Side Story Chapter 143 - Tower of Creation (1)

Incidents tended to occur in the most unexpected ways and timing.

Rumble—!!!

The ground shook as if an earthquake was occurring— no it was an earthquake. It was just that it was not naturally caused.

“What... is that?”

A few weeks passed since the

jesa

was finished without a hitch. Oh Kang-Woo, who had been spending his days so lovey-dovey with his wives that he would be shanked by the readers if the opportunity arose, was left with his mouth agape as he looked out the window. Something giant was sprouting from Haeundae Beach.

‘An island?’

No, it was not an island.

“A... tower.”

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes as he leaned out the window. He lived at the top of an ultraluxury highrise building so he could observe the sprouting tower with great detail.

It looked more like a colossal tree than a tower— a cone-shaped tower that looked like it was made from the entanglement of tree-like pillars. Its exterior was made up of a gray wall and countless tree branch-like structures protruded from it.

“The Tower of Creation...” Kang-Woo muttered unconsciously as he stared at the colossal tower from outside the window.

“Wh-What the hell?! What’s going on?!” shouted Cha Yeon-Joo, barging out of her room.

“K-Kang-Woo? Did something happen outside?”

“Hm! My room was shaking! Was there an earthquake?”

Han Seol-Ah and Echidna also came out to the living room.

“Gasp.”

“That’s...”

“H-Hm?”

The three women stared at the colossal tower with their eyes and mouths open in shock.

“H-H-Hey!! Oh Kang-Woo!! Could that be...?”

“Yeah.” Kang-Woo nodded at Yeon-Joo pulling his clothes in panic. “It’s the Tower of Creation.”

“By the Tower of Creation... do you mean the tower that exists in the outer world similar to Earth?” Seol-Ah asked.

“Yeah.”

It was a world of humans with some chosen to be apostles who possessed powers different from Players. Kang-Woo wasn’t sure if it was simply by coincidence or there was some connection but the outer world was also called Earth.

‘But the name is the only thing that’s similar.’

The Earth Kang-Woo lived in did not have apostles, gods like Ishvalda and Helya, or mythical structures like the Tower of Creation that would only appear in manhwa or novels.

‘Well, I guess that’s not the case anymore.’

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue as he looked out the window at the colossal tower.

“Yeon-Joo, call Layla and Si-Hun right now... No, I doubt it’d be necessary.”

There was no way Guardians had not been reported about something like this already. There would likely be an emergency summons soon.

“Instead, go down and get Balrog. Make sure to tell him to change to his human form since there will be a lot of eyes on us.”

“We’re going right now?”

“Yeah.”

Kang-Woo had to go and take a look when it had sprouted so blatantly for everyone to see.

“You’re... a lot calmer than I expected,” Yeon-Joo remarked as she tilted her head.

Kang-Woo was unusually apathetic despite seeing a colossal tower surging from the sea.

“Well, I more or less expected it.”

He had not expected the entire tower to cross into this Earth but had expected the outer world known as Earth would invade into this Earth in some shape or form.

‘The Den of the Night Demons, the relics found inside the Gate...’

There had already been signs of the invasion; Kang-Woo had simply been leaving it be because there was no way to prevent it.

‘But now... I can’t put it off.’

Now that the tower itself had crossed over to their world, he needed to figure out some sort of countermeasure.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Boom!

“MY KING!! I HAVE ANSWERED YOUR SUMMONS—!!”

Balrog entered through the front door— he was in his tall handsome guy form instead of his usual demon form.

‘I can’t get used to that guy’s human form no matter how many times I see it.’

He couldn’t believe the nearly two-meter-tall robust hottie was Balrog. As someone who knew Balrog’s true form, he couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable sense of disgust.

“I’ve also arrived as soon as I heard the news, my king,” Lilith said as she walked in behind Balrog.

Beep! Beep!!

As Kang-Woo had expected, an emergency summons was issued to the entirety of Guardians.

“Are we going to the Hall of Protection first?” Lilith asked.

“No, let’s head straight to the tower.”

Even if they headed to the Hall of Protection, they would just be gathering people before heading to the tower; it was more efficient to just go right away.

Kang-Woo placed his hand on Echidna’s shoulder and asked, “Right, then... If you could please, Echidna.”

“Hm!!! Okay!”

Echidna nodded and jumped out from the suite window.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A thirty-meter black dragon soared back up to the window soon after. Kang-Woo and the others got on top of her.

“Kyaaaaahhh!!”

“H-Help m—”

They could hear screams. They looked down to see people being swept by a tsunami that formed as the colossal tower served from the sea. It was at least fortunate that there weren’t many people near the beach since it was winter. Thousands of people were struggling inside the tsunami.

“Kang-Woo, those people...”

“Guardians will rescue them soon enough.”

