The Tower Where Starlight Poured Down
The Tower Where Starlight Poured Down
Decades ago, during a time when people imagined most things happening on Earth could be explained by science,
It is said to have appeared suddenly.
Rumble rumble rumble!-
"Huh? What? Uh? Waaaah!"
"Help! Please save me!"
"Moooom! Waaaaah!"
The structures that suddenly appeared all over the world, as if it didn't matter what existed there before, soared high into the sky without knowing their limits and threw the world into chaos.
"What this...huh? Korean army?"
"Tower interior unconfirmed...huh? US military?"
Thanks to the soldiers from various countries who went in as the first investigation teams, it was discovered that these tower-like buildings, no matter which tower you entered, were mysteriously connected to one location for the first floor, and the truth was that these towers...
.
.
.
Thump-
"Well, no need to read the obvious stuff...Cough! Cough!"
I closed the old, worn-out book—the only personal item I had when I was kicked out of the orphanage as a child—packed a bag full of food and water, a machete just over 50cm, a fully loaded pistol, and left my 90-square-foot studio to hit the road.
~The Origin of Special Abilities, The Tower~
The towers that appeared suddenly hundreds of years ago and the monsters that exist within them
And what is the foundation of those who awakened special abilities in the tower to oppose them, and how can one become a special ability user like them...
When I was young, for some reason I loved that book so much, reading it ten, twenty times a day, staying up all night.
"I realized too late...Cough cough! That you need to be born to the right parents...Cough!"
In the end, what mattered was having parents who could genetically pass on special abilities, or the financial means to hire a guild to help with awakening special abilities inside the tower.
And as an orphan, I naturally had neither.
No, from the beginning, I don't even know what my parents look like.
The only thing I know is that my parents abandoned me the moment I was born because I had a bronchial disorder.
That is the reality of me, Kim Choi Han-gyeol, a 24-year-old terminally ill loner.
'Fuck, goddamn Kim Choi Han-gyeol, if I somehow survive and go back, I'm going to the district office to change my last name...But can I change it at the district office? No no, what does it matter. If I just awaken special abilities, the country will obviously take care of that much.'
I cursed my parents, whose faces I don't even know, in my mind—the ones who abandoned me right after giving birth but still wrote a note asking to name the baby Kim Choi Han-gyeol, not Kim Han-gyeol or Choi Han-gyeol, but Kim Choi Han-gyeol—as I headed to the tower alone.
.
.
.
There are just under 50 towers in the world.
And surprisingly, in the cramped land of South Korea, there are as many as two towers: Seoul Tower and Seongsim Tower.
This is an incredible fact, considering the vast land of China has only one tower.
'Even the fact that World War 3 almost broke out because China tried to take the one that originally existed in North Korean territory...'
"...You came?"
"Ah, yes, Team Leader. Hello."
Before I knew it, lost in useless thoughts in the early morning, I had already arrived at the tower.
"Team Leader my ass, I quit my job, so just call me mister now."
"Haha, Cough cough! I owe you a debt, how could I, Cough! do that?"
Having arrived at Seongsim Tower in what was formerly called Daejeon City, I bowed to the Cleaning Supervisor of Seongsim Tower who was waiting for me.
"Aig tsk tsk, I liked you because you were a sharp kid when I saw you after a long time, but in the end, it was you too..."
"I'm sorry, Cough!..."
"Forget it. Someone like you has every reason to do this."
Of course, it goes without saying that not just anyone can enter the tower.
Special ability users can enter freely to conquer the tower, but non-ability users like me absolutely cannot enter the tower without any reason.
"I left the door open. The security guys said they'll turn off the random entrance CCTV for exactly one minute at 2 AM sharp, so crawl in on your own then."
"Yes...Really, Cough! Thank you so much."
But no matter how mysterious the tower's existence is and even if the country manages the entrance exterior, since it's ultimately run by people, there are gaps.
Targeting that gap, I came all the way to Seongsim City and got a job as a cleaner at Seongsim Tower, working for three years as a cleaner near the tower and on floors 1-2 of the tower.
Even though it wasn't a government job, the pay wasn't great, and even though it was a relatively safe zone, having to work on the 2nd floor where monsters appear was incredibly stressful, so I got in without much difficulty and was waiting for the right timing to enter the tower when the Cleaning Supervisor approached me first.
- "Han-gyeol, you came here to enter the tower, right? If you quit, just tell me, you rascal. I'll talk to the security guys and arrange time for you to enter."
Like that, after three years, I'm finally entering the tower today.
Of course, that doesn't mean I'll be going up floor by floor carefully like other special ability users.
"You damn...If you're really grateful, come back with some fucking amazing superpower to repay the favor! Since you're entering through the backdoor, something incredible might come out! Yeah, that's right!"
In addition to the first floor used commonly worldwide, each tower has another entrance.
That is the random entrance, the place the Team Leader called the backdoor—literally a random entrance that could lead to any floor of the tower.
