"So this is how you feel when waiting for me to wake up when you knocked me out, huh?" Marcus remarked to Andres who is sitting with him under the shade of a tree.

"Not really. I respect you taking rest that time to recover, and I'll respect Zero the same way as I did for you before."

"Ugh, I'm touched then." He replied with sarcasm. He's already fully healed due to potions and Zero's healed too. Although since the latter had fallen unconscious, even when he's healed up, he still hadn't woken up and was resting for a few hours now. Same with Marcus, who is seated under the tree shade, also recovering his stamina and strength.

Moments later, they heard someone groaning... Looking at Zero, they saw him slowly sit up as if his body is aching.

"What's wrong?" Andres asked, appearing from behind Zero.

Zero replied with an unsatisfied tone as he heard that voice. "Oh, yeah… so that's why I'm healed up."

"Are you not going to thank me?"

"Why should I?" He tried getting up but his body is still aching. "Ugh… fuck…"

"Whatever," Andres waved his hand in dismissal. "But I'm going to say this now, I wish to recruit you. I know you have the power to climb the tower alone, but I still wish to have you as an ally. I can help fix your skills… and your attitude, if you want." He then extended his arm forward to initiate a handshake between them, awaiting for Zero's response.

"Cheh…!" After not answering for some time, Zero finally considered the offer and grabbed Andres' hand in a firm handshake. "You're going to allow me to you beat your brother up, got it?"

"Is that a deal breaker for you? If it is, you're the pettiest guy I've ever met." Andres snickered.

"Phtu!" Zero took a short moment to spit out then answered in a somewhat annoyed and slightly embarrassed tone. "My pride is hurt, not once, but twice, got it…?!"

"Then get better, you are mad just because someone is way better than you, that's a bad mentality…"

"Fine… I'll join you, okay? Help me get better then! I'm not going to ask you to bring me your brother, I'll just challenge him myself when I met him after improving."

"Even if there's ever a time when I want to bring my brother to you, we're not really on good terms."

Marcus then asked from behind him. "Why? Let me ask… Why are you even gathering exceptionally strong allies? You're risking too much, even when you first fought me. You have another, much deeper goal aside from climbing the tower, don't you?"

Andres' tone then turn melancholic while he looked at his closed fist. "Yeah, that's right… I do have another goal… Climbing… I don't really give a shit about that, I just want to find the fuckers that killed my grandfather…"

"So that's why you're gathering strong climbers, to help you fight?" Marcus raised his brow.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Yeah… I know I can't do shit alone... But I'm not asking you to die for me, I don't really have any qualms against you if you run away and leave me behind in an event where we are in an unwinnable scenario… I won't hate you for that. I know the path that I'm walking through, and I'll do my best to get my revenge."

"Is that so, huh? Is that why you and your bastard brother not on good terms? Do you perhaps have a clashing ideology?"

"You really hate him that much, huh?" Finally Andres' tone changed into something more lively.

"Of course, It's all over the news, so many journalists are fucking tailing me everytime in populated areas, lucky for them that they're not climbers... My father most probably saw footage of it already, though…"

"You care so much about Zeus' opinion. Are you really that desperate of being deemed worthy as his son?"

"You speak so lightly of my father's name… You're lucky there's no one affiliated with Olympus here or we'll all be executed here and now."

"You're father's none of my concern, I won't care about your personal life any further, no worries. But to answer your question before, yeah. It's really just a clash of ideologies. My brother's probably racking his brains every second to stop me from wanting to take revenge."

"Is he stupid? Why don't he just join you so it'll be easier to get your revenge?"

Andres began stroking his chin. "Let's just say that… He's a "good" guy."

"Tsk! His talents are wasted then."

"Let's stop speaking ill of my brother..."

"Oh, you can disrespect my father but I can't do the same to your brother?"

"Oh, come on. I said earlier that I'll stop, are we really going to argue over this?"

"Ugh, whatever..."

Marcus who's been on the side this whole time finally spoke. "You guys done? Are we not going to level up to 3 first? So that we can be eligible to challenge the trial, get the hell out of this floor, and onto the floor 3? We only have an entire day to do those…"

"Yeah, that's right. For the first time, we're thinking of the same thing." Zero pats Marcus' shoulder but the latter just expressed disgust all over his face. "Bleh..."

They quietly moved through the destroyed part of the forest and onward to find ways to level up and finally go onto the next floor.

----------------------------------------

Somewhere else in floor 2…

In a plain that's devasted with turned up soil, torched vegetation, and the immense craters and slashes that trashed the sediments around them. Two, or rather, three individuals are present and are currently in a confrontation.

Yun was pushed back, panting when he spoke. "I just want to say that I want to recruit you… Yet you and your…"

"Gear!" A somewhat muffled but audible feminine voice reached his ears.

"Yeah, Gear… you and your Gear attacked me!" He shouted in frustration.

But instead of the feminine voice, a deep, stern voice answered this time. "We have no interest in having a business with an Insect like you."

"Insect… that hurts..." Yun then composed himself and stood straight up. "But like I said! I want to recruit you. I wish to climb the tower together with strong individuals! So please, consider my offer!"

"Mister! My goals for climbing the tower is not the same as yours! I just want to prove that Gears are not badly designed machines! That's why I'm climbing the tower to prove them wrong for scrapping these babies!" Victoria shouted with conviction from inside the cockpit

'Babies…!' LexAI, despite being an artificial intelligence, got goosebumps from hearing that.

Despite Yun almost choking from his saliva after hearing her shout such a silly reason for climbing, which in itself is a very deadly endeavor, he held it in as he wants to convince her.

"I understand that. But with the help of my family's influence, the Namgoong, won't news about your climb with your Gear be easier to spread?"

From inside the cockpit, a lightbulb went off Victoria's mind, "Oh yeah, that's really going to make things easier!"

Yun was unable to hear that though and LexAI then spoke to her. "Don't tell me you're actually considering it?"

She then proceeded to make a devious smile. "Well… hehehe, we can ripoff off this guy's family, wouldn't we?"

"He's the one who's ripping you off!!"

"Whatever, really! As long as we can spread the greatness of Gears! I'm content with that!" She shouted while throwing her fist up since the insides of the gear is spacious enough for her to even fully stretch herself in, despite how claustrophobic it can be.

"You goddamn Gear enthusiast…" The AI sighed despite not having a mouth.