I'm the Only Wizard Climbing the Tower - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

TL: DDTL

When I was little.

I could see things other people couldn’t.

“Mom, there are so many blue dots here!”

“Blue dots? What are those?”

“You know, the blue dots flying around in the air! I can see a whole bunch of them here!”

“…?”

From time to time, I saw blue dots.

Mysterious particles that floated up into the air, glittering.

Like clusters of stars in the night sky.

Or fireflies on a wooded hill.

Particles hovering in the empty air, shimmering with a soft blue glow, drifted into my sight.

But it seemed nobody else could see the blue dots I saw.

“Ji-ho, are you still seeing those blue dots lately? Hmm… maybe we should take you to the hospital. There’s an eye clinic nearby…”

My worried parents.

“Liar! There’s nothing there!”

“Ji-ho’s always going on about blue dots.”

“Don’t play with him! He’s a weirdo!”

The kids my age who shunned me.

“Ji-ho’s mother? Hello. I’m calling because Ji-ho keeps saying he sees blue dots…”

“Oh, he had an eye exam and they said everything was normal? Ah, I see… Yes. Understood.”

Even the adults around me, who treated me like an oddball.

Not a single person could see the blue dots I saw.

It was strange.

How could they not see those blue dots, sparkling so beautifully…

In the end, I stopped talking about the ‘blue dots’ altogether.

Whenever I brought them up, people either treated me like a freak or started talking about hospitals and tests, giving me looks brimming with worry.

I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.

But silence aside, I kept analyzing the blue dots that only my eyes could see.

And through that, I figured out a few things.

First, the blue dots turned up more often in places close to nature.

Second, location aside, certain special foods carried blue dots within them.

And third, eating food imbued with blue dots left me with a strange surge of vitality.

That was about all I ever figured out.

Time passed.

From my clueless kindergarten days, through elementary, middle, and high school, all the way to becoming a college student.

I hid what made me special and passed myself off as ordinary.

And right around the time I’d entered college and begun preparing to step out into the world.

The Tower appeared.

* * *

-The United States has announced the complete clearing of Floor 49 of the Tower. The strategy data is to be shared with allied nations…

-It has now been one week since Hunter Kim Tae-seok was stranded on Floor 41. The government has ordered the dispatch of a rescue team. A government spokesperson voiced their resolve, stating, ‘Hunter Kim Tae-seok is a treasure of Korea. We will rescue him without fail’…

-South Korea’s Point reserves have fallen below 40 million. Depletion is projected within three months…

-Ding-a-ling.

The convenience store’s door chime rang.

I set down my smartphone and stood up.

“Welcome.”

“One pack of Reds.”

“That’ll be 4,500 won.”

-Beep.

Scanned the barcode, rang it up fast.

The customer took his cigarettes and walked out of the store.

“Have a good one.”

After seeing him off.

I sat back down and fixed my eyes on my smartphone.

-The government is drafting an emergency budget to secure Tower Points while also appealing for foreign aid.

-The outflow of domestic Hunters overseas is accelerating. Surveys show the Emigration rate among Mid Floor Hunters reached a staggering 7% this quarter, sending shockwaves…

-A mass overseas Emigration by high-ranking government officials has been uncovered. Public opinion…

The online news was nothing but one piece of bad news after another.

Tower Point depletion, the exodus of domestic Hunters, Emigration by senior government figures, imminent national collapse…

Going by the news alone, the country could fall apart tomorrow and it wouldn’t even be a surprise.

“Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if it collapsed any day now.”

Ever since the Tower appeared, humanity had lived under the constant threat of annihilation.

It’s practically a miracle that society is still turning at all, even if only on the surface.

My name is Baek Ji-ho.

Twenty-seven. College dropout. High school diploma. Convenience store clerk.

A dime-a-dozen night-shift convenience store part-timer, living through the final days before the fall.

* * *

The walk home after my shift.

As I trudged along toward home, I lifted my head and looked past the buildings.

And there it was.

‘The Tower.’

Beyond Seoul’s night skyline, beyond its countless skyscrapers.

A colossal black tower soaring all the way to the edge of the sky.

Gazing at that massive structure, I muttered under my breath.

“Seven years of staring at that eyesore, and I still can’t get used to it.”

Seven years ago.

One day, right around the time I’d just started college.

Words appeared in the minds of all humankind.

[The protection period for sentient beings has ended.]

[The survival test now begins.]

They were words every human in the world could see and understand.

The blind, who could not see.

The illiterate, who could not read.

Dementia patients, who could no longer think clearly.

