The Last Player: When the Game Became Reality

At 10:47 p.m., Ethan Vale was still at work.

The office had been quiet for almost an hour. Most of the employees had already gone home, leaving only the humming air conditioner and the occasional clicking of a keyboard.

Ethan stared at the spreadsheet on his monitor.

Another report.

Another correction.

Another task that had somehow become his responsibility.

He rubbed his eyes and checked the clock again.

10:48.

He sighed.

"Just one more."

He said it quietly, even though nobody was around to hear him.

That was what he always said.

One more report.

One more hour.

One more day.

Somehow, those one-more-things had turned into three years.

Ethan finally saved the file and stood.

His shoulders were stiff. His neck hurt. He had skipped dinner again.

As he packed his things, he noticed a message waiting on his phone.

Mom: Are you coming home?

Ethan stared at it for a moment.

He typed:

Yes. I'm leaving now.

Then another message appeared.

Mom: Don't forget to eat.

He smiled faintly.

I won't.

It was a lie.

There wasn't much food left at home.

He put the phone into his pocket and walked out of the office.

________________________________________

The night air was cold.

Ethan pulled his jacket tighter as he walked toward the train station.

Three years ago, he would never have imagined himself living like this.

Back then, his entire life had been inside a game.

Not just any game.

Eternal Ascension of Tower.

Fifteen years.

That was how long he had played it.

Fifteen years of waking up, sitting in front of a screen, and climbing floor after floor.

When the game first launched, hundreds of millions of people played it.

Everyone wanted to reach the top.

Everyone wanted to become the strongest.

Ethan had been one of them.

Then the years passed.

Players quit.

Guilds disappeared.

Servers became empty.

The game's popularity collapsed.

But Ethan kept playing.

Eventually, he became the only active player remaining.

And somehow, that lonely journey made him the strongest player the game had ever seen.

Global Rank #1.

The richest player.

The strongest player.

The player with the most complete knowledge of the Tower.

The leader of the strongest guild.

He had obtained everything.

Weapons other players could only dream about.

Armor that had become legendary.

Treasures that no longer existed anywhere else.

He knew hidden quests nobody remembered.

He knew monsters nobody had encountered for years.

He knew shortcuts.

Traps.

Boss patterns.

Secret rooms.

Everything.

And after fifteen years, he had finally reached the top.

Floor 1,000.

He had defeated the final boss.

He had completed the game.

And then the screen had gone black.

Ethan still remembered what appeared afterward.

[CONGRATULATIONS, PLAYER.]

[YOU HAVE REACHED THE FINAL FLOOR.]

[DID YOU ENJOY THE GAME?]

He had laughed.

After fifteen years, the game was finally asking him that?

He clicked:

YES.

Another question appeared.

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY ANOTHER GAME?]

Ethan clicked YES again.

Then—

[UPDATING...]

[1%]

He waited.

Ten minutes.

Nothing.

An hour.

Still nothing.

He left the computer running overnight.

The next morning, it was still at one percent.

He waited another day.

Then another.

Nothing changed.

Eventually, Ethan stopped checking.

Three years later, he had almost forgotten about it.

Almost.

________________________________________

The train arrived.

Ethan stepped inside and found an empty seat.

He leaned his head against the window.

The city passed outside in a blur of lights.

He looked at his reflection.

He barely recognized himself.

He wasn't the person he used to be.

His hair was longer than he liked.

Dark circles rested beneath his eyes.

His shoulders had become thinner.

He looked tired.

Just tired.

A normal man coming home from work.

Not the strongest player in the world.

Not the man who had conquered a thousand floors.

Just Ethan.

The train announcement pulled him from his thoughts.

He checked his phone.

11:32 p.m.

His mother's message was still there.

Don't forget to eat.

He smiled again.

Then he noticed something.

His phone screen flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Ethan frowned.

The screen returned to normal.

Probably nothing.

He put the phone away.

He didn't notice the tiny blue symbol that had appeared for less than a second.

A symbol he hadn't seen in three years.

A symbol he knew better than anyone.

The logo of Eternal Ascension of Tower.

________________________________________

When Ethan finally reached home, the lights in the living room were off.

He opened the door quietly.

"Mom?"

No answer.

He walked toward the bedroom.

His mother was asleep.

His father was lying beside her, his breathing slow and heavy.

The room smelled faintly of medicine.

Ethan stood at the doorway.

For a moment, he simply watched them.

Then he walked over and pulled the blanket higher over his father's shoulders.

His mother opened her eyes.

"Ethan?"

"Sorry. Did I wake you?"

She shook her head.

"What time is it?"

"Almost midnight."

"You haven't eaten."

"I'm fine."

"You always say that."

Ethan smiled.

"I'll eat tomorrow."

His mother sighed.

"You look thinner."

"I'm working."

"You should take care of yourself too."

Ethan didn't answer.

He checked the medicine beside the bed.

There were only a few tablets left.

His eyes stopped on the bottle.

He mentally calculated the cost.

Then he looked away.

"I'll buy more tomorrow."

His mother reached out and held his hand.

"You don't have to do everything alone."

Ethan looked at her.

For a second, he wanted to tell her everything.

How tired he was.

How often people at work laughed at him.

How his supervisor dumped other people's mistakes on him.

How he sometimes ate lunch alone because nobody wanted him around.

How he sometimes wondered whether his life would ever become anything more than this.

But he didn't.

Instead, he smiled.

"I know."

He gently squeezed her hand.

"Go back to sleep."

He left the room.

________________________________________

His bedroom was small.

There was a bed.

A desk.

An old computer.

And a monitor he hadn't turned on in three years.

Ethan sat down.

He stared at it.

He hadn't intended to use it.

He only wanted to check something.

He pressed the power button.

The computer hummed.

The screen came alive.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then the desktop appeared.

Ethan opened the old game folder.

Eternal Ascension of Tower.

His finger stopped above the icon.

He hesitated.

Then clicked.

The launcher appeared.

For a moment, everything looked normal.

Then the screen froze.

Ethan leaned forward.

A familiar message appeared.

[CONNECTING TO SERVER...]

His expression changed.

"Impossible."

The server had been dead for years.

The game had been abandoned.

There shouldn't have been anything to connect to.

The loading bar moved.

1%.

Ethan stared.

Then—

2%.

His heartbeat quickened.

Three years.

Three years of nothing.

He leaned closer to the monitor.

The loading continued.

3%.

Then the screen suddenly went black.

Ethan waited.

Nothing.

He reached for the mouse.

And a single line of text appeared.

White letters against the darkness.

[WELCOME BACK, PLAYER ETHAN.]

Ethan's hand froze.

Nobody had called him that in years.

Then another message appeared.

[PREPARING FOR THE FINAL UPDATE.]

Ethan's breathing stopped.

A second later—

The monitor went dark.

The room became completely silent.

Ethan stared at his own reflection in the black screen.

For the first time in three years, something he thought was dead had spoken to him.

And somewhere beneath the silence of the computer...

A loading bar had begun moving again.

1%.