Tower Realm – Floor 6
[Trial Gate: Frozen Hunger – Activated]
A sharp wind howled across the stone path as Ha-Joon stepped through the archway into Floor 6.
Snow whipped at his face instantly. The world had transformed into a frozen wasteland—endless hills of white, ice-covered trees bent under the weight of cold, and a sky so pale it looked dead.
No monsters greeted him.
No warning appeared.
Just one line burned in ice-blue letters ahead of him:
> [Survive for 30 Days. No Shelter. No Fire. No Help.]
Optional: Hunt the Hunger Wolves to shorten the trial.
Hidden Bonus: Unknown
Ha-Joon narrowed his eyes.
This wasn't a test of combat.
It was a test of endurance.
---
His coat was thin. He had no gloves. His breath turned to mist the moment he exhaled. His boots crunched through snow already up to his ankles.
The cold hit deeper than bone—it clawed at his mind.
No trees to rest under. No caves. No food or water.
And the wind never stopped.
He took one step.
Then another.
---
Day 1 passed.
He didn't stop walking.
The cold burned his skin raw. His lips cracked. Hunger gnawed at his belly. But he moved.
He thought about his mother's tofu stew.
His father's coffee breath when coming home from work.
His sister's smirk when he lost rock-paper-scissors.
He held onto those tiny moments like lifelines.
---
Day 3.
He collapsed behind a boulder just long enough to sleep for fifteen minutes.
He dreamed of warmth.
When he woke up, something had changed.
There were tracks in the snow.
Massive pawprints.
---
He stood slowly, grip tightening around a makeshift spear he had carved from a frozen branch and a piece of shattered bone.
Then he heard it.
The growl.
---
From the shadows between snow dunes, they appeared.
Seven-foot-tall wolf-like monsters—emaciated, their ribs visible under tight skin. Their eyes glowed white. Their teeth dripped saliva that froze before hitting the ground.
They didn't bark.
They hunted.
---
The first charged. Ha-Joon rolled sideways and drove the spear upward—catching it under the jaw. The creature thrashed, then collapsed.
The others circled, faster now.
He couldn't fight them all.
He ran.
---
For hours, they chased.
Over hills, through frozen rivers, across ice fields. His lungs ached. His limbs numbed. But he refused to fall.
Finally, he found a cliff.
He turned.
The first wolf leapt.
He caught it mid-air—flipped with it—and used its weight to crush the one behind.
Two down.
Three circled.
He snapped off a wolf's fang and hurled it—embedding it in another's eye.
The final one leapt—
—and he met it with a broken spear through the heart.
---
Silence.
Only snow falling.
And the sound of his breath.
---
> [Optional Objective Complete – 4 Hunger Wolves Defeated]
Trial Time Reduced: 30 Days → 15 Days
Bonus: Beast Adaptation Trait (Minor Cold Resistance Acquired)
Ha-Joon fell to his knees.
He had killed monsters stronger than most humans could imagine.
But this trial…
Was breaking him slowly.
---
Day 10.
He stopped talking to himself.
Stopped counting his steps.
His legs moved out of instinct.
He hadn't eaten in days. The snow he swallowed melted slow and cold.
Then—another howl.
They were back.
Three more.
He fought with frozen hands, swinging sharp stones, broken bones, even his own teeth if he had to.
He didn't just survive.
He refused to die.
---
Day 15.
A blue flame lit in the distance.
The sky cracked.
A portal opened.
> [Trial Complete – Hunger Survived]
Reward:
• Skill Gained – Endurance Boost Lv.1
• Passive: Cold Resistance (Moderate)
• Stat Increase: +1 Constitution, +1 Vitality
• Trait: Predator Instinct (Tracks enemies within 20 meters)
Ha-Joon stumbled toward the light.
His hair had grown long. His clothes were torn and ragged. His eyes were sunken—but sharp.
He looked like someone who had survived longer than a lifetime.
And he was only getting started.
---
Earth – One Year Since Disappearance
A letter from the city arrived.
"Case officially closed," it said.
No leads.
No body.
No trace.
The police gave up.
But Ha-Rin didn't even open the letter.
She threw it in the trash.
That night, she sat at her brother's empty desk and whispered into the quiet,
> "I don't care if it takes a hundred years. I'll wait."
---
Back in the Tower
Ha-Joon stood at the edge of the next staircase.
His breath steady. His eyes glowing faintly crimson now.
He remembered his sister's laughter.
His mother's voice.
His father's tired smile.
These memories kept him human.
Even as everything else… changed.
---