1. Floor 0: Tutorial (1)

A blinding flash of light appeared in front of Langa and he felt an uncomfortable prickling sensation all over his body. When he next opened his eyes, he was standing outside a door, with the words Floor Overlord written on it.

"Next!" A bored voice said from the inside. Reflexively, Langa opened the door.

He had no idea what he was expecting or what the hell was going on, but it certainly was not a normal looking office. If you'd told him that he had just come into a generic corporate CEO's office, he would have easily believed it. There was a square desk, with papers neatly stacked on top of it, and a weird looking screen that could have passed for a computer. There were also some bookshelves along the back wall, and a file cabinet next to the desk and chair.

"Finally, you're here. Name? Hello?" A voice said, and he finally looked at the person sitting behind the desk. It was a young woman, with an irritated look on her face as she looked at him with her red eyes. "Give me your name, player."

He blinked, staring at the woman. Something was not right here, this whole place felt very out of place. It made no sense to Langa. Less than an hour ago, he'd been drinking with Neo, then some weird shit appeared in front of his eyes, and he impulsively chose to be a player. He had expected some grand world, some epic scale, not whatever this place was.

The woman was still looking at him expectantly, and she looked as if she wanted to punch him in the face. He frowned, something was wrong with her too. She looked very different, he couıd not pinpoint exactly what the issue was, but something about her felt off. Yeah, was it her complexion? There was no way a human so pale that he could see her veins as clearly as if he were looking through glass, existed. Her eyes that watched him were also dark red, and there was something unbelievably eerie about looking into them, and it made Langa uncomfortable. He had also never seen hair that shade of black either.

He tried to process everything that he was seeing right now in a rational manner. He was in some normal office, with a woman who definitely looked out of place, and it was jarring to say the least. Langa was normally a very calm person and he liked to go with the flow most of the times, as a result, he thought himself to be perfectly adaptive to unknown situations. However right now a certain amount of fear and nervousness gripped him, so much so that he felt as if he would suffocate. He felt like a child that had suddenly been placed in a burning pit, with no way out. He just had to ask what was happening, and who this inhuman woman was. "Who are you? Where the hell is this?"

"Oh for Master's sake. I really wish we were still using the old system. Then I could address all of you at once in the same place like the Guardians do, but no, The Unrivaled had to issue a new update. Now, we are all about one on one care, ensuring that every player gets the required amount of information before being dropped off into the tutorial, argh," she said, brow creased. "I am the Floor Overlord of the 36th floor, you may address me as Lady Mira. I am in charge of all the players of the 36th floor. As for where we are, this is the management office of the 36th floor. You will come here first before ascending to a new floor to get your pass... if you survive that long."

She spoke as if she was stating the obvious, but it all served to confuse Langa even further. 36th floor? That message earlier had stated that earth was now the 36th floor of some tower, was that it? Her voice came out cold, and detached, yet somehow an unknown chill went through Langa's body. Was that all that what had been his whole world for 27 years amounted to? Just a floor in someone else's tower? He could neither believe, nor understand it. And what was up with this apathetic woman? Did she not see that his world had suddenly collapsed right in front of him? Did she not have any humanity?

"Are you human?" He blurted out unintentionally.

She raised her eyebrows, "You players from the 36th floor sure are a curious bunch. No, I'm a vampire. Can I proceed with the introduction? Otherwise time will run out, and you will proceed to the tutorial cluelessly. Your name, player?"

So, she was a vampire. Okay, that meant that vampires existed. This was giving him a headache, it was all too much to handle, and Langa needed a time out. He did not feel like he had the mental capacity to handle all of this shit right now. Therefore, he did what he always did when he was faced with things that his mind could not comprehend or that were too much for his mind to handle. He pushed the bad thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind. 'Okay,' Langa took a deep breath, 'let's take everything at face value. Let's pretend this is real, vampires exist and earth is now part of some tower, and I'm a player.'

"Fine, that's that I suppose. My name is Langa," he said, and she happily wrote something down on a scroll on the desk. Who the hell used scrolls in this day and age? Well, vampires evidently. "So, you keep calling me player, and I guess that's because that is the character I chose. I just need to know, though. What does it mean to be a player?" he asked.

"Wow, you did not try to attack me like your fellow humans or scream and make unnecessary noise after finding out what my race is…I must say, I'm impressed. People from lost worlds like yours often struggle to accept things that they aren't used to." The lady said, her annoyance with him disappearing.

"My psychologist didn't think it was such a good quality. She called me the worst case of compartmentalism she'd ever encountered." Langa muttered, as Lady Mira continued speaking.

"Since you are so agreeable, I'll grant you an extra question in addition to the one you asked. Players are beings favoured by The Unrivaled and granted the ability to climb the towers. The Unrivaled is with you the whole way, throughout your journey, as the system. You gain access to different abilities and skills that help you get stronger, fight against different types of entities and earn more karma."

"Then what-" Langa started, but the woman held up her hand, to indicate that she was not done talking yet.

"No, no, no. Think carefully before you ask me what you want to ask. Now, I only have a limited amount of time with each player, so you may ask one more question only. You better make it count kid," she warned him.

It was weird that she called him kid, she didn't look that much older than him. Then again, she was a vampire, so could be a hundred years old for all he knew. Was she dead, or undead? How did vampires work in the tower? He was admittedly curious, but still, he shook his head to focus.

He needed to be sure about what to ask. Alright, he thought about the facts. So he was a player. Great, awesome. Whatever that meant. Only one question, huh? Was there a reward for climbing the tower, like a game? What was that about an unrivaled person becoming his system? What was that system in the first place? Why was earth dragged into this? She said he would have to fight against different entities, did that mean that earth was not safe anymore? Was his family safe? His sister, niece, nephew and even his brother-in-law, where they alright? Would he ever see them again?

He decided to ask a broader question in the hopes that she would give a broader answer. "Is the earth safe for my family?" he asked.

"Look, your world was integrated into the tower because it was in danger of a Void Eruption, so yes, it will be dangerous because maestrils will be coming into your world from the Void," she said, and then she frowned, "If your family are players, then it depends on the extent of their power when, or if, they finally manage to climb up to the 36th floor again. If they are NPCs, then they are only in danger if they step out of the safe zones, or if the being who ends up ruling the 36th floor does not allow them to be safe."

"What do you mean ruling? İs someone going to take over the world?" Langa asked, in panic. He had seen enough movies with one dimensional villains whose only goal was to take over the world, that he knew how disastrous it could be for the innocent people.

"I assume so, since the theme of the 31st to the 40th floor is conquest. No more questions." Lady Mira said sternly.

Alright. From that, he gathered that he was not able to return home right now, and that someone, one of these players, would end up taking over the world. His sister was a very cautious person, so he hoped that she would not leave the safe zones if she did not choose to be a player. He was unsure about Neo and Khaya, though. Neo loved thrills, the cheaper, the better, and Khaya loved video games, and she dreamed of being saved by a great hero and being whisked by him into an adventure of a lifetime. Those two might really have chosen to become players. His brother-in-law was a bit tricky, though, that man liked to be in the center of things, and he might have chosen to be a player. The two of them did not have the best relationship, but Langa did not want anything to happen to him, after all, the man had raised him. He bit his lip in worry, thinking about his family, and then shook his head. Right now, there was nothing he could do for them. He lacked information.

"Thank you for the information," he said, it could not hurt to be polite.

She smiled, revealing two fangs on her front teeth, was she really a vampire? "Good. Now we've wasted time, so here's your quick introduction. Look into that mirror on the wall, and think about who you are as aperson. That way the system will know how best to work with you,"

He wanted