Tower Of God: Life As Hoaqin

On the 99th Floor, the cold night wind scattered the hair of two women.

Behind them stood Pallian, along with several Rankers affiliated with the Zahard royal family, standing guard.

Stepping forward, Pallian placed a hand over his chest and bowed deeply.

"Yeon Yuhwa Zahard, Lainess Zahard. These are the ones who have gathered to stand with Your Highnesses."

As soon as his words ended, the Rankers behind him lowered their heads in unison.

Yeon Yuhwa Zahard looked down at them with clear satisfaction.

"Good work, Pallian. Your efforts will be rewarded when I am granted a Thirteenth Month."

Vroooooom—

At the sound of engines roaring overhead, Lainess Blitz Zahard lifted her gaze toward the sky.

"It looks like they've arrived as well, Yuhwa unni."

Moments later, multiple floating ships appeared as their stealth modes disengaged.

After lowering their altitude, the ships began landing one by one.

Among them, the largest vessel touched down directly in front of Yuhwa and Lainess.

The hatch opened, and a Ranker disembarked first to attend to someone inside.

Then another woman appeared.

"Heh, it's been a while, hasn't it? Yuhwa unni—and Lainess."

The woman, extravagantly adorned and riding atop a deer, greeted the two Zahard Princesses casually.

After dismounting, she stroked her pet's fur while glancing around at the floating ships.

"Making Rankers from my family ride Yeon family ships… I had quite the time suppressing their complaints."

At her grumbling, Yuhwa smiled faintly.

Placing Rankers from other Ten Families aboard Yeon family ships had been an unavoidable decision—an intentional smokescreen to obstruct Maschenny's intelligence network.

"I'm sorry about that, Leta. But this time, we've secured a perfect opportunity, haven't we?"

Leta—more precisely, Lo Po Bia Leta Zahard—bared her fangs in a grin.

In response to her emotions, waves of multicolored energy rippled from the deer beneath her.

"Good. This time, we can finally kill that damned Maschenny bitch, right?"

"Yes. That's why we brought these Rankers together. We'll need your help as well."

"Don't worry. By then, the 'aquarium' will be perfectly prepared."

Yuhwa, Leta, and Lainess gazed upon the assembled Zahard Rankers and Ten Family Rankers with expressions of intoxicated satisfaction, already savoring their impending victory.

The greatest threat—Maschenny Zahard and the Regular who always followed her—would have no choice but to fall into their carefully laid game.

Yuhwa activated the video function of her Pocket, staring at the image of a young girl sleeping peacefully.

The key piece of the board.

....

One Month Later

Rapier Spirena—a Shinheuh that inhabits Floors 90–100.

True to the "rapier" in its name, it specializes in lightning-fast charge attacks.

Of course, right now, it was nothing more than high-quality protein.

"Maschenny, ten more heading your way."

After cutting down a few Spirena, the rest panicked and changed direction.

They rerouted through the passage where Maschenny stood, clustering together into a massive writhing mass as they rushed her.

Maschenny, who had been watching calmly, stepped forward.

Blue electricity surged along the walls of the corridor.

Then, centered around the arm she raised, the surrounding currents converged—forming multiple blue electric spears.

Oh? More than last time. The output too.

"Personally, I'd give that a seventy out of a hundred."

Maschenny tilted her head at my teasing score.

"Didn't you give me seventy last time too?"

"By my standards, you're about the same."

A lie—but a deliberate one.

Her growth was impressive, befitting a Zahard Princess, and that pleased me greatly.

Still, giving the same score felt like a good way to keep her grounded.

Not that Maschenny understood humility.

She frowned at my stingy grading.

"…Annoying."

"Haha, sorry."

By then, the Shinheuh had entered attack range.

Despite her grumbling, Maschenny hurled the electric spears with full force.

The blue spears streaked forward, trailing residual electricity as they struck their targets, releasing violent currents.

Because the corridor was narrow, the effect was devastating.

Electricity raced through the passage, frying every Shinheuh charging toward her black.

Moments later, the test completion signal rang out.

"Pa-pa-ra-ra-pam! Congratulations!! Having passed the 91st Floor test, you are now qualified to proceed to the 92nd Floor!"

