CH 6

Babel Network

[Congratulations, Korea!]

[Babel Tower – 38th floor has been cleared]

[The ‘Dawn’ guild rings the bells of victory]

[National Republic of Korea – The 39th floor of the Babel Tower has been opened]

It was around 11 pm

The people who were finishing work for the day all looked up at the same time

Some people went to their windows and looked out into the distance

A faint bell sounded

Zio also opened her closed eyes

The bell was ringing from the tower

In the Babel tower, everytime someone reached the final gate of a floor the sound of bells rang

As soon as a attack team passed all the trials and the bell rang, the next floor would open up and the attack would end

‘Then the bell would ring and the taste of hand was thrilling’

Zio’s younger brother, Gyeon Ji-rok always used to call it the ultimate catharsis and laugh

No matter the amount of times you experience life and death, or no matter the price you have to pay

The rankers who climbed through the tower might have already gotten addicted to it

Babel Network

▷ Local – Korea

▷ Domestic Rankers channel 1

|3| Alpha: Thank you for your hard work. Dusk^^

|8| David: What a poisonous bastard…. Being able to do this in one day

|12| Imagination: Luck played a big role. It was our third challenge in a row. Unfortunately, it seems there is no change in the rankings

|6| Late Night Snack King: &/&:/you, come here you bastard son of a bitch, send the coordinates£%}+₩

|4| White bird: As you all know, floor 39 is next. Since it is the last one on the 30th floor the difficulty must be terrible. I hope the elites of each guild will gather like in floor 29 to avoid unnecessary sacrifices

|8| David: ㅡㅡHey number 1, are you looking? I heard you came to Seolleung today, how long do you think you can be mysterious

|1| Jo: ㅇㅅㅇ

|1| Jo: Mysterious (x), Mysterious (0)

|4| Whitebird: It’s attention, not state

( When saying mysterious, she ended both words by using different letters that both mean attention and state)

|8| David: You can’t even rank because you are too over your head

|5| Bambi: Jo, where are you right now

She would usually just surf through the channel, but she often appeared and answered what David would say

Because David was Zio’s favorite

Every Time she saw him, her heart felt warm. It comforted her mind and body

‘As expected, despite not studying much I was pretty smart’

For the sake of everyone’s self esteem, she wished only children like David would be shown on television

That way, Ms.Park would have been able to understand her daughter’s brilliance

Diing

[Mother’s son: Hey]

[Mother’s son: Hey Hey]

[Mother’s son: Aren’t you coming home?]

[Mother’s son: Wow you really are living just for today; are you living for one day?;;]

Zio turned towards her side

A house where the lights were off, and the ceiling is low

Baek Do-hyun’s house was a separate studio apartment located in the university district

It was quite clean, resembling the owner’s nature, but the dirty spoons and chopsticks were noticeable

Honestly, it was unexpected. He didn’t look like he knew anything about suffering

Baek Do-hyun willingly gave the only mattress to the visitor and laid a blanket on the kitchen side

His shoulder blades looked strong with the white T-shirt laying on top of it on his back

Gyeon Zio had a good night view

“It’s getting a bit late”

“….Haven’t you slept?”

“Do you live by yourself?”

“Yes”

“Why?”

“Well, I don’t have any siblings… both my parents died in an accident while I was a kid. I lived in my grandparents house until middle school, then lived by myself”

“Alone like this?”

“Yes, Alone like this”

Baek Do-hyun responded with a smiley voice. It sounded bland

“Then what about school, no rather, are you working?”

“I started a career earlier than most of my peers. But I quit a few days ago due to reasons. By the way, why are you suddenly investigating me?”

“This is the house of a guy I don’t know. So I thought I should learn a bit”

“It’s not fair that only the women does this, I don’t even know your name”

Zio raised her head in surprise

“You don’t know my name?”

“I don’t know. ‘Jo.’…. And the Magician King. Oh, you told me in the way you were 20 years old, that’s all I know”

Hmm

Baek Do-hyun opened his eyes wide at the sound he heard nearby. It was surprising

Before he knew it, Zio was looking down at him from the bedside with her mouth closed

The night was dark with only the moonlight shining in through the window

Gyeon Zio, who was squatting down with her back curled up, truly looked like a cat

For instance… to a strange degree, as if it was something not ‘human’

She looked infinitely young and infinitely cunning

Under the moonlight, there was something that couldn’t be read with human eyes

It was weird

“You were pretending to know”

“…ah”

I heard you regressed. Why don’t you know?”

“How do you know that?”

“This oppa really doesn’t know anything. You don’t even know what I’m looking at yet you gave me your name?”

“… I don’t know, but I had a similar experience”

They had met

She asked for his name

And when he answered, she laughed as if she knew everything. She even showed him her face that was hidden

That moment of her laugh was so impressive that it was impossible to forget

Baek Do-hyun swallowed his dry saliva

‘’That was close…’

He couldn’t get up even if he wanted to

His gaze as he laid down glided across Zio’s forehead to her lips. Gyeon Zio laughed

“We weren’t close at all”

Baek Do-hyun replied

“That’s the kind of relationship… I wanted to have”

But it was too far away

No matter how famous or divine he was

Before this, for a very long time he was at his peak. He was the unchanging lord of the throne

But he couldn’t reach her

Until the moment that world had ended

So Baek Do-hyun couldn’t believe he had met her in that street now

“Only one conversation. After that I had only seen you a few times from far away. I am sorry… about my behavior today”

“Jo”

“…huh?”

