4 Preparing to Enter The Tower

Daniel sat in his chair with his eyes shining with splendor. What an amazing and crazy future. He was feeling excited and wanted to enter the Tower right away. When he was living as a scientist, he always enjoyed his life of pursuing knowledge and finding the hidden truths to the Universe. However, given that Earth's technology, there was only so much he could uncover by himself. He always felt that it was a pity he only had a limited lifespan to pursue knowledge. Now he came to thus fantastic future that was offering him the chance to pursue his dreams. He could not be more excited!

Daniel watched as Lily closed the holographic screen, he looked into her eyes and asked, "When can I enter? Give me a smart device!"

Lily could only shake her head while holding up both hands, "Hey Daniel, let's calm down for a second here."

Sarah jumped in, "I don't know Lily, maybe you should let him enter right now hahaha"

Lily reached across the table and pinched her friends nose, "Stop your laughing! He obviously was just excited about the broadcast. How can he know about the death rate?"

Daniel cued in to the last sentence and asked, "Huh? You said death rate? you can die in the Tower?"

Lily nodded her head, "Of course. What just happened to you is what happened to almost the whole world after that broadcast. 75% of the world population decided to enter the Tower after the broadcast thinking they were going to gain power and wealth. Out of the 7 billion people who entered the Tower only 500 million people came out alive. That was the darkest day in human history."

The kitchen became eerily quiet. The girls all showed a sad expression on their faces. Even Julie seemed to show a slight change in her facial expression.

Sarah broke the silence, "To make matters worse, we became the laughing stock of our galaxy. The Tower is able to show the results of how planets in our Milky Way Galaxy do, such as years since joined, floors cleared, and Death rate. On our first day the results were posted. We only passed the tutorial, but lost over 6 billion people. We are the joke of the whole Galaxy."

Daniel couldn't help but feel worried, "If that's true then how did we not become a slave planet? Did we manage to pass 15 floors?"

Lily and Sarah perked up showing pride on their faces. Lily spoke, "Of course, in a time of desperation heroes appeared. All across the world geniuses emerged on the paths to power. Our three families were apart of the emergence of geniuses as well! My Mom walks the path of Flowers. It comes from the Elven world! My Dad is or was, he was.. I.. He walked the Knight path but passed away when in was little." Lily's eyes started to tear up as she went silent.

Daniel decided to remain silent. Although he and Lily were sort of friends, he felt that he didn't know her well enough yet to console her.

After a moment of silence, Lily rubbed her eyes and cheered back up, "I'm fine guys. So anyway, geniuses emerged in plenty and we started to pass floors quickly. we passed through the first 5 floors in ten years. Everyone thought that it would be a piece of cake to make it through 15 in 150 years. However, we were wrong. After the fifth floor each floor grew exponentially in difficulty. It was just after 148 years that a genius from Canada managed to pass the 15th floor, saving earth."

Sarah decided it was time for her to speak, "So rock dweller, do you see that you entering right now would be suicide? Maybe if you were a genius like us, you could have a chance at surviving." She stroked her own cheek and said, "Our parents are all generation one climbers. We were born with parts of their paths already flowing in our bodies. Additionally, we have been educated from a young age on all things Tower survival. If you perhaps admit that I am the most beautiful young lady that you have ever seen, I might just give you one or two tips for survival." She flourished her hair, then turned her chin up, seeming to wait for god to pronounce her queen of the world.

Daniel ignored her snobbish behavior and looked towards the only slightly normal girl in the room, "Well Lily how can I enter the Tower?"

Lily looked at him hard and asked, "Do you really want to enter? You don't have your memories and you could actually die! No, most likely you will die!"

Daniel nodded his head, "I understand the risks, but this is my life. I want to discover my path!"

Sarah muttered, "Foolish rock dweller" under her breath, but didn't try to dissuade him.

Lily seemed to be thinking, and then gave a decisive nod, "Okay Daniel. You are in luck. We three just turned 16 and have reached the required age to enter the Tower. We are going to enter tomorrow. I'll prepare the essentials for you. Meanwhile, I'm going to give you some reading so you can prepare for tomorrow. Although we are entering the Tower together, that does not mean we can pass the trial together. The first time someone enters they must pass the tutorial which is an individual challenge. You'll be on your own."

Sarah cried out in dissatisfaction, "That's not fair! Look at him! He's clearly only 13 or maybe 14 at most. He should have to wait like we did!"

Daniel smirked at her and said, "Wow! A memory just popped into my head. I now remember that I just turned 16 not too long ago. What luck is that!"

Lily laughed and said, "See Sarah, he's 16. You're lucky that age isn't measured by mental years or you'd have to wait 10 more years the way you're acting."

Daniel started laughing as well, which caused Lily to start laughing louder. Sarah got pissed off so she aggressively got up from her chair and stormed out of the room while screaming, "Why don't you two just go marry each other!"

Lily's heard her friends scream and looked towards Daniel. Her face turned slightly red as she stammered, "What marry, I'm not marrying. You're marrying!"

Daniel smiled in amusement at her embarrassment. He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable so he said, "Lily would it be okay for you to show me to a room and maybe get me those books? I really want to prepare for tomorrow."

Lily's face grew serious and nodded, "Of course. Tomorrow is a big day. You really should delay and prepare for longer." Seeing his unyielding temperament, she could only sigh, "Okay. There is a bedroom in the guest wing of the house you can stay in. I'll have a servant bring you an I-Holo for you to use. The books will be in the downloaded library."

Daniel gave his thanks, and was about to leave but had one last question that had been bugging him since he came to this world, so he asked, "Hey Julie, weird question, but um, can you talk?"

Daniel stared at Julie as she seemed to have not heard the question at all. He was about to look towards Lily in the hope of an answer when he saw Julie move slightly. Her head was facing the floor, when it started to slowly move in Daniel's direction. When Daniel finally made eye contact with Julie, they stared into each others eyes without speaking. Her eyes were pitch black, like a hole into the endless abyss. A normal person would usually jerk away in fear or start shivering. However Daniel felt that her eyes were mystifyingly beautiful. He smiled at her and said, "Your eyes are gorgeous."

Julie seemed to twitch slightly. She looked at Daniel, seemed to hesitate, but finally said in an almost inaudible voice, "Thank you" After she turned her head away and went back to staring blankly at the floor.

Daniel was satisfied because he got his answer. She can talk but chooses not too.

Unnoticed to Daniel, Lily's face looked like she just saw a ghost. She was so shocked she could not believe her ears. She hadn't heard her friend speak in so long that she was sure she imagined it. After what happened she thought that Julie may never speak again. She hurriedly pulled up her contacts and messaged Sarah about what happened. Sarah came sprinting into the kitchen. She ran up to Julie and asked, "Julie do you really love him? Are you already pregnant with his baby? What! you're having twins?!" She laid her hand on her forehead dramatically, "Already forgetting about your good sister after falling in love."

Julie continued to look at the floor ignoring the obnoxious girl.

Daniel started to wonder why these two Angels were friends with this demon girl named Sarah. He turned towards Lily and asked, "I suddenly feel like this room has a foul smell in here. Do you mind taking me to my room?"

Lily giggled, "Sure can!"

Lily and Daniel got up from the table and went towards the guest wing. Faintly, you could hear Sarah screaming, "You smell! You probably don't even have a shower you rock dweller! Yeah! Go run to the bedroom with your boyfriend!"