Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The world that had been flowing in reverse came to an abrupt stop.
"Hahh—!"
Sang-hyeok gasped and opened his eyes.
The moment he tried to sit up, he lost his balance and tumbled off the bed.
Thud!
His left shoulder hit the floor.
Empty bottles clattered loudly as they rolled in every direction.
Lying on the floor, Sang-hyeok took in his surroundings.
There were no Gigant Orcs, no workshop buried in black dust.
Before his eyes was only a room with a worn bed and bottles strewn about.
Sang-hyeok clutched his left shoulder.
Instead of the wound torn open by a whip, he felt smooth skin.
He pressed his chest, but there was no pain from broken ribs.
Sang-hyeok slowly looked down at his hands.
The scabs and calluses were gone, replaced by long, clean fingers.
There were no shackle marks around his wrists either.
Only then did the details of the room begin to register one by one.
Empty bottles rolling across the floor.
Clothes crumpled on a chair.
A cracked dumbbell shoved into the corner.
On the desk lay a half-opened Awakening Research Institute diagnosis report.
[Failed to achieve Awakening Condition.]
The line stamped across the center of the report caught his eye.
Sang-hyeok remembered this room.
The days when he had let everything go after exhausting himself searching for his Awakening Condition.
A time when he slept through the day and emptied bottles at night.
At that moment, a new notification appeared in the center of his vision.
「Time has been rewound.」
Sang-hyeok's gaze stopped on the notification.
It meant the temporal regression that had begun just before his death was complete.
Sang-hyeok pushed himself up from the floor.
The full-length mirror reflected his younger self.
His sunken cheeks had filled out, and his gaunt shoulders were whole again.
The whip marks that had covered his back and chest were gone.
Sang-hyeok stared into his own eyes in the mirror for a moment.
'I really...... came back.'
It wasn't something easy to believe.
And yet his mind was surprisingly calm.
Perhaps because he had already died once, the things he needed to confirm came to mind before any confusion.
Sang-hyeok immediately focused his will.
'Status window.'
[Name] Kim Sang-hyeok
[Level] 0
[Trait Name] <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon>
[Unlocked Authorities] None
For the first time, a name was inscribed where his Trait name had been hidden behind question marks his entire life.
The <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon> that had bloomed just before his death had not disappeared either.
Not only Sang-hyeok himself but that power as well had returned to the past.
Bzzz.
Just then, the phone on the desk vibrated.
Sang-hyeok checked the date on the screen first.
XXXX year, XX month, XX day.
Four years since the Infinite Tower appeared.
Before Korea collapsed.
Below the lock screen, missed calls and messages had piled up.
[3 Missed Calls / Kim Seo-yun]
Sang-hyeok's finger stopped.
He opened the most recent message.
[Kim Seo-yun: Contact me when you wake up.]
[Kim Seo-yun: I'll pick up the examination records.]
[Kim Seo-yun: And don't drink today.]
Sang-hyeok slowly reread the three lines.
The voice that had broken through explosions and static brushed past his ears.
— So don't give up. Survive no matter what.
Sang-hyeok checked the date on the screen again.
Kim Do-hyeon.
Kim Sang-jun.
Kim Seo-yun.
On this day, all three of them were alive.
Sang-hyeok placed his thumb over the call button.
After a moment's hesitation, his finger moved down to the message input field.
[Kim Sang-hyeok: Yeah. I'm up.]
The sent indicator appeared.
Only after sending the short reply did the breath caught in his chest ease a little.
Then a notification stacked at the top of the screen caught his eye.
[Ilseong Group Makes Full-Scale Entry into Player Equipment Business]
In the article photo, Ilseong headquarters stood intact.
The Ilseong emblem at the top of the building shone brightly.
Before the regression, it was a light that had finally gone out amid the flames.
Sang-hyeok looked away from the photo and walked to the window.
When he opened the curtains, cars were moving in lines along the road.
Commuters gathered at the crosswalk, and the glass windows of high-rise buildings reflected the morning sunlight.
There were no rifts in the sky, no blood-red lightning.
Seoul was alive.
Sang-hyeok looked back down at his phone.
He opened the calendar, and his finger, flipping through the dates, stopped one year later.
The quarterly settlement day when the national deficit points would exceed 1,000,000.
The day Seoul's sky had split open before the regression.
Sang-hyeok had about one year left.
'There isn't much time.'
Sang-hyeok closed the calendar and opened Korea's national achievement status.
[Republic of Korea Overall Rank] 64th
[Projected Deficit Points This Quarter] 150,000
[Projected Risk] Large-scale rift occurrence zone
Sang-hyeok's gaze lingered on the number 150,000.
The 1,020,000 points a year later hadn't appeared out of nowhere.
Every time a rift opened, players and soldiers died.
As fewer people climbed the tower, the National Achievement Points earned in the following quarter shrank as well.
Then larger rifts opened, and more people died.
Korea was already trapped in that vicious cycle.
If the deficit couldn't be reduced starting this quarter, the 150,000 points would grow even larger at the next settlement.
The end of that path was the Cataclysm-Class Rift from before the regression.
'I have to start reducing it this quarter.'
National Achievement Points could be earned through tower climbing records and achievements.
First clears and results that surpassed existing records earned even greater scores.
And the rifts that opened in reality shrank in proportion to those points.
But 150,000 points was a shortfall Korea's high-level players had failed to make up even after working at it for an entire quarter.
Right now, Sang-hyeok was still Lv.0.
Sang-hyeok's gaze shifted to an article still at the top of the screen.
[First Seat <Azure Heaven>, First Human to Break Lv.80]
The man in the article photo wore combat gear engraved with blue patterns.
Countless reporters surrounded him, but Azure Heaven stared straight ahead without smiling.
