6:47 AM. Namsan Tower observation deck.
Kael, Marcus, and Aria stand at the railing, looking out over Seoul as the city wakes. The sun hasn't risen yet—the horizon glows with predawn light, that liminal space between night and day where anything feels possible.
"This better be worth waking up at 5 AM," Marcus grumbles, though his tone is affectionate. He's nursing his third coffee, still bleary-eyed.
"It will be," Kael says quietly.
Aria shivers despite her jacket. "It's cold up here."
Kael almost offers her his coat, then stops. In thirty seconds, temperature won't matter. Nothing from the old world will matter. He checks his watch: 6:47 and twenty seconds.
"Hey, what's that?" Marcus points at the eastern sky.
The sun is rising, but something's wrong. The light isn't golden—it's red. Deep crimson, like blood in water. The color spreads across the horizon, staining the clouds, turning Seoul into a city bathed in scarlet.
"That's not normal," Aria whispers.
People around them are noticing too. Phones come out. Tourists and early morning joggers stop and stare. Concerned murmurs ripple through the crowd.
Kael's hands grip the railing. Any moment now.
The sky tears open.
There's no other way to describe it. Reality itself rips apart like fabric, and through the wound comes something impossible—a column of absolute darkness, shot through with veins of purple light, rising from the city below toward the bleeding sky.
The Tower.
It erupts from the ground near Gangnam Station, buildings crumbling as the massive structure forces its way into existence. The Tower is obsidian black, its surface carved with symbols that hurt to look at, and it climbs—a hundred meters, two hundred, five hundred, continuing upward until it pierces the clouds.
Then another Tower appears. And another. Across Seoul, across Korea, across the world, one hundred Towers tear their way into reality.
Silence. For five heartbeats, there's perfect silence as humanity collectively forgets how to breathe.
Then the screaming starts.
"What the hell—" Marcus drops his coffee. The cup shatters on the observation deck, and the sound breaks the spell. People run. They push toward the exits, shoving, panicking, screaming about earthquakes and terrorist attacks and the end of the world.
They're not wrong about that last part.
"Kael!" Aria grabs his arm. "We need to get out of here!"
"No." Kael's voice cuts through the chaos. "We need to stay exactly where we are."
"Are you insane?" Marcus is pale, staring at the Towers rising across the city. "We need to—"
The System arrives.
It's not a sound. It's not a vision. It's a presence that floods into existence, vast and cold and absolutely certain. Every human on Earth feels it simultaneously—a weight settling into their mind, something other taking residence behind their eyes.
Blue screens materialize in front of every person on the observation deck. In front of every person on Earth.
```
[WELCOME TO THE TOWER ASCENSION]
[HUMANITY HAS BEEN SELECTED]
[INITIALIZING SYSTEM ACCESS...]
[AWAKENING PROCESS: BEGINNING]
```
"What is this?" Aria's voice shakes. Her hands pass through the translucent blue screen, finding nothing solid. "Am I hallucinating?"
"We all see it," Marcus says. He's trying to sound calm, but his fists are clenched. Fighter's instinct. Good. He'll need that. "Some kind of mass... projection? But how—"
```
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[10% of humanity possesses compatible biology]
[Awakening these individuals now]
[To the remaining 90%: Survive. Adapt. Evolve.]
[Good luck. You will need it.]
```
The message changes, becomes personal:
```
[ANALYZING: Aria Chen]
[Compatibility: Detected]
[Awakening: In progress...]
```
```
[ANALYZING: Marcus Tang]
[Compatibility: Detected]
[Awakening: In progress...]
```
```
[ANALYZING: Kael Ardent]
[Compatibility: Detected]
[Awakening: In pro—ERROR]
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[Subject possesses foreign System signature]
[Analyzing...]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[Compatibility: EXCEPTIONAL]
[Awakening protocol: Modified]
[Special class available]
```
Kael feels it before the others—a burning in his chest, like lightning in his veins. The Awakening. His body remembers this even if his current flesh doesn't. Cells rewriting themselves, DNA accepting new parameters, humanity taking its first step toward something beyond human.
Aria gasps, doubling over. Blue light surrounds her, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. Marcus staggers, his muscles bulging as power floods his system. Around the deck, others are experiencing the same—some collapsing, some screaming, some standing in shocked wonder as their bodies transform.
But Kael's Awakening is different.
The Void Index activates.
His vision explodes with overlapping screens—the standard System interface fractures, revealing layers beneath layers, code written in symbols that predate human language. The Void Index tears through the Awakening process, overriding, rewriting, claiming.
```
[VOID INDEX: SEIZING CONTROL]
[Standard Awakening: Insufficient]
[Applying regression benefits...]
[Calculating optimal class based on user history...]
[Original class: Blade Master (C-rank potential)]
[Revised class: VOID STRIKER (SSS-rank potential)]
[Transferring knowledge...]
[WARNING: Process will be painful]
```
Pain. That doesn't begin to describe it.
