Just when the door closed, I pushed myself up from the bed and started searching this room for something that would help me regain the memories of this body, like a diary. I had to do it now since tomorrow morning, my sight would go blank again.
I had realized that this wasn’t just some story, but a real world, and this body was the proof. More importantly, I had to figure out why Reina had wanted me to be here.
I continued searching the room, going through every corner and cranny, but nothing was found. Shelves and under the bed – I searched everywhere. However, after I rummaged through this last drawer, I had come upon crinkling papers. There were burned letters stuck to the top of the drawer with brittle tape, ready to fall any minute.
I took it out and laid the scorched papers on the table. As I opened them, my heart pounded, I could see how long the papers had been left there, as they were scorched black from the edges. Though I was disappointed at the quality, I continued reading what I could from the burned document since most of the writing had been burned. But there were only three words visible among the ashes…
“My brother, Takeshi”.
I sighed, was this it? There was nothing else in this room. Just made my investigation even more tough. “I hope they’re rotting in hell for this,” I whispered. But I couldn’t dwell on it. I could lay out the plan for the future since I had realized this was the novel I had read before. Fortunately, I have a good memory. Otherwise, it would’ve been hard to make use of the information from the novel.
I took out a few papers and scribbled the important dates and points of the novel using ink.
“July 2nd, The Tower opens…” I muttered as I recounted all the information.
This world that I currently was living in was from the regressor’s 10th regression, where he was a genius martial artist. This world had the same map as Earth, except it was the year 900, and humanity had discovered an energy called Chi or Ki, named differently in each kingdom. After discovering the mysterious energy, nations started producing and providing knowledge about this energy to the public, causing new martial artists to be born.
Just as the world had settled into the new era of peace and getting used to the new Martial Artists, an event occurred that changed the world – Towers appeared, and the first monster break occurred, resulting in 500 million deaths overnight. Panic spread as some people stated that it was the end of the world, while others believed that the apocalypse had arrived. Then a red clock appeared in the sky, counting down to an unknown event however, they knew it wasn’t anything good.
Just as they had predicted, the second break of the Tower had occurred when no one dared to climb it, and humanity ignored all the summoning attempts of the Tower. Martial Artists, after seeing the numerous monsters breaking out, avoided the Tower, thinking they’d die as soon as they stepped inside. However, during the second wave, 100 million people died. And again, the clock appeared in the sky…
Having had enough, the emperor of Japan entered the Tower as he accepted the Tower’s mission, and he became the first-ever Player connecting to the Tower’s system. The emperor introduced the others when he came out after conquering floor 30. He was injured, but he had gained a lot within the Tower.
After the first Player returned, the Tower made a worldwide announcement.
Then, two additional Towers sprouted surrounding the main Tower in Japan. This caused widespread panic, even making the Emperor hopeless. However, it was found out by his soldiers that they were not hostile structures but something called Training Towers, and each Training Tower was for different classes. A Training Tower was only made specifically for training their classes and had 90 floors each.
The Mystic Tower, and the Warrior Tower.
The Warrior Training Tower was discovered on the border of South Korea and Japan. However, the Training Tower had left the border damaged, which resulted in South Korea and Japan crashing into each other. Then, Japan took the opportunity and launched a campaign to conquer South Korea.
Even though South Korea had retaliated, Japan struggled with China’s success in taking over North Korea. South Korea, in the end, fell under Japanese control. Making up the new Empire of Japan.
The emperor shared his findings of the Tower to his advisors about the coin system in the Tower and the other humans who were summoned beside him into the Tower. It wasn’t just their world but other worlds as well. The Tower was a hub that summoned individuals from other universes. The emperor greedily thought of starting an organization within, but he got cheated and failed, which is the reason he was forced to abandon the Tower.
The time of the third monster wave had arrived, but by then, the emperor had trained and awakened many in the Training Towers to enter the main Tower. This time, there were only 100 casualties, which showed the martial artists that they needed to climb the Tower so that there wasn’t an outbreak. If before the timer runs out and ten floors have been cleared, there will be no outbreak.
