Chapter 1
One day, towers suddenly sprouted up all over the world.
A pitch-black, mysterious tower.
Also known as the Tower of Trials.
Only humans chosen by the tower can enter it.
Once you enter the tower and come back out, you get a whole package deal: a status window, the climber community, skills, levels, and all sorts of other stuff.
And apparently, you can choose the difficulty of your challenge when you enter the tower.
They say even if you clear it on the easiest difficulty, you’ll have no trouble making a living.
You can study day in, day out, and still earn less than a D-rank Hunter.
“Ah. I want to enter the tower too.”
“There you go again. Stop having weird ideas and just study. Weren’t we going to become civil servants together?”
“Hyeji. What studying? If I become a Hunter, I’m set for life.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to study. You’re never going to become a Hunter. I heard you have to be smart and athletic to get invited.”
“Aah...”
Right. My friend Hyeji was right.
It’d be great to become a Hunter, wouldn’t it?
There’s no way I could become one, though.
But I can at least dream about it!
There’s nothing wrong with imagining myself entering the tower, picking a manageable trial, getting a D-rank badge, and coasting through life.
If only the tower would choose me, my life would be made.
No matter how much I studied at my desk, my life would still be worse than a D-rank Hunter’s.
A civil servant’s salary? Hunters make that while picking their noses.
I want to make money while picking my nose too.
I want to be treated like such a precious talent that Korea is astonished and the whole world takes notice just because I’m breathing.
“Ugh...”
“What’s wrong with you now?”
“I don’t want to study...”
“Then just go home.”
“Maybe I should start streaming while I’m at it?”
“Who’d watch your stream?”
“My friend Hyeji would.”
“Are you crazy?”
Right. My friend Hyeji was right.
Who on earth would watch a guy in his mid-to-late twenties streaming?
“Forget it. Let’s go get dinner.”
“Sure. I’m hungry and sad.”
“Jeez, Ji Cheonwoo. Come on! Stop looking so depressed, seriously.”
“I don’t wanna study... huh?”
“Huh!? Hey, Cheonwoo! Your, your body...!!”
Just as I was heading to the convenience store with my friend Hyeji to grab a quick bite...
My vision blurred, and space warped.
“Hey! Cheonwoo!
Aaaaaah----”
Hyeji’s voice stretched out, sounding like a broken tape.
At the same time, my vision blurred and my body floated into the air.
[You have received an invitation to the tower.]
[A critical error has occurred.]
[The tower is expelling you.]
Thud—!
“Ugh...”
When my sight and hearing returned to normal...
I was sitting alone in a dark hallway.
‘Where am I?’
What on earth had just happened?
I got invited to the tower, only to be expelled right away?
If you invite me, you’re supposed to treat me like a guest!
Why’d you suddenly kick me out?
What is this, you chew me up and spit me out?
Can the tower really reject people like this?
No, but where have I ended up?
This isn’t my house, or the street where I was walking with my friend Hyeji.
It was a place I’d never seen in my life.
If you’re going to expel me, at least throw me back where I was.
Why dump me in some weird, creepy, frightening place like this?
“Excuse me? Anybody there? Excuse me? No, what the hell is wrong with my voice!?”
My voice was so squeaky I sounded like a little kid.
No, wait.
“.....????????”
Three million question marks appeared in my head.
How had my big, solid, hefty hands turned into these soft, squishy, mochi-like hands of a little kid?
And why are my clothes such a mess...
“.....Huh. What is this? Why is this happening? No. No, where did my gigantic Armstrong cannon go!?”
It was gone.
Smooth.
Every last hair had been shaved off.
It was so clean, so smooth, so sleek that it made my head spin.
My jungle.
My gigantic Armstrong cannon.
My pair of golden orbs.
Where had they all gone?
Who had taken them!!!!
“Ah....”
I was dumbstruck.
The uncomfortable truth I’d faced after running away from reality.
I had become a woman.
The same sex as my friend Hyeji.
The moment I went from a male virgin to a female one.
I sank into despair from the depths of my heart.
[
No Signal
has been reached.]
[Your sta?tus!window★ has been granted!]
“.....”
I had no idea what it meant, but apparently I’d been given a ‘sta?tus!window★.’
It wasn’t a status window; it was a ‘sta?tus!window★.’
“Status window...”
Ding!
My status window opened with an irritating sound.
It looked very different from the ones I’d seen and heard about on YouTube.
----
[Your sta?tus!window★]
[You are Ji Cheonwoo]
[Occupation? : Unemployed NEET!]
[Level? : -1]
[Ability? : Useless...]
[Special trait: Human (99% human)]
----
What did 99% human even mean?
Where had the other 1% gone?
I’d never heard of such a messed-up status window in my life.
The status windows I knew looked like this.
(Example)
----
[Name : Hong Gildong]
[Occupation : Righteous outlaw]
[Level : 1]
[Stats]
[Stamina : 5]
[Strength : 5]
[Agility : 5]
[Will : 5]
[Skills]
-Here one moment, there the next
----
That was the kind of orderly, rigid format the public knew status windows for.
Why was my level minus one?
And what was with calling my ability useless? Was this some kind of joke?
“This is confusing.”
I wanted to enter the tower, get a status window, and become a Hunter.
But this seemed to be going in a different direction.
No, this was completely different from what I’d imagined.
It had turned a full 180 degrees!
“So what do I do now? Excuse me! Let me out of here!”
What was I supposed to do now?
I’d heard the tower would give me a trial on its own.
No, wait. I’d heard you could set the difficulty first.
There were four difficulties in total.
[Easy], [Normal], [Hard], and [Hell].
That was how they were divided, I’d heard.
If you picked Hell difficulty, you could die on the first floor.
