Chapter 11
Having a large number of monsters does more than simply increase the enemy’s strength.
Even if we had the specs to kill every single monster one by one, the 3rd Floor’s rule—that we lose the moment a monster touches the wall—meant the difficulty multiplied.
—The effect is good. The freezing covered exactly the range I calculated.
Because of that, during the one hour before the 5th Wave began, Lucy quickly created a new skill.
It was a new type of bullet that contained mana and froze the surrounding area. For something made in just an hour, its efficiency was remarkable.
A single bullet could freeze an area close to a 10-meter radius, and any monsters caught nearby could even lose their lives.
However, it wasn’t powerful enough to kill every monster caught in the ice.
The frozen monsters soon broke out of the ice, and the ones behind them began clearing the ice away as they advanced.
‘Still, it can at least delay them.’
I repeatedly pushed mana into my shots and fired in all directions.
In Plan B, my role was not to eliminate dangerous monsters, but to slow down their movement speed.
While gathering mana, I shot down normal monsters that could be dealt with easily, but my main role was to reduce the enemy’s advance speed.
Then who would kill the commander-class monsters?
“Now. Fire. Aim carefully.”
—Understood.
From the ballista installed on the north wall, a thick and powerful bolt shot forward.
The ballista, which had been our hidden weapon beneath the wall, was blessed by the Tower. Its attack was strong enough to pierce straight through the body of the Ogre Warrior charging from afar.
‘The calculation is precise.’
In truth, Lucy deserved much of the credit for the ballista’s accuracy.
Without the simple scope she designed, climbers who had never even fired anything like a ballista would never have achieved that level of precision.
—It’s within the margin of error.
‘What do you think our clear probability is?’
Lucy gave a small smile at my question.
—If everything could be calculated perfectly, it wouldn’t come down to probability. As long as no additional monsters are deployed, there are only two outcomes: success or failure.
‘So can we win?’
—We can. However, that assumes the climbers follow my instructions thoroughly.
That was probably the biggest issue—but if it was Lucy, she had surely even calculated how the climbers might make mistakes.
—Bang!
I continued creating fields of ice to block the monsters’ advance, and after using all its bolts, the ballista finally killed the northern commander, the Ogre Warrior.
‘Let’s kill the eastern commander now.’
The commander-class monsters in the south and west would be handled by the catapults.
—Woooooong.
Now familiar with the process, I infused mana and pulled the trigger.
—Boom!
Perhaps because I poured in even more mana than before, the Ogre Warrior’s head was blown off in a single strike.
‘Didn’t I use too much mana?’
That single shot consumed nearly half of my total mana.
It was enough to instantly blow off the head of a monster stronger than a 2nd Floor boss, but losing that much mana at once was inevitably worrying.
—Don’t worry. According to my calculations, this amount of mana is still enough to clear.
Right. I had to trust Lucy.
As I healed my body injured by recoil, I saw the flaming stones launched by the catapults deal with the remaining commander-class monsters.
—All commander-class entities have been eliminated.
According to Lucy’s analysis, commander-class monsters were not just strong.
They also played a role in commanding the others, so eliminating them alone slowed the enemy’s advance.
—Click.
Now it was time to freeze the ground again and delay the monsters.
—Bang!
Following the optimal paths Lucy had calculated in advance, I scattered the bullets, and the monsters’ advance visibly slowed.
Breaking through ice took more time than expected.
‘Even so, this isn’t enough.’
Ice bullets alone could not completely stop the monsters.
What we needed here was bait.
—Flap.
Though he was too far away for sound to reach us, I could see a man waving a large flag.
The monsters noticed him at the front and immediately took battle stances.
After confirming they were preparing for combat, the man ran to the right.
‘To think that would actually matter.’
He wasn’t going to fight.
He stepped forward to make the monsters wary of him and to induce even a brief reduction in their movement speed.
When Lucy first explained the strategy, I wondered what the point was. But because there were so many monsters and the distance between them and the wall was not short, even that small difference became meaningful.
—Bang! Bang!
