After clearing the S-Rank Tower in Jeju Island and heading to the United States, I was contemplating how to deal with the various political maneuvers that would unfold in Korea.
How should I handle the situation of Ironblood’s mana completely evaporating? Losing an S-Rank Awakened was practically the same as having one die.
I had no intention of handling it.
I had already cleared four S-Rank Towers, so I decided to act as if Ironblood had simply fallen in the line of duty while we were clearing them.
And what about dealing with the fact that someone had leaked my personal information?
If I couldn’t avoid it, I might as well enjoy it.
Back when I was just an ordinary person, it might have scared me a little, but now, as a Summoner who had taken down four S-Rank Towers and commanded four summons, I decided to embrace the public’s reaction with confidence.
No matter what the world said, I had Elaine, Kiharu, Drei, and Illinois by my side.
The only thing I was concerned about was how I would be received in the U.S.
I expected political opponents or people who wouldn’t welcome my presence there.
But then—
“…What in the world.”
A massive Tower stretched across the sky.
It shimmered like an opaque hologram, but there was no doubt—it was a Tower.
Even though it covered the entire sky, its structure was still distinguishable as a Tower.
No matter how large or vast, it wasn’t fundamentally different from the Towers humanity had been struggling to conquer until now.
Something that existed completely separate from natural phenomena.
But what if this wasn’t just a Tower standing tall in a specific region, but something vast enough to cover an entire country?
What if it extended across the entire planet?
“Drei, can you check satellite images?”
“I’ll send them right away. Check your smartphone.”
Drei accessed the satellites and sent me the images.
The photo, seemingly sourced from NASA, showed Earth looking exactly as one would see in a geology textbook.
“…Doesn’t seem visible, does it?”
“Yeah. It looks like it can’t be seen from space, but it’s clearly visible when viewed from the ground. Hmm… wait a second. I’m gathering more information.”
Drei sat down, closed her eyes, and focused.
Since we couldn’t see it from above, the only option was to collect as much ground-level data as possible.
I also checked online forums to gauge people’s reactions.
Right now, most were questioning how such a massive Tower had appeared—
– I can see it from Seoul.
– It’s clearly visible in Daejeon!
– Here’s a photo from Jeju Island…
– I’m at the peak of Seoraksan.
Just like how people share reports when an earthquake occurs— “This is OO, and I just felt the tremors!”— images of the sky were rapidly being shared by people all over Korea.
A colossal, white citadel covering the entire Korean Peninsula.
No one knew what it was, but one thing was clear—it was a completely different kind of Tower from the ones before.
– Wait… so a Tower just spawned over Korea?
If it was visible from all parts of Korea, not as a structure rising from the ground but as something covering everything from above, then—
“Partner, don’t pay attention to strange comments.”
Kiharu’s serious voice interrupted my thoughts as I scrolled through the posts.
“For example—”
“You mean, things like ‘this happened because I cleared the S-Rank Towers’?”
“…They’re already saying that?”
“It’s just a coincidence.”
A case of “the crow flies and the pear drops.”
Did clearing the S-Rank Tower in Jeju somehow “stack up a threshold” and trigger something like “humanity is now ready to face the next trial”?
No way.
If that were the case, this Tower would’ve appeared the moment we cleared Jeju.
If this phenomenon had only occurred in Korea, then it might’ve been reasonable to assume that my actions had triggered it.
Ah, so I cleared the S-Rank Towers, and now they decided to send Korea an SS-Rank Tower?
If some deity was responsible for creating and sending Towers, they might have thought, “Since Korea handled four S-Rank Towers, they should be able to deal with this too.”
But what about my trip to the U.S.?
Would this so-called “deity of the Towers” even care about something like that?
No, that wasn’t it either.
Towers didn’t appear based on national borders or specific locations.
They were more like darts randomly thrown at a globe.
“Japan, China, Russia… Towers are appearing all over the world. Some even span across two countries, while other nations don’t seem to have any at all.”
“So these Towers… are forming completely at random, Master?”
“Seems like it.”
I glanced at Drei.
Just as I had inferred the scope of the Tower over Korea from online discussions, she was now compiling global reports in real time.
And then—
Beep, Beep, Beep.
My phone rang.
A call I had never received before.
I had saved the number, but up until now, we had only exchanged messages.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
[My friend. Where are you headed right now?]
President Luigi.
