Seoul, South Korea. Present Day.
The sky over Seoul wasn't blue anymore. It hadn't been for ten years. Not truly.
It was a canvas of perpetual twilight, stained by the monolithic silhouette that pierced the heavens: The Black Origin Tower. It stood in the center of the district formerly known as Gangnam, a jagged spear of obsidian that extended past the exosphere, its tip lost in the void of space. It didn't reflect light; it swallowed it.
From its base, a web of magical energy—Mana—pulsed through the ley lines of the earth, sprouting thousands of "offspring" towers. Some were as small as office buildings; others rivaled skyscrapers. They were dungeons. They were resource mines. They were graves.
In this world, your worth wasn't determined by your grades, your kindness, or your bank account. It was determined by a single letter glowing on a holographic license.
SSS. SS. S. A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I.
And then, there was the dust beneath the feet of the I-Ranks. The Unawakened. The Regulars.
Jihyun Park sat at the back of Class 3-4 at Seonjeong High, staring out the window. He was eighteen, with hair the color of dried ink and eyes that always seemed to be looking at the floor. He was thin—malnourished thin—wearing a uniform that had been patched at the elbows twice.
"Hey, npc."
The voice was low, accompanied by the wet thud of a wet paper ball hitting the back of Jihyun's neck.
Jihyun didn't flinch. He slowly reached back, peeled the paper off his skin, and set it on the corner of his desk. He didn't turn around. He knew who it was. Everyone knew who it was.
Kang Min-su. An Awakened. Rank G.
In the grand scheme of the Hunter world, a G-Rank was cannon fodder. They were luggage carriers or meat shields for C-Rank raids. But in a high school? A G-Rank was a god walking amongst mortals. Min-su could bench press a compact car and punch through a concrete wall.
"Did you hear me, Jihyun?" Min-su's chair scraped loudly against the linoleum as he stood up. The classroom, previously buzzing with the chatter of thirty students, went deathly silent.
"I heard you, Min-su," Jihyun whispered, his voice raspy. He hadn't spoken to anyone in three days.
Min-su walked over, his heavy footsteps echoing. He leaned over Jihyun's desk, his shadow engulfing the smaller boy. "My raid gear needs polishing. The leather greaves are getting stiff. Bring them to my house after school. And don't use that cheap wax you used last time. Buy the imported stuff."
"I... I don't have money for the imported wax, Min-su," Jihyun said, his hands trembling slightly under the desk. "My grandmother... her medicine took the last of my part-time wages."
Min-su sighed, a theatrical sound of disappointment. He grabbed a handful of Jihyun's hair and slammed his face into the desk.
THUD.
A collective gasp rippled through the room, but no one moved. The teacher, Mr. Oh, was busy writing equations on the chalkboard, pretending he heard nothing. Mr. Oh was a Regular. If he intervened, Min-su could snap his wrist like a twig and claim it was an accident during 'mana fluctuation.' The law was lenient on Hunters.
"Money isn't my problem, Jihyun-ah," Min-su whispered into Jihyun's ear, the smell of stale tobacco on his breath. "Figure it out. Sell a kidney. Beg on the streets. Or maybe... just jump off the roof? It would save us all the oxygen you're wasting."
Min-su released him and patted Jihyun's cheek hard enough to leave a red welt. "Imported wax. Tonight."
As Min-su walked back to his seat, laughing with his sycophants, Jihyun lifted his head. Blood trickled from his nose, dripping onto his open notebook. He stared at the red droplet, watching it soak into the cheap paper.
Rank, Jihyun thought, a burning, cold hatred pooling in his gut. It's all about Rank. If I were an F... just an F... I could fight back.
"You okay, Jihyun?"
Jihyun glanced to his left. Lee So-ojin, the class representative, looked at him with pity. She held out a tissue.
"I'm fine," Jihyun muttered, ignoring the tissue. He hated the pity more than the violence. Pity was just a reminder of his helplessness.
"Min-su is on edge because the National Hunter Assessment is tomorrow," So-ojin whispered, checking to make sure the bully wasn't listening. "He's trying to break through to F-Rank. He's taking it out on you."
"The world doesn't care why the boot crushes the ant, So-ojin," Jihyun replied, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "It just cares that the boot is heavy."
Lunch Break. The Rooftop.
Jihyun didn't eat lunch. He couldn't afford the cafeteria fees this month. He usually spent the hour on the rooftop, hiding behind the ventilation units, reading old books on Hunter Theory he found in the trash.
He was reading about Dungeon Breaks—when a tower overflows because the boss hasn't been killed in time—when the air suddenly changed.
It wasn't a sound. It was a pressure.
The hair on Jihyun's arms stood up. The ambient noise of the city—the traffic, the sirens, the distant chatter—vanished instantly. It was as if someone had pressed 'mute' on reality.
What is this?
Jihyun stood up, dropping his book. The sky... the sky was rippling.
Directly above the school, the grey clouds twisted into a spiral. But there was no alarm. No siren screaming of a Gate opening. The Mana measurement towers scattered around the city were silent.
"Am I the only one seeing this?" Jihyun stammered, backing away toward the door.
He reached for the handle, but his hand passed right through it.
Jihyun froze. He looked at his hand. It was fading, turning translucent.
"What the..."
CRACK.
The sound wasn't physical; it was the sound of space fracturing. The concrete floor of the rooftop beneath Jihyun's feet dissolved into a grid of black, digital static.
[WARNING]
A voice boomed inside his skull. It wasn't human. It sounded like grinding stones and ancient whispers.
[SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED.]
[TARGET: REGULAR HUMAN 'JIHYUN PARK'.]
[REQUIREMENT MET: ABSOLUTE DESPAIR MEETS DORMANT POTENTIAL.]
