feel greatly relieved right now. If by any chance you kept obsessing over the title of 'Sage' then well, that item would have to be returned to the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven." The administrator took a short pause there and chuckled softly. "Even I feel scared by him, you see. Honestly, I think your choice wasn't too bad. The Palm Leaf Fan is no doubt a heaven-defying divine artifact, after all."

"However, I parted ways with my brothers only a few minutes ago?" Su-hyeun lowered the Palm Leaf Fan and asked, "Just where did you find the time to listen to him and receive this fan?"

"You already know this, don't you?" The administrator smiled meaningfully as he made his reply. "The fact that many things found in this tower are distorted."

"Is time itself one of those things?"

"More or less."

Clap—!

The administrator replied as such and then clapped his hands in a slightly more urgent manner. "Well, our chat must end here. We've run out of time, and I've also handed over the items you were supposed to get. I'm a bit unhappy that we need to part ways here, but it would be nice if we can meet each other again someday."

[Transfer to the 99th floor has been initiated.]

The administrator's silhouette grew fainter and fainter.

The same thing happened to the space Su-hyeun was in. It seemed that the administrator had undone the illusion.

"Ah, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you something else. The Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven asked me to deliver a message to you if and when we meet. And he said…"

"…?"

Su-hyeun paid closer attention to the administrator's silhouette and voice as they grew fainter.

"Well, 'we'll meet again, little brother.'"

As soon as those meaningful words were said, the environment surrounding Su-hyeun transformed. He now stood alone on the 99th floor's world, which was only fully revealed after the administrator had completely vanished from view.

A world with year-long gloomy skies filled with damp-smelling air.

And so, Kim Su-hyeun had arrived on the 99th floor.

**

The number one spot, also referred to as the top or the best, would always be a focal point of everyone's attention.

However, that was about it. The best had to remain the best in order to stay in the limelight, and people would become disappointed in you once you began your downward slide.

But even if you constantly occupied the number one position, all you would get was a nod, along with "As expected."

However, there would sometimes be an anomaly—someone considered to be the best suddenly accomplishing something that no one believed even he or she could pull off.

An event where people would automatically go, "That was even possible?" instead of "As expected of him."

Title: Kim Su-hyeun on the 99th floor, for real?

Content: One of my high school alumni is an awakener currently on the 99th floor, see? He told me that Kim Su-hyeun has shown up on the 99th.

└Piss off. Kim Su-hyeun's been stuck on the 60th for half a year already. He's probably finally decided to stop there.

└Makes sense. Honestly, plenty of folks besides him choose to go with much lower difficulty on the floors below his. About time he hit a wall.

└Man. What a letdown.

└U R full of sh*t.

└Let's unpack this. One of two possibilities. Either your friend or you are full of bull. Nice work, tho.

└No, hang on. I'm being serious—

Half a day later...

Title: Kim Su-hyeun on the 99th floor. Verified. News articles everywhere yesterday.

Content: Punks busy running your mouths off yesterday, why don't you say something now?

└Something.

└Crazy SOB, LOL WTF did he do to get to the 99th in one day?

└Where art thou, keyboard awakeners gleefully yapping on about Kim Su-hyeun's bubble popping? ROFL

└BTW, I honestly can't believe it. Has there ever been a situation like this one before? Did he just bulldoze through the floors after lowering the difficulty by one level or something? No, it's still too fast for that.

└No records of him from the 61st all the way to the 98th, so something special must've happened.

└Kim Su-hyeun's class is permanent.

"...Class, eh?"

Sluuurp—

Su-hyeun's eyes took in the sight of Lee Ju-ho who was smirking away while sucking on a refreshingly cool cup of Americano with a straw. It seemed that he was deriving much amusement from reading all the comments through the smartphone that he currently held in his hand.

The two men were currently sitting alone inside a cafe with no customers. Su-hyeun asked Lee Ju-ho out of curiosity, "What's so amusing that you're grinning like that?"

"There are plenty of funny comments, actually. Take a look here. You have over 300,000 members in your fan club already."

"Please stop looking at stuff like that. It's not like you're going to join it, anyway."

"I've been a member for a long time, actually. And I'm the vice-chairman of the club, too."

"Seriously?!"

"Nope. Puh-heuph!"

"What's so funny this time?"

"Your flustered reaction. You do have some funny reactions, you see," Lee Ju-ho guffawed pretty loudly and then resumed sucking in the cool coffee with the straw. Unlike Su-hyeun, he finished his drink rather quickly and, while putting away his phone, asked, "Okay, so, you were saying that you reached the 99th floor in one go, all thanks to these people calling themselves administrators?"

