Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Beeeeep—.
A red light spread from the measuring ring wrapped around Sang-hyeok's wrist.
[Failed to achieve Awakening Condition.]
Kim Seo-yun's hands stopped.
She peeled the sensor pads off Sang-hyeok's arm one by one.
The pads, reapplied several times, were worn at the edges.
"The waveform rose a little late. Let me raise the stimulus intensity and try just once more—"
"Sis."
Sang-hyeok sat up on the examination table.
"That's already the seventh time today."
Kim Seo-yun closed her mouth.
On the test screen in front of her, the same results were lined up in rows.
When she scrolled up, records with only the dates changed stretched back years.
One shelf in the examination room was also packed with boxes.
Boxes labeled with Sang-hyeok's name and test dates.
The writing on the box at the very bottom had bled so badly it was barely legible.
[Name] Kim Sang-hyeok
[Classification] Conditional Awakener
[Trait Name] ???
[Trait Tier] ???
[Status] Failed to achieve Awakening Condition.
The Infinite Tower had chosen Sang-hyeok.
And yet his Trait had never opened.
A player who could only gain power by finding his condition.
The world called people like that Conditional Awakeners.
Sang-hyeok had spent years wandering in search of his Awakening Condition.
Kim Seo-yun had repeated the tests by his side countless times.
As the results piled up, the family members who visited the examination room dwindled, but she alone never left.
"Let's rest a little and try again."
"You can stop."
"No."
Kim Seo-yun tossed the worn pad aside and tore open a new package.
"There's definitely something. Your status window is different from an ordinary Conditional Awakener's."
Vmmmm—!
Just then, a low vibration cut her off.
The ceiling lights went out and red emergency lights came on.
The screens covering the examination room walls all lit up at once.
[Republic of Korea National Achievement settlement begins.]
[National Stability Requirement] 1,500,000
[Current National Achievement Points] 480,000
[Deficit] 1,020,000
By the time the last line appeared, the air in the examination room had frozen.
Commotion spread through the hallway as researchers crowded toward the open door.
After the Infinite Tower appeared, national achievement had become survival points.
For every point short of the requirement, a rift opened in reality.
Korea had fallen short every time.
This time, the numbers were on an entirely different scale from before.
[Deficit exceeds 1,000,000 points.]
[Conditions for opening a Cataclysm-Class Rift have been met.]
The sky over Seoul on the screen split apart.
At first it was a thin black line.
The line widened along the Han River, and blood-red lightning poured from within.
RUMBLE!
The windows of high-rise buildings burst like waves.
Roads buckled and moving cars slammed into one another.
The moment the people on the screen raised their heads, a massive hand descended from inside the split sky.
BOOM!
This time the impact struck from beyond the screen.
The walls of the underground research building shook and ceiling panels crashed to the floor.
Kim Seo-yun grabbed Sang-hyeok's arm.
"Let's get out."
The two of them ran into the hallway.
The test building beyond the emergency door was already dark.
An equipment crate blocking the entrance toppled over from the shaking.
Wrist-guard-shaped prototypes rolled across the floor.
[Ilseong Standard-Issue Mana Defense Module]
[First Field Suitability Verification: Unfit]
Red seal stickers were layered over the crate.
After the player era began, Ilseong had always been a step behind.
They had money and factories, but they couldn't produce equipment players would trust in the tower.
Even the defensive equipment they'd pushed as their last effort had failed verification.
The closed test building was the result.
Just then, Kim Seo-yun's phone rang.
[Incoming Video Call: Kim Do-hyeon]
Kim Seo-yun answered.
On the screen, Kim Do-hyeon, his suit coated in dust, was directing the evacuation of employees.
- Seo-yun. Get the underground personnel out through the north exit.
"Where are you, Dad?"
- Main building.
Then the screen split in two as Kim Sang-jun joined the call.
Blood streaming from his forehead was soaking one eyebrow.
- The west gate has collapsed. I'll reroute the transport vehicles through the underground passage.
- Check on the remaining people first.
On the screen, Kim Do-hyeon loaded an injured employee into the elevator first, then looked back at the camera.
