🌍 Day 6 of the Tutorial Phase – Global Player Count: 49.1 Million
The world was thinning.
Every day, players vanished. Not with explosions. Not with blood. Just… silence.
The Tutorial Phase had killed billions.
But a few remained.
A few were strong.
A few were still dreaming.
And they believed they were at the top.
They were wrong.
🇺🇸 United States – Aimee Hart
Rank: 2nd Globally
Class: Mana Slicer (Unique Path)
Level: 11 | AP: 181
Known Titles:
• Blood-Bound Duelist
• First to Sever a Floor Boss
• Survivor of the Black Tomb
Aimee was 23. A former pro-fencer and Olympic hopeful.
She wielded a blade shaped like glass and fire, her right arm scarred from saving her sister on Floor 3.
She led a squad of six now — unofficial, unacknowledged, but loyal.
She didn't know the system wasn't tracking her as a leader.
She thought she was close to the top.
She thought she was the one Earth needed.
"That guy in Rank 1? No picture. No videos. No public stat display."
"Probably someone gaming the system."
"I'll overtake him eventually."
She sharpened her blade and moved toward Floor 7.
Not knowing that the person she mocked had already passed her in silence.
🇯🇵 Japan – Haruto Shino
Rank: 3rd Globally
Class: Chrono Monk (Time Delay Specialist)
Level: 10 | AP: 167
Haruto meditated atop a glass spire inside the Tutorial simulation.
He believed in inner balance, calculated growth, precision combat.
He'd cleared every floor alone.
He had no allies. No attachments.
He believed that made him unique.
"Others cling to the past. I walk forward unshackled."
"That Rank 1 player? Probably a brute. No technique. No style."
He didn't know he was imitating the ghost of a man who had already walked this path and found it worthless.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia – Fatima Al-Rawi
Rank: 5th Globally
Class: Flame Herald (Rare Elemental User)
Level: 9 | AP: 147
Fatima had become a symbol in her country. Survivors rallied behind her from the outside — Earth civilians watching her tutorial broadcasts leaked through ritual vision-tech by her country's mystics.
She was charismatic. Noble. Beloved.
People prayed for her survival.
She burned through Floor 6 with blazing halos and poetry whispered between kills.
She believed the Tower was a test of purity. That Rank 1 was some brute or a corrupted monster.
"If he stands above me, he must stand on the corpses of the weak."
She didn't know…
He was the corpses.
He was everything the Tower failed to break.
🇷🇺 Russia – Yuri Korovin
Rank: 9th Globally
Class: Berserker-Tank Hybrid (Stat-Stacker)
Level: 10 | AP: 122
Yuri had crushed everything in his path. He believed power came only from blood and bone.
He had no interest in titles.
No care for "Ranking."
But he knew one thing:
"Whoever Number One is… I'll kill them when this is over."
📡 Back on Earth – Tower Observers
Agencies all over the world were watching.
Tracking.
Modeling success stories. Global governments already prepared lists of players who would become national assets.
Every nation watched their champions.
None of them could find a single image, voice clip, or report on Rank 1.
Just a name: Wang Ling
Just a code: 00192-ZH
Just a stat: Performance Grade: S+ (Perfect)
🎯 Location Unknown – Deep Within the Tower
Wang Ling sat in silence.
His system flickered softly as he reviewed the Achievement Shop, calculating how many of the Tier 3 items he could claim after Floor 7.
"They think they're climbing."
"They think the Tower is still a challenge."
"But they haven't seen the real game yet."
He stood.
Behind him, Yue still slept, twitching in nightmares.
Ahead, the path twisted into paradox.
The others climbed.
They trained.
They hoped.
They believed they were chosen.
Wang Ling didn't believe in chosen ones.
He believed in winners.
And he had already won.