Chapter 1
Should I just die?
That was what I thought in the room, hazy with smoke from the fire.
My parents were dead, I had no relatives, and all I had left was a single room in an old building without even a computer or a phone.
The reason for the fire was absurd. Some lunatic, shouting that this shitty world should just end and we should all die together, had doused the building and himself in gasoline, then set himself alight.
I couldn't say I didn't understand. A lot of people had died when monsters came pouring out of the Towers that appeared all over the world. Then Awakened people started appearing and somehow managed to contain things, but by then, people had already died all across the world.
That man was one of the victims from back then. I remembered his face particularly well: every time I passed him, he looked utterly despairing.
I just never thought it would happen today.
When I opened the front door, the hallway was already thick with smoke.
And in front of me lay the man who wanted to die, his whole body on fire as he succumbed to his injuries.
"What did you lose when the Tower appeared, sir?"
There was no answer.
I didn't know if he was dead or had passed out from the pain, but his whole body was blazing. Maybe his vocal cords had already been destroyed, too.
I carried the man, so consumed by grief that he couldn't even find the courage to die alone, into my room. My hand caught fire, and my skin and muscles twisted as agony stabbed through my whole body, but I ignored it.
I turned him over and laid him down facing the ceiling. His face was already engulfed in flames. I couldn't even see where his eyeballs had gone.
I wondered if the people on the other floors had escaped. It was impressive that he'd even managed to struggle his way up to my floor.
"Don't worry too much, sir. I was planning on dying soon anyway."
So, since things had come to this, I'd stay with you.
I said goodbye to the man who could no longer hear me, felt the flames engulf my whole body, and closed my eyes.
"The patient is awake!"
"Who's the attending physician?"
"...?"
'What the hell? Why am I not dead?'
Swallowing my complaints, I sat up.
I felt a weight on my upper body.
-Squish~
"?"
I felt around my body, and when I noticed a soft sensation around my chest, I peeked inside the hospital gown they'd somehow put on me. For some reason, my chest had swelled.
When I checked a little further, my junk was completely gone.
'WTF?'
"So, you were originally a man, but when you woke up, you'd become a woman?"
"Yes. It seems so..."
"Hmm..."
The doctor looked like someone who'd stepped out of a drama, glasses and all. The doctor wrote something on the clipboard, then asked a nearby nurse to bring a mirror before speaking to me again.
"According to your national ID, your name is Joo So-jeong. Gender: male. Age: 20... Is that right?"
"Yes. I was originally a man, but is it possible to wake up as a woman?"
"Since you have no history of sex reassignment surgery, this is probably one of the side effects that come with becoming Awakened."
"A side effect? Awakened? I awakened?"
"We'll have to run some tests to know for sure, but it's possible. There have been cases of women becoming men upon awakening, and all over the world, some Awakened people even change species depending on their abilities. Elves and dwarves, for example. In rare cases, there are vampires and even dragons."
In my case, the doctor joked that I'd rolled a good number for my appearance.
I'd heard that people could Awaken because of the Tower, but I never expected their very species to change, too. I'd just lived without caring about the way the world was going, so all I knew were the occasional things I happened to hear from street ads, like which Awakened person had reached which floor.
"Here, a hand mirror."
When a young nurse brought over a small hand mirror, I took it by the handle and looked at my face.
Gone was my ordinary East Asian face, with black hair and dark brown eyes. Reflected there was a beautiful woman with long white hair and striking red eyes.
...I really had become a woman.
"...Then are there any survivors where I used to live?"
"Ah, well..."
The doctor gave me an uneasy look as they answered my question.
"Since it was a small building and the fire started on the first floor, most people died, except for the ones who happened to be outside. It was an old building, so there weren't even sprinklers or fire extinguishers..."
So everyone had died except me.
It was a small building, only three floors at most.
But was it too much to wish I were the only one who died? It was only natural, but...
I absentmindedly raised my hand and saw a soft, pale one, as if it had never done a day's work.
It didn't even look like the hand of someone who'd been in a fire.
Come to think of it, I was Awakened...
"Is there a way for an Awakened person to see their abilities?"
"Oh, supposedly, if you say 'Status Window,' something appears that only you can see..."
"Ah... Status Window."
