The early bird goes hungry.
About twenty years ago from now.
"Towers" appeared all over the world.
Like lightning rods, those towers slammed down into the capitals of each nation; their ends were so far away you couldn't see them, and no modern technology could approach or measure them.
What is that? I'm scared...
Just as people's fear and confusion were about to spiral out of control,
from that tower which had remained utterly silent, a sound finally began to be heard.
More precisely,
as messages in people's field of view.
Babel Network
[Opening the Babel Network World Server.]
[Planet Earth. World Channel open.]
[Nice to meet you, Earth.]
[Issuance of the first entry ticket to the Babel Tower has been completed.]
A semi-transparent message window.
At a glance, it looked very similar to the notification window of an online game.
The differences were that it was a one-way broadcast—and this wasn't inside a monitor but real life.
The tower of unknown identity thus introduced itself as "Babel."
It also notified humanity of the calamities that would follow if its guidance was not obeyed.
There was no time to hesitate.
Calamity didn't even give humanity time to think before it came crashing in.
게이트 아웃브레이크
Gate Outbreak.
The sky tore, the ground split, and dozens of blue holes appeared.
The rifts that manifested simultaneously quite literally poured out monsters from another world.
Modern firearms were helpless.
We thought we'd go under from global warming, and surprise—turns out it's the Monster Festival that'll do us in. Just when everyone was in despair,
those who had received the first "tickets" and entered the Tower made a dramatic return.
In their hands were a bunch of old-era weapons like… swords, spears, bows.
Some of them even summoned fire and lightning out of thin air.
It was the advent of the first generation of Awakeners.
Thus began the Great Hunter Era.
"What's the Wi-Fi password here?"
"You can find it at the bottom of your receipt, customer."
"...One iced Americano, please. The smallest size."
Truly a dystopia. Even cafés grow stronger by the day.
Gyeon Jioh admired the astonishing salesmanship and picked a seat.
It's already been a month since the college-admissions results came out.
Because she crashed and burned neatly again this time, her furious mom even suspended her phone.
So what she had in hand was a perfect brick that could only receive one-way calls.
Without Wi-Fi, she was no different from a primitive on a remote island.
'Still, at least she didn't ship me off to another boarding cram school...?'
To be precise, it was a notice that the return on investment was atrocious, so self-study it is.
Either way, that place is modern hell.
Jioh shuddered, recalling last year's horror.
"Wow, when did they change the model?
Yeo Gang-hee landed the ad."
"I'd switch too. The previous model was Han Si-ju, right? Folks who work the Tower are a hundred times better than those who stick to dungeons."
"Dungeon rats go there just to make their own money, but Tower climbers sacrifice for humanity's future—of course they're better, duh. Not even a contest. I can't stand those Breakout people."
"Easy to say. You think it's easy to risk your life and enter the Babel Tower? Gates blow and you get drafted either way; what a load of crap."
"Why are you so heated? What, you an aspiring hunter or something?"
"Did you flush your social sense down the toilet? His older brother's a hunter, dumbass."
What do they eat to get that loud?
Anyway, the decibel level of male high-schoolers deserves respect.
Chin in hand, Jioh looked at the poster on the wall. Yeo Gang-hee's radiant smiling face was dazzling.
A newbie? One of last fall's tutorial cohort?
If so, she might still feel unfamiliar, but soon she'd be everywhere.
Like those guys said, if she's a ranker on the Tower-clear route, there's no way that ad will be the only one.
The era of Awakeners—aka hunters.
The first floor of the Babel Tower that births them is called the "Tutorial."
Winners of the "entry tickets" granted at random each year went through that to be reborn as true Awakeners.
And there are two routes by which those people grow.
The path of risking your life to climb the high-difficulty "Tower."
The path of steadily building experience in lower-difficulty "dungeons."
People split them into the "Purist faction (Sunjeong-pa)" for the former, and the "Breakout faction (Talok-pa)" for the latter.
You still got called up by the state when rifts occurred either way, but the popularity of the two sides was worlds apart.
Since the current crisis started with the Tower's appearance, everyone believed the answer would ultimately be in the Tower.
These days the prejudice that those who devote themselves only to dungeons care only about their own skins was getting stronger by the day.
On top of that, the difficulty is insanely different, and the stars mainly keep their eyes on the Tower.
If you form a covenant with a Constellation during the Tutorial, that's the best of all—but the chance that a covenant will be made at the Tutorial's final gate, the "Heavenly Gate (Cheonmun)," is 20%.
Which means the rest of the Awakeners have to grind the Tower and dungeons diligently and just hold the line...
In that regard, the odds are incomparably higher on the Tower side.
As a result, the proportion of so-called "rankers" is overwhelmingly Purist.
Public favor leaning to one side might be only natural.
Of course, the Breakout faction also gets chosen by stars. It's just rarer.
But whether Purist or Breakout, all of that is ultimately the "normal" route.
Neither of the two—something from another world.
Very, very rare, but—
there existed a "special case" where, even before the Tower handed out a "ticket," a Constellation slapped a claim on you first...
"God, I freaking don't want to go to cram school. Can't a Star Spoon just fall on me from somewhere?"
"Dude, a lottery win would be faster."
[Your Covenant Star, "Reader of Fate," presses you—did you hear that! Just now!]
[It also laments its pitiful lot, saying there is no Constellation as unlucky as itself.]
'Keep it down.'
