MARS 10

Chapter 10

—Click.

After loading the bullet, I circulated mana through my body.

It had exactly the same power as the bullet I fired to kill the 2nd Floor boss monster.

—Wooooong.

Once again, I poured the violently trembling mana into Lucia, but unlike my old gun, it held the mana steadily.

‘Yeah. This is how it should be.’

It was the only reward I received from the 2nd Floor after performing so well.
If it couldn’t even handle this much mana, that would be a problem.

—Click.

Even though I had killed the boss monster by hitting its weak point, the bullet loaded now still carried enough power to kill in one shot.

Yet Lucia barely trembled at all.

The stock felt stable against my shoulder.
The aim was steady as well.

—Boom!

The explosive sound couldn’t be suppressed, but since I wasn’t hiding, it didn’t matter.

—Bang!

Lucy made a “bang” sound with her mouth.

When I barely controlled the recoil and looked forward again, the commander-class monster approaching from the east had a clean hole through its forehead.

—Click.

I immediately reloaded and turned my body ninety degrees.

—Ready.

The next target was the commander-class monster in the north.

—Woooooong.
—Boom!

I gathered mana again and fired.

Its forehead was pierced instantly.

—Wooooong.
—Boom!

This time, the west.

—Boom!

Finally, when the commander-class monster in the south fell, my arms began to tremble violently.

‘Did I overdo it?’

Just three days ago, this was a trump card skill I used like a finishing move.
Now I had used it four times in a row.

It was no wonder my entire body was shaking.

If Lucy hadn’t devised a mana flow to control the recoil, I might not even have been able to aim properly after the second shot.

—You worked really hard. You did amazingly well. I didn’t expect you to fire four times in a row… Try moving your mana now. It should reduce the pain.

As Lucy said, when I circulated my mana, the pain clearly lessened.

It wasn’t just muscle relaxation.
Actual damage was being healed.

‘You’re really growing day by day.’

It hadn’t even been a week since she started researching mana, and she had already developed powerful offensive and recovery skills on her own.

—I didn’t report every detail, but I’ve been learning continuously every day. It just takes longer because the only information I can study is your mana and body. If I had more data, I would develop skills much faster.

‘Yeah, yeah. You’re amazing.’

Lucy’s growth wasn’t just about gaining new abilities.

Her tone had become much softer compared to before.
She felt more human.

—I want more information. My software is self-evolving, and as your mana increases, my hardware grows too. But the amount of data I can learn from is too small.

‘Let’s just endure until the 10th Floor.’

Once we cleared the 10th Floor, we could return to Earth.

If I exposed this baby AI to a flood of real-world information, she might lose her mind.

‘I’m mostly recovered.’

I raised Lucia again and began sniping monsters one level below the commander class.

—If I had known this would happen, I would’ve researched an area-of-effect skill in advance.

‘Can’t be helped. We didn’t know.’

Using Lucy’s “Skill Development Protocol,” most skills could be created in about a day.

I could design skills based on my own concepts, or Lucy could analyze the current situation and suggest options.

An area-of-effect skill was already on the list, but there hadn’t been enough time.

Lucy created the protocol just before we cleared the 2nd Floor.

Even if we had started immediately, we probably couldn’t have completed it in time.

‘Still, we’re holding up pretty well.’

Ranged climbers defended from the top of the walls.
Melee climbers fought below.

Since I was eliminating all threatening monsters, reducing their numbers wasn’t a problem.

The issue was that the distance between the monsters and the walls kept shrinking.

—Bang! Bang! Bang!

I switched the selector to burst fire and began sweeping through normal monsters.

Lucia, which combined all my achievements from the 2nd Floor, had impressive base performance. Even with a small amount of mana, it could easily pierce a normal monster’s forehead.

—Bang!

When I held the trigger in burst mode, bullets fired at perfectly even intervals.

—Initiating Thought Acceleration Protocol.

The name sounded impressive, but it wasn’t that extraordinary.

It worked like this:
When you look through a small hole at a distant object, that part appears enlarged.
Similarly, the Thought Acceleration Protocol stimulated my vision to create the illusion that time was slowing down.

If I circulated mana intensely through my body at the same time, it truly felt like time was slowing.

And in that state—

—Bang!

If I pulled the trigger while aligning with the aiming point, I could cleanly pierce the monsters’ foreheads.

