Only I’m the solo player

Chapter 1 – The Tower of Trials

—–CROW—– 

Ten years ago, the world underwent a literal upheaval.

Unidentified monsters began to appear all over the world, attacking people, and at the same time, unidentified towers began to sprout up.

Putting aside the sudden appearance of the towers, the pouring monsters became an unbearable threat to humanity.

When hundreds, even thousands of creatures so menacing that they made the so-called strongest animal on land, the elephant, seem laughable, how could we possibly cope?

Of course, the firepower of humanity’s firearms could easily subdue most monsters, but the real problem was that there were also monsters that were not so ordinary.

Monsters that were immune to firearms, monsters that used strange abilities, monsters that were simply disgustingly large and incredibly strong, and so on.

Many cities around the world were destroyed, and countless casualties occurred. Humanity was gradually losing its place.

Then one day, people who could subdue monsters with superhuman strength began to appear.

At the time, they were commonly called Awakeners, but now they are referred to as Hunters. The towers that had sprung up all over the world spat out such beings.

Their identities were those who had accepted invitations sent from the ‘Tower of Trials’, and they risked their lives to clear the tower and became ‘Hunters’.

Of course, that’s all in the past.

The world became much safer thanks to the sudden appearance of the 1st generation Hunters, and the invitations that periodically abducted people became a chance for people like me to turn their lives around.

In the beginning, the Tower of Trials was a truly dangerous place that had to be conquered with one’s life on the line, but now that the strategies for each floor have been established, that’s not the case.

Moreover, there are so-called ‘Rankers’ who stay in the Tower of Trials for long periods to gain greater power, so it is possible to safely take a so-called ‘bus’ to the 100th floor.

That was the reason why I, a jobless bum who had been rolling around at home, entered the ‘Tower of Trials’ without hesitation.

Because even if I cleared it by riding the Ranker bus and eating it up, I could still become a low-rank Hunter.

Even if I only occasionally dealt with weak monsters as a low-rank Hunter, the pay was quite good, and even if I just did manual labor with the physical abilities of a Hunter, I could earn a lot.

And if I happened to discover a hidden element, then my life would really turn around. Where’s the reason not to take a safe gamble with high odds?

But fuck, what the hell is this?

[Tower of Trials #2661 (1/1)]

This blue interface is the chat channel attached to each Tower of Trials.

Those who received invitations are sent to the tower closest to them based on their country and residential area. That number 2661 is the unique number of the tower I was sent to, like an address.

Then what is that (1/1) next to it? It represents the number of people connected to the chat channel. One connected person, and a total of one person. Me.

So, it means that I am alone in the 2661st Tower of Trials. Completely alone, without a Ranker to carry me or colleagues to fight with…

At first, I couldn’t believe it, so I spent a long time manipulating the interface, including the chat channel, looking for other people.

But there was no one. Even when I asked in the open community shared by all users of the Tower of Trials, no other challenger from the 2661st tower appeared.

In that tower, where the 1st generation Hunters risked their lives, I was completely alone.

My life was fucked.

**

The Tower of Trials is only a tower in name, but in reality, it is closer to a huge, different world.

Each floor is a world, a tower of one hundred floors, so one hundred worlds, and each floor has several dungeons and villages.

Challengers go around the dungeons and hunting grounds on each floor, defeat monsters, level up, gain skills and stats, and become stronger.

It’s a very intuitive RPG game format. Naturally, I also have a so-called ‘status window’.

“Status Window.”

I didn’t have to say it out loud, but since no one was watching, I muttered to myself and called up the status window.

Seo Jinhyuk Lv.1 (Jobless)

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Durability: 1

Intelligence: 1

All stats were at the lowest possible value, without any unnecessary additions, but this was the same for all challengers.

No matter how strong you were before entering the Tower of Trials, your strength stat is 1, and likewise, no matter how smart you are, your intelligence is 1.

So, just because my intelligence is 1 doesn’t mean I’m stupid. In the first place, this intelligence stat has nothing to do with real intelligence.

The (Jobless) mark next to the level is the same. It’s not because I’m a jobless bum, but because everyone is jobless before they get a job.

When your strength stat goes up, you become stronger, when your agility stat goes up, you become faster, when your durability stat goes up, you become tougher.

All the stats obtained here are added to my existing abilities.

Even now, when my stats are 1, that’s still the case. Currently, I am stronger and more agile by a stat of 1 than before I entered the Tower of Trials.

Actually, I don’t feel any difference, but other challengers say that’s how it is.

According to the information written in the open community, and from what I heard before entering the Tower of Trials, I already knew this.

Nevertheless, the reason I opened the status window to check was because I wondered if there might be some special benefit.

“Fuck, would it kill them to give me an epic class or something?”

I wondered if being alone in the tower would give me some kind of advantage, but it seems that there’s nothing like that.

