Leveling with the Gods - Chapter 630

* * *

In the middle of the 9th floor’s street,

A delicious smell wafted from a food stall with a cloth roof.

[Earth’s Delicacy!]

[Kim Yu-won also ate it. A deliciously spicy taste!]

The food stall.

Ju-yeon shouted while making the red tteokbokki.

“Come and have some tteokbokki! We also have fried food!”

“It’s Earth’s delicacy! Kim Yu-won’s favorite food! Probably…….”

Seong-chan sighed as he trailed off.

“How long do we have to do this?”

“Don’t we have to pay back the money we borrowed for the test?”

“That’s true, but…….”

“We’ve been getting a lot of attention lately, and we have more customers. If we earn a little more, we’ll be able to take the next test soon.”

The test fee to challenge the 10th floor is expensive.

It’s several times more than the test fees for other floors.

Since they had failed the last test, the two had been doing street business to earn points.

“Why is it so hard to go up a single floor…….”

It wasn’t easy for ordinary players to climb the Tower without a Guild’s sponsorship.

Passing the test was secondary, and most of them couldn’t even afford to pay the test fee.

If you could take the test one after another, you could somehow manage with the rewards from the test, but there weren’t many people who were that skilled.

“Yu-won must be doing well. He must have earned enough money for the test fee there.”

Seong-chan recalled the tutorial test.

The bead-collecting test.

At that time, Yu-won collected over a thousand beads and sold them for 100 points each.

The points he earned at that time were well over 100,000, so he probably didn’t have to worry about the test fee.

“Do you think Yu-won had to worry about the test fee? Even then, if he wanted to, he could have gotten sponsorships from major guilds.”

“When are we going to go up?”

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

Clenching the ladle that was stirring the tteokbokki, Ju-yeon glared.

“I’m going to go up, no matter what.”

“You’re amazing.”

Seong-chan sighed.

9th floor.

It had been over ten years since he entered the Tower, and he had only managed to climb to the 9th floor.

This was about average.

The problem was that it was impossible to become a ranker with average achievement.

Seong-chan looked up and muttered.

“What is Yu-won doing.”

Ju-yeon’s desire to climb the Tower, and Seong-chan’s desire to climb the Tower with her.

More than half of it was because of Yu-won’s influence.

It was a short meeting, but his back was dazzling.

Ju-yeon and Seong-chan were climbing the Tower because they wanted to be like that, because they wanted to become strong enough to lead the players on the lower floors.

“He must be doing something great, even now.”

Most of the recent rumors about the Tower started and ended with Kim Yu-won.

Because of that, his every move was worthy of praise, even if he did nothing.

“Can we go up? Us.”

“We just have to work hard in our own way. If we keep at it, we’ll definitely…….”

Thud-.

That’s when it happened.

A customer entered the quiet food stall.

“Welcome-.”

Ju-yeon’s expression turned pale as she was greeting the customer.

The same black hair as theirs, which was uncommon in the Tower.

A young man with a strong nose and black eyes.

‘Yu-won?’

‘Why is he here?’

He must have been doing something great just a moment ago, but suddenly he came to eat tteokbokki.

Did he come looking for them?

Yu-won looked just as surprised as they were, as if he was thinking the same thing.

“You guys…….”

Yu-won and the two people who entered the food stall made eye contact.

“Here? That food stall?”

Drip, drip-.

Behind Yu-won, Son Oh-gong, who had long white hair, followed him in.

He was stuffing his mouth with something, munching away.

‘W, Wukong?’

‘Crazy-.’

Ju-yeon and Seong-chan’s faces turned pale.

They were also players who had climbed the Tower.

Of course, they knew about the famous rankers, and Son Oh-gong was one of them.

But after Yu-won, even Son Oh-gong visited their shop.

Seong-chan started hiccuping in surprise.

“Oh, it smells good. Your world’s food is all delicious…… Why are you like that?”

“They’re people I know.”

“Who are they?”

Sun Wukong’s gaze flickered between Jooin and Seongchan.

As Sun Wukong leaned closer to get a better look, Jooin and Seongchan’s legs trembled.

“Hmm-”

Sun Wukong tilted his head.

“They seem weak.”

Sun Wukong was a person whose standards for judging people were based on strength and weakness.

In his eyes, Jooin and Seongchan were no different from the goblins that roamed the streets.

Of course.

Yuwon’s standards were different from Sun Wukong’s.

“Have you decided to climb?”

Jooin and Seongchan nodded.

“Yes.”

“We have to climb somehow.”

Yuwon’s lips curled up at the two’s expressions.

Even though it was a fleeting connection, it seemed that they were doing better than he had thought.

“Good. If you’ve decided to climb, do well. I’ll cheer for you.”

“Th, thank you. But…”

Jooin scratched his cheek and spoke awkwardly.

“We didn’t stop climbing…”

“…?”

* * *

The food stall closed.

Sun Wukong, with red sauce on his lips, listened to the two’s story with Yuwon.

Then.

“But why are you still on the 9th floor? It’s been over 10 years.”

Jooin lowered his head at Sun Wukong’s pointed question.

“It’s just… I don’t have the ability yet.”

“Ev, even so, this is about average. More or less.”

Sun Wukong tilted his head at Seongchan’s added explanation.

“Average?”

“Well.”

Yuwon didn’t know either.

He was always surrounded by skilled players.

If a very small number of players became rankers, then an even smaller number of rankers would qualify as high rankers.

Even around Yuwon, there were only outstanding guys like Sun Wukong and Hercules, even among the high rankers.

In other words.

He had no idea what level the average players were.

‘Well, it usually takes over 100 years to become a ranker.’

Of course, that was the case for players who had the talent to become rankers.

