Fame
Whenever I went from Seoul to my parents' home in Incheon, I always took the subway.
Line 2 to Sindorim Station, then transfer to Incheon Line 1 — that was the routine.
Line 1 was always packed with people.
With luggage in hand, it made for an exhausting journey.
That is, until now.
This time was different.
Whoosh— whoosh— whoosh—
'Riding Qinggong, I get there in less than five minutes.'
His two legs carried him several times faster than any subway car.
Better still, he traveled in a perfectly straight line, with no stops along the way.
It was absolutely exhilarating.
The speed alone was delightful, but the best part was the lack of suffocation.
No more squeezing between strangers in a packed subway car, no more breathing stale, recycled air. The October night wind brushed across his cheeks as the city's glittering neon signs streaked past in ribbons of light. No stretch of travel from city to city had ever felt this free.
7 p.m.
He arrived at his parents' apartment.
An apartment complex over forty years old.
It was the ultimate survivor of survivors — the kind that had failed its reconstruction inspection precisely because it was built too solidly.
Old apartments were all built like this, sturdy as fortresses, an acquaintance of his once said.
Back then, they didn't know how buildings were supposed to be constructed, so terrified the things might collapse, they packed in ridiculous amounts of rebar. These days, construction had gotten crafty — rebar got pulled out one piece at a time, right up to the razor's edge of "just barely won't collapse," and so countless disposable apartment blocks came into being.
He punched in the passcode at his parents' front door and let himself in.
Beep-beep-beep-beep—
Ding-dong—
"I'm home."
"My son!"
His mother greeted him first, as always.
"It's been so long~!"
"I've been busy lately."
"It was all so things would work out, huh?"
"Congratulations."
"Hm? On what?"
"You're finally going to benefit from having a son."
"Ohohoho— did something good happen?"
"Just a feeling I have."
"Well, it's the thought that counts."
His father offered a brief wave in greeting.
"You've worked hard, son."
"Yes, Father. Happy birthday. And this is for you."
He set a bundle wrapped in yellow cloth on the dining table.
"Oh, come on. Just showing up would've been enough. What's all this?"
Even as he said it, his father rose from his seat and walked over, clearly curious about what was inside the cloth. Though, of course, his mother got to it first.
Sliiip—
The wrapping fell away, and—
"Oh my! What is this?"
Alongside the glistening cuts of beef, the words 1++ Hanwoo leapt out at them.
"That's Hanwoo beef, isn't it? The top-grade stuff, no less!"
His father was equally stunned.
"Goodness, why did you buy something this expensive?"
"Aigoo! Honestly, you. When your son brings you a gift like this, you just say thank you!"
"Well, I mean, it's hardly such an occasion—"
He said that, but Sang-hyuk could see the corners of his father's mouth twitching. His mother, naturally, was over the moon.
Phone in hand, snapping photos, she was practically glowing at the thought of bragging to the neighbors — 'The beef my son brought me~'
His father gave him a thumbs-up.
"Thank you, son."
Seeing that, he felt a swell of joy — and no small amount of embarrassment.
'Sorry it took me so long.'
"Mom, I'm starving."
"Oh my, look at me, rambling on. You must be hungry, sweetheart. Let me set the table right away."
"Thank you. Where are Jaekyung and Jaehee?"
"Jaekyung's on a business trip abroad, and Jaehee came by this morning but had to leave for her part-time job."
Oh, right.
His older brother traveled constantly for work, and his younger sister was still in college.
"Is Jaehee working part-time to pay her own tuition?"
His father answered.
"She is. It's hard for us to cover it these days, what with everything."
Three years ago, the company his father worked for had gone under. His father now took odd day-labor jobs and his mother worked at a factory, but even those jobs weren't available every day, so money had grown tight.
Sang-hyuk caught the bitterness flickering across his father's face.
And then his mother swooped into that silence with impeccable timing.
"Jaehee's a good girl, though. She does her part-time work and studies hard too."
