Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Era of Overflowing Towers (1)
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As I headed toward America after conquering Jeju Island's S-Rank Tower, I planned to mull over how to handle the various political schemes brewing back in Korea.
How should I deal with the incident where Iron Blood's mana completely evaporated—an event equivalent to losing an S-Rank hunter?
I had no intention of dealing with it at all.
I've already cleared four S-Rank Towers for them. They could just say Iron Blood perished heroically during the assault and slap on a thick face about it.
As for whoever sold out my personal information, how should I respond?
If I can't avoid it, I'll enjoy it.
It might have been a bit scary back when I was a regular civilian, but now, as a Summoner who had cleared four S-Rank Towers and commanded four summons, I decided to bask shamelessly in people's reactions.
No matter what the world said, I had Elaine, Kiharu, Dray, and the Illinois.
The only thing worrying me was that, once I arrived in America, there might be factions there who wouldn't welcome someone like me...
"Oh my God."
A tower spread wide across the sky.
It shimmered like an opaque hologram, but there was no mistaking it—it was definitely a single tower.
Even though it blanketed the entire sky, you could clearly recognize it as a tower.
No matter how massive and vast it was, it wasn't all that different from the towers humanity had been conquering relentlessly up until now.
Something that existed entirely apart from natural phenomena.
But what if it wasn't just towering over a single region—what if it was so enormous that it engulfed an entire region—no, an entire nation?
What if it stretched across the whole planet?
"Dray. Can you check any satellite images?"
"Sending them right over. Check on your smartphone."
Dray accessed a satellite and sent me the photos.
The image of Earth, presumably from NASA, looked no different from what you'd see in a basic earth science textbook.
"...Doesn't seem visible, huh?"
"Yeah. It looks like it's not visible from space, but you can see it from the ground looking up at the sky. Hang on... Give me a sec. I'm gathering some intel."
Dray sat in a chair and closed his eyes.
If it wasn't visible from satellites above, the only option was to collect as much ground-level upward-gazing footage as possible.
I hopped onto internet forums to check people's reactions too.
💬 Comments — Anonymous Visible from Seoul. — User123 Clear view from Daejeon too! — JejuWatcher Photo from Jeju Island... — MountainClimber From the peak of Seoraksan. People were questioning how this colossal tower had appeared, but just like the posts that flood in during an earthquake—"Felt it here in XX!"—photos of the sky from all over were rapidly being shared.
A white ivory fortress blanketing the entire Korean Peninsula.
No one knew its true nature, but everyone could tell it was utterly different from any tower before it.
— ObserverX So... a new tower generated over the Korean Peninsula? If it was observable from every corner of the peninsula—east, west, south, north—and not some tower shooting up from a specific point on the ground but a structure enveloping it all, then even more so.
"Partner. Just a heads-up—ignore any weird comments."
Kiharu warned me in a serious tone as I scrolled through the internet posts.
"For example—"
"This happened because I cleared an S-Rank Tower, something like that?"
"...Rumors are already spreading?"
"Obvious misdirection."
A crow flies by, and your belly splits open—pure coincidence.
Did clearing all the S-Rank Towers up to Jeju cause some stack to overflow or trigger a message like "Humanity is ready to embrace greater trials"?
No.
Not at all.
If that were the case, the tower would have appeared the instant I cleared Jeju.
If it was just Korea getting this sky-blanketing tower, that'd be easy enough to accept.
Ah, he cleared Korea's S-Rank Towers, so we can send them an SS-Rank one!
If there's some god chucking towers down like darts on a globe, it might think, "Korea handled four S-Ranks; they can manage this."
Me heading to America?
Would whoever's sending towers to torment humanity even care?
But no, that wasn't it either.
Towers didn't spawn in selected nations or spots—they were flung arbitrarily like darts at a spinning globe by the Tower God.
"Japan, China, Russia... Towers are appearing all over the world. Some even span two countries' skies, and there are places where none are visible."
"So... literally random tower generation, Master?"
"Seems like it."
I glanced at Dray.
Just as I'd inferred from Korean community reactions that the tower covered the whole nation, Dray was now aggregating global intel.
