Kyle was finally home.
Standing before the polished wooden door of his apartment, he placed his thumb against its smooth metallic scanner. The surface shimmered faintly before giving a low clicking sound, and the door automatically slid open.
He stepped inside before quietly surveying the small room.
His sitting room, dining area, and bedroom were all combined into one cramped space stretching no more than a few dozen feet, while the doors leading to his kitchen and bathroom were visible from exactly where he stood.
He shut the door behind him before moving farther into the apartment.
Kyle wasn’t much of a designer.
His home was painfully simple.
No decorations.
No paintings.
Nor television.
Just a single chair, a bed, and a few aging light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.
Flickering lights.
Peeling paint.
Cracked walls.
Anything that was missing from the combined living room and bedroom he either considered unimportant...
Or...
’I am too broke to afford.’
He sighed before walking over to his bed and sitting down on its edge.
Pulling out his communicator, he stared at the screen for a moment.
There were dozens of unread messages waiting for him.
Most came from classmates who had awakened alongside him earlier that day.
He ignored nearly all of them, lazily scrolling through only a handful.
Some asked if he wanted to form a team with them before entering the Tower.
Others proudly sent short videos of themselves showing off their newly awakened abilities, expecting him to send one back.
’These proud bastards, flashing their meager skills to me!’
’Me...’
’The monster that just ate and swallowed three raw cockroaches!’
’These bastards are bragging like fools. They all pale at my own feats.’
Kyle silently swiped past their messages, cursing beneath his breath.
Just as he was about to stop using his communicator...
One notification caught his attention.
A message from a girl with pitch-black hair.
She was dressed in a rather revealing black singlet that accentuated her figure, making kyle pause for just a brief second.
She posed with a playful wink and a brilliant smile.
Beneath the picture was a caption.
"My outfit to enter the Tower."
This was his best friend, Katie.
Kyle’s lips curled upward slightly as he quickly typed a reply.
"Dressed for the mission, I see...."
"The Deviants will definitely pay two credits for that view. With that kind of money, you’ll finally be able to afford a PlayStation before October."
Satisfied with his joke, he smiled before shutting down his communicator and dropping it beside him on the bed.
Tonight...
Exactly at 9:15 p.m.
Every awakened individual, regardless of their talent or rank, would be forcefully dragged into the Tower against their will.
There they would battle Deviants which were the horrifying monsters that inhabited the Tower, and survive countless ruthless trials before they could ever hope to return home.
Kyle slowly lifted his gaze toward the old wall clock hanging above his bed.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Every passing second echoed throughout the silent apartment.
The tiny hand somehow carried more weight than Kyle had ever imagined a clock hand could.
It was already nine o’clock.
Only five minutes remained before he would be forcefully dragged into the First Floor of the Tower.
To either die...
Or conquer it.
Kyle rose from the bed before walking into the kitchen.
Darkness immediately welcomed him.
Using nothing but memory and instinct, he reached toward the wall until his fingers finally found the light switch.
Click.
The room instantly became illuminated.
His kitchen was spotless.
Or perhaps...
Empty was the more appropriate word.
There were barely any utensils, hardly any pots and almost no plates.
Everything about the room screamed that its owner rarely bothered to cook.
He usually preferred buying food outside.
Today, however...
He intended to make an exception.
Walking over to the small refrigerator, he opened it before rescuing a frozen bowl of soup from its icy maw.
"Finally..."
He smiled.
"Something to drown out that horrid taste in my mouth."
Turning toward the counter, he prepared to warm the bowl.
Then...
Everything suddenly went terribly wrong.
Kyle’s entire body violently shuddered before he could even take another step.
Every muscle convulsed.
His grip immediately loosened.
The frozen bowl slipped from his hand before smashing against the tiled floor, exploding into countless shards of glass while chunks of frozen soup scattered across the kitchen.
Yet Finn didn’t react to it at all.
How could he?
Not while unbearable pain and overwhelming disorientation suddenly consumed every inch of his body.
"Argggh!"
He staggered backward as his vision rapidly blurred.
His entire world spun violently.
So violently that he quickly lost control of his body.
His senses.
His balance.
Even his awareness of reality itself.
It felt as though his soul had been forcefully torn from its shell before being hurled into an endless, empty void.
Several agonizing seconds passed.
Then...
Everything stopped.
Kyle’s body gradually became still.
His vision slowly refocused.
He could once again feel his own body.
He staggered forward.
Then backward.
Finally managing to regain his footing.
’My head...’
’It hurts so much...’
’It’s almost like a migraine...’
He groaned while pressing both hands tightly against his temples, desperately resisting the unbearable headache.
Eventually...
The relentless torrent of pain faded into nothingness.
Leaving behind...
Nothing but eerie silence.
For the first time since the pain had begun, Kyle was finally able to take in his surroundings.
And what he saw immediately made his heart race.
He was standing inside an enormous citadel.
Its architecture resembled that of an ancient western kingdom.
Towering buildings carved from solid limestone lined broad streets filled with life.
Massive monuments overlooked the city.
Even the ground beneath his feet consisted of enormous stone slabs worn smooth by countless footsteps over what looked like centuries.
People moved through the streets in every direction.
Some wore battered suits of armor.
Others dressed in old-fashioned medieval clothing.
Nearly everyone carried crude weapons.
Swords.
Axes.
Spears.
Bows.
Kyle gaze slowly drifted toward the sky.
There was no sun.
The world was noticeably dimmer than Earth.
Instead...
Something else hung high above.
It resembled both a black moon and a sun at the same time.
Its edges emitted an unnatural white glow that bathed the entire city in an eerie radiance, giving the world an almost dreamlike yet unsettling atmosphere.
Everything felt ancient and somewhat... wrong.
’This is it...’
His gaze slowly fell toward himself.
His normal clothes had completely disappeared.
In their place was nothing more than rough sackcloth clothing covered in soot, dust, and stains he couldn’t even begin to identify.
"How interesting..."
A voice suddenly reached him.
"So another candidate actually arrived several minutes early."
"You must belong to quite the powerful bloodline."
Kyle turned toward the source of the voice.
Standing a few meters away was a young woman with short black hair and striking crimson eyes.
She wore clothing almost identical to his own, yet somehow carried herself with effortless confidence.
"But you don’t exactly look like someone from a powerful family, though."
She slowly sized him up with a smug smile.
"Your point?" Kyle forced out, suppressing every sarcastic remark threatening to leave his mouth.
For all he knew...
She could be someone incredibly influential back on Earth.
Making an enemy of the wrong person within minutes of entering the Tower sounded like the absolute worst possible way to begin his journey.
The young woman smiled.
"Since we both appeared this early..."
"Why don’t we team up for our first expedition?"
Kyle fell silent.
He opened his mouth, preparing to answer.
But before he could utter a single word...
Ding!
Several glowing runes suddenly materialized before him.
[Welcome, Hero, to the First Floor of the Tower.]
[Safe Zone: Maria; Realm of the Buried Heroes.]