Chapter 3: Entering TOT

Alex woke up in the morning, ready for his new day and his new life. It was the start of a new journey, and he was determined to make it memorable. He got ready for school, feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety.

In class, the room buzzed with the noise of students, the classroom was almost packed with students. He found his seat and sank down, his mind already far from the daily grind.

"I'm 18 now. It's finally time for me to enter the Tower of Trials. It's giving me goosebumps! I'll be stepping into the worlds of all those movies, anime, and novels!"

Just as he was lost in these thrilling thoughts, a sharp jolt on his back made him wince in pain. He turned around, startled.

"Who the heck was that?" he demanded, a mix of irritation and surprise in his voice.

There stood his two best friends: Joe, who was chubby and medium height, and Kyle, who was thin and tall. They had been his friends in his previous life, but he lost touch with them after a few years. All those promises to meet up, talk occasionally, and go on trips—none of it happened. Everyone just went their separate ways, and after a year, no one knew where the others were. But here they were, like nothing had changed. Alex wanted to keep it that way.

"Say something, dude," Joe said.

"Yeah, when are you going to throw us a party for your 18th birthday?" Kyle added.

Alex smiled at their enthusiasm. "What party? Did you ever throw me one?"

"That doesn't mean you can't give us a party now," Joe replied, his grin widening.

"By the way, Alex, now that you're 18, what are you going to do?" Kyle asked.

Without needing to spell it out, Alex understood Kyle was referring to the Tower of Trials. He took a deep breath

"I've made my decision. I'm going to go."

"Then that means you got the tattoo" kyle asked.

"yes I got it right here" Alex said showing his right hand where the tattoo is present.

"whoa? What did your parents say?" Joe asked.

"Did you even tell them about your decision?" Kyle wondered.

"I haven't said anything to them," Alex admitted.

"You're brave, man." Joe said, his voice laced with admiration "You know that if you die there, you're really dead," Joe warned.

"But if you pick easy difficulty, you could breeze through the early stages with less risk of death," Kyle pointed out.

"Yeah, but the rewards are really low," Joe added.

"Life always comes first," kyle said frimly.

Hearing this, Alex couldn't tell them he was planning to go in on the original difficulty.

—Ding-ding-ding—

The class was about to start, so Alex's friends went to their seats, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

[6 hours later]

"Bye, Joe, Kyle. See you on Monday!" Alex called out, waving as he left for home.

He arrived home quickly. After greeting his mother and learning that his sister Anna was at a friend's house, he freshened up and went to his room.

It was 2 o'clock. The Tower of Trials was open all day, and today was the day Alex had been waiting for.

When everyone turned 18, some people received a mysterious tattoo on the back of their hand. The symbol represented the Tower of Trials (ToT). The tattoo was black and triangular and could appear or disappear with a single thought. It was the entry ticket into the Tower of Trials and also worked as a status screen projector.

Alex wasn't sure how it worked, but from what he had read online, he needed to think about opening the status screen while touching the tattoo.

He took a deep breath, pressed a finger on the tattoo on the back of his left hand and said the magical words.

"Link start!"

And nothing happened.

He tried again, adjusting himself, and placed his finger on the tattoo.

"Status open!"

A blue screen materialized above his left hand and moved with it. Alex stared at it with awe. To close it, he just needed to think about it. After practicing for a while until he was satisfied, he went on to the status screen. There were three options:

Status

Inventory

ToT

He selected Status and was redirected to the stats screen. The other two options, ToT and Inventory, were on the taskbar of the screen. There was also a settings icon on the top right corner of the screen, which only had the option to change the default screen.

Status

Name: Alex

Health: 100%

Stamina: 90%

Fatigue: 10%

HP: 70

Attack: 6

Agility: 7

Defense: 6

Endurance: 7

Focus: 8

Skills: [None]

Enhancement: [None]

Abilities: [None]

"This is pathetic," Alex said with a sigh. "Why am I so lazy?"

"I need to train no matter what"

He clicked on the next tab—Inventory. It was empty; there was nothing in it.

Then he selected the third option—ToT. A single sentence appeared:

"Do you want to enter the Tower? Yes or No"

Alex selected Yes, and with a sudden, disorienting plop, he disappeared from his bedroom and found himself in a completely white lobby with nothing but a blue screen in the middle of the room.

He walked toward the screen and looked at it.

"Welcome, challenger, to the Tower of Trials. Before entering the Tower, do you want to change your character design?"

Alex immediately selected Yes. "It's best to hide my name so no one can trace me back to Earth."

There were three options:

Select an alias

Select a mask—Each mask comes with a voice modulator

Select a hair color

He clicked on "Select an alias."

"Ah, this is a headache. I'm bad at naming. What should I choose? Let's try some random names first."

"How about John?"

[Already taken!]

"Tempest?"

[Already taken!]

"Asura?"

[Already Taken!]

After many tries, he finally settled on "Shadow."

"Are you sure you want to make 'Shadow' your alias?"

He immediately selected Yes. Finally, something that wasn't taken.

Now for the mask.

He selected a design from the numerous options available. It took at least an hour to find one he liked.

[MASK]

Next was hair color. There were a thousand colors to choose from. His hair was a bit brownish, so he changed it to black.

After finishing these steps, Alex selected the "Finish" option at the bottom of the screen.

"Finally, all done."

[Welcome to the Tower of Trials—Check the status screen after entering]