Another year passed, and the Martial Artists continued their exploration of the Training Towers and made another discovery on floor 32 that there were inhabitants of the Training Towers, but they were hiding from them all along. It took a lot of convincing and negotiation, but the emperor made a pact with the several races in the Training Towers, which led to the districts being established.
District A, where royalty and the Tower Inhabitants lived. District B, where the nobles lived. District C, where the commoners lived, and District D, where the lowest of humans lived, the slums. Where I currently reside.
This also opened the real estate within the Training Towers, which the emperor had no control over, only the Tower Inhabitants, which included humans, beast kin, elves, dwarves, fairies, nymphs, and dragonoids. However, the fairies, nymphs, and dragonoids had gone rare since their existence was revealed, which had made the remaining Tower Inhabitants never leave their Training Towers again.
They could access the main Tower from within, so they had no problems going into hiding again. Even the Tower Inhabitants had to climb the Tower, but the reason remained unknown.
The emperor had no power over such individuals, as he couldn’t do anything. Over these years, he had only been able to climb the Tower to floor 40 and not more than that. Even the new generations couldn’t go over the 40. However, he still reset the clock since he had climbed ten floors.
Since then, new Players were born, and the Tower became a source of wealth by being able to sell creatures and materials. And ever since hitting floor 30, Players couldn’t share some information with the outside world; they were muted each time. And the clock resets every ten floors, and now there was only a year left on the clock…
This was the background story of the world Yu Daewon was in during his 10th regression. Each regression, he was born into another world or universe, but originally, he was a normal NEET from the 21st century. However, each life, he was summoned to the Tower and given a mission to annihilate the owner of the Tower, but as he failed, he kept regressing to the starting where he was summoned to the Tower.
I knew Yu Daewon well – better than anyone else could. He was a typical protagonist for whom people were always rooted. Yu Daewon would do anything for his friends; he was loyal and optimistic. However, he was betrayed by his party countless times during his regressions, which led to him not being able to trust anyone easily.
In the novel, the 15th regression was the most important one, where Yu Daewon found his party and trusted companions. But he still kept dying, not being able to reach past the 80th floor. Either he was killed by the organizations or enemies, or he was killed by his companions because of jealousy.
“He didn’t have it easy,” I muttered, a smirk on my face. Certainly, Yu Daewon’s fate was tragic. I had to prevent Yu Daewon from falling into any of these traps if I wanted to survive. Plus, I also wanted this Tower to vanquish if I wanted to continue living in this body. There was no way I was going back to the 21st century. Meaning I had to make Yu Daewon rely on me and gain his trust. ‘It’s a pain in the ass but nothing impossible,’ I thought, smirking.
For now, I had to find some more information on this Jun, but all I could find was that I had a younger brother named Takeshi, I wonder what kind of relationship I have with that person. Takeshi would find out I wasn’t his brother instantly, so I had to do something.
“Jun-sama, the candles are still on. Have you slept yet? You have a performance tomorrow”, the maid who had come by the door questioned.
I clicked my tongue and blew out the candles frustratingly. I wished the Jinn had sent me to the future instead.
The battlefield on the 7th floor of the Tower was chaotic, and the clashing of the weapons and the shouts echoed in the air warriors and mages alike. Amid the crowd, a young man with green eyes and black hair stood out. His robes were smeared with blood and dust, but he held the sword in his hands tight, not willing to die. Even though he was pushed around by his companions, he persisted.
Takeshi tightened his grip on his sword. “Just why did I have to end up here while Oni-san is safe at the Pavilion. Just why did I have to be one to join the army, it’s so unfair”.
Just then, a large, burly soldier knocked Takeshi over as he fought. “Move it, weakling! If you’re not going to help. You’re in the way!”.
Takeshi’s heart pounded nervously, but he yelled at the top of his lungs, lunging toward the hobgoblins and killing them using whatever he could. “I can do this…if only I finish this floor, I can go back…I just have to survive”.
Takeshi bit his lips and continued striking his sword. “Jun oni-san, just wait for me,” he muttered.
Comments (1)
See all