Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Top of the Tower

A failed game.

This term usually refers to games that are uninteresting, have unbalanced characters, or are poorly managed.

However, there's another case.

Games with absurdly high difficulty.

The virtual reality game [Tower of Trials] fell into this category.

After its release, a group of hardcore Korean players, who took pleasure in tormenting the developers, stuck to the game, trying to conquer it. They gave up eating and sleeping, playing continuously for a year, 365 days.

But, after three years, people realized something.

This game was impossible to clear.

No exaggeration, really.

For example?

The Gate Guardian on the 10th floor is invincible.

Invincible.

It means that even if 100 people spam skills and attack with all kinds of weapons, it won't make a difference.

Isn't it only human to at least give a little leeway?

Moreover, the 7th floor was a frozen wasteland at -60 degrees Celsius, where you would freeze to death in an hour.

The 8th floor was a labyrinth that stretched over 10,000 kilometers.

This wasn't for fun; it was for torture.

Or perhaps to make the hardcore Korean players eat dirt.

As a result, the game failed.

To be precise, it was 'almost' a failure.

There were still a few hardcore players who continued to challenge the hellish difficulty.

And among them was...

A young man from South Korea, Jinho Kang.

***

[You have conquered the 50th floor!]

[Congratulations! You are the first to clear the Tower of Trials!]

"Is... this real?"

The 50th floor of the Tower of Trials.

Jinho let out a sigh filled with all kinds of emotions.

It was just fun.

Unlike others, he approached the tower with innovative methods.

The sense of achievement he got from memorizing everything and repeating it over and over was immense.

But, to clear all the way to the final floor...

From the age of 17, when he first encountered virtual reality games, to 27, when he became an adult.

Eleven years passed like a flash.

'Haha. Maybe I should have turned on the stream.'

Even though he was a minor streamer with 20 to 30 viewers, a streamer is still a streamer.

But Jinho shook his head.

Well, even if he turned on the stream, no one would have watched.

His regular viewers had left after three months of watching him repeat the same thing.

Now, even if he tried to attract attention with titles like 'Boss Strategy' or '50th Floor,' no one would watch if he said he was playing the Tower of Trials.

'But if I upload it to YouTube, wouldn't it get a decent number of views?'

If he edited the results to be within 10 minutes, it would probably do quite well.

Just then.

Ding!

[Thank you very much for using our game so far.]

[The reboot update will be implemented in 12 hours. We kindly ask for your continued support.]

It was a message from the administrator.

I thought they had given up, not communicating or managing the game for 11 years.

'Unexpected. And a reboot update? Did they find an oil field in the desert or something?'

It didn't make sense.

There was no profitability in this game...

'...Whatever. They must have some plan.'

It's not like it had anything to do with him.

He had no intention of playing this game any further, regardless of the reboot update.

Moreover, he planned to end the streaming career he had pursued as a job today.

Even if he had no dependents to support, he couldn't keep living on 500,000 won a month at 27.

'I should tell the gym instructor that I need to take a break from training for a while.'

He had once heard that he should aim for professional fighting, but now money was more important than training.

-jjy77: Jina! Jina! It means Jinho!

-SuriOwl: Oh, what's this? You turned it on early today?

As soon as he turned on the stream, 20 regular viewers quickly came in.

He had prepared chicken, pizza, cream shrimp, yangjangpi, and two bottles each of beer and soju on his desk.

-25YearDiet: Wow, look at that spread.

-EatStreamTzu: As expected, you're perfect for food streams. Not game streams.

-JinhoRollsBetter: What comes to mind when you think of BJ Jinho?

-CoffinSong: Eating the cow and the stable too!

-RoomTsu: Tapping the stone bridge before crossing!

-1Person2Chicken: After eating a snake, even the pot lid is eaten!

Thanks to these few viewers, he had been able to continue streaming.

Laughing and chatting while eating soju and various side dishes, it was already approaching dawn.

'I should announce that I'm ending the stream tomorrow.'

He couldn't bring himself to say it right now.

Yes.

I'll say it tomorrow.

But...

Jinho himself didn't know.

When he opened his eyes, the world had already changed.