At the exact moment Louis disappeared from the villa in City Z…
In a completely different place, across countless layers of worlds and stages, the same notification rang out everywhere at once.
In the Tower Space, where endless stairs, gates, and floors connected together…
And deep inside many different stages, where players were fighting in all kinds of worlds…
Everything stopped for a few seconds.
A strange silence fell over the Tower.
Then—
[ Congratulations to player L.K!! ]
[ In the stage world "One Punch", he has completed 2 out of 3 main quests, and received an excellent SS evaluation. ]
The voice echoed inside the minds of all players without exception.
Just a few words… but enough to shock hundreds of millions, even billions of players.
On one of the middle floors of the Tower, inside a wide training arena, some players were in the middle of a practice battle.
Weapons stopped in mid-air.
Explosions froze.
Skills that were about to be released faded away before they were completed.
Everyone stopped moving as the notification windows flashed in front of their eyes.
"…L.K?"
one of them whispered as he read the name.
"Didn't… this name appear just a few days ago?" another player said, his hands shaking.
A third player pushed through the group, his expression more serious than the others:
"It's not just the name… look closely at the evaluation."
"Evaluation… SS."
A quiet voice said the letters like it was saying something forbidden.
Silence returned again.
Some players swallowed nervously, some opened their eyes wide, others opened their system interfaces to make sure they weren't reading wrong.
"SS… in the One Punch world?"
"This is… almost impossible."
In another area of the Tower, in a fancy café that looked out over a bottomless abyss, a group of high-rank players sat together. Their special outfits carried symbols of powerful families and famous factions.
Their talk had been about strategies to climb to the higher floors, until it was suddenly cut off by the same notification.
[ Player L.K has received an excellent SS evaluation in the stage world "One Punch". ]
A young man with silver hair lifted his cup to his lips, then stopped halfway. His smile froze.
"…L.K?"
An older man answered him. His face was calm, but there was a sharp light in his eyes:
"That name appeared again sooner than I expected. It seems his achievement in the Death Note world was not a coincidence."
A young woman watching a transparent screen in front of her tilted her head:
"The first SS evaluation in the One Punch world since the Tower opened… right?"
The older man nodded:
"The first SS evaluation in that world's stage… and even reaching S here is very rare."
Then he added in a low voice:
"The last person who got an S evaluation in the One Punch world… was decades ago."
The young woman shook her head:
"I heard that person was from a top family in the highest floors of the Tower, and even then, he could only reach S."
Another young man muttered:
"And now some newcomer with a mysterious name like L.K appears and jumps straight to SS… what kind of talent is that?"
They exchanged looks, and all of them had the same question in their hearts:
Who is this newcomer?
Which family is he from?
Is he from one of the great families of the upper floors? From some ancient noble house? Or is he a mysterious new player who doesn't belong to any side?
In different corners of the Tower, the same questions were repeated.
In battle arenas, in libraries floating in mid-air, in dark training rooms, even in empty corridors where lonely players sat alone…
Everyone saw the same name, the same evaluation.
"L.K…"
Some of them moved their lips without thinking, repeating the name like it was a new magic symbol added to the Tower's history.
But the real shock was not only in the name.
It was in the question that almost everyone asked at the same time:
"How did he do it?"
The One Punch world was not just a normal stage world.
There was a special goal linked to it, a near-impossible quest:
[ Find the strongest… and defeat him. ]
From the beginning, this quest was described as something no one could finish. No one had completed it, and no one even knew if it was possible.
Since the One Punch world opened, no player had managed to reach that result: find the true strongest being in that world… and then defeat him.
"How did he find him?"
"What method did he use? Did he use some special timeline?"
"Was the strongest really that mysterious hero Blast?"
"Maybe he used some bug in the world…"
Doubts grew, and theories spread.
But there was one truth no one could deny:
This player… had touched a point no one else had ever reached.