Azure Heaven stood at the pinnacle of the Sixteen Celestial Seats and was ranked No. 1 in the world at the time.
Four years later, Azure Heaven reached Lv.102.
He led the Sixteen Celestial Seats and each nation's elites as Earth's representative in the Dimension League.
But with a single swing of the enemy commander's sword, the blue light covering the arena split apart, and Azure Heaven's sword and body were cut in two.
Korea had one year left.
Humanity had four years left.
Sang-hyeok set down his phone and opened his status window again.
[Level] 0
[Trait Name] <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon>
[Unlocked Authorities] None
Apocalypse Demonic Dragon.
Before the regression, Sang-hyeok knew of one being comparable to that name.
The Red Dragon that had descended upon Africa.
With a single breath, it had burned a vast territory.
Even the otherworldly species that occupied Earth avoided the Red Dragon's domain.
The occupation forces of the <Gigant Orc> also went around Africa by the open sea instead of crossing it.
A single entity stronger than an entire legion.
Such beings truly existed in the otherworld.
Sang-hyeok placed a hand over his chest.
If the <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon> held power worthy of its name, he could change the ending from before the regression.
But all that was confirmed so far was the name.
His level was 0, and no Authorities were unlocked.
Sang-hyeok had never even fought directly in the tower.
The knowledge from before the regression wasn't something he had gained through his own clears either.
Rumors heard in refugee camps.
Records of fallen nations.
War stories overheard in slave workshops.
He knew when and what events would occur.
But he had never once faced a monster in direct combat.
'Then I just have to find out.'
Sang-hyeok picked up a bottle rolling on the floor.
It was still about half full.
He went into the bathroom and poured the remaining alcohol into the sink.
Glug, glug, glug.
The sharp smell vanished down the drain.
Sang-hyeok washed his face with cold water and changed into a shirt and pants that were easy to move in.
Back in the middle of the room, Sang-hyeok looked around.
His family was alive.
Ilseong and Korea hadn't collapsed yet.
This time, he had a chance to protect them.
To do that, he first had to confirm the power he held.
'Infinite Tower.'
As Sang-hyeok sent his intent, a notification appeared before his eyes.
「Would you like to enter the Infinite Tower?」
Sang-hyeok didn't hesitate.
'Enter.'
Flash!
White light surged up from beneath his feet and swallowed Sang-hyeok's body.
The cluttered room vanished beyond the light.
* * *
The light receded.
Sang-hyeok stood in the middle of a pure white space.
The boundaries between walls and ceiling were invisible.
Beneath his feet, a massive circular magic circle was drawn, and directly ahead stood a pitch-black stone gate.
「You have entered the initial tutorial.」
「Beginning player registration.」
「Your level increases as a registration reward.」
[Level] 0 → 1
Light rose from the magic circle and swept over Sang-hyeok's body.
Heat starting from the soles of his feet climbed up his calves and waist.
His body felt lighter, and his blurry vision sharpened.
Sang-hyeok clenched and unclenched his hand.
An unfamiliar force moved between his fingers.
A warm yet heavy energy was slowly circulating through his veins.
'So this is mana.'
It was a power he had never felt before the regression.
Players often compared mana to a second blood or a second heart.
Feeling it himself, it wasn't an exaggeration.
His body was clearly different from moments ago.
But this much was a change any player who reached level 1 experienced.
At least so far, he was no different from other players.
Now it was time to unlock his first Authority and learn how to use it against a training target.
In that process, the true worth of the <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon> would reveal itself.
Just then, a notification appeared to move to the next step.
「Confirming the player's Trait.」
「Proceeding with Authority Awakening based on Trait.」
Thump.
Sang-hyeok's heart beat heavily.
Black energy flowed down beneath his feet and stained the white floor.
Thump. Thump.
Each time his heart beat, the black energy spread wider.
The pure white floor was now dyed entirely black.
But the next notification didn't appear for a while.
「Confirming Trait......」
「Confirming......」
「Unregistered Trait.」
Sang-hyeok's eyes narrowed.
「Measuring Trait Tier......」
「Error. The subject's tier exceeds the measurement range.」
「Attempting re-measurement......」
「Error. Exceeds measurement range.」
「Failed to determine Trait Tier.」
「This Trait will be recorded as [Unmeasurable].」
[Trait Name] <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon>
[Trait Tier] Unmeasurable
Even the highest-tier Traits Sang-hyeok knew of displayed numerical values.
There had never been a case where measurement itself failed.
'A Trait that even the Infinite Tower can't measure?'
As Sang-hyeok stared down at the black-stained floor, new notifications followed.
「Tier measurement failed, but Authority recognition has been completed.」
「Unlock conditions have been met.」
「The first Authority of the Trait <Heart of the Apocalypse Demonic Dragon> is being unlocked.」
Thump—!
This time his heart pounded violently.
Heat burst from his chest and surged into his right arm, and black energy bloomed above his palm.
[Authority Unlocked]
[Authority Name] <Erasure>
[Authority Stage] Stage 1
Sang-hyeok raised his hand, where the black energy had gathered.
His gaze turned to the stone gate directly ahead.
It was a tower structure dividing the initial tutorial area.
Players who obtained their first Authority often tested whether they could break that gate at least once.
But there was no story of anyone ever managing to leave even a scratch on it.
'What about this Authority, born from a Trait whose tier even the tower couldn't measure?'
Sang-hyeok walked up to the stone gate and pressed his palm against it.
Sssss.
From the point where his palm touched, the solid stone gate began turning into black sand.
Whissssh.
The black sand crumbled away, carving a deep groove beneath his palm.
Only then did a system notification appear.
「Warning. The tutorial structure has been damaged.」