—Send a message to the west gate. Tell them to retreat slightly and climb the trees. Then have the melee climber throw a grenade toward the exact west, about 12.3 meters ahead… just tell them to throw it lightly.

‘“Throw it lightly”? Will they understand that?’

—Yes. According to my calculations, even with that wording, it will land close enough.

Ir was an ordinary climber.

He had been living his normal life when he was suddenly dragged into the Tower.

However, before entering the Tower, he had been a mercenary. That gave him an advantage over others.

‘Black Reaper? What a joke.’

Using his mercenary experience, Ir cleared the 1st Floor easily and even killed two rare monsters on the 2nd Floor.

With decent rewards, he reached the 3rd Floor—
only to see other climbers praising a man called the Black Reaper.

‘The Demon King looks stronger than that guy.’

Just as rumors about the Black Reaper spread among some climbers, rumors about another climber spread near Ir.

That climber was called the Demon King.
And since he was actually a demon king in origin, the name fit perfectly.

‘If a boss monster appeared near the Demon King, of course he killed it.’

At first, Ir thought the Black Reaper was just lucky.

Strong, maybe—but nowhere near the Demon King.

That opinion changed during the 3rd Wave.

From over a kilometer away, the Black Reaper killed a monster as large as a 2nd Floor boss in a single shot.

There was no room for doubt.

‘He’s stronger than I thought.’

But during the 4th Wave, Ir’s evaluation changed completely.

‘He’s a god! The Black Reaper must be a god!’

It was exaggerated—but understandable.

He killed four boss-level monsters with exactly four shots.

Even that alone would have made Ir reconsider comparing him to the Demon King.

But what followed was even more shocking.

Gunshots rang out continuously, and every bullet pierced a monster’s forehead.

By then, Ir had developed absolute faith in the Black Reaper.

And then came the final command.

—West side, temporary retreat. Climb the trees. Melee, grenade to the exact west. Light throw.

“A light throw,” he said.

‘Like this?’

When the grenade he threw somewhat vaguely struck a monster crawling out of the ground with perfect accuracy—

Ir became certain.

The Black Reaper was a god.

“For this 5th Wave, I will take command.”

Strangely, no one objected.

Instead, they looked at me with strong trust in their eyes.

‘Why?’

“To clear the 5th Wave smoothly, we need someone to act as bait and draw attention. Any volunteers?”

“I’ll do it!”

That was strange.

The one who had looked at me most suspiciously at first had volunteered.

“The 5th Wave will have far more enemies than the 4th. I have not experienced the 5th Wave myself, so understand that plans may change at any time. For smooth communication, I will now provide abbreviations.”

I recited the lines Lucy prepared.

“If you cannot memorize them, write them down.”

“Black Reaper, were you part of a special forces unit in the real world?”

The man Lucy had identified as American through physiognomy asked.

“Do not ask useless questions.”

The mysterious persona was useful at times like this.

Even if I avoided questions rudely, no one complained.

“Check your radios. Make sure you understand how to use the siege weapons.”

Since I maintained a strict atmosphere, even those who failed to memorize the codes went to other climbers instead of coming to me.

‘Can we win?’

—I can’t say we will. But there is a possibility.

For one hour, we prepared thoroughly.

I maintained Lucia, ensured everyone memorized the abbreviations, and reviewed Lucy’s strategy again.

Lucy’s plan branched into two possibilities.

If the enemy quality was high but the numbers were similar to the 4th Wave, it would be manageable.

I could handle it by firing stronger bullets.

But if the quality was similar and the numbers were far greater—

Even if we could eventually kill them, if they touched the walls, we would immediately lose.

So Lucy had devised numerous strategies to buy time.

[Before starting the 5th Wave, we would like to express our admiration to those who made it this far. It has been a long time since anyone cleared the 4th Wave. Even if you fail here, you will receive very good rewards! But if you win—well, the rewards will be even better!]

Even through text, the notification window felt noisy.

[Additionally, another team besides you is also challenging the 5th Wave. We hope knowing you have comrades facing the same trial brings you comfort. Now then—let us begin the 5th Wave!]

—What a noisy notification window.

“Seriously.”

How could text feel this loud?

—Rumble… rumble…

Moments later, an enormous number of monsters spawned near the horizon.