Every death Kael experienced in the original timeline floods back—not as memory but as sensation. Every wound reopens in phantom agony. Every loss rips through his heart again. Ten years of accumulated trauma compressed into ten seconds.
He collapses to his knees, teeth gritted against the scream building in his throat.
"Kael!" Aria's voice, distant. She's trying to reach him but her own Awakening holds her in place.
The pain crescendos. Kael tastes blood. His vision goes white—
—and then it ends.
He gasps, sprawled on the deck. Sweat soaks his clothes. Every muscle trembles. But when he opens his eyes, the world has changed.
No. He's changed.
```
[AWAKENING COMPLETE]
[Welcome to the System, Kael Ardent]
[STATUS]
Name: Kael Ardent
Class: Void Striker (Unique)
Rank: E (Growth type)
Level: 1
HP: 450/450 (+300 Void Index bonus)
Mana: 580/580 (+400 Void Index bonus)
STR: 23 (+11)
AGI: 27 (+13)
END: 22 (+11)
INT: 31 (+18)
PER: 29 (+14)
LUK: ???
Skills:
- Void Step (Rank F): Short-range spatial movement
- Analysis (Rank E): Identify targets and abilities
- Mana Manipulation (Rank E): Basic mana control
- [LOCKED SKILLS: 47]
Titles:
- Regressor (Hidden): You who walked through time
- Void Index User (Unique): Bearer of the impossible system
```
"Those stats..." Kael breathes. An E-rank shouldn't have stats this high. He's already stronger than he was as a C-rank in the original timeline.
"Kael!" Marcus helps him to his feet. The big man has changed—he's always been muscular, but now he's sculpted like a Greek statue, power radiating from every line. His eyes glow faintly amber. "You okay, bro? That looked rough."
"I'm fine." Kael straightens, testing his new body. Stronger. Faster. His senses are sharper—he can hear individual heartbeats in the panicking crowd, can smell the fear-sweat, can feel the subtle vibrations of the Tower's presence through the deck.
Aria approaches more cautiously. She's glowing—literally glowing, a soft radiance emanating from her skin. Her status reads A-rank healer, just like the original timeline. "What's happening to us?"
"Evolution," Kael says. It's the truth, if not the whole truth. "The System is real. Those Towers are real. And everything's about to get a lot worse."
As if on cue, the first monsters appear.
They crawl from the base of the nearest Tower—twisted things that might have been animals once but are now wrong. A dog with too many legs. A bird with scales instead of feathers and teeth in its beak. A creature that's just teeth and hunger shaped vaguely like a person.
The screaming intensifies.
"Oh god," Aria whispers. "What are those?"
"Monsters from the first floor," Kael says. He draws his grandfather's knife—inadequate, but it's all he has right now. "The Towers spawn them. They'll spread across the city unless someone stops them."
"How do you know that?" Marcus's eyes narrow. "How do you know any of this?"
No time for explanations. The monsters are climbing, scrambling up Namsan Tower toward the observation deck. Kael can hear their claws on stone, their inhuman chittering.
```
[VOID INDEX: QUEST GENERATED]
[Tutorial Mission: First Blood]
[Objective: Defeat 10 monsters]
[Reward: Skill unlock, experience, ???]
[Failure: Death (probably)]
```
"We fight," Kael says simply. He checks his new skills—Void Step will let him dodge, Analysis will identify weak points. Not much, but more than most people have right now. "Marcus, you're a brawler class, right? Get ready to hit things. Aria, stay back and heal anyone who gets hurt. I'll—"
"Wait." Marcus grabs his shoulder. "You're talking like this is a game. Like you know what's happening. Kael, what aren't you telling us?"
The first monster crests the railing—a corrupted dog, all wrong angles and dripping ichor. It locks eyes with them and howls, a sound that makes the soul hurt.
"I'll explain later," Kael promises. "Right now, we survive. Understood?"
The monster leaps.
Kael moves on instinct—ten years of combat experience compressed into this moment. Void Step activates. The world blurs. He appears two feet to the left, the dog passing through empty air. His knife finds its throat.
```
[You have dealt 47 damage]
[Enemy HP: 103/150]
```
Not enough. The monster twists, jaws snapping at his arm. Kael rolls, comes up ready to strike again—
Marcus's fist caves in its skull.
The impact makes the deck shake. The monster's HP drops to zero instantly, its body dissolving into black mist that the System absorbs.
```
[Marcus Tang has defeated: Corrupted Hound (Lv. 3)]
[Experience gained: 15]
```
Marcus stares at his fist, then at the dissipating monster. "Holy shit. That was real. I killed it. With my bare hands. I—"
"Behind you!" Aria shouts.
Three more monsters scramble over the railing. Then five. Then a dozen. The observation deck becomes a battlefield as monsters pour in from all sides. Civilians scatter, some frozen in fear, others trampled in the panic.
This is it. This is where it begins.
Kael grins—feral, wild, alive for the first time in ten years.
"Welcome to the apocalypse," he says.
Then he charges into the swarm.