WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 1: 001
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When I was young.
I could see things that other people couldn't.
"Mom, there are lots of blue dots here!"
"Blue dots? What are those?"
"You know, those blue dots flying through the air! There are so many here!"
"...?"
Sometimes, I could see Blue Motes.
Mysterious particles that floated through the air and sparkled.
Like a cluster of stars in the night sky.
Or fireflies in the mountains.
Particles floating in empty space, rippling with a soft blue glow before my eyes.
But apparently, no one else could see the Blue Motes I saw.
"Jiho. Can you still see those Blue Motes? Hmm... should we take you to the hospital? There should be an eye clinic nearby..."
My worried parents.
"Liar! There's nothing there!"
"Jiho talks about Blue Motes all the time."
"Don't play with him! He's weird!"
The children my age who looked down on me.
"Mrs. Baek? Hello. It's just that Jiho keeps saying he can see Blue Motes..."
"Oh. He had an eye exam, and they said everything was normal? Ah, yes... I understand."
Even the adults around me treated me like some kind of oddball.
No one could see the Blue Motes I saw.
It was strange.
Why couldn't they see those beautiful, sparkling Blue Motes...?
Eventually, I stopped talking about Blue Motes.
Whenever I did, people either treated me like a freak or looked at me with concern while bringing up hospitals and tests.
I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.
Still, even after I stopped talking about them, I kept analyzing the Blue Motes that only I could see.
That led me to several discoveries.
First, there were more Blue Motes in places close to nature.
Second, regardless of location, certain special foods contained Blue Motes.
And when I ate food infused with Blue Motes, I felt a strange burst of energy.
That was everything I had figured out.
Time passed.
From my ignorant days as a kindergartener, through elementary, middle, and high school, until I became a college student.
I hid what made me different and pretended to be ordinary.
Then, just as I entered college and prepared to step into society...
The Tower appeared.
* * *
-The United States has announced that it has cleared the Tower's 49th floor. Clear information will be shared with allied nations...
-It has now been a week since Hunter Kim Taeseok became stranded on the 41st floor. The government has ordered a rescue team to be dispatched. A government spokesperson stated, "Hunter Kim Taeseok is Korea's treasure. We will rescue him without fail," expressing the government's determination to...
-South Korea's reserves of Tower Points have dropped below 40 million points. Point depletion is expected in three months...
-Ding.
The convenience store's doorbell rang.
I put down my smartphone and rose from my seat.
"Welcome."
"One Red."
"That'll be 4,500 won."
-Beep.
I scanned the barcode and quickly rang it up.
The customer took the cigarettes and walked out of the convenience store.
"Have a good one."
After seeing the customer off, I sat back down and focused on my smartphone again.
-The government is drafting an emergency budget to secure Tower Points while requesting foreign aid.
-The outflow of domestic Hunters overseas is accelerating. This quarter, the emigration rate among Middle Floor Hunters has reached a staggering 7%, causing shock...
-A mass overseas migration by senior government officials has been uncovered. Domestic public opinion is...
The internet news was filled with nothing but bad news.
Tower Point depletion, domestic Hunters leaving the country, senior officials emigrating, national collapse drawing near...
Judging by the news alone, the country looked like it might collapse tomorrow.
"Honestly, it wouldn't be strange if it collapsed any day now."
Ever since the Tower appeared, humanity had always lived under the threat of extinction.
It was practically a miracle that society was still functioning at all.
My name is Baek Jiho.
Twenty-seven years old. College dropout. High school graduate. Convenience store night-shift worker.
Just another convenience store part-timer living in an age on the verge of collapse.
* * *
On my way home after work, I trudged along and looked up beyond the buildings.
Then I saw it.
'The Tower.'
Beyond Seoul's nightscape and countless skyscrapers stood a massive black tower reaching to the edge of the sky.
I looked at that enormous structure and muttered quietly.
"Even after seven years, I can't get used to that eyesore."
Seven years ago.
One day, just as I had entered college.
Words appeared in the minds of every human being.
[The protection period for intelligent life has ended.]
[The survival trial will now begin.]
Every human in the world could see and understand those words.
The blind.
The illiterate.
People with dementia who couldn't think normally.
Even newborn babies who had yet to develop anything that could be called intelligence.
It was the world's announcement, forcibly carved into the souls of all humanity.
