Dark clouds covered every inch of the sky.
Below, raging winds whipped in the air, sending dust and sand up in a storm, making it hard to see the surroundings, along with loud howls and guttural growls of beasts.
Nimble shadows and occasional dim flashes of cold metallic light flickered in and out of the raging winds.
The raging sandstorm went on for a while, until finally, it dissipated.
The dark clouds covering the sky retreated, the howling wind died down, and the dust settled.
The unusually bright stars began to fill the night sky, subtly illuminating the ground beneath it.
In the distance, the first to appear in the surroundings was a massive, sword-like rock embedded on a gigantic crater.
It stood tall and massive, like an irregular skyscraper reaching to the skies.
There seemed to be countless unknown ores covering the jagged surface which gleamed with a bluish glow even with the dimmest light.
It resembled a glowing sodalite ore with streaks of pyrite and embedded diamonds.
The tower-like rock was right in the middle of a lake that formed at the floor of a crater.
The crater was so vast it encompassed several cities, and not a single sign of building wreckage could be seen within it.
Long ago, those buildings and everything within the crater was instantly pulverized at the moment of impact when the massive sword-like asteroid fell.
Around the rim of the crater, large boulders and landforms protruded outwards like thorns growing from the ground for several miles.
They form towering cliffs that reach down to the depth of the countless cracks that tore through the earth.
Only after a further distance away did signs of wreckage from ruins of cities begin to appear scatteredly.
Remnants of buildings stood haphazardly on the undulating terrain, with countless broken pillars and gaping holes.
Piles of grey rubble lay everywhere, and everything else was covered by sand due to the sandstorm.
One of the ruins was what could have previously been a stadium or a large gymnasium, a huge dome with rounded ceiling that had already caved-in.
From the large gaping hole on the ceiling, faint moonlight shone through the dark interior, casting a dim light on several prone figures on the ground.
Only the sound of the wind whistling through the wreckage could be heard for a long time.
“Cough–”
A low cough broke the silence, and one of the prone figures on the ground moved, turning over from a face down position to their back while lying on the ground.
The person was covered in rags, their neck and arms were wrapped by tattered fabric, and their face covered with a cloth mask.
Now, the tattered fabric was in even more dire conditions, with bloody holes and cuts in various places.
The person on the ground coughed again, laboriously raised an arm to take off the mask on their face, took a deep breath of fresh air, and gazed up at the starry sky above the gaping ceiling.
It was a face covered in grime and scars, indistinguishable from any gender.
With short uneven hair and a lean figure, the person seemed to be a young man or a boy in late teens.
No one would think that this person was actually a young woman who had been carefully hiding her gender in this dangerous world, where women were considered prey.
What bad luck, to be found by these monsters in the middle of the sandstorm, she dully thought, her entire body enveloped by pain and exhaustion.
It had been a while since a sandstorm appeared, so the small base she was temporarily residing in was caught unprepared.
Fortunately, after many years of disasters after disasters, they were all quick to adjust.
The people at the base had just wrapped themselves in whatever fabric they had left and retreated to the underground shelter when these monsters suddenly came out of nowhere, hunting them down like hounds smelling fresh meat.
A spatial fissure must have appeared nearby.
To prevent the monsters from entering the shelter, the entrance was immediately blocked, and the remaining few people who did not manage to get in could only fend for themselves.
To have survived this long, each one of them was naturally a tough nut to crack.
But with waves of countless low-level monsters and a few high level ones blending in their midst, no matter how tough they were, humans would eventually tire out.
Especially with the sandstorm that clouded one’s eyes and ears and would nip at the skin at every opening.
Fortunately, the sandstorm did not favor anyone.
Many of the monsters were swept away and were finished off by the sandstorm, while the rest followed the scattered humans who fled into various building wreckage.
After a few heaving breaths, the short-haired young woman tried to sit up but had no strength left.
Gritting her teeth, her eyes filled with unwillingness, she finally mustered their strength to prop an arm up on the floor, panting heavily.
