Chapter 254: The Ninth Floor of the Tower of Magic (1)
*Bang-!*
There was no physical clash between Yuri and Coco, yet the sound of air being sliced echoed incessantly.
It was the noise produced by the air currents created by the swift movements of their hands colliding.
Yuri calmly observed Coco’s movements.
‘The cigarette has burned down to about half.’
In other words, he had to seize an opportunity within the remaining half of the time.
However, the problem was that his body was now truly reaching its limits.
‘Can I hold out any longer?’
He asked himself the question, but the answer was ‘No.’
‘In that case….’
There was only one option.
Instead of waiting, he had to create an opening himself.
Yuri activated the Bright Blood technique.
*Buzz-*
Golden lines emerged across his entire body.
Coco’s narrow eyes sparkled with interest.
Meanwhile, thanks to the Bright Blood’s effects, Yuri quickly recovered his mental strength, stamina, and even a bit of mana.
His thoughts accelerated rapidly.
Simultaneously, everything around him seemed to move in slow motion.
*Bang!*
The sound of air being sliced burst repeatedly.
*Huff-*
The sound of Coco briefly inhaling.
*Sizzle-*
The cigarette burning down.
*Whoosh-*
The smoke that momentarily obscured Coco’s vision.
Yuri reached for his sword hilt.
As before, Coco’s hand moved to intercept the hilt.
Yuri observed Coco’s movement with extreme precision, breaking down each second into fragments.
Even though the Bright Blood technique had temporarily restored his mental strength, Yuri’s head throbbed.
It felt like he could lose consciousness at any moment, but he endured.
And just as Coco’s palm was about to touch the sword hilt—
‘Now!’
Yuri didn’t draw his sword; instead, he pushed it back.
Coco flinched slightly, seemingly caught off guard.
“…?!”
“…?!”
Until now, whenever Yuri tried to draw his sword, Coco would stop him. It was a repetitive cycle, almost like they were in sync.
This unexpected change created a small crack in their rhythm.
‘Pull her in!’
Previously, Yuri’s hand would reach out to grab Coco’s, but now, he waited for Coco’s hand to approach him.
Yuri reversed the approach, drawing Coco’s hand toward him.
But soon, Coco’s hand shook, attempting to escape.
Yuri smiled inwardly.
‘Come this far and now you’re trying to leave?’
He was convinced that this was the perfect opportunity to end this quest.
‘Who knows when a chance like this will come again… When it comes, seize it!’
After this, Coco would no longer be caught off guard.
She might not even play around anymore.
So, how could he let this opportunity slip away?
*Crack-!*
Yuri gathered all his mana, even what he didn’t have, and unleashed the Thunder Wing technique.
However, even with that, there wasn’t enough mana to activate Thunder Wing throughout his entire body.
So, Yuri concentrated the Thunder Wing on his left arm.
As a result, he couldn’t maintain the Bright Blood, causing the golden light to vanish, and his once-clear mind dulled instantly.
His body felt heavy like a soaked sponge, but his hand, charged with Thunder Wing, was sharper and faster than ever.
*Sizzle-*
Yuri’s arm, imbued with thunder, shot towards Coco like a white dragon.
Yuri was confident.
‘Got it!’
He believed his hand would touch Coco’s.
Yuri was certain of his victory.
In that fleeting moment, as he moved through time—
He locked eyes with Coco.
‘…?!’
A chill ran down Yuri’s spine.
Even in this critical moment, Coco’s eyes still held a playful glint.
She spoke with her eyes.
‘Did you really think you had won?’
And then, in the blink of an eye, Coco’s movements changed drastically.
*Wham-!*
*Crunch-!*
Something suddenly popped up and struck Yuri’s left elbow.
It was only natural that Yuri’s body was shaken by the blow.
‘Ugh!’
The intense pain from his elbow made Yuri wince slightly.
Then he looked to see what had hit his elbow.
It was none other than Coco’s knee.
‘When did this happen?!’
To think she could catch up with his arm, even after he activated Thunder Wing.
‘Did she predict my move and prepare for it in advance?’
