Pretending

"Now that the outbreak is over, the question on everyone's minds is do I enter the tower or not? Don't worry dear listeners, we have the latest scoop."

The news was reporting the benefits of going through the tutorial towers for the first time. I clenched my fist to my side and decided today was going to be the day. The day that I 'pretended' to become an Awakened Hunter. I quickly packed my bag, making sure I brought some lunch to eat while I waited an appropriate amount of time before exiting the tower.

Fortunately, no one could enter the tower at the same time. The theory in my past life was that the tower created a new 'instance' each time, like it was a video game or something. I used to play some games in my free time, but I didn't really get all of the terminology. For instance, I could understand what a match was and inventory, but any more than that would be more than I could understand.

That is ok, the gaming industry would take a serious hit the first few years. Gamers would come to the towers in droves thinking the towers were some kind of new virtual reality. So many lives were lost because of the misconception. Your abilities before you entered the tower would help you live or die. Not everyone made it out of the beginner towers. That was what they weren't reporting on the news.

The government held control of the news stations until someone leaked what was really happening online. That is when they would start forcing people into the towers. I had personally been forced into the tower, so I had more intimate knowledge about how it worked. Of course, people would stop entering the tower if they knew they could die. It was human nature to do everything they could to go on living after all.

I grimaced as I remembered the bitter memories from before. There was a tower in the center of Silver City and I headed out to it on foot. The lockdown had been lifted the day before, but I stayed inside an extra day, just in case. I was probably being way too careful, but the determination to have a better life this go around burned brightly within me. I didn't know why I had been given this second chance, but I could at least make the most of it.

The tower in Silver City stood taller than the surrounding buildings. It looked like the local government had already cleaned up the area around the tower. The buildings that had been damaged by the sudden appearance of the tower had already been destroyed and pushed away from the tower. A large fence surrounded the area directly around the tower, but a sign that read 'Open for Challengers!' stood proudly in front of the entrance.

Anyone with common sense would think that was strange, but a line had formed as people waited for their turn to enter the tower. Since it only took a few moments for someone to enter an instance and disappear, the line was moving swiftly despite the amount of people joining the line. I sighed, and entered the line. Silver City was just strange, I needed to stop dwelling on the differences this time around.

Soon my turn came up and an official like person stopped me before entering. I had noticed that people were swiping cards at a machine before they entered.

"Please swipe your residence card so that we can keep track of those going into the tower."

This was also a new practice. It took several months for the government to track who had and had not gone into the towers. I frowned and pulled out my ID and swiped it through the card reading machine. The man tapped a tablet in his hands and gestured for me to enter.

I entered the large empty room and took a deep breath. In the center of the room was an engram like decoration on the floor. I stepped onto it and clenched my fists at my sides. My surroundings blurred slightly and I ended up in the same room as before when I finished the tower. A large screen popped up in front of me.

[It seems you have already completed the Tutorial! Would you like to rest before re-entering the real world? Y/N]

I stared at the screen for a moment and pressed my finger on the giant 'Y'. My finger went through the screen as expected. It was more like a hologram than a screen, but to my surprise a loading screen where the prompt from before was and a chair came up from the floor. The screen before me disappeared and the bright lights of the room dimmed slightly. I cautiously felt the chair and to my surprise it was quite soft.

"Why would there even be a reason to have this feature?"

[Ding! In order to better serve top hunters the system has created a more comfortable experience for those that consistently place high in the rankings. Time elapsed: 00:30]

"This is unreal. Yep, that does it. This was not a feature the first time around."

There was no point thinking about the differences, right? I shook my head and sat down on the recliner-like chair. The screen was keeping track of how much time I spent in the room so all I needed to do was wait. I thought back to when I went through the tower the first time. A few hours should be enough time to suffice. I wouldn't stand out too much if I waited that long. Probably.

It was concerning that they were already tracking who went in and came out of the tower. I was probably going to be on the government's watch list now. If need be, I could hide until The Guild was established. I had made preparations for that just in case my first plan didn't work out. The recliner-like chair was warm and soon I found myself falling asleep. When I woke up I found several hours had gone by.

[Time elapsed: 05:17]

I can't believe I fell asleep for five hours… The room had remained the same other than the blinking time on the screen before me. It was almost like this room was made for sleeping. The mysteries of the towers always seemed to leave more questions than answers. Like, who built them? What are they for? Or why did they suddenly appear one day?

The screen before me had told me itself that it was the system. If there was a system, then someone must have built that system…

Again I was trying to answer questions that not even the top experts and Hunters could explain in my past life. Everyone wanted to answer those questions, but no matter how long one searched, no one could make sense of it. Or if they did, they refused to share it with the rest of us. Maybe we were just some computer code and none of us actually existed. Someone's twisted design to entertain themselves.

I got up and stretched. It was the best sleep I'd had in awhile. I guess I could just stay in this room forever and this system would just let me rest here. On the far wall was an outline of a door with what looked like bright shining light where the edges of the door would be. From experience I knew that all I had to do was touch the door and I would be moved to the exit room of the tower.

I didn't know why dungeons had this room right before exiting the dungeon, but I never really used it. Maybe that was a mistake. My thoughts were always just to get back home and rest. The system had never answered my questions like that either. I hesitated before leaving.

"System, why are things different this time?"

I felt dumb asking a question to an empty room. It would probably not answer me anyway. How many times have I tried to learn more from the system? None. I realized that I had never given any thought to actually interacting with the system in my past life. It was normal for me to just speed out of this room and ignore everything else.

[The hunter is given more information the higher the rankings. My design is to create the best experience possible $%^&&]

It seemed that part of the system's answers were corrupted. Or perhaps I was not supposed to see that part. The feeling that someone out there was controlling this whole situation got stronger the more I spent here. I was more prepared this time. Maybe I could actually find some of the answers I always had in the back of my head. My old life was filled with just trying to survive until the next day. What little I could get from dungeons put food on the table.

Since I struggled so much, I did not even think about actively trying to find answers in the dungeon. However, this time it felt like the system was on my side. Was this because I finished first? Did my paranoid mind somehow create a benefit I did not have in my past life? It was a lot to process. I debated whether or not I should ask the system more questions.

"System, will you answer if I talk to you again in the future?"

It was a long shot, but if this was my only chance to ask questions, I couldn't leave yet.

[The system will be available for input at the end of dungeons and instances.]

I stared at the screen and nodded my head. It was settled. I would be using this new feature of the system any chance I got. The Gamers were right, it was like a virtual reality game. Only more deadly and you could not afford to lose.