"Covenant Star of Gyeon Jioh, "Reader of Fate," exercises Constellation-exclusive authority to issue a Babel Tower entry ticket. The arbitrarily issued "personal ticket" is non-transferable."
'Your Gyeon Jioh tells you to shut it and refuses.'
["Reader of Fate" plants hands on its hips, asking if you've ever seen such an adorable avatar.]
[It points to the neighbors around it, telling them to look at it panting, "This is what our kid is like."]
"Ah, hell, you can't even mute this..."
With a savage air, Jioh pounded on her Bluetooth keyboard.
If you mutter to yourself, people start fortune-telling—"Oh my, that person must have a Covenant Star." You have to look like you're doing something.
As it happened, she'd been skimming the hunter intranet.
[Breaking]
Kim xx │ 20xx. xx. xx.
U.S. Babel Tower, 42F cleared. (+452)
Comments
– Heard from a friend this is Timothy's guild. Detailed follow-ups coming soon.
– Sky-tier rankers don't really go to Babel much, but the almighty U.S. has freakin' #1 stepping up personally;
– When will the Fire Peninsula even enter the 40s... As expected of Hell Joseon, even the difficulty is hell
– What's our country's #1, Daeje, doing? Did he leave the mundane world? Join a temple?
– Nobody knows. Doesn't show up.
– The mystique is too much—just because he's #1 he can do anything??
– He kinda can...
– Seriously, just how amazing is that person;;;
'I'm a three-time test-taker, f—...'
Skipping even the Babel Tower entry ticket.
Skipping the Tutorial.
But with a more preordained golden road than anyone else. Pre-selection by a Constellation before awakening—rarer and harder than winning the lottery or the Super Bowl.
Nickname: "Star Spoon."
Depending on the spoon's color there's some variance, but Star Spoons usually receive outrageous favoritism from their Constellations.
The most famous example of this case is the current World Rank #12, France's Saint Giselle.
Giselle, an ordinary civilian, received an S-rank verdict upon awakening and entered the top tier of the world rankings.
They're usually anonymous and unidentifiable, but the fact that her Covenant Star is a legendary French hero is no secret.
[Constellation, "Reader of Fate," snorts.]
[It waves off the comparison, saying it's so absurd it doesn't even want to be compared.]
'Nobody asked...'
[Breaking]
Kim xx │ 20xx. xx. xx.
U.S. Babel Tower, 42F cleared. (+452)
Comments
– Seriously, just how amazing is that person;;;
↳ – Amazing is right. She's the first S-rank awakener in the country. Sure, S-ranks are fairly common now, but back then, no. When our #1 appeared, the entire world rankings shifted and even the ranker channel numbers changed. Everyone got pushed down one slot.
↳ – Grandpa "back in my day" mode, lololol
↳ – I don't care if it's a boomer's nostalgia—someone drop a sighting story of #1. Or at least an experience from Channel 1.
↳ – Nah nah, that place is pure old-timers, you won't even get in—they're insanely cliquey
Bzzzz.
KakaoTalk vibrated like crazy. When she ignored it, now the phone started ringing.
Jioh set down the iced Americano she'd drained to the bottom.
The vibration wouldn't stop; people at the next table were starting to glance over. But then the phone abruptly went silent.
'Did I beat it?'
[Your Covenant Star clucks its tongue that that remark was rash.]
Bzzzt. With a bad feeling, Jioh flipped the phone over again.
Mom'sBoy │ 010-7351-xxxx
━ x/xx ━
Hey, you hidden-power tryhard
Get your butt home now before I expose your identity on the World Channel
"What a utterly useless bastard for life..."
She hastily grabbed her things and slipped out. It was two stops from home, but whatever.
The moment she left the café building, Jioh ducked into a back alley. She pulled on the knob of a little-used rear door. Then—
"Where'd you go?"
"I was in my room? Must've been so focused on studying I didn't hear you."
Closing the door to her room, Jioh answered blandly.
She even remembered to knit her brows. I find what you're saying extremely ridiculous and absurd right now.
Standing guard in front of the door the whole time, Gyeon Riok scoffed. Brazen, aren't we.
"I was about to break the door, but I spared you 'cause I figured this time Mom would actually shave your head bald."
"...Our Riokie-wokie did that for me? Why were you looking for me? Need something?"
"Are you kidding me? You really didn't check the channel, did you. I just caught the breaking news and came from Babel. Ms. Gyeon Jioh, don't you think I might be the one who needs something?"
"Mm, let's see. Warm siblingly affection?"
Muttering that it actually felt like it'd been a while since she'd seen him, Jioh spoke under her breath.
Standard-bearer of the domestic Purists. Top-tier ranker Gyeon Riok finally couldn't take that ridiculous act and exploded.
"Hey! Please stop playing the hidden-power game and let's do some clears, you shut-in!"
[Your Covenant Star, "Reader of Fate," cheers with delight at the exploding soda-pop.]
Thus spake Babel:
Among spoons, the star spoon reigns.
And among star spoons, there are those who just get S-rank handed to them.
It's been roughly ten years since she debuted as Korea's first S-rank back in elementary school.
She's never once gone to the Babel Tower or a dungeon, yet she remains the immovable number one.
Current World Rank #3.
Domestic Rank #1.
The Magician King "Jio."
In reality, three-peat exam-taker Gyeon Jioh (20 / F) avoided her hot-blooded little brother's gaze. Yow, that's hot.