Tower Community System
Flash!
The instant his vision blacked out—
Thud!
—his body was hurled backward as if something had kicked him clean out of the world. The ground vanished under his feet, and space itself twisted and warped in a single sickening lurch.
"……!"
Hyun Si-woon clamped his sword in a death grip on pure instinct, but he was already being dragged free of the Tower's domain.
Messages bloomed at the same time.
Congratulations.
By clearing Floor 1 of the Tower of Despair, you have become an Ascender.
Ascender.
A being who climbs the Tower.
Even in Tower of Despair, once you made a character and cleared Floor 1, you received the Ascender title. Elite Ascender status only came after breaking through Floor 10.
The Tower's blessing descends upon you.
Adaptability accelerates. You accept the Tower of Despair more naturally.
Monster resistance is nullified against you. You can now deal real damage to monsters with Tower weapons.
Huh?
That system message had never existed in the game.
So that's why……!
That was how people who challenged the Tower had been able to fight the monsters outside.
The Tower Community System is now open.
<Republic of Korea Server> has been unlocked.
Community System?
What the hell was that supposed to be.
He barely had time to think before the rewards started pouring in.
◈ Lesser Ascender's Sword (Normal)
◈ Lesser Ascender's Spear (Normal)
◈ Lesser Ascender's Shield (Normal)
◈ Lesser Ascender's Bow (Normal)
◈ Lesser Ascender's Axe (Normal)
◈ Lesser Ascender's Staff (Normal)
Every weapon he had used poured straight into his inventory.
Every stat had gone up by one.
And finally—
Privilege ability activates.
Save Point has been set to the present moment.
The moment those words appeared—
CRASH!
—Hyun Si-woon's body was slammed onto something hard. He rolled on reflex and bled off the impact.
"Kh—!"
He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes.
This place is……
The Tower's exit. The gate opposite the one he had used to enter Floor 1.
"Whoa."
"Look over there."
"Another one coming out."
"Looks like they cleared Floor 1? That light just now—isn't that proof of an Ascender?"
Under the flood of stares, Hyun Si-woon kept his head down and got the hell out of there as fast as he could.
Hah.
If you're going to spit me out, at least do it gently. Just yeeting people like that?
Unbelievably rude.
He could have charged straight into Floor 2, but first he needed information.
It said the Community System opened, right?
That was what he planned to check first.
Jamsil.
The area around the Tower of Despair was always crowded. The reason was simple: Ascender outposts clustered here, so monsters rarely dared to show their faces.
Hyun Si-woon headed for a quiet stretch of Hangang Park. Once it would have been packed with walkers and cyclists. Now only silence lived there.
Community, huh……
How was he supposed to use it?
"Community."
The second the word left his mouth—
Woooom!
—a hologram panel bloomed in front of his eyes.
Entering the Republic of Korea Server (KR).
Connected users: 83,201
Hyun Si-woon (Floor 1) — Online
"Whoa. More than I expected?"
Roughly eighty-three thousand. Just how many people had thrown themselves at this thing……
Well.
The line had been absurdly long when he'd challenged it too. Waiting for his turn alone had taken hours.
Someone had claimed that the number of people attempting the Tower was closing in on a million. If that was true, then Floor 1's survival rate was a miserable eight percent, give or take.
"Weirdly familiar."
The Community System's design was something he knew by heart.
This is……
The community the Tower of Despair developers had run. Game-like UI, clean and intuitive.
<Notices>
<Party Recruitment Board>
<Free Board>
<Exchange>
<Friend Management>
"Holy shit."
Now he finally understood why Ascenders moved in packs.
A community this active had been sitting right under everyone's nose the whole time……
A network on this scale left people no choice but to cluster. Share intel. Trade. Build parties……
The community itself could become an Ascender's core tool.
Tower of Despair always required co-op play, after all.
Si-woon himself had been stuck soloing with a sword because of his garbage physical stats back then, but most people—streamers, veterans—had grouped up for coordinated runs. There were even hidden routes you literally could not open without a party.
That was why, back in the Tower of Despair days, Si-woon had kept five alts.
Every one of them named EndSeeker.
