Hana Takayama's Perspective
Hana went up to her room an hour earlier than usual.Anxiety hammered in her mind without giving her a single moment of peace.
If she could, she would have logged into the game right away.But the Black Tower didn't allow it.The developers' rigid rule remained unshaken: the servers opened at exactly 10 p.m. and closed at exactly 6 a.m. Not a second before, not a second after.
To kill time, she grabbed her phone and scrolled through social media.
Or at least tried to.Short videos. News. Memes.But even that cheap, addictive dopamine couldn't hold her attention for more than a few seconds.
Her mind was simply elsewhere.Buzzing with expectation.Buzzing with her sister's words.
That morning, Rya hadn't just told her about what was happening behind the scenes in the big companies and governments.
She had told her something that could change everything—for everyone.
The company behind the Black Tower had convinced the U.S. government to create an exchange rate between the dollar and the in-game currency. Players would not only be able to buy coins with real money, but also trade coins back into real money.
That alone was already absurd for the gaming industry, long seen as a place for entertainment spending, not real financial investments.
But as if that radical change weren't enough, many global corporations, armed with privileged information, were already preparing to invest heavily in the game. They had strategies laid out—training professional players, founding guilds, building influence.
It was the kind of information that changed everything, the kind that reshaped the gaming world Hana knew.
It would set a new competitive standard, beyond anything she—or anyone—had ever seen.
To someone as competitive as Hana, this was an irresistible challenge.
And when added to the gameplay that had already proven insane to her, it only made her hunger grow stronger.
She couldn't get the Black Tower out of her mind.
Not even after enduring an entire afternoon of grueling lectures at the elite business college her parents insisted she attend.
Hana wasn't anywhere close to calming down.
She lay back on her neatly made bed, closing her eyes.Her heart raced just from imagining it.
If everything her sister had told her was true, the Black Tower's awakening wouldn't just be another game.
It would become a global fever.Soon, it would be impossible to find someone without an active character inside the Tower.Classmates, professors, strangers on the street.Everyone.
A parallel world.A second life.Exactly as the developers had promised.
Hana took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.But it still felt as if she was about to step through a door that could never again be closed.
She turned her face toward the clock on the wall.10:07 p.m.
She had missed it.Lost in thought, she'd let the most anticipated minutes of her day slip by.
A sigh escaped her lips.It was almost funny. All that waiting, all that anxiety—and she still managed to be late.
But when she closed her eyes again and let the visor of the gaming device light up, she still remembered her sister's last words.And her gaze.
Rya rarely grew that serious.But that morning, right after confiding so many secrets to her, her expression had changed.
"This information is completely confidential. It cannot leave the family under any circumstances. You must not share it with anyone. Do you understand?"
Hana understood. And she wouldn't dare.
She knew the weight of it.It wasn't some forum rumor or a wild online theory.It was privileged information, something that could change not only her life but also put her family at risk if it leaked.
One week.That was the deadline Rya had given her.
In seven days, the update would reveal the new exchange system to every player.
It would unleash a chaos Hana couldn't even begin to imagine.
But just because she would stay silent—even from Cassandra and Eleanor, her best friends—didn't mean she would do nothing.Hana wasn't that naïve.
If she couldn't share the secret, she could at least take advantage of it.A real one-week head start.Enough time to grow.Enough time to become stronger.
While everyone else was still learning the basics and having fun, she would be preparing for the madness to come.
And if she wanted her friends to benefit as well, she would have to drag them along.
It would be a brutal, sleepless week.
As for how she would manage that, her answer was simple.Not a complete plan. Not an elaborate strategy.Just a single course of action.
She would stick to the Tank.
Aslan.
The player who had carried the team through the dungeon.
The only one so far who had truly left her speechless inside the Tower.
Not just because of his insane combat skills, but because of his knowledge—knowledge that simply didn't make sense.
Hana smiled to herself, still lying down, feeling the weight of her decision.Her friends might not realize it yet, but she already understood the truth:
The greatest treasure of that dungeon hadn't been Matteo's staff.Nor Cassandra's luxurious robes.
The true prize… was Aslan.The team's Tank.
If they could leverage his knowledge and strength, even for just a week, they could skyrocket their progress in the game.
They'd be like rookies carried by a veteran.That was how Hana pictured it, excitement flooding every fiber of her body.
It wasn't just a whim.It was the chance to build a real advantage before the storm hit.
And in that coming storm, when the major corporations entered the game—including her own family's, led by her sister—
Hana refused to be just "another player."She wanted to already be at the top.She wanted to look her sister in the eyes and finally hear the title that, until now, had only been thrown at her as a taunt:
The family's specialist.
The thought pulled a smile from her lips.A different smile.Less anxious. Sharper.