The Earth Is Changing Fast (2)
The Earth Is Changing Fast (2)
『 [Breaking News] US Acknowledges Existence of Tower! Official Name for Returnees Decided as 'Player'! 』
As soon as the United States—the most powerful nation on Earth—acknowledged the Tower's existence, every news embargo around the world was lifted.
The existence of the 'Tower', which governments had been keeping secret, was finally revealed to the entire world.
『 A 66-Floor Tower? Humanity Will Perish If It Isn't Climbed? Unbelievable Statement from the White House Spokesperson! 』
『 South Korean Government Names 'Tower' as Cause of Global Chain of Missing Persons Cases 』
The fact that God was responsible for the string of missing persons cases finally came to light.
This 'kidnapping' wasn't the first. From what the U.S. government alone had confirmed, it had occurred at least 650 times. Considering that each group summoned was from the same country...
Looked at globally, the number of people summoned to the Tower so far would be utterly staggering.
『 Sitting U.S. Vice President Reveals He Survived the Tower. 』
What finally tipped the scales of public opinion was the Vice President of the United States.
At a press conference, he demonstrated creating ice in midair. The footage was immediately uploaded to NewTube and hit 100 million views faster than any video before it.
To sum it up in a word, the reaction was explosive.
- Does this make any sense? What, do they think this is a novel?
- If you don't believe it, what are you gonna do? Didn't you see the video of the U.S. vice president making ice on NewTube just now?
- So does this mean gates are gonna start appearing? What if goblins show up in front of my house?
- I went to a hardware store to buy a crowbar, and there were at least three other people like me. Get yours beforehand.
At least Koreans, who had grown somewhat accustomed to the 'Tower' through various media, reacted more calmly.
Overseas, especially in the Western world, the reactions were far more intense.
- Unless the Vice President has gone mad, is it true that God is really trying to wipe out humanity?
- Could this be the 'Day of Judgment' from the Bible?
- So we're all going to die?
- We must die. It is God's will.
To begin with, the proportion of Catholics and Christians who believe in God is overwhelmingly high in the West.
Debates raged over whether this was truly God or the will of some monstrous transcendent being.
Extremists even appeared, claiming that since it was all God's will anyway, they should simply accept annihilation.
- But honestly, I don't really know if this Tower thing is even real.
Of course, there was also a huge number of people who didn't believe in the Tower's existence.
- In webtoons or web novels, a tower just pops up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, right? So where exactly is this Tower those crazy bastards are talking about?
First of all, the Tower had no physical form. At least, not on Earth.
Even with all of humanity's technology mobilized, the Tower couldn't be observed. The only evidence was the testimonies of the survivors.
The only thing that lent credibility was that the testimonies were remarkably consistent and that the survivors had gained special abilities.
To ordinary people, the 'Tower' felt like a figment of the imagination.
- And why can't those bastards who came back alive talk about what was inside? Aren't they keeping their mouths shut because if their stories contradict each other, their fraud will be exposed?
Another reason people couldn't believe in the Tower's existence was that Tutorial survivors were keeping silent about what was inside the Tower.
While the testimony that the Tower existed was unanimous, not a single word about the Tower's interior leaked out. It was almost as if the survivors were trying to monopolize the benefits.
Of course, from the survivors' perspective, they must have been infuriated.
- Do you think we're not talking because we don't want to? It's not that—it's that you can't see or hear what we say, okay?
Because they had been talking nonstop about the Tower all along.
- I told my mom what happened in the Tutorial, and she said I suddenly froze up. I posted it on an internet community and it only got three views.
- But we're constantly talking about the Tutorial among ourselves, aren't we?
- That's the problem. I think this comment can only be seen by people who have been to the Tower.
The Tower returnees acted with the utmost common sense.
They contacted the media and used internet communities to spread what had happened in the Tower far and wide.
- I've been posting regularly about what happened in the Tutorial on various communities, but almost nobody read it. Whenever someone did see it, they were also someone who survived the Tower.
But all those efforts were in vain.
Ordinary people couldn't even perceive that the survivors were trying to talk about the Tower.
It was as if the system had physically blocked it.
While they were able to share extremely basic information—that the Tower had 66 floors, that humanity would perish if it wasn't climbed, that the Tower was God's judgment—it was utterly impossible to mention anything that happened inside the Tower.
<Hey I thought of a trick to talk about the Tutorial>
But as they say, humans are thinking animals. Some people tried to reveal what happened in the Tower using loopholes.