But Yuri quickly shook his head internally.
‘No, she definitely lost track of my movements, even if just for a moment.’
In other words, it wasn’t that she predicted his move and acted accordingly.
Even so, she responded this quickly.
Almost as if she knew exactly what Yuri would do.
‘For now… I’ll think about this later.’
Right now, his priority was Coco’s hand, which was steadily moving away.
A missed opportunity right within his reach.
The urgent matter was figuring out how to catch it again.
‘Not yet… it’s not over yet!’
Most would have given up by now, but Yuri decided it was still too early to give in.
‘I moved first.’
As a result, he still had momentum on his side, while Coco, having just started moving, hadn’t reached her full speed yet.
‘That means I still have a chance to catch up.’
The problem was that if he tried to regain his stance now, Coco’s hand would get even farther away in that split second.
An even bigger problem was—
‘I’m out of mana.’
He was utterly, completely drained.
But when there are no teeth, use your gums.
*Grit-*
Yuri clenched his teeth.
He gathered the residual Thunder Wing energy.
And then he channeled it to the tip of his middle finger.
A feeble thread of lightning, barely sustained, erupted outside and caused a small explosion.
*Zap- Boom-!*
The explosion was small, but its impact was anything but.
*Crack-*
The nail on Yuri’s middle finger burst from the blast.
As a result, Yuri’s left arm, which had been knocked away by the knee strike, swung back toward Coco.
It was a bizarre, unnatural movement that defied conventional logic.
Yuri’s hand, moving swiftly, nearly reached Coco.
“…?!”
This time, Coco’s expression showed visible surprise at Yuri’s improvisation.
But that was all.
*Smack-!*
A sharp sound.
“Ah, damn….”
And Yuri staggered, uttering a strange groan.
“Damn it….”
With his eyes rolled back, Yuri collapsed to the side.
Two streaks of blood trickled down from Yuri’s nose.
“….”
Coco gazed at the unconscious Yuri, who was bleeding from his nose, then picked up her cigarette with her bloodied hand.
Only a third of the cigarette remained.
Coco inhaled deeply.
*Ssshh-*
The cigarette turned to ash instantly, and the red embers touched the boundary line.
*Whoosh-*
Through the thick smoke she exhaled, Coco looked down at Yuri and smirked.
“Let’s have some fun over the next 99 days, kid.”
* * *
After Coco left.
*Snort!*
A loud noise echoed in the wide space, as if someone had blown their nose.
But in reality, it was the sound of blood clotted in the nasal passages being cleared.
*Snort!*
Yuri expelled thick clots of blood.
He grabbed his nose and twisted it.
*Crack-*
“Ugh.”
With a strange sound, Yuri finally managed to breathe properly and collapsed backward.
“Aah… I’m dying here.”
He let out a strange noise, half laughing, half crying, gasping for breath.
With his eyes closed, Yuri replayed the earlier events in his mind.
‘What the hell was that?’
Coco certainly hadn’t predicted his moves.
Yet she still responded as if she knew?
Wasn’t that too contradictory?
“Ugh… I don’t get it.”
The question was still unresolved, and his mind was muddled by the overwhelming fatigue.
Eventually, Yuri gave up trying to figure it out.
‘Alright… let’s rest for now.’
Given the situation, he could take his time to tackle Coco at his own pace.
After all, there was plenty of time left.
‘Surely, I can land a hit at least once in 99 days?’
With that conclusion, Yuri slowly let go of his tenuous grip on consciousness.
*Exhale-*
The gentle sound of a boy’s breathing echoed in the wide space.
Twelve hours passed like that.
“Are you awake?”
Coco appeared again, holding a fresh cigarette in her mouth.
Yesterday, Coco had faced Yuri; today, Yuri greeted her with a smile.
“It’ll be different from yesterday.”
*Shing-*
Yuri, who drew his sword first, wiped the smile off his face as he charged toward Coco.
Coco, lighting her cigarette, replied.
“We’ll see? Doesn’t look much different to me.”
She wore a faint smirk.
The golden trajectory streaked towards Coco.