The probability was very low, but there were indeed people who entered the tower through this random entrance, luckily awakened to special abilities, and returned.
'I'm betting everything on this today...Even though the probability is lower than the American Super Bowl.'
"It's not superpower, it's special abilities. Cough! Cough!...It's about time. Well, Cough cough! I'll be going."
"Yeah...Come back safely."
"Cough!...Yes."
For me, with my poorly managed bronchial condition worsening into stage 4 lung cancer, this is truly my last chance...The tower, which could lead anywhere, is my last chance in life.
I have no regrets even if I die.
Since I'm destined to die soon anyway, I'll have fewer regrets if I try something before dying.
.
.
.
"..."
Waiting in the blind spot of the exterior wall CCTV until the time the Team Leader mentioned, memories of the past came to mind.
- "Han-gyeol! *Sniff*! Wait for me! I'll...I'll definitely succeed and come back for you! *Sniff*! Wait for me until then! You must! I'll send letters, so you have to write back!"
"Sigh...Why am I thinking about that now...Cough cough!"
My childhood friend whom I never understood why she was in the orphanage, unlike me
Perhaps because of that, she was my only friend, Yoo Hye-eun, who awakened to special abilities and left the orphanage at some point
Was it because I was prepared to die? The wasted years I spent in the orphanage trusting her with my childish heart flashed before my eyes like a panorama.
'She probably forgot about someone like me long ago...'
The next time I saw Hye-eun, who hadn't even given a simple phone call let alone letters, was in a scandal article with a famous overseas special ability user.
I realized too late that she had no obligation or reason to support me from the beginning.
"3...2...1..."
Beep-
Finally, 2 AM sharp
I could see the CCTV lights turn off.
"Cough cough!..."
I only had one minute
But my feet wouldn't move easily.
"Sigh...I guess I valued my life, Cough! more than I thought..."
When 30 seconds passed like that, I finally lifted my feet from where I stood and ran toward the gradually closing external security door, heading for the random entrance.
Creeeak-
Bang!-
"Sigh...Cough cough!...Sigh...Please! Please let this be a place where I can easily gain special abilities...Please please...!"
The tower I entered after steadying my heart just before the door closed
The place I entered wrapped in the mysterious light I read about in the book...
"...Forest...Cough!"
Forest
It was the forest itself that was written about in the book I read and that I'd occasionally seen in videos I looked up online.
【Floor 391 Hobgoblin Forest】
I checked the sign on the exit that wouldn't open, just in case, but as expected, this was a forest floor dominated by monsters
"Haha...Haha, Cough! Haha...Of course...Cough cough!"
It was a floor where you could only leave by killing all the monsters existing in this vast forest.
"Gereuk? Gerreuk?"
"Kerrreuk!"
And not long after, the goblins roaming the forest reacted to my coughing sounds and began approaching while drooling profusely.
"Sob...*Gasp*!...Cough!...Fuuuck! Uwek! Cough cough!"
Seeing those monsters, rather than fear, feelings of injustice came first.
"Fucking life! Cough! Nothing ever, Cough! works out! What did I do so wrong! Ugh! Cough cough! I lived hard...Cough! I lived kindly! I've done enough to deserve help!"
It was a life where nothing was satisfying.
So I thought that since I've lived so unjustly, I should at least taste a sweet miracle in the tower I barely crawled into, but in the end, my finale was becoming a meal for goblins.
"Eat this, Cough! then!"
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!-
Click-
Click click-
Thinking that maybe, just maybe, a gun might work, or they might get scared and run away, I took out the pistol I had in my bag and fired until the magazine was empty, but
"Gereuk? Kerrreuk!"
The brown goblins in the distance didn't even flinch when hit by the bullets.
"At least...my last chance...Cough! should be given..."
I wished it had been a special floor like a mysterious floor where I could do something with my effort, but here I was utterly powerless.
"Gereuk! Gerreuuk!"
The goblins approaching slowly as if mocking me
Thud!-
"Yeah...Rather than getting chewed to death by those bastards, Cough cough! I'd rather die cleanly...Fuck, I should've saved a bullet."
Shhhk-
Looking at those goblins, I took out another weapon I had in my bag
I never thought I'd use it for suicide, but I pressed the machete against my neck.
'Please let me die peacefully at least at the end...'
Just before I could draw the blade across my neck with trembling hands
『Yeah! You'll do! Yeah yeah! That guy will really like someone as pitiful as you!』
"Huh?"
Whooosh!-
Along with a clear, somewhat mischievous voice that suddenly echoed in my head, intense light poured down between the approaching goblins and me.
For a moment, intense flashes continued as if all the starlight from the sky was pouring into this place
"A girl...child?"
When the light subsided, what appeared was a small girl with beautifully flowing long black hair.
And that girl...
"Ehe~ So~ Are you guys~ going to be my vassals~?"
"Ke,kereuk? Kerreuk?"
She began speaking not to me, but to the goblins.