“Just a second. I’ll let my guild members know as well. I’ll tell them to leave grasping the situation for later and send out a rescue team,” remarked Yeon-Joo as she pulled out her smartphone. “They’ll be on the scene in five minutes.”

“Good.”

The damage would be minimized as long as Red Rose assisted in the rescue effort.

“Let’s go, Echidna.”

“Hm! Okay!”

Echidna energetically flapped her wings. They were getting closer to the Tower of Creation that had sprouted in the middle of Haeundae Beach.

“It’s so fucking big.” Yeon-Joo looked up at the tower wide-mouthed. The tower’s width spanned at least several dozens of kilometers. It had surged past the clouds so it was hard to tell how tall it was. Kang-Woo glanced at the amazed Yeon-Joo and shook his head.

“No, it’s unbelievably small,” he remarked.

“That’s small?”

“Have you forgotten? The place we were hunting for relics was a floor of the tower fused with the Gate.”

Kang-Woo did not know which floor it was but the floor’s size was similar to the entirety of Korea. Hence, the tower should logically be well over hundreds of kilometers wide. The lower floors of the cone-shaped tower, which became wider as it went down, were likely thousands of kilometers wide.

“Huh...? Come to think of it, you’re right.”

“The tower’s interior might be far bigger than it might look, possibly through space expansion via magic.”

It could also be that only a portion of the tower had crossed over to Earth.

‘That’s probably more plausible.’

Kang-Woo doubted the entire Tower of Creation had crossed over at once even if there had been signs of otherworldly invasions.

“Does that mean... it could get even bigger?” Yeon-Joo asked.

“We have to stop it before that happens.”

They could either stop the invasion or...

‘Destroy the tower.’

Kang-Woo’s eyes shone sharply.

“Hyung-nim!!!”

“We knew you’d already be here.”

Kang-Woo heard familiar voices from afar as they were examining the tower. It was Kim Si-Hun and Layla. Si-Hun was holding Layla in a princess carry position as he soared across the sky using Void Steps.

“Where are the other Guardians members?” Kang-Woo asked.

“Some of them are coming this way on boats. The rest are rescuing people swept by the tsunami.”

“That was quick.”

It had only been a few moments since the emergency summons fell; it was as expected of the quick-acting Layla.

“Of course, it’s not all of them. I only included the ones who can be mobilized immediately in the operation.” Layla swept up her brown hair as if her head hurt. “For now, let’s investigate as soon as possible. This place will be swarmed by other Players soon.”

A tower so large that it could be seen from shore had formed; no Player would sit idly by when something like this occurred. Just as many people who had gathered for the relic hunting— no, more than that would make their way to the tower.

“Let’s find the entrance first.”

“Okay, Kang-Woo.”

They split up and searched for an entrance. However, they found out something unexpected after twenty minutes of searching.

“The fuck...?”

There was no entrance. They couldn’t find anything with the Authority of the Beholder, the Authority of Insight, Lilith’s search magic, or even after having Horos examine the tower with

Clairvoyance

. They had even dived into the sea and dug under it to check the lower parts of the tower but there was nothing.

“Horos. What do you know about the tower’s entrance?” Kang-Woo asked.

Horos was a resident of the world where the tower was located.

“Mmm... I-I went straight into the Tower of Creation from Pandemonium, so... I had never even seen what the outside of the tower looked like until now.”

“Hmm.” Kang-Woo frowned.

“Gehehehe! How about we just break the wall?” shouted Balrog as he smiled fiercely.

Just then, a message window appeared in front of Kang-Woo.

Riiing!

[Approach from the outside confirmed.]

[Conditions unfulfilled.]

[An invitation letter is required to enter the Tower of Creation.]

The message window was translucent, unlike usual.

“Huh? An invitation letter?”

“Kang-Woo, this is...”

It seemed like his party members had also received message windows.

“P-Peep?!”

Even Horos received a message window.

“Eve?” Kang-Woo called.

Riiing!

[N-No! That wasn’t from me!]

[This was sent from the Earth where the tower exists... in other words, it was from the Law of the outer world!]

‘So that’s why the message window looked different.’

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and nodded.

‘We need an invitation letter to enter, huh?’

He narrowed his eyes and stared at the gray wall covering the tower.

Fwoosh!!

He ignited the gold and black Flames of Voracity on one hand and fired it at the gray wall.

Whish—!

“The hell?”

The Flames of Voracity vanished as it was about to make contact with the tower. Kang-Woo fired it a few more times but they all disappeared as if they were sucked away somewhere.

‘It looks like... the space between our Earth and the outer world has intermixed.’

The space surrounding the tower’s walls was distorted. In other words, his attacks would fly off to some random outer world no matter how many times he attacked.

“Tsk,” Kang-Woo clicked his tongue.

It was impossible to enter the tower by destroying the wall.

“In that case...” Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes and turned around. “I guess we’ll have to get our hands on those invitation letters.”