People revealed their true nature when driven into a corner.
That was one of Baek Yulheon’s personal beliefs, born from experience.
Cold sweat trickled down his face as he watched the monitor.
―You fucking bastard!! Baek Yulheon!!!
“…….”
It was the first time he had ever heard Jeong Sohyeok swear like that.
Still, Baek Yulheon had nothing to say in his defense.
‘Sorry, Sohyeok…….’
Jeong Sohyeok was hiding something.
And it was something extremely important.
White Lotus was currently in an extremely precarious position.
If Jeong Sohyeok had not appeared when he did, it would not have been strange for the guild to collapse entirely.
That meant every action Jeong Sohyeok took, every hidden aspect of his ability, had the potential to shake the guild to its foundations.
Baek Yulheon genuinely felt terrible about this.
There was even a risk that Sohyeok might turn his back on White Lotus because of it.
Even so—
Baek Yulheon ultimately chose this method.
“I’ll have to beg for forgiveness once this is over…….”
“Guild Master, the setup is complete.”
“Begin.”
The giant on the monitor started moving.
“Crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy.”
It was the supermarket terrorist.
The terrorist I had personally knocked unconscious before he was taken away by the police.
And now—
that bastard was standing right in front of me.
With an enormous grudge, no less.
“I went through hell because of you, you know? It’s only fair that you suffer about as much, right?”
“…….”
The terrorist clenched his fists.
His joints cracked loudly, accompanied by small firecracker-like explosions.
It was extremely threatening.
Trauma.
Memories of the supermarket resurfaced in my mind.
‘How the hell is he here?’
More importantly—
why?
Baek Yulheon had clearly said this was a White Lotus building.
So why was a terrorist inside it?
Unfortunately—
The bastard did not give me time to think.
“Blow apart and die!!”
BOOM!!
A huge plume of smoke erupted as he launched himself forward like a projectile.
‘If I don’t fight, I die.’
There was no point thinking about it.
The fact that he was standing in front of me right now was undeniable.
Fortunately—
I had already been through this once.
“Wind-Thunder Fist Art!”
Just like last time, I attempted a counter.
I lowered my body and narrowly avoided his fist……
But—
“Urgh……!”
A small explosion erupted from the end of his fist and grazed my right eye.
WHOOSH!
As a result—
my own fist did not so much as graze him.
I did not even feel the slightest contact.
‘I’m fucked.’
The counter had failed.
Which meant—
the bastard was still perfectly conscious and had already closed the distance.
‘I’m going to die.’
All he had to do was trigger a small explosion around himself and my body would be blown apart.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Preparing myself for the pain to come.
“……?”
‘Pain?’
Hadn’t my right eye nearly been blown out by that explosion just now?
“……What?”
I opened my eyes.
There was nothing there.
No smoke.
No explosion.
No pain.
Not even the terrorist.
Only the same empty white room as before.
As I stood there dumbfounded—
“……Huh.”
The clicking sound of high heels—
came from the entrance I had used earlier.
“……Guild Master?”
“No.”
A woman appeared.
She wore a white coat and glasses.
“Who are…….”
“My name is Lee Yuri. I’m the Team Leader of White Lotus’s Awakened Management Team.”
Lee Yuri adjusted her glasses once before handing me a business card.
I blankly accepted the small piece of paper.
I still had not caught up with what was happening.
“Mr. Jeong Sohyeok? Could you look over here for a moment?”
“……Yes?”
I looked away from the business card and toward Lee Yuri.
Her hand was clenched into a fist.
“Take this.”
“……?”
She held her closed fist over me as though handing me something.
Still confused, I placed my palm beneath it.
“Ta-da.”
“……Huh?”
Plop.
Something fell into my hand.
Round.
Wet.
Soft.
‘……An eyeball?’
“Aaaaagh!!”
I could never forget it.
It was that terrorist’s eye.
I immediately flung the eyeball out of my palm.
