Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Sole EX-Class Summoner

There was a mobile game.

It was titled “Battle of Summoners.”

Like countless others, it was your typical collection-based RPG.

Summon creatures, assemble your party, enhance their abilities, challenge other players, climb towers, engage in raids…

Was it popular?

Hardly.

It saw an initial surge of interest when people praised its sophisticated AI, but the momentum vanished rapidly.

The aggressive pay-to-win mechanics were brutal, and the difficulty level was absolutely punishing.

Acquiring materials was a chore, and leveling up summons was a nightmare.

Furthermore, the sheer variety of summon types was baffling.

The prevailing rumor was that the AI generated them on the fly during every pull—and given how the game functioned, that seemed entirely plausible.

With such an uncompromising experience, its decline was inevitable.

The casual players abandoned it, leaving only the dedicated fanatics.

The self-proclaimed veterans.

Baek Jinwoo was one of them.

Age: twenty-four.

He had been playing this title since he was in seventh grade.

A veteran with ten years of experience.

His list of accomplishments in the game was extensive.

• Player vs Player Ranking: 1st Place!

• Ilcheon (一天)!

• Tower of Trials, Floor 99 Conqueror!

• F2P Ranker!

• World Record Holder for Every Daily Dungeon Time Attack!

• Chaos Dragon, Fastest Clear Record (47 seconds) Holder!

To an outsider, these would mean nothing, but to those who had invested significant time in the game, these were monumental feats.

God of Gods!

The hero of the veterans!

That was the identity behind the username : Baek Jinwoo.

Of course.

When you invest a decade into such a merciless game, what does your real life look like?

An absolute disaster, naturally.

His academic grades, entrance exam results, and essay scores—they had not just bottomed out; they had crashed through the floor.

He never entered university, settling instead for odd jobs and manual labor.

He wasn’t unintelligent, however.

If he had been, there was no way he could have reached Rank 1 without spending a single cent.

Baek Jinwoo was simply consumed by this game.

Whenever he stared at text in a book, the stats of his summons would overlay his vision. Whenever he tried to focus on something else, his mind wandered to whatever auto-farm was currently running. What was he to do?

There was no changing it.

His mind and soul resided entirely within “Battle of Summoners.”

Indeed.

Beneath the glory of his digital life, his physical life was in the gutter.

If his parents had been wealthy, that would have been one less burden, but neither earned much money.

Not that he was voicing a complaint.

Why did Mom and Dad scramble between jobs, working three positions each?

All to support Baek Jinwoo and his younger sister, Baek Ajin.

They were individuals with an incredible sense of responsibility.

And kind, to boot.

Too kind.

They had every reason to scold their useless son, yet all they ever did was offer him encouragement…

God, what a pathetic wretch he was.

Baek Jinwoo suppressed his tears.

I know. I’m an ungrateful failure. A complete piece of garbage.

Raised in such a warm, loving home, and yet he still couldn’t pull himself together—just floundering around, drowning in a virtual world!

Baek Jinwoo cursed the friend who had suggested this game to him back in middle school.

Even as he cursed, he sat in a nearby park, his thumbs dancing across his phone screen. Tap-tap-tap-tap!

In that digital space, he communicated with his summons, adorned in shimmering runes, utilizing techniques to ascend the tower.

Please.

Just Floor 100 of the Tower of Trials…

Let me finish that, Mom, and then I’ll return to reality.

It would be too heartless to quit now.

He was the first veteran to ever reach Floor 99. He couldn’t walk away!

Even if it were a trivial game in the real world, to Baek Jinwoo, it was his life.

The one thing that had remained with him throughout his school years. His everything.

They were merely AI, yet he had built a bond with his summons, holding a genuine respect for their existence.

And that was only part of it.

He had studied like a fanatic.

Without that research, forget the tower—you couldn’t even develop a summon correctly.