[INITIATING TRANSPORT TO THE 'PHANTOM TOWER'.]
"Phantom Tower? No, that's a myth!" Jihyun screamed, clawing at the air as gravity reversed. "That's a bedtime story for kids!"
The Phantom Tower was an urban legend. A tower that existed between dimensions, one that didn't appear on any map, one that chose its climbers rather than allowing them to enter.
The world twisted. The high school rooftop shattered like glass.
Jihyun fell.
He fell through a kaleidoscope of void and starlight. He screamed until his throat bled, but there was no sound in the vacuum. He fell for what felt like seconds and eons simultaneously.
Then, impact.
Location: Unknown. The Phantom Tower, Floor 0.
Jihyun gasped, his body seizing as he hit a floor made of cold, smooth obsidian. He rolled over, coughing violently, his senses overloaded.
It was dark. Not the darkness of night, but a thick, heavy darkness that felt tangible. The only light came from a floating blue interface window that hovered two feet in front of his face.
[WELCOME TO THE PHANTOM TOWER.]
[YOU ARE THE FIRST ENTRANT IN 1,000 YEARS.]
Jihyun scrambled backward, his back hitting a cold wall. "Where am I? Help! Is anyone there?"
[CALCULATING KARMA...]
[CALCULATING LATENT MANA...]
[ERROR. ERROR. SOUL DENSITY EXCEEDS PARAMETERS.]
The blue box flickered and turned a deep, blood red.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE.]
[THE TOWER ACKNOWLEDGES THE HOST'S HUNGER.]
"Hunger?" Jihyun clutched his stomach. "I... I am hungry, but—"
[NOT FOR FOOD. FOR POWER. FOR RETRIBUTION. FOR LIFE.]
The red text pulsed.
[DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIAL REWARDS COMMENCING.]
[REWARD 1: CLASS AWAKENING.]
[CLASS: GLUTTONY (FORBIDDEN)]
Description: The user can devour the essence, mana, skills, and stats of fallen enemies. There is no limit to consumption.
[REWARD 2: PHYSIQUE MODIFICATION.]
[PHYSIQUE: DIVINE RANK BODY (SEALED)]
Description: A body forged to withstand the burden of infinite power. Currently sealed due to Host's fragility. Will unseal progressively as stats increase.
Jihyun stared at the floating text, his breath hitching. "Gluttony? Divine Rank?"
He knew these terms. Hunters had classes like Swordsman, Mage, Tank, Healer. Rare ones were Necromancer or Elementalist. But Gluttony? It sounded like a curse.
Suddenly, agony erupted in his chest.
"ARGHHHH!"
Jihyun arched his back, his spine cracking audibly. It felt like molten lead was being poured into his veins. His muscles tore and re-knit in microseconds. His bones fractured and fused, becoming denser, harder. Black sludge—impurities—oozed from his pores, smelling of rot.
The pain was absolute. It was a deconstruction of his humanity.
"Stop! Please! STOP!" he screamed, clawing at the obsidian floor until his fingernails broke.
[RECONSTRUCTION 10% COMPLETE...]
[...40%...]
[...80%...]
[RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETE.]
The pain vanished instantly, leaving only a cool, humming sensation vibrating under his skin.
Jihyun lay panting in a pool of his own black sweat. He felt... light. Terrifyingly light. He pushed himself up. The movement was too fast. He intended to just sit up, but he launched himself five feet into the air, landing in a crouch.
He looked at his hands. The calluses from years of hard labor were gone. His skin was pale, flawless, and felt like polished marble. He clenched his fist, and the air popped from the sheer pressure of his grip.
[TUTORIAL INITIATED.]
The darkness of the room shifted. Red eyes opened in the shadows. Dozens of them.
[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE.]
[ENEMY: STARVING SHADOW WOLVES (RANK F).]
Jihyun's heart hammered. Rank F? Rank F monsters require a team of five trained Hunters to take down. I'm just a high school student!
A low growl reverberated through the chamber. A beast stepped into the dim light of the System window. It was the size of a motorcycle, comprised of shifting shadows and razor-sharp teeth.
It lunged.
Time seemed to slow. Jihyun saw the wolf mid-air. He saw the saliva dripping from its jaws. He saw the tension in its hind legs.
It's... slow.
Jihyun didn't think. Instinct, primal and terrifying, took over.
He sidestepped. The wolf sailed past him. As it passed, Jihyun's hand shot out. He didn't punch it. He grabbed it. He grabbed the Rank F monster by the throat mid-air and slammed it into the ground.
BOOM.
The obsidian floor cracked. The wolf yelped, a sound of broken bones.
Jihyun looked at the creature writhing under his grip. A strange, dark urge rose from the pit of his stomach. A voracious, bottomless hunger.
The System window appeared next to the dying wolf.
[ACTIVATE SKILL: DEVOUR?]
[YES / NO]
Jihyun felt the vibration of the 'Gluttony' ability. It wasn't asking for permission. It was demanding to be fed.
He looked at the other wolves circling him, fear in their red eyes. He looked at his hand, holding the life of a monster that could have killed Min-su.
"Yes," Jihyun whispered.
His hand turned into a gaping maw of black energy. It enveloped the Shadow Wolf. The beast didn't even scream; it was simply erased.
A rush of warmth, euphoric and addictive, flooded Jihyun's body.
[YOU HAVE DEVOURED A STARVING SHADOW WOLF.]
[AGILITY +2]
[STRENGTH +1]
[SKILL ACQUIRED: SHADOW STEP (LV. 1)]
Jihyun stood up straight. The fear was gone. In its place was a cold, predatory smile that felt foreign on his face.
He looked at the remaining pack of wolves. They were backing away, whimpering.
"Don't go," Jihyun said, his voice deeper, resonating with a strange power. "I'm still hungry."