To the Tower
Previously.
Awestruck by my ridiculous aura talent, the gallery finally broke down and started praising me…
The long-lost taste of being a smug little shit was sweet.
Keeping this up and milking Geom-hui for compliments forever wouldn't be the worst life. But—
Better quit while I'm ahead.
I was starting to dig myself into a cringy hole, and a few of the old-timers were already dropping block-threat vibes.
I was all set to sit back and enjoy the pure comedy of a flame war breaking out in real time when—
"Ugh… uh…?"
An overwhelming wave of exhaustion slammed into me. I could have collapsed right there and it wouldn't have been surprising.
So nothing was actually wrong. Relieved, I threw myself onto the bed.
There was… something important I was supposed to do…
But I was too tired to drag it up. Whatever.
Figuring things would work themselves out, I closed my eyes.
The next morning.
I woke to the sound of a thoroughly unpleasant alarm.
Tap.
My spinal reflex killed the alarm and I was already sinking back toward sleep when—
"…Ah."
The thing I'd forgotten yesterday sliced through my head.
I had a part-time shift last night.
I sat bolt upright, unlocked my phone, and checked the notifications.
"What."
After everything it took to land that job, one no-show and I was out on my ass. The question of how I was supposed to eat was already starting to choke me when—
Wait. Hold on.
I was an illegal resident now. In this body I couldn't work a part-time job anyway, and finding anything else would be impossible.
So getting fired doesn't even matter?
On top of that, yesterday had been payday. There was nothing left to collect. A clean bye-bye and I was free.
I can float for a while on what I've already saved.
With that weight off my shoulders, I opened the Swordsmanship Forum in a much better mood.
Everyone's telling me to rest.
I wanted to learn swordsmanship, and all the comments said was to mess with aura circulation. Did they think I was wiped out?
Were they jealous of my insane talent and trying to hold me back?
The sub-manager's delivery nearly rearranged my internal organs, but I held on.
Anyway.
So what am I supposed to do now?
I'd lost my job, and for the next few days I couldn't train swordsmanship either. That left me with two real options.
1. Hole up at home and do nothing but aura circulation.
→ Boring, pretentious, pure agon energy.
2. Climb the Tower.
→ Interesting, fun, full teto energy.
Okay. Tower it is.
I shot to my feet with all the grim resolve I could muster and declared,
"Let's go."
Lee Sion, healthy twenty-one-year-old youth of the Republic of Korea.
Off to climb the Tower.
I wanted to head straight for the Tower, but unfortunately there was a small problem.
I still have to clear the tutorial.
The Tower tutorial was split into five stages total. Strictly speaking you only needed to clear stage one, but pushing as far as you could was the smart play. Early growth boosters made climbing the rest of the Tower a lot smoother.
Stage five has an orc, they said.
Most Awakened stopped at stage two or three. With weak physiques and level-one skills, no one short of a top-tier A-class or S-class hunter was clearing stage five.
But I use swordsmanship.
If things went well, I might actually be able to take the orc.
Think I can take it?
Reading the room, the consensus seemed to be that if I fought an orc I'd win by a landslide.
So that's how strong a color is.
Truth was, I still had no real sense of how strong I actually was. There was a classic combat-power measuring method for moments like this…
Whoosh!
Stab a kitchen knife into your own gut.
If I can beat an orc, I can tank this much.
Yesterday's memory made it a little scary, but a hole in my stomach beat getting pulped by an orc any day.
"Hoo."
I closed my eyes and let out a long, steady breath. Black energy coiled around my entire body—my aura, color fully manifested.
Just do it the same way as last time.
I circulated aura with careful control. The black energy flowed toward my abdomen and began wrapping itself around the muscle.
Shaaa…
After about ten seconds of that, no more aura would sink in.
That's as ready as I'm getting…
When it came time to actually do it, the nerves hit again. But who was I? Peak teto alpha—no, alpha girl—Lee Sion.
"I can do this! If it's me!"
I shouted a battle cry and drove the kitchen knife into my stomach with everything I had.
CLANG!
A sharp, shattering crack rang through the kitchen.
"…."
I looked down at my stomach. I'd half expected a hole. Instead there wasn't so much as a light scratch—just the smooth, snow-white belly of a beautiful girl, as if nothing had happened at all.
Pat, pat.
…Staring at it, my hand drifted over on its own. Why was it this soft?
Anyway, not the point.
The kitchen knife I'd jammed into myself was gone. It hadn't been absorbed into my stomach, had it?
I scanned the floor around me and—
What the hell is this.
—found the kitchen knife with its blade shattered beyond recognition.
I'd awakened aura, sure, but tanking a blade barehanded?
The Tower's going to be easy, isn't it?
Riding that surge of confidence, I headed back to the gallery and found—
—a flood of questions waiting for me.
Right. These people are from other worlds.
The vibe had been so Earth-gallery that I'd completely forgotten.
Might as well give them a rough explanation.
I sketched out Earth's background for the gallery members in broad strokes.
Everyone seemed fascinated, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
Don't cry while I'm gone
"Kyaaaaak!"
I screamed on the spot and closed the gallery. Witnessing a permanent ban go down right in front of me was a horror I never wanted to see again.
Of course she'll unban him later.
Even knowing a permanent ban was just WWE, it was still terrifying.
Anyway.
Whoosh!
I grabbed the everyday essential of every Hwaseong citizen—a self-defense kitchen knife—and headed out the door.
Alright. Time to go pick it up.
Day two of aura training.
It was time to climb the Tower.