I’m the Only One With Two Towers - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Only I Have Two Towers Episode 001

Awakening

A space where cold air and stuffy humidity coexist—the basement.

From there came the sound of brilliant striking.

It wasn’t the sound of beating someone up.

Click-click-click! Tap-tap-tap-tap!

The sounds of a mouse and keyboard.

They echoed throughout the dark basement.

“Ah, come on!!”

The man sitting in front of the computer raised his voice.

His fingers moved even faster.

He had no choice.

The clear of a floor he hadn’t been able to beat for a week was right within reach.

Click!!

With that final click.

[You have cleared the 100th floor of the Mythic Tower!]

A message appeared.

But the man wasn’t happy.

Instead, he immediately clasped his hands together.

“Please awaken. Please awaken. Please awaken.”

The man repeated the same words like chanting a spell.

That’s right.

The man desperately needed to awaken.

But as if mocking the man’s wishes, the screen remained quiet afterward.

Just like when he had cleared other floors before.

How many seconds passed in silence?

“Damn it.”

The man leaned back.

He had prayed out of habit, but honestly, he knew.

That nothing would happen, just like it had been until now.

He had simply tried to give meaning to the number 100.

“Just how far do I have to go? You crazy system.”

The man poured out his unreachable lament.

Awakening and system.

Words that would be awkward in reality, but that was only the story up to three years ago.

Creak.

The man opened the window and stared at the tower rising tall in the distance.

A tower that mixed red and purple light, giving off an ominous feeling.

The tower had suddenly appeared one day three years ago.

The man still clearly remembered that day.

The bizarre sight of the sky darkening in broad daylight and a tower falling down.

People called this tower the Tower of Despair.

And there was one more phenomenon that appeared along with the Tower of Despair—awakening.

Awakening is both the condition for entering the tower and the minimum means of survival.

The Tower of Despair, where monsters that eat people alive appear.

Using the abilities gained through awakening is the only way to survive in this place.

While sighing deeply and staring endlessly at the innocent tower.

“Older Sister! I awakened!! I’m a Shield Knight!”

A loud voice came from the apartment above.

“Really?! It’s a pretty common class, but it’s better than nothing. Well done!”

“Catching 100 tree frogs was so hard I thought I was going to die!”

Tree frogs out of nowhere?

That must have been the boy’s awakening condition.

Then why tree frogs of all things?

No one would be able to answer this question clearly.

And for good reason—the system assigns them arbitrarily.

‘I’m confident I could catch tree frogs well too.’

The man clicked his tongue and turned his gaze to the mirror.

The man had also been given an awakening condition.

Unlike simply catching frogs, it was very ambiguous.

[Play the given game.]

Along with the condition, a single game icon appeared on the computer’s desktop.

At the time, he had cheered.

There were many cases where people couldn’t awaken because the conditions were ridiculously difficult, but just playing a game?

For a man who had been an anime, manga, and game otaku since childhood, it would be a piece of cake… or so he had thought.

He cleared incredibly difficult floors again and again.

But for some reason.

He didn’t awaken.

Only a message telling him to proceed to the next floor would appear after clearing.

Ding!

An unnecessarily cheerful notification sound.

He picked up his phone to check the message that had arrived.

# Jinhyeok. You don’t have to do that damn awakening. It’s better to live normally than go into the tower and die. So stop struggling and come back to your hometown. A man doesn’t need to be dejected just because he can’t awaken. So straighten your shoulders! And contact your mother sometimes, son!

After reading it all, Yoo Jin-hyeok squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Dad, I want to awaken!!’

Going back to the countryside and peacefully farming would be a good life too.

But it’s not the life Jinhyeok wants.

He had watched countless manga, novels, and anime since childhood.

All the protagonists who appeared in them had shined.

Perhaps that’s why.

He wanted to shine.

He wanted to become a protagonist.

If he couldn’t become a protagonist, he at least wanted to shine.

So he could make lots of money and be lovey-dovey with a pretty heroine… Smack!

After calming his endlessly expanding thoughts with a slap, he downed a glass of cold water.

