Tower to Heaven

//Welcome to an isekai-themed original story featuring the best girls from across the multiverse!

I'm posting most books I have in drafts because there's no point in keeping them there. Sure, I can rewrite them into something else because of Webnovel's 20 book limit, but at that point, I might as well make a new account and continue there.//

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What do you believe awaits you after death?

Heaven?

or

Hell?

The answer is the same for everyone. Be they a criminal, a dictator, a saint or a normal everyday person. What awaits you after death is neither of these, but a trial. A second of eternity spent in an interdimensional dimension that resides between the 3rd and the 4th dimension. A world of thoughts, dreams and unspeakable logic.

The Land Between, the Plain of Trials... the Motherland of Dreams.

An ethereal existence given form outside the boundaries of logic and common sense where reality is made a distant past and imagination take over. It is here where everyone shall be judged... by their own rules of morality.

It's not a trial of fire for the good or the evil, it is a trial meant to determine the strength of one's beliefs in their cause. Only those with strong will and a pure desire to achieve their own personal paradise thrive. Those who are weak and cannot pass their own trials... are damned into eternal oblivion. A state of absolute non-existence from which nothing can return, even if the gods themselves will it.

It is here where our story begins. Where the fable much like any other starts. A tale of a lonely man who, due to his social anxiety, spent most of his life barricaded inside his room, earning money through Pa_treon. A man whose legend is not special at all...

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Seth was a... lonely man, so to say. He's already graduated from a university and entered adulthood a long time ago, but, even now, when he's in his early 30s is he still without a significant other. Seth is an average-looking man of slightly unimpressive stature and overall average features, at least he would be if he tried taking care of his hair every now and then. He didn't really bother with cosmetics and appearances, which often led to him feeling left out and alone.

In reality, he'd be able to fit in with others pretty well, but his social anxiety made sure he would be virtually single every step of the way through his learning period. But he didn't really mind... No, he did, he really did, but he had a way of dealing with his loneliness.

The cure, of course, is the internet. More specifically the MMORPG community, the likes of Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and even Star Trek Online and so on. He was certified ✨~GAMER~✨, Seth is also a weeb, a pretty damn passionate one considering the number of expensive-looking statues and copies of signed manga on the shelves in his dimly lit but surprisingly clean room.

Seth knew it was pathetic, but one thought gave him a strange sense of solace, and that very thought/belief came from the isekai works. Yeah, somewhere deep down inside his heart, Seth had hoped that reincarnation is a real concept and he too would one day be able to gain his own harem of sexy anime wamen. He knew it was pathetic, but he didn't care. There was nobody to laugh at him anyway.

So, here he is, leaning back on his leather office chair that has arguably seen better days, leaning back and looking at his screen. Seth recently picked up a new game, it was pretty well received and had good reviews, not to mention it suited his weeb tastes quite well. So, he decided to play it. And... he was having fun!

That was the most surprising part. Seth generally didn't like this genre of games, the Gacha-kind of games are way out of his comfort zone. But... this game was fun and pretty well balanced! Not to mention it was a crossover between multiple manga worlds! If he had a game to compare it to, he would definitely go with the likes of Genshin Impact and the now-dead mobile game Bleach Brave Souls. You made a team of various characters of various specialities, mostly women in his case, and sent them out on quests to complete. Of course, he could individually control them and such, but playing on AUTO was much more relaxing, especially considering he liked to get some manga reading done in-between quests.

But enough about that!

Seth looked at his monitor with total concentration, a serious look on his face as he gazed at the new banner that was released just today. The so-called "Ultimate Best Girl Special - Anniversary Edition" was a banner released just a few hours ago for his favourite game featuring at least 20 5★ waifus from various works of fiction. The likes of Bleach, BNHA and so on. The best part was that it was cheaper than normal multi-summons and had a higher drop rate for 5★ characters. It was perfect!

"...Well shit... LET'S GO!"

-SLAM- -CLICK-

He slammed his finger into the left mouse button, clicking on the multi-summon icon. Moments later, the game showed a flash of light and showed him the 10 characters he summoned... All of them were 3~4★, not a single 5★.

"...Fuck."

Seth was obviously not very happy. This was some serious Gacha bullshit considering that 10 pulls usually guarantees a 5★, especially with higher drop rates. Sigh, this happens, bad luck isn't something that can be controlled, he'd just summon again and hope for the likes of Thunder God Battle Form Yoruichi Shihouin or Clear Heart Clothing Erza Scarlet.

...And once again, even after 20 summons, not a single goddamn 5★.

"...Okay... Okay... Breathe Seth, breathe..."

