Kang Min let out a sound that was half-moan, half-gurgle.
He was currently draped across his living room in a way that defied the laws of human anatomy.
His head was resting on the cold floor, one arm was pinned under a stack of old magazines.
And his feet were perched precariously on the arm of the couch.
A single, thin sheet was twisted around his waist like a desperate tourniquet.
-Knock. Knock. Knock.
There was a knock on the door to his apartment.
Kang Min's eyes snapped open although crusty and bloodshot.
He blinked at the underside of his coffee table for a solid five seconds before memory of the floor 2 trial came rushing back.
"I must have dropped dead yesterday..."
-Knock. Knock.
Min scrambled to his feet, nearly tripping over the sheet.
He looked in the hallway mirror and winced.
His black hair was a structural disaster, standing up in jagged peaks, and the dark circles under his eyes made him look like he'd been on a week-long bender in the Abyss.
He was dressed in a stretched-out white t-shirt and a pair of beige checkered pajama pants that had seen better decades.
He swung the door open, scratching his stomach and yawning wide enough to see his tonsils.
Standing there was Park Woonhee.
She was in full White Stars logistics gear, looking bright, professional, and entirely too awake.
She stared at him, her gaze traveling from his messy hair down to his pajama pants, then back up to his face.
"Oh... it's you."
Min mumbled, leaning against the doorframe.
"I think I overslept.
Am I needed at the guild building? I didn't see the alarm..."
Woonhee's expression was a mix of pity and professional detachment.
"Umm... not necessarily.
I just wanted to drop something off."
She held out a crisp white bag embossed with the White Stars logo in silver.
"The guild tried calling you eight times, Kang Min.
You didn't pick up.
They asked me to deliver this because, apparently, I'm the only one you don't ignore."
Min took the bag, peering inside.
He saw folded white uniforms of high-grade, reinforced fabric and a matching white baseball cap.
There was also a sleek tablet and a specialized belt for carrying mana-stabilizers.
"What's this for?"
"The higher-ups saw your efficiency during the intake."
Woonhee said, her voice dropping slightly.
"They've assigned you as a personal Porter for Kim Jin.
You'll be responsible for his primary equipment swaps during the Floor 11 expedition."
Min's stomach did a somersault.
Personal Porter for the Rank 10?
'Shit...I haven't used a phone for so long that I sometimes forget I have one.
At this point, I'll get fired if I keep it up.'
"The briefing is on that tablet."
Woonhee added.
She was busy looking at the floor now, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
Min sighed.
He looked at her, then back at his messy apartment.
'Sigh... I can't believe I'm about to do this.'
"Did you have breakfast?"
Woonhee looked up, surprised.
She shook her head slowly.
"Come on in."
Min said, stepping aside and swinging the door open wider.
"I'm making eggs."
As Woonhee awkwardly sat at his small, cramped dining table, Min headed to the kitchen.
He felt like a lead weight.
Every muscle ached from the trial and his mana circuits felt like a dried-out riverbed.
'Probably because my mana is depleted from yesterday.'
He leaned his weight on the kitchen counter, his head hanging low.
'Ugghh.'
With a flick of his wrist, a jagged, glowing blue mana shard appeared in his hand from a shimmer of light.
Without a second thought, he popped the hard crystal into his mouth and crunched down.
-Crr-ack!
Kang Min then pulled out a carton of eggs and some scallions from the fridge.
He moved with a strange, groggy efficiency.
He then realized the living room was still a disaster.
The sheet he'd been sleeping in was still crumpled on the floor near the couch.
"One second."
He muttered, shuffling back to the living room to grab the sheet.
As he reached for it, he froze.
Woonhee had stood up to look at a small shelf near the window.
"Umm... Mr. Kang? What's this?"
She was holding a small, round object that was left carelessly.
It was currently pulsing with a soft white-gold light, looking like a miniature sun trapped in a glass shell.
'The Star-Seed!'
Min's heart nearly stopped.
He lunged across the room with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for a man in checkered pajamas.
He snatched the sheet and threw it over the egg in one desperate, chaotic motion, nearly knocking over a lamp in the process.
"That!"
He shouted, his voice an octave too high.
"That's... nothing!"
Woonhee blinked, startled by his sudden explosion of movement.
"It looked like an egg...
A glowing egg at that."
"It's a night light!"
Min blurted out, his brain scrambling for an excuse.
"I... I can't sleep in the dark.
It's a traumatic thing from the tower...infact very very common.
Don't look at it, it's embarrassing."
Woonhee's expression softened into something resembling maternal concern.
"Oh.
I didn't know you needed a night light to sleep, Mr. Kang.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
Cussing bastards of the Constellation Stream, Min thought, sweating.
I'm a 600 floor climber and I'm pretending to be afraid of the dark.
"Yeah. Anyway. Eggs."
He used his inventory to silently slide the covered Star-Seed into a hidden storage slot under the sheet before returning to the kitchen.
He tied a faded "Kiss the Cook" apron over his pajamas which had been provided by the apartment owner and started cracking eggs with one hand.
Woonhee watched him from the table.
"You know... your name is everywhere today.
Everyone is talking about the 'Singularity' stream.
That Floor 2 clear... people are calling it a miracle."