*Boom!*
Thus began the second day of Yuri’s hellish challenge with renewed stamina.
At that point, Yuri had some confidence.
‘You shouldn’t compare today’s me with the stamina-drained version from yesterday.’
Unlike yesterday, with his stamina and mana fully restored, he believed he could at least graze Coco’s clothes.
But that was his greatest arrogance.
Two days later—
* * *
On the fourth day of the Hundred Days Tower challenge.
“Ugh.”
Yuri groaned, shaking his head as he sat up.
He glanced at the burnt cigarette remnants scattered at his feet and frowned.
“Damn… it’s the same.”
Yuri reflected on the past four days.
On the first day of the hell difficulty, he had
been utterly exhausted when he reached the ninth floor and was toyed with, his nose bone twisted.
On the second day, after recovering his stamina, he charged in full of confidence but ended up getting beaten up and fainting.
On the third day, taking lessons from the previous day, he cautiously attempted, clashing with Coco three times but ultimately fainting again.
That’s when Yuri noticed something strange.
On the fourth day, he challenged Coco five times in total, and once again, he fainted by the end of the day.
Thanks to this, Yuri finally realized.
‘At this rate… it’s absolutely impossible.’
Even if he had 96 more days, or even 960, with his current state, he wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on Coco’s clothes.
He needed to figure it out.
The difference between him and Coco.
Why Coco was always one step ahead.
‘What is it?’
Yuri pondered over and over.
The information he had gathered over the past four days of challenging Coco quickly began to organize in his mind.
Why did she always read his moves?
Why was she always quicker than him, even when he strained his mind predicting her next move?
After a long struggle, Yuri found a clue.
‘One thing is certain—Coco doesn’t predict her moves.’
It wasn’t prediction but reading.
‘She wasn’t guessing multiple possibilities of what I might do—she knew exactly what I was going to do just before I did it.’
To make it simpler, if Yuri worked hard to solve problems and got the answers right—
Coco felt like she was reading the lips of someone giving the answers and writing them down just before they spoke.
‘Right… it was as if she knew how I’d move just before I did, right then and there.’
How was that possible?
Yuri mumbled nonstop.
“Why… why doesn’t my reading work on Coco? Because she’s strong? No… I could read even people like Greta or the Demon King. But why only Coco?”
The longer he mumbled, the broader his thoughts expanded.
“No, no… I definitely read Coco’s moves. But I was just blocked. Why? Because of what? Only Coco? Why? What’s different? Even if Coco’s strong, I’ve grown too, so I should be able to keep up. And I used it well on others, right? But why only Coco? The difference… Ah? Difference?!”
Then, he finally reached the answer.
“Haha, I’m so stupid…!”
To think he’d been struggling over something so simple.
Yuri let out a hollow laugh.
He had overcomplicated things and missed the straightforward answer.
‘The state beyond level 7.’
Coco was at least beyond the certified seventh level.
Among the strong opponents Yuri had faced, some were challenging for him at his level then.
The Black Sword Corps, Greta Wigun, or the Demon King, for instance.
But they were, at most, below the certified sixth level.
Sure, there was Johan, but that was more like Johan evaluating Yuri’s homework.
Simply showing his achievements to Johan—nothing more, nothing less.
Thus, this was Yuri’s first time truly engaging in a battle of wits with someone beyond the certified seventh level.
And that meant it was his first experience with the unknown territory known as the Domain (Zone).
‘So, that’s what it was!’
Coco’s incomprehensible movements.
They were explained by the unknown concept of the Domain, which Yuri had yet to understand.
‘Old Man said so.’
The Domain that certified seventh levels use is an extension of their senses.
A certain space itself is treated and controlled as an extension of their own body.
So, in other words…
“Basically, I’ve been fighting inside Coco’s belly this whole time?”
It was inevitable that everything he did was laid bare.
At the same time, Yuri’s face hardened.
He had found the reason for his defeats and a method to land a hit on Coco.
But it was both simple and incredibly difficult.
“I have to open my Domain.”
It meant that within the next 96 days, he had to reach the certified seventh level, the realm of absolute sense—the Domain.