And in the meantime.
Beep-beep-beep.
My phone rang.
The first call I'd ever received.
I'd given out the number, but until now, contacts had only texted.
"Yes, President."
[My friend. Where are you headed right now?]
President Luigi.
Elaine gave me a knowing look, tapping her ear, and I picked up faint voices from the other end of the line.
Several people talking.
I recalled the President had been in Congress last time, so he probably hadn't moved.
"One question. Is a massive tower visible in the sky over America too?"
[Yes. It's visible here. Across the entire U.S. Wide enough to cover Canada and Mexico.]
"......I'm currently at the edge of the tower blanketing Korea."
We'd passed Dokdo, skirting the white tower spread across the sky until normal heavens appeared.
"I'll keep following this course straight to California."
[......Ah!]
President Luigi let out an exclamation.
And behind him, I faintly heard clapping and cheers abruptly silenced.
"See you shortly, then—"
[My friend. Any insights on this incident?]
Was he asking out of urgency?
Less like he thought I knew something, more like...
'Trying to signal to those around that even I don't know?'
I wondered if he needed to go that far, but he'd laid the board— no reason to dodge.
"Hard to say. But if that colossal thing hanging in the sky is indeed a tower, then everything up until now has just been a taste of what's to come for humanity."
Tutorial and beginner growth period: over.
"The million Awakenings the gods triggered were probably to prepare for this."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A short while later.
Once President Luigi hung up, a hush fell over Congress.
"...A million Awakenings."
The number of people who Awakened simultaneously across the globe: one million.
They were still compiling data on their abilities, locations, and backgrounds, but the undeniable fact was that one day, a million people had suddenly Awakened.
Not evenly distributed per nation, but roughly proportional.
"What do you think, Mr. President?"
"About what?"
"This situation. What we need to do."
"...Nothing changes. Just one more task added to the list."
President Luigi adjusted his glasses and pointed at the ceiling.
"I'll head to California to welcome the Master. At the same time, we'll launch recon drones to investigate the tower."
"You're really bringing the guy who one-shotted an S-Rank into America?"
A young senator rose sharply, glaring at President Luigi.
"And even providing an Iowa-class battleship as support?"
"That's..."
"The Illinois isn't a real ship, you idiot."
"!!"
An elderly senator stood with the aid of his cane and spoke.
"Two days after the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was scrapped before completion. It was never actually built—production halted mid-way alongside the Kentucky."
"N-No, that's..."
"I was five years old then. I saw it clearly on TV. That's the Illinois. My hometown ship, the one my father worked on."
The congressmen fell silent at the elder's wistful words.
"...If that Master has the power to summon something that 'shouldn't exist,' I'd trust his abilities even if he could resurrect the dead."
"What does that even—"
"Who knows. One day, Lincoln or Roosevelt might suddenly walk among us again."
"!!"
"Th-That's like some fantasy..."
"A tower vast enough to blanket the entire planet appears, people turn into superhumans, a battleship that was never completed bursts from the sea and sails toward America—what part of that doesn't make sense?"
"B-But..."
"This is an opportunity. An opportunity. So we have someone like that 'Iron Blood' guy over there?"
Several senators' faces twisted at the elder's words.
"If anyone squints their eyes and snide remarks about how the Master summoned the Illinois, or his past, or if he even speaks English... I'll rename them for you going forward. Iron Blood."
"......!"
"President, is this enough?"
"...Be straight with me. What do you want from me? Even a senior opposition member steps up like this."
President Luigi glanced at a still-seated senator before asking the elder.
"What I want? If I can fulfill one wish before I die, nothing else matters."
The elder senator swallowed hard, staring at the ship on the congressional monitors.
"Before I go, I'd like to board that Illinois once."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A short while later.
I inspected the ship interior with Elaine, Kiharu, and Dray.
And that's when I saw it.
"...What the hell is this?"
The engine room.
Where the Illinois's engines should have been was a massive... something.
"......An egg?"
It wasn't an engine. Too enormous and spherical to call it mere machinery—a globe composed entirely of mechanical parts.
Thump, thump.
From within, it felt like the heartbeat of something alive.