Only My Skill Tooltip Is Strange

Chapter 88

The police station on the 5th floor is where the administrators stay. They are in charge of managing the 5th floor and overseeing the players' trials.

Some information about the secret police was intentionally spread. It was meant to spread throughout the city through the police players’ mouths.

“How’s the atmosphere lately?” “It’s not bad. The thief players have started to get cautious.”

There are more than just a few secret police. Five of them were created this time.

The offer was made to some of the stronger thief players. None of them refused the administrator’s offer.

“You’ll be able to defend the floor.”

To maintain control of a floor, plausibility is needed. Among ascenders, it’s called the flow of fate, and without it, the owner of the floor loses their power.

To gain plausibility, there must be trials. You need to issue trials to players and draw out appropriate results.

The cooperation of the thief faction, the laziness of the police faction, and the lack of incidents. The 5th floor’s trials had reached the point where they no longer produced any plausibility. Only meaningless missions were repeated, weakening the floor’s owner.

“Thank goodness. If it went on like this, we would’ve lost the floor.”

Creating the new role of the secret police was meant to bring change to the floor. Thanks to the efforts of the secret police, a large amount of fate energy was secured.

“But why aren’t they doing their missions?”

The secret police are police players affiliated with the thief faction. They must interfere with the thieves in the city, and even in missions.

“I thought they would betray because they’re Earthlings.” “Did you mention giving Alice the skill?” “I didn’t think it was necessary, so I didn’t say anything. It uses up fate energy, after all.”

“They wouldn’t do it without a reward, of course. It’s too risky.”

The target is Alice. In a situation where ‘arrest’ could happen at any time, it wasn’t easy to betray Alice outright.

“If you catch someone as important as Alice, you could secure quite a bit of fate energy.”

“It can’t be helped.”

Interference is impossible. During missions, players cannot be touched.

Can they be killed outside of missions? Yes, but it’s meaningless.

If an ascender kills a player directly, they cannot harvest fate energy.

“Tch. It’d be better to directly tell the police players to cause trouble.” “Is that possible?” “That telekinetic user is an outlier. They’ve got a good match-up against most players.”

The administrators didn’t think Yuki would lose.

“What?” “There’s nothing wrong with it. The police players don’t get any bonuses for interfering with thieves.”

Yuki said it casually.

“If the reason is good enough, I won’t be able to step aside.” “I’ll just win.”

“Since you’ve gotten out of the 3rd floor, I guess you’ve got a decent artifact by now?”

Yuki didn’t think I had more than 10 skills. Most players didn’t believe it either.

Players who mistook me for a dragon thought I was using artifact power, not skills.

Naturally. Earthlings can’t have more than 10 skills. Their wisdom is too low, limiting the number of skill slots.

“But you know that having a bunch of skills doesn’t really mean anything, right? It won’t reach me.”

……

I was on a different level than Hikari. Hikari had to deactivate photon conversion to land physical hits. But Yuki didn’t need any complicated processes.

Her ice manipulation was overwhelmingly powerful in combat. It would be hard to gain an advantage over her, even as a sword master or a peak-level martial artist.

Of course, I wouldn’t know for sure until I fought her.

‘If her freezing ability activates like a passive, it’s practically invincible.’

Skills don’t matter if you can’t even land a hit. But what if all my attacks are dodged? It would be impossible to win against Yuki.

“…Why are you so curious about the reason?”

“Since you accepted the mission to catch the city’s criminals, I find it strange that you’d refuse to betray your fellow thief.”

Was it just simple curiosity?

‘If I can exclude Yuki from the mission, it’s an advantage.’

I don’t necessarily need to exclude her. I can just stall. That way, Alice can approach the artifact.

“Can you be honest with me?” “Yeah. Whether it’s true or false, you’ll know when you see it. We spent quite some time together on the 3rd floor, don’t think you can fool me.”

“Anyone would think we’ve been together for ten years.”

It felt like we’d been together a long time on the 3rd floor, but it hadn’t even been a year. It wasn’t enough to claim I knew her perfectly.

“…I just don’t like the administrator’s mission. That’s why I’m ignoring it.”

“Why?” “Because of the tone. The way they said it, assuming I’d betray because I’m an Earthling. It really pissed me off.”

It wasn’t exactly the words. The nuance of the message was unpleasant.

‘Who would follow orders like that, without any reason?’

Thanks to that, I discovered my rebellious side.

“Is that really the reason?” “Yeah. I’ve done so many good things, but they treat me like an Earthling who’d stab someone in the back.”

The feelings I had back on the 1st floor started coming back. Feelings I had briefly forgotten while climbing the tower.

“Pfft.”

Yuki burst out laughing.

“So it wasn’t because you like Alice and don’t want to betray her?” “How long has it been since we met?”

At the start, there was no connection with Alice. She saved me during the tutorial.

‘That was pretty significant, but….’

I don’t think it’s enough to justify protecting her. It’s a little lacking.

“This is better. It fits you perfectly.”