On TV and the internet, news about the Tower of Despair poured out daily.

Stories about who cleared which floor, what items they obtained, and what incredible abilities they gained through leveling up.

‘I’m damn envious.’

Other people awaken and enter the tower to make big money or gain fame.

But here he is, stuck in a basement, endlessly hammering away at a game with no end in sight—it’s driving him crazy.

Jinhyeok let out a deep sigh and shrugged his shoulders.

Then he slid back in front of the computer.

There’s no set time, but what can he do?

Just because he can’t see the destination doesn’t mean he can just stop and do nothing.

He has no choice but to keep going until it works.

He moved the mouse cursor.

[Next Floor]

He pressed the familiar button.

“Huh?”

What’s this? There’s no response.

Click. Click. Click-click-click.

No matter how many times I repeated it, it was the same.

Just as I was about to punch the monitor, thinking even the computer was acting up now.

[You have awakened!]

“Huh?”

I had awakened.

I gulped down cold water from the refrigerator once more.

And immediately went up to the rooftop of the villa.

My head doesn’t work properly in this stuffy basement.

I need fresh air.

“Status window.”

Suppressing my embarrassment, I shouted as quietly as possible, and a window appeared before my eyes.

Jinhyeok’s eyes wavered.

‘It really happened.’

When the message appeared earlier, I wondered if this was real.

It was just so sudden.

Jinhyeok pressed his forehead.

An awakening condition that could only be completed by pressing the button to go to the next floor after clearing the 100th floor.

‘What would have happened if I hadn’t pressed it out of frustration.’

It would have been perfect if the explanation had been even a little more helpful.

Jinhyeok calmed his mind and slowly read through the status window.

*

[Yoo Jin-hyeok]

Level: 1.

Class: Collector

[Unique Trait]

Card Collector

# Current cards held 0/3.

## You can manifest the existence of cards you possess.

Manifestation

# You can summon the existence of cards.

*

Just a few lines of incredibly simple and basic explanation.

I bit my lip hard.

This was a moment that made me realize once again how terribly unhelpful the system’s explanations were.

But I didn’t voice my complaints out loud, afraid they might take back the awakening I had barely received.

Call me a coward if you want, there’s nothing I can do about it.

Those three years without seeing an exit had been such a long time.

‘As expected, there’s nothing.’

I searched for Collector on the internet, but there was no useful information.

The same went for information boards about the Tower of Despair or awakening.

I tried posting a question.

@ Old man, quit gambling and get your head straight. You’ll ruin your family like that.

@ Go downstairs and play cards.

Only infuriatingly annoying replies were posted.

‘Could it be a hidden class?’

It happened sometimes.

People who awakened not to overlapping classes like others, but to classes that were the only one of their kind in the world.

But it was a bit ambiguous to be certain.

Those people’s class names were things like ‘Dark Knight Blessed by the Evil Constellation Decalis’ or ‘Iron Lord Blessed by Goddess Gaia’ – names that clearly screamed ‘I’m a hidden class!’

‘Let’s just assume it’s hidden for now. At least it feels good.’

Jinhyeok shouted “Nice!” and clenched his fist.

Mother always used to say.

Live optimistically and positively.

It felt good to follow my parents’ advice for the first time in a while.

I moved down to the next line of the status window.

# Cards can be obtained from the Mythic Tower.

I looked up at the tower rising tall in the distance.

That’s not the Mythic Tower.

That’s the Tower of Despair.

The tower that everyone in the world is diligently climbing.

The Mythic Tower is the name of the tower in the game I was playing until just now.

At first I thought the crazy system was now making typos too, but I quickly realized that wasn’t the case.

“Enter tower.”

Although physical towers exist in each country, you don’t need to go all the way there to climb.

Once a day, you could enter directly from wherever you were standing.

Normally, that is.

[Which tower would you like to enter?]

Without this kind of additional question.

I looked back and forth at the two options that appeared before my eyes.

[Mythic Tower] [Tower of Despair]

Cold sweat ran down my back.