"People exaggerate."
Min said, tossing scallions into a pan.
The sizzle filled the room, smelling heavenly.
"Congratulations by the way...you've really mastered broadcasting from the little I taught you...hehe."
A few minutes later, Min set two plates on the table.
Simple omelets, seasoned perfectly, with a side of toasted bread.
Woonhee took a bite, and her entire body seemed to relax.
Her eyes went wide.
'This... this might be the best thing I've ever tasted.
But it's only eggs? How did he...?'
Kang Min was busy scratching his head and popping two more mana shards into his mouth like they were breath mints.
"By the way, why do you do that?"
Woonhee asked, gesturing to the blue shards.
"Do what?"
"Eat mana shards.
Aren't those harmful to the human body? The concentration is too high for the stomach to process.
Unless you're an Abyssal tower monster, you're supposed to refine them into potions first."
Min chewed on a piece of egg, his expression deadpan.
"I learned that raw mana shards increase one's MP and HP recovery rates significantly if you have the right... metabolism.
Even for players."
"Oh."
Woonhee murmured, looking at her own plate.
"How do you know so much about the Tower?
I mean, you just started a few days ago, even if you are taking off faster than anyone else I've ever seen."
Min leaned back, the steam from his coffee rising around his messy hair.
"It's basic knowledge, really.
The Tower teaches us to adapt and that's what we as humans do best, no?
You see a wall, you climb it.
At times you also see a crystal and see if it fits in your mouth."
"I guess you're right."
Woonhee laughed softly.
She looked at him with a bit more intensity.
"You must be really low on MP from yesterday."
She placed both her hands over her chest, her eyes closing as a soft pink light began to gather between her palms.
『PLAYER PARK WOONHEE HAS USED [SUMMON]』
With a soft poof, a small, translucent pink slime appeared in her hands.
It jiggled happily, its tiny dot-eyes sparkling...
...until they landed on Kang Min.
The slime froze.
Its pink body turned a shade of fearful lavender.
In a flash of light, it retracted itself, vanishing back into Woonhee's summoning space before she could even say hello.
"Oh!"
Woonhee blinked.
"Looks like he still isn't too fond of you."
'Why would a slime hate me?'
Min thought, honestly confused.
Then, a memory surfaced: him in the tutorial lobby, grabbing a pink blob in a ruthless chokehold and nearly squeezing the life out of it.
Ah... right.
"Also... that's a boy?"
Min asked, pointing at the empty space in her hands.
"Yes! His name is Pinky, and he's very sensitive!"
Woonhee began a five-minute rant about how she discovered the slime's gender and its specific personality quirks as they finished their meal.
As the plates were cleared, the mood in the room shifted.
"Btw... what will you do about the expedition?"
Woonhee asked seriously.
"Porters aren't allowed to take fights.
If you're caught using skills or interfering with the rankers' 'Narrative,' the guild will strip your license.
It's usually allowed when its a death situation only."
"I know..."
Min said, staring into his coffee.
"But I'll still help in any way I can if it comes to it."
"How?
If 'Singularity' appears all of a sudden on Floor 11, the internet will grow suspicious.
There's nothing worse than a digging netizens' community.
They'll link your height, your build, even your voice.
You'll be exposed in hours."
Min nodded.
"I know that too.
That's why I'll get to Floor 10 before the expedition officially starts."
He kept the rest of the thought to himself.
'That way, even if I do end up appearing on Floor 11, it'll look like I was there already, just finishing up my own trial.
A coincidence and a random high-ranker who happened to be in the area.'
'The problem is how I'll manage that when I'm now a personal porter who has to be at Kim Jin's side twenty-four-seven...'
"Just be careful..."
Woonhee advised, her voice hushed.
"Most of the rankers can sense a shift in energy instantly.
Especially Kim Jin...
Kim Jin might be the most perceptive man I've ever met."
She said that her eyes on the egg york.
Min looked at her across the table.
'I just realized she's the only one who knows my identities.
Will I have to kill her if she starts asking too much?
Or if she finds out I'm not just some lucky rookie? '
Suddenly, the glass of the apartment window shattered.
-CRASH!
A massive, buzzing shape slammed through the pane, glass shards flying like shrapnel.
It was a mosquito, but it was the size of a human.
Its wings beat with a low, thrumming roar that vibrated in Min's teeth.
The insect's body was covered in pulsing, jagged veins that leaked a sickly red and black mana.
'A calamity?
What's a calamity doing outside the Tower?'
Kang Min was on his feet in a second, his sleepy haze replaced by a cold, murderous clarity.
His fingers already beginning to glow with the purple hue of [Compression].
But before he could strike...
A crimson system window forced itself into their vision, overriding everything else.
『 !!! WORLDWIDE EMERGENCY BROADCAST !!! 』
『 NOTICE: HUMANITY HAS FAILED TO CONQUER A NEW FLOOR IN THE ABYSSAL TOWER WITHIN THE MANDATORY 3-MONTH WINDOW! 』
『 AS A RESULT DUNGEON GATES ARE MANIFESTING IN ALL MAJOR GLOBAL METROPOLISES. CALAMITIES FROM THE HIGHER FLOORS ARE BEING EXTRUDED INTO THE PHYSICAL REALM! 』