The Last Player: When the Game Became Reality

Level One

The first thing Ethan heard was screaming.

Not one person.

Hundreds.

Maybe thousands.

He stood frozen beside his bedroom window, staring at the streets below.

People were running in every direction.

Some had abandoned their cars in the middle of the road. Others were dragging their families out of buildings. A bus had crashed into a streetlight, its windshield shattered.

And above every person floated the same blue window.

[ETERNAL ASCENSION OF TOWER]

[WELCOME, PLAYER.]

[PLEASE WAIT WHILE YOUR CHARACTER IS BEING CREATED.]

Ethan couldn't move.

His mind kept insisting that this wasn't real.

A game couldn't do this.

It couldn't possibly—

A loud crash came from outside.

Ethan flinched.

His father shouted from the bedroom.

"Ethan!"

He ran.

His mother was sitting upright, terrified.

"What is happening?"

"I don't know."

"You said it was just a game."

"I know."

Another crash shook the house.

His father tried to stand.

Ethan immediately held him.

"Don't."

"But what's outside?"

"I'll check."

His mother grabbed his arm.

"Don't go."

Ethan looked at her.

For a moment, he saw the same fear in her eyes that he had felt inside himself.

He gently pulled his arm free.

"I'll be right back."

He walked toward the front door.

His heart was pounding.

He opened it.

The hallway was filled with people.

Neighbors were shouting.

Someone was crying.

A man was screaming into his phone.

"My son disappeared! He was standing right beside me!"

Ethan stepped outside.

Then he saw it.

A creature stood at the end of the street.

It was roughly the size of a large dog.

Its body was covered in gray scales.

Its mouth opened unnaturally wide.

Two yellow eyes scanned the crowd.

Ethan knew what it was immediately.

Fang Rat.

A beginner monster.

Floor 1.

Level 1.

A monster designed to be easy for new players.

Except nobody here was playing a game anymore.

The Fang Rat lunged.

A man screamed.

The creature slammed into him.

Blood splashed across the pavement.

The crowd scattered.

Ethan's body moved before his mind could catch up.

He grabbed a broken piece of metal from the ground.

His hands were shaking.

He hadn't fought anything in years.

Not in reality.

In the game, he had fought monsters thousands of times.

But that had been behind a screen.

This was different.

The Fang Rat turned toward him.

Their eyes met.

Ethan's grip tightened.

"Come on."

The monster charged.

Ethan stepped aside.

Its claws missed his chest by centimeters.

He swung the metal pipe.

CRACK!

The blow struck its head.

The creature stumbled.

Ethan froze.

It was hurt.

But it wasn't dead.

The Fang Rat turned.

Ethan barely raised his arm before its claws struck him.

SLASH!

Pain exploded across his forearm.

Ethan fell backward.

Blood ran down his hand.

He stared at it.

For fifteen years, damage had been numbers.

HP.

Critical hits.

Armor values.

Status effects.

Now it was simply pain.

Real pain.

The Fang Rat charged again.

Ethan rolled away.

Its claws struck the concrete.

He grabbed a broken brick.

Wait.

Ethan remembered the monster's attack pattern.

Three attacks.

The first was a leap.

The second was a claw swipe.

The third—

A bite.

He waited.

The Fang Rat jumped.

Ethan moved.

The claws missed.

The monster turned.

Its mouth opened.

There.

Ethan drove the brick directly into its jaw.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The creature collapsed.

Silence.

A blue window appeared before Ethan.

[FANG RAT DEFEATED.]

[EXPERIENCE ACQUIRED.]

[LEVEL 1.]

[EXP: 8/100]

Ethan stared.

Only eight experience.

He almost laughed.

In the old game, he could gain that much by sneezing near a beginner monster.

But then another window appeared.

[FIRST MONSTER DEFEATED.]

[REWARD: BEGINNER'S CHEST]

A small blue chest appeared on the pavement.

Ethan stared at it.

Around him, people were staring too.

Someone whispered:

"He killed it."

Another person said:

"He's a player."

Ethan ignored them.

He looked at the blood on his arm.

Then at the dead monster.

Then at the blue screen.

Something was terribly wrong.

The game had changed.

________________________________________

He returned home.

His mother immediately noticed the blood.

"Ethan!"

"It's nothing."

"You're bleeding!"

"I know."

She rushed toward him.

His father tried to get out of bed.

"What happened?"

"There's a monster outside."

His parents stared at him.

Ethan didn't know what else to say.

His mother slowly sat down.

"A monster?"

Ethan nodded.

"It attacked people."

His father looked toward the window.

"Are we safe?"

Ethan looked outside.

"No."

He didn't want to lie.

"We need to leave."

"Where?"

