บท 20: Interview and Fireworks

After exiting the <Unstoppable Dinner>, Dale had Josh install a messaging program <NakamaPower> before leaving for he needed some well-deserved rest. Not everyone was like Josh and could sleep in the Tower.

As he headed back to the Tower, Josh was accosted by a man wearing a cheap flashy red suit. He was followed by a cameraman with the caption <NewsWorthy> on his shirt.

It probably wasn't accurate since he was stopping Josh who seemed the epitome of plain to whoever hadn't seen him fight, well most of the time. The man was extremely cheerful and excited.

"Hello there! How are you doing today? I'm the one and only Kool Reporter! Ah, but you probably knew that already, didn't you?"

"Hello, good, nope."

"What?! You don't know about little old me? I'll cry! Today we are interviewing random passersby. Can you spare me a few minutes?"

Normally Josh wouldn't care but the man was asking politely so he could entertain him for a second.

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

"First how long have you been in this wonderful Metropolis C?"

"Less than a month."

"Oh, oh, a new arrival I see. You have a UW, have you tried going into the Tower? If yes, what has been your biggest challenge so far?"

Josh didn't even have to think. "Evolved Mutated Zombie for sure. You know the one on Floor 6. It is so much stronger than anything else I've encountered!"

"Oh? You mean the one that has a level cap of 16, right? Yes, this one is very troublesome if one doesn't hunt it early on!"

"Eh, it can reach level 25 but for sure."

"Seriously?! Wow, this is a scoop, how does that happen?!"

"You feed it, after about 16 hours you can fight it at full power. Ah, but be careful it is really strong and fast. Still beatable since it is really dumb…well at the beginning."

"Wow! How enlightening! Then what does it drop when you kill it then?!"

"A pearl giving a chance at a bloodline. Sadly in my case, I didn't manage to acquire any." Josh wouldn't say that he had gotten a trump card. He would simply give away a snippet of the truth.

"Wow! Amazing! Are you all hearing this?! How revolutionary! This may change the way we see lower floors. A bloodline on Floor 6?! I'm sure everyone at home is intrigued! Now tell me, after such a tough fight how do you relax in your off time?"

"Good food, I guess?"

"What about entertainment? VR, movies, shows, fights, books, gambles, idols, gentlemen's clubs?" He almost murmured the last part while winking.

"That is a long list haha. I've tried VR with Draconic but that's about it."

"How awesome was that experience?!"

"Honestly, pretty bad. I kept getting opponents that were too easy and posed no challenge or way above my league. Still, I'm pretty unlucky overall, so could be just me. Do try it I guess."

"Wow! Next! In an ideal world, if you could pick whatever class you wanted, which one would you pick?"

"I don't really care about that. I'm sure it's possible to succeed with any class."

"How inspiring! Thank you, brother! Cut!"

As soon as it stopped recording, his entire persona changed. He became a normal regular guy.

He then looked weirdly at Josh, telling him that if they aired that footage, it would probably become very popular. At least there would be professionals trying to debunk it for sure. Some others would see the VR part as bragging and the Class part as misleading.

Many people would potentially make fun of it. The Kool guy offered to delete it if Josh preferred. Otherwise, he would buy the footage right. It would give Josh a small part of the revenue the video generated in exchange for not having to censor his face.

Josh was stunned. It felt like a pie in the sky. No way he'd refuse such a deal! People on the net were already making fun of him for being Classless thanks to that one dumbass journalist's article. So what if they were able to put a face on it? More people would disdain him? So what.

Josh knew information about him was bound to come up at some point. Someone would look into it when he'd become a ranker, something that was bound to happen at some point.

For Josh, this interview didn't matter one bit. He simply entered Floor 7. Little did he know it was about to cause a storm out there.

[Mission: Collect 50 Imp tails!]

Imps, eh? Josh knew about those. Small demons that would most likely use fire magic.

The environment was fiery and hot. Smelling of sulfur once more, but nothing unbearable. Josh could see red lines coursing through the earth. It had the appearance of magma but clearly wasn't. It seemed like it was a property of the red rock floor itself.

Before long, Josh saw 5 fireballs flying his way. Each was relatively small and swaying as it came closer, launched by a mischievous imp in the distance.

The imps were the size of children. They were naked showing off all of their red bodies, including both tails, front and back. They were grinning, showing off white jagged teeth that could clearly become a pain in the ass, literally given their height.

Josh sidestepped all the fireballs noticing that there was no homing property to it this time. He couldn't help but grin.

Josh instantly dashed toward the imps. That sent them scurrying everywhere. Instead of fighting, they kept running away throwing fireballs in their backs. They were fast and annoying. It took Josh 5 minutes to kill them all, a long amount of time by Josh's standards, at least for trash mobs.

This was definitely an issue.

Josh would have to spend a long time killing them. Especially true knowing he needed a specific item to drop. Josh didn't want a repeat of what had happened on Floor 2 where he had wasted 10 days.

Josh then had an idea. One could have expected the previous Floor to dampen his crazy tendencies for sketchy plans, but not in the least. Simply because Josh had the confidence to pull it off successfully.

The imps wanted to run? Josh would let them.

Upon encountering the next enemy pack and seeing them flee, Josh did the same. He ran away.

Confusion appeared on their faces. They probably expected Josh to angrily pursue them. Who wouldn't become mad upon being bombarded by relentless small fireballs?

The cheeky demons took a few seconds to process the situation before angrily chasing Josh. The roles were reversed.

Before long there was an army of Imps after Josh. Each repeatedly throwing a fireball over and over. Now this could have become dangerous had they had any kind of coordination whatsoever, but they didn't. Hell, sometimes they had trouble aiming even when Josh remained still.

It seemed like their whole kit was designed to annoy rather than kill. Still, 200 fireballs summoned at once did make the place more lively, hotter too.

Josh kept dodging. He felt he was just missing a black leather coat and the slow-motion to create an epic movie.

Josh had the impression of watching a fireworks show. Except that it was one where his demise was the goal. Josh had played around enough.

He charged at them. Of course, they started running around, but there was a difference this time. There were so many of them that every time they looked backward to throw a fireball, they would end up colliding with one another.

Josh simply appeared right at the right place at the right time to ever so gently…chop their heads off. With a smile, of course, one has to enjoy work whenever possible.

Josh also tried chopping the tails directly, but soon found it pointless. There was a difference between an Imp Tail and an <Imp Tail> not that Josh knew what it was.

Before long Josh had cleaned a nice part of the place from imps. He had also gotten 20 tails already. He felt his luck was good.

Without further ado, Josh looked for the Boss. A little while later:

When Josh saw it, he couldn't help but laugh. This was so damn ridiculous!

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ClasslessAscension

Honestly, I felt foreign to this new world. It is probably why I was so enthusiastic about Climbing. Sure there was my goal of reaching the top, but I unknowingly started to enjoy the process. A small part of me couldn't wait to see what was going to happen on the next Floor. I could have looked it all up but most of my clear strategies didn't conform to the guides anyway.