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I'm the Max-Level Newbie

I'm the Max-Level Newbie

Fantasy ・ Science Fiction

Maslow

ONGOING
587.6K
9.9

Gaming streamer Jinhyeok Kang spent eleven years obsessively playing Tower of Trials, a game that everyone else abandoned as garbage. But even Jinhyeok never would have guessed that the fifty-level tower from his beloved game would appear in real life—and that the fate of the entire world depended on clearing it. Fortunately for humanity, Jinhyeok happens to be the only player who has ever cleared the whole tower. Armed with his encyclopedic knowledge of the game and an ability to copy others’ abilities and combine them into unique powers, Jinhyeok is ready to take on the tower. But he has no intention of saving the world for free—he’s determined to reap all the riches, followers, and fame of an S-grade hero. Has his new abilities drained away his humanity…or did he gain those powers because he was becoming a monster? WARNING: This story contains depictions of violence, gore, and/or graphic depictions of death, profanity, and strong language that may be upsetting for some readers

LitRPG/GameLitTranslated Fantasy/Sci-fiLow/Urban FantasyFantasyProgression

Prologue

Attempts: Seventy-nine

Demolished attack teams from various guilds: 297

Deaths: 315,850

All of these numbers attested to the failures of players attempting to climb to the forty-eighth floor of the Tower of Trials.

[Time limit: 0h:58m:33s]

The fading light from the status window continued to blink. Time was running out.

-Howl’sDamnMovingCastle: Ha… No one’s even attempting it anymore.

-YouNeverKnow: All the major guilds have given up too. Too many people died.

-MyDamnRhymeOrangeTree: One hour left till the end of the world. The countdown’s even on the news. Peace out.

-OhYou’reFeelingIt: What are you all doing here on the last day? There’s a party going on in Hongdae rn. TGIF?

-It’sSerifTypeface: lol loser. You’ve never even spoken to a girl before. TGIF my ass.

[Number of people currently on the server: Eighty-seven]

Although it was once accessed by tens of thousands of people at once, there were now not even one hundred people left in the chat room. This was natural. Following the countless failures, numerous guilds went under, and even individual contenders had long since disappeared. Humanity would go extinct without ever having climbed to the next floor. At least, that was what everyone had believed.

Voooom!

A blue light appeared in the long-deserted dungeon. This phenomenon only meant one thing.

[A new contender has appeared on the forty-eighth floor: Red Dragon Destia’s territory.]

A man appeared inside the dungeon. Because of his obstruction magic, it was impossible to see his face, but there was a foot-long sword in one of his hands. It was, without a doubt, a player.

-Howl’sDamnMovingCastle: Oh!!!!

-Climber123: There’s still a contender!

-It’sSerifTypeface: Whoa, for real? In this situation?

-VisionThenFlash: Someone get this guy out of the chat.

The chat sprang to life again at the sudden appearance. How long had it been since there was a new contender? The viewers who never lost hope began to cheer.

[Number of people currently on the server: 7,588]

The news spread like wildfire through social media. Those who had been waiting for their deaths joined the server just to check if it was true. Soon, all attention turned toward the contender.

-SpriteAway: But who is it? Doesn’t look like a ranker.

-MyDamnRhymeOrangeTree: His information is all private so we can’t see his status window.

-Climber123: No way, it can’t be a newbie trolling while he has a shot, right?

-ProAppraisalOffice: Shit, everyone look at his sword.

-MyDamnRhymeOrangeTree: Looks about as good as my kitchen knife. What about it?

-ProAppraisalOffice: Look at the color!

At this comment, everyone fixed their eyes on the sword as black as obsidian. The hilt of the sword was…purple. Out of the colors of the rainbow, it was the seventh and highest-ranking color, a relic no one had been able to get their hands on.

Thump, thump.

Hearts began to beat faster. They were here: the ultimate ace.