"Are you sure?"
"Would your mother lie to you? Hmmm. Well, we always feel guilty toward Jaehee, that much is true."
"What about Jaekyung?"
"He said he was sorry he couldn't make it, and he sent spending money so we could get ourselves something nice to eat. Oh, and Jaehee picked up a cake from that dessert shop on her way over this morning."
······.
His mother clucked about how well her children had turned out while laying the Hanwoo slices into a hot pan. The induction cooktop glowed red, and heat rose from the surface.
Sizzle— sizzle—
As a fragrant aroma bloomed into the air, he found himself reflecting, once again, on everything he owed them.
'I'll do right by them from now on. That's all there is to it.'
Soy sauce, wasabi, lemon juice, meat sauce, salt, sichimi peppers, young summer radish kimchi — dish after dish went up on the table, and the neatly sliced Hanwoo arrived on a platter.
It had been ages since he'd shared a meal with his parents. And not just any meal — 1++ Hanwoo. After years of nothing but protein shakes, chicken breast, and vegetables, this was pure luxury.
His chest swelled with grand feeling.
He picked up a rare-cooked slice and ate it plain, unseasoned, to savor the beef's natural aroma first.
Ahh—
Tender juices flooded his mouth.
The flavor rose all the way to the crown of his head.
The second slice, he dipped in salt — just a whisper of it.
"Wow······."
It demolished him again.
His mom could sear a mean steak.
Next, soy sauce with wasabi — again, barely a touch.
"Wow······."
Then came rounds with the sichimi, the meat sauce, the young radish kimchi, and everything else on the table.
"Ahh~ this is seriously good. Meat your son treats you to just tastes better, doesn't it? You agree, right, dear?"
His father answered only with a slow, satisfied nodding of his head.
He was happier than he'd been in a long time.
The meat he hadn't tasted in so long.
The time spent with family.
The easy back-and-forth of conversation.
All of it had cost barely a couple hundred dollars.
So why had I never done this before?
Granted, it wasn't as if a man in his thirties could casually blow a couple hundred dollars. Between saving for a home and a wedding fund, even the most frugal life felt like it wasn't enough.
And so, dinner came to an end.
His mother washed the dishes while his father settled onto the living room sofa and switched on the TV. Sang-hyuk sat down beside him and watched along.
One look was enough to know it was about him.
'This is going to blow up big.'
His father spoke as he watched the broadcast.
"We've had plenty of remarkable Awakeners over the years, but I've never seen anything like that."
"It's true. It's a world first, after all."
"Team Superhuman must be breathing easier now."
"You mean the team with S-Rank Awakener Cho Sang-hyuk?"
"That's right. We've all lived safe lives thanks to him, you know."
That much was certain. The Awakener responsible for South Korea's safety today was Cho Sang-hyuk — and that owed to his unique class, the Cheater.
"Being able to enter the Tower as a team in the first place is straight-up cheating, honestly."
His father nodded.
In principle, Tower climbs were solo challenges. You could enter anytime, anywhere, unfettered by schedule or location — but once you were in, you were alone.
However.
Cho Sang-hyuk was different.
True to his class name, he had managed to deceive even the Tower itself. Through a trick of perception that made anyone he held with both hands register as an extension of himself, he could bring up to three people into the same floor.
That was why South Korea had remained unscathed all these years, despite having only a single S-Rank Awakener.
"And yet even those superhumans never managed a Legendary-tier achievement. This newcomer is something else. I just hope he climbs quickly and takes some of the weight off Team Superhuman's shoulders."
"Their shoulders are heavy?"
"They would be. The climbs keep taking longer and longer. They're not getting any younger, either."
At his father's words, Sang-hyuk pulled out his phone and looked up the recent clear records.
'He's right.'
Were the old guard finally struggling?
"Hopefully this Awakener can deliver."
"Didn't he clear five floors in a single day? He'll shoot up in no time."
"Probably."