- What about Sang-hyeok?
"He's with me."
- Put him on the non-combatant transport first.
Sang-hyeok silently opened his clenched hand.
Deep nail marks remained in his palm.
Non-combatant.
A label attached to him—chosen, yet without power.
Kim Seo-yun immediately grabbed Sang-hyeok's wrist and ran out of the research building.
Outside was a chaos of smoke and people.
One side of the parking lot had collapsed, and the injured were being carried out on torn-off door panels.
Kim Seo-yun brought Sang-hyeok to the front of the transport vehicle.
"Get in."
"You come too, Sis."
A groan came from beneath the collapsed outer wall.
A researcher with his leg pinned under a steel beam was reaching out a hand.
Kim Seo-yun's gaze turned that way.
"I'll get them out and then go."
"Sis."
"I'll be right behind you."
Kim Seo-yun pushed Sang-hyeok into the vehicle and ran toward the trapped researcher.
The transport door closed.
The moment Sang-hyeok grabbed the handle, the parking lot floor split wide open right behind the vehicle.
BOOM!
The transport lurched violently upward.
The driver immediately hit the accelerator.
As the transport sped out of the parking lot, the collapsing outer wall hid Kim Seo-yun from view.
Sang-hyeok pulled his phone from his pocket and called Kim Seo-yun at once.
The ringback tone went on and on.
Calling again made no difference.
He tried Kim Do-hyeon and Kim Sang-jun in turn, but neither answered.
Then a voice message from Kim Seo-yun arrived late.
Her voice came through broken between explosions and static.
- Sang-hyeok. I'm sorry I couldn't find your Awakening Condition in the end.
The static dragged on.
- But your Trait is definitely not ordinary.
- So don't give up. No matter what happens, survive.
The message ended there.
Sang-hyeok squeezed his eyes shut.
His clenched fists trembled.
He felt suffocated, as if he couldn't breathe.
Meanwhile, as the transport rose to the surface, burning Seoul came into view.
Flames were spreading across the glass walls of the distant Ilseong headquarters.
The Ilseong sign at the top of the building flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Right after the light went out completely, the upper floors of the main building collapsed into smoke.
Sang-hyeok opened his status window again.
[Trait Name] ???
[Trait Tier] ???
[Status] Failed to achieve Awakening Condition.
Even as Korea crumbled, that one line never changed.
* * *
Three years later.
Clank.
The iron gate of the Japanese refugee camp locked shut.
People who had received their rations sat down on the cafeteria floor.
A yellowed band was wrapped around Sang-hyeok's wrist.
[Nationality] Republic of Korea
[Status] Refugee
[Classification] Non-combatant
The Dimension League opening match was being broadcast on the large screen at the front of the cafeteria.
It was the day the eight-year preparation period the Infinite Tower had granted humanity came to an end.
On the screen, the elite players of each nation stood in the arena.
Above the man at the front, familiar information appeared.
[Planet Earth Representative]
[First Seat] <Azure Heaven>
[World Ranking 1st]
[Lv.102]
Gasps erupted throughout the cafeteria.
"Azure Heaven is here."
"The First Seat himself came out. We can hold on this time."
"The Sixteen Celestial Seats and every nation's rankers are all gathered. We can win."
Korea had collapsed, but the world's powerful nations still stood strong.
At their head stood the strong ones Sang-hyeok could never reach even if he devoted his entire life.
People believed they would protect humanity.
The Korean mother and child sitting beside Sang-hyeok were no different.
The mother split her rationed bread in two and held out the larger piece, but the child couldn't take their eyes off the screen.
"Mom."
"Yes."
"If those people win, can we go home too?"
The mother's hand, holding out the bread, paused for a moment.
Then she stroked the child's head and forced a smile.
"Yes. If they win, we can go back."
Only then did the child take the bread.
Just then, cheers erupted from the screen.
As Azure Heaven raised his sword, the Celestial Seats behind him and the elites of every nation raised their weapons in unison.
It was the strongest force humanity could muster.
Azure Heaven kicked off the ground at the front and swung his sword.