The massive amount of “Battle of Summoners” information stored in Baek Jinwoo’s brain likely surpassed that of many doctorate-level experts.

Please, just a bit further.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!

His fingers moved with increasing speed across the glass.

He had been trapped on Floor 99 for a year, but victory was within his grasp.

[Baekcheon (白天): Chao! Son of a… Damn this miserable game, I’ve had enough.]

[Rachel: What now.]

[Baekcheon (白天): How in the HELL are you supposed to beat Floor 80?]

[Rachel: lmaooo you’re still stuck there? You were complaining about that a month ago.]

Within “Battle of Summoners,” there existed a chat system.

A place for players to interact, with options for private group chats with specific people.

[Baekcheon (白天): I’m telling you, I followed Sugoi-hyung’s instructions EXACTLY!]

Playing a game solo felt isolating.

A few veterans had established a private room to trade their hard-earned intel.

Six members total.

Each one stood at the pinnacle of “Battle of Summoners.”

They were titled the Ilcheon Oje—One Heaven, Five Emperors!

A title signifying that above the five emperors, there stood one heaven.

Five years ago, the room was created by the invitation of Rachel, the PvP Ranking 2nd place holder, and it had thrived since then.

[Sugoi: You know the drill. Every strategy is different. Honestly, sharing tactics is somewhat futile.]

[Baekcheon (白天): Hyung… I’m seriously considering quitting lately.]

Baekcheon was a player from Taiwan ranked 6th.

The youngest of the Five Emperors.

His defining characteristic: he was obscenely wealthy.

[Baekcheon (白天): You know how much cash I’ve poured into this title.]

[Sugoi: 300 million won.]

[Baekcheon (白天): Exactly. And I STILL can’t get past Floor 80! DAMN IT!]

[Sugoi: Chill out, you lunatic. 300 million is loose change for you anyway.]

[Baekcheon (白天): Hyung. Why would you say that? Money is money, regardless of how much you have.]

Sugoi was Japanese.

True to the nature of an AI-operated game, every conversation was translated instantly.

[Xenos: By the way, have you consulted Ilcheon?]

[Baekcheon (白天): Him? Uh… He’s been preoccupied lately, you know.]

Baekcheon’s response was evasive.

[Rachel: Oh, come on.]

[Sugoi: Buddy, really?]

[MoscowMan: idiot]

[Xenos: Pathetic.]

The insults poured in.

[Rachel: We have a literal GOD in this chat room and you haven’t even asked him?]

[Sugoi: I assumed JinuGod’s usual aggressive strategy wasn’t working, so he was trying to figure out a new method…]

[MoscowMan: go die]

[Xenos: Hopeless.]

The player that Baekcheon—stuck on Floor 80—and all the veterans in this chat called “God.”

PvP Ranking 1st place, JinuGod!

He always conquered this impossibly difficult tower using the most unconventional methods imaginable.

And occasionally, he would drop a brilliant solution or a vital clue for the Five Emperors.

Every time he appeared, he would blast through whatever obstacle had them pinned, so they treated JinuGod with immense respect.

If they offended him and he exited the chat, it would be catastrophic.

[Baekcheon (白天): Um… JinuGod-hyungnim. Are you watching, by any chance? Are you still busy tackling Floor 99?]

For the record, Baekcheon was over sixty years old in the real world.

He simply followed the rule that anyone superior to him was addressed as Hyungnim or Noonim.

[Baekcheon (白天): JinuGod-hyungnim?]

He continued to probe, but there was no reply.

[Rachel: Give it time. He rarely checks the chat.]

[Sugoi: Yeah, if you leave your question, he’ll probably get back to you by tomorrow.]

At the moment, none of them had progressed past Floor 90.

This meant JinuGod, who had conquered Floor 99 and was now attempting Floor 100, truly felt like a deity to them.

[Rachel: By the way… if he beats Floor 100 this time, it’ll be exactly ten years, right?]

[Xenos: Absolutely insane. Total madman.]