The clown-like test administrator blew his trumpet loudly in celebration.

Unwilling to spend another second in the same space as that noisy clown Ranker, we quickly moved on to the 92nd Floor gate.

While the gate prepared to activate, we found ourselves staring at each other.

Ah—eye contact.

"Ahem."

"..."

We awkwardly looked away at the same time, pretending nothing happened.

Eventually, I broke the silence.

"Maschenny, what's the situation with those Princesses?"

At the serious topic, she finally shifted her focus back to me.

"At least three Princesses are involved. Two of them are Yeon Yuhwa Zahard and Lainess Blitz Zahard. And… unsurprisingly, they're definitely plotting something."

The Yeon family, sure—but Blitz…

I vaguely remembered a test administrator named Quant Blitz back in the webtoon. Same family?

"They're both Flame Users, huh?"

She stared at me suspiciously.

"Hm? How do you know the Blitz family specializes in flame?"

"Ah—haha. Blitz equals fire. That's pretty well known, right?"

The Blitz family hadn't even existed for a full century, so it was strange that someone who had been holed up deep in the Outer Tower would know that.

But recalling that Hoaquin often possessed mysterious, source-less knowledge, Maschenny decided not to press the issue further.

For now.

She frowned.

If you keep making that face, you'll get wrinkles…

"So unfair."

"Haha. Saying that won't help, you know."

Honestly, I almost let it slide—but well, whatever.

"Ahem. We got sidetracked talking about the Blitz family. Anyway, that's everything?"

Maschenny directly shared the information she was reading through her Pocket.

"Other than several Yeon family floating ships moving toward the 90th Floor, there's nothing major. They'll probably provoke us first soon. Or we could make the first move."

Flash—

By the time she finished speaking, the gate transfer had ended, and we stepped onto the 92nd Floor.

Even as we descended from the gate and headed toward the Regular area of the floor, our conversation continued.

"Anyway, we're still identifying the last Zahard Princess involved. Just in case, our Khun family Rankers are—"

"Hello, Maschenny."

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, Maschenny and I turned at the same time.

A woman stood there, staring straight at us—reddish hair, sun-kissed bronze skin full of vitality, and striking crimson eyes.

The moment Maschenny saw her, her gaze turned cold, and a mocking smile spread across her face.

"Oh? And here I was wondering who it might be. I don't remember your name, though."

Provoked by Maschenny's arrogant tone, the woman clenched her teeth—but after a deep breath, she regained her composure and spoke again.

"It's Lainess Blitz Zahard. Try to remember it this time, you dim-witted brat. The day I grind you under my heels isn't far off."

Despite Lainess's sharp declaration, Maschenny didn't even blink.

"Oh my. How terrifying."

"Hey, who do you think you are talking to Maschenny—"

"Stay out of it, Hoaquin."

She brushed me aside as I bristled at the insolence, calmly returning her attention to Lainess.

No matter how you looked at it, that Princess was losing—both verbally and in presence.

Nice one, Maschenny.

"With you being nothing more than Yeon Yuhwa's accessory, what brings you here? Don't tell me you came to fight me."

Unlike Maschenny's icy composure, Lainess's eyes were already burning, her composure long gone.

She looks weaker than Maschenny… If it comes to it, I can step in.

"Hah… arrogant bitch. Fine. I'm not here to fight. I came to propose a wager."

Maschenny tilted her head in an infuriatingly smug way.

"We never said we'd accept."

At that, Lainess's expression suddenly turned confident—like she'd been waiting for those words.

"Oh, but you will."

Lainess glanced briefly at her Pocket, then shifted her gaze to me.

…Huh? Why me?

She looked at me with a sneer, one corner of her lips lifting mockingly before she spoke.

"Just say this, and he'll understand—or so I was told."

"......."

"…What?"

What word did I just hear?

"If I say that, you'll get it. Well then, I'll be on my—"

Crash!

Lainess Blitz Zahard's body slammed violently into the wall.

Maschenny froze in shock and turned toward me.

"Hoaquin, wait!"

"Maschenny. Stay back."

Lainess Blitz Zahard.

She had said something she never should have.

She dared to say it.