***

“Grrr…” The Red Dragon growled lowly at the intruder from its nest. The dragon was a massive monster one hundred feet in length. Just facing the monster was enough to make all the hairs on one’s body rise. “You humans do not know how to give up. You come to me after all those deaths?” Destia looked down at the human with proud eyes that seemed to see all living creatures as inferior to itself. Of course, that pride was supported by an overwhelming strength.

However, the man calmly returned that look. “I had some things to prepare for the barbecue. I’m glad I’m not too late for some lizard meat.”

At the arrogant attitude, the monster frowned. “Human, there are many ways to die. I’ll make sure to make yours especially painful.”

“Hmm. You can go ahead and try. Unless you’re all just talk.”

“Fine. After all, talking to an insignificant creature is a waste of time.”

Destia drew a shape in the air with its claw. The man flinched. An advanced restraint magic had been activated.

“How boring.” The dragon’s claw moved above the man’s head and overshadowed his body. In that moment, its foot struck downward.

Boom!

The floor split open and fragments of boulders flew up and scattered everywhere.

“Hmm?” The expected broken bones and flattened flesh were not there.

It was then that the man’s voice sounded from behind Destia. “Restraint, then attack… It’s a little old, don’t you think?”

Impossible. “You escaped…before the skill was activated? In that short moment? Nonsense!” Destia fully lifted up its body, head nearly touching the dungeon ceiling. “There will be no more coincidences from now on.” Flames started blazing from the monster’s mouth.

Sssssszzzz!

All the moisture in the air was sucked out. It was a power only dragons could hold, their greatest power, which could turn their enemies into ash.

“Dragon Breath?” the man muttered. The reason all of the attack teams had failed until now was that rain of fire.

Whoosh!

The fire grew stronger. Soon, when that concentrated mana was released, the human’s body would disappear on the spot.

“There is nowhere to hide!” This entire dungeon was inside the territory of the Breath.

“I have no reason to hide.” Of course, he was not here to run, much less to die. He was here to win. To survive and climb to the next floor, and see the end of this world.

[Reading the Memory of the World.]

A brilliant cloud of mist showered down behind the man, a library holding the truths of this world and an archive of all existing skills. This was the man’s power.

“Bring forth Hellfire and Black Tears.” With that, a fireball a three-feet wide appeared in the man’s left hand and a black liquid dripped from the sword in his right.

-Howl’sDamnMovingCastle: Hellfire? That’s the European ranker Maria’s patent!

-ProAppraisalOffice: That black liquid dripping from the sword is the skill the Wailing Witch on the fifteenth floor had.

-Climber123: Holy… I’ve never seen a player with a copy skill.

-It’sSerifTypeface: What about it? Throwing around an S-Class skill randomly will do nothing.

-VisionThenFlash: Should’ve known.

-MilitaryDischargedFemaleStudent: What a waste of time.

Viewers quickly began leaving the stream. This was natural. Whether it was Hellfire or the Witch’s Curse, nothing could surpass the Dragon Breath. This had been proven time and time again with each failure.

“Foolish human. You come here with just that?” Destia tutted.

Yes. There was no way this was enough. Which meant he only had to make one attack.

With the skill in my left hand, combined with the skill in my right…

A skill on a different dimension that could nullify the Breath and pierce through dragon scales!

The man dropped a single black drop of liquid onto the Hellfire. In that moment, the two different skills combined and created a reddish-black spark.

[Skills Hellfire (S) and Black Tears (S) will be combined.]

[Combination success!]

[You have acquired the skill The Breath of Etherion, the Dragon of Nothingness!]

Roaaar!

A black flame that was different in scale to the Red Dragon’s Breath blazed with a roar. The quality of mana and the temperature of the flame itself were all unique.

“T-that’s!” The dragon was startled. How could it not know that flame? It was the most powerful Breath of one of the ancient dragons, Eterion. “H-how…? How can a mere human have—” Destia stuttered. The dragon’s curiosity overcame its fear. It had no choice but to ask: “Who… Who are you?”

The man slowly answered, “Jinhyeok Kang. A professional player. And this is not my first time killing you.”

He was the only player who had ever reached the top of this tower.

