I was killed by the hunter I had sniped.
And then, I was reborn.
As the top boss.
And, to top it off — as a woman.
A top boss cannot leave the tower unless the tower undergoes a break or the boss room’s raid fails.
Also, hunters can’t access the highest boss room unless they clear the lower floors.
In short, I was completely cut off from the outside world.
“…Haah…”
As I belatedly realized my situation, I let out a deep sigh that echoed through the empty tower.
At this point, the fact that I had become a woman wasn’t even that big of a deal.
I had already been reborn — and as a monster at that.
What difference did it make that I’d been reborn as a woman?
Once I accepted that fact, my head cooled down faster than I expected.
Maybe it was because I had always considered myself a fairly rational person.
Regaining my composure, I started to look around the tower — my new home.
“It doesn’t look like a cave.”
Towers usually resemble caves.
Boss rooms, in most cases, follow that theme, because the entire lower floors of the tower usually reflect the design of the boss room.
Even when they didn’t look like caves, most boss rooms looked like castles.
The Hwarang Tower — the first tower that appeared in Seoul and the most difficult S-rank tower.
It had an overall traditional Korean theme, and the inside of the tower was styled like a traditional hanok house.
“…Is this place similar to Hwarang Tower?”
The more detailed and intricate the interior, the higher the tower’s difficulty.
It wasn’t a hard rule, but it was generally accurate.
As I looked around, I realized this tower’s difficulty was no joke.
The elaborate decor and my room’s interior, reminiscent of a royal palace from the Joseon dynasty, made me let out a small sound of admiration.
It was definitely nicer than the tiny studio apartment I used to live in.
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about getting cleared right away.”
Judging by my rank, even if hunters stormed in right now, all they’d do is prepare my path to escape.
When a hunter opens the boss room door, a three-day countdown begins.
No matter how much time was left before the break, the countdown changes to three days — and if the boss dungeon isn’t cleared within that time?
The boss escapes the tower.
In the early days, many countries with weaker hunters lost their capitals because of this phenomenon.
Of course, boss escapes were rare these days.
Research on towers had advanced quite a bit by now.
I nodded as I went over this in my mind.
Now that I’d checked out my surroundings, it was time to assess my own abilities.
No matter how strong the tower was, if the boss was weak, the tower would collapse quickly.
The higher the floors, the weaker the monsters became — and in most cases, it was because the boss was too weak.
So knowing my own specs was crucial.
“Let’s take another look at my status window.”
With a nervous heart, I opened my status window again.
[Name: Kang Yubin]
[Race: Nine-Tailed Fox (Tower Boss)]
[Rank: SSS-Rank]
[Gender: Male]
This was the basic information.
It showed my name, race, rank, and gender.
Other than my name, nothing here matched my former self — but I’d seen this before, so next up were my skills.
“Show me my skills.”
[Skills]
[Reincarnation]
[Charm]
[Energy Drain]
[Shape-shifting]
[Stealth]
[Magic]
[Intimidation]
[Foxfire]
[+1 more skill].
This felt underwhelming.
I’d been hoping for more, considering , I was an SSS-rank boss.
Okay, to be fair, these were rare and valuable skills.
Shape-shifting and Stealth were especially rare.
Magic, Foxfire, and Energy Drain were unique to the nine-tailed fox race.
And Reincarnation was a skill that literally gave me a second chance at life.
Most S-rank hunters and bosses had at most four skills.
But I had eight.
That was definitely impressive… but still…I was the first-ever SSS-rank boss — and as far as I knew, the first nine-tailed fox boss.
But honestly, these skills seemed… kind of weak.
Only two of them were offensive skills.
Magic didn’t really count as a direct attack skill, so that left me with just two.
One of those was Foxfire — a skill with low attack power that could easily be extinguished by will-o’-the-wisp-type attacks.
And then there was the long-cooldown skill, Energy Drain.
Usually, S-ranks had at least three attack skills.
Those attack skills often came with a variety of additional effects.
But I didn’t have any flashy skills.
“…Is this really my skillset?”
[The nine-tailed fox is a being that draws powerful strength by properly utilizing its physical specs, magic, Foxfire, and Charm.]
[Despite their strength, Magic and Foxfire require no mana, which makes them S-rank abilities.]
[Any abilities that can be realized through Magic and Foxfire are not considered separate skills.]
[Your potential is limitless.]
As I listened to the status window’s explanation, I sat in the room decorated like a king’s bedchamber, looking slightly dissatisfied.
“I finally escaped from being F-rank, and this still feels underwhelming.”
When I was F-rank, I only had one skill.
[Zero Presence].
It was a useless, pathetic skill.
It made my presence disappear for about two minutes.
Of course, I did manage to use it to get some exclusive scoops and stir up drama, but as a hunter’s skill?
It was far from ideal.
“Well, I guess this is fine.”
“…But what’s this?”
That’s when I finally noticed the words +1 more skill listed below my other abilities.
My skills weren’t eight — they were nine.
As soon as I expressed my confusion, the status window displayed the hidden skill.
[Accessing Special Perks.]
[Kang Yubin’s Unique Skill.]
[Skill: Internet Broadcast]
[Description: You can access anything related to internet broadcasting through the status window.]
[This skill allows you to freely broadcast and communicate with the outside world.]
“…Are you seriously telling me to stream right now?”
[Three days remain until the tower’s launch.]
[You lack enough Tower Coins to hire staff for the tower!!]