"Anyway, Dad. Hand me your wallet for a second."
"Why do you want my wallet?"
"Just hand it over."
His father fished it out, and Sang-hyuk looked down at the cracked, worn-out leather.
'I knew it.'
Then he made a slow circuit of the house, taking stock of his mother's clothes, her bags. Come to think of it, the sofa was falling apart. The kitchen where his mother washed dishes looked cramped, too.
There was a great deal that needed doing for them, it seemed.
'From now on, the title of filial son of this family belongs to me.'
The Tower? The floors?
Cultivate the self, order the household, govern the state, and bring peace to all under heaven.
His own body and his own family came first.
"What exactly is Korea playing at?"
The Legendary-tier achievement message hadn't been delivered to Korean Awakeners alone. Every Awakener on Earth had received it, and now the entire world was fixated on this new accomplishment.
Daniel Jensen, America's top climber.
He burst into a disbelieving laugh, then turned toward the U.S. Secretary of Defense across from him.
"That Sang-hyuk guy clearing the Tower as a team was already absurd enough. And now what? A Legendary-tier achievement?"
Leni, the Secretary of Defense — and Daniel's old friend — replied with an utterly blank expression.
"Nobody's saying otherwise. By the way, Daniel."
"Yeah?"
"You might have to make a trip to Korea."
"Why?"
"To get information on Floor 48, of course."
"Pfft! I was the one who cleared Floor 47 first, and now I'm getting overtaken like this?"
Leni nodded, and Daniel vented his frustration.
"Leni. Don't take this lightly. If things like this keep happening, the entire world order could shift."
"We'll worry about that when it comes. We're already reviewing 'high-performance' and 'level-free' items to hand out to new Awakeners."
Leni said it as if to soothe him, but Daniel's expression didn't soften — and with good reason. Among level-free items, genuinely good ones were vanishingly rare.
And even supposing a high-performance item existed, no item in existence could sweep the vast expanse of a Tower floor and annihilate every key monster within ten seconds.
······"Miss Leni, I'm not optimistic. There's already a whole truckload of kids who start out decked head to toe in top-tier classes, top-tier skills, top-tier items, with systematic training from day one."
"We still have to try."
"No. The old methods have hit their ceiling."
Securely clearing the Tower every year was the task of every nation on Earth, which was why support for new Awakeners kept improving by the year.
It was the government's frantic scrambling to raise Awakeners faster and field more high-floor climbers.
But the prevailing wisdom held that new Awakeners' leveling simply couldn't keep pace with the difficulty of the latest floors.
"We need to study Korea's Awakener management system."
Daniel was convinced Korea possessed some special secret, but Leni shook her head.
"We've already investigated all of it. And according to intelligence, this person wasn't a state-managed Awakener at all."
"Pfft! A total rookie?"
"That's right."
"You're telling me that's possible?"
Leni shook her head slowly.
"It shouldn't be."
"So what's this rookie's name?"
"No one knows."
"What?"
"Even Korea doesn't know who it is yet."
"Wow."
At Leni's words, Daniel's expression flipped in an instant.
"Then nobody would notice if I brought that person back to America, would they?"
At that, Leni broke into a sly grin.
"Exactly."
America was one of the most stable Tower-climbing nations in the world, so it was nothing new for immigrant Awakeners to flood across its borders.
"Of course we're investigating. But tracking him down won't be easy. There's simply no information."
"Leni."
"What?"
"Get me on a flight to Korea. Now."
"What for?"
"Because I'm a lucky man. We might just run into him by chance, you know?"
Leni nodded at that — no, she all but pulled out a plane ticket she'd been holding in reserve.
"Here."
"That's unusually fast, even for you."
Leni had faith in one of Daniel's skills.
Description: You may peruse the information of any target you behold.
And besides, Daniel Jensen was the most famous Awakener in the world. If that mysterious climber was an Awakener at all, the odds were high he would come to see Daniel of his own accord.
"Let's leave right now."