His nerves were not built for this. Seth hadn't slept in over 30 hours and barely ate anything, he had plenty of Mountain Juice so he wasn't thirsty but his stomach groaned every so often. As such, it was reasonable to see why Seth was in an irritated state with high blood pressure.

So he tried his luck again.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS PIECE OF ASS-EATING, SHIT-LICKING HOT GARBAGE?!"

Yeah... no luck again, this time he didn't even get a 3★. His sleep deprivation coupled with his bad state of mind and hunger lead Seth to summon a few more times, pretty much wasting every single drop of special currency he had no second-rate waifus and third-rate husbandos. Garbage after garbage after garbage...

"...Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh... GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

Seth slammed his hand into the table with such force that his keyboard bounced slightly, the pain of hitting his fist against hardwood didn't even properly register to him until a few seconds later when he clutched his slightly blue hand. He didn't even register the sound of his plate breaking against the ground.

"Dammit... not my brightest moment..."

With a pained groan, the male stood up to get some ice for his self-inflicted injury. However, what Seth failed to notice were the broken shards of the porcelain plate littering his uncarpeted floor, he jumped straight onto them.

"YOW!"

He yelped as small but sharp shards of porcelain cut into his bare feet, immediately jolting his body back as a form of reflex. This, however, would prove to be fatal as Seth not only bumped his chair back upon previously getting off, but he also placed it in such a position that he wouldn't be able to sit back on it without pulling it closer.

Seth's arms instinctively flailed upon noticing that there is indeed a distinct lack of an office chair behind him. Of all the things he could have grabbed, like the edge of the table for example to break his fall, he instead grasped the tower of his desktop computer by accident. Panic can make people do a lot of unwanted, dumb things. This would be one of the dumbest, most stupid mistakes of Seth's life as the computer tower immediately toppled in his direction.

Unfortunately for our introverted protagonist, the tower of his decked-out PC fell right on top of his head, the weight of which caused his skull to cave in... and the world went black. An immediate death followed, and Seth's soul was in a manner of a picosecond jettisoned out of his body and transferred to a completely unfamiliar place.

It was like Seth blinked and the world changed completely, now he didn't lay on the floor of his room with shards of porcelain on his feet and a concussion, but in a completely blank, flat world with a bright white floor and clear blue sky. There was... nothing. Absolutely nothing for kilometres, maybe even light-years. Just the same, flat world that resembled a test map for various kinds of games. It was detailless, blank, and with nothing but Seth's own lonely self for all its infinite size.

"...I was hoping for a thicc goddess to greet me in the afterlife and give me a wish or something like that... Not... THIS."

Seth noted the distinct lack of pain coming from his body, and upon looking down he understood why. He didn't have a body, his whole existence appeared to be a blank, glowing white silhouette that blended perfectly with the white floor of this eternal empty hellscape. Mourning the loss of his penis would have to wait though, he had more pressing matters to address.

"HELLO?! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?! PRETTY PLEASE?!"

But nobody came...

The concept of time was lost to Seth's senses, everything was the same, hunger and thirst were of ancient history and the things like entertainment became a very scarce, almost nonexistent resource. He didn't need to eat, sleep or drink, but... he was bored. Very... bored.

So, Seth began his journey. Step by step, minute by minute, hour by hour, year by year, century by century, an uncountable number of years passed faster than Seth even realised. He must have gone mad at least twice, but it never lasted long and soon, even madness became boring and sanity was restored to his ethereal mind.

He tried everything from praying to trying to kill himself by slamming his head repeatedly into the ground. Nothing worked. Seth began to lose hope, but he still refused to just wander this empty world forevermore. Even if there is hell, eternal land of pain, he'll take it over this shitshow.

-TRIP-

"Woah!"

Unexpectedly, Seth tripped over... something. He tripped over his own feet before, but, this wasn't the case. No, he tripped over SOMETHING... And his nonexistent eyes shot wide open when he noticed that what he tripped over was indeed a... book? He approached it with great speed, hoping to find some manner of entertainment in this hellish world.

But, upon touching the object, it changed. To his shock, it was no longer a book, but a phone. A typical interpretation of a modern mobile phone without a brand, black in colour and with a pretty large screen. With great curiosity, Seth powered on the phone and to his surprise, it was already turned on.

"Enter your fingerprint...? Okay."

He did it without hesitation, the phone asked for his fingerprint and, well, Seth didn't really have that now. Still, this fact escaped his bored mind and he pressed his white, detailless finger against the screen.

<[FINGERPRINT ADDED]>

"Cool."