<Hey I thought of a trick to talk about the Tutorial>
When we try to mention the Tutorial, to ordinary people's eyes it looks like we just freeze up, right? Can't we exploit that?
I had a friend prepare a list of about a thousand words that might be related to the Tower. Then the friend would show me the words one by one.
I decided that when I see a word and it's in the Tower, I'll nod, and if it's not, I'll shake my head. What happens then? I'll shake my head at words that aren't there, but for words that are there, won't it look like I just froze? If my friend extracts only the words where I froze, wouldn't we be able to get a rough idea about the Tower?
- Are you a genius?
- This might actually work. It takes advantage of the fact that we freeze up when we try to mention the Tower.
Someone tried to inform others about the Tutorial using their own logic.
But the result was disastrous.
<Guys, it failed.>
When we tried to start the experiment, it wasn't me who froze, but my friend. Later, I saw that they had completely forgotten that we had even tried to do the experiment. I think every loophole is blocked. Let's give up, guys.
No matter the method, it was impossible to tell someone who hadn't been to the Tower about what was inside it.
The interior of the Tower remained a completely unknown space.
For about a month after that, the people of Earth engaged in fierce back-and-forth arguments over the Tower.
Turn on the news, and there were Tower stories. Internet communities were filled with Tower talk. When people met, they talked about the Tower.
But as they say, all bubbles eventually burst.
After that massive wave of chaos passed, the world largely divided into three groups.
First: ordinary people who didn't believe in the Tower's existence.
Second: ordinary people who believed in the Tower's existence.
And third: the survivors of the Tutorial.
The social perception of the Tutorial survivors was headed straight for rock bottom.
- Why the hell aren't those survivor bastards climbing the Tower? I heard you can count on one hand the number of bastards who've even entered Floor 2 so far?
- What's in the Tower that they're acting like this? I get that there's a risk of death, but we're on the verge of humanity's destruction right now!
- Would you risk your life if someone told you to? And you guys don't even know what's on Floor 1, do you? Pathetic bastards who weren't chosen.
First of all, the Tutorial survivors didn't want to climb to Floor 2.
Apart from those who cleared the Tower with extreme ease alongside me... everyone else had gone through the worst experience of their lives.
Of course they had trauma, and some even suffered permanent physical damage.
On top of that, Floor 1 was practically heaven. You could eat whatever you wanted, do whatever you wanted.
Apart from the downside of not being able to bring others in, it was a place where you could have anything you could imagine. That was Floor 1.
There were truly only a handful of saints on this Earth who would throw away the sweet fruit right in front of them and willingly walk a path of hardship for others. If you narrowed that range to survivors, the number shrank even further.
But from the ordinary people's perspective, this was nothing but selfishness.
- No, if you guys don't do it, we die. We're going to die because of you, you know that?
- Summon me to that Tutorial too. I'll destroy the Tower. You're gonna entrust the fate of humanity to cowardly bastards like them?
When your life is in someone else's hands, and that 'someone' is lukewarm about it, you can't help but be furious.
That wasn't the only problem.
『 Crimes by Players Rampant Across the Globe. Are There Truly No Countermeasures? 』
The survivors could open a portal back to Floor 1 at any time.
Which meant... committing a crime and then escaping into the Tower was entirely possible.
These were survivors with outstanding physical abilities, and they even possessed superpowers that modern technology couldn't handle.
There was no way to catch criminals who would flee into the Tower just before the net could close.
『 U.S. Police Warn to Be Careful of People with Physical Disabilities. Controversy Over Discrimination Against the Disabled. 』
A common trait among criminals who used supernatural powers was that many of them were missing a body part somewhere.
It was likely because they had committed sins severe enough to pay with their body parts during the Tutorial's 'Judgment.' Though of course, this was something ordinary people couldn't know about.
Whatever the case, a social trend of fearing disabled people arose worldwide. Naturally and understandably, disabled people pushed back hard.
It had been barely one month since the Tower's true nature was revealed. The world was sinking into chaos.
People were wary of each other, afraid, and fighting.
But the Tower itself did nothing.
It didn't spit out monsters or directly threaten humanity. It simply existed somewhere.
"...Hah."
Seeing the situation play out like this, I became certain.
Even if God didn't personally deliver divine punishment...
If Earth was left alone like this for just ten years, humanity would come to ruin on its own.