The day the sky cracked open began like any other.
Hyun-woo wandered across his university campus, half-asleep, his hood pulled low over his head. Life had become monotonous — dull lectures, endless routine, and a boredom that clung to him like a heavy fog. The only spark in his dull days was his hobby: reading web novels.
His eyes were glued to his phone screen, where the final chapter of a strange web novel blinked back at him. The Tower of Chaos.
He'd stumbled upon it by accident five years ago.
No author name. No comments. No updates for over a year. It had even disappeared from the site's listings. But something about the story had hooked him—the complex design of the tower, the brutal fates of those who made the smallest mistakes. It didn't feel like fiction. It felt... real. Lived.
Now, he was staring at the last chapter.
[Congratulations. You've reached the end.]
[The Author has left you a message.]
Are you ready, Hyun-woo?
His thumb froze mid-scroll. He stared at the words in disbelief.
"...Wait, what?"
The message shimmered like a hologram—or maybe it just looked like one. His heart skipped a beat, then another. He rubbed his eyes. It was still there.
Puzzled, confused, and tinged with a creeping fear, he wondered how the author even knew his name.
"Some kind of fourth-wall break?" he muttered. A trick, surely. Just a gimmick. He hesitated. Feeling foolish, he tapped a reply.
Ready for what? lol
The moment he hit send, everything shifted.
A tearing sound ripped through the air, filling everyone with shock and terror—as if the sky itself was being torn apart.
Outside, the clouds fractured like shattered glass. Thin, glowing cracks spiderwebbed across the blue, and through the fissures, something colossal and black rose into view.
Someone screamed. Students jumped up. Phones dropped to the floor. It felt like a nightmare.
People stared in stunned silence at the tower—magnificent, terrifying, and mysterious all at once.
Hyun-woo followed their gaze.
A tower. Gigantic. Jet black. It pierced the sky like a spear of obsidian, its surface carved with intricate runes. Lightning crackled silently around it. It hadn't fallen—it had simply appeared.
Everyone thought the same thing: no human hand could have built that.
Then, as if in silent harmony, more towers erupted into view—not just in Seoul, but across every major city in the world: Tokyo, New York, London, Shanghai—appearing all at once.
A system message blinked in front of everyone, glowing white on black:
[The Tower has descended.]
[All are now Players in the Tower's design.]
[Tutorial Phase begins in 24 hours.]
Survive.
The lecture hall erupted into chaos. Some ran. Others cried. A few laughed, convinced it was a prank or an augmented reality stunt. But panic spread fast— phones buzzed, calls to family flew, news stations scrambled to report.
At first, Hyun-woo didn't realize it, but the tower's message—and even its appearance—matched the novel perfectly.
The exact wording.
The sky fracturing like glass.
The eerie silence that followed.
It wasn't just familiar.
It was identical.
Like the story he'd once read had peeled itself off the page... and come alive.
As an avid reader, instinct and fear kicked in. He whispered, Status Window.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Hyun-woo
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: None
Level: 1
Title: Unavailable
{Stats Locked}
He wasn't just a reader anymore.
Somehow, the Tower of Trials—the exact tower from the novel—was real.
And he was the only one who had read it from beginning to end.
The only one who knew what was coming.