What on Earth Is a Magic Tower?

What on earth is a Magic Tower anyway?

I picked up my phone lying on the bed while carefully reading through the messages I had swiped away. I had something to check. Sure enough, the cell service was cut off. Seeing how it wasn't charging, the electricity seemed to be out too. To think the base stations were overrun and the power lines were cut in such a short time.

My messenger was filled with dozens of worried messages from my parents and friends, but I couldn't reply with a single word. Maybe my family and friends had already become zombie food. I felt a bit depressed, but I slapped my cheeks to shake off the feeling. They felt squishy. It felt weirdly unpleasant.

Come to think of it, this body was also a problem. Was I even 150 centimeters tall? My stamina and strength were utterly trash-tier. But when I headed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I looked surprisingly, uniquely cute. My white hair, messy from just waking up, fell down to my chest. With those hollow purple eyes, I looked like a 100% pure, sickly beautiful girl who had never seen a single ray of sunlight in her life.

"Ugh... Heh..."

I let out a dumb chuckle. It's not like I'd never fantasized about becoming a beautiful girl in my life, but I didn't want it to happen in a situation like this. The world is screwed, so what's the point of having a pretty face? It's not like zombies will pet you instead of biting you just because you're walking around with a cute face. Aside from that, everything else about this body was a clear penalty.

Still, I have to survive first. What else can I do?

But I wanted to live. If I died in a world like this, I wouldn't even make it to hell; I'd just turn into a disgusting zombie, crawling around while reeking of rot. With this pathetic body that couldn't even lift a shoe rack, magic was my only way to survive.

In that sense, the first thing that caught my attention among these messages was the name of this ability: "Magic Tower." The reason my room was filled with a mysterious force, mana, was probably because this space had transformed into a Magic Tower.

If they're going to call it a Magic Tower, they should've at least built me an actual tower.

A run-down, 260-square-foot studio apartment being a Magic Tower? It was a bit ridiculous. But hey, beggars can't be choosers. Complaining when this ability had just saved my life was a bit much.

Anyway, I'm alive, so whatever.

"Status."

Is this place so shabby because it's only Level 0? If I gather mana or form circles or whatever to level it up, the space will probably expand.

When I pressed the [+] icon next to "Level 0" on the status window, a very helpful explanation on how to level up the Magic Tower popped up.

Gold 100g? How much is that even worth? And what on earth is a Magic Stone?

It didn't seem like something I could do right away. The glowing orb from the zombie earlier was probably the Mana Core. Even if each zombie honestly dropped exactly one Mana Core, that's still 50 of them. I'd have to kill 50 zombies.

I closed the window. I should worry about this after I'm actually able to survive.

My eyes naturally drifted to the other messages. The ones mentioning an "Archive."

What's the Archive?

There were no explanations for these terms. Is it standard protocol to just shout the name in times like this?

"Archive."

That was the correct answer.

A massive window appeared before my eyes, organizing countless spells like a database. From minor tricks like creating a flashlight-sized light or making a small sound, to massive, high-level spells like Meteor Strike or Blizzard. A giant library containing all the magic in the world. If someone made a wiki for magic, would it look like this? That was my first thought.

Curious, I clicked on "Meteor Strike." A brief description popped up along with a notification: "Insufficient Exp to learn."

Aside from the insufficient Exp message, the fact that the Enlightenment conditions were covered in question marks suggested an unfriendly system telling low-level trash not to even look at high-level magic. Enlightenment conditions. Even the name sounded ominous. I hoped I wouldn't have to study complex mathematical formulas like mages in fantasy novels.

I had no choice but to look away and check lower-tier spells like Small Spark or Magic Missile, but all I got were messages about insufficient Exp.

Do you get Exp from killing zombies too?

It seemed the Exp from a single zombie wasn't enough to learn a new spell. I browsed the spells for a bit longer before closing the window. But just then, a new message window popped up.

Free Registry? What's this?

"Free Registry."

Shouting the name worked here too, and a window popped up.

The Free Registry turned out to be a space where countless mages seemed to be chatting with one another. But the layout of the window was incredibly familiar. This... was an online community, wasn't it...?

I scrolled through a few pages and found all sorts of stories. There were posts by people who seemed to be struggling to survive in dark fantasy worlds. In contrast, there were those living comfortable, luxurious lives in worlds full of rosy romance. There were even people living in ordinary, modern worlds like I had been before the end of the world.

The only thing they had in common was that they were all mages who owned a Magic Tower.

And if my guess was correct, these guys looked like unemployed bums who were about to go crazy from sheer boredom. Aside from the occasional diary-like post, they had been camping out in the Free Registry all day for over three months, doing nothing but arguing over which magic was better in pointless vs debates.

There was absolutely no room for doubt. These mages were time-billionaires with way too much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠free time on their hands.

I immediately clicked the write button.

"It even has a photo attachment feature..."

I had no idea how it managed to take a photo, but I attached it anyway and hit submit. Responses flooded in almost instantly.

"Do these bastards stare at this all day?"

Mages weren't really all that special. Seeing how they were just chatting among themselves instead of answering my question, it looked like a place with a lot of cliquey behavior. It was the inevitable fate of a community where no newbies came and only a handful of time-billionaires remained.

When I demanded an answer in the comments, replies finally started coming.

K. There were plenty of enemies to fight. Right now, crazy zombie bastards were wandering around on the floors ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠above and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠below me. But wait, what's this "enhance" thing?

"Skill window. Magic window. Magic enhancement. Magic management."

After reciting a few commands, a window listing the spells I had already learned appeared.

It seemed like there were many features that hadn't been unlocked yet, but fortunately, the enhancement feature was open.

Without hesitation, I pressed "Yes."

Instantly, I felt a sensation of something being engraved into my mind. I could faintly sense just how much the performance of the spell had been enhanced.

Now, it was time to deal with the zombies. I was already annoyed by the fact that zombies that had eaten people were wandering around this building.

I yelled out into the empty air.

"Waaaaah!"

To be honest, I was too scared to yell very loudly, but the reaction was swift.

Thud, thud, thud, patter-patter-patter—

Whether I had drawn the aggro of the zombies on the floors above and below, the vibration of zombies running along the stairwell reached all the way here.

Two? No, three?

Just how strong are these things? Usually, running zombies in movies or games are treated as powerful special infected, aren't they? For these damn bastards, running, sprinting, and breaking down walls was just the default setting.

But it was fine. I had magic. I just had to kill them before they broke the door down.

I-It'll be fine, right?

I was pretty sure it would be. The amount of mana inside the zombie I saw earlier, the speed at which they broke doors, and the power of my enhanced magic. Instinctively, I felt like I could do this.

"Mana Absorption."

The moment the zombies arrived, I chanted the trigger word. Along with the feeling of power draining from somewhere deep inside my body, the bastards trying to smash my door collapsed in an instant.