The end of the world started with a notification.
I was three bites into a mediocre chicken sandwich when reality decided to install an update without asking permission. The mayo was too sweet, the chicken was dry, and I was seriously reconsidering my lunch choices when the blue text appeared directly in my vision.
**[SYSTEM INTEGRATION INITIATED]**
**[WELCOME TO THE TOWER OF ASCENSION]**
I waved my hand through the floating words like an idiot, checking if I was having a stroke or if someone had slipped something into my coffee. The text didn't budge, hovering there with the persistence of a pop-up ad designed by a sadist.
"What the—"
The words died in my throat as the sky cracked open.
Not metaphorically. The actual sky split apart like someone had taken a hammer to a windshield, fractures of golden light spreading across the clouds in web-like patterns. Through the fissures, I could see... something else. Structures that hurt to look at, massive and impossible, existing in spaces that shouldn't fit in three dimensions. Towers. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. Stretching up into infinity, or down into it—my brain couldn't quite process the geometry.
Around me, Seoul's busy Gangnam street descended into chaos. People screamed, pointed at the sky, ran in random directions with all the coordinated grace of headless chickens. Someone's Mercedes jumped the curb and plowed into a cosmetics store. A street vendor's cart toppled over, sending tteokbokki rolling across the pavement like the world's saddest apocalypse appetizer.
A woman in a business suit was crying into her phone. "Mom? Mom, can you see it? The sky is—"
Her phone exploded.
Not just hers. Every phone on the street burst into sparks simultaneously, a chain reaction of dying electronics. Car alarms wailed. Traffic lights flickered and died. Even my smartwatch gave one last sad vibration before its screen went black.
**[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]**
**[DISTRIBUTING CLASSES...]**
"Classes?" I muttered, sandwich forgotten in my hand. "What is this, a video game?"
The System apparently didn't appreciate my tone, or maybe it had a cruel sense of humor. Probably both.
**[ANALYZING SUBJECT: KIM JAE-SUNG]**
**[CALCULATING APTITUDES...]**
**[PHYSICAL: D]**
**[MENTAL: B+]**
**[SPIRITUAL: C]**
**[LUCK: E]**
"E rank luck?" I said aloud. "You didn't need to call me out like that."
**[WARNING: UNIQUE CONDITION DETECTED]**
"Unique condition? I'm lactose intolerant and I have flat feet, is that what you—"
**[CLASS ASSIGNED: OBSERVER]**
**[RARITY: UNIQUE]**
**[DESCRIPTION: You watch. You learn. You understand. But can you act?]**
I stared at the notification for a solid five seconds, my brain trying to process what I was seeing while around me the apocalypse continued its scheduled programming.
"Observer?" I said, my voice climbing an octave. "OBSERVER? That's not even a class, that's what you call people sitting in the audience!"
Around me, other people were getting their notifications, and apparently the System played favorites. A businessman in a suit punched the air, shouting "S-Rank Blade Master!" like he'd won the lottery. A teenage girl squealed about becoming a "Frost Mage," ice already crystallizing around her fingertips. Two college students high-fived over their matching "Fire Warrior" classes. Even the tteokbokki vendor looked thrilled with his "Chef-Warrior" class, and he was already swinging his ladle like a club with surprising confidence.
And I got Observer.
I didn't get a sword. I didn't get fireballs. I didn't even get a fancy ladle. I got the ability to *watch things happen*.
"This is bullshit," I announced to nobody in particular, because everyone was too busy celebrating or panicking to care about my problems. "I want a refund. Customer service! Hello? I'd like to speak to your manager!"
The System, predictably, ignored me. Systems always do.
**[TUTORIAL GATE OPENING IN: 05:00]**
As if the broken sky wasn't enough, a massive doorway of swirling purple energy tore itself into existence in the middle of the intersection, about fifty meters away. It looked like someone had punched a hole in reality and filled it with grape-flavored death. The edges crackled with dark lightning, and the air around it shimmered with heat—or cold, I couldn't tell which. Both, maybe. Physics seemed to be taking a coffee break.
People were already backing away from it. Smart people. Survival instinct intact.
**[ALL HUMANS IN PROXIMITY MUST ENTER]**
**[FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION]**
"Of course," I sighed, dropping my sandwich. It hit the ground with a sad splat. "Why would the apocalypse be optional? That would be too convenient."
The timer ticked down. Four minutes and thirty seconds. I had less time than it took to microwave popcorn to prepare for probable death.
I looked at my class description again, squinting like that might somehow change the words. Nope. Still Observer. Still useless. The description even had the audacity to end with a question mark, like it was mocking me.
