I Became the 1st Floor Boss of the Tower

Chapter 19

Undermost was livelier than ever. The news that they could finally leave the first-floor spread.

"Hey, Mr. Sung! Is that all you can do? Bring more every time!" Hwang Kang-Woong shouted.

"Mr. Hwang! There's a crack here!" a worker called out.

"What? What kind of punk applied it like that? If you don't build the wall properly, you will not be going out even if we collect all the points! Got it?" Hwang Kang-Woong shouted.

"What are you guys doing? Hurry up and go to the Rockies and dig for more white limestone!" Hwang Kang-Woong yelled.

The work on the wall surrounding Undermost was a tremendous construction, and it would not have been strange for it to take years to be completed if it were on Earth. However, the work was being done at an incredibly fast speed here. Hwang Kang-Woong ran around and oversaw the project.

At that time, there was a young man running from the Rockies, carrying lumps of white limestone. He was carrying a forklift that was two or three times his size.

"Shin Ha-Neul! When are you going to finish your work if you move like a slowpoke!?" On-site, Hwang Kang-Woong was the scariest one. Shin Ha-Neul's eyes shook and he began to run right away.

"Okay, okay!" Shin Ha-Neul rushed a little.

"Hey, you punk! You’re dropping all the white limestone!” Hwang Kang-Woong shouted.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Shin Ha-Neul apologized.

Shin Ha-Neul suddenly remembered the day he first came here.

‘I can't believe I broke it with a man like that…’ Shin Ha-Neul realized how lucky he was at that time.

"Can’t you see the men next to you who are twice as old as you are, but still carrying twice the amount you’re carrying!" Hwang Kang-Woong yelled.

Shin Ha-Neul turned and looked to his side. Next to him, there were three old men, who certainly looked twice as old as he was, running while carrying a large forklift. At first glance, he could tell that twice as much white limestone was in their forklift.

"Phew... Kids these days… tsk, tsk."

"I know, I used to carry these in both hands when I was young."

"Kids are lazy these days. We have to understand.”

Shin Ha-Neul's cheeks trembled at the words of the three old men, but he could not refute. He had already been scolded and taught a lesson by those men.

"Okay! I'll do better!" Shin Ha-Neul was in high spirits after coming to Undermost.

There was madness in their eyes as they built the wall and moved back and forth in the Rockies. Life at Undermost was not so bad, because they had everything. They did not get tired, and there was enough training for them.

A few people explicitly complained about not being able to climb the tower; but in their hearts, everyone wanted to climb the tower. They came here, after all.

They were curious what was coming next. There were many people on Earth waiting for them. They had already wasted enough time. Numerous people had lined up to enter not only the wall but also the portal to the first floor in the center of Undermost.

"Ouch! Wait! Huh? No! Please wait!" Toeing shouted.

"Can we go in now?"

"No, please wait! There could be a problem on the first floor because too many people already went in!" Toeing explained.

"What happens if there is a problem?” a little kid asked, hugging Toeing.

"I get in trouble!" Toeing answered.

"What happens when you get in trouble?" the little kid asked again.

"Ah... um... I don't know! Anyway, I can’t do that! Lee Shin told me not to let anyone in anymore!" Toeing explained.

The little kid, disappointed by Toeing's words, shook Toeing wildly and turned mean.

"Ouch—that hurts!" Toeing yelled in pain.

"Oh my! I told you not to do that to Toeing!” Kang Jung-Won, the kid’s mom, ran urgently to the front, and hurriedly saved Toeing from her kid.

“Ugh…” the kid was depressed.

"I'm sorry, Toeing. Are you alright?" Kang Jung-Won asked.

"It's all right," Toeing replied.

"Visit my store later, I'll give you free tteokbokki[1].” Kang Jung-Won offered.

"Really? Wow! Thank you so much!" Toeing hopped around in excitement.

* * *

Time flew by in an instant. It was less than three months until the Dimension Gate opened. Toeing stood in the Central Square of Undermost and collected points from people. The display of the number of points already collected was floating in the sky above the square.

[2,922,100/3,000,000]

People gathered in the Central Square cheered as they saw the rising numbers.

[2,988,100/3,000,000]

When they were close to reaching 3 million points, people's faces flushed.

[2,999,010/3,000,000]

They only needed 990 points more to make 3 million points. Baek Hyun was the last one to hand in the points.

