#1. The Tower of Trials
Ten years ago, the world was turned completely upside down.
Mysterious monsters began appearing all over the globe, attacking people, and at the same time, unknown towers started to rise.
Setting aside the sudden appearance of the towers, the monsters pouring out became a threat humanity simply couldn't handle.
When creatures so dangerous they made even elephants—supposedly the strongest animals on land—look like a joke started appearing by the hundreds and thousands, how could anyone cope?
Of course, humanity's firepower from guns could easily suppress most ordinary monsters. The real problem was that not all monsters were ordinary.
Monsters immune to firearms, monsters wielding bizarre abilities, monsters that were just disgustingly huge and insanely strong, and so on.
Cities around the world were destroyed, and countless casualties followed. Humanity was steadily losing its place to stand.
Then one day, people with superhuman strength began to appear—individuals who could subdue monsters on their own.
Back then they were called Awakened. Now, they're known as Hunters. The towers that had sprouted all over the world were the ones producing them.
Their identity was simple: people who accepted an invitation sent by the Tower of Trials. They risked their lives to clear the tower and became Hunters.
Of course, all of that is ancient history now.
Thanks to the sudden emergence of the first-generation Hunters, the world became much safer. The invitations that periodically abducted people turned into a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn one's life around—for people like me.
The early days of the Tower of Trials were genuinely deadly, a place where you had to gamble your life to progress. But now, with clear strategies established for each floor, that's no longer the case.
On top of that, there are so-called "Rankers" who stay in the Tower long-term to gain even greater power, making it possible to safely ride what people call the "bus" all the way to the 100th floor.
That's why a worthless, unemployed bum like me entered the Tower of Trials without hesitation.
Without risking my life, I could just hop on a Ranker bus, cruise through, and still become a low-tier Hunter.
Even as a low-tier Hunter, just occasionally hunting weak monsters brings in decent money. And even doing nothing but manual labor with a Hunter's enhanced physical abilities pays extremely well.
And if I happened to stumble upon a hidden element by sheer luck? That would be a true life reversal. Why wouldn't you take a high-probability, low-risk gamble?
But seriously—what the fuck is this?
[Tower of Trials #2661 (1/1)]
This blue interface is the chat channel attached to each Tower of Trials.
People who receive invitations are transported to the nearest tower based on their country and place of residence. The number 2661 is the unique identifier of the tower I was sent to—basically its address.
Then what does the (1/1) next to it mean? It's the number of people connected to the chat channel. One connected user. One total user.
In other words, I'm alone in Tower of Trials No. 2661. No Ranker to carry me, no allies to fight alongside me… completely alone.
At first, I couldn't believe it. I spent a long time fiddling with the interface, including the chat channel, desperately searching for other people.
But there was no one. Even when I asked in the open community shared by all Tower users, no other challengers for Tower No. 2661 showed up.
The same tower that first-generation Hunters had challenged at the cost of their lives—now had only me in it.
My life was completely fucked.
***
The Tower of Trials is called a tower in name only. In reality, it's closer to a massive otherworld.
Each floor is its own world. A hundred floors total—one hundred worlds. And on each floor, there are multiple dungeons and villages.
Challengers roam dungeons and hunting grounds on each floor, defeating monsters, leveling up, gaining skills and stats, and growing stronger.
It's an extremely straightforward RPG-style system. Naturally, I also have what people commonly call a "status window."
"Status window."
I didn't need to say it out loud, but since no one was watching, I muttered anyway as I summoned it.
Seo Jin-hyeok Lv.1 (Unemployed)HP: 100/100MP: 100/100
Strength: 1Agility: 1Endurance: 1Intelligence: 1
All stats at the absolute minimum—no frills. That's the same for all challengers.
No matter how strong you were before entering the Tower of Trials, your Strength is 1. No matter how smart you were, your Intelligence is also 1.
So having Intelligence at 1 doesn't mean I'm stupid. In the first place, this Intelligence stat has nothing to do with actual intelligence.
The (Unemployed) tag next to my level is the same deal. It's not because I'm a jobless bum—everyone is "Unemployed" before choosing a class.
When Strength increases, you become stronger. When Agility increases, you become faster. When Endurance increases, you become tougher.
All stats gained here are added directly on top of your original abilities.
That applies even now, with all stats at 1. Compared to before entering the Tower, I'm now stronger and faster by exactly one stat point.
I can't feel it at all, but according to what other challengers have figured out, that's how it works.
I already knew this—from the open community, and from everything I'd heard before entering the Tower.
Even so, the reason I opened the status window was to see if maybe—just maybe—I had some special perk.
"Fuck, would it kill you to give me an epic class or something?"
I wondered if being alone in the tower might give me some kind of advantage. Apparently not.
Which means I really do have to clear this tower alone, as a useless level 1 piece of trash, with absolutely nothing.
