Chapter 1
#1. Tower of Trials
Ten years ago, the Earth underwent a literal upheaval.
Mysterious monsters began appearing all over the world and attacking people, and at the same time, mysterious towers started growing everywhere.
Setting aside the towers that suddenly appeared, the monsters pouring out of them became an uncontrollable threat to humanity.
When hundreds and thousands of creatures that made elephants—the so-called strongest animals on land—look pathetic started flooding out, how were we supposed to handle that?
Of course, humanity's firepower from guns and artillery could easily suppress ordinary monsters, but the real problem was that not all monsters were ordinary.
Monsters that guns and artillery didn't work on, monsters that used bizarre abilities, and monsters that were just plain huge and insanely strong, and so on.
Many cities around the world were destroyed, and countless casualties were suffered. Humanity gradually lost its footing.
Then one day, people who subdued monsters with superhuman strength began to appear.
They were called Awakeners back then, and Hunters now. The towers that had grown all over the world had spewed out beings like that.
Their true identity was people who accepted invitations sent from the 'Tower of Trials,' and they risked their lives to clear the tower and become 'Hunters.'
Of course, that was all in the past.
The world became fairly safe thanks to the first-generation Hunters who suddenly appeared, and the invitations that periodically abducted people became a chance for people like me to turn our lives around.
The Tower of Trials was truly a life-or-death place to challenge in its early days, but now that each floor's strategy has been established, it isn't like that anymore.
Besides, there are even so-called 'rankers' who stay in the Tower of Trials long-term to gain more power, so it's possible to safely ride a so-called 'bus' all the way to Floor 100.
That was why a total shut-in, jobless bum like me walked into the 'Tower of Trials' without hesitation.
Because without risking my life unnecessarily, if I just rode a ranker's bus and cleared it for free, I could at least become a low-rank Hunter.
Even as a low-rank Hunter, if I only took out weak monsters now and then, the pay would apparently be pretty decent, and if I used a Hunter's body for grunt work, I'd make a killing.
And if I happened to find a hidden piece somewhere, that would be a real life turnaround. Why wouldn't I take a high-odds, low-risk gamble?
But what the fuck is this?
[Tower of Trials #2661 (1/1)]
This blue interface is the chat channel belonging to each Tower of Trials.
People who receive invitations are sent to towers in nearby areas based on their country and place of residence. That number 2661 is the unique number of the tower I was sent to, like an address.
So what does the (1/1) next to it mean? It indicates the number of people connected to the chat channel. One person connected, one person total.
So that means I'm alone in Tower of Trials No. 2661. No ranker to carry me, no companions to fight with... completely alone.
At first, I couldn't believe it, so I spent ages messing around with the interface, including the chat channel, looking for other people.
But there was nobody. Even when I asked on the open community shared by all Tower of Trials users, no other challenger for Tower No. 2661 turned up.
Only me, all alone in the tower that the first-generation Hunters had risked their lives to challenge.
My life was completely fucked.
**
The Tower of Trials is a huge otherworld in all but name.
Each floor is its own world, so with one hundred floors, it's a hundred worlds in total, and every floor has multiple dungeons and villages.
Challengers roam the dungeons and hunting grounds on each floor, defeating monsters, leveling up, and growing stronger by gaining skills and stats.
It's a very straightforward RPG format. Naturally, I also have the usual 'status window.'
"Status window."
There was no real need to say it out loud, but since nobody was watching, I muttered it anyway and called up the status window.
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.1 (Unemployed)
HP : 100/100
MP : 100/100
Strength : 1
Agility : 1
Durability : 1
Intelligence : 1
Every stat was at the bare minimum, with nothing extra. That was the same for all challengers.
No matter how strong you were before entering the Tower of Trials, your Strength stat is 1, and likewise, no matter how smart you were, Intelligence is 1.
So Intelligence being 1 doesn't mean I'm stupid. That stat has nothing to do with real intelligence in the first place.
The (Unemployed) tag next to the level is the same thing—it doesn't mean I'm really some jobless bum. Before class advancement, everyone is unemployed.
When Strength goes up, you get stronger; when Agility goes up, you get faster; when Durability goes up, you get tougher.
All the stats gained here are applied directly on top of my existing abilities.
Even now, with the stats at 1, that's still the case. Right now, I'm one point stronger and one point faster than I was before entering the Tower of Trials.
Honestly, I can't feel any difference at all, but that's what the other challengers have found.
It's already a known fact from both the info posted on the open community and what I heard before entering the Tower.
Even so, the reason I bothered opening the status window was to see whether I might get some special perk.
"Fuck, could they not at least give me an Epic class?"
I wondered if being the only one in the tower might give me some kind of advantage, but apparently not.
It really meant I had to clear this tower all by myself, in the body of a level 1 scrub with nothing going for me.
