The four kings stood before the massive doors.
Behind them stood what remained of their armies.
Before them lay the final floor.
The 100th Floor.
King Helios stepped forward.
His hand reached for the enormous doors.
But before he could touch them—
DING!
A system notification appeared before everyone.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
CONGRATULATIONS.
THE FINAL FLOOR HAS BEEN REACHED.
WARNING.
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THIS FLOOR IS NOT MEANT FOR HUMAN COMPREHENSION.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Everyone froze.
King Helios stared at the message.
"What...?"
The notification disappeared.
The doors slowly opened by themselves.
CREAAAAK...
No monster came rushing toward them.
No overwhelming aura.
No attack.
Nothing.
The 100th floor was completely silent.
The kings cautiously entered.
Their footsteps echoed throughout the enormous chamber.
At the center of the floor stood a single object.
A massive, black structure.
It looked nothing like anything they had encountered within the tower.
No weapons.
No treasure.
No monsters.
Just a strange structure covered in ancient markings.
King Calypso approached it.
"What is this?"
Before anyone could answer—
The entire tower shook.
BOOOOOOM!
The soldiers stumbled.
The walls began cracking.
The strange structure at the center suddenly lit up.
Then a voice echoed throughout the chamber.
Not the System.
Not a Divine Beast.
Something else.
Something ancient.
"Humanity..."
Everyone froze.
The voice continued.
"You have forgotten what you are."
King Helios looked around.
"Who are you?"
There was no response.
Instead—
The chamber began filling with light.
Images appeared across the walls.
Humans.
Standing beside dragons.
Humans fighting monsters.
Humans evolving.
Humans changing.
And finally—
A single human standing alone.
The image faded.
Then the voice spoke once more.
"When the time comes..."
"One will remain."
The structure shattered.
BOOM!
A blinding light engulfed the entire floor.
The kings could do nothing.
They could only watch as the tower began to collapse around them.
400 YEARS LATER
The world had changed.
The ancient battles had become history.
The names of the old kings had become legends.
The towers still stood.
The Divine Beasts still watched over the world.
But humanity...
Had almost disappeared.
The races that had invaded Earth had spread across the world.
Dragons.
Elves.
Dwarves.
Beastfolk.
And countless others.
They built kingdoms.
Cities.
Empires.
Humanity became nothing more than a forgotten race.
A race remembered in old records as—
The Weakest.
Most humans had abandoned their race long ago.
But there was something different about the way race-changing worked.
A human could not simply change their race whenever they wished.
The System only granted the choice once.
At the age of ten.
When a child reached that age, the System would appear before them.
They would be given a choice.
Remain human...
Or become something else.
For generations, almost every child had made the same decision.
They abandoned humanity.
Why wouldn't they?
The other races were stronger.
Faster.
More durable.
Some could manipulate elements.
Others possessed abilities humans could only dream of.
And so, year after year...
The number of humans continued to decline.
But one boy had never intended to make that choice.
His reason was not because he believed humans were secretly the strongest.
He simply knew something the others didn't.
Something his family had kept hidden for generations.
Deep inside his family's old house was a small room.
Dust covered its walls.
The wooden shelves were old and fragile.
But the books sitting upon them had been carefully preserved.
The boy had discovered them years ago.
At first, he thought they were nothing more than old stories.
But the more he read...
The more confused he became.
The books spoke of a world completely different from the one he knew.
A world where humans had ruled the Earth.
Not elves.
Not dragons.
Not beastfolk.
Humans.
They had walked among creatures that were far larger and stronger than themselves.
The books contained illustrations of enormous beasts.
Creatures with massive teeth.
Creatures that towered over humans.
Creatures that could crush a person beneath a single foot.
The boy turned another page.
DINOSAURS.
That was what the ancient books called them.
Creatures that had once dominated the Earth.
Yet humanity had survived.
Humans had survived predators that were faster than them.
Stronger than them.
Larger than them.
They had survived freezing temperatures.
Scorching heat.
Natural disasters.
Famine.
Diseases.
And countless other dangers.
But the strangest part was not that humanity had survived.
It was how they had survived.
Humans had hunted.
They had created weapons.
They had built shelters.
They had worked together.
They had developed tools.
They had learned from their mistakes.
And whenever nature presented them with a problem...
They adapted.
The boy stared at one particular illustration for a long time.
A group of humans stood around a massive dead beast.
The creature was several times larger than any of them.
Yet it had been killed by them.
The boy slowly closed the book.
Everyone in his world called humans weak.
But the books told a different story.
Humans weren't always the ones being chased.
Sometimes...
Humans were the hunters.
That thought stayed with him.
He returned to those books again and again.
Every page gave him another piece of humanity's forgotten history.
Humanity had no claws.
No scales.
No wings.
No supernatural abilities.
Yet somehow, they had conquered a world filled with creatures that possessed all of those things.
The boy didn't know how.
Not yet.
But he wanted to find out.
That was why, when his tenth birthday approached, he had already made his decision.
He wouldn't become a dragon.
He wouldn't become an elf.
He wouldn't become a beastfolk.
He wouldn't abandon the race his ancestors had fought so hard to preserve.
He would remain human.
Not because he believed humans were already the strongest.
But because he believed there had to be something humanity had forgotten.
Something hidden within their history.
Something that allowed a race with no claws, no fangs, no wings, and no natural supernatural abilities...
To survive against everything the Earth had thrown at them.
And if humanity had truly once ruled the world—
Then the boy wanted to know why.
He wanted to uncover the truth.
Even if the entire world believed his race was worthless.
Even if everyone laughed at him.
He would remain human.
Because he had seen the history books.
And those books had taught him one thing:
Humans had never been the strongest.
They had been something far more dangerous.
They adapted.