[Would you like to use the Internet Broadcast skill to collect the Tower Coins needed for the tower’s launch?]
“……”
Staring at the status window practically blackmailing me into streaming, I had no choice but to nod.
“…If they come straight to the boss room, I’m dead, right?”
I hadn’t even fully adjusted to this body yet, and if they found out I was SSS-rank, every S-rank hunter would come charging in without hesitation.
I had only just been reborn — dying again wasn’t exactly on my to-do list.
“Looks like my tower is… a bit unusual.”
“I’ve never heard of a tower boss hiring mercenaries with Tower Coins just to protect their own home.”
And so, my first-ever debut broadcast began.
***
Korean Hunter Council.
What was the Korean Hunter Council?
It was a meeting where, if a problem involving towers arose, the National Hunter Management Committee, the top five ranked guild masters, and the President would urgently gather to devise countermeasures.
But today, the atmosphere of the meeting was tense.
Everyone was drenched in cold sweat, anxiously watching each other.
The reason?
Because today’s “Hunter Council” had an extra word in front of it: Emergency.
Two hours earlier.
A system message had echoed not just across South Korea — but across the entire world.
For some reason, even ordinary civilians received a message through their status windows.
[SSS-Rank Tower Appearance!!]
[As of this moment, an SSS-Rank tower has appeared in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.]
[The strategy phase for the “Tower of the Benevolent Nine-Tailed Fox” will begin in three days.]
[Until then, both Awakened (Hunters) and non-Awakened individuals are prohibited from entering. Any forced entry will incur severe penalties.]
Immediately following the announcement, the emergency meeting room was hastily set up.
Outside, hordes of reporters swarmed the area, clashing with security guards.
The tension inside the room was suffocating.
Among the officials deep in thought, one man quietly sorted through the situation in his mind.
Choi Hanseong — South Korea’s number-one hunter and widely regarded as the strongest hunter in the country.
The leader of Shinhwa, the nation’s top-ranked guild, and the 26-year-old face of South Korea’s hunter community, finally broke his silence.
“Everyone, let’s stay calm.”
“Stay calm?! Are you out of your mind? The country is on the brink of collapse! How can you tell us to stay calm?!”
“…Representative Kim, it’s exactly at times like this that we need to stay rational.”
Hanseong’s icy words made the previously flustered man fall silent, though he still glared while crossing his arms.
“Hunter Choi Hanseong, do you… have a plan?”
When the chairman of the National Hunter Management Committee asked the question, all eyes turned to Hanseong.
Truthfully, even Hanseong didn’t have a concrete plan.
But the title of Number One Hunter meant that even if he had no solution, he had to come up with one — fast.
“…For now, we have three days. We should use that time to thoroughly investigate the tower’s exterior.”
As everyone focused on Hanseong’s words, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and continued speaking.
“We’ll have no choice but to impose strict control over the Han River area.”
The tower had appeared right along the Han River.
It had emerged in the northern part of Seoul, not long after the top floor of the Hwarang Tower had been cleared — almost like a baton being passed.
Up until just a short while ago, South Korea had been in a festive mood.
After all, they had managed to clear their first-ever tower, joining the ranks of the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Maybe the gods hadn’t liked the celebration, because they immediately dropped another tower — right near the site of the previous one.
And this one was SSS-rank.
“For now, we know nothing about the tower’s interior… We have no choice but to remain cautious.”
“Haa…”
With the tower’s entrance sealed and entry restricted, there was nothing the government or the hunters could do.
All they could do was wait for the three-day countdown and send in the most prepared, highest-ranked hunters when the time came.
“…This is always the problem! We never have enough information… Ugh, I really don’t want to go in there…”
As Hanseong finished speaking, the woman sitting beside him let out a frustrated sigh.
That was Seo Yuna, the third-ranked hunter and the guild master of Fairy’s Guild, the second most powerful guild in the country.
Everyone in the room silently agreed with her.
One of the biggest problems with towers was that, until the entrance opened, the only information anyone got was the tower’s name and its rank — nothing else.
Even the names often needed deciphering unless the tower was unusually straightforward.
This time, the tower’s name was.
The Tower of the Benevolent Nine-Tailed Fox.
But considering it was an SSS-rank tower, there was a high chance that the name was extremely misleading.
“…We might have to give up on deciphering the name.”
“Yeah, we’ve never seen an SSS-rank before, so we don’t even know the patterns.”
It would be a miracle if they managed to decode the name’s hint in three days.
Even with lower-ranked towers, where the pattern of name-based clues was well-documented, it usually took longer than that.
With a never-before-seen rank like SSS, it would likely take even more time.
Hanseong let out a long, exhausted sigh.
“…The Hwarang Tower barely just disappeared…”
As the atmosphere in the room grew heavier, the internet was already exploding with excitement over a new development.
[WTF is this?!]
[I think someone just started a livestream… from inside the SSS-rank tower?!]
[Yo, are you guys seeing this?!]
[…What the hell is happening?]
A mysterious livestream was spreading like wildfire.
And that development soon reached the emergency meeting room as well.
“I-I’m sorry for the sudden interruption!! B-but everyone!! Y-you need to see this livestream…!! Haa… Haa…”
“…What?”
“Have you lost your mind?!”
One of the officials from the Hunter Surveillance Bureau burst into the room, clutching a tablet with the stream playing.
And just like that, the entire room’s attention shifted to the screen.