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Chapter 1
“Ding.”
[You have successfully cleared the top floor of the Tower of Trials.]
The Tower of Trials.
I finally cleared the 100th floor.
It happened with only one day left before the destruction of Earth.
At the plaza in front of City Hall, tens of thousands of citizens were praying in their own ways.
On the giant screen set up in the square, footage of humanity’s last hunter entering the tower kept replaying.
“Isn’t this taking too long…?”
“Did he fail again?”
“Don’t say stuff like that. If even Kang Hyuk fails, our country is finished too.”
“The other hunters failed in less than five minutes. No news is good news.”
It had already been thirty minutes since the final hunter entered the tower.
But there had been no news since then.
By now, one of two results should have appeared.
Either he would return as a corpse like the previous hunters, or come back as a hero with a victorious smile.
But no matter how long they waited, he never came out.
Some people even started saying he might have pretended to enter and secretly run away.
Of course, since his entrance into the tower had been broadcast live, that theory was nonsense.
“In the end, our country is going to suffer the same fate as the others…”
A woman hugged her child and cried.
The saying “No news is good news” did not always apply.
With the hunter staying inside the tower for thirty minutes without returning, the citizens waiting outside could not help but imagine all kinds of possibilities.
The screen in the plaza suddenly changed.
Footage of neighboring countries collapsing in the past began playing.
[United States. Time limit reached on the 93rd floor. Massive catastrophe occurs.]
[Japan. Failed to break through the wall of the 92nd floor, leading to disaster…]
“Are they insane for showing this kind of news right now?!”
“Switch the screen back to the tower entrance immediately!”
Shouts erupted from everywhere.
Perhaps because of the public reaction, the screen quickly returned to the tower entrance.
…
Silence filled the plaza.
The footage had only appeared briefly, but it was enough to remind everyone of the disasters of the past.
The United States, once a global superpower, had already fallen after failing the 93rd floor.
Japan collapsed at the 92nd floor despite sending all of its hunters.
The other countries had fallen even earlier.
Most nations could not even overcome the 90th floor.
“Korea is different. Kang Hyuk isn’t an ordinary hunter.”
At this moment, only one nation still remained on Earth.
South Korea.
While every other country collapsed, Korea managed to reach the 99th floor.
And when they first encountered the 100th floor, the system had given them an entire year as the time limit.
Only one country remained.
Only one floor was left.
And there was still one year remaining.
Everyone believed the disaster would finally come to an end.
After all, if they had made it to the 99th floor, surely the 100th floor would not be impossible.
But one year was not as long as people thought.
And the difficulty of the 100th floor far exceeded expectations.
The Tower of Trials.
Its final floor.
Countless hunters lost their lives trying to conquer it.
Hunters who entered with dreams of ending the catastrophe only returned as cold corpses.
One failed attempt after another.
Not everyone even managed to reach the 100th floor.
The tower allowed only individual challenges.
Just because someone opened the path to the top floor did not mean others could immediately challenge it as well.
Most hunters died before ever reaching the 100th floor.
Yet even through all of that, one hunter survived until the very end.
S-Rank Hunter.
Kang Hyuk.
He was humanity’s final hope.
“But what could possibly be happening in there? Why hasn’t he come out yet?”
“There’s no need to panic. He will definitely succeed.”
A growth-type hunter.
That was what people called him.
***
Thud.
I threw the ancient book onto the floor.
No.
More accurately, the strength had simply left my hand and I dropped it.
“So they said I’d learn the origin of the tower if I cleared the top floor…”
The rumors were true.
The moment I cleared the tower, an ancient book appeared before me.
And inside it was the truth.
The problem was that the story was far too long to simply be called the tower’s origin.
The Tower of Trials.
I had definitely cleared the final floor.
But I could not bring myself to leave.
It wasn’t because the exit was closed.
I simply could not walk away while pretending none of this truth existed.
The tower may have ended, but the real disaster was only beginning.
The old book was filled with stories about it.
[The great catastrophe is only truly beginning now.]
The very first sentence already shattered my expectations.
Only beginning now?
The contents were things I had never even imagined.