Partying required characters on the same floor, so all five sat at Floor 30.
That was how he knew every opportunity every class could get their hands on.
"Hoo."
Si-woon let out a breath and tapped the Notices tab first. He planned to comb through everything one piece at a time.
He pressed it.
「Elite Ascender's Weapon」 Distribution Event!
⏱ Time Remaining: 30 days
▶ One Ascender with the most recommendations on the Free Board will be selected!
▶ Winner receives a Mid-tier Ascender's Weapon (Rare grade, weapon of choice).
▶ Winner receives 500 TC.
"……You've got to be kidding me."
Si-woon spat the curse under his breath.
These were the same developers who had never given a damn about running anything. No info dumps. Not a single event. And now that the Tower had become real, they were suddenly hosting one?
Ah.
TC was short for Tower Coin—the currency used inside the Tower of Despair. Later it would buy weapons, upgrades, and everything else. Every Exchange trade ran on TC, of course.
First of all.
There was zero reason to bother with that event.
A Mid-tier Ascender's Weapon? That was a Floor 5 clear reward, and for Si-woon it was nothing more than a piece of gear he would pass through and forget. No point staking his life on it.
He closed the tab and opened Party Recruitment Board.
Wow.
The board was on fire. Some people were already trying Floor 3 runs despite the brutal difficulty. Others were screening by gender like it was a dating app. Teams hunting pure physical talent. People fishing for streamers and pro gamers.
It's exactly like the game.
Stare at this community long enough and you started losing track of whether any of this was real or just another session of the game. Si-woon felt the same way. No resistance. No rejection.
The Tower's Blessing.
That was what the adaptability boost looked like in practice.
Parties…… can wait.
Floor 2 would be solo for now. For the time being he wanted to watch the situation more than he wanted company. Parties meant splitting rewards—and more importantly, made him reluctant to lean on his privilege as freely as he needed to.
Get strong first.
Then form a party when he actually needed one. Especially if he was going to form relationships, he wanted to do it from a position of advantage, on terms he set.
I'm a veteran, after all.
As long as information was his edge, his value in this world was absolute—unmatched by anyone. Si-woon knew that perfectly well.
Next.
He pressed the Free Board tab.
"Huh?"
A familiar word jumped out at him.
Three high-upvote posts sat pinned at the top of the board…… and one of them was about him.
They're using my nickname to farm an event?
He let out a hollow laugh at the sheer absurdity and opened the post.
"……."
This was the number-one post on the board?
Si-woon felt cold sweat bead on his forehead. The comments were even worse.
UID stood for User Identifier—the unique ID assigned to every character. Nicknames overlapped constantly, so in Tower of Despair people identified users by UID.
The reason that post sat at number one was simple. Everyone had dropped their own UID in the comments and hit upvote on the way out.
It still didn't feel real to Si-woon.
This many people looking for him.
For now.
He had no intention of revealing himself. He couldn't satisfy every need on that board—and there would absolutely be people with uglier motives. The kind who would kidnap him to squeeze out information, or just threaten him until he talked.
Getting stronger comes first. No exceptions.
Si-woon worked carefully through the other posts. Some of the opportunity intel was halfway accurate, but most of it was surface-level knowledge at best. The fact that opportunities nested under other opportunities was a secret only he still held.
Even back when he played Tower of Despair, the net had been full of opportunities you could never find with a simple search. He would say it again: he was a rotten, bottom-of-the-barrel veteran who had dug deeper than anyone. Five alts. Everything that could be mined, mined.
Still.
That one was actually useful.
Si-woon's body was garbage. He wasn't a game character—his sword work was clumsy, and he didn't know how to handle a bow at all. Learning that side of things from a real specialist would help a lot.
On the Exchange, people were already selling Floor 2 drop items. The Friend Management window was completely empty.
And the UID he had been given?
Unlike everyone else's, it felt strangely deliberate.
Was END short for EndSeeker?
"First things first."
He had two options.
Join some group, train his body, learn real technique—or head straight into Floor 2.
The answer came fast.
"Straight to Floor 2."
Hyun Si-woon rose from his seat.