Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A Tower appeared in the world, and Awakened began to emerge.

The difficulties are as follows.

[Normal]

[Hard]

[Hell]

Each difficulty is divided into floors 1 through 100.

Once the 100th floor is cleared, one can move on to the next difficulty.

The highest difficulty humanity has currently reached is [Hard 34th Floor].

And I am.

- Difficulty: Mythic

- Floor: 99th Floor

Trapped in an absurd place.

I am eking out each day by farming.

***

30 to 1

A competition ratio that could be called high or low, depending on how one looked at it.

By the time Woo-jin passed the Grade 9 Seoul civil-service exam, he had offered up all the youth of his early-to-mid twenties.

While everyone else went to university and enjoyed their youth, he shut himself in a tiny room and wrestled with online lectures and past exam questions for three years.

After a not particularly long exam-preparation period, Woo-jin eventually became the civil servant he had wanted to be.

Clack-clack-clack. Clack.

It was ten at night, and everyone else had gone home.

In the empty office, Woo-jin sat typing at his keyboard, dark circles hanging low beneath his eyes.

Every day was one overtime shift after another.

He was only a low-ranking Grade 9 civil servant, but he had a mountain of work to do, and unless he worked overtime, there was no way he could get through everything assigned to him.

‘I don't think this is the life I wanted.’

Sss.

Should he just quit right now?!

Thinking he couldn't waste any more of his youth, Woo-jin opened a file titled ‘Voluntary Resignation Form.’ In regular office-worker terms, it was a resignation-letter template file.

“...Wait a second.”

He opened the bank app on his smartphone.

- Current Balance: 1,320,780 won

Woo-jin closed the Voluntary Resignation Form file just as it was.

There was nothing he could do with this money.

Between rent, utilities, insurance premiums, and food alone, a whole month's salary flew out the window.

And so Woo-jin's resolve to resign vanished in one minute, ending with the conclusion that he should keep working overtime and earn money diligently.

…Still.

It wasn't as if Woo-jin had no hope at all.

[Tower Climbing Plan.hwp]

A Tower climbing plan totaling over one hundred pages.

This was the file Woo-jin had prepared in case he received an invitation to the Tower, and it laid out a flawless, airtight strategy for clearing floors 1 through 20 of Normal difficulty.

“Haah. If only the invitation would come, I'd resign right away.”

Over two years of working as a civil servant in Tower Management, Woo-jin had gathered enough information and knowledge to be more confident than anyone in perfectly conquering the lower floors of Normal difficulty.

In the Tower, a person could return to reality every time they cleared a single floor, and if they brought the Tower Coins and byproducts gained from clearing it back to reality and sold them, they could earn the monthly salary of a decent office worker.

And if the floor cleared was higher?

Then it rose from monthly-salary money to annual-salary money.

The amount that could be earned by clearing floors 1 through 20 was about one billion won.

With that money, if he invested in index-tracking funds and dividend stocks and lived frugally, he could live the so-called FIRE lifestyle. In other words, even becoming a “resting” youth would be no problem at all.

Of course, clearing higher floors would earn him more money, but from the 21st floor onward, the risk of death increased, so he didn't even look in that direction.

That was why Woo-jin's Tower Climbing Plan ended at the 20th floor.

Clack-clack-clack.

‘I just need to write the budget report and go home.’

Woo-jin's fingers were busy moving over the keyboard when it happened.

He froze.

“......?”

[Enter the Tower?]

“It's here!!!”

Lee Woo-jin, age twenty-five.

His youth had hit the jackpot too.

***

The following Monday.

Woo-jin immediately shared at work that he had received a Tower invitation message.

“Congratulations!”

“Congratulations, Woo-jin.”

“Heh heh. Thank you.”

Receiving the sincere, envy-laced congratulations of his coworkers, he began the resignation process.

July was regular personnel-transfer season for civil servants.

The timing was good. The Tower invitation message had appeared in early June, and the HR department replied that his resignation would be processed as of July 1.

“When should I do the handover?”

At Woo-jin's question, Team Manager Park waved his hand dismissively.

“You're already leaving. What handover? More importantly, how far are you going to challenge? The 20th floor, right?”

Since civil servants in Tower Management handled work related to the Tower, their small talk naturally centered on “If I ever receive a Tower invitation message...”

And every time, Woo-jin would say the same thing.

“Yes, sir. I'll clear up to the 20th floor, take the one billion won, park it in index trackers and dividend stocks, and join the FIRE crowd.”

“Ahhh. The FIRE crowd sounds great. I want that too.”

“I'll be rooting for you, Woo-jin.”

“Thank you.”

“Commission us to liquidate the coins and byproducts. The public and private sectors use the same fixed prices anyway.”

“Yes, sir. I'll be sure to sell them here and help you get your bonuses too.”

“Wahaha! Woo-jin is the best.”

In that warm atmosphere, they held one last team dinner, and then his resignation was truly processed.

[Enter the Tower?]

Before entering.

He took a shower, changed into a comfortable short-sleeved shirt and shorts that he wore as pajamas, and put on slippers.

[Tower Climbing Plan.hwp]

“The 1st floor isn't anything special.”

Normal difficulty's 1st floor was a stage set against a peaceful field.

The goal was to use the Auction House with the 100 coins provided as a commemorative reward for entering the Tower.

