Nobody could explain where the Towers came from, they simply appeared one day above major cities across the world, massive structures piercing the sky high enough that even satellites struggled to capture their full shape. For a while, people treated them like some terrifying mystery humanity would eventually figure out, the same way people always believe disasters can still be controlled before things truly collapse.
Then the Towers started choosing people.
Those selected became known as Walkers, individuals granted strange abilities and pushed into deadly trials hidden inside the Towers themselves. The message given to humanity was simple enough to sound believable at first: climb the Towers, survive the floors, save the world.
A lot of people wanted to believe that.
The problem was that the world outside kept getting worse.
Monsters appeared soon after, entire districts vanished during events survivors later called Tower Impacts, and governments lost control faster than anyone expected. Civilization didn’t disappear overnight, it eroded slowly, painfully, with every failed expedition and every city that stopped responding.
Still, people continued climbing because there wasn’t really another option.
At least, not until much later.
Somewhere deep within the Towers, rumors began spreading about a method capable of sending a Walker back into the past while keeping their memories intact. Nobody knew whether the stories were real initially, but once the truth came out, everything changed.
The climb stopped feeling meaningful for many people after that.
Why struggle through a dying future when you could simply return to the beginning and start over with knowledge nobody else possessed? Veteran Walkers disappeared one after another, entire alliances fractured overnight, and trust became almost impossible to maintain. Some people wanted to save loved ones. Others just wanted another chance at power.
And while everyone focused on escaping the future, the future itself continued collapsing.
Jaehwan is one of the few who refuses to leave.
Not because he’s especially noble or idealistic, honestly, there are moments even he seems unsure why he keeps climbing while everyone else searches for a way back. But somewhere along the way, after watching too many people abandon the world behind them, continuing upward becomes less about survival and more about proving something to himself.
That the ruined world still matters.
That the people left behind still matter.
Together with the remnants of a dying alliance called Carpe Diem, Jaehwan keeps climbing higher through impossible floors, broken expeditions, and a Tower that feels increasingly less like a test and more like something alive, something watching every choice humanity makes very carefully.