*** ***
On the 90th floor of the Tower, where the strongest people in the world gathered, the news was just as shocking.
In a huge hall, the back wall was covered with a massive map showing all the stage worlds. A cloaked figure stood there, looking at the glowing points that represented players.
When the SS notification appeared, one point lit up with a different, brighter color.
"There he is again…"
A deep voice came from under the hood.
"The new arrival who doesn't seem to belong to any known family… L.K."
Next to him stood another man, several meters tall, holding a glowing panel and scrolling through information.
"There is no clear record of him in the Tower's roots. His first appearance was just a week ago… and this is already his second time showing up."
He paused for a moment, then continued:
"And now… he comes back with an SS evaluation in the One Punch world, after finishing 2 out of 3 main quests."
"And the 'strongest' quest…"
The cloaked figure raised his eyes toward a certain point on the map.
"Finally, someone managed to reach it… and surpass that old record."
*** ***
All over the Tower, there was one more point that caught everyone's attention:
"Since he got an SS evaluation… that means—"
"Yes."
"He gets the right to summon."
This rule was well known among experienced players:
Anyone who gets a very high evaluation in a stage world, especially SS and above, gains a special privilege:
the right to summon characters from that world into the "real world".
At the same time the news of L.K's evaluation spread, a new whisper began among the players:
"Who will he summon from the One Punch world?"
"Will he summon one of the S-Class heroes?"
"Maybe one of the big villains… or a Dragon-level monster?"
But this chain of imagination was quickly stopped by a fact everyone knew:
The system forbids summoning both the main hero and the main villain from any stage world.
Even though no one knew for sure who exactly those two were in the One Punch world, this rule didn't reduce the value of the reward. In fact, it made it more interesting.
"Even with that limit, the One Punch world is full of monsters and heroes with crazy levels of power."
"It's enough if he summons one of the top leaders, or a being with insane speed or strength… that player will become a force to be reckoned with in our world."
"One summon won't change much. Those old families, besides their members' power boosted by World Points and Tower treasures, have people who got SS in multiple worlds, and they surely have many summoned beings already."
"If this guy is just a lone force, he still has a long way to go before he reaches the level of those families."
*** *** ***
As for Louis at this time—
In the space between worlds, in a gray void with no color and no concept of time, Louis stood alone.
The villa in City Z was gone.
The city streets, the sky of the One Punch world—also gone.
There was only silent space, with different system windows shining in the distance, each one representing a different world.
Right in front of him, the system interface appeared clearly:
[ Congratulations to player L.K!! ]
[ In the stage world "One Punch", for completing 2 out of 3 main quests and receiving an excellent SS evaluation, you will obtain: ]
Then the rewards appeared one by one:
1. Completing the first main quest: 10,000 World Points.
2. Completing the second main quest: 10,000 World Points.
3. Discovering and completing the hidden quest "Title of the Strongest": 3,000 World Points.
4. Extra reward based on your impact in the One Punch world: 3,000 World Points.
Then a highlighted line appeared:
[ Total: 26,000 World Points. ]
Louis read the number calmly.
26,000 World Points… not a small amount at all by Tower standards.
Points enough to change a fate, to alter a path, and to buy things normal players could never even dream of.
But the system still wasn't finished.
5. You have received a Rank Reward: 1 Summon Card.
You can use it to summon any one character from the stage world "One Punch" for free.
Then more notes followed:
[ Note 1: You cannot summon the main hero or main villain of this world. ]
[ Note 2: You can summon additional characters by using your personal World Points. ]
[ Note 3: Any summoning from this world will be canceled if you start a new stage world. ]
Louis looked at the messages in silence.
The Tower was boiling with his name.
The players were trying to guess his identity.
The great families were already analyzing his growth.
But here, in this quiet place between worlds, it was just him…
a glowing Summon Card in front of him, and 26,000 World Points in his account.
And in his eyes—
not surprise, not panic…
but calm planning for what comes next.