Blue light burst from the blade and swallowed half the arena.
On the opposite side, a giant in a black helmet raised a long blade.
The creature swung its blade once, on the spot.
SHNK!
The blue light swallowing the arena split in half and went out.
Azure Heaven's sword was cut in two along with it.
A beat later, his armor split open and blood gushed out.
Azure Heaven's bisected body fell to the arena floor.
The cheers in the cafeteria died.
The world's strongest had died in a single stroke.
The Celestial Seats and rankers who charged in behind him fared no differently.
Every time the giant swung its blade, the rankers' bodies and equipment were cleaved apart together.
Even the counterattacks they desperately unleashed couldn't leave a single scratch on the creature's armor.
When the last ranker fell, red letters covered the screen.
「The Dimension League opening match has concluded.」
「Planet Earth has been defeated.」
「Dominion over the defeated civilization is forfeited to the victorious dimension.」
The hand of the child holding the bread trembled.
The mother pulled the child into her arms, but this time she couldn't say anything.
It wasn't that only Korea had been weak.
Korea had simply collapsed first.
And then, the moment the final sentence vanished from the screen.
BOOM!
The camp's iron gate bent inward.
Before the people could even rise from their seats, a second impact struck.
BOOM!
Thick gray fingers pried through the gap in the bent gate.
Two enormous hands seized the gate panels and pulled them apart, and the thick steel plates tore like paper.
The players on guard unleashed their skills on the creature.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Flames and blades engulfed the giant's body, but not a scratch appeared on its gray hide.
The giant, nearly three meters tall, ducked as it passed through the torn gate.
Yellow fangs showed between ash-gray lips.
「Occupation of the Japanese archipelago commencing.」
「Dominant Species: <Gigant Orc>」
That day, humanity's end began.
* * *
Eight months later.
A small hand reached across the worktable.
A Mana Stone the size of a thumbnail rolled into Sang-hyeok's basket.
[48/50]
The number changed to 48.
Sang-hyeok picked up the Mana Stone and put it back in the neighboring basket.
"Fill yours first."
The gaunt child smiled, moving only their lips.
It was the child who had asked, back in the Japanese refugee camp, whether they could go home.
A shackle thicker than the child's arm was fastened around their wrist.
Three months ago, the child's mother had been carried out of the work site on a stretcher and never returned.
From that day on, Sang-hyeok had always split his ration bread in two and placed the larger piece in front of the child.
The child sometimes held out a single Mana Stone, as if to repay that debt.
Clank. Clank.
An ore cart loaded with rock was dragged along by chains.
Black stone dust spilled down every time the wheels passed over the grooves in the floor.
In the underground cavern, hundreds of humans lay prone, picking blue Mana Stones from the ore piles and dropping them into their own baskets.
No one straightened their back.
Because of the footsteps moving between the worktables.
THUD. THUD.
Every time a gray foot pressed against the floor, the surface of the water bowls rippled, and the iron rings at the end of the leather whip scraped against the stone floor.
A <Gigant Orc> overseer.
It took the creature seven minutes to make one round.
Sang-hyeok had memorized even the intervals of the footsteps and the direction the whip dragged along the floor.
The way Sang-hyeok, who wasn't even a player, had survived eight months here was simple.
Don't raise your head.
Don't stop your hands.
Don't get involved in others' affairs.
Choose only the option with the highest chance of survival.
And so this time too, Sang-hyeok kept his head down and placed the last Mana Stone into his basket.
[50/50]
Today's quota was filled.
For a moment, he felt a small sense of relief and accomplishment at having survived another day.
Just then, something rolled beside him.
Clatter.
A Mana Stone slipped from the child's hand and fell under the worktable.
The child groped at the air a couple of times, as if trying to catch it.
But the small body, dragged into night shifts for days now, had already reached its limit.
Soon the child's eyelids closed and they pitched forward.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The bell signaling the end of work rang.
At the same time, iron covers dropped over every basket, locking in the counted amounts.
[Today's quota not met]
[Personnel short: 1]
[Ration deduction targets: 10 people]
The overseer's footsteps stopped.
