Chapter 1 – There is a Person Here!

“Sigh… I’m so tired… Exhausted.”

A monthly salary of not even 2 million won. Out of that, he paid his monthly rent and student loans, and by scrimping on living expenses, he saved 1 million won a month in an installment savings account to accumulate 12 million won. It was a large amount of money, but it was far from enough for Se-jun’s goal.

“Whew. At this rate, when will I buy the ticket? Will I even be able to buy it?”

Se-jun sighed at the bleak goal.

Ten years ago, a 99-story black tower suddenly appeared in the middle of Gangnam, Seoul. The tower had geometric patterns and a structure that defied the laws of physics.

A hundred of such towers appeared simultaneously in various cities around the world. Each country investigated the tower that appeared in its territory, but they did not obtain any significant results.

The information they found was that the tower’s height was 990 meters, made of a material so strong that even a nuclear bomb could not make a hole in it, and there was no door to enter anywhere in the tower.

Under such circumstances, people suddenly began to emerge from the tower one by one. They naturally walked out through the walls of the tower.

Investigators quickly identified them and discovered that the people who came out of the tower were those who had recently gone missing suddenly.

“How did you enter the tower??”

To the investigators’ questions, they replied that they had not walked in, but had been sucked into a black hole, and when they regained consciousness, they found themselves on the first floor of the tower.

In this way, information about the tower began to be released by the people who came out of the tower.

– The 100 towers were connected as one.

– Upon entering the tower, one awakened and received one of the classes: Mage or Warrior.

– From the second floor of the tower, there were monsters, and the higher the floor, the stronger the monsters became.

– Every time a floor was cleared, a reward could be obtained, and the higher the floor, the better the reward. However, there was no reward even if a cleared floor was cleared again.

No one knew the purpose for which the tower was created. But one thing was certain: climbing the tower was lucrative. The items obtained inside the tower were sold at high prices on Earth.

Among those items, there was also something called a ticket. Tickets were one of the main sources of income for awakeners, and when a floor was cleared, there was a high probability that one or more tickets would appear.

People who had already awakened did not need tickets to enter and exit the tower. However, if ordinary people possessed a ticket, they would be able to enter the tower.

And once they entered the tower, they awakened and gained the qualification to climb the tower. Therefore, the price of a ticket was not cheap, and it was not easy to obtain.

In the case of South Korea, the Korea Awakeners Association purchased hunters’ tickets in bulk and sold them.

The price was 150 million won per ticket. Even then, due to high demand, news was coming out that the price would rise to 200 million won starting a week later. It was said that there were hundreds of people waiting after paying the money in advance just to buy a ticket.

‘I can’t give up!’

And as news about “gold green onions” and “onion-tech” began to appear quite frequently lately, Se-jun made a big decision.

Let’s grow crops at home!

A way to tighten his belt even further. He didn’t mean to grow anything grand, but to save on living expenses, he planned to buy and grow a few things that would grow well on their own as long as they were watered.

‘I should start today.’

In this way, after buying green onions and a few other things at the mart, he was on his way home.

“Hum hum hum…”

Se-jun hummed a tune.

It was because of the expectation that if he grew fruits and vegetables at home in the future, he would save a lot on food expenses and eat as many vegetables and fruits as he wanted.

‘I will save money like this, buy a ticket, and enter the tower. Then, I’ll make a ton of money in the tower, and with our Se-ra…’

“Hehehe…”

Se-ra was a member of South Korea’s top girl group, Moonlight Fairy. In short, it was Se-jun’s own delusion.

As Se-jun was walking with a goofy grin, lost in his delusions, a black hole opened up and appeared in the empty air in front of him.

And

Whoosh.

It began to suck in the surroundings.

“Huh?! This is…!”

Se-jun, who discovered the black hole whose other side could not be seen at all, was greatly surprised.

‘It’s Vanishing!’