"Okay, Jae-sung," I told myself, taking a deep breath. "You've played games. Bad classes can be good if you're creative, right? Maybe Observer has hidden abilities. Maybe it's actually overpowered and the System just has terrible marketing. Maybe—"
**[SKILL UNLOCKED: IDENTIFY]**
**[DESCRIPTION: Observe a target to reveal basic information. Knowledge is power, if you survive long enough to use it.]**
I blinked. That was... actually useful? Maybe? I focused on the Gate, willing the skill to activate. It felt weird, like flexing a muscle I didn't know I had, somewhere behind my eyes.
**[TUTORIAL GATE - RANK F]**
**[RECOMMENDED LEVEL: 1-5]**
**[ESTIMATED SURVIVAL RATE: 73%]**
**[WARNING: Statistical survival. Individual results may vary. Significantly.]**
"Seventy-three percent," I repeated slowly, doing the math. "So roughly one in four people die. In the *tutorial*. Fantastic. Love that for us. Very welcoming introduction to the apocalypse."
**[SKILL UNLOCKED: PATTERN RECOGNITION]**
**[DESCRIPTION: Identify patterns in combat, behavior, and systems. Everything has a pattern. Everything can be understood. Even chaos has rules.]**
Okay, two skills. That was... still pretty underwhelming compared to the guy twenty feet away who was now surrounded by floating swords that orbited him like deadly satellites, but it was something. Better than nothing. Probably.
The countdown hit two minutes.
People were forming groups now, the natural human instinct to huddle together in crisis kicking in. They gravitated toward anyone who looked like they'd gotten a combat class, clustering around the strong like moths to a flame. The Blade Master businessman was already surrounded by a small crowd, barking orders like he'd been preparing for this his whole life. The Frost Mage girl had found three other mages to huddle with, and they were comparing spells like kids trading cards.
Nobody approached me.
Fair enough. What was I going to do, observe the monsters to death? Bore them with detailed analysis?
**[01:00]**
I took a deep breath and started toward the Gate. No point delaying the inevitable. Around me, the crowd was thinning as people either ran away (the System probably wouldn't let them get far) or steeled themselves to enter.
As I walked, I activated Identify on people around me, just to see what I was working with. Information was supposedly power, right?
**[PARK MIN-SOO - BLADE MASTER - LEVEL 1]**
**[LEE YUNA - FROST MAGE - LEVEL 1]**
**[CHOI DAE-JUNG - CHEF-WARRIOR - LEVEL 1]**
**[GO EUN-BI - SHADOW DANCER - LEVEL 1]**
Everyone was level one. Combat classes, support classes, weird hybrid classes—we were all starting from zero. Blank slates.
That was... oddly comforting? At least I wasn't alone in being completely unprepared for monsters and death.
**[00:30]**
The Gate pulsed, its purple energy intensifying like a heartbeat. I could feel it now, a pressure against my skin, like static electricity before a storm. The hairs on my arms stood up. My teeth ached. Reality was bending around that doorway, and we were all about to be sucked in.
"Hey, you!"
I turned. A guy in his twenties jogged up, athletic build, expensive gym clothes with those ridiculous protein shake stains. He had that look—the kind of guy who'd definitely called himself an "alpha" unironically and probably had opinions about cryptocurrency.
"You got a combat class?" he demanded, looking me up and down like he was evaluating livestock.
"Observer," I said.
His face twisted in disgust, the kind of expression you'd make if you stepped in something unpleasant. "Support class? No, wait—observation? That's not even support, that's useless. Don't slow us down in there, got it?"
He jogged off before I could explain that Observer probably wasn't a support class at all—it was more like a "spectator" class. Thanks for the vote of confidence, gym bro.
**[00:10]**
The pressure from the Gate became overwhelming. My feet moved on their own, pulled forward by an invisible force. All around me, hundreds of people were being drawn in like water circling a drain, a river of terrified humanity flowing toward purple oblivion.
**[00:05]**
I tried to dig my heels in. Didn't work. The pull was inexorable, gentle but absolute. Like gravity sideways.
**[00:03]**
Someone was praying. Someone else was crying. The Blade Master was shouting something motivational that got lost in the noise.
**[00:01]**
I took one last look at the sky, at the broken reality above Seoul, at the Towers stretching into impossible distances, at the world I'd known for twenty-four years.
"Well," I muttered, "at least I finished most of my sandwich."
**[ENTERING TUTORIAL GATE]**
The world dissolved into light and screaming and the sensation of being turned inside out.
And then, nothing but purple chaos.