Daniel couldn't move.
He sat frozen on his couch, staring at the glowing screen hovering in front of his face. His heart hammered against his ribs so hard he thought it might break through. The cold fried rice was still scattered on the floor where he'd dropped it, but he didn't care.
[WELCOME, PLAYER.]
[THE KING'S TOWER AWAITS.]
The words just... floated there. Real. Solid. Impossible.
His hand trembled as he reached out again, watching his fingers pass through the translucent blue light. It rippled slightly at his touch, like disturbing the surface of water, but otherwise remained perfectly still.
"This isn't real," he whispered to himself. "This is—I'm dreaming. I fell asleep on the couch. That's it."
He pinched his arm. Hard.
"Ow—fuck!" He definitely felt that.
The screen didn't disappear.
Outside, the sirens were getting louder. More screaming. The sound of something crashing in the distance—a car accident, maybe? The entire city was losing its mind.
Daniel's phone buzzed violently on the couch cushion next to him. He grabbed it with shaking hands and saw his lock screen absolutely flooded with notifications.
[237 new messages]
[54 missed calls]
[Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Discord—everything was blowing up]
He unlocked his phone and his eyes widened.
The first thing he saw was a video posted seven minutes ago with 40 million views already. The thumbnail showed a massive structure—a Tower—piercing through the clouds, glowing with an otherworldly light. The caption read: "TOWER APPEARED IN DOWNTOWN LA - THIS IS NOT A DRILL"
Daniel's thumb moved on autopilot, scrolling through his feed.
@BreakingNews:BREAKING: Mysterious towers appear in major cities worldwide. Governments urging citizens to remain calm.
@Dante_Prankz:BRO ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! IM GOING IN. FUCK IT. YOLO.
@KevinChu92:dante no
Reddit r/WorldNews - 2.3M online:MEGATHREAD: The Towers Have Appeared - Live Updates
Daniel clicked on the Reddit thread. The comments were chaos.
"There's one in Tokyo. It's MASSIVE. You can see it from anywhere in the city."
"Just saw someone try to enter the one in New York. They walked through some kind of barrier and vanished. No one knows if they're okay."
"My friend went in 10 minutes ago. He's not answering his phone."
"This is a hoax. Has to be. Mass hallucination or something."
"The god said DEATH. That means permadeath, right? Like, you die in there, you're ACTUALLY dead?"
"I've read enough webnovels to know where this is going. We're all fucked."
Daniel's chest tightened. That last comment hit too close to home.
He'd read hundreds of stories like this. Thousands of chapters. Tower climbs. System apocalypses. Isekai. He knew every trope, every cliché, every common mistake newbie protagonists made.
But this wasn't fiction.
This was real.
His phone buzzed again. FaceTime call from Dante.
He answered.
Dante's face filled the screen, but he wasn't grinning anymore. His eyes were wide, manic, excited and terrified all at once. Kevin was next to him, looking significantly more worried.
"DANIEL! BRO! DID YOU SEE IT?!" Dante practically shouted into the camera.
"Yeah," Daniel managed, his voice hoarse. "I saw it."
"There's one here! In the city! We're like twenty minutes away from it right now!" Dante's camera flipped around, showing the view from his car. In the distance, rising above the buildings like a monument to something beyond human comprehension, was the Tower.
It was massive. Impossibly tall. The base had to be at least a mile wide, made of some kind of black stone that seemed to absorb light. Glowing symbols—runes?—spiraled up its surface, pulsing with a rhythmic blue light. The top disappeared into the clouds, maybe into space itself.
"Holy shit," Daniel breathed.
"Right?!" Dante flipped the camera back to himself. "Dude, we're going in. You coming?"
"Wait—what?" Daniel sat up straight. "You can't just—Dante, people could die in there!"
"Yeah, and?" Dante's grin was back, but there was something desperate in it. "Bro, I've been working at a coffee shop for three years. I'm broke. I live with my parents. My life is going nowhere." His voice cracked slightly. "This is—this is like every story we've ever read. This is our chance."
Kevin leaned into frame. "Daniel, I don't think this is a good idea—"
"Kevin's being a pussy," Dante interrupted. "Look, the god said whoever reaches the top becomes King of the World. KING. OF. THE. WORLD. Do you understand what that means? Power. Money. Influence. Everything."
"Or you die," Daniel said quietly.
Dante's expression hardened. "Then I die doing something that matters instead of wasting away behind a cash register."
Silence hung between them.
Daniel looked down at his own hands. Warehouse worker. Barely making rent. No girlfriend. No future. Just... existing. Day after day after day.
Is this really any different than dying?
The thought hit him like a punch to the gut.
"I need to think," Daniel said finally.
Dante nodded slowly. "Alright, man. But if you're coming... do it soon. I have a feeling this is gonna be a race." He paused. "And Daniel? If you do come... let's team up. Watch each other's backs. Like old times."
"Like old times," Daniel echoed.
The call ended.
Daniel sat in the silence of his apartment, the blue screen still hovering in front of him, patient and unwavering.
[WELCOME, PLAYER.]
He stood up slowly, his legs unsteady. He walked to his window and pulled back the curtain.
Outside was pandemonium.
People running in the streets. Cars abandoned in the middle of the road. A building was on fire a few blocks away. Police sirens wailed from every direction. The sky had an odd tint to it now, like reality itself was adjusting to something new.
And there, in the distance—barely visible between the buildings—he could see it.
The Tower.
His Tower.
This is insane, he thought. I should just stay here. Hide. Wait for the government to figure this out.
But even as he thought it, he knew that wasn't going to happen. The god had been clear. One person becomes King. The Tower closes. Everyone else loses.
This wasn't something you could wait out.
This was survival of the fittest on a global scale.
Daniel turned back to the glowing screen. He took a deep breath.
"Okay," he said to the empty room. "Show me."
The screen flickered.
[COMMAND RECOGNIZED.]
[DISPLAYING STATUS.]
[PLAYER: DANIEL KIM]
[LEVEL: 1]
[CLASS: UNASSIGNED]
[STATS]
STR: 8
AGI: 9
INT: 12
VIT: 7
MANA: 10
[AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 0]
[SKILLS: NONE]
[TITLES: NONE]
[INVENTORY: EMPTY]
Daniel stared at the numbers. They were... average. Maybe slightly below average on strength and vitality. His intelligence was decent, probably from all the reading.
So this is me, he thought. This is what I'm worth in numbers.
It was depressing.
But then again—everyone was starting at Level 1, right? Everyone had to start somewhere.
He looked back out the window at the distant Tower.
I've read a thousand stories like this. I know the tropes. I know the mistakes. I know what NOT to do.
Maybe that was his advantage.
Maybe that knowledge was worth more than high starting stats.
His phone buzzed one more time. A text from Dante:
"We're going in tomorrow morning. 8 AM. Meet us at the Tower entrance if you're coming. No pressure bro. But I hope you do."
Daniel looked at the message for a long moment.
Then he opened his closet and started pulling out the most practical clothes he owned. If he was doing this—and he was pretty sure he was—he needed to prepare.
He had less than twelve hours.
The world had changed.
And Daniel Kim was about to change with it.
[END OF CHAPTER 2]