When I said it without thinking, a translucent window really did appear in front of me.
[Status Window]
[Name : Joo So-jeong]
[Class : Phoenix]
[Age : 20]
[Stats]
Stamina : 30
Mana : 1000
Strength : 10
Agility : 20
Intelligence : 15
[Skills]
Pyrokinesis : Creates or controls fire.
Immortality : Cannot die.
Agelessness : Does not grow old.
"Wow, they gave an immortal skill to someone who wanted to die, so now I can't."
"Now, now, don't go carelessly revealing your skills. And don't go around saying you want to die, patient."
"My class isn't Warrior or Mage. It's Phoenix."
"It's a special class. Aside from the higher-tier classes I mentioned earlier, sometimes the names of mythical creatures appear as class names."
"By the way, Doctor, how do you know so much about the Awakened?"
"A friend of mine has a special class."
The doctor said a friend was Awakened, then crammed me with the basics: Awakened people had to register with the Management Bureau, and there were guilds, organizations of Awakened people who climbed the Tower, so I should look into them later.
After about two days of tests, I was discharged.
With the hospital bill added to my debt.
"You should be able to pay it off quickly by selling magic stones or other drops you get while climbing the Tower. Take care, patient."
"Thanks for everything."
After a brief farewell, I left the hospital and looked up at the sky above the street.
People had died in a fire, but the world kept turning, as if it didn't care, like the wheels of cars.
Amid that everyday scene, a huge Tower stood tall, looking down over the country.
There were several Towers in each country... or so I'd heard.
That aside, the first thing I did was hang myself.
Just when I thought I was about to suffocate completely, I found myself sprawled beneath the rope I'd hanged myself with.
The white T-shirt and shorts the nurse had given me came along, too.
I picked up a pocketknife lying by the roadside and slashed my throat.
There was a sudden whoosh of flames, and the wound regenerated.
"Wow, not even a scar."
I wiped the blood off the mirror, which had gotten on it when I cut my throat, and admired my reflection.
"Still, my face is so prettyyy."
I was pretty enough to forget I'd ever been a man. Would I have to update my national ID, too? Go to the district office? Or should I go to the Management Bureau?
Now that I thought about it, as I walked down the street, I could feel people staring. When I looked, men and women alike had all turned to look at me at least once.
There was even a guy who asked for my number, but unfortunately, I didn't have a phone.
If I'd been a streamer or something, I might've become popular in no time with a face like this.
Though I couldn't have, even if I'd wanted to, since I didn't have a computer.
After thinking that, I tried stabbing vital spots, including my heart and head, and jumping into the Han River a few times. Only then did I finally give up.
I wanted to get hit by a truck, but I gave up because I felt bad for the driver, who'd probably get fired.
"I've always thought this, but it's huge."
Up close, the Tower rose through the clouds, towering well above the 63 Building.
I didn't know how many floors it had, but I'd heard there were Towers with far fewer floors than this one.
When I went to the Management Bureau and told them my gender had changed when I Awakened, they seemed to know of cases like mine. I filled out a few forms, and soon I had an Awakened license and a newly issued national ID.
One was the old ID from when I'd been a man, its original appearance hidden by fire damage. The other was new, with my appearance after becoming an Awakened woman.
To enter the Tower, you basically had to scan your Awakened license.
Originally, you could enter without a license, but after someone who wasn't Awakened sneaked in out of greed for the Tower's rewards and died on the third floor, they added this minimum safety measure. Without a license, you'd be forced back outside the boundary.
[Welcome to the Seoul Tower.]
With a monotonous female announcement, a door like the ones you see in subway stations opened. What was that thing called again...? Ugh... I forgot.
Anyway, after I walked a little way inside, I felt myself float, and the location changed.
What... It's a cave.
[Defeat the goblins.]
Come to think of it, wasn't I supposed to be able to choose the difficulty when climbing the Tower?
I couldn't remember which difficulty this was.
"Sigh... What should I do... Do Tower rewards include weapons that can kill the immortal or something?"
[Congratulations!]
"Huh?"
A sudden notification announced that I'd cleared the floor. I wondered what was going on, then saw the creatures ahead of me, who'd been holding clubs, charred black and sprawled across the floor.