Upon unlocking the phone, Seth found that the apps on the device were... strange, to say the least. There were no call or messaging apps, instead, there was something called WoCall [read: Vocal] which had both the option to call and message people, strangely though, it showed to option to add contacts... Strange. Another app was the camera app, nothing special about that. There was a gallery, no settings, strangely enough, a calendar which showed the date 00.00.0000, totally not ominous at all. The time on the phone also showed 00:00:000 and didn't move a single bit. The phone had a music player but no music, a video player but no videos and an app that was labelled as "Press Me" with a blank black icon.

Seth wasted no time clicking on it.

<[NEW REGISTERED USER]>

<[Name: Seth]>

<[Race: Human]>

<[Nationality: -BLANK-]>

<[Religion: Atheist]>

<[Time of Death: 18:34:011 - 08.7.2XXX]>

<[Age of Death: 32 years]>

<[Sex: Male]>

<[Constitution: True Neutral]>

>>>GENERATE TRIAL<<<

Seth blinked at the pieces of information before shrugging and pressing the big red glowing button that appeared with the words GENERATE TRIAL. He'd do anything to get out of this hellscape, fuck it, he'd suck Satan's dick to get out of here!

...Okay maybe not that but you get the point.

Upon clicking the button, nothing happened... The button disappeared immediately after. No changes were made to Seth's phone. But, his disappointment changed when he looked up from his device to see a simple, brown wooden door in front of him. His mind didn't bother asking questions anymore, instead, he rushed towards the door and kicked it open.

And, to his eternal delight, he was no longer in that blank world. Now, he stood in a massive, stone hall with a large set of two double doors at the end of it with a sign above them, reading the words: LEVEL 1.

As he took a step towards them his mind immediately noted the presence of a sound, the sound of his own footstep. He didn't even realise he missed it as much as he did until he looked down and noticed that he now indeed possessed a body. And... was completely nude. His penis was back! Still the same average size as always but at least he has it now!

However, Seth noticed something strange. His body felt... different. It wasn't taller or shorter, but upon touching his head he immediately noticed the lack of something he never cared about before. Seth... was bald. His hair was gone!

Upon closer inspection, he noticed a distinct lack of any fat or muscle across his whole body, it was as if his appearance was reset to a default setting in a game. He quickly opened the camera app and, indeed, even his own facial features were different. It was like he had a default skin in a game or something!

Quickly browsing through the apps again in hopes of finding something new, Seth was surprised by the appearance of a few new apps. One was called "Appearance", another was called "Menu", then there was "Storage" and finally a "Help" app.

He chose to click on the Appearance app first and was surprised for it to immediately open up to at least a billion different sliders each representing some minor detail about his own body. Muscle size, muscle density, hair length, hair intensity and so on, everything about his appearance could be calibrated here. There was even another page dedicated to clothing!

In the end, Seth had spent a good hour or two carefully adjusting his appearance to fit his needs. He bulked up his body to be lean but muscular, increased his manhood cause that's never a bad thing, added some height, hair and clothes and he was set to go.

Now, Seth looked like a... fully human version of Genos from OPM... Damn, but he looked good as hell! Somewhat wild, medium-length blonde hair now covered his once bald head. A sleeveless high-collar shirt covered his toned torso, it was of course accompanied by a pair of black jeans and black shoes, pretty much stealing the appearance of Genos without any of his cool cybernetic aspects. At least Seth had a big dick now, he didn't want to bother or imagine what in god's name Genos had in his pants, maybe a wrench or something who knows...

Ahem.

With his appearance now finalized, Seth pressed the "FINISH" button at the end of the list and he was immediately locked out from the Appearance app, it would seem that he would have to look like this for the rest of his... life? He wasn't sure where or what he was now. Seth had a million questions and no answers. So, naturally, he opened the "Help" app and searched for answers. Strangely, there was no selection of FAQ or anything like that, instead, answers to the questions he thought of immediately appeared in front of him.