They said unless you were incredibly confident, you should just pick Normal.
Naturally, I was going to pick Easy.
I’d turned into a little kid. If I picked anything other than Easy, I’d be killed outright.
[Difficulty has been fixed!]
[Fixed difficulty : Calamity]
“....?????”
Calamity? You mean Calamity???
Why had Calamity suddenly appeared?
Was Calamity difficulty harder than Hell?
No, what even was this? How many fishhooks did it take to make this tower happy?
My brain had already melted from being unable to keep up with the situation...
Ding!
====
[Your goal!]
-Survive and proceed to the next level.
[Rewards!]
-1 bottle of almond water
-One application form
※Warning. You’d be better off running.
====
Better off running?
What was I supposed to run from?
The information was way too limited.
While I was wondering how to act in such an ambiguous situation, I heard a person’s voice behind me.
“Cheonwoo. Ji Cheonwoo. It’s me.”
“H-Hyeji!? No, Hyeji! You came too!”
“Yeah. It’s me. Lee Hyeji. Your friend.”
My friend’s voice was coming from a place where I shouldn’t have been hearing my friend’s voice.
For a moment, the thought that the owner of that voice might not actually be Hyeji sent chills down my body and raised goosebumps on my skin.
“Y-you really are Hyeji?”
“Yeah. It’s me. Your friend Hyeji. Cheonwoo. It’s me. I’m your friend Hyeji.”
“Cheonwoo. It’s me. Your friend Cheonwoo. It’s me, it’s me. Hyeji’s friend, Cheonwoo. It’s me. Me.”
“It’s me. Cheonwoo. Me. Lee Hyeji. Friend. Cheonwoo.”
It kept babbling the exact same words over and over, as if it had glitched.
And its voice gradually changed into something different and grotesque, something that wasn’t my friend Hyeji anymore.
The uncanny valley.
With every hair on my body standing on end, I backed away.
“I’m Cheonwoo. I’m going to become one with Cheonwoo.”
“You’re insane...!!! Get away! You’re fucking disgusting! Shit!!!”
Soon, a pitch-black, faceless thing opened a door at the end of the hallway and came toward me!
“Shit, shit, shit...!!!”
I’d only gotten a glimpse, but its face was gradually becoming more distinct!
As if it were imitating me...
First, I had to run.
If it caught me, it definitely wouldn’t stop at just killing me!
“Shit...!”
I sucked in a breath and sprinted madly down the dark hallway.
Without a moment to look at the scenery, I ran in a daze, thinking only that I wanted to live. I smashed through anything blocking my way, flung open every door I saw, and searched desperately for a way out.
-Cheonwoooooo. Don’t leeeave! Come heeere! Let’s become oooooone---!!!!!!
After running without looking back until I could taste blood in my mouth, I managed to get away from that unidentified, crazy monster for a little while.
“Haa. Haa. Haa. Shit. Calamity difficulty is way too hard... Hh...”
It probably wouldn’t give up until it caught me and ate me.
This insane place went on forever.
I’d have to keep playing tag with that monster until I found an exit.
I couldn’t rest.
I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
How much longer could I last here, with no food or water?
I couldn’t last.
I wouldn’t last a single day!
So I had to find an exit while I still had the strength and stamina to run away.
This was a time attack!!!!
‘It said to proceed to the next level. How?’
I didn’t know.
I’d been running around this place for over two hours, but almost all the scenery looked the same.
There was nothing distinctive about it. Just hallways and more hallways.
Hallways connected to other hallways, hallways behind doors, and nothing but fucking hallways.
“Why is the difficulty like this!? Help! Help! Help me! Please!”
Where should I go?
Where the hell was I supposed to go?
I wandered aimlessly.
I ran and ran, away from the monster’s voice. My legs cramped up, I fell down and cried, then I started running again.
“An exit... I have to find an exit. I have to get to the next level. I have to run....”
I’d sweated so much.
My throat was so dry it had gone hoarse and raw.
My body was already close to its limit.
And yet, I still hadn’t found an exit.
‘What am I missing? What on earth did I overlook?’
Could there be a clue in the quest window?
No. All it said was to go to the next level...
“The next level... the next floor... down. Do I have to go down?”
While running away, I’d found holes so deep I couldn’t see the bottom.
And finally, I arrived at a large space riddled with dozens of holes.
As if fate had led me here.
It had shown me the holes because I had to get to the next level.
There was no exit.
I couldn’t see any way to go up, either.
Then, maybe I had to go down?
‘You’ve got to be kidding me... You expect me to jump down there? That’s telling me to kill myself!!!!’
The only way to another floor was these holes.
This place was completely horizontal.
Only these holes had a vertical structure.
If I jumped in here...
Maybe I could get to the floor below.
An abyss with no visible end.
Would I really survive if I jumped down there?
“Cheonwoo... I found youuuu... Come hereee... Let’s... become oneeeee!”
“Shit..! Get away, you damn bitch!”
I let out a battle cry and threw myself into the hole.
“Cheonwoo!!!! Come here!!!! Don’t go!!!! We should do something that feels good!!!!”
“Fuck off!”
The bizarre creature shouted as it tried to grab me.
I kept falling.
****
Thud!
“Guh...!”
After falling for a long time, my body floated into the air, and I arrived in a place completely different from the one I’d just left.
Ding!
[You have reached level -2.]
[You survived.]
[Rewards have been granted.]
“...Huh.”
Along with the message saying I’d survived, the rewards appeared.
A glass bottle filled with an unidentified liquid and a sheet of paper labeled ‘Caretaker Application.’
I had reached level -2.
In other words, the second basement floor.
I had fallen to the Tower’s second basement floor.