“Ugh, I feel like my stomach's going to burst.”
I was on my way home after finishing the dinner I'd promised to have with Kim hyung.
The night air was fairly chilly.
After getting off the bus, I spent quite a while winding through crooked alleys and climbing steep stairs.
My house stood far off at the highest point of the hillside neighborhood, so it was still a long climb even from the nearest bus stop.
‘I wondered if I'd even be able to swallow any meat because I was so tired… but I ate just fine.’
Maybe it was because I'd been so active, but contrary to my worries, the food went down even better than usual.
It had been a while since I'd treated myself to something greasy, and since I was paying anyway, I ate my fill.
But when I finally held out my card, Kim hyung had already paid.
‘I thought it was strange that he left the table to answer a call when I never heard his phone ring.’
I'd originally meant to make him treat me as payment for taking that arrow in his place, but according to Kim hyung, he owed me his life too, so that made us even or something.
― Come on, forget it. The adult is supposed to pay for things like this. Buy me a meal once you're settled. Then I'll gladly let you treat me.
‘Tsk. I'd feel better if I'd just paid.’
Favors, large or small, were terribly uncomfortable. I had to remember them and repay them.
If I slipped up and forgot, I'd instantly become an ungrateful bastard.
With people saying it was because I'd grown up with nothing as a bonus.
“Ah, whatever. I'll beat him to the bill next time.”
As I kept walking, I soon arrived home.
The moment I opened the rattling door and stepped inside, I threw myself onto my bedding.
“Uuugh… I'm home.”
The blankets enveloped my exhausted body in a warm embrace.
After all the chaos in the Tower, covered in mud, blood, and sweat, even the faint musty smell seemed fragrant.
Strangely enough, the blood and mud that had covered me inside the Tower had vanished without a trace when I came out.
It seemed to be some kind of system-based cleansing effect.
Unfortunately, it apparently wasn't omnipotent, since it hadn't repaired my damaged clothes.
‘I ruined a perfectly good set of clothes. Well, I suppose it's fine since I put them to good use.’
I sprawled out and stared blankly at the ceiling.
The carcass of a dead insect beneath the light cover.
The wallpaper still bearing traces of the mold that had once covered it before being scrubbed away.
It was the same scene I saw whenever I lay here, not the slightest bit different from yesterday.
“…It really feels like a dream.”
Before that ordinary sight, everything I'd experienced in the Tower felt like an illusion.
The person lying in this musty rooftop room had climbed the Tower in this very body, roamed through a dense forest and a swamp, and cut down monsters.
It hadn't happened long ago. It had been only a few hours.
The fact that I'd killed something felt strange, and the fact that I'd nearly died several times felt like a lie.
All of it seemed unreal, yet one thing remained terribly vivid: the sensation of cutting through flesh and bone.
‘It was exhilarating.’
At the thought of the Tower that had risen unbidden, I muttered without realizing it.
“Status Window.”
[Awakened Information]
Name: Kim Si-hyeon
Highest Floor Reached: Floor 0
Skills: Shadow Mimic (Unique), Flash (Unique)
- Shadow Imprint
└ Main Slot: Healing Touch (C- / Kim Min-ju)
└ D- Slot: Unimprinted
The message window appeared as if it had been waiting.
The information belonging to Kim Si-hyeon, the Awakened, still felt unfamiliar.
“Healing Touch and Flash are both there… And this must be the D-Grade slot I got as a reward.”
When Flash first emerged, the message had clearly said it had been ‘created.’
I'd expected as much, but seeing it plainly labeled ‘Unique’ meant it had become completely mine, separate from the imprint slots.
“This is nice.”
I closed the Status Window with the corners of my mouth raised, when a noise I'd barely registered earlier suddenly crossed my mind.
‘Come to think of it, the people at the next table during dinner seemed to be talking about some Tower-wide reward… Maybe I should look that up.’
Even I thought the final Tower-wide reward had been rather extraordinary.