"Grrrrk."
The creature turned and walked over, checking the numbers above each basket one by one.
At last, the gray feet halted in front of the child.
[49/50]
The child opened their eyes belatedly.
They groped under the worktable, but the dropped Mana Stone was nowhere to be seen.
"One failed to fill his quota, so ten will starve."
The overseer unfurled its whip.
Dark red blood was dried between the iron rings.
It was a whip even adults couldn't endure three lashes from.
The people around stepped back one by one.
No one met the child's eyes.
Sang-hyeok didn't move either.
If he interfered here for nothing, he'd die like a dog.
The overseer would make an example of him too.
If he stayed still, he'd receive today's rations and survive until tomorrow.
The child, on the other hand, was already too weak.
Even if they got through this, how many more days could they last?
The calculation was done.
He knew the answer.
The overseer raised its whip arm.
The child didn't even beg for their life.
They just curled up on the floor and wrapped both arms around their head.
The shackle around the child's wrist struck their cheek.
Tap.
Just then, a Mana Stone fell from Sang-hyeok's hand.
'Damn it.'
Sang-hyeok's foot stepped forward.
And then he shoved the child's shoulder.
The moment the small body rolled beside the ore pile, the whip lashed across Sang-hyeok's left shoulder.
CRACK!
The iron rings tore through his work clothes and dug into his flesh, and his knees slammed into the floor from the impact.
"Ghk...!"
As the overseer yanked the whip back, the embedded iron rings ripped free, tearing away chunks of flesh.
"A worm shielding a worm."
A massive foot pressed down on Sang-hyeok's chest.
CRUNCH!
His ribs bent inward.
Blood surged up to his throat and spilled from his mouth.
Sang-hyeok tried to push himself up with his elbows, but he couldn't put any strength into his arms.
It was the price of breaking the rules he'd kept for eight months.
The moment the overseer raised its foot again.
At the edge of his vision, an old worker moved.
He grabbed the child by the collar and dragged them behind the ore pile.
The small feet vanished into the darkness.
The child survived.
'...Good, then.'
The raised massive foot came down on Sang-hyeok's chest again.
The sound of bones breaking echoed inside his body.
This time, not even a scream came out.
Above his blurring vision, the collapsing Ilseong headquarters rose up.
The moments when he had lost contact with his family one by one, and the sight of the First Seat, Earth's representative, being cleaved in half, flashed past in turn.
Each time, Sang-hyeok had only watched.
Still, in his final moment, he had protected one small child.
The overseer's foot rose again.
This time, it was above Sang-hyeok's head.
'Like this...'
Just as Sang-hyeok was about to give up on everything and close his eyes.
[Awakening Condition achieved.]
His blurring vision froze.
Sang-hyeok thought he'd misread it.
The sentence that had been stuck in his status window for years had always been the same.
[Failed to achieve Awakening Condition.]
But not now.
A clearly different sentence was displayed before his eyes.
[Awakening Condition achieved.]
'Now, of all times?'
He couldn't understand why he'd achieved the condition now, right before death.
Soon, new letters appeared.
[Trait Name] <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon>
Awakening.
It was the moment he'd waited so long for.
But right before death, of all times.
Even through the horrific pain, a hollow laugh escaped him.
'Infinite Tower... you bastard.'
It felt as if the tower was mocking him until his very last moment.
That instant.
His faltering heart contracted violently.
Thump.
Hot blood surged through his entire body in an instant.
Blackness spread from the edges of his vision.
「A special privilege activates.」
The orc's foot was already descending right before his face.
But before it could land, a new sentence appeared.
「Time is being rewound.」
The descending foot stopped in midair, then rose back up.
The blood on the floor rose in red droplets and flowed back into Sang-hyeok's mouth and wounds.
The torn wound on his shoulder closed, and his shattered ribs moved back into place.
The ore cart that had moved away rattled back to its original position.
The black stone dust that had spilled onto the floor also rose and was sucked back into the cart.
Even as everything moved in reverse, Sang-hyeok's heart alone beat powerfully.
The world.
Began to rewind.