"I don't know yet."

Ethan opened his status window.

[PLAYER STATUS]

Name: Ethan Vale

Level: 1

Class: None

Rank: Unranked

Strength: 7

Agility: 6

Vitality: 8

Mana: 0

Skills: None

Ethan stared at the numbers.

His expression slowly changed.

Something was missing.

He knew the game.

He knew the starting stats.

He knew the starting classes.

He knew almost every system.

But his status didn't match the game.

There should have been a beginner class selection.

There wasn't.

There should have been starting skills.

There weren't.

He should have received a starting weapon.

Nothing.

Ethan frowned.

"That's strange."

His mother looked at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

He closed the window.

Outside, the screaming continued.

________________________________________

Around the world, similar scenes were unfolding.

People awakened.

Some gained powerful classes.

Some received rare abilities.

Some were born with talents Ethan had never seen in the original game.

And some—

didn't receive anything at all.

The first hours were chaos.

Governments attempted to respond.

Police forces were overwhelmed.

Hospitals filled with injured people.

The internet became flooded with videos.

MONSTERS IN SEOUL.

PLAYERS AWAKENING IN TOKYO.

DUNGEON APPEARS IN NEW YORK.

HUNTER SYSTEM CONFIRMED.

FORMER GAME PLAYERS RETURN.

And then the Hunter Association appeared.

A global announcement followed.

[WORLD SYSTEM NOTICE]

[HUMANITY HAS ENTERED THE AGE OF ASCENSION.]

[PLAYER RANKING WILL BE ESTABLISHED.]

[F → E → D → C → B → A → S]

[HIGHER RANKINGS ARE CURRENTLY CLASSIFIED.]

Ethan read it carefully.

He already knew what would happen next.

Guilds.

Hunter organizations.

Government divisions.

Private armies.

International rankings.

Power struggles.

People would begin fighting over resources.

Some would become heroes.

Others would become monsters.

And some would discover that killing another player was easier than fighting monsters.

Ethan had seen all of this in the game.

But there was something he didn't understand.

Why was the real world using a system that had never existed exactly like this?

He opened the system again.

His eyes moved down the screen.

At the bottom was a strange line.

He hadn't noticed it before.

[HIDDEN POTENTIAL: LOCKED]

Ethan frowned.

"What are you?"

The words disappeared.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then—

A tiny notification appeared.

[REQUIREMENT NOT MET.]

Ethan stared.

He knew almost every hidden system in Eternal Ascension of Tower.

He had spent fifteen years searching for secrets.

But he had never seen this.

Hidden Potential.

He leaned back.

For the first time since the game became reality, Ethan felt something other than fear.

He felt curiosity.

Then his phone rang.

The caller's name appeared.

Mina.

His childhood friend.

Ethan answered immediately.

"Are you safe?"

There was silence on the other end.

Then her voice.

"Ethan..."

"I'm here."

"I... I think something happened to me."

"What happened?"

"I got a class."

Ethan sat upright.

"What class?"

She hesitated.

Then whispered:

"Healer."

Ethan smiled.

"That's good."

"No."

Her voice trembled.

"I don't think you understand."

"What?"

"I can heal people."

Ethan's smile disappeared.

"What do you mean?"

"I touched someone who was dying."

A pause.

"And they got better."

Ethan looked toward the window.

The city was burning.

People were screaming.

The world he knew was disappearing.

But somewhere in the middle of the chaos, someone he cared about had gained a power that could save lives.

He stood.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at home."

"Stay there."

"Why?"

"I'm coming."

"Ethan—"

"I'm coming."

He hung up.

He looked toward his parents.

His father had already understood.

"You're going."

Ethan nodded.

His mother looked frightened.

"Be careful."

Ethan picked up the metal pipe.

Then he stopped.

He looked at it.

A weak weapon.

Barely useful.

He remembered the game.

He remembered Floor 1.

He remembered how insignificant beginner monsters had once been.

But this wasn't the game anymore.

This was his life.

Ethan opened the door.

Before stepping outside, another blue notification appeared.

This one was different.

It wasn't addressed to the world.

It was addressed only to him.

[PLAYER ETHAN VALE]

[SYSTEM ERROR DETECTED.]

[LEGACY DATA FOUND.]

[OLD PLAYER RECORD: GLOBAL RANK #1]

[ACCESS: DENIED.]

Ethan stared at the final line.

Then another appeared.

[REASON: YOU ARE NOT THE SAME PLAYER ANYMORE.]

The window disappeared.

Ethan stood silently in the doorway.

For the first time, he wondered if the Tower had truly brought the game into reality—

or if something else had brought him into the game.

He stepped outside.

The door closed behind him.

And somewhere far above the clouds, something was watching.