Figuring there had to be some kind of reaction, I pulled out my phone….
[Top Stories at This Hour]
[Breaking] First-Ever ‘EX Grade’ Appears in Korea's Tower! 72-Hour ‘Festival of Bounty’ Begins!
[World] “What on Earth Happened in Korea's Tower?”… Awakened Communities Worldwide ‘Abuzz’
[Column] ‘EX Grade,’ a New Variable in the Tower… Major Upheaval Predicted in Clear Strategies
“What the hell? Don't tell me all of this is….”
It was all about me.
From the portal's front page onward, every newspaper was pumping out articles about my clear record.
The response exceeded my expectations by so much that it left me flustered.
‘That was the world's first EX Grade?’
I'd vaguely assumed it was only the first clear of that ‘Unknown Floor.’
But apparently not. It seemed to have been the first in the entire world.
Thinking this had become a bigger deal than expected, I skimmed a few news articles that caught my eye and checked the comments.
― I didn't do anything, but money's falling from the sky? Anyway, this is a huge win lol
― K-pop, K-drama, K-Tower, let's go
The comments on articles about the Festival of Bounty and the overseas response were mostly from people enjoying the blessing.
“As for the column….”
― I don't understand a word of this. I'm just glad we're getting good items.
A snort of laughter escaped me the moment I saw the top comment on the column.
I was about to move on, thinking, ‘The column's no different,’ when a rather incisive comment below it caught my eye.
― So clearing hidden floors and finding hidden pieces is what matters in the end. Maybe the old-timers who keep grinding the same floors every day should start getting nervous?
― What new variable? Shin Yu-seong will clear the highest floor anyway, and everyone below him just lives off the scraps… No need to overanalyze it. The countdown will restart once the floor is cleared, so he's probably clearing it later than usual on purpose. It's getting harder and harder. Every day counts.
“…Hmm, is that so? I put some thought into it. Was I just meddling?”
That Tower-wide reward for Korea… I had actually been allowed to choose it.
It had happened when I was left alone in the Tower after all my companions departed.
To be precise, the three-day blessing had been fixed. For the additional benefit, I had been asked to choose between extending the blessing by two more days and extending the highest-floor clear deadline by seven days. I chose the latter.
‘The Tower is a place meant to be climbed, after all.’
That had been my judgment.
A blessing that every Awakened in Korea could enjoy was nice, but wouldn't three days be enough?
‘I'm the one who went through all that, so what's wrong with choosing what I want? The Tower told me to choose.’
Shin Yu-seong, the national hero who must still be fighting to clear the highest floor while bearing the fate of the Republic of Korea alone.
I merely wanted to offer him even the smallest bit of help.
Even if he didn't need it.
That was simply how I felt.
If I had the chance to take up an oar on the Turtle Ship, it would have been strange to hold back.
‘If the extra seven days helped, that's great. If not, that's a shame. I can't take back a choice I've already made.’
I became absorbed in watching the reactions and visited ‘The Lobby’, an anonymous community for the Awakened, for the first time in a while.
Since I made my living dealing with the Awakened in the first place, it was a site I checked occasionally.
‘Most other Awakened communities require verification, so this was the only place I could go.’
They spoke harshly, but they weren't bad people.
Probably… Maybe.
One post immediately caught my eye.
【Proof】 Got a High-Grade Weapon Thanks to the Lord Bounty lolololol
- Comments
Anonymous1: So fucking jealous. Anyway, who the hell is this Lord Bounty or Lord EX? Shin Yu-seong? Kang Yu-jin? Choi Su-hyeon? Or maybe some hidden successor to the White Night Guild?
└ Anonymous (OP): I don't fucking know, but starting today, he's my god.
【Chat】 But Isn't the 7-Day Extension the Real Prize?
Everyone's too busy getting items, but this might not just be a matter of better drops. It might've saved an entire country.
There was that huge rumor going around that this clear attempt was going to fail.
I heard the source of that rumor was the Tower Disaster Control Headquarters?