My plan to proudly become a Hunter and give my long-suffering mom a comfortable life was already completely ruined.
Yeah. Born dirt-poor, and even as a Hunter, I was dirt-poor.
How could my life be this consistently fucked?
***
Still, no matter how bad things look, life is always what you make of it.
Who knows? Maybe I have some incredible hidden talent and can really clear the tower on my own.
Or maybe some hidden piece is waiting somewhere just for me. Surely my life can't be only fucked.
So I left the village and headed for the hunting grounds, planning to kill literally any monster I could find.
"Uh… that's a Horned Rabbit, right?"
I tightened my grip on the wooden sword in my right hand as I looked at a large white rabbit hopping around the plains.
The Tower of Trials' public community has well-organized beginner guides and early-game strategies.
It says that at level 1, you shouldn't enter the labyrinth area. Instead, you should head to the plains and hunt Horned Rabbits until level 3—it's the safest option.
Apparently, below level 3, even if you're being carried by Rankers, one slip-up can still get you killed.
Boing. Boing.
The Horned Rabbit looked exactly like its name suggested—a rabbit with horns. Its size, however, was nearly that of a large dog.
It wasn't grotesque like those giant Australian rabbits. It actually looked pretty cute—just stupidly big.
And fitting its size, its jumping ability was insane. It could leap higher than my head.
Boing. Boing.
Just watching it hop around felt threatening, but if it's the weakest monster even a level 1 can kill… I should be able to handle it, right?
Holding my basic wooden sword, I slowly approached the Horned Rabbit.
It was a non-aggressive mob—it would just hop around unless attacked. That meant I could land the first hit with everything I had.
"Hyah!"
I slammed my wooden sword down on the hopping rabbit's forehead. Maybe that single point of Strength helped, because it swung with more force than I expected.
Peeep!
The Horned Rabbit let out a cute squeal and toppled over. I stepped closer and swung my sword again.
Thud. Thud. Thud!
I felt like hitting it this hard should make a louder sound, but maybe because of its fur, it sounded more like hitting a pillow.
Still, the damage seemed real. The Horned Rabbit couldn't resist and just got beaten senseless.
King…
After a few more hits, it let out a different cry and dissolved into light.
[Horned Rabbit Hide]
The loot entered my inventory. Even at level 1, it seems killing a single Horned Rabbit isn't enough to level up.
Still, this was way more doable than I expected. Killing an animal that big with just a wooden sword felt ridiculous, but thanks to stat bonuses, it somehow worked.
Even after swinging my sword so many times, I wasn't even out of breath. Maybe the stat boosts apply not just to strength, but stamina too.
At this rate, I thought I could really do this.
***
After that, I defeated eight more Horned Rabbits.
Since they were non-aggressive, as long as I focused on one and kept hitting it, I could kill them without being counterattacked.
Thanks to that, I leveled up. Level 2. All stats increased by 1, so everything was now at 2.
At all stats 1, I couldn't really feel the difference, but at all stats 2, I could clearly feel myself getting stronger.
The sensation of growth—something I'd never felt while rotting at home as an unemployed… job seeker—gave me a strange sense of satisfaction.
"Okay, let's kill just one more and head back to the village…"
Since I was already at it, I marked one more hopping white Horned Rabbit to make it a clean ten.
"Hyah!"
With a spirited shout, I smashed the rabbit's head. With the wooden sword's base attack power, about eleven hits was enough to kill one for sure.
Pik! Piiik! Piiiiik…!
I kept pounding the horned rabbit as it let out pitiful screams. Just when I thought I had it almost finished off, a strange sound came from my wooden sword.
—Crack.
The weapon's durability had run out. It was the moment I swung for the final blow at the horned rabbit.
Crack—at the same time the horned rabbit collapsed and the loot came in, the wooden sword shattered.
"It breaks right after I kill exactly ten of them."
I stowed the broken wooden sword in my inventory, clicked my tongue, and started walking toward the village.
That was when I saw something strange in the distance. It was another horned rabbit, identical to the one I'd just taken down.
The odd thing was that its fur was black. That was strange—weren't horned rabbits all white?
—Boing, boing, boing!
YW9peUx5cktZYXhyU2hzY1VsMkQ0VEJodkZMcENkK0hQRjhJK1pCKzg5UXBhU05LWFdpRXRoTHlyaUUyVndQVQ
Unlike the white rabbits, the black horned rabbit ran a bit faster. Rather than hopping, it felt more like it was sprinting.
Wondering if something like that had been in the strategy guide, I opened the community page—but while I was doing so, the black horned rabbit that had been far away suddenly got close.
No, that wasn't it.
It wasn't just getting closer.
That black horned rabbit was charging straight at me.
"What the fuck?"
The moment I realized that, the horned rabbit closed the distance in an instant and hurled its entire body at me.
"Ghk!"