Chapter 196
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: The Myth of the Nameless Hero
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-"But some people are saying that bodies that look like victims of Tower trials have been found yesterday and even today. What are your thoughts on that, Doctor?"
"-There were reports of bodies being discovered yesterday and today, but upon closer inspection, they were confirmed to have died before Monday. It was just a case of a lonely death where the body wasn't found until later."
-"I see. 'The Tower seems to have gone into a dormant state.' And this isn't just your opinion alone, right?"
-"That's correct. This is a phenomenon happening worldwide. It's not limited to Korea—countries like the US, Japan, China, Russia, and many others are experiencing the same thing. Officials and Tower trial survivors in the US have even spoken out about feeling that something's off."
-"Got it. Then let's take a quick listen to a statement from America's top Awakener, Christopher Garcia. Oh, and before that, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Please don't change the channel."
Just when things were getting interesting, here come the commercials. Even the national broadcaster's gone private, and everyone's complaining about it.
"Oppa. Now that you're a Tower trial survivor too, you should pay more attention to stuff like this. You know there are more Very Hard survivors besides Christopher Garcia, right?"
"Yeah, I saw something about that. On the community boards. They said a few more popped up. I heard one theory that some appeared about a week ago, but the countries' intelligence agencies kept it quiet because the US might try to snag them."
"Yeah, yeah, exactly. And these days, 'Tower trial survivor level' is too wordy, so they're changing it to 'Awakener level' or 'Hunter level.' Not everyone who Awakens has to enter the Tower to get powers anyway."
"But how do they measure levels for those people?"
"They've got all those detailed benchmarks from the Tower trial survivors already. They can just base it on them and estimate roughly."
"Oh, that makes sense."
While my little sister and I chatted, the commercials ended, and Christopher Garcia—once known as the world's highest-level survivor—appeared on screen, his words dubbed into Korean by a Korean voice actor.
-"It's a confirmed fact that the Tower has stopped. It hasn't taken anyone for days now. Why this is happening... well, I have no idea."
Christopher Garcia shrugged, gesturing that he didn't know.
-"But I've heard one promising hypothesis lately. Oh, it's not something I came up with first. A Tower trial survivor named Thomas Dwight from California was the one who first proposed it. As everyone knows, the Tower takes people one at a time. Time barely passes inside the Tower, so from our perspective, it feels like it takes multiple people at once."
This was a well-known story already.
The Tower doesn't take people all at once.
It takes one person at a time.
Someone once used an item—Sage's Stone? Stone of Wisdom? Fragment of Knowledge? Something like that—and figured it out...
What looks simultaneous to us is just an illusion because time doesn't flow in the Tower.
-"That's where the theory comes in... What if there's some nameless hero out there, enduring eons of time alone for the sake of humanity? That's the claim. We might be receiving an immeasurable debt of gratitude to that hero, that nameless savior."
-"He's making a noble sacrifice through those endless ages. Maybe a tiny bit of time does pass in the Tower, and he's holding it back to prevent the next victim—himself from creating another sacrifice."
Christopher Garcia's eyes reddened slightly, as if overcome with emotion.
The reporter, hearing that answer, seemed moved too, expressing thanks to the "nameless hero's sacrifice" and treating it like established fact.
And as my little sister put it, the media's always thirsty for hot topics, loving to copy-paste profitable articles and frames someone else wrote to make a quick buck.
Christopher Garcia, once hailed as the world's top Awakener and America's greatest, had said plenty to stir up buzz. Plus, the narrative he spun—the nameless hero's sacrifice—was beautiful, packed with emotional pull and viral potential.
America loves its heroes and superhero stories anyway.
So, Christopher—no, more precisely, Thomas Dwight from California—his hypothesis had basically become canon.
The truth doesn't matter.
People believe what they want to believe, and this was a beautiful story to boot.
The noble sacrifice of a nameless hero. Humanitarianism...!
In this harsh reality of monstrous creatures, superpowered beings, Tower incidents, and countless deaths, it was exactly the feel-good tale everyone craved.
Then the US political sphere jumped in—specifically, the President himself mentioned this sacrifice, spinning it into a call for society to move forward, and dropped a presidential address.
With the US President taking the lead, other countries' leaders raced to latch onto the story, pushing healthy society initiatives and spreading the beautiful narrative.
"That's ridiculous. You think so too, right, Oppa? It could just be that the Tower's paused on its own."
"Yeah."
People like my little sister, who wouldn't get swept up in public opinion and stuck to their guns, voiced the minority opinion: "Maybe the Tower just stopped on its own?" But the masses were already trapped in the frame of the "nameless hero's holy sacrifice," treating any counterargument like heresy. (Or so my sister said.)
"Oppa, this has reached religion levels already. The truth doesn't matter. People just want to believe it."
"Hm."
"Oppa, you need to develop a critical eye for this stuff. Figure out that they're pushing this feel-good story because it benefits America's 'heroes,' the political elite, and market logic. First off, America's Hunters—what they call 'heroes'—benefit from this tale spreading because it polishes their image. Check who started it in the first place."
"Oh... yeah?"
"Exactly. Thomas Dwight from California, a Tower trial survivor. He crafted this heartwarming myth. Wrote a whole novel, basically. I'm a novelist, so I know how this works. No one knows the real truth. But politicians love beautiful stories like this blooming during their term—it boosts approval ratings. The US President right now is James Washington, yeah? He eats this stuff up anyway. Perfect fit for his taste."
"I see."
"And finally, the most important part in America: market logic. Now that real heroes are showing up, they're gearing up to churn out merch, movies, you name it. Ads are already in full production. It's capitalism and heroes teaming up. Of course they'd deploy comment bots or whatever to hype this story—the better the hero image, the better the sales."
My little sister summed it up: a fabricated beautiful fable had conquered America, and in conquering America, it conquered the world.
So I chimed in with my take.
"Yeah. Truth is, there might just be one person monopolizing the Tower right now. Someone with the ability to go in and out freely, so it's stopped. Why? Because someone's still using it. The Tower's single-player only."
"...Sigh, Oppa. That's so unlike you—great imagination, but please don't say stuff like that anywhere else. Only in front of your family. Got it? It sounds like the perfect punchline for mockery. Don't even admit I'm your sister. Just look—it's obvious the Tower's stopped."
"......"
"Oppa, the Tower showed up on its own terms, operates on its own terms, so of course it stops on its own terms too. We should assume it's for reasons beyond our understanding. We need scientific evidence to draw conclusions."
"..."
"You can't just speculate wildly like on TV, spinning fantasies and novels. Novelists write novels. Why are scientists writing fiction? I'm right, aren't I?"
"...Yeah, you're right about everything."
Once I agreed with her completely, she planted her hands on her hips and cleared her throat with an "Ahem."
She looked so cute I couldn't help but chuckle.
She torments me with her words and acts like she knows everything, but deep down, she loves it when I acknowledge or praise her.