It really means that I have to clear this tower alone, with the body of a level 1 trash, with nothing.

My plan to become a proud Hunter and let my hard-working mother live comfortably was already completely ruined.

Yeah, I was born with a dirt spoon, and I was a dirt spoon as a Hunter too.

How could my life be so consistently fucked?

**

But no matter what, everything in life depends on how you do it.

Who knows, maybe I have some hidden talent, and I can really clear the tower alone.

Or maybe there’s a hidden piece waiting for me somewhere. Surely my life can’t be just fucked.

So, I left the village and headed to the hunting ground. First, I thought I’d try to catch any monster.

“Uh… that’s a horned rabbit, right?”

I looked at the large white rabbit roaming the field map and gripped the wooden sword in my right hand tightly.

In the Tower of Trials public community, there are well-organized guides and strategies for newbie challengers.

At level 1, it’s said to be safe and good not to enter the labyrinth area, but to go out to the field and catch horned rabbits until level 3.

It’s said that below level 3, even if you go around getting carried by Rankers, you can still die if you make a mistake.

-Boing.

The horned rabbit looked like a rabbit with horns, as the name suggests. However, it was almost the size of a large dog.

It didn’t look as grotesque as the large rabbits in Australia, and it had a very cute appearance, but it was just ridiculously large.

And its jumping power was amazing, matching its size. It could jump higher than my head.

-Boing.

Just watching it jump around was quite intimidating, but since it’s the weakest monster that even a level 1 can catch… I should be able to catch it.

I held my basic equipment, the wooden sword, and slowly approached the horned rabbit.

The horned rabbit is a non-aggressive mob that just jumps around unless attacked. So, I could put all my strength into the first hit.

“Hyaaah!”

I slammed the wooden sword down on the forehead of the bouncing horned rabbit. Maybe the strength stat of 1 helped, but it was swung with more force than I expected.

-Peep!

The horned rabbit, hit on the forehead, let out a cute squeal and fell down. I approached the fallen horned rabbit and swung the wooden sword once more.

-Thud, thud, thud!

I thought that hitting it this hard would make a louder sound, but because of the fur, it sounded like hitting a pillow.

But still, it seems that the damage was going in properly. The horned rabbit couldn’t resist and was beaten soundly by me.

-Kiiiing…

After hitting it a few more times, the horned rabbit made a slightly different squeal and disappeared into light.

[Horned Rabbit’s Hide]

The loot entered my inventory. Even for a level 1, it seems that one horned rabbit is not enough to level up.

But it’s much more doable than I thought. I wondered if it was possible to beat such a beast to death with a wooden sword, but it seems that the stat correction somehow makes it possible.

Even though I swung the wooden sword quite a lot, I’m not out of breath, so it seems that there’s also a correction for stamina, not just strength.

I started to think that I could do this too.

**

After that, I defeated eight more horned rabbits.

Since it was a non-aggressive mob, I could just keep hitting one until it was dead, without being counterattacked.

Thanks to that, I leveled up. This made me level 2, and all my stats increased by 1, so now all my stats are 2.

When all stats were 1, I didn’t feel it much, but now that all stats are 2, I definitely feel a little stronger.

It’s a sense of growth, a sense of accomplishment that I didn’t feel when I was a bum… a job seeker rolling around at home.

“Okay, let’s catch one more and go back to the village…”

Since I was at it, I aimed to make it ten, so I marked another white horned rabbit that was bouncing around.

“Hyaaah!”

With a powerful shout, I slammed the wooden sword down on the horned rabbit’s head. With the attack power of the basic equipment, the wooden sword, it takes about eleven hits to kill it for sure.

-Peep! Peeeep! Peeeeeeep…!

I continued to beat the horned rabbit that was squealing pitifully. Just when I thought I was almost done, I heard a strange sound from the wooden sword.

-Crack.

The weapon’s durability was exhausted. It was the moment I swung the last blow at the horned rabbit.

Crack, the horned rabbit fell and the loot entered my inventory, and at the same time, the wooden sword broke.

“It broke just when I caught ten.”

I put the broken wooden sword into my inventory, clicked my tongue, and started walking towards the village.

Then, I saw something strange in the distance. It was another horned rabbit that looked exactly like the one I had just defeated.

The only difference was that its fur was black. That’s strange, weren’t all horned rabbits white?

-Boingboingboing!

Unlike the white rabbits, the black horned rabbit was a little faster. It felt more like it was sprinting rather than jumping.

I wondered if it was in the guidebook and opened the community, but the black horned rabbit that was far away was already close.

No, that’s not right.

It wasn’t just getting closer. That black horned rabbit was running towards me.

“What the, fuck.”

The moment I realized that, the horned rabbit quickly closed the distance and threw its whole body at me.

“Ugh!”

—–CROW—–