Even newborns, with no intellect to speak of.

A notice from the world, forcibly carved into every human soul.

[A ‘Tower of Trials’ has been generated in the capital of every nation.]

[Each nation must pay Points equal to its population every month.]

[Failure to pay will result in the elimination of a population equal to the Point shortfall.]

[Climb the Tower and prove the value of your survival.]

[A grace period of 100 days has been granted.]

Black towers rose in the very heart of every nation’s capital.

[The Tower of Trials will select Climbers at random.]

[Survive and prove your potential.]

And so the Climbers were born.

0.1% of humanity. One in every thousand, chosen as the ones able to enter the Tower.

Summoned by the Tower, they underwent the Tutorial.

Those who passed the Tutorial became official Climbers, able to enter the Tower, slay monsters, and earn Points.

And the lives of entire nations came to rest on their shoulders.

Our country, with its population of 51.1 million, must earn and pay 51.1 million Points to the Tower every month.

The United States, population 349.03 million, must likewise pay 349.03 million Points every month.

China, population 1.40489 billion, must pay 1.40489 billion Points every month.

And if a nation fails to pay?

A population equal to the shortfall is deleted at random.

Fall short by a million Points, and a million unspecified people vanish.

Fall short by ten million, and ten million disappear; fall short by a hundred million, and a hundred million are gone.

An age in which every nation and all of humanity scraped to extend a terminal lease on survival.

An age in which millions, tens of millions, vanished into nothing without a single gunshot.

An age in which nations were tested on their survival, month after month.

It was the age of the Tower.

* * *

Back in our Semi-basement room, I went through the familiar motions of fixing a meal.

I microwaved the expired boxed meal I’d brought home and warmed up the doenjang soup Noona had made.

My usual dinner.

-Munch, munch. Slurp.

A bite of the boxed meal, a spoonful of soup.

Not exactly a gourmet meal, but it fills the stomach well enough.

I looked at the empty seat across the table.

‘Noona didn’t come home again today.’

She must be swamped these days; I hardly ever catch sight of her anymore.

Still, she’s the only blood family I have left, so I’d like to see her more often.

But with me working night shifts and her buried in work, chances to actually sit down face to face are few and far between.

‘I’ve heard manager work is rough.’

Noona works as the manager for a third-rate Hunter team.

Someone who handles all the little things in the Hunters’ place: driving, paperwork, processing Loot.

The pay beats an ordinary office job, but from what I’ve heard, the stress is proportional.

Well, no surprise. Catering to foul-tempered Hunters can’t exactly be easy.

Slurp.

I quickly emptied the boxed meal and soup, cleared the table, then dove onto my bed.

And pulled out my smartphone.

No way I’m skipping the pre-sleep scroll.

‘Maybe I’ll check Hunter Gallery. It’s probably on fire over today’s news.’

Hunter Gallery. HunGal, for short.

Despite the name, it’s an online community with far more people cursing out Hunters than actual working Hunters.

I logged onto HunGal, and sure enough, it was exactly as expected.

[@@@SOUTH KOREA SERVER SHUTDOWN: 3 MONTHS LEFT@@@]

[what the hell are these hunter bastards even doing? stuffing their faces with our fucking taxes while bringing in jack shit in points]

[fuck it, let’s kill our bottom-rank hunters like china does.]

[breaking) daegang group owner family emigrating]

[no way the country actually collapses, right? the government will figure something out]

[if you’ve got the means, emigrate now. unless you want to die in 3 months]

The board, in full-blown panic.

I read through the posts that caught my eye, one by one.

[Title: @@@SOUTH KOREA SERVER SHUTDOWN: 3 MONTHS LEFT@@@]

Korea’s monthly Point income: 37 million Points.

Monthly Points owed: 51 million Points.

Monthly deficit: 14 million Points.

Points remaining: 40 million Points.

Projected Points in 3 months: ‘-2 million’ lololololol

2 million people evaporating means the social system gets shot full of holes and the state stops functioning, guaranteed.

From there it’s anarchy and total collapse in the blink of an eye.

Thank you for playing on the South Korea server all these years.

└RIP

└we’re so fucked… wait, a 14 million point monthly deficit, for real? why can’t we earn shit?

└└because most hunters just do low-floor parking and rice-eat their way through life, and the ones who actually earn points have all emigrated.

└this country is just hopeless.