“Hahaha. That reaction was amusing.”
“Amusing!?”
The revolting sensation still lingered on my right hand.
A human eyeball.
There was such a thing as taking a bad joke too far—
“……Huh?”
The eyeball I had thrown into the air disappeared.
“Look at your palm again.”
“……My palm?”
I cautiously looked at my right hand.
[Congratulations!]
“Ah?”
Strange letters floated above my palm.
They flickered with static in midair.
“A holo…… gram?”
“Wow, you got it immediately. I suppose they weren’t merely flattering you when they said you were quick on the uptake.”
“What do you mean……?”
“That’s my ability.”
Lee Yuri extended her palm.
Rippling blue energy flowed from her hand—
gathered into a sphere—
then scattered.
“……You’re an Awakened?”
“Yes. I’m not a combatant, but it’s useful in plenty of ways.”
She raised her open hand toward the air.
The blue energy pouring from her palm formed an enormous shape.
After a moment—
“……Ah.”
The terrorist.
The giant’s figure appeared in midair.
“Wahaha! I’m a terrorist.”
“Wahaha! I’m a terrorist.”
When Lee Yuri spoke—
the holographic terrorist moved his mouth and repeated the exact same words.
Only then did I understand.
‘So it was a hologram.’
My right eye, which should have been struck by the explosion, was perfectly fine.
And my fist, which should have at least grazed him, had passed through without touching anything.
Because that terrorist—
had been a hologram.
“Hahaha…….”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
At the same time—
someone appeared behind Lee Yuri.
“……Guild Master.”
“A-Ahaha…… Sohyeok, are you okay?”
Baek Yulheon scratched his head while avoiding my gaze.
I answered him with a small smile.
“Uh…… Your expression looks a lot like Sohyeon’s right now……?”
“Does it?”
“Ahahaha…… I guess siblings really do resemble each other.”
“Then you must know what my sister does at times like this too, right?”
“Huh……?”
It was time for punishment.
“……Guild Master.”
“Yeah.”
Watching the live feed on the monitor—
Baek Yulheon could not hide his astonishment.
“I can’t believe he destroyed the hologram in one blow.”
Yuri had put considerable effort into creating that hologram.
Ordinary impacts should not have been enough to disperse it.
‘The wind surrounding his body. The sound of thunder when he struck.’
From evasion to counterattack—
every movement flowed seamlessly into the next.
It was all far too familiar.
Without realizing it—
Baek Yulheon saw himself reflected in Jeong Sohyeok.
“That confirms it. We can worry about ‘how’ later. Sohyeok can use my ability.”
“……But that should be impossible.”
“We just saw it with our own eyes. There’s no point denying it.”
“……I’ll check one more time.”
Baek Yulheon sighed as he watched Yuri repeatedly inspect the monitor, cold sweat running down her face.
‘At this point, I suppose there’s nothing particularly strange about it anymore.’
The moment Jeong Sohyeok Awakened an unheard-of ability ranked EX—
anything became possible.
Even if that meant an ability capable of copying and using other people’s abilities.
“Yuri, enough checking. Shouldn’t we head down now? Sohyeok looks pretty angry.”
“Only angry? He was dragged here without explanation and forced to fight a terrorist. If it were me, I’d drive a knee straight into your face.”
“……Really?”
“Yes.”
Watching Lee Yuri head downstairs first—
Baek Yulheon placed a hand over his forehead.
“So, can you explain it to me, Sohyeok?”
“…….”
Baek Yulheon asked with a serious expression.
At this point, everything worth exposing had already been exposed.
There was no longer any reason to hide it.
“After I first used my ability on a plant, I underwent another Awakening and gained a second ability.”
Retainer of the World Tree.
An ability that allowed me to copy the abilities of people who ate the plants I grew.
The moment he heard my explanation—
Baek Yulheon spoke with certainty.
“So you were the one who beat Kim Wigang at the supermarket, weren’t you?”
