Chapter 1

Prologue. A Night for Counting Stars

Seven months earlier.

“Brr! It’s damn cold. Hey, how much time is left?”

At my question, my junior soldier blew out a white breath and checked his wristwatch.

“Forty minutes left, Corporal Han Ji-woo.”

“Damn guard duty. We’re living in the cutting-edge age, so can’t they just replace all guard duty with CCTV already? Who the hell is going to come all the way out to this mountain valley in Gangwon-do? Even the North Korean soldiers would freeze to death on the way here.”

“You can say that again.”

It was so cold that if I nodded off for even a moment, I felt like I’d die right where I stood.

Deep in the mountains of Gangwon-do.

Maybe because it was a winter night, the night sky was especially clear. And since there wasn’t a single speck of light around us, the stars looked as if they might come pouring down, to the point that I wondered whether this place was really still Korea.

“Hey, don’t you have any funny stories?”

“Did I tell you about what happened in Haeundae during my last leave?”

“I heard that one during our last guard duty.”

“Uh… then I don’t have any left.”

“Does your military service end just because you don’t have any?”

“If it ended, would I still be here?”

At that cheerful, joking answer, the words “Fuck, you’re right” came out on their own.

“Corporal, Corporal.”

“What?”

My junior pointed at the black silhouette of the tower visible in the sky and asked,

“They say you get supernatural powers if you go into that tower. What kind of power would you want, Corporal?”

“Supernatural powers? I don’t know… What about you?”

“For me, it’s obviously every man’s dream! Invisibility, isn’t it?”

The joke that followed was, fittingly for the army, quite vulgar.

Even a perfectly normal guy back in society had a way of turning into a lunatic once he entered the military.

This bastard did seem especially insane, but I had to admit he had a damn good mouth on him.

Supernatural powers, huh.

If I got supernatural powers, I’d want something that let me experience something strange and interesting.

Though supernatural powers themselves would already be strange enough.

I looked up at the sky. The stars were unusually bright.

It was a good night for counting stars.

***

Chapter 1. The Tower’s Invitation

There are moments in life when you think something was truly fortunate.

Like when the bus you missed because you overslept got into a traffic accident.

Or when you felt depressed after failing every early-admissions application you thought you would pass, only to score higher on the CSAT than you ever had on any mock exam.

According to the news, no one died on that bus, but several people were seriously injured. And if I had passed early admissions, I would never have been able to enter a university better than the ones I had applied to.

That was right. I was fairly lucky.

At least, that was what I thought until just a moment ago.

Until this morning, when I filed my discharge report, left behind my company members as they headed off for ranger training, and greeted my birthday morning at Dong Seoul Terminal.

But now, I felt like I needed to spend a moment reconsidering whether the luck I had thought was good all my life was actually good at all.

Because right now, I had been kidnapped into an empty, pure-white space.

Just a moment ago, I had been at Dong Seoul Terminal, feeling the most refreshed I had ever felt in my entire life so far and the life I had ahead of me, savoring my birthday.

“So this is the Tower’s Invitation.”

About ten years ago, when I was around fifth grade in elementary school, the world changed.

Phenomena called ‘Gates,’ ‘Dungeons,’ ‘Monster Holes,’ and ‘holes leading to another world’ began appearing all over the world, and a tower that reached into the sky, yet could never be reached, came into existence.

It was the kind of common story you saw in comics or novels.

If a Gate was left alone for a set period of time, it caused what was called an ‘Outbreak’ or a ‘Monster Break.’

An Outbreak referred to the phenomenon where the inside of a Gate burst open, monsters poured out into our world, and then the Gate disappeared.

If you asked whether great chaos erupted because of Outbreaks happening all over the world… it did not.

Hadn’t people said since ancient times that exorcism required firepower, and if firepower did not work, then it required even greater firepower?

It was not as if bullets did nothing to monsters, and even if bullets failed against thick, hard shells, artillery shells usually worked.

There was considerable damage in the beginning, but within a few months, the military suppressed them. Through research, humanity also learned how to eliminate Gates without causing Outbreaks.

In fact, in our country’s case, things were brought under control quickly thanks to the special circumstances created by a small territory and a divided armistice state that was constantly ready for war.

According to the news, foreign countries that had reduced their militaries or had excessively large territories were still somewhat chaotic even now, ten years later.

Of course, even for Korea, which was relatively better off, it was not easy for the state and the military to solve every problem.

When an Outbreak occurred in a city center, they could not exactly bomb the city center. And since it was impossible to shove self-propelled guns or towed artillery into small Gates, Gates had to be cleared with personal firepower.

