"You survive not because you're strong…
But because you refuse to die stupid."
The ground was still shaking.
Kyren clutched the jagged shard of stone in his hand, his knuckles white, breathing in short gasps. Around him, chaos still raged—screams, growls, the wet sounds of bodies hitting black stone. He hadn't moved in ten seconds.
And ten seconds was all it took to die.
The woman who'd helped him earlier—the one with the metal pipe—was fending off another creature with cold precision. Her movements were fluid, practiced, as if she'd fought before. Her expression didn't show fear. Just sharp calculation.
When she saw him frozen, she didn't scold.
She just barked, "If you can't move, stay low and stay quiet."
Kyren nodded automatically.
That was the moment he realized: I'm not the protagonist yet. I'm a liability.
I will die if I wait to be saved.
He gritted his teeth, stood, and followed her lead, eyes scanning the chaos like a reader skimming for weaknesses in a boss fight.
Across the platform, Systems were blooming like cursed flowers. Transparent panels floated around each person still standing.
Some people cheered when they read theirs.
Others screamed.
Kyren glanced at his again.
NAME: KYREN HAO
TITLE: THE ONE WHO WATCHES
LEVEL: 1
ALIGNMENT: TWISTED IDEALIST
CLASS: LOCKED
FATE PATH: UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Still useless, he thought bitterly. But his thoughts were already shifting. He was learning what to look for—patterns in enemy movement, who was panicking, who was adapting.
He noticed a group about ten meters away forming a barricade with broken chunks of platform debris. A boy—tall, strikingly handsome with spiky silver hair—was organizing them like a battlefield commander. Calm voice, precise orders.
Kyren recognized him.
Saejin.
Top athlete. A second-year. Cool, distant. He was rumored to have turned down scouts from pro fighting leagues. People said he could've made it as an Olympic-level martial artist.
Now?
He looked like someone born for war.
Saejin's screen hovered over his shoulder as he cleanly decapitated a beast with a sword made of blue energy. It shimmered like a dream, pulsing with rhythm.
"You—quiet kid. You can move?" he asked, eyes flicking to Kyren.
"Yeah," Kyren managed, stepping over a broken corpse.
"Get inside the circle. You hesitate, you're dead."
There was no softness in his tone. Just fact.
Kyren obeyed.
Inside the makeshift barricade were a dozen survivors, all high schoolers. Some were crying. One boy was bleeding from his leg. Another had burn marks. Only a few had weapons.
Saejin looked over them all. "We hold here for thirty minutes. If we stay moving, we'll scatter and die. You want to live? Follow commands."
A girl in the group stepped forward.
Petite. Shoulder-length hair dyed dark red. Dressed in a school jacket two sizes too big.
She pointed at Saejin. "You think you're in charge because you've got a sword?"
Saejin's eyes didn't move.
"No," he replied. "I'm in charge because I'm alive."
The girl—Jinhee, Kyren remembered—snorted and turned away.
Then she ran.
Not toward an enemy. Just… away. Into the open.
People shouted.
Kyren's chest squeezed tight. No. Don't—
She didn't make it ten steps.
A creature with chitinous limbs leapt from a crevice, landing square on her back. She screamed—once—before her head was yanked back by an inhuman claw.
Her body twitched, then stilled.
Someone in the circle dropped to their knees. Another vomited.
Saejin didn't react.
But Kyren did.
Not by screaming.
By watching.
He studied the angle. The attack. The position the creature emerged from.
And in that moment, the Watcher part of his title clicked.
He could see the paths the creatures preferred—movements that were half predictable. Like reading aggro patterns in a game.
NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED: PATTERN RECOGNITION I
YOUR FEAR HAS CALCIFIED INTO CALCULATION.
+10% REACTION TIME WHEN TRACKING NON-RANDOM ENEMIES.
Kyren's breath caught.
His first real gain.
Not strength. Not power.
Just understanding.
And that was enough.
A voice hissed in his ear. "You're one of the smart ones, huh?"
He turned.
A girl crouched beside him, one leg wrapped in a makeshift bandage, sharp eyes peeking from under a black hoodie. Her nails were painted purple. A metallic scent clung to her.
"Rin," she said, grinning despite the chaos. "Chemistry nerd. My bombs are basic now, but give me time and I'll cook monsters."
Kyren blinked.
"Kyren."
"I know. Saw you throw that rock. Dumb, but gutsy."
She handed him a vial filled with something glowing green. "Throw this if one of those things gets too close. Just don't breathe when it breaks."
"What is it?"
"Regret," she said, winking. "In liquid form."
They were interrupted by a massive boom to the east.
Everyone turned.
At the far edge of the platform, the sky was splitting open.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
A black scar tore through the red clouds, and something stepped out.
Not a monster.
A man.
Or at least… something humanoid.