After using the ballista and catapults, the climbers regrouped on the walls and attacked the monsters.
“East side, wait two seconds, then fire at the area with the largest gap between monsters.”
Standing in the center and relaying Lucy’s instructions, both my mouth and hands were busy at the same time.
After barely enduring for ten minutes, the number of monsters finally began to visibly decrease.
—If we’ve made it this far, we’ve succeeded.
Just as Lucy said, there were no more variables after that.
“Now we just hold our positions.”
I could finally rest my mouth, and I switched from ice bullets back to normal bullets.
[The 5th Wave has ended.]
The truly chilling fact was that the moment we killed the last monster, my mana was completely depleted.
‘You even calculated that?’
—This level of calculation is basic.
As always, Lucy’s performance had improved tremendously.
“Everyone did well.”
When I spoke into the radio, I sensed an unfamiliar presence.
“Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually clear the 5th Wave.”
When I turned around, a woman presumed to be the Administrator was smiling brightly at me.
‘Is having flashy hair a requirement for Administrators?’
Like the green-haired Administrator of the 2nd Floor, the 3rd Floor’s Administrator also had vivid blue hair.
“Let me call the other climbers as well.”
She clapped her hands, and the climbers all gathered in one place.
“Nice to meet you. I’m the Administrator of the 3rd Floor. I came personally to give you your rewards for clearing the final 5th Wave! By the way, the other team failed. That side was basically a one-man team. Oh, to be precise, I guess I should say a one-woman team?”
Even just from the notification window, I could tell—this Administrator had quite a noisy personality.
“No 6th Wave?”
“You can think of me as the 6th Wave. You couldn’t stop me, after all.”
Which meant they hadn’t prepared one.
‘Well, even the 4th Wave looked impossible for most climbers.’
“Actually, it’s a bit lacking in plausibility for me to appear just because you cleared the 5th Wave. But since you didn’t cooperate in the usual way, I could personally come here under the reason of adjusting the rewards!”
“What do you mean by not cooperating in the usual way?”
“What I mean is, except for one person here, the other nine would likely have cleared the 5th Wave no matter which climber stood in that spot.”
Silence fell at her words.
“The 3rd Floor isn’t a place where one strong individual matters much. If everyone doesn’t work together, even the 3rd Wave is difficult. So if you break through the 4th Wave or higher, everyone usually deserves credit. Some climbers might find hidden objects inside the castle, others contribute from their own positions. But this time, it wasn’t like that.”
Her eyes grew sharp.
“Rather than cooperation among climbers, it felt more like a superior giving orders and subordinates responding. No matter who stood there, you probably would have cleared the 5th Wave. So I’m thinking about whether it’s right to give a strong reward to the Black Reaper and smaller rewards to the rest.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
I spoke immediately after she finished.
“Following a superior’s orders well is also teamwork and cooperation. Honestly, I’m very satisfied with this team.”
“Then you’re saying it’s fine to give equal rewards to everyone?”
“Of course.”
—Good choice. This is only the 3rd Floor. It’s not like they were going to give all the rewards to you, just a slightly stronger one. It’s better to build goodwill with other climbers you may meet again in the future.
It meant my decision was correct both emotionally and rationally.
“Alright. Honestly, that’s the right answer. I only brought it up for plausibility… Hehe, I hope you won’t hate me too much.”
The Administrator smiled softly, as if she had never looked sharp.
“Then let’s begin distributing the rewards.”
[New Trait has been unlocked.]
Would a skill like this have meaning when Lucy already played a similar role?
—Of course it does. I can analyze the trait and use it more efficiently. Even overlapping it with the method we’ve been using so far is beneficial.
[You have entered the 4th Floor.]
Considering we cleared up to the 5th Wave and received only one reward, this trait must be quite powerful.
[The theme of the 4th Floor is Speed Run. Eliminate enemies as quickly as possible.]
‘Lucy.’
—I’m already calculating.
[Start!]
The moment the notification window disappeared, countless red dots appeared before my eyes.
—Bang! Bang! Bang!