- Comments
Anonymous1: What fucking rumor lol It's probably the same ghost story that goes around whenever the highest-floor clear deadline gets close
Anonymous2: Haven't you heard? The clear is Shin Yu-seong's anyway. A 7-day extension? Thx, but Shin Yu-seong would've cleared it all even without that. That's a fact
└Anonymous3: Simple fact) The Lord EX is above Shin Yu-seong. Shin Yu-seong's an immortal playing alone above the clouds, but the Lord EX is our hyung who's shoveling money at us right this second. How can you even compare them? lol
Every recent post and popular post had the same tone.
It was a bizarre sight. Countless anonymous Awakened were praising me… No, they were practically worshiping me.
“…It was that big a deal?”
Just then, a chime notification appeared on the bar at the top of my phone.
[Knock, knock! You haven't forgotten, have you? Tomorrow is rent day!]
“Tsk, rent day already? A whole month just flies by.”
Seeing that made the situation feel even stranger.
I was just an ordinary man in a hillside rooftop room, trembling over the five hundred thousand won I paid in rent each month. Yet Awakened who earned salaries that made people gasp were all praising me in unison.
‘Come to think of it, the crafting materials I got from the Tower seemed to be worth a fair amount of money….’
I opened my inventory and checked the items stored inside.
“If I sell a few, maybe I can cover the rent… Probably not, right?”
The kidnapping event had made it different from an ordinary first floor, but it was still fundamentally the first floor.
Aside from the boss, there had ultimately been nothing butGoblins.
Still, just in case, I visited an intermediary site for Awakened item trades and searched for ‘Sawtooth Fang.’
It seemed likely to be the most expensive of my crafting materials.
But….
‘What the hell? Why is this so expensive?’
My eyes flew wide at the search result.
[Giant Sawtooth Fang: 2,450,000 won (Most Recent Sale: 2.5 million won)]
It wasn't even an impressive piece of equipment, yet a single crafting material was worth almost five months of rent.
I'd expected a boss drop to be different, but this exceeded my expectations.
My heart pounded.
‘This is insane. No wonder everyone's desperate to Awaken.’
I calmed myself down and methodically searched the prices of the remaining items.
‘Green Hide Fragments are ten thousand won each, the fangs are twenty thousand… and a bottle of sap is worth eighty thousand won?’
Even the bottles of sap containing the poison theGoblins had used were worth a decent amount.
But the real prize was something else.
“H-Huh, n-nearly four million won…?”
The most recent sale price for a Giant Swamp-Soaked Hide was a staggering 3.85 million won! And the sale had taken place today, no less.
I searched to find out why it was so expensive. Apparently, it was the core crafting material for a cloak called the ‘Veil of the Swamp’, a piece of equipment favored by classes such as Assassins and Archers who valued stealth performance.
‘If I sell all of this….’
Escaping this musty rooftop room wouldn't be just a dream.
I swallowed hard.
There was still one more thing to search.
‘Endless Hunger.’
The Tower had given it to me separately as some sort of top-performance reward, so naturally….
[No search results.]
“Huh?”
No matter how many times I entered it again, the result was the same.
I searched everywhere, not just the trading site, but couldn't find any relevant information, speculative posts, or even eyewitness accounts.
‘There's no way the Tower wrapped up a piece of trash and presented it like a gift… It must be even rarer than I thought. What the hell is this?’
Unable to contain my curiosity, I cautiously took out the item I'd kept safely tucked away in my inventory.
Now that I was outside the Tower, it wouldn't have any effect. Still, I wondered if taking it out and examining it might reveal something.
“Ugh… This is kind of disgusting.”
It was a black sphere the size of a ping-pong ball, small enough to fit neatly in one hand.
When I'd seen its image in the inventory, I'd thought it was just a black ball. But holding it now, it was more like a drop of oil or a glob of ink.
The liquid forming the sphere still writhed, making it look like a living creature.
“Item Information.”