Vanishing was the phenomenon of being invited to the tower, and the first awakeners all entered through Vanishing…

Anyway, this was a stroke of luck harder to achieve than winning the lottery!

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Se-jun hurriedly sent a text to his family. It was out of concern that his family might look for him if he disappeared without a word.

By the time he finished sending the text,

‘Why am I still here?’

Even if he were to be sucked into the hole, he should have been sucked in long ago…

Se-jun kept staring at the black hole, waiting for it to take him. However, the suction power of the hole showed no signs of growing stronger.

“Take me in quickly. Uh! What? Why is it shrinking?!”

It was even closing.

‘No! My future! Se-ra!!!’

Se-jun made up his mind. The future was something to be pioneered.

“Fine! I will go myself!”

Se-jun ran into the hole. In that way, Se-jun disappeared into the pitch-black darkness.

***

“Where is this?”

As soon as Se-jun came out of the hole, he realized that something was strange. It was too different from the information about the first floor of the tower he had heard.

He had heard that on the first floor of the tower, brilliant chandelier lighting lit up the surroundings, the floor was paved with white marble, and in the wide plaza, there were shops selling equipment and potions, as well as training centers where warriors and mages could learn skills.

However, far from shops and training centers, this was a cave made of rocks.

If there was anything similar to the first floor of the tower, it was only that it was spacious.

The only saving grace was that although there was no brilliant chandelier lighting, there was a single ray of sunlight coming through a hole in the cave ceiling.

‘Let’s find the exit first.’

Se-jun began to look around to find a way out.

The first place he picked to go out was the hole in the cave ceiling. However, climbing the wall to the hole in the arched cave ceiling seemed impossible unless he was Spider-Man.

‘Let’s look for another place.’

Se-jun put his bag down on a rock and explored the cave.

After a while.

“Why is it so spacious…”

The cave was incredibly spacious, more than he had thought. The end of the cave was not reached by the sun, so the front was barely visible.

“I need to save it…”

Se-jun had no choice but to turn on his smartphone’s flashlight dimly and continue exploring the cave.

Three hours later.

The exploration of the cave was finished. The cave was a cavity completely blocked on all sides. He checked one by one to see if there were any gaps to escape or weak parts between the rocks, but there was no place to get through.

“There’s no exit… Am I stranded by any chance?”

Se-jun muttered as if he had lost his mind and trudged back to the place where the sun shone beneath the hole in the cave ceiling.

“What should I do…”

He had to admit it. That leaving this place alone was impossible.

“Is- anyone-! here-!!!”

Se-jun shouted toward the hole in the cave ceiling as a last resort.

However,

“Is~ anyone~ here~!”

Se-jun’s desperate cry could not escape the hole and only echoed inside the cave.

“Is- anyone-! here-!!!”

Se-jun shouted at the top of his lungs. However, let alone a person, nothing even passed near the hole.

“Damn it. There’s someone here!!!”

Thud!

Se-jun could not contain his anger and kicked the ground for no reason. In that way, a day passed.

Day 2 of being stranded.

[May 11th, 6:00 AM]

Beep. Beep.

The alarm he had set for work rang.

“Ugh…”

Se-jun opened his eyes with difficulty in his uncomfortable bed, stood up, and turned off the alarm on his smartphone.

“……”

After waking up, Se-jun spent the whole day just staring at the hole in the cave ceiling.

Even after several hours passed, no one went by.

“Is anyone here!”

Only Se-jun’s cry reflected off the damp rocks, returning as a gloomy echo.

Growl.

Se-jun’s stomach rumbled. Although his worries were as high as a mountain, he had to eat to live right now.

“Ugh… I’m really hungry.”

Now that he thought about it, he had not eaten anything since leaving work.

‘Should I eat something?’

Se-jun found a flat rock, settled down, and sat.

And

Rustle.

He pulled out a bagged apple from the bag he had put down. It was a washed apple given by a colleague from his office.