"Yes. I think these administrators are responsible for running the trials of the tower."

"Well, the tower is one peculiar place, to begin with, so that's not all that surprising, but their choice to show up before you was rather unexpected."

"I'm not 100% sure what they are exactly, but I get the feeling that they hold the key to something."

"Hmm...We need to look into this somehow. But if you can't tell anything, then there's no way for us on this side to figure it out."

While saying that, Lee Ju-ho began jotting something down on a memo pad resting on the coffee table. He was recording the slew of new information that he received as he chatted with Su-hyeun.

Maybe this information was the important key to solving the mysteries of the tower's system, as well as the dungeons currently appearing in the outside world.

"By the way, how's that indigo-colored dungeon thing going? You said it's become a bit of headache since about three days ago?" Su-hyeun asked next.

"You mean, the one at Gwangju?"

"Yes, that one."

"Two Titan Turtles showed up as bosses, you see. Because of their super-tough shells, killing them is turning out to be a difficult task. Although all the other monsters have been dealt with by Thomas and Hak-joon working together, unless Mister Gordon joins us, I don't think dealing with those turtles will be easy."

Lee Ju-ho turned on a tablet PC and pushed it toward Su-hyeun as he said that. The screen displayed the images of the Titan Turtles taken by someone from inside the dungeon.

"Makes sense that they are having a hard time. Just the level of defense these monsters boast alone is ridiculous, after all," said Su-hyeun.

"Do you know about them?"

"Yes, I do. I did kill one during a trial before. It was only one turtle back then, though."

There were two Titan Turtles, which should be more than enough for the dungeon's color to "evolve" to indigo. The dungeons where one of these massive turtle monsters showed up often sat precariously on the boundary of blue and indigo, after all.

"I can't tell how big they are from these images, though. How big are they really?"

"About the size of a small island? One of them is just slightly larger than the other, but the difference isn't that noticeable."

"Really?"

"Okay, so let me ask you this favor. I can't get in touch with Mister Gordon because he's entered the tower and hadn't come out for a long time."

"You don't have to ask me. I was planning to go right away, anyway."

"So soon? We still have some leeway, though."

"I recently came across this new item and figured that Titan Turtles would be pretty decent opponents to test it out."

Out of all the monsters Su-hyeun knew of, Titan Turtles boasted particularly excellent defenses. As such, they would be ideal targets to test out both his newly acquired powers and the "item" itself.

"I've only listened to the verbal explanations on the Palm Leaf Fan, after all," he thought.

He heard some simple explanation from the Bull Demon King. This divine artifact was apparently powerful enough to raise storm winds capable of blowing away a city with just one flap, depending on the wielder's abilities.

Su-hyeun's main weapons might be a sword and spears, but he actually didn't have any preferences on weapon types. Therefore, the Palm Leaf Fan should add an extra dimension to Su-hyeun's combat capabilities depending on how he utilized it.

He leisurely sipped on his coffee. It's only been three days since the dungeon had shown up, so there was plenty of time to spare.

He chatted with Lee Ju-ho about things that happened so far, and about one hour of shooting the breeze later, the bottom of his coffee cup finally revealed itself. Only then did Su-hyeun stand up from his seat.

"I'll be on my way now. I'm planning to challenge the next floor as soon I dealt with the indigo-colored dungeon. I'll send you a text when I'm finished."

"Okay. I'll stay here and do some work before leaving a bit later."

"Okay, see you."

Su-hyeun got up to leave, but before he could exit the cafe...

"Hey, Su-hyeun?"

"Yes?"

Lee Ju-ho hesitated for a little while, wondering whether he should say this or not, but eventually, he chose to cautiously open his mouth. "You know, you seem...a bit different?"

"How so?"

"Well, you don't seem to be in a hurry anymore."

Lee Ju-ho had been feeling this vague sense of disharmony from Su-hyeun. Through this meeting, though, he finally identified that feeling.

Normally, Su-hyeun would have quickly finished his coffee and got up to leave right away, yet he seemed laid back today for some reason.

"You look happier this way, actually."

"Is that so?" Su-hyeun grinned at what Lee Ju-ho said. "It's a relief, in that case, I guess."

Clink—

Su-hyeun exited from the cafe soon afterward.

Lee Ju-ho pulled out a notebook PC from his bag but couldn't help glancing at the exit even after Su-hyeun had left.

"Not sure what happened to him, but..."

He shifted his gaze over to the notebook's screen and grinned a little.

"He does seem better this way."