Elaine gave me a look and tapped her ear, while I focused on the faint sounds coming through the receiver.
Multiple voices.
The last place the president had been was the Capitol, so he likely hadn’t moved.
“Let me ask—can you see a massive Tower in the sky over the U.S.?”
[Yes. It’s visible here, across the entire country. So vast that it even covers Canada and Mexico.]
“…I see. I’m currently at the edge of the Tower covering Korea.”
Flying past Dokdo, I had just reached the point where the vast white Tower gave way to an ordinary sky.
“I’ll continue along this course and head to California.”
[…Ah!]
President Luigi let out an exclamation.
Not only him, but I could also hear faint claps and shouts from behind, followed by hurried attempts to silence themselves.
“Then, in a little while—”
[My friend, do you have any insights into this situation?]
Was he asking out of urgency?
Rather than expecting me to have an answer—
‘Is he just trying to signal to those around him that even he doesn’t know?’
I wasn’t sure if that was necessary, but since he was setting the stage, there was no reason to avoid playing along.
“Well, if that enormous thing hanging in the sky is indeed a Tower, then I would say that everything up until now has merely been humanity’s warm-up.”
The tutorial and beginner’s growth period—over.
“Perhaps the gods initiated the Million Awakening to prepare us for this.”
* * *
Shortly after, the call with President Luigi ended, leaving a brief silence in the congressional chamber.
“…The Million Awakening, huh.”
One million people worldwide had awakened simultaneously.
Their abilities, locations, and backgrounds were still being analyzed, but the undeniable fact was that one million people had suddenly become Awakened overnight.
Not evenly distributed across all nations, but roughly proportional.
“What do you think, Mr. President?”
“About what?”
“This situation. What we must do.”
“…Nothing changes. We simply have one more task added to our list.”
President Luigi adjusted his glasses and pointed at the ceiling.
“We will welcome the Master in California. At the same time, we’ll deploy reconnaissance aircraft to investigate the Tower.”
“You still intend to bring someone into the U.S. who took down an S-Rank Awakened with a single battleship salvo?”
A young senator stood up, his voice sharp with disapproval.
“And you’re even deploying an Iowa-class battleship to support him?”
“That’s—”
“Illinois isn’t a real ship, you idiot.”
“!!”
An older senator, leaning on a cane, slowly rose from his seat.
“Two days after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Illinois was scrapped before it was even completed. It was never actually built—canceled during construction along with Kentucky.”
“Wait, but—”
“I was five years old back then. I remember watching it on TV. That ship over there, that’s Illinois. My hometown. The ship my father worked on.”
The senator’s voice was tinged with reminiscence, and for a moment, the chamber fell silent.
“…If this ‘Master’ has the power to summon something that never existed, then I would even believe he could bring back the dead.”
“What do you mean—?”
“Who knows? Maybe one day, Lincoln or Roosevelt will suddenly return to the modern era.”
“!!”
“T-That’s absurd—”
“A Tower vast enough to cover the entire Earth has appeared, people have become superhumans overnight, and a battleship that was never built has emerged from the ocean and is now sailing toward America. And that’s what you find hard to believe?”
“But still—”
“This is an opportunity. A great one. We must not repeat the mistake of… what was her name again? ‘Ironblood’?”
At his words, some senators flinched.
“If anyone sneers at the Master, mocks his past, questions how he summoned Illinois, or asks if he can even speak English—if anyone so much as slants their eyes in mockery—I will personally address them from now on. And I’ll call them Ironblood.”
“…!”
“Mr. President, does this suffice?”
“…Let’s be honest. What do you want from me, Senator?”
President Luigi turned his gaze toward another senator, one who had remained seated throughout the discussion.
“What do I want? If I could have just one wish granted before I die, it’d be simple.”
The old senator swallowed dryly as he looked at the image of Illinois displayed on the congressional monitor.
“Before I die, I want to set foot on that ship just once.”
* * *
A short while later.
Elaine, Kiharu, Drei, and I were inspecting the ship’s interior.
And then I saw it.
“…What is this?”
The engine room.
Where Illinois’s engine should have been, something else had taken its place.
“…Sphere?”
It wasn’t an engine.
It was something entirely different—something too vast and too intricate to be dismissed as just a machine.
A massive mechanical sphere.
Thump, Thump.
A faint, rhythmic pulse, almost like a heartbeat, echoed from within.
