MDPS 33

Chapter 33

My Dark Past is Too Strong

“Which floor?”

《KR server has successfully repelled Athenica, the One Wreathed in Embers!》

Oh Hyunwoo had stopped Athenica.

With that, the Twilight Arena ranking board was updated.

【Twilight Arena Rankings】
1st – Unaffiliated, Mysterious Adventurer – 4,428 pts
2nd – Seo Juhyeon, Avatar Guild – 3,353 pts
3rd – Lim Yul, Revolution Guild – 3,219 pts
⁝

The reaction was explosive.

What had been a field of despair before the Twilight Arena was now overflowing with cheers.

And the moment Oh Hyunwoo, who had completed the raid, appeared, a storm of camera flashes went off.

Reporters rushed toward him.

The press representative stepped forward with a bundle of microphones.

“Adventurer! Did you see the message confirming the raid’s success?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“How do you feel right now?”
“…Disappointed.”

The reporter’s face stiffened.

“What?”
“I feel like it wasn’t enough.”
“But you’ve already broken the defensive line, saved Korea, and reached rank 1?”

But Oh Hyunwoo’s face still carried lingering regret.

“The score was far lower than I had hoped.”
“I’m not sure I follow…”
“I have no intention of being satisfied with ‘the best in Korea.’ Until I can stand shoulder to shoulder with the great powers, I’ll keep pushing myself.”

His voice was calm, but filled with conviction.

That statement revealed his real goal.
He wasn’t clinging to the number 1.
He was aiming much higher.

After saying this, Hyunwoo turned with a resolute expression.
But then he stopped, looked back, and tossed one last line to the reporters.

“By today, the Tower of Strife will be cleared up to the 20th floor. Please check Ascend’s official account.”

Even in this moment, he didn’t forget to promote Ascend.

He pulled out his phone and checked the scoreboards of the great powers.

‘My score doesn’t even make the global top 200.’

There was still a long way to go.

Being 1st in Korea meant little on the world stage.
But Hyunwoo’s ultimate opponent wasn’t the so-called great powers.

His true rival…
The towering mountain he had to surpass…

Was his past self—Lucifer.

‘I wonder too. Can I surpass my past self… or not?’

* * *

The Korean press went wild.

It was none other than Oh Hyunwoo, the “Mysterious Adventurer,” who had scored far higher than Seo Juhyeon, the top-ranked hunter from the nation’s largest guild.

Most of all, the fact that he had single-handedly stopped a dungeon break carried enormous weight.

[Birth of a Korean Hero! A Miracle in the Twilight Arena]
[The battle thought to be lost—rewritten into victory by a mysterious adventurer]
[The man who shattered 4,000 points! An Ascend adventurer turns despair into hope]

• ㅋㅋㅋ This dude’s whole life is hip-hop. Saves the country for free, shares all his clears for free, comp ideas for free. He’s basically a god.
  └ God? Show some respect, man. He’s not your buddy.

• That “stand against the great powers” line was insane. He’s literally a webtoon protagonist.
  └ Pure light. Worship.

• But why’s he still “Mysterious Adventurer”? No name, no info?
  └ Not even on the wiki.
  └ The government must be blocking it.
  └ Maybe he’s a special agent or something.
  └ Well, at his level, that’d make sense.

All the news and online communities were in uproar.

And this shift also meant that the power balance of the big guilds was breaking down.

It was no longer a matter of pride.

A single adventurer had solved a national crisis that even the largest guilds had failed to stop.

That meant all the trust—and profits—those guilds had built up were about to crumble.

In response, three of the four great guilds—Shadow Sword, Avatar, and Deathside—held a meeting. (Radiance was the only one absent.)

“This isn’t good. Our influence keeps getting weaker.”
“We’re not just losing influence. Seo Juhyeon, once Korea’s representative hunter, is being vilified. That’s what we should deal with first!”
“That’s Avatar’s problem, not all of ours.”
“What was that? Easy for you to say, Shadow Sword—you got pushed out of the top 10 rankings this raid. Did you even participate?”
“Watch your mouth!”
“Am I wrong?”
“Enough!”

Bang!

Deathside guild master, Sun Seongtae, slammed the table.

This entire situation disgusted him.

A hidden boss on floor 50, new clears, the Twilight Arena disaster—it all made the great guilds look like fools.

Rumors even said Ascend was opening an academy. If true, many of the trainees from big guilds could defect.

That would deal a huge blow to guild operations.

“This isn’t the time for petty squabbles. We need to take more aggressive action. Crush him before it’s too late.”
“Crush…? You don’t mean to kill the adventurer?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?”

The room fell silent.

But soon, a practical concern was raised.

“He’s rank 1 in the Twilight Arena. Who could even kill him?”
“Even if we did, he’s too high-profile. The moment he dies, suspicion will fall on us.”

It was true. Even if they wanted him dead, they had to be cautious.

That 1st place wasn’t won cheaply.

“Then we’ll need another method. We can kill him socially—ruin him without dirtying our hands.”

So Sun Seongtae decided they should first uncover his identity.

“We need to know his name, and what he was before all this.”

He was especially curious about one thing—

The mysterious, unrevealed summon Hyunwoo controlled.

‘If what he said is true… then Hyunwoo can never reveal it.’

By any means necessary, he would drag the adventurer’s true face into the light.

“I’ll draft the plan. I’ll share it later.”

* * *

The moment Hyunwoo got home, he collapsed onto his bed.

Was he tired from the raid? No, not at all.

The interview in front of so many people was far more exhausting.

Now that the tension was gone, fatigue washed over him.