Since he was among extraordinary guys, he had never thought about how difficult it was for average players to climb up.

“Are these the guys? The ones you gave the marbles to.”

Among the small talk, Yuwon had told Sun Wukong about the tutorial.

In the process, Yuwon had told the story of Jooin and Seongchan, and it seemed that Sun Wukong remembered it.

“They’ve done something great, too.”

Collecting the marbles was an important test for catching Surtr.

In the tutorial where Points were most important, Yuwon had to earn at least 100,000 Points.

If he had less than that, he would have had to give up on catching Surtr.

And Jooin and Seongchan had helped Yuwon collect more marbles.

Gulped-.

“Should I teach them?”

Sun Wukong asked, swallowing the food in his mouth.

“The reason you can’t climb is because you’re weak, right?”

“Th, that’s true, but…”

“We’re sorry…”

Jooin and Seongchan’s eyes shook.

To be trained by the Heavenly Demon?

This might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But let’s think about it the other way around.

It was the Heavenly Demon’s training.

The process would never be easy.

No, it might be several times more dangerous than taking the test with your life on the line.

As the two hesitated with such a sense of crisis.

“Hey, don’t refuse. Okay?”

Sun Wukong stepped between the two and put his arm around their shoulders with a grin.

The two smiled awkwardly.

Yuwon sighed as he watched Sun Wukong’s behavior.

‘He must find it fun, that guy.’

As long as he had fun, that was all that mattered.

That was Sun Wukong.

* * *

“What the hell are these idiots!”

Sun Wukong, who flew into the wide open space on his Somersault Cloud, threw the Ruyi Jingu Bang in his hand to the floor and grumbled.

Jooin and Seongchan, each holding a sword and a hammer in their hands, put their hands together and bowed their heads.

“Like this, boom, bam. Pow. Don’t you get it?”

“Do you understand, you monkeys?”

Yuwon covered his face with one hand at Sun Wukong’s explanation.

This stupid monkey had no talent for teaching anyone.

Still, since it was related to fighting, I thought he’d teach me well, but that wasn’t the case either.

No.

Strictly speaking, Son Oh-gong’s teachings weren’t all that bad.

Depending on who was listening, those words could be a great enlightenment.

‘If it was someone like Lee Seong-yoon, he would have understood it though…….’

The problem was that the ones there weren’t Lee Seong-yoon, but Joo-yeon and Seong-chan.

Players who were very, very average, having not been able to climb past the 9th floor for over 10 years.

In other words, the teaching was not at eye level at all.

“Look, look! Like this, like this…….”

“Get out of the way, you monkey.”

In the end, Woo-won pushed Son Oh-gong’s face to the side and stepped forward.

“Learn how to handle a sword and hammer later. The experts in teaching that are in Murim.”

The 10th floor’s test is hosted by Murim.

The test of the 10th floor was to learn the martial arts of each school and learn how to fight through that.

So right now, teaching something like a sword or hammer was inefficient.

“It takes a long time to learn how to handle a weapon. It’s not like you guys are talented enough to learn it right away.”

“My heart aches a little.”

“Because it’s the truth. Start by accepting it.”

At Woo-won’s words, Joo-yeon nodded with a sullen face.

It was disappointing, but in fact, it was better to tell him this way.

“When is the next test?”

“In five days…….”

“Five days? But were you doing business over there?”

“The test fee is a little short.”

A tight schedule.

Woo-won shook his head without hesitation.

“No. Skip it this time.”

“Th, that…….”

“Challenging it now is just throwing the test fee on the ground again. Take a break and prepare properly for the remaining time.”

It was the right thing to say.

Joo-yeon and Seong-chan also knew the problem vaguely.

That’s why the two of them had no choice but to nod at Woo-won’s words.

However, the problem was that they didn’t know how to prepare, even if they were given time.

“Then what should I learn?”

“It’s not about learning. It’s about fixing what’s wrong.”

“Fixing?”

“When I saw you fighting with this monkey earlier, your hand was shaking.”

Twitch-.

Woo-won grabbed Son Oh-gong’s cheek and stretched it out as he spoke.

“Surely you don’t think you can really kill this guy.”

“Th, that’s impossible.”

“Then it’s a habit. It comes from the fear of killing.”

Son Oh-gong’s immortality was secondary, but with their current abilities, the two of them couldn’t even pierce the skin of a higher-level player.

Nevertheless, Joo-yeon and Seong-chan showed hesitation in their hands during their brief sparring with Son Oh-gong.

There were two reasons for this.

The fear of killing, and the bad habit that stemmed from it.

“Killing is bad. That’s how I learned to live. You guys have lived longer on Earth than you have here, and the influence is still greater.”

Joo-yeon and Seong-chan were originally supposed to die in the tutorial.

The two hesitated to kill and were afraid to fight.

Even so, the reason they entered the tower and climbed it was because of the variable called themselves.

“You’re lucky to still be alive with that kind of mindset.”

“Th, then what should we do?”

“There are two things to fix.”

Woo-won folded one of his two fingers.

“One is to not hesitate. Think of everyone as an enemy in the test, not me.”

Joo-yeon and Seong-chan nodded.

It wouldn’t be easy, but rather, Woo-won didn’t see this kind of problem in the two of them as a bad thing.

‘They have talent.’

It’s absurd to have such a problem for over 10 years, but.

The fact that they had come this far with such a problem meant that they had at least a minimum of talent.

“And the second. This is the most important thing.”

Folding the remaining finger, Woo-won sighed.

“The two of you, change your weapons.”

Joo-yeon and Seong-chan.

The two of them were nothing more than clumsy and clumsy in Woo-won’s eyes.