Honestly, it would have been easier to accept some ridiculous explanation about gods creating the tower for entertainment.
But the shock of the first sentence was nothing compared to the next.
The following pages explained the tower’s origin.
And they contained prophecies about what was to come.
None of it pointed toward a hopeful future for humanity.
It was a long story, but it could be summarized in one sentence.
A disaster worse than the 100th floor was about to descend upon the world.
“And I’m supposed to stop that all by myself?”
I pictured the citizens outside waiting for news of my victory.
If I walked out now, they would probably cry tears of joy.
Believing the disaster had finally ended.
But I did not have the courage to tell them the truth.
That the real nightmare was only just beginning.
“Grrrr…”
“Grrrr…”
Two massive roars echoed from the sky above.
My summons.
The Red Dragon.
And the Gold Dragon.
The same creatures that had destroyed the 100th floor boss in a single blow.
But would even those monsters be enough to stop the true disaster that was coming?
No.
To begin with, I was never supposed to be the only surviving hunter at this point.
Still…
Even when the sky collapses, there is always one last rope to cling to.
And in this desperate moment, there was still one final hope.
The last sentence written in the ancient book.
[Will you face the truth alone, or return and begin again from the start?]
Two choices stood before me.
Face the truth.
Or start over.
If I chose to face the truth, the catastrophe would begin immediately.
A disaster so terrible that even I could not handle it.
Then what if I started over from the beginning?
“Are they saying I can go back to the past…?”
I let out a hollow laugh.
There was no way such a thing could actually happen.
But I had no other choice.
I had to choose the second option.
I lifted my head.
Far away, I could see the tower’s exit.
Tens of thousands of people were probably waiting for me outside.
Slowly, I walked toward it.
***
“He’s coming out!”
At the tower entrance, someone finally appeared.
Camera shutters exploded from every direction.
Even though it was night, the flashes lit up the entire world.
People immediately examined his condition.
Not a single injury could be seen.
“He cleared it!”
Someone shouted with complete certainty.
And that shout triggered cheers from all around the plaza.
S-Rank Hunter.
Kang Hyuk.
He had succeeded.
He cleared even the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials and returned before the people.
But his expression was dark.
He did not look like a hero who had saved the world.
Then suddenly, he said something completely unexpected.
“I’ll start over from the beginning.”
The moment he finished speaking, a brilliant light burst out in every direction.
The light was so intense that no one could keep their eyes open.
Everyone shut their eyes tightly.
Kang Hyuk included.
***
I slowly opened my eyes.
“Ding.”
[You have awakened.]
“What?”
A hologram window floated before me.
But…
“Awakened?”
The message made no sense.
I quickly looked around.
This was not the tower entrance.
No.
This was not even outside.
A familiar room.
“My house?”
This was definitely my home.
But something felt strange.
I slowly scanned the room.
“This is…”
I finally realized what felt off.
The furniture arrangement was different.
And all the ancient artifacts I had collected over the years were gone.
“What the hell is going on?”
Come to think of it, there had also been that awakening message.
I hurriedly opened my status window.
[Name: Kang Hyuk]
[Awakening Skill]
[Summon: E-Rank]
I doubted my eyes.
E-Rank?
“What is this supposed to mean?”
My rank had fallen from S-Rank to E-Rank.
Did they know how much suffering I went through to become S-Rank?
“Am I dreaming right now?”
At that moment, the final sentence from the ancient book flashed through my mind again.
“No way…”
I immediately grabbed the smartphone lying on the desk and checked the date.
March 19, 2024.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It was not the day I entered the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials.
Not only were the days different, even the year was different.
Was my phone broken?
Instinctively, I turned to look at the calendar hanging on the wall.
It was opened to March 2024.
I looked around the house once more.
No matter how I thought about it, this was the old furniture arrangement from years ago.
“So I really came back to the past?”
And more importantly, March 19, 2024…
That was the exact day I first awakened.
“So ‘starting over’ literally meant going back to the beginning?”
I let out another laugh.
But this time, it carried a completely different meaning.
The final sentence in the ancient book had not been metaphorical.
I had truly returned to the day I first awakened.