‘Look at all these messages…’

He opened his phone. It was filled with encouragement from people he knew.

The most surprising was from Son Taeha, CEO of Ascend’s parent company.

Despite being absurdly busy suppressing the big guilds, he had somehow sent a long personal message.

After reading them all, Hyunwoo skimmed through the day’s news and online threads.

Of course, it was wall-to-wall praise and worship.

It felt good at first, but his mood soon calmed.

Because he himself wasn’t satisfied with his results.

‘So the “real big names” start at ten thousand points, huh.’

It felt like a different league entirely.

In the global rankings, even 10th place had 9,800 points.
1st place had over 14,000.
All from the great powers.

‘Lucifer’s record… was over 20,000, wasn’t it.’

He couldn’t allow himself to rest.

He had declared he’d stand shoulder to shoulder with the great nations.
He had no choice but to push harder.

‘Anyway, time to check the rewards.’

Even if he wasn’t satisfied, he had still taken 1st place in Korea.

The rewards were generous.

《Twilight Arena Rank 1 Rewards》

• Mystical Crystals x150

• Material Selection Box (Hero) x50

• Material Selection Box (Legendary) x30

• Material Selection Box (Mythic) x10

Mystical Crystals were used to raise Unique Skills.

With a max level of 15, this was enough to max out 10 different skills—an incredible amount.

A summon whose unique skill reached 15 became a whole different being.

The selection boxes could grant materials for equipment or skill unlocks, both extremely valuable.

But the special resources needed to unlock the skills of the Apocalypse-class Seven Deadly Sins were still unobtainable.

‘At this rate, clearing the 100th floor will be tough.’

He had expected to unlock the “ultimate skills” of Hertia and Caligo before then.

But the Apocalypse-class materials were impossibly rare.

‘I’ve hit the limits of strengthening my current roster. Which means…’

It was time to prepare for the next step.

With less than 10 days until Episode 8 launched, it was the perfect time to recruit the next member of the Seven Deadly Sins.

* * *

《Tower of Strife, Floor 96: “The Shackled Cathedral” has been cleared.》
《Time taken: 73h 12m 46s》
《New record: Rank 1 clear time》
《Clear Grade: “C”》

The allied party of big-guild adventurers who cleared it collapsed to the ground, utterly drained.

“Haaah… what the hell? Why’s it so hard?”
“There must be a strategy we’re missing. Radiance, you find anything?”

Son Taeyeon of Radiance shook her head.

“No, we didn’t either.”
“This is bad. Episode 8’s almost here and we still have 4 floors left.”

Everyone wore grim faces.

The great powers weren’t sharing information, nor signing raid contracts.

They seemed unwilling to show their full strength before the update.

At that moment, a young Radiance adventurer spoke.

“If we don’t finish the tower before the update… won’t that be dangerous?”

Everyone had the same fear.

With Episode 8, anything could happen.

If it was anything like the chaos of the First Great Cataclysm, dungeon breaks could erupt without warning.

So they wanted to prepare however they could.

“Should we… ask Ascend for help? That mysterious adventurer—he pulled off another miracle in the Arena.”

But the other guilds bristled at the suggestion.

“Wow, subtle. Since Ascend’s parent company is the same as Radiance, you just want to grow together, huh?”
“Now you want us to let him piggyback off our efforts? After all the hardship we’ve shared?”
“Typical Radiance. Acting like you’re pure, righteous, above us all…”
“What? That’s nonsense!”

Before it could explode, Son Taeyeon quickly stepped in.

“Siwoo, enough. Sorry everyone, I’ll discipline him later. My apologies if he offended you.”
“Watch your words, yeah? We’re all in this together.”
“Let’s just stop and head down.”
“Great, now my mood’s ruined. Tch.”

They calmed the situation and began descending the tower.

Then someone froze.

“Wait… isn’t that… him?”

The very man they’d just been badmouthing—
the “Mysterious Adventurer”—was standing at the tower’s entrance.

The grumbling adventurers frowned, but Radiance’s young member, Yu Siwoo, boldly approached.

“Are you… the Mysterious Adventurer?”
“…Yes.”
“Hello! I’m Yu Siwoo of Radiance Guild. Behind me is our Tower raid team.”
“Nice to meet you.”

Hyunwoo barely glanced up from his phone, uninterested.

“It’s amazing to meet you in person. Did you come to climb the tower today?”
“No. I just finished clearing.”
“Oh, really? Then if you were at floor 50 last time… are you around floor 55 now?”

At that, Hyunwoo finally looked at him and answered firmly.

“I just cleared floor 80. The Fortress of the Golden Circuit.”

The raid team stirred.

“W-what floor?!”
“80. I just came down.”
“…Ah.”
“And you all? How far have you reached?”
“…We just cleared floor 96.”

Hyunwoo gave a knowing smile and nodded.

“The Shackled Cathedral is tough. You must have worked hard.”
“Haha… yeah, it was rough.”
“I plan to clear floor 90 tomorrow. I’ll take my leave now.”
“Sure, take ca—wait, what floor?!”

By the time Yu Siwoo looked up again, Hyunwoo was already walking away into the distance.

“…Sis, did he really say ‘90th floor’?”
“Yeah.”
“But didn’t he just say he cleared floor 80?”
“He did.”
“Then he’s going to climb 10 floors in a single day?!”
“Judging from what he’s done so far… it doesn’t sound like a bluff.”

At that moment, the raid team members all whipped out their phones and reported to their guilds.

They were all thinking the same thing—

‘We cannot let him steal the title of First to Clear Floor 100!’