That was all.

“I'll clear only the 1st floor quickly, come back, drink a can of beer, and go to sleep. Heh heh heh.”

That was why Woo-jin had showered and put on pajamas before entering the Tower.

‘The 2nd floor is catching one rabbit... First, on the 1st floor, I buy a wooden bow and a quiver of arrows as my basic weapon.’

Having drawn the blueprint perfectly in his head, Woo-jin accepted the Tower invitation message.

The environment around him soon changed.

…….

Drip!

Drip!

The sound of water droplets falling.

A droplet of water as cold as a sheet of ice fell on his forehead.

“Ah, cold!”

Woo-jin opened his eyes.

“......?”

Where am I?

His surroundings were a wide cavern.

It really was wide. The ceiling was higher than most high-rise apartment buildings, and it stretched far across as well.

Drip!

Woo-jin had definitely entered the 1st floor of the Normal-difficulty Tower.

So why was he seeing the inside of a dark, desolate, wide cavern instead of a blue field of grass?

“Status Window.”

Name: Lee Woo-jin

Level: 1

Abilities

- Strength: 3

- Agility: 3

- Stamina: 3

- Magic Power: 3

Skills: None

Coins: 100

Difficulty: Mythic

Floor: 99th Floor

“Huh?”

Woo-jin rubbed his eyes.

I think I'm seeing this wrong.

Working overtime and staring at a computer monitor so much had worsened his eyesight, but there was no way he could mistake Normal 1st Floor for Mythic 99th Floor.

…It was the same.

The difficulty was still Mythic, and the floor was still the 99th.

“G-goal check!”

[99th Floor Objective]

- Slay the Dragon Lord (0/1)

He went blank.

He wasn't shocked or angry.

He didn't become sad or depressed either.

It was far too unreal.

‘Dragon Lord? The Dragon Lord that shows up as the final boss in fantasy novels?’

Was he being told to kill that now?

The emotion Woo-jin felt was ‘bewilderment’ itself.

Level 1.

Basic abilities.

No skills.

100 coins held.

The exact same starting line given to anyone who entered the 1st floor of Normal difficulty.

And with this, he was supposed to slay the Dragon Lord.

‘Something's gone badly wrong. This must be a system error. Or I might be dreaming right now.’

Right. He was dreaming.

Otherwise, something like this couldn't possibly happen.

Pinch.

“Ow!”

It hurt! It hurt like hell!

And on top of that... the problem was.

Grumble.

He was getting hungry too!

Cold sweat ran down Woo-jin's back.

There was exactly one condition for leaving the Tower and returning to reality.

Clearing the objective of the floor he was currently on.

[99th Floor Objective]

- Slay the Dragon Lord (0/1)

This was absolutely impossible.

Woo-jin looked around.

Aside from the cavern's ceiling, walls, and floor, he could see nothing.

“Excuse me! I think you've assigned me the wrong difficulty and floor!”

I think, I think, I think......!

Perhaps because he was inside a wide cavern, his voice echoed.

There was no sign of anyone, and no response came back from the system.

Thump!

Was he going to die here like this?

And by starving, at that?!

Woo-jin decided to solve his hunger first.

He had absolutely nothing on him.

If he'd known this would happen, he would have brought something before entering the Tower.

Shake, shake!

No.

Let's not get pessimistic.

Who could possibly have expected he would end up somewhere like this in the first place?

‘First, I need to get something to eat with my 100 coins.’

The Tower had several systems.

One of them was the ‘Auction House system.’

It was a marketplace where Awakened who could enter and leave the Tower could list items, buy them, and sell them.

‘Weapons and armor aren't the only things that can be listed on the Auction House. I can get food too!’

Even food commonly eaten in Korea.

Woo-jin currently had 100 coins.

These were the coins everyone basically received when they awakened.

One coin was worth about ten thousand won in Korean cash.

All kinds of items were listed on the Auction House, and if needed, one could make requests through the community.

Just like now.

- Anyone willing to list two rolls of gimbap and one bottle of water for 1 coin!

[An anonymous Awakened has requested a chat. Accept?]

“Yes.”

- Anonymous 4892: I'll sell them for 2 coins.

- Anonymous 4892: There has to be a service fee.

Ah, right.

Since two rolls of gimbap and one bottle of water would cost about ten thousand won in Korea, he had requested them for 1 coin without thinking.

He hadn't considered the errand fee.

- Me: Yes. Please list them for 2 coins.

- Anonymous: Basic gimbap is fine, right? If you ask for something expensive like tuna gimbap, I'll charge 3 coins.

Wow, how picky.

- Me: Please make it basic gimbap.

Twenty minutes passed.

He kept refreshing the Auction House, and two rolls of gimbap and one bottle of water had been listed for 2 coins.

[Immediately purchase two rolls of gimbap and one bottle of water for 2 coins.]

The gimbap he had purchased appeared before his eyes.

Woo-jin peeled off the gimbap wrapper and popped one piece into his mouth.

Chew, chew.

‘Gimbap really is damn good.’

After finishing off one roll like that.

When he was about to eat the remaining roll.

His hand froze.

‘I'll save this and eat it later.’

Woo-jin currently had 98 coins.

With 98 coins... he had to survive somehow.