I could use wishful thinking to assume Collector was a hidden class since there was no information about it.

But this was really strange.

The Mythic Tower? Having two towers you can enter? This was truly something I’d never heard of before.

Jinhyeok scratched the back of his head as he stared blankly.

I had no intention of posting another question like before.

Not only would I get cursed at, but I’d be treated like a mental patient.

So what choice was left?

“Well, let’s go check it out.”

What else could I do? I had to go.

I picked up a baseball bat and an aluminum pot lid that were lying around on the rooftop.

After equipping myself with minimal armament, I selected the Mythic Tower.

It was an embarrassing level to call armament, but it was fine.

If worst came to worst, I could press the escape button and return.

Swoooosh…!

The surrounding scenery began to scatter into particles of light.

‘So this is how you enter.’

I moved my head around constantly.

Since everything was new, I couldn’t help but be amazed.

After waiting a bit, a green forest spread out before my eyes.

I tilted my head.

This wasn’t the 1st floor of the Mythic Tower I’d seen in the game.

As I wondered if the game and reality were different, a message appeared.

[You are a player who has previewed the Mythic Tower up to the 100th floor.]

[A special benefit is granted.]

[Entering the 0th floor of the Mythic Tower.]

[0th floor clear condition: Encounter the Sleeping Knight.]

“Oho.”

My eyes sparkled fiercely at the mention of a special benefit.

Of course, his heart began to race.

He had seen it on the news.

Stories of people who obtained incredibly precious items or abilities as system perks.

Jinhyeok walked into the forest with high expectations.

Though the clear condition was incredibly simple, he didn’t let his guard down.

This system had annoyingly unhelpful explanations.

There might be hidden conditions like having to fight and win after the encounter.

Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.

Bird songs could be heard.

He could also hear the sound of flowing water, suggesting there was a river.

Sunlight poured through the gaps between tree branches.

It was a place so peaceful you’d wonder if anywhere else like it existed.

How long had he walked while feeling incredibly healed by this atmosphere?

He spotted a knight sleeping beneath a giant zelkova tree.

He tightened his grip on the baseball bat.

Strike first to win.

If the condition was to beat him up, he should strike while the knight was sleeping.

He swallowed dry saliva and crept forward stealthily.

Should he strike first? Or try talking? No, let’s just strike.

The moment he made his decision and was about to take the next step.

Some kind of memory began flowing into his mind.

“Grrrrrr…”

While his vision was still blurry, he heard the cry of something.

Every hair on his body stood on end.

It was clearly the cry of an apex predator at the top of the food chain.

His instincts sent danger warnings.

Meanwhile, as his vision cleared, a massive creature revealed itself.

A life form the size of a building with glossy black scales.

He could tell immediately upon seeing it.

It was a creature called a dragon in fantasy comics.

“Huh.”

They say when you’re too scared, you can’t even scream.

After letting out a small gasp, he froze completely.

Even though he recognized this as someone else’s memory rather than reality, it was a terrifying sight that made him want to cry out for escape.

But something was strange.

The dragon seemed to be afraid of something.

Before he could learn more about what that object of fear was.

Swooooooosh!!

A long black line was drawn horizontally.

And that was the end.

The dragon split along the line and collapsed.

The memory’s perspective shifted slightly back, revealing the face of the being that had cut down the dragon in one strike.

An existence beyond normal standards who had casually sliced through the apex monster of the food chain.

The memory ended simultaneously, and his vision returned to the forest.

Jinhyeok let his pot lid and baseball bat drop, which he had raised for a preemptive strike.

He decided to abandon the idea of striking first.

He had no choice, because lying over there was that knight.

The very existence beyond normal standards who had just sliced through a dragon.

‘Scary as hell.’

He briefly wondered if it was really okay to wake up something like that, but this dilemma didn’t last long.

Could the sound of his mind working be heard all the way over there?

The knight had opened his eyes.

An awkward silence followed as their eyes met.

The knight was the first to break the silence.

The knight, who had been quietly observing Jinhyeok, opened his mouth.

“Are you my master?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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