[Title: fuck it, let’s kill our bottom-rank hunters like china does.]

the chinks next door regularly execute their bottom-rank freeloader hunters

and force the low-floor parking rice-eaters and the ‘just taking a break’ hunters up the tower at knifepoint

so why the hell is our country so humane

the country only survives if we wipe out every hunter squatting on a climber slot doing nothing

we should kill off the useless bottom-rankers now and reroll the hunter gacha to secure promising ones

└crazy bastard, ever heard of human rights? we deserve to die for not climbing hard enough? killing low-floor goblins is fucking terrifying as it is, so why are you bitching at us to go higher when you’ve never held a knife in your life

└└so you’re a low-floor parking hunter? hey rice-eater fuck, the country’s collapsing because of people like you. if you don’t have the guts for the high floors then just fucking die, free up your climber slot, and let someone else climb

└└fuck off, it’s not like i asked to be a climber, so why should i bet my life on it?

└└then quit strutting around calling yourself a hunter, you fuck. the hunters climbing the high floors keep their heads down while it’s always you low-floor parking bottom-rankers causing every scandal out there

└└yeah, your mom. you wouldn’t even be able to meet my eyes irl lol. how about freeloaders like you kill yourselves first? do it now and save the country 1 point

└└you motherfucker

[Title: breaking) daegang group owner family emigrating]

a friend of mine works in the daegang group’s executive office and says the owner family is pushing through an emigration.

with those high-ranking government officials getting caught emigrating recently too

looks like our upper class is mid-exodus

└i want to emigrate too

└then go

└can’t afford to

└then die

└T_T

[Title: no way the country actually collapses, right? the government will figure something out]

every time points ran low before, they sold off national assets and scraped the points together somehow

sold bonds, sold companies, sold tech, sold artifacts, sold top hunters. we’ve survived that way a few times

this time too, the government will sell off whatever the country has left and manage somehow…

└yeah, no. why would anyone pay points for our companies when the conglomerate owners are walking over to them on their own two feet?

└korean bonds have been worth dogshit for ages, nobody will take them.

└honestly i think we’re actually done this time. even Kim Tae-seok, our no. 1 who at least brought in a few million points a month, is stranded on floor 41.

└and we already sold off every artifact worth selling lol

└international point prices are fucking sky-high, and everything sellable has already been sold.

└seriously, it might not even be 3 months. could be 2

“…”

Post after post, smeared with rage, fear, and despair.

It really did seem this country didn’t have long left.

“Three months. Maybe even two…”

Honestly, it didn’t feel real.

What are these damned Points anyway, that the whole country is supposed to collapse in just a few months?

But it had already happened, more than a few times.

In Africa, in the Middle East, in South America, in Eastern Europe.

Small nations had perished, unable to pay the Tower’s Points.

The countries with unstable systems and the least to their name had been erased first, one after another.

This time, it was simply Korea’s turn.

The country had scraped by until now, selling its technology, its companies, its Hunters.

But even that seemed to have hit its limit.

The end wasn’t far off.

I switched off my phone and muttered.

“Maybe I’ll suggest to Noona that we quit our jobs and take one last family trip.”

A world due to end in three months anyway. I couldn’t muster any drive to keep scraping away at work.

Wouldn’t it be better to spend that time building memories that actually mean something?

A trip, for instance.

An expensive overseas trip would be out of the question, but a trip within the country, that much my savings could cover.

‘If we’re going anywhere, I’d like to see Cheorwon one more time.’

Cheorwon, Gangwon Province.

The place I wanted to see again before I died.

‘Gangwon had so many blue dots… it was beautiful. They even made my army days bearable, in their own way.’

I’d served my military duty in Cheorwon.

And the Cheorwon DMZ, one of the most pristine stretches of nature left in the country.

Which meant the place was absolutely teeming with blue dots.

I remember it vividly, even now.

The view I saw on night guard duty along the DMZ.

Majestic mountain ranges, rivers tracing along their slopes, forests stretching wide.

And across that vast expanse of nature, countless blue dots rising up, scattering their azure light, swaying with the wind…

It was achingly beautiful, almost dreamlike.

To anyone else, it would have been nothing more than an ordinary forest at night.

But to me, who could see the ‘blue dots’, it was something else entirely.

It was like gazing into a fairy-tale world; I’d lose track of time just drinking in the view.

I wanted to see that beautiful sight again.

I made up my mind.

“When Noona gets home, we’re having a serious talk.”

About quitting our jobs and taking that family trip, that is.

Just as I was settling on that thought.

-Ding!

A crisp notification chime rang in my ears.

Words floated up across my vision.

[You have been selected as a Climber of the Tower.]

[Prepare for the Trial.]

[Time until entry – 10:00]

“…Huh?”