The Era of the Tower: Year 17, March 30th
The Third World War had lasted for almost double the duration of both the First and Second World Wars combined. With a death toll exceeding 100 million people, it had been titled as one of the greatest tragedies in recorded human history—at least, that was the case until the Tower had appeared.
Humanity was only just beginning to recover from the devastation of the Third World War, and we were not in good shape compared to the eras of the past. Many people were dying of hunger and suffering through poor living conditions simply because of what we had done to ourselves. Even so, there were still 13.8 billion people remaining on the planet at that time.
What was the Tower? To put it simply, it was a connection to the rest of the infinite universe and so much more. Not long after the Third World War had ended, the Tower had appeared out of nowhere. It was a magnificent building that possessed an ancient and dignifying presence, a structure clearly untouched by the hands of mortals.
The Tower was not an enemy, but it certainly was not an ally either; rather, it was a helper meant to prepare us for the events that were coming. Like a divine decree, the Tower had transmitted a message to all humans.
The message was simple: like all other races in the cosmos, humans were being given the same opportunity to open the path to ascension. This was our chance to protect, advance, and connect ourselves to the rest of the vast universe.
But not everything was sunshine and peace. In the infinite universe, there were all kinds of different races, just as there are all kinds of different humans—some were peaceful, some were violent, and some remained neutral. With the descent of the Tower, humanity was informed of the reality of our situation.
We had been "found," and the Tower would offer twenty cycles of protection. Once that protection was gone, however, we would have to fend for ourselves. Until that day arrived, no alien race would be permitted to invade Earth, nor could the gods do whatever they pleased with our world.
The reveal of extraterrestrial species was not even the most mind-boggling part of the announcement. The most shocking thing was the so-called "path toward ascension." In essence, it was a system of leveling up, much like one would see in a video game, but to embark on that journey, a person needed to awaken.
After the appearance of the Tower, certain individuals started to feel a sudden burst of power from deep within them. That was the awakening, but one still needed to enter the Tower to see what their specific talent was.
The Awakened were empowered with what could be described as magical abilities, but they required the help of the Tower to grow. They had to undergo deadly trials to walk the road of ascension.
Some people—those who were either courageous or simply dumb, however you liked to label them—had actually done it. They had entered the Tower and, not long after that, they had returned. When they came back, they truly possessed genuine magical abilities.
When the rest of the world saw the courageous ones returning with such power, the population entered a collective frenzy. In a very short span of time, 1.6 billion people entered the Tower. However, they had lacked the patience to realize that out of the small number of people who had already gone in, even fewer had actually returned.
That had been a mistake, a mistake that cost humanity 800 million lives. It was the most foolish and tragic act in the history of our species. And who could we blame for it? We could blame no one but our own arrogance and the delusion that we were the main characters of the universe, expecting the cosmos to bend and accommodate us.
All of those events had taken place seventeen years ago, and that wasn't the only major change that had happened. A couple of years after the Tower arrived, nations and countries had ceased to exist thanks to a man known as "The Avenger."
He was a brave and tragic figure who had been loyal to his country, but he had lost four out of his five children in the senseless violence of the Third World War. With the appearance of the Tower, The Avenger had taken matters into his own hands.
Only three years after the Tower's arrival, The Avenger had appeared with great magical powers and had initiated the "Great Slaughter of Leaders." He had killed every person who held a leadership position in his country, including their family members. With the people who kept the system running dead, the country could no longer function, and it fell into ruin.
Using The Avenger as an example, many other people who had gained magical powers and lost loved ones in the war followed suit. They targeted the leaders who had hidden away in bunkers and sent their own families to untouched safe zones while everyone else died for their greed.
The effect had been instant, like a falling row of dominoes, and it had taken place all over the world, though it was far bloodier than anyone could have imagined. That was how the system of countries had been brought to an end.
It had been almost fifteen years since the first country fell and all the others followed. Right now, in the present day, people were ruled by those who had awakened—the ones with the greatest magical abilities who could provide protection in the new age to come.
…
In the Grand Union Domain, a thin young man with pale skin sat in an almost empty room that contained nothing but a worn-out mattress and a pillow. This one-bedroom apartment was his only living place.
You could tell instantly that he did not come from an affluent background, but behind the poverty, he was definitely a looker. His facial features were sharp, as if carved by a knife. He had long silvery-white hair and iron-black eyes, thin lips, and his skin was rather pale. He had a deep outline and pronounced eye sockets of a Hunter. Though he seemed to hide his features behind his worn-out clothes, that was none other than Daemon.
The Grand Union was not the strongest domain in the world, but it was far better than most when it comes to the rights of its citizens. Even someone like Daemon, who had no one left in the world, had survived. It was not the best life, but it certainly could have been worse.
Daemon liked to call himself a survivor because that was exactly what he was; he had survived alone for most of his life, and now, he had just awakened. This could be the luckiest thing to ever happen to him, or it could be his most unfortunate.
"I just need to go and enter the Tower to know what talent I got," he muttered to himself. "But once you have entered, you need to finish at the very least the first trial, or you can never return. I just hope it is at the very least a C-rank, with a slight hope for a B-rank. Anything higher is nothing but a fool's dream. Even if luck strikes me down, it couldn't be higher than a B-rank; if it were anything higher, it wouldn't be considered just me being lucky—it would be humanity itself being struck by luck."
The Tower had revealed that humans possessed seven distinct grades of talent. These grades ranged from the worst to the best: F, E, D, C, B, A, and S.
The idea of not going had crossed Daemon's mind, but realizing how pointless that hesitation was in the end, he abandoned the thought as quickly as it had come. If he didn't go then, he would likely die later or, even worse, be enslaved. In other domains, the practice of slavery had been starting to grow rapidly in scale.
The Grand Union Domain did not have that problem yet, but the status gap between those who had awakened and those who hadn't—or those who simply didn't wish to take the risk—was growing wider by the year.
Daemon was not exactly a compassionate person; in fact, he probably wasn't compassionate at all, as he found this increase in status to be normal. If you were better than others or willing to do the things that others were not willing to risk their lives for, you should be rewarded accordingly with greater privileges and higher status. However, even he found the concept of slavery to be a massive regression in human thought.
"I'm a bit disadvantaged due to… well… my circumstances. But what can I do? I can only blame my luck. If I had been born rich, I could have been trained my entire life for this very moment." Daemon sighed with frustration.