Chapter 4: Strange Allies
The man, who had introduced himself as Min-Ho, sat on Jin's couch, still trembling slightly as he stared down at his glowing hands. Jin stood nearby, pacing again, trying to make sense of everything.
Min-Ho had revealed that after his encounter with the tower, he had developed the ability to heal. He had stumbled upon it accidentally when he'd saved a neighbor from a nasty fall, mending her broken leg in an instant. His fear, however, stemmed from not knowing how to control the power—and the possibility that it might get stronger or, worse, turn destructive.
"I didn't mean for it to happen," Min-Ho murmured, breaking the silence. "I just felt this… this surge inside me. And when I touched her, she was healed."
Jin stopped pacing and looked at him. "You're sure it was the tower? You got too close?"
Min-Ho nodded slowly. "I couldn't stop myself. It was like something was pulling me in. I didn't even realize how close I was until I saw it up close—taller than anything I've ever seen. Then, before I knew it, I blacked out. When I woke up, everything was different. It's like I'm… not the same person."
Jin stared at him for a long moment, unsure of what to say. The existence of powers, of abilities born from proximity to the towers, changed everything. The world was already in chaos, but if more people started awakening like Min-Ho, how long before the fear and panic turned into something far worse?
"We need to figure out how many others there are," Jin said, more to himself than to Min-Ho. "If you're not the only one—if people around the world are waking up with powers—then this is only going to get more dangerous."
"I don't want this," Min-Ho said softly, staring at his hands as the light faded from them. "I didn't ask for it."
Jin understood that fear. In the span of a single day, everything had changed for Min-Ho. And for all of them. But Jin's mind kept returning to the same thought: What was the purpose of this? The towers had appeared without explanation, and now they were changing people, giving them powers that could reshape the world. But why?
"We need information," Jin said finally, turning toward his laptop. "The news isn't telling us the whole story. There have to be more people like you, people who have awakened. Maybe someone out there knows what's going on."
Min-Ho looked uncertain but nodded. "What do we do?"
"We find out what we can," Jin replied, pulling up multiple news streams and social media feeds. "Someone out there knows more than they're letting on."
As the hours passed, Jin and Min-Ho combed through countless videos, posts, and reports. It was clear that the towers were not an isolated phenomenon. People from all over the world were reporting strange abilities, each one different from the next. Some had developed superhuman strength, others could manipulate elements like fire or water, and some—like Min-Ho—had healing abilities.
The media was struggling to keep up, often dismissing the reports as hoaxes or exaggerations. But the footage Jin found was convincing—too convincing to ignore. In one video, a man in Brazil had single-handedly lifted a car off a trapped child. In another, a woman in Japan had frozen an entire lake by touching its surface. And in yet another, a group of people had banded together, using their newfound powers to fight off the strange creatures that had emerged from the towers.
"They're calling them 'awakeners,'" Jin said, reading one post. "People who have come into contact with the towers and developed powers."
"Awakeners," Min-Ho repeated quietly, the word sounding foreign in his mouth. "But why? Why is this happening?"
Jin shook his head. "That's what we need to find out. All of these people—everyone who's awakened—has one thing in common: they got too close to the towers. But no one knows why the towers are doing this. Or what they want."
Min-Ho shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "What if it's a trap? What if the towers are giving us these powers to make us… I don't know, use them against each other?"
Jin hadn't thought of that, but it was a possibility. The towers had already caused so much destruction without even lifting a finger. What if they were sowing chaos in another way—by giving people powers they couldn't control?
Suddenly, Jin's phone buzzed. It was a message from Ha-Yoon.
Ha-Yoon: I found something. You need to see this. I'm sending you a video.
A moment later, a video file popped up on his screen. Jin opened it, and what he saw sent a chill down his spine.
The footage was grainy, clearly shot on a phone camera, but it showed something that made Jin's heart race. A group of soldiers stood in front of a tower in a remote part of the world, somewhere in the desert. They were armed to the teeth, prepared to enter the tower. But as soon as they got close, something horrifying happened. The ground beneath them began to shake violently, and then, out of the tower, came a massive, hulking creature—its skin dark and covered in strange, glowing markings.
The soldiers opened fire, but their bullets did nothing. The creature moved with terrifying speed, ripping through their ranks in seconds. The camera shook as the person filming ran for cover, but the last thing the video showed was the creature turning toward the camera, its eyes glowing with a strange, otherworldly light.
Jin's hands trembled as he paused the video. "What… what is that?"
Min-Ho, pale as a ghost, shook his head. "I don't know. But it's coming from the towers."
The silence in the room was thick, neither of them knowing what to say next. If the towers were producing these creatures, then the world was in far greater danger than anyone had realized. And with awakeners like Min-Ho surfacing, it was clear that the towers weren't just a threat—they were a declaration of war.
"What do we do now?" Min-Ho asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Jin clenched his jaw. "We get ready. Whatever's coming, we have to be ready."
Min-Ho looked at Jin, fear and hope warring in his expression. "But how? We don't know how to stop any of this."
Jin looked out the window at the distant Torre, its dark form looming over the skyline. "We find the others. The other awakeners. If we're going to survive this, we need to understand what we're dealing with. And we need allies."
Min-Ho hesitated, then nodded. "I don't know where to start."
Jin turned back to him, his eyes hard with determination. "We'll start with the towers. If they're giving people powers, maybe there's a way to use that power against them."
He didn't know if that was true. But it was the only plan they had.