[Sugoi: I’ve been sticking with this game just to see the ending of Floor 100. Damn, JinuGod is really something else.]

[MoscowMan: look at his rune enhancement setup. guy is unhinged.]

[Rachel: For real lmao, how can two people invest the same amount of effort and end up so far apart?]

The veterans were buzzing with anticipation.

Invincible!

Every level of that tower was a nightmare, and yet the summit was finally approaching—all thanks to JinuGod.

[Baekcheon (白天): But what happens when Floor 100 is cleared?]

The development team had released a statement quite a while ago.

Conquer Floor 100 of the Tower of Trials!

The moment it is cleared, a new world shall emerge!

[Baekcheon (白天): A new world. What, is the game going to undergo a complete overhaul or something?]

[Rachel: lol it was probably just marketing hype. Honestly, I bet even the developers never imagined Floor 100 would actually be defeated.]

[Baekcheon (白天): Or maybe lol]

Baekcheon chuckled as he typed.

[Baekcheon (白天): Maybe it’s exactly like the announcement says. The world shifts. This reality becomes the world of Summoners!]

You know the type of scenario.

The premise that appears in novels constantly.

Reality becomes a game, and the game becomes reality.

[Xenos: Seriously, how much longer are you going to keep being this embarrassing?]

[Sugoi: You’ve been reading way too many novels lmaooo]

The veterans mocked their youngest member, as they always did.

They were oblivious.

They couldn’t have predicted it in their wildest imaginations.

That Baekcheon’s words would eventually manifest into reality.

Two weeks later.

On his way to his part-time job.

“I-FINALLY!”

A man who had been tapping at his phone while walking down the sidewalk let out a yell.

“Ahahahaha! FINALLY! FINALLYYYYYY!”

The man bouncing with pure, uncontrollable joy, his voice ringing with triumph—his name was Baek Jinwoo.

Username: JinuGod.

“What the…”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He must be insane.”

Passersby frowned and muttered, but Baek Jinwoo didn’t notice.

Finally!

At long last!

He had cleared Floor 100.

He had vanquished that monstrous boss and witnessed the top of the tower.

How difficult had it been to arrive here?

He had sacrificed his real life for this moment.

“AHAHAHAHAHA!”

He was jubilant.

So happy he could shed tears.

[You have cleared Floor 100 of the Tower of Trials.]

That status window, glowing in radiant gold, sent a chill through his skin.

As he captured screenshots—click, click!—to boast to the veterans.

“Huh?”

“…What?”

The murmurs from the crowd grew louder.

Baek Jinwoo felt it too. Something was amiss.

That message—the one that should have appeared on his phone screen—why was it floating outside of the screen as well?

Why was it hovering in the air like a hologram?

Baek Jinwoo furrowed his brow while standing at the crosswalk.

Ah.

Had he moved beyond being obsessed with the game and truly lost his grip on reality?

But for someone who had gone insane alone, the people around him seemed to be staring at something, too.

[The beta test has concluded.]

[A new world is opening.]

What?

Beta test?

That was when it occurred.

Flutter!

Crimson papers began drifting from the heavens.

Papers shaped in a very recognizable form.

“That is…”

There was no way he wouldn’t identify them.

He had seen them more times than he could calculate.

“…A low-grade summoning scroll?”

A tool capable of randomly summoning beasts from F-rank to D-rank was descending—one for every individual—into the hands of every human.

“What on earth is—”

HOOOOOOOOOONK!

The deafening horn of a truck pierced his ears.

And through the windshield, the terrified expression of the driver!

“Wh—HUH?!”

He attempted to leap out of the way, but his limbs failed to respond.

And then, inevitably.

CRAAAASH!

As the truck struck him and a dull, crushing agony engulfed his frame, Baek Jinwoo reflected:

Damn this miserable game.

One thing was certain.

His life had been ruined because of “Battle of Summoners.”