Chapter 1: Tower Top

Garbage game. This was the term used to describe a game that was boring, had poor balance between the characters, or was just run badly. But there was another reason why a game was called garbage: when it was ridiculously difficult. The virtual reality game Tower of Trials fell under that category.

For a year after its release, Korean professional gamers who made a hobby out of messing with game producers rushed to defeat this game. For a year, 365 days straight, these players gave up eating and sleeping. But after about three years, people realized that this game was impossible to beat. This was not an exaggeration.

For example, the gate guardian on the tenth floor was invincible. Invincible. That meant that even if one hundred people teamed up and beat it up, it was pointless. It didn’t take a single point of damage. The seventh floor was set in a polar region with temperatures of negative sixty degrees Celsius in which players froze to death in under an hour, and the eighth floor was a six-thousand-mile labyrinth.

This was not a game made for entertainment but torture, or perhaps a way to fuck with Korean pro gamers. And so, the game became a flop. Or, to be exact, it was almost a flop. There were still a few pro gamers who attempted it. Among those people was Korea’s own youth, Jinhyeok Kang.

***

[You have cleared the fiftieth floor!]

[Congratulations! You are the first person to clear the Tower of Trials!]

“Is this…for real?”

The fiftieth floor of the Tower of Trials. Jinhyeok let out a sigh of mixed emotions. It was just fun to him, clearing the floors methodically and repeating them over and over again, to the point he almost memorized them to achieve that satisfaction in the end. But he didn’t expect to clear the final floor as well. The eleven years he spent from the age of sixteen, when he first encountered this game, to twenty-seven flashed before his eyes.

Ha ha, maybe I should’ve live streamed that.

Although he had only twenty or thirty followers, he was still a streamer. But Jinhyeok shook his head at the thought. No one would’ve watched it anyway. After repeating the same broadcast for the last three months, even his longtime followers left his channel. These days, clickbait titles like “Attacking the Boss” and “Floor Fifty” did not work.

Still, I can get some views if I post this to Viewtube.

If he edited it down to the last ten minutes, he could see the video doing pretty well. It was then that he heard a notification.

Ding!

[Thank you for playing our game all this time.]

[The reboot update is scheduled in twelve hours. We hope you continue to play our game.]

It was a maintenance message. It had been eleven years of zero communication or maintenance, so Jinhyeok believed the company had given up on the game.

That’s unexpected. And a reboot update? Did they find an oil field in a desert somewhere? Logically, this game made no sense. It probably had zero profitability too… Whatever. I’m sure they have their own plan.

It had nothing to do with Jinhyeok anyway. Reboot update or not, he had no intention of playing this game anymore. Plus, today was going to be his last day as a streamer. Although he lived on his own, he was now already twenty-seven years old. It was no longer feasible to live on five hundred dollars a month.

I’ll have to tell the director I won’t be training for a while too. Jinhyeok was once urged to become a martial arts professional, but money was more important than sports right now.

-jjy77: Jinhi! Jinhi! It means “Hi, Jinhyeok!”

-Owl-Eagle: Oh? You’re early today.

As soon as he started streaming, twenty viewers joined the server. There was fried chicken, pizza, cream shrimp, yangjangpi, and bottles of both beer and soju on the table.

-25thYearDieting: Whoa, the table is filled to the brim.

-TzuyangBestMukbang: I love your mukbangs more than gaming streams.

-StressedJinhyeokBestJinhyeok: What’s Jinhyeok best known for?

-CoffinSong: A mukbang a day keeps the doctors away!

-CouchStreamer: Better eat than never!

-2ChickenperPerson: Always judge a streamer by their mukbang!

Thanks to these few subscribers, Jinhyeok was able to keep his channel going all this time. After chatting, joking around, drinking, and eating with them, it was already the break of dawn.

I’ll have to make a separate point about leaving the channel tomorrow.

He didn’t have the confidence to talk about that now. Yes. Tomorrow. But Jinhyeok didn’t know that when he woke up the next day, the world would have completely changed.