It Was Just a Hobby
One month ago.
Towers had sprung up in the centers of major cities worldwide, including Seoul.
At first, everyone assumed they were omens of impending disaster.
But they say every crisis brings an opportunity.
Along with the calamity came opportunity.
What made me seize that opportunity was simple curiosity.
I don’t know who went first.
But people began entering the towers one by one, then escaping with all sorts of goods.
Not only new energy resources and mysterious items, but jewel-like valuables as well.
The things they brought out possessed value capable of reshaping the global order.
It was literally a chance to reverse your entire life.
That opportunity was given to everyone.
It was just that not everyone could come back alive.
Wow, this video is insane?
After the Tower of Calamity appeared, I gained a new hobby.
Analyzing the videos hunters had recorded inside.
If I entered the tower, how would I move? Couldn’t I do it better than the hunters in the footage?
Just imagining it sent dopamine surging through me like crazy.
Of course, it was only a hobby.
I didn’t have even the slightest intention of actually entering the tower.
Still, imagination is free.
The second hobby that grew out of it was taking virtual walks through neighborhood street views.
The first floor of the tower used the area where the hunter lived as its background, after all.
Of course, it wasn’t an exact copy.
Controlled roads.
Barbed wire fences stretched across various spots.
Shattered restaurant doors and entrances boarded up with wooden planks.
Clear traces of the apocalypse remained.
So far, three floors had been opened to the public.
No hunter had yet survived the third floor, but at least it was open, right?
What hunters did inside the tower was simple.
They farmed resources in the apocalypse-stricken city and escaped through the exit.
So what benefit did the hunters get?
Most of what they farmed became their personal property.
In other words, if you could loot a jewelry store in decent condition, you could earn more than winning the lottery.
You couldn’t bring out cash, though.
The tower automatically collected it.
Instead, your ranking rose by the value of the cash recovered.
I wasn’t sure what was so great about a high ranking.
Entering the tower was easy.
You simply had to think that you wanted to go in.
No other conditions required.
So why not step inside for a shot at turning your life around?
If you could easily grab all those valuables, sure.
The problem was the tower’s apocalyptic setting.
A zombie apocalypse, specifically.
Fortunately, getting bitten didn’t turn you into a zombie.
But the difficulty was no joke.
The known zombie types were divided into two stages.
Stage-one zombies were runners and walkers.
At first glance you might think they were different species, but they were the same type.
Zombies basically slept.
They dozed standing up, heads drooping.
Then, if a sound occurred.
Or a person got too close.
Or they were exposed to light.
Or someone ran nearby, they woke up.
Right after waking, their bodies were stiff.
So all they could do was shuffle along.
That state lasted three minutes.
Afterward they became runners.
If aggro was somehow released, they returned to their original spot and fell asleep again after three minutes.
Besides the initial stiffness, they had another weakness.
Their vision was blurry.
The farther away something was, the less clearly they could perceive it.
Stage-two zombies possessed monstrous strength.
That was all that had been discovered so far.
And the video I was watching right now featured a stage-two zombie.
“Wow, shit.”
It was a giant mass of muscle, like every fiber had swollen at random.
Even its facial muscles were bloated, making its features almost impossible to distinguish.
“How the hell are you supposed to kill something like that?”
But the hunter in the video escaped safely.
Once they left a certain distance from the fire station, the stage-two zombie turned around and went back.
So this is how they balanced it?
If those things roamed freely, no hunter would have survived.
These days the survival rate wasn’t bad.
In the beginning it had been utterly hopeless, but.
Beep―――――――――――――!
A sudden, earsplitting alarm.
I picked up my phone to check.
“This is?!”
It was the Tower of Calamity app installed on hunters’ phones.
A push notification from the app had appeared.
The problem was that this app could only be installed by people who had entered the tower.
Why is this on my phone?
I read the notification first.
10 months and 29 days remain until the apocalypse strikes Korea.
To prevent the real-world apocalypse, funds equivalent to the nation’s annual tax revenue must be recovered from the Tower.
“Crazy!”
Is this some new phishing scam?
It might not even be the real Tower of Calamity app.
It seemed far more likely to be a hacking program made by Chinese hackers.
After all, how could anyone possibly recover our country’s entire annual tax revenue?
When I went into the app info to delete it?
What? There’s no information? Is it because it’s a hack?
I’d have to visit the service center tomorrow.
But when I searched the internet.
It’s real?!
Articles were pouring out everywhere.
Online communities were already flooded with posts treating the apocalypse like it had already begun.
We’re fucked?
No, it was too early to despair.
First, check the total accumulated recovery amount.
Ding.
Right on cue, another push notification sounded.
When I opened the Tower of Calamity app.