It was possible to enter Gates with man-portable mortars or anti-tank weapons like the Panzerfaust 3, but the drawback was that the most important part, the shells, were heavy, so people could not carry many of them.

Transport vehicles could not enter Gates, after all.

As a result, various problems broke out, and the ones who solved those problems were three types of people.

The first were ‘natural ability Awakened.’

These were people who had rarely awakened supernatural powers naturally around the time Gates and the Tower appeared. With their supernatural abilities, they could hunt monsters that were difficult to deal with using personal firearms while causing less collateral damage.

On the internet, jokes spread about how they were not unlike Hunters from novels or comics, and it became a meme. Now everyone called them Hunters.

The second were agents of the transnational organization established by the governments of various countries, the ‘World Protection Treaty Organization,’ abbreviated as the ‘WPTO.’

As far as people knew, the WPTO’s duties included cooperating with each country to detect areas where Gates would appear, measuring the lifespan of Gates, and managing the troubleshooters who handled Gates—the Hunters.

On the internet, linked to the Hunter meme, it was being called the ‘World Hunter Association.’

Among the conspiracy theories, there was a story that the people who founded the WPTO were apocalyptic cultists who called themselves ‘Forerunners.’

Apparently, the Gates and the Tower were the proof of that, or something.

There was also talk that the WPTO had been founded so quickly because one of those apocalyptic cultists had been a prophet.

Since the WPTO had been established less than a year after Gates appeared, I could accept the claim that there was a prophet. But I had no idea what a prophet being in the WPTO had to do with apocalyptic beliefs.

Well, with Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar and all that, prophecy and the end of the world did have a bit of a packaged-deal feeling, so maybe that was the kind of sentiment behind it.

The last were the ‘Tower returnees.’

At some point, supernatural ability users appeared who claimed that they had entered and returned from the tower that could only be seen in the sky, never reached.

All of them had awakened at least one supernatural ability.

Unlike natural ability Awakened, Tower returnees often used multiple abilities. Aside from supernatural powers that could not be learned, Tower returnees also brought back learnable powers called ‘magic’ and ‘martial arts.’

Magic and martial arts allowed even those who had not awakened supernatural powers to become stronger and use powers similar to supernatural abilities.

In the case of magic, it had not yet been released to the public, but there was talk that specialized schools would soon appear. In the case of martial arts, dojos and academies had been around for quite some time.

The most representative examples were the ‘Gagaga Swordsmanship’ dojo founded by Tanaka Sanmei, an S-grade Hunter among Japan’s Tower returnees, and the ‘Robert Julius Gun Kata’ training center run by Robert Julius, an S-grade Hunter among America’s Tower returnees.

No one knew how or why Gates and the Tower had appeared.

Perhaps governments or the WPTO knew, but it had not been revealed to the public, including me.

However, over the last ten years, much had been uncovered about both Gates and the Tower.

Naturally, on the internet, where every kind of information imaginable circulated, stories from Tower returnees were everywhere. And on documentaries and variety shows, having Tower returnees talk about their experiences had long since become a stale broadcast topic.

Whether those stories were true or not was another matter.

Recently, I had even heard that the government was teaching elementary, middle, and high school students how to respond if they were invited to the Tower, almost like first aid.

When I was in the military, I had also heard over and over what to do if I was dragged into the Tower so I would not get arrested for desertion.

“Well, even so, the Tower’s Invitation isn’t a bad thing.”

Ten years ago, when the Tower had first appeared, being kidnapped into the dangerous Tower was something terrifying.

But now, the Tower’s Invitation was treated like a kind of lottery ticket.

The reason was simple.

If you were invited to the Tower, you were guaranteed to awaken at least one supernatural ability.

And anyone climbing the Tower could leave the Tower at any time, if they wished.

That was, if the troop education broadcasts on Defense TV that had droned on endlessly were true.

I approached the large crystal floating all alone in the center of the pure-white space.

“This really works, right?”

A needless sense of anxiety rose in me, but I placed my hand on the crystal.

Then a tingling sensation ran through my fingertips, and a translucent window floated up in front of me.

[Registering climber….]

A circle spun around on the translucent window like a loading screen. Then the phrase [Registration Complete!] appeared, followed by a welcome message and my name.

[Welcome to the Tower, Climber Han Ji-woo.]

It was absurd how it talked as if I had come in on my own two feet, but I waited for the next message.

[You have acquired the Tower common abilities ‘Status Window,’ ‘Tower Shop,’ and ‘Inventory.’]