My plan to become a Hunter with dignity and let my mother live in comfort was already completely ruined.
Yeah, a dirt-spoon like me was a dirt-spoon even as a Hunter.
How could my life be this consistently screwed?
**
But even so, everything in life comes down to whether you try.
Who knows? Maybe I really do have some incredible hidden talent and can clear the tower all by myself.
Or maybe there's a hidden piece waiting for me somewhere. There's no way life is just total shit.
So I left the village and headed for the hunting grounds, thinking I'd start by killing whatever monster I could.
"Uh... that's a horn rabbit, right?"
I tightly gripped the wooden sword in my right hand as I looked at the big white rabbit wandering around the field map.
The public Tower of Trials community had the beginner leveling guide and strategy guide neatly organized for newbie challengers.
At level 1, they say not to enter the labyrinth area; instead, go out to the fields and hunt horn rabbits until you reach level 3.
Even if you go around getting carried by rankers below level 3, one slip can still kill you.
-boing-boing.
The horn rabbit literally looked like a rabbit with horns. Its size was almost on par with a large dog.
Unlike the giant rabbits in Australia that look disgusting, it wasn't ugly at all; it actually looked cute, it was just stupidly huge.
And, matching its size, its jumping power was incredible. It could leap higher than my head.
-boing-boing.
Just watching it run around was threatening enough, but supposedly even a level 1 could kill this weakest of monsters... so I should be able to handle it.
I slowly approached the horn rabbit with the basic wooden sword.
Horn rabbits are passive mobs that just keep hopping around unless attacked. So I could put everything I had into the first strike.
"Hyah!"
I brought the wooden sword down on the horn rabbit's bouncing forehead. Maybe the Strength stat of 1 really was helping, because the swing came out harder than I expected.
-Peep!
The horn rabbit, hit in the forehead, let out a cute shriek and toppled over. I walked up to the fallen rabbit and swung the wooden sword once more.
-thunk, thunk, thunk!
I thought if I hit it this hard there should be a louder sound, but maybe because of the fur it just sounds like I'm hitting a pillow.
Still, it looks like the damage is getting through properly. The horn rabbit couldn't resist at all and got thoroughly beaten up by me.
-Keee...
How many hits did that take? The horn rabbit let out a slightly different cry and vanished into light.
[Horn Rabbit Hide]
The loot came into my inventory. Even if it's level 1, it doesn't seem like one horn rabbit is enough to level me up.
But this is a lot more manageable than I expected. I wondered if it made sense to beat a beast that size to death with nothing but a wooden sword, but with the stat bonuses it somehow works.
Even after swinging the wooden sword that many times, I wasn't even out of breath, so it seems the bonus applies not just to Strength but to stamina too.
At this rate, I felt like I could do it too.
**
After that, I took down eight more horn rabbits.
Since they were passive mobs, if I pinned one down and kept hitting it, I could kill it without ever getting counterattacked.
Thanks to that, I leveled up. That put me at level 2, and all my stats went up by 1, so everything is now 2.
I didn't really feel it when all my stats were 1, but now that they're all 2, I can clearly tell I've gotten stronger.
Should I call it the feeling of growth? I even felt a kind of satisfaction I never felt while loafing around at home as a jobless... job seeker.
"Okay, maybe I'll catch one more and head back to the village..."
Since I was already here, I picked out one more white horn rabbit hopping around, planning to make it ten.
"Hyah!"
With a forceful shout, I brought the wooden sword down on the horn rabbit's head. With the basic wooden sword's attack power, about eleven hits should be enough to finish it.
-Peep! Peep! Peeeeep...!
I kept pounding away at the horn rabbit's ridiculous squeals. Then, just as I thought it was almost dead, the wooden sword made a strange sound.
-Crack.
Its durability had run out. It happened at the very moment I swung the final blow at the horn rabbit.
With a crack, the horn rabbit fell, loot dropped in, and at the same time the wooden sword shattered.
"I killed exactly ten, and it breaks?"
I stowed the broken wooden sword in my inventory and clicked my tongue as I walked toward the village.
Then I spotted something strange in the distance. It was another horn rabbit, looking exactly like the one I'd just taken down.
The only odd thing was that its fur was black. Strange—weren't horn rabbits supposed to be white?
-Boing, boing, boing!
Unlike the white horn rabbits, the black horn rabbit's hopping speed was a little faster. It felt less like jumping and more like it was just sprinting.
I opened the community, wondering whether there'd been anything in the guide about this, but the black horn rabbit I could see from far away had already drawn close.
No, that's different.
It wasn't just getting closer. That black horn rabbit was charging straight toward me.
"What the fuck?"
The moment I realized that, the horn rabbit had rapidly closed the distance and launched its whole body at me.
"Gah!"