Power Up
I'm a B-Grade hunter. Two years ago I bumped into the Advanced Player and saw him clear the dungeon. It was like watching a legend in action. Three werewolves appeared on floor 72 but he went wild and took them down solo. [...] He's not human. [...] He really is the definition of an Advanced Player.
—Hunters about Hyeonu
The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower is a fantasy webcomic written by Bangguseok Gimssi, drawn by Omagam and adapted by Juyeong Hwang. The translated version is available on Webtoons here
.
In 2006, monsters started appearing all over the world. With them came the mysterious Tutorial Tower, a building that would randomly pick groups of humans of all ages and nationalities and force them to clear its hundred floors. Those who survived would become Hunters, protecting humanity in the outside world.
Due to a strange curse, Hyeonu Kim has been trapped in the Tutorial Tower for 12 years. Now he is free and determined to find out why he was imprisoned. And along the way, he might just end up saving the world.
The Advanced Hero of the Tutorial Tower contains examples of:
- The Ace: Due to being trapped in the Tutorial Tower for 12 years, all of Hyeonu's stats have been maxed out, making him the strongest hunter in existence.
- And I Must Scream: Hyeonu was unable to leave the tower after clearing it. As he couldn't make contact with the outside world, he was forced to wander through the floors over and over again, trying and failing to find a way to escape.
- Anti-Climax: Hyeonu's fights last all but one second because he's that overpowered. The only opponents he even slightly struggles with are the Climbers.
- Anyone Can Die: The tower choosing random people to train in it, many of whom are not trained fighters or even physically impaired by age or injury, leads to an incredibly high casualty rate. Even 12 years later, when there's online communities specifically for giving tips for beating it, only 20% of trainees make it out each time.
- Big Damn Heroes: Hyeonu makes his first appearance when he ambles onto a losing battle between the newest group of trainee hunters and Balrog, then takes down Balrog, inadvertently saving the trainees in the process.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Hyeonu decides to live a life of luxury and laziness once he's settled in the outside world and refuses several offers from renowned guilds, because he doesn't want to do guild-work.
- Brutal Honesty: When Seoyeon asks if she's late, Sihyeon bluntly tells her that she is and adds that she's never on time.
- Chekhov's Gun: In episode 6, the chief of the Korean Hunters Association recommends Hyeonu to join the Ares-guild, even emphasizing how favorable their offer is compared to the other guilds. Hyeonu declines, sensing that something is off. Sure enough, a few episodes later the Ares-guild is revealed to be a gang of brutish thugs who shake down other hunters for access to certain dungeons and are responsible for several deaths in the labyrinth.
- The Chosen Many: The tower regularly selects a random group of people from around the world to clear it and become hunters. Those who survive move on to fight the monsters in the outside world.
- Charles Atlas Super Power: Hyeonu became strong enough to decimate boulders and kick a demon to death by training for 12 years.
- Crapsack World: In this Alternate Universe the world is continually beset by horrifying monsters. People get randomly kidnapped to a location that trains them to fight by throwing steadily regenerating beasts at them, regardless of their age or physical condition. Survival rates are minimal and getting out of the tower means you just signed up to become a monster hunter for the rest of your life. If you're really unlucky, you might even get stuck with a curse that prevents you from leaving the tower for an unspecified amount of time.
- Curse: After defeating Balrog for the first time, Hyeonu was randomly given the Tutorial Player-curse, rendering him unable to leave the tower. It's finally taken off after 12 years, prompting Hyeonu to immediately crash through the floors so he can go home.
- Deconstruction: The Tutorial Tower is a deconstruction of The Chosen Many and the Training from Hell with a little bit of Sink or Swim Mentor, since it's implied that the tower has a mind of its own. Summoning random people of all ages to become the last hope for humanity might sound cool, but realistically speaking it would be anything but for those involved. For one, the tower doesn't care one bit how old you are or if your body is even still up for the task it presents. There is limited information given to the trainees and the monsters regenerate. So it's really no surprise that the majority of the chosen die way before reaching the end.
- Dungeon Bypass: When Hyeonu is informed that his curse has been lifted, he breaks straight through the ceiling into the Final Boss - room to get out as soon as possible.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Every hunter who clears the Tutorial Tower is this, since they were all just regular civilians at one point who had to figure out how to survive all by themselves. After leaving the tower, they're even given magic abilities that further aid them in their fight against the monsters.