[You have acquired the personal ability ‘Multidimensional Avatar.’]

At the same time as the notification messages appeared, rough information about the abilities flowed into my head.

The Tower common ability ‘Status Window’ was exactly what it sounded like—an ability that allowed me to view my own status.

Other than that, it was an ability with no ability at all.

“Status Window.”

I did not actually need to say “Status Window” out loud to bring up the Status Window, but wasn’t there such a thing as mood?

[Name: Han Ji-woo / Age: 21]

[Strength: 8 / Agility: 11 / Stamina: 9 / Intelligence: 15 / Mana: 1]

[Status: Normal, Empty Stomach]

[Ability: Multidimensional Avatar Lv 1]

It was a simple Status Window.

Looking at the Status Window, my ability had a level, but I did not.

That was right. Climbing the Tower was not a system where my level went up, and since I had no level, there were naturally no bonus stats from leveling up either.

Then how was I supposed to get stronger?

I did not know.

The people who had climbed the Tower all testified, without exception, that they had no idea by what mechanism they had become stronger.

They simply said that while carrying out missions that could be called quests as the Tower instructed, and while hunting monsters, they had somehow become stronger before they knew it.

All that was known was that stats and ability level numbers were merely indicators of the level at which one could function on each floor.

From what I had heard, everything up to the 10th Floor was considered the tutorial. So did that mean my Strength was at the 8th Floor level, and my Stamina at the 9th Floor level?

I thought I had become healthier while living a relatively regular life in the military, but it seemed I still fell short by the Tower’s standards.

“Empty stomach, huh… I didn’t eat breakfast, so I am a little hungry.”

Rather than eat the tasteless military chow on the day of my discharge, I had simply left without eating.

Next, I checked the Tower Shop, and a translucent shop window appeared.

There were only a few items in the shop.

Bread and water, a one-handed sword and shield, a bow and arrows, and an advanced healing potion!

“It really is like a game.”

Food and weapons were one thing, but a potion?

In fact, this potion was the biggest reason the Tower’s Invitation was called a lottery ticket.

The shop’s currency was shop points, and the initial points given were 10 points. Whether it was bread, water, a sword, or a potion, every item cost 1 point.

An advanced healing potion was an item that could truly be called a miracle. Outside the Tower, one bottle cost at least fifty million won.

Fifty million was only the minimum price. If you timed the sale well, it could sell for two hundred million won.

If I invested all 10 points I had into potions, I could sell them for at least five hundred million and at most two billion won, so it really was no different from a lottery ticket.

Even that price had fallen because quite a bit of supply had entered the market over the last ten years. Ten years ago, apparently, they had cost whatever the seller asked.

As for Inventory, items could be placed inside based only on weight, regardless of volume. Since I was still on the 1st Floor, however, it could only hold 500 grams.

As an experiment, I put in the discharge cap I was wearing.

“Oh! It really went in.”

The discharge cap disappeared and entered the Inventory.

When I focused my mind on the Inventory again, the cap repeatedly appeared and disappeared in my hand.

This would be convenient if the capacity increased.

Thinking that, I placed my hand on the crystal again.

More than anything else, I had to check the most important thing.

When I placed my hand on the crystal, two options appeared on the translucent window before my eyes.

[Proceed to the Tower’s 2nd Floor? You cannot return to the Tower’s 1st Floor.]

[Leave the Tower? You cannot enter the Tower again, and common abilities will be reclaimed.]

I took my hand off the crystal and said, “Cancel.” Then the translucent window disappeared.

Fortunately, it seemed that, just as I had heard to death, I could leave the Tower at any time by touching the crystal on each floor.

The thing I had heard endlessly during troop education time in the military was that if I entered the Tower, I should leave the Tower immediately and continue my remaining military service.

Otherwise, I could be considered a deserter, and my military service might get a lot longer.

“Should I say it’s lucky I got kidnapped after my military service ended? Or should I say it’s unlucky because I was about to finally rest, and now I got dragged somewhere like this?”

For reference, the personal ability I obtained here and the items I bought from the shop could be taken outside.

Of course, as the warning said, common abilities would be reclaimed, so ‘Inventory’ would be reclaimed as well. Anything I wanted to bring out would have to be carried in my two hands.

Because of this restriction, Tower returnees often grumbled about countless items they had been forced to leave behind in the Tower.

Now that I had confirmed I could leave at any time, I had to check my personal ability.

The Tower’s 1st Floor, a white and endlessly empty space, seemed to have been made for people to freely test their personal abilities.

I checked my ability, <Multidimensional Avatar>.