A blue colored gem bound by a dark rope fell out from her torn collar and swung in the air.
The young woman’s eyes constricted.
She immediately grabbed the pendant and stuck it back inside the collar.
People nowadays hate anything blue.
It reminded them of the blue asteroid that caused the world to fall apart.
But this pendant was a keepsake from someone important to the young woman.
The dark cloth used to cover the pendant must have been scratched away by a monster and swept up in the sandstorm, judging from the bloody cut on the collar and her chest.
Grabbing the water pouch on her waist, the young woman drank a mouthful of water and ate a piece of dried meat.
She then carefully checked her wounds, applied ointment, and finally staggered up.
She shot a glance at the corpses of monsters scattered in the stadium.
These were valuable materials, too useful to waste, but the sandstorm might occur again.
Safety was more important.
Looking at the wounds on her body and the tattered clothes that could not withstand further torment, she decided to cut off some meat for emergency ration and hide somewhere safe until she was sure that the sandstorm had truly passed.
After leaving the stadium ruins, the young woman who had covered herself with the tattered cloak walked for a while before slowly stopping.
She tilted her head, quietly listening.
Whoosh~
The wind howled in the distance.
In the vast ruins, aside from the wind blowing everywhere, there seemed to be another faint sound.
The sound did not seem to be from other survivors.
Trying to ascertain where the indistinguishable sound came from, the young woman looked towards a certain direction.
The moon hung low on the sky, looking impossibly huge on the horizon.
A tall, shimmering pillar contrasted against the moonlit backdrop, glowing with blue light.
Some of the old survivors call it the Sword of Damocles.
They said that the world over a century ago was too full of corruption and pollution, and this sword was cast down by God to punish humanity for their evil deeds.
But there was not only one sword that fell, they said.
At least before the magnetic field had gone haywire and people all over the world lost all connection to the global network and radio-connectivity, it was confirmed that there were at least three that landed on earth, and there could be more in other areas.
No one really knew, everyone was busy surviving the catastrophic disasters triggered by this event, which heralded the coming of the apocalypse.
The soft moonlight shone on the young woman’s face.
The blue glow of the towering asteroid in the distance was reflected on her clear eyes as she listened intently.
Then her eyes widened.
At the topmost area of the towering asteroid, the blue glow was growing stronger and stronger, until it resembled a lighthouse shining brightly in the middle of a foggy sea.
The light was so bright that the ground was illuminated like it was daytime.
The young woman was not the only one to notice the change.
Deep in the ravines, a group of monsters looked up, sensing something in the air.
Inside another ruins of a building, several crouching men busily skinning a monster raised their heads in surprise.
Somewhere, in the middle of a heated battle, everyone, from monster to human, stopped their actions and looked in the same direction.
Their alarmed faces mirrored each other.
In over a hundred years since the cataclysm began, this was the first time that the asteroid showed such a change.
The wind blew across the vast expanse of ruins surrounding the beacon of light, carrying with it a strange noise.
[ …tions… Cong… tions…]
[Congratulations… ]
The faint humming sound that the young woman previously heard became louder, growing into broken words, until they finally became barely coherent in everyone’s ears.
Only barely, because for reasons unknown, many words could not be heard clearly, as if passing through many filters, unrecognizable to human ears…
[Congratulations to Player… for clearing the Tower of Babel for the first time.
First clear rewards…]
People all around the world were confused upon hearing the familiar yet unfamiliar terms.
These sounded similar to the game terminologies they heard from the old world.
But why were they being mentioned now?
Where did this voice come from?
What did it mean?
What Tower of Babel, the only thing close to resembling a tower was…
Everyone stared at the distant Sword of Damocles, which now had a new name, the Tower of Babel.
What was going on?
Was something dangerous going to happen again?
Everyone held their weapons in their hands tightly, wary of any changes in their surroundings.
Within the city ruins, the young woman stood dumbstruck in place, gazing at the blazing beacon in the distance.
She heard something familiar just now.
Tower of Babel.
Player.
Those words.
She had heard of them before, from her mentor.