"Here you go," said Baek Hyun.

"Thank you!" Toeing replied.

Baek Hyun could barely steady his trembling heart. He looked up at the sky. When his 990 points went in, he could see that they had reached 3 million points together.

[3,000,000/3,000,000]

Each challenger living in Undermost was filled with emotions. It had been more than a year for someone and less than a month for another. The longer they stayed here, the more extraordinary they felt.

[0/3,000,000]

The huge number turned to zero in an instant. Toeing was very carefully holding the Heart of the Soul Scavenger with his little hands. The heart did not look anything like what people had expected. It had a hazy, translucent form like a ghost. It came in a cylindrical container.

"Here!" Toeing handed over the Heart to Hwang Kang-Woong.

Hwang Kang-Woong had contributed the most to buy the Heart of the Soul Scavenger. He contributed nearly 200,000 points by himself. All over his face was a mix of emotions.

"Let's go!" Kim Kang-Chun shouted.

"Okay," Hwang Kang-Woong replied.

Hwang Kang-Woong, Kim Kang-Chun, and his four members climbed to the first floor as representatives. Hwang Kang-Woong moved extra carefully so that he would not drop the Heart of the Soul Scavenger.

"You're here," Lee Shin greeted them. He looked very calm.

Was Lee Shin really helping them break through the first floor? What if they were being fooled now? The thought crossed their minds for a moment, but they knew it was meaningless.

Hwang Kang-Woong smiled and handed him the Heart.

"Thank you all for your hard work," Lee Shin's gentle words touched the six people's hearts.

After saying that, Lee Shin entered his laboratory. The rest of the people could not stood rooted for a while to the spot and looked at the door where Lee Shin entered.

* * *

After Lee Shin had entered the lab, he carefully picked up the Heart of the Soul Scavenger.

[Heart of the Soul Scavenger (replica)]

This is a replica of the Heart of the Soul Scavenger who once held the class of divinity. His trace remains. Be careful not to touch it hastily, because if you do, your soul may be eaten.

The explanation was sloppy compared to how expensive it was. However, Lee Shin, who knew the ability was this item, began to pour mana into the heart. Instinctively, he felt like he knew what this heart is used for. There were countless deaths contained in the heart.

Woong— Woong— Woong—

The heart began to respond to the nature of the mana that was related to the death of Gin.

‘Good.’ Lee Shin had studied the Heart of the Soul Scavenger for several days without leaving the lab.

'This is good enough.’ Lee Shin began implanting the Heart into the body of the newly made boss.

Very thin threads of mana intertwined here and there, and thousands of threads connected the body and the heart.

Before he knew it, Lee Shin's whole body was soaked with cold sweat. Nevertheless, there was not a tremble in his fingertips, and the movement of mana was very steady.

It was a task that required ultra-high concentration and technology. Not even a slight waver was allowed. He had asked May and Warrie in advance to prevent any vibration or sound from occurring in the laboratory. There should be no external interference since Lee Shin had added an extra mana protection as well.

The decisive reason for the use of the Heart of the Soul Scavenger was due to his title of [He Who Knows Death.] The Heart itself contained a trace of the spirit, even though it was only a small amount. On top of that, the nature of the Heart itself was violent and chaotic, so it was impossible to handle this work without a proper understanding of this guy.

Lee Shin had to put a doll's soul in it. And that soul could also be found using his ability as He Who Knows Death.

"Whoa..." Lee Shin could not tell how much time had passed.

He had no sense of time because he was concentrating on his work. After all the work was done, his whole body creaked and his muscles trembled as if he had been overexerting himself.

"It's all completed, finally," Lee Shin said proudly.

[Legendary Doll Maker]

You have created a doll that embraces the class of divinity. It is an incredible achievement! Then the producer should not lag behind the doll, right?

# Divine Quality +1

# Doll Making Level +4

[He Who Has the Qualities of God]

You have divine qualities, don't you? You have the potential to become a god. He Who has the Qualities of God does not die easily.

# Immune to death for 3 seconds (24 hours cooldown time)

"I never thought that I would get a divine quality here," Lee Shin muttered.

Lee Shin was barely able to acquire a divine quality when he reached the 90th floor in his previous life. He never thought he would get it in return for making a doll on the first floor. Of course, this work was that difficult to do.

"Ha…" Lee Shin sighed.

