Tutorial [7]

"M-Mr. Leo."

Lionel's voice reached my ears as the sounds from the bushes got closer.

Just based on how clear I could hear it, I knew there was no point in running.

Despite being taller, those goblins had better stats to outrun us.

The best thing to do was prepare to confront whatever was coming at us.

In the tower, stats were something that mattered more than one would expect.

Even back on Earth, there have been many times it's been proven that appearances could be rather deceiving.

"What's the matter?"

I turned to ask Lionel.

At this point, he was already on his feet, his face pale as he stared at the goblin corpse.

"That's not a human, right?" he inquired.

"Just because it looks like one doesn't mean it is. Can't you see its green blood or did you not notice how it charged at us with hunger in its eyes?"

I asked him at a fast pace.

This was something the original Lionel had gone through in the novel.

Unlike our current situation, Lionel in the novel, upon entering the forest, encountered a whole pack of goblins.

Due to their somewhat humanoid physique despite their appearance, he had been unwilling to harm them despite their intent to kill him.

In the novel, the fool had actually tried to reason with them.

It wasn't until the goblins started overpowering him that he almost died and retaliated.

The situation is different now.

I killed a goblin in front of him while trying to make him abandon those naive male lead character traits from his head.

The sooner he realises that we have to kill whatever wants to kill us, the faster we can climb the tower.

I only need to continue like this to the first floor, so the sooner he accepts the new reality, the better it will be for both of us.

Though I enjoyed such moments in the novel, dealing with them in reality is different.

As a participant in the tower now, I must prioritise our survival over clinging to fictional ideals.

"Remember when I asked you if you thought we were on Earth?"

"Y-yes?"

"Do I need to ask that question again?"

"....."

He kept silent.

However, I didn't need a reply to know what he had in mind. His expression said it all.

Now, for the final push...

"Don't you want to return back? I sure do!"

Saying that with a straight face as I lied through my teeth, I felt myself struggling to contain the look of disgust that was making its way up to my face.

Me? Returning back to that world?

Total bullshit!

I lived every day hoping for a chance to die painlessly, so why would I want to return there?

To suffer again?

It wasn't like the tower was any better, as I could die like a bug at any given moment, but it was different here.

At least in this place, the power to shape my life was in my hands.

As long as I had enough power, anything was possible.

I could even shape the lives of others with sufficient power, just like the government did on Earth, but unlike that place where the chance to obtain power was scarce due to the ones on top holding it all to themselves, it was different here.

Even a child could hold the power to decide the fate of a thousand lives as long as they climbed enough floors, so what about me?

I had an advantage others didn't, so shouldn't I aim for more?

In a world I always immersed myself in every day after reading a chapter of Tower Ascendance, finally when I'm in this world, shouldn't I see what it has to offer?

These were my honest thoughts despite the words that came from my mouth.

I hated it, but at least…..

It worked.

"Y-yes."

He tried to say with resolve and spoke again.

"This world is too dark!"

Well....it wasn't like he was wrong.

Just because I loved the things the tower could provide didn't mean I would deny the reality of what it meant to live in the tower.

It truly was a dark place.

The saying that one could get whatever they wanted in the upper floors was mostly true but it wasn't all sunshine.

It was a path meant to be filled with blood.

That's why I'm not against Lionel's thought of the tower since it's true.

It didn't reduce my urge to go higher though, and while to the current Lionel who wanted nothing more than to get out of here, in the future, after fulfilling his goal, his craving for the upper floors of the tower would be no less than mine and perhaps even greater.

"Let's survive and get out of here, Lionel!"

This time I was even impressed by the resolve in my words.

I had no idea I was a natural-born liar.

Well, I wasn't lying about the surviving part.

As I steadied my stance after receiving a nod of agreement from Lionel, several figures burst out of the bushes beside us.

The tower…..

Here we come!

******

Back at the tutorial Floor control room, the floor master could be seen holding his chest while staring at a particular hologram with a slightly fearful look in his eyes.

"What a monster!" he couldn't help but say.

In the hologram that the floor master had his gaze fixed on, a gory scene could be seen.

In a certain cave, several corpses of wolves and humans littered the ground, drenched in blood. It was a disturbing sight.

However, this meant nothing to the floor master. He had seen much worse.

Yet, here he was, truly disturbed.

In the centre of the bloodbath was a feminine figure, bathed in blood.

She grabbed her head, pulling her hair while laughing one moment, and then crying the next.

"....."

This seemingly crazy woman, no, this crazy woman was the sole survivor of the bloodbath, yet the root of it.

More humans died by her hands than they did by the wolves, and more wolves died to her than they did to the humans.

"She's crazy!"