[The Tower of Trials has appeared in the capital of every nation.]
[Each nation must pay points equal to its population every month.]
[If a nation cannot pay, a number of people equal to the unpaid points will vanish.]
[Climb the Tower and prove your worthiness to survive.]
[A grace period of 100 days has been granted.]
Black towers appeared at the center of every capital in the world.
[The Tower of Trials will randomly select climbers.]
[Survive and prove your potential.]
Then climbers were born.
They made up 0.1% of humanity, one person in every thousand, people chosen to enter the Tower.
They answered the Tower's call and underwent the Tutorial.
Those who passed became official climbers, able to enter the Tower and earn points by killing monsters.
The lives of their fellow citizens now depended on them.
With a population of 51.1 million, Korea had to earn and pay 51.1 million points to the Tower every month.
With a population of 349.03 million, the United States had to pay 349.03 million points every month.
With a population of 1.40489 billion, China also had to pay 1.40489 billion points every month.
What happened if they couldn't pay the points?
A random number of people equal to the missing points would be erased.
If they fell short by one million points, one million random people vanished.
If they fell short by ten million points, ten million people vanished. If they fell short by one hundred million points, one hundred million people vanished.
An era where every country and all humanity struggled to extend their time-limited survival.
An era where millions, tens of millions, vanished without a single gunshot.
An era where nations faced a test of survival every month.
It was the age of the Tower.
* * *
After returning to my semi-basement room, I prepared my meal out of habit.
I heated up an expired lunchbox I'd brought home and warmed the soybean paste soup my older sister had made.
It was my usual meal.
-Munch, munch. Slurp.
One bite of lunchbox, one spoonful of soybean paste soup.
It wasn't exactly delicious, but it filled my stomach well enough.
I looked at the empty spot across the table.
'My older sister didn't come home again today.'
She must have been really busy lately. I rarely got to see her.
She was the only family I had left, so I wanted to see her more often.
Still, I worked night shifts, and she was busy with work, so we hardly had a chance to run into each other.
'I heard being a manager is hard.'
My older sister worked as a manager for a third-rate Hunter team.
She handled minor tasks for Hunters, like driving, paperwork, and processing loot.
She made more money than the average office worker, but I heard the stress was worse too.
Well, catering to Hunters with terrible tempers couldn't be easy.
Slurp.
I quickly finished the lunchbox and soybean paste soup, cleared the table, then dove onto my bed.
I pulled out my smartphone.
I couldn't resist scrolling through my phone before going to sleep.
'Should I check Hunter Gallery? It's probably on fire because of today's news.'
Hunter Gallery.
Despite the name, it was an online community with more people insulting Hunters than actual Hunters.
Sure enough, it was exactly as I'd expected when I logged in.
[@@@Three Months Until South Korea's Service Ends@@@]
[What the fuck are these Hunters even doing? They gorge on taxes but can't earn any damn points.]
[Fuck it, let's kill low-rank Hunters like China does.]
[Breaking) Daegang Group Owner Family Emigrating]
[The country won't really collapse, right? The government will figure something out.]
[If you can, emigrate now. Unless you want to die in three months.]
The gallery was in a panic.
I read through the eye-catching posts one by one.
[Title: @@@Three Months Until South Korea's Service Ends@@@]
Korea's monthly point income: 37 million points.
Monthly point payment: 51 million points.
Monthly deficit: 14 million points.
Remaining points: 40 million points.
Expected points in three months: "-2 million" lolololol
If two million people vanish, the social system will be full of holes and the country will be guaranteed to stop functioning.
The country will collapse into anarchy in no time.
Thank you for using the Republic of Korea server.
└RIP
└We're seriously fucked... But is a monthly deficit of 14 million points for real? Why are we earning so few points?
└└Because most Hunters camp out on the lower floors and farm easy money, while the ones who can earn serious points have emigrated.
└This country is hopeless.
[Title: Fuck It, Let's Kill Low-Rank Hunters Like China Does.]
The Chinese next door regularly kill their useless low-rank Hunters.
They threaten lower-floor campers, easy-money farmers, and Hunters who are just taking it easy with knives, forcing them to climb the Tower.
Why is our country so damn humane?
We need to kill every Hunter taking up a climber slot without doing any work if we want the country to survive.