Lee Shin was not sure if this was a good thing. He was sure he would attract the attention of the gods thanks to his divine quality, the moment he went up to the second floor. Since they would never imagine someone could gain this status from the first floor, they would probably think he was a man who had acquired this status outside the tower in the first place.

"Coffee... I need coffee..." Lee Shin muttered.

It was not the end of the crisis. He got up, poured a cup of coffee, and took a sip. The strong scent of coffee seemed to energize the body. After the short coffee break, he started working again. It was time to really use the power of [He Who Knows Death].

Through numerous studies, Lee Shin had developed the ability to apply [He Who Knows Death] by combining mana and soul. It was the result of looking at Gin Ebrium’s research journal and it was quite successful.

Lee Shin’s mana was released and covered the entire space, eventually becoming his eyes to detect the souls around the area. There were numerous souls throughout this place. However, there was one that felt particularly special. It was the soul of Gin Ebrium.

He appeared before Lee Shin’s eyes. Lee Shin had encountered many souls here, but Gin Ebrium’s felt more powerful than anyone else.

The essence of Gin’s broken soul was faintly scattered like water leaking from a bottomless jar.

A dejected smile hung around his mouth. "It's so immense that it is disappearing faster."

Another thing that his soul was different from the others was that there was a link between him and Lee Shin’s body. The very link that Lee Shin could not break even after trying to do everything he could—he was finally going to cut it off now.

"Wake up," Lee Shin commanded.

His mana flowed into the lying doll and stimulated the Heart of the Soul Scavenger. As if the mana had become a catalyst, the doll's eyes shone blue and raised himself.

The doll, which still did not have any sense of self, stared blankly at Gin Ebrium’s soul.

"Eat it," Lee Shin demanded.

An unknown force spread from the doll's heart and covered Gin Ebrium’s body.

There was no change in Gin’s expression until the force covered him all. However, it seemed to Lee Shin that Gin’s mouth was slightly raised.

"You've worked hard, Gin," Lee Shin muttered.

* * *

A streak of light fell from the sky above Undermost. It was the light that appeared when someone entered Undermost. Since no one had gone up to the second floor, there was a high possibility that this was a new challenger.

"Oh my… I can't believe there’s a new challenger at this time."

"Shall we go check them out? We got nothing to do anyways.”

"Yeah, if we play with a newbie, time will fly and it will be all good."

Many people from Undermost gathered in the Central Square with this idea.

Now, the residents of Undermost were all waiting for Lee Shin who took away the Heart of the Soul Scavenger. They waited for several days without any news and they were getting frustrated and crazy.

A new challenger came in during this time when they were nervous and anxious that they could not even go up the first floor.

"Hello! My name is Toeing! I'm the manager of the waiting area on the first floor and Undermost here!" Toeing introduced himself.

A man wearing a white mask and a white robe appeared. No one went up to the second floor, so he was definitely a new challenger. People did not think it was strange because, occasionally, there were people who dressed up as if they were entering a fantasy world.

The objects from Earth were soon discarded because they are useless in the tower due to their lack of mana. However, when people first entered, some wore clothes like those.

"Hey newbie! Are you from the medieval fantasy era?”

"Hahaha! Don't you know how to use mana?"

"Do you use Fire Balls?"

People jokingly teased the new challenger as if he was a new recruit in the army.

The new challenger ignored people’s words and looked around curiously. And other challengers found that cute to watch.

"Hello Mr. Challenger, this is a place called Undermost. It is a city founded by challengers! Do you have any questions?" Toeing asked.

He stared at Toeing without answering, and suddenly lifted Toeing up to his face.

"Ah— You can't do this," said Toeing, picking his ears as if he was annoyed.

People enjoyed watching the scene, because this kind of situation happened quite a lot.

"Long time no see, Toeing." His voice was calm but contained a lot of emotion.

"Huh? Do you know me?" Toeing tilted his head at the voice he heard for the first time.

However, that voice sounded familiar to others.

"What?"

"No way..."

"Really...?"

Toeing looked at the people around him and wondered what was going on. It was because their faces, which seemed happy sitting in the square, all changed instantly.

He carefully put Toeing down. "Yes, I know you very well."

Only then did Toeing hopped and stepped back. The man in the white robe slowly looked around the crowd gathered in the Square.

"Nice to meet you all."

1. Spicy rice cakes ☜