“Zio”

One’s nickname in the channel couldn’t be changed once it was made

There were lots of rankers who didn’t know about that and built up a dark history. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Zio

Even her name was as simple as her personality

“Zi, O. My name”

“…”

“So it’s not like you didn’t know it at all”

So don’t make that face

Seeing him felt weird, it was as if the protagonist was shooting the 2nd episode

***

“I’m going crazy”

“Why?”

Guild

It was one of Korea’s top five guilds, and was a minority elite guild consisting of top rankers

The top ranker Gyeon Ji-rok was the team’s young leader

As a guild, he was the representative of the pura faction, and was also famous for gathering hard-core pure faction members who were crazy about attacking the Babel tower

“Why shouldn’t I be? It’s because of that damn thing in our house”

“You mean your three-timer sister?”

The deputy leader of the guild The 12th place Sa se-jong laughed

“There are lots of things to be ashamed of. What’s wrong with a three-timer?”

Why did he keep saying three-timer? Gyeon Ji-rok clicked his tongue. Then with a serious tone

“It’s not necessarily Gyeon Zio’s fault. Universities are a bit weird. It’s just that she doesn’t study but her natural brain isn’t bad. Is it some kind of corruption within the admission or something?”

“…Oh is that so?”

“Why don’t you find out? Hyung is from a chaebol household. Isn’t there a connection between colleges and darkness?”

This crooked siscon guy

It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other for a day or two. Sa se-jong skillfully turned the topic back to what it was

“What’s wrong with your sister?”

“She left”

“What?”

“She ran away from home!”

This fucking glutton cat

He wanted to pull out all his hair. Are you really running away from home? Don’t you think it’s crazy how ugly the outside world is?”

Gyeon Ji-rok started wondering back and forth

Guild members that came in time for the meeting couldn’t help but gossip at the sight of it. What, did he need something? Did he need to use the bathroom?

“What’s wrong with leader?”

“My sister ran away from home”

“Oh. So your sister ran away. How frustrating that must be. You don’t know the sorrows of the eldest daughter in Korea”

The guild member Domi, who had no idea what kind of a person Gyeon Zio was like, said sympathetically

Of course, Gyeon Ji-rok shouted in anger. What do you know, tell me!

“She left without a card!”

“…?”

Huh?

At the sudden rush of the guild leader, the guild members were in a state of abnormality

After confirming the response of the audience, Gyeon Ji-rok looked angry

He began speaking with a throbbing heart

“Don’t you understand the gravity of the situation? My mom cut off her card and she left empty-handed! Without even food to eat she was dragged into this cold cold world!”

Are you a psychopath?

Shivering at the inhumanity of his colleagues, Gyeon Ji-rok turned around

As he was talking an episode of already started playing in his head

Dami asked in a suspicious and cautious tone

“Are you crying right now…?”

“I’m really disappointed in you guys…”

‘It’s really hard to serve a 20-year-old boss’

Sa Se-jong clicked his tongue as he looked at the back of his 20-year old superior who was leaning against the wall

The atmosphere before meeting looked as if he would jump out of the tower in middle of an attack due to being emotional

Even though he was facing a time of intense emotional change, at this point on, it was good that the guild had not collapsed yet

If it wasn’t for his status as a S-Rank they would have planned a revolt. Why did all the monsters have flaws in their personality?

Deity, if we asked about your taste you won’t have a wish

Sa se-jong, who had a rare common sense among the world of hunters, sadly organised the papers

[Official letter of proposal for cooperation of the 5 major guild for the 39th floor of Babel tower]

[Guild Babylon — ‘Tutorial’ related power reinforcement (recruitment) proposal]

From the opening of the 39th floor to the tutorial season approaching

Major events were right around the corner, yet the meeting of seemed to have been lost today

***

At the same time

There was another person here who was suffering because of a Gyeon

“…”

Baek Do-hyun was silent as he looked at the scenery of what used to be a house that turned into a dungeon in just 2 days

Let’s start with the TV being on even though no one was watching

Empty ice cream shells stacked in layers, empty juice cups and cookie crumbs, and dry crumpled towels all over…

Most of all, the blanket pile

The small back of the head pounding hard on the keyboard while wearing headphones trembled

Sop, sop! Even sound effects could be hearn from her mouth

Tuk

The bag of take-out chicken and ice cream fell from Baek Do-hyun’s hands

“Oh, you are here? This time, are you sure it’s Hagen? If you bought Roux like last time the next train will be a killing one”

Jo, rushed in, rummaged through the back, and ran again

It was as if she never left her original position

‘…Was she always this hard to take care of….?’

[Exclusive skill [The Pushover Butler] has been added! Way to go!]

Dear Mother and Father in heaven

I am Baek Do-hyun, 25 years old and living my second life

It seems that my momentary choice opened the door to an irreversible parenting hell