It happened at 9:46 a.m. on a normal Tuesday.
The sky didn't thunder. It fractured.
A single, silent crack spread over Seoul's skyline like glass under pressure. Birds froze mid-flight. Traffic came to a stop. Every phone screen flickered white and displayed the same words:
> [TOWER INITIALIZATION — KOREA REGION — 0% → 1%]
Inside a dim gaming café near Sinchon, Han Joon-seo, a 22-year-old college dropout, blinked at the message on his monitor. He thought it was another glitch — until the air beside him rippled.
A miniature black vortex opened beside his seat. It hummed, pulling in light, sound, and even the reflection on his screen. Then, a voice echoed in his mind — calm, cold, and unfamiliar:
> [System Activated. You have been chosen as a Candidate.]
[Primary Skill Assigned: Summon Gate.]
"Summon… what?" he muttered, glancing around.
Nobody heard it. Everyone else was staring at their phones in panic.
Then came the pain — a sharp pulse through his temples.
The world shifted.
And a faint blue circle appeared under his chair.
He barely managed to stand before something emerged from it — a translucent figure, humanoid, shimmering like heatwaves.
> [Summon Failed. Insufficient Rank.]
[Cooldown: 1 hour.]
The figure dissolved instantly.
Han Joon-seo stumbled backward, sweating.
A system window followed him like a ghostly hologram:
──────────────
SUMMON GATE — LV. 1
Rarity: Unique
Description: Allows user to summon entities of unknown origin.
Results depend on Luck and Tower Influence.
──────────────
"Luck? Tower? What the hell is this…"
He looked outside — and froze.
Across the Han River, a tower of obsidian light was rising from the ground. It pierced the clouds, wrapped in lightning and shadows. People screamed, recording on their phones, while drones and helicopters swarmed toward it.
On the news, anchors shouted:
> "Towers are appearing globally — Tokyo, New York, Karachi, Islamabad—!"
His mind stopped at that word.
Pakistan.
Even there?
The feed showed a vast desert near Balochistan — a tower identical to Seoul's rising from the sand, and a man in military armor standing before it. His aura alone made the camera shake.
> "The first ranker of Pakistan has entered the tower!" someone on-screen shouted.
Han Joon-seo's heart pounded.
People around him began fainting as more towers emerged — glowing, humming, bending reality.
And then, another system message appeared.
> [TOWER OF FATE — KOREA REGION — OPENING IN 3 HOURS.]
[All chosen candidates must enter. Survival determines humanity's future.]
He looked around, trembling, as others began screaming at their own windows.
Candidates. Summons. Towers.
"What kind of game is this…" he whispered.
But deep inside, something told him this wasn't random.
The world wasn't ending — it was being rebuilt.