<[You, unfortunately, perished at the hands of an unfortunate accident and now have been granted access to your own interpretation of "the Judgement Day". The point of these trials is to weed out the bad crop from the good crop, the point of this remains UNKNOWN, it is just the nature of the universe. You will not be able to interact with other trial takers, and neither will they. Trials are subjective to the person taking them, yours have taken the form of an incredibly tall dungeon, a tower if you will.]>

<[You must clear the 1000 floors of this tower in order to achieve your own personal heaven, in which you alone set the rules. There is no time limit, you don't age, however, sustenance is very much an important issue now.]>

<[Per your liking, the trials have taken this form. Every 10 Levels await you a boss battle from which various rewards can be gained. You have been given the "Summoning Persona" system which allows you to summon interpretations of otherwise fictional characters to aid you in combat indefinitely. Beware, these summoned personas are very much humane and can be killed, permanently. As such, it is recommended that you exercise utmost caution.]>

<[Higher rarity Personas mean that they are generally stronger than their lower-tier counterparts, however, large numbers of low-tier Personas can overwhelm strong boss monsters. It is recommended that you have backup in case your summoned Personas perish.]>

<[You can enter the Menu app to interact with your "Summon Persona" system which includes but is not limited to summoning items such as food, drinks, weapons, equipment, even Personas and more. Here you can gain access to your own personal list of Spells, each one unlocked after reaching a specific level in the tower. Each of these spells is different in nature and requires different amounts of time to be used again. Friendly fire is turned ON, be cautious.]>

<[In the tower you may encounter sublevels, these can be both malicious as well as benign and may include shops, inns, but also monster dens and so on. They can be entered through the exit of each level randomly, however, appear most commonly every 5 levels.]>

<[You cannot die while undertaking these trials. However, with your death you will be sent back to the entrance to Level 1 and be forced to clear the levels from the start, your items and Personas will not change unless you specifically lose them.]>

<[Good luck.]>

"...Well, this is something alright."

Seth made sure to re-read the whole thing twice just to make sure he didn't miss anything. He noted that he was unarmed, unguarded and pretty much just a normal guy without anything to protect himself. So, naturally, he opened the menu app and looked for the Summon Persona option.

>>>[Summon Supplies]<<<

>[1 Pull - 1 Ticket]<

>[10 Pulls - 10 Tickets (4★ or higher GUARANTEED)]<

>>>[Summon Equipment]<<<

>[1 Pull - 1 Ticket]<

>[10 Pulls - 10 Tickets (4★ or higher GUARANTEED)]<

>>>[Summon Persona]<<<

>[1 Pull - 1 Ticket]<

>[10 Pulls - 10 Tickets (4★ or higher GUARANTEED)]<

Currently, Seth noted that he had 10 Tickets already on him and assumed he would gain more as drops from mobs and so on, he also noticed a gold logo with a 0 next to it, meaning he was completely broke as of now. Whatever. First, he needed to summon someone to protect him, he was defenceless and had no means to defend himself.

"Luck, don't fail me now."

Quoting the infamous Yu-Gi-Oh! one-liner, Seth pressed on the 10 Pull button for Summon Persona. The screen glowed a bright white light before ten Yu-Gi-Oh-esk cards flew from the phone and hovered in the air with their backs turned to Seth, hiding the contents from him.

"Hearthstone much?"

One by one, he touched the 10 cards in hopes of getting a 5★ Persona on his first try. His hopes weren't particularly high as each card he touched let out a faint blue glow before turning around to reveal a 3★ character. He didn't even bother registering who he had as he continued flipping the cards.

-SHING-

"Whoa..."

On his seventh card, a bright flash of multi-coloured light erupted from the card's back as it began to slowly turn around, and as it did, a toothy, wide grin slowly spread across Seth's lips. The image depicted a beautiful, curvy red-haired woman in a tight, black bunny suit with two swords in her hands.

>[Bunny Girl - Erza Scarlet]<

>[★★★★★ - Ultra Rare]<

>[♥ / ♥♥♥♥♥ - Strangers]<

>[Orientation: Offence]<

>[Element: FIRE]<

>[Attack: 2500 - Defence: 1000]<

>[Level 1 / Level 100]<

>[Skill 1: Assault Bunny (PASSIVE) - gains 250% ATK and SPD upon the start of the battle for 15 seconds, lasts for 30 if the opponent is a male]<

>[Skill 2: Dual Clash (5 seconds) - hits 1 target with 150% of ATK, ignores Elemental Defence. If there's only 1 target present, doubles damage to 300%]<

>[Skill 3: Crimson Seduction (20 seconds) - temporarily stun all enemies for 10 seconds]<

"...Oh fuck the hell YES!"

Seth loudly cheered as he gripped the card showing his favourite and also the sexiest Fairy Tail character in a very revealing bunny girl uniform wielding two simply longswords with her stats displayed at the bottom of the card. All of his other summoned Personas were 3★ so he didn't pay them any attention. This was an amazing first multi-summon! Granted, it only gave him one good character, at least he thought this was decent, and the rest were pretty much redundant but goddamn! A sexy redhead on his first try!

...

...

...

"Oh, I'm going to have a lot of fun with this~"