Even now, we should kill the useless low-rank Hunters, roll for new Hunters, and secure promising ones.
└Are you insane? Do you not know what human rights are? People should die because they don't actively climb? Even killing lower-floor goblins is fucking terrifying. Why the hell are you telling them to go higher? You've probably never held a knife in your life.
└└Are you a lower-floor camping Hunter? You easy-money leech, the country's collapsing because of people like you. If you don't have what it takes to climb higher, just die, free up your climber slot, and let someone else climb.
└└Fuck off. It's not like I asked to become a climber. Why should I risk my life?
└└Then don't strut around acting like a Hunter, you fucker. The Hunters climbing high floors keep quiet, but it's always the useless bastards camping on the lower floors who cause every kind of trouble.
└└Yeah, fuck your mother. You couldn't even meet my eyes in real life lol. Why don't useless mouths to feed like you kill yourselves first? Save one point and kill yourself now.
└└You motherfucker.
[Title: Breaking) Daegang Group Owner Family Emigrating]
My friend works at Daegang Group's executive office, and they say the owner's family is planning to emigrate.
Senior government officials were recently caught trying to emigrate too.
Looks like Korea's upper class is in the middle of an exodus.
└I want to emigrate too.
└Then go.
└I can't afford to.
└Then die.
└T_T
[Title: The Country Won't Really Collapse, Right? The Government Will Figure Something Out.]
Whenever the points were running low before, the government sold off national assets and somehow secured more points.
They've sold bonds, companies, technology, artifacts, even high-rank Hunters to hold on several times.
This time, the government will probably sell off the country's assets again and figure something out...
└Nope. The owners of major corporations are emigrating on their own. Do you think anyone would bother paying points to buy them?
└Korean bonds have been worthless for ages. Nobody will take them.
└Honestly, I think the country's really going to collapse this time. Kim Taeseok, Korea's top-ranked Hunter who used to bring in millions of points every month, is stranded on the 41st floor.
└They've already sold every artifact worth selling lol.
└International point prices are fucking high, and they've sold everything they can.
└Seriously, we might collapse in two months, not three.
"..."
Post after post was steeped in rage, fear, and despair.
It really did seem like this country's fate was running out.
"Three months. Maybe two..."
Honestly, it didn't feel real.
The country was going to collapse in just a few months over some damn points?
Still, it had happened several times already.
In Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe.
Many small countries had collapsed after failing to pay the Tower's points.
Countries with unstable social systems and little to offer had disappeared one after another.
This time, it was Korea's turn.
They had held on by selling technology, companies, and Hunters.
But that seemed to have reached its limit too.
Collapse wasn't far away.
As I turned off my phone, I muttered to myself.
"Maybe I should tell my older sister to quit her job so we can take one last family trip."
The world would collapse in three months anyway. I couldn't find the motivation to keep desperately working.
Wouldn't it be better to make some meaningful memories in the time we had left?
Like taking a trip.
An expensive trip abroad would be impossible, but we could probably afford a domestic trip with the money we'd saved.
'If possible, I'd like to go back to Cheorwon.'
Cheorwon, Gangwon Province.
A place I wanted to visit one more time before I died.
'There were a lot of Blue Motes in Gangwon Province... It was beautiful. They made military service bearable, at least.'
I had served in the military in Cheorwon.
The Cheorwon DMZ was one of the best-preserved natural areas in Korea.
That was why it had so many Blue Motes.
I still remembered it vividly.
The view I had seen while on night patrol in the DMZ.
Majestic mountain ranges, rivers running along them, vast forests.
Countless Blue Motes rose through that immense wilderness, scattering blue light and swaying in the wind...
It had been beautiful and dreamlike.
To others, it was probably just an ordinary forest at night.
But it was different for me, someone who could see the Blue Motes.
It felt like I was looking at a world from a fairy tale, and I would lose track of time while admiring the view.
I wanted to see that beautiful sight again.
I'd decided.
"When my older sister comes home, I'll talk to her seriously."
I'd tell her to quit her job so we could take a family trip.
Just as I finished sorting out my thoughts.
-Ding!
A clear notification sound rang in my ears.
Words appeared in my vision.
[You have been selected as a climber of the Tower.]
[Prepare for the trial.]
[Time remaining until entry: 10:00]
"...Huh?"
Footnotes:
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