Target Recovery: ₩494 trillion
Currently Recovered: ₩1.482 trillion
Progress: 0.3%
That figure was mostly from the early days.
Once word spread that cash didn’t count, no one bothered bringing any out.
One month later.
Progress: 0.3 percent.
“We’re seriously fucked.”
I stayed up all night digging for information until I was ready to pass out, then finally collapsed into bed.
It’ll be fine.
The government will announce countermeasures tomorrow.
Hmm… though I can’t exactly trust them.
Let’s just sleep.
My consciousness sank into darkness like the fading light of my dying phone.
It was a familiar dream.
Silently slipping between zombies without a sound.
Gathering supplies and reaching the exit safely.
A perfect escape exactly as calculated.
More skilled movements and colder judgment than the somewhat clumsy hunters in the videos.
In the dream I was a veteran hunter.
What the—! What the fuck is this?!
I barely swallowed the rising nausea.
Wow, seriously, what kind of idiot does this!!
The dream itself was fine.
But why the hell had I thought I want to enter the tower in my sleep?
And why did the tower treat sleep-talking as an actual decision?!
Huu.
I took a deep breath and barely regained my composure.
First, assess the situation.
Starting location: my one-room apartment.
Time: night.
Same as the other hunters.
And the phone in my hand.
The only items you could bring into the tower were thin clothes and a phone.
Everything else had to be obtained inside.
That’s why the first run was the hardest.
You basically started almost empty-handed.
Once you escaped once, things got easier.
You could bring items obtained from the tower on your next entry.
Plus, after your first successful escape you awakened a unique skill.
If I’d known this would happen, I would have prepared myself and entered on purpose.
Instead I’d been dragged in without any mental preparation.
First, a weapon.
Even looking around my familiar room, there was nothing usable as a weapon.
There wasn’t even a frying pan.
The map itself was nearly identical to reality, but the items inside were sparse.
At least I have sneakers and a bag.
Lucky break.
The starting point usually had nothing, yet here was a bag.
When I opened the drawer I found a few t-shirts.
Is this the best possible start?
I put on the sneakers and tightly wrapped my feet with a t-shirt.
It should reduce noise while walking.
I’d never seen hunters do this before, so I wasn’t completely confident.
Let’s move.
There was no benefit to lingering in the starting area.
Better to move quickly while I still had energy.
The front door is the problem.
Opening the door was the most dangerous moment.
If a zombie was right outside, the chance of it waking was high.
First I removed the battery from the door lock.
Then slowly released the latch.
Please don’t be right next to the door.
Creak—
Damn it.
I’d tried to minimize the sound, but the rusty door still squeaked.
I froze and waited ten full seconds.
Huu.
Fortunately there didn’t seem to be any zombies nearby.
Flash.
What the fuck?!
The phone suddenly lit up.
What is it?! I didn’t touch anything!
I hurriedly stepped back inside and checked.
Ah, I forgot to check the map.
The app had pulled up the map.
Of course I didn’t need to study it.
Not only was it my own neighborhood, I’d walked every inch of it through street view every single day.
That was why I’d forgotten to check.
Still, I should confirm the exit. And mark important points while I’m at it.
There were public exits and personal exits.
The public exit was Hongje Station’s ticket gate, as expected.
The personal exit was near the Unique Shopping Center.
But personal exits had time limits, so I’d pass on that for now.
The map’s maximum radius centered on Hongje Station reached Hongje Elementary School.
The opposite end was roughly the same distance.
After confirming everything, I stepped outside again.
My studio was on the first floor, practically a semi-basement unit.
The shared entrance leading outside was clear.
But of course a zombie stood sleeping just beyond it.
As much as I wanted to loot our own building, every door at the starting point was blocked.
Slowly. Just move slowly and it’ll be fine.
I carefully took a step forward.
Under the faint streetlight, the zombie’s form became visible.
Wrinkled, gray-tinged skin.
Clothes that looked like they’d been patched together from rags.
A rotting body that reeked.
I circled around it as I passed.
“Grrrrk.”
The low growl from behind raised goosebumps across my skin.
Crazy! Are you snoring, you zombie bastard?
I moved not only slowly but in a low crouch, practically crawling.
First I need to secure a weapon.
Of course fighting zombies was the absolute last resort.
I had to avoid combat unless absolutely necessary.
Once you started fighting one, the noise would wake the ones nearby.
If you backed away while fighting, you’d wake even more.
You never knew how far the chain reaction would spread.
But I still need a weapon.
Having any means of response made a world of difference.
Should I try looting the neighboring building?
As I was carefully moving along.
Huh?!
I spotted someone lying on the ground.
It was a corpse, not a zombie.