He wore robes made of stitched skin. His face had no eyes. Just a mouth stretched too wide, humming a single note. Behind him floated others, draped in dimensionally warped robes, whispering in languages that didn't exist.
"STAGE ONE VARIANT HAS BEGUN."
"FIRST OUTER CHALLENGER HAS ENTERED."
"DIFFICULTY RATING: NIGHTMARISH."
"SURVIVAL RATE: 18%."
Kyren's blood ran cold.
The man began walking toward them.
The figure continued to walk, slow and deliberate, as though time bowed to him. Around his feet, the stone hissed and cracked, warped by a presence it was never meant to hold. Every step was accompanied by a note—a sound that wasn't a sound, like the death scream of light itself.
And Kyren?
Kyren had stopped blinking.
He wasn't frozen out of fear this time.
He was studying.
Every movement. Every distortion. Every flicker of space around the figure.
Rin crouched beside him, whispering with forced calm, "That's not from Earth. It's… something else. You feel it too, right?"
He nodded. "It doesn't belong to this dimension."
Rin's smirk twitched into something more serious. "Then we're not just dealing with monsters."
No one dared speak aloud. But they all understood it now.
This wasn't just a "Tower."
It was a battleground.
And other players—other worlds—were already here.
[SYSTEM BROADCAST INITIATED.]
Stage One remains in flux.
Kill Requirement for Exit: 5 Tower Beasts.
Warning: External Interference Detected.
Adaptive Event Triggered.
"Survive."
The sound of the voice, unlike the creature's childlike tone earlier, now sounded clinical. Distant. Uncaring.
Kyren whispered, "Why would they even call it a tower if it has no shape?"
"Because we climb," Rin said, eyes narrowing. "Even if it's sideways, down, or through hell."
Saejin moved first.
He broke cover, charging directly toward the invader.
"Don't!" someone shouted. "He's not normal!"
But the tall, silver-haired boy didn't hesitate. His energy blade pulsed brightly as he vaulted debris and closed the distance.
The hooded figure didn't react.
Until Saejin slashed.
The blade passed through the man's body like mist.
Saejin landed, rolled, and spun—
—and the hooded figure was already behind him.
There was no movement. No blur. Just a before and after.
Saejin turned, eyes wide, blade up to parry.
The figure touched two fingers to his chest.
BOOM.
A shockwave tore through the air. Saejin flew back twenty meters, slamming into stone. The sound echoed like a bell struck in another world.
He didn't get back up.
Kyren's breath hitched.
He's not dead. He can't be.
[HP CRITICAL: Subject "Saejin Yul"]
[STABILIZATION MODULE: NOT FOUND]
[USER: OUT OF SYSTEM ALIGNMENT RANGE]
[WARNING: Soul Integrity Compromised]
The system had gone crazy with alerts.
Soul integrity?
Kyren realized it then.
This wasn't a game with retries.
If you lost too hard—too completely—you weren't just dead.
You were erased.
Rin grabbed Kyren's arm. "We move. Now."
"But—Saejin—"
"He's a monster. We're ants. You want to die a proud ant, or live a smart rat?"
She dragged him. The others didn't wait for a vote.
They ran.
The survivors split, dashing into the dark edges of the Stage. Creatures still roamed, but now something worse was here—something watching.
Kyren ducked into a half-collapsed tunnel, chest heaving. The stone walls were wet with condensation—or maybe blood. It was hard to tell.
Beside him, Rin was already scanning a system map that flickered like a broken hologram.
"There's a tunnel collapse two clicks north. Might be a dead-end, or a hiding spot."
"And if it's filled with things?"
"Then you throw the bomb I gave you, genius."
Kyren cracked a dry smile. "We're probably going to die."
"Eventually. But not stupidly. That's the goal."
He glanced back the way they came.
The figure wasn't following. He wasn't moving.
He was standing still, with his arms out, as if inviting something.
Then—
The sky opened again.
And this time, what poured out was not a man, but a rain of black spears.
They fell like lightning—targeted, precise, impaling creatures and humans alike who hadn't moved fast enough.
[OUTER SYSTEM ENFORCEMENT: CLEANSE WAVE 1 COMPLETE]
[NEW RULE INSTATED: LINGERING MEANS DEATH]
Kyren didn't look away.
He didn't let himself flinch.
This was a game.
And if he played it like a protagonist, he would die.
But if he played it like a survivor?
Then he might just live long enough to find the top.
Or tear it down from the inside.
[KYREN HAO - STAGE ONE SURVIVAL STATUS: 1/5 KILLS COMPLETED]
[HIDDEN QUEST UNLOCKED: "The One Who Hides the Blade"]
[PATHWAY CHOICE PENDING: CUNNING / DOMINION / DECEPTION]
Deception, he thought, without hesitation.
Let them be heroes.
Let them fall shining and proud.
Kyren would crawl, if he had to.
But he would live.
And the Tower would regret letting him in.