‘Thanks, Min-jun.’

Se-jun decided that if he got out of here, he would repay his colleague, Min-jun, with sweet and sour pork. It wasn’t that Min-jun liked sweet and sour pork, but rather that he wanted to eat black bean noodles and sweet and sour pork right now.

In this way, after Se-jun decided to treat Min-jun to sweet and sour pork, he tore open the plastic wrapping of the apple and took a big bite of it.

Crunch.

The sweet and sour juice of the apple took over his mouth.

‘It’s so delicious!’

As his appetite was stimulated, his hunger surged uncontrollably.

Crunch, crunch.

Se-jun devoured the apple frantically, like someone possessed by a hungry ghost.

“Ah.”

He stared blankly at the remaining apple stem and seeds after eating it clean. The amount was far from enough.

Thump, thump.

Se-jun dug the ground roughly with his foot and buried the apple seeds and stem together.

Then, he began to take out the items inside his bag.

A laptop and a 500ml water bottle containing leftover water he had brought from the office.

Green onions, cherry tomatoes, and pumpkin sweet potatoes he had bought to grow at home.

“One, two, three…”

Se-jun began to count the number of cherry tomatoes in the plastic container. It was to accurately gauge the food he possessed.

27 cherry tomatoes, 10 green onions, and 7 pumpkin sweet potatoes.

For now, he planted all the green onions, 3 cherry tomatoes, and 2 pumpkin sweet potatoes, leaving the rest as food.

Cherry tomatoes have many seeds inside, so even just three were enough to plant many. And as for the sweet potatoes… since they were the only source of carbohydrates among the food he possessed, he could not plant many.

‘First, let’s fill my stomach more.’

Rub, rub.

Se-jun thoroughly washed one sweet potato and five cherry tomatoes in the pond.

Fortunately, there was a small pond in one corner of the cave. At least the drinking water was solved.

‘It would have been nice if there were at least some fish…’

Not even a creature the size of a small minnow was visible in the pond. Come to think of it, there were no small animals like bugs or mice in the cave at all.

Since Se-jun would freak out upon seeing bugs or mice, he should have been glad they were absent, but now that they were actually gone, he felt a bit disappointed. He had seen many scenes in movies where people ate bugs or mice when there was no food.

‘If food really runs out, I’ll have to eat things like that.’

Of course, it was best to escape this place before food ran out.

Crunch.

When he chewed the sweet potato, all miscellaneous thoughts disappeared along with the cheerful sound. Now was the time to focus on the sweet potato.

Munch, munch.

Delicious! The more he chewed, the more sweetness leaked out, making it taste much better than expected. Although he always ate them steamed or roasted, it made him think that eating them raw once in a while would be quite fine.

“Shall I start working now?”

Se-jun, who had finished one sweet potato and five cherry tomatoes, first picked up the green onions.

And

Snap.

He broke the green onions at a point about one-third from the root, tore off the green leaf parts, and placed them on the ground separately.

‘I’ll eat them later.’

Although they would not taste good, he might have to eat them to survive.

Se-jun buried the white part with the roots of the green onions in the ground where the sun came in and the soil on the floor was soft.

Then, he planted two pumpkin sweet potatoes to the left of the green onions and cherry tomatoes to the right.

He just buried the pumpkin sweet potatoes in the ground one by one, and for the cherry tomatoes, he crushed them to plant the seeds flowing out from within.

Slurp, slurp.

Se-jun approached the pond while sucking the tomato juice off his hands. Then, he filled the 500ml water bottle with pond water and thoroughly moistened the ground where the crops were planted.

Once the work was finished, Se-jun lay on a rock and stared at the ceiling, waiting for someone to pass by. Since he had no food, he minimized his energy consumption as much as possible, occasionally shouting, “Anyone here!”

However, no one went by.

Beep. Beep.

[May 12th, 6:00 AM]

It was the third day of being stranded.