"Tower Difficulty?" someone muttered nearby. "Isn’t it the same for everyone?"
Al’s usual smirk widened. "Of course not! You get to decide just how far you want to push your evolution. The lower the difficulty, the less powerful you can become in the future."
"And what options do we have?"
He snapped his fingers, and translucent system panels materialized in front of everyone near the tower, including me.
I still vividly remembered the last time I had made this choice. Back then, I was severely depressed, convinced I had nothing left to live for. I had selected the hardest difficulty on a reckless whim, without the slightest clue of what it would turn me into.
[Please choose your Tower Difficulty!]
[Easy]
[Hard]
[Hell]
"What should I choose?"
"He said we could die in there... Shouldn’t we pick [Easy]?"
"What if we don’t pick anything?"
"If you don’t choose a difficulty, I will personally kill you~!" Al piped up with a cheerful smirk.
Gulping sounds echoed all around me as the crowd absorbed his cold-blooded threat.
Slowly but surely, people began locking in their choices. Unsurprisingly, most chose [Easy], terrified of dying. Everyone was scared of death. Still, a few brave souls selected [Hard].
I waited a few moments before finally selecting [Hell].
The moment I pressed it, I caught Al’s attention. His pearly red eyes locked onto me, and he rushed over in a burst of excitement.
[You have chosen the Hell Difficulty!]
[Congratulations! You are the first human to register for the Hell Difficulty.]
[You have obtained a Low-Ranked Lootbox.]
[You will be able to open it once you enter the tower.]
"Oh my god! I didn’t think anyone here would actually pick the Hell Difficulty~!"
Al was so thrilled he couldn’t hide it, clapping his small hands together in delight.
"Hell Difficulty is true to its name. It’s absolute hell! You’ll suffer like no one else! Oh my god, this is incredible! A Hell Difficulty Challenger!" He grinned maniacally. "Here, take this for your courage, naive human."
A faint, pale blue stone materialized in my hands. A single glance was all I needed to recognize it.
To think I’d score such a massive head start...
[Low-Level Mana Stone]
[Mana Capacity: 0.05]
It might seem insignificant on paper, but upon consumption, it would allow me to awaken a hidden primary stat: Mana Power, one of the most critical attributes in the entire tower.
"Oh... how curious. You don’t seem surprised at all," Al noted, instantly picking up on my composure.
Tricking the senses of a creature like him was never easy, but it wasn’t as if he could penalize me for keeping my cool.
"The system notified me it was a mana stone, though I’m not entirely sure what to do with it," I lied smoothly.
"Hmm, simply absorb it once you’re inside the tower. It will grant you immense power! I can guarantee that-"
Before he could finish, a challenger who had chosen [Easy] blurted out, "What about us? Do we get one of those too?"
Al snapped his fingers. In the blink of an eye, the interrupter’s head exploded.
Blood and tissue sprayed across the pavement. Panic erupted instantly as horrified screams tore through the park.
"H-He’s dead!"
"W-What the fuck?!"
"I don’t want to go in there anymore!"
Al snapped his fingers again, and every person shouting suddenly lost their voice. They gasped and clawed at their throats, unable to make a sound.
"Kindly keep quiet unless spoken to. Otherwise, you’ll end up like that loser over there. Understood?" Al said, tilting his head with a sweet, deadly smile.
He turned back to me, his cheerful expression returning as if nothing had happened.
"Perfect~! Now, back to business. Please consume that stone as soon as you step inside the tower. It will be of tremendous help. More importantly, if you manage to survive the first floors, remember my name! Call for me, and I can grant you even greater rewards!"
I nodded politely, though I saw right through his angle.
He was a low-ranked Dokkaebi, trying to boost his own standing by binding himself to a [Hell] difficulty challenger, the rarest and highest-potential assets in the system. Unfortunately for him, I knew how the game was played, and I was the last person he’d ever manipulate.
Finally, Al turned his gaze back to the rest of the gathered crowd.
"It seems all of you have finalized your selections! 983 chose [Easy], 56 chose [Hard], and... a single challenger chose [Hell]."
I felt the heavy weight of nearly a thousand eyes landing on me. They looked at me with pity, as if I were a tragic fool who had signed his own death warrant.
Little did they know, Al hadn’t lied. The lower their difficulty, the lower their ultimate ceiling. It was only a matter of time before I changed that dynamic; I would make sure more people had the strength to choose [Hell] next time.
I wasn’t going to let humanity drive itself to extinction a second time. I had to force them to grow stronger. But to do that, I needed absolute power first.
"Humans! It is time to enter the tower!" Al smirked. "I wish you all the best of luck, and may the strongest survive!"
In a flash of light, we were teleported inside. Translucent blue text hovered in my field of vision:
[Welcome to the Tower. You are currently on Floor 0.]
[Fight your way through the floor and defeat the Boss to reach Floor 1.]
[Notice: Floor 0 serves as the Tutorial. Master the tower’s mechanics before attempting to progress.]
I waved the notification away with a smirk. I already knew the rules by heart.
Instead, I looked down at the pale blue stone in my hand, then at the low-ranked lootbox resting on the cold stone floor at my feet.
"Time to use these beauties."