- Final Boss: The Tutorial Tower's final monster is a giant flame demon named Balrog. He's by far the hardest boss in the tower and infamous in the hunter community. Which makes Hyeonu's nonchalant defeating of him all the more awe-inspiring.
- The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: The Pandemonium Guild consists of three guys and one girl named Anya. When they try to assassinate Hyeonu, he kills the guys but spares Anya. The justification given is that Anya is skilled at drawing magical circles — a skill Hyeonu himself lacks, yet needs for his own guild (into which he then recruits Anya at gunpoint).
- Inciting Incident: The actual plot kicks in when Hyeonu finally manages to escape the Tutorial Tower.
- Kidnapped by the Call: There is no way to know who the Tower will choose and the chosen can't refuse the call. The trainees just get teleported to floor 1 and have to work their way up from there.
- Large Ham: Hyeonu ends his first fight in the comic by loudly bragging about how he's the coolest. When he leaves the tower for the first time in 12 years and has it confirmed that he is indeed out, he gives a loud howl of joy, announcing his return to the world.
- The Leader: Hyeonu is implied to have been this for the first generation. The flashback to his first clearly shows the other three deferring to him, with Sihyeon even claiming they never would have made it without him.
- Magic Must Defeat Magic: At the start of the series, Hyeonu is ridiculously overpowered in all stats... except Magic, which proves to be his Achilles' Heel, as his enemies quickly figure out that despite all his powers, he has nothing to counter powerful enchantments. He manages to survive the first few magical assaults through sheer luck and ingenuity, but it is not until he starts learning magic of his own that he is able to go toe-to-toe with other magic-wielders.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Though they do the chain completely out of order, the protagonists' martial arts training chain goes like this: Cheonma trained Hyeonu (as well as Sihyeon), who trained Miryeong and Narin Ha.
- The Mentor: Hyeonu acted as a tutorial NPC to other trainees for a while during his time in the tower. Eventually, it became too much for him to see others leave for the outside world when he still couldn't, so he resigned himself to simply training and finding new ways to clear all floors. Also during this phase, he had apparently taken a young Sole Survivor of a decimated party under his wing and trained her, Old Master-style, in a martial art he combed together out of his own fragmented memories of action comics. After escaping the Tutorial Tower, the girl (later revealed to be named Miryeong) founded the Pado Hunter Guild and slowly took over mainland China, driven by an oath she swore to prepare a position worthy of him when he finally escaped — too bad he has no idea about any of this and is extremely embarrassed about everything he ever taught to her (having gone through a Chuunibyou phase at the time).
- Mood Whiplash: Hyeonu's first appearance has him nonchalantly walk onto a scorched battlefield in a tracksuit and slippers.
- Reaction Shot: All three guild leaders are visibly surprised when the interviewer inquires about the Advanced Player rumored to live in the tower.
- Revenge: Hyeonu makes it his goal to find and take brutal vengeance on whoever is responsible for his twelve years of imprisonment in the tower.
- The Smurfette Principle: Seonyeon was the only girl among the surviving first-generation hunters.
- Student–Master Team: Hyeonu and Miryeong team up to stop the the Hunter HQ coup — and wipe the floor with the attackers, with Hyeonu taking on the strongest one (equivalent to a Climber in strength), while Miryeong mops up the rest (each of whom is still higher than her in the Hunter rankings).
- Super-Strength: Hyeonu can break solid stone pillars with one punch and defeat giant monsters with one well-aimed kick to the head.
- Took a Level in Badass: All the hunters who survive the Tutorial Tower will need to do this at some point. Hyeonu barely recognizes Seokwon, Sihyeon and Seoyeon when they meet up after his assessment, commenting on how all of them used to be scared shitless of the monsters in the tower and how much they've physically grown since then.
- Training from Hell: The Tutorial Tower is this for hunters. Each floor is populated by steadily regenerating monsters. Only 20 % of the people the tower selects ever make it to the end.
- Unknown Rival: Lee becomes one to Hyeonu, after Hyeonu inadvertently overshadows him during their assessment.
- Worf Had the Flu: During Hyeonu's rematch against Cheonma in the latter's personal Pocket Dimension, Cheonma reveals that the only reason Hyeonu was able to kill him in the real world was because he was, at the time, trying to become a Climber, which severely restricted his magical output, as well as the martial techniques he was allowed to use. To prove his point, he then proceeds to kill Hyeonu over a hundred times in a row (though luckily for the latter, "dying" in Cheonma' training dimension just hurts a lot, then you immediately respawn).
