"Ray! Aisle three!"
I pulled one side of my earbuds down slowly. "…I just cleaned it."
"Then clean it better."
I stared at my manager for a second before looking down at the floor.
A tiny stain near the shelf.
Seriously?
"You missed a spot," he said again.
"…That thing's smaller than my paycheck."
"And somehow still more useful."
I pushed the mop across the stain quietly.
Gone.
Incredible.
Humanity survived another day.
The TV hanging above the refrigerators switched broadcasts again.
The entire store got brighter from the flashing cameras on screen.
Hunters walked past reporters while guild banners floated behind them digitally.
Clean armor.
Expensive weapons.
Confident faces.
One of them looked around my age.
Maybe younger.
A customer near the counter whistled quietly. "Floor fifty-five already? Damn."
The cashier nodded. "Heard the boss core alone sold for millions."
Millions.
I looked down at the mop in my hand.
Meanwhile, I was arguing over floor stains at midnight.
The city outside glowed blue from mana-powered lights. Tower advertisements covered entire buildings across the street.
AWAKEN TODAY.
CLIMB HIGHER.
ENTER THE TOWER.
Everything revolved around it now.
Five years ago the world nearly collapsed when the Tower first appeared.
Now people advertised it like luxury brand garbage.
"Ray."
I closed my eyes for half a second.
"…What now?"
"Trash."
Right.
Of course.
I grabbed the trash bags from behind the counter and pushed the back door open.
Cold air hit my face immediately.
The alley behind the store was quieter than the main road, but I could still hear hover buses passing overhead.
Even public transportation changed because of Tower materials.
Faster.
Cleaner.
Cheaper.
The Tower practically rebuilt entire countries.
At least for the people lucky enough to profit from it.
I dumped the trash bags into the container and leaned against the wall for a second.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
[Payment Failed]
I stared at the screen.
Hospital bill.
Again.
"…You've gotta be kidding me."
Rent was due in four days too.
Perfect timing.
The back door opened behind me.
"You look like you're about to jump someone," the cashier said while lighting a cigarette.
"Thinking about it."
"Tough day?"
"When is it not?"
He laughed quietly before glancing toward the Tower visible between distant buildings.
Even from here it looked massive.
Blue lines moved slowly across its surface in the night sky.
"You ever think about registering?" he asked.
I almost laughed.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I enjoy being alive."
"Fair."
Smoke drifted upward between us.
After a moment he shrugged. "Still better than working here forever."
Maybe.
Maybe not.
People liked talking about hunters like they were celebrities.
Nobody talked about the bodies.
Or the funerals.
Or the people who entered the Tower and never came back out.
The old manager suddenly yelled from inside the store.
"Stop slacking off back there!"
The cashier sighed immediately. "And there goes my break."
Lucky him.
My shift ended a little after midnight.
The streets were still crowded.
Hunters walked openly carrying weapons while giant digital billboards played raid footage overhead.
A group wearing matching silver jackets crossed the street nearby.
Guild members.
People moved aside for them automatically.
One of the guys laughed loudly while talking about his floor-clear bonus.
The number alone sounded unreal.
I kept walking.
The deeper I moved into the older districts, the more the city changed.
The bright lights disappeared first.
Then the clean roads.
Then the expensive buildings.
By the time I reached my apartment block, the hallway light outside was flickering again.
"…Still broken."
Of course it was.
Nobody cared about places like this anymore.
All the money went toward Tower districts now.
The rest of the city just survived.
I unlocked the apartment quietly.
"Dad?"
Silence.
My grip tightened around the handle.
…Did something happen?
I stepped toward his room faster and pushed the door open.
Dad looked over weakly from the bed. "You're noisy."
The breath in my chest loosened slowly.
"…You scared me for a second."
"You say that every night."
"Because you keep trying to die every night."
"That's dramatic."
A cough interrupted him halfway through the sentence.
Yeah.
Very dramatic.
I looked toward the desk beside the bed.
The medicine bottle was empty again.
"…You finished it already?"
Dad followed my gaze and sighed quietly. "Don't make that face."
"What face?"
"The guilty one."
I looked away first.
The heater in the corner rattled loudly for a few seconds before calming down again.
The apartment smelled faintly like medicine and dust.
Dad adjusted himself carefully against the pillow. "How was work?"
"The manager and I are one conversation away from murder."
"That bad?"
"He made me clean a stain smaller than a coin."
Dad laughed weakly.
Good.
At least he still had enough energy for that.
The TV near the wall was muted, but raid footage still flashed across the screen constantly.
Hunters.
Raids.
Guilds.
Money.
A completely different world.
Dad noticed where my eyes drifted.
"…Still hate the Tower?"
My shoulders stiffened slightly.
Back when it was still a game, I wasn't good at it.
That was all there was to it.
People improved faster.
Climbed faster.
Meanwhile, I just kept falling behind until eventually I quit.
Then the game became reality a year later.
Funny timing.
"I don't hate it," I muttered.
Dad gave me a look.
"…Maybe a little."
"A little," he repeated like he didn't believe me at all.
I grabbed the empty medicine bottle from the desk.
The label alone hurt to look at.
Tower-made medicine.
Expensive enough to make normal people give up after seeing the price once.
"You should sleep," I said quietly.
"You should quit that awful job."
"With what money?"
Silence.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Dad looked toward the ceiling quietly for a moment before speaking again.
"You're still young, Ray."
I already hated where this was going.
"Don't."
"You can still change your life."
"By walking into a death trap?"
"People survive."
"People die."
Dad stayed quiet after that.
Because he knew I wasn't wrong.
The Tower wasn't some fantasy adventure.
If you died in there—
that was it.
No restart.
No second chances.
Real death.
I left his room a few minutes later and sat beside the apartment window.
The Tower stood far in the distance, towering over the city lights.
Blue light moved slowly across its surface.
Five years later and people still didn't fully understand what the thing actually was.
All they knew was that it changed the world.
Countries changed because of it.
Economies changed because of it.
Lives changed because of it.
Mine didn't.
My phone buzzed again.
Another unpaid bill notification.
I laughed quietly under my breath.
Of course.
For a long moment, I stared at the Tower without moving.
Then my eyes drifted toward the empty medicine bottle beside me again.
Silence filled the apartment.
Eventually, I pulled my phone out and opened the Tower Association website.
My thumb stopped above the screen.
If I entered the Tower now…
I'd probably die.
The registration button stayed there silently.
Waiting.
"…Damn it."
I pressed it.