The cold air around Yuki gently settled. She had lowered her guard.

“Are you giving up now?” “I was going to climb anyway, so what?”

The climbing conditions were met. There was no reason to go further than that.

“Why weren’t you climbing earlier?” “It’s personal. Just in case.”

Yuki didn’t say more. Her answer carried a sense of finality.

So I didn’t ask further. I knew asking would only worsen the situation, just like it did on the 3rd floor.

“Don’t you think the administrators will say something?” “They can’t touch players anyway.”

“Really?”

Yuki gave up defending. After that, the artifact theft proceeded smoothly.

Late-arriving police players tried to block our way, but they couldn’t defeat us. The problem was with the thief players.

“That artifact. How about handing it over?”

Greed has no end.

A thief realized we had succeeded in stealing the artifact and came to try to take it from Alice.

“You’re confident in your abilities, huh?”

I envied the confidence to step up against a mana expert. He stood confidently, relying on pure skill, without any tooltip errors.

Of course, he wasn’t going to win. It wasn’t because of Alice.

“What, what the hell? Don’t you run out of mana? How can you keep using skills?”

Player combat methods were starting to become more standardized.

They’d try to exhaust mana by making you use skills. They’d then wait for the cooldown to attack.

Psychological warfare, which hadn’t existed on the lower floors, began in earnest. It started on the 3rd floor.

But it didn’t work on me. I was practically in an infinite mana state.

While waiting for the cooldown, my mana was already full. I could spam skills without worrying about it.

“What do you think we should do about them?” “…They’re trash who don’t even keep their promises. I’ll kill them and keep climbing.”

Alice was firm. She had no mercy for players who betrayed her.

“If there’s a chance left, we’ll climb away like we’re running. If there’s no chance, we’ll be ‘arrested’ by the police. I don’t think we’ll ever meet again on the 5th floor.”

Alice, saying that, entered the target area with the artifact.

The mission ended as Alice successfully stole the artifact. The participating police players received their payment, while I finished the mission without gaining anything.

It was a failure, but it wasn’t treated as one. I just didn’t receive the reward; the stack remained zero.

‘As long as I don’t get greedy, I can get a chance.’

As long as the thieves don’t kill each other, there will be opportunities. Waiting for that time is up to personal ability.

I returned to the 5th floor and found Jung Suyeon.

“I’m planning to go to the 6th floor.” “I thought so. You have the ability, so if you don’t go up, you’ll lose out. I think you should go for the Earthlings’ sake.”

David nodded in agreement.

I looked at Jung Suyeon and David, contemplating. Should I apply the Hero of the Race buff to them?

The Hero of the Race has limitations. There are only a few people who can be registered, so I need to be careful.

Maybe later, once my rank increases, it won’t matter. But for now, I couldn’t bear to give up the slot.

“I’m not sure, but there’s a guy named Kim Min-seong.”

Time flows differently on each floor. I don’t know how much time has passed on the lower floors. But if Kim Min-seong is alive, he’s probably climbing slowly.

‘I increased my luck, so it’s not an entirely impossible scenario.’

I asked Jung Suyeon to help Kim Min-seong if she ever saw him. I didn’t know when that would be, but I trusted her to help him.

“He’s always helped Earthlings on the 5th floor. Some of them betrayed him, but…”

“……”

“There were also people who kept climbing with determination. Even if you don’t say anything, I’ll try to help if I meet someone named Kim Min-seong. Earthlings need to help each other to have a chance.”

That was good enough.

‘Alice, Jo Seohui, I’ve made my own preparations. And I’ve received their help.’

I decided to save the Hero of the Race buff for now.

I didn’t want to spread rumors about the tooltip error.

I left the task for the distant future and went to find the administrator. I was headed to the 6th floor.

The Earthling administrator greeted me. As soon as he saw my face, he burst out laughing.

“The administrators are in a frenzy because you’re not doing the secret police mission.” “Is there a problem?” “No, not at all.”

He gathered his emotions, looking relieved.

“Because you’re Earthling, they assumed you’d betray. Honestly, I didn’t like it either. Some betray, some honor their word. It’s different depending on the person, not the race.” “I thought the same.”

That’s why I rejected the secret police mission.

‘Good thing there was no penalty.’

Or maybe the Earthling administrator blocked it for me?

‘Administrators aren’t gods. Even if they fight among themselves, it doesn’t benefit them.’

Plausibility, causality. The administrators were probably under more pressure than the players.

“I want to go to the 6th floor.” “Alright, you’ve earned the right, so I’ll send you.”

The man opened a portal. It was a bright blue portal.

“From now on, climb without making enemies.” “……”

“If you make enemies, make sure to kill them. Never spare them. Otherwise, someone important to you will die.”

I ignored the administrator’s words and climbed to the 6th floor.

Whooooshhh-

A trumpet sounded loudly. On the plain, many people stood.

On the opposite side, a similar force had lined up.

[6th floor, annihilate the enemy army.]