[Endless Hunger]
Description: A hunger that remains unfilled even when filled.
“…That's it? What kind of description is this?”
There was no information, and nothing about it was ordinary—not its appearance, its form, or its description.
“I don't know. I'll think about this one slowly.”
Even if I sold everything else, I would hold on to this for now.
If it was so valuable that no market price had ever been established, one careless mistake could be all it took to get fleeced.
I intended to keep it safely in my inventory until I found some relevant information.
Worried that the precious object might break, I moved to cup my right hand over the item in my left… when—
Slither.
For an instant, my shadow writhed like a snake.
It happened the moment the shadow of my right hand fell across my left.
“…Gasp!”
I saw it clearly.
My shadow moved.
Of course shadows could move, but that wasn't what I meant. Just now, it had moved on its own like some living creature.
Then a message appeared before my eyes.
[Contact with ‘Endless Hunger’ detected.]
[Consume ‘Endless Hunger’ to enhance the Unique Ability ‘Shadow Mimic.’]
Only then did I understand the item's purpose.
‘It was… an enhancement item.’
But it said consume. That meant the item would disappear.
This treasure might be the only one of its kind in the entire world, worth whatever price I named.
‘…Should I just sell it?’
An item that enhanced an Awakened ability? I didn't know how much it would fetch, but it certainly wouldn't be cheap.
If things went well, it could put an end to all my poverty.
I might even be able to live comfortably in a warm home for the rest of my life without lifting a finger.
It was a future I couldn't even have dreamed of until yesterday.
‘Is that really what I want?’
At the sudden thought, I turned my head.
Through the tiny window in the rooftop room, I could see the Tower soaring in the heart of Seoul.
‘It was dangerous. I almost died too. But why…?’
For some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off that Tower.
The few hours I'd spent in the Tower today were more vivid than all the memories of the life I'd lived until now.
Those moments had blazed in brilliant color, unlike the colorless days I'd spent struggling merely to keep the wolf from the door.
Just recalling them made my heart race.
‘This much is certain. I have talent. Talent for climbing the Tower.’
It wasn't because of the outside world's commotion over some world first or whatever. I felt it in my heart.
I had a gift for this, and I enjoyed it.
‘…Then should I give it a real shot?’
It would be dangerous, but it was worth the risk.
If only to seize the wealth and fame that would follow if I survived—and this strange, unfamiliar emotion.
The last trace of hesitation vanished, and a faint chuckle escaped me.
“Right, I can't settle for eating one golden egg. That Tower must be full of things like this.”
My decision was made.
I declared in a low voice,
“Enhance it.”
I had decided to make this golden egg my nourishment.
[‘Endless Hunger’ will be consumed to enhance the Unique Ability ‘Shadow Mimic.’]
As if it had been waiting for that choice, the shadow of my hand writhed violently like a living creature and swallowed the item.
“…I don't think I'll ever get used to this, no matter how many times I see it.”
Earlier, it had at least waited for a shadow to fall across the item. This time, the shadow beneath the back of my left hand flowed backward and climbed over the top of it.
Slither.
The black sphere was soon submerged in the shadow and faded away. Then the shadow, its belly full, returned to normal as though satisfied.
The message that appeared next announced the result of the enhancement.
[The Unique Ability ‘Shadow Mimic’ has been enhanced.]
[‘Shadow Devour,’ a subordinate trait of the Unique Ability, has been unlocked.]
[Delicious Scent: Starved instincts pursue prey.]
- The more powerful or rare the Skills possessed by a being, the stronger and more alluring its scent.
[Bite: Devour the shadow of a defeated target to temporarily imprint one of its signature Skills.]
- A temporarily imprinted Skill disappears after one use.
- Only one shadow can be ‘bitten’ per floor.
[???: This ability remains sealed. It will be unlocked when specific conditions are met.]
On the first day I became an Awakened after being kidnapped into the Tower and struggling to survive,
I made my decision.
I would live as an Awakened.
No, as a Climber.