“……Kim Wigang?”
“Ah. That’s the terrorist’s name.”
“Oh…… Yes. That was me.”
“Then why did you say Chae-rin was the one who did it? That achievement belonged to you.”
“You know the reason better than anyone, Guild Master.”
Hide my identity.
Raise White Lotus’s prestige.
The one that had benefited most from the terrorist incident—
was none other than White Lotus.
“……True. I suppose it’s a little shameless for me to complain when I’m the one who benefited.”
Baek Yulheon fell silent for a moment.
He seemed to be cautiously gauging my mood.
“Sohyeok.”
Then he slowly spoke again.
“You said you used to be the captain of your baseball team, right?”
“……Excuse me?”
He had suddenly brought up my past.
Baek Yulheon stared into the empty air.
“Standing above others isn’t particularly pleasant. It’s burdensome and exhausting. There’s a lot you have to take responsibility for.”
“Why are you suddenly talking about…….”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s nothing but hardship. I’m sure you’ve experienced that yourself.”
Baek Yulheon clenched his fist.
“Simply being above others feels good.”
“…….”
What was he trying to say?
Before I could even think about it—
I understood what he meant.
The simple thrill of defeating someone.
The sense of accomplishment that came from surpassing someone who had once stood above you.
Memories of the past resurfaced.
When the corners of my mouth slowly rose—
Baek Yulheon spoke with conviction.
“Have you ever considered climbing the Tower yourself, Sohyeok?”
“……The Tower?”
“This isn’t a request from the Guild Master. It’s advice from Baek Yulheon, one person to another. I’m not going to pressure you into joining White Lotus, and there’s no need to force yourself beyond your limits.”
The Tower.
A word that had always remained tucked away in one corner of my heart—
but one I had never dared bring out.
A realm I had dismissed as nothing more than a dream.
“I simply want to see it. Someone who once fell all the way to the bottom rising to the very top.”
“…….”
“Do you want to spend your entire life hiding who you are? Don’t you want to stand proudly in the open at least once?”
“…….”
“Someone who climbs the Tower can do that. Simply reaching high enough places everything within your grasp.”
My mouth suddenly felt dry.
I wanted to say something—
but the words caught in my throat.
My head grew hot.
At some point, my leg had started trembling.
I looked directly into Baek Yulheon’s eyes.
There was no greed in them.
Only pure curiosity.
Along with belief in me.
This man genuinely believed that I could climb the Tower.
“……Do you think I can do it?”
“I don’t know. Climbing the Tower is ultimately a matter of mental strength. No matter how powerful someone’s ability is, if their mind is weak, they’ll eventually fall behind.”
“Haha. I wasted years of my life just because I had to quit baseball.”
“I don’t know the Sohyeok who existed before meeting me. And I don’t like defining people by their past. What matters is the present.”
“……Is the current me really that different?”
“At the very least, the person sitting in front of me doesn’t look like someone who intends to let his ability rot away unused. It would be such a waste, wouldn’t it? Frankly speaking.”
A waste.
An incredibly simple feeling.
And perhaps because of that—
it struck even harder.
“I never imagined I’d hear something like this here.”
“Haha! I never expected to say it either. Honestly, I only called you here because I was curious about what secret you were hiding.”
“……Can I leave first?”
“Ah, I’ll drive you home! Just wait a moment!”
Two hours later—
I safely arrived back at my rooftop room.
The sun was setting.
Normally, I would have been tired enough to fall asleep immediately.
Strangely—
I could not sleep.
Baek Yulheon’s words kept circling through my mind.
The Tower.
The summit.
My ability.
“…….”
I remembered something from several years ago.
The 1st Floor of the Tower.
The time I had confidently challenged the unknown.
Even now, remembering that day made my legs tremble.
The fear that I could die.
The alien horror of seeing creatures I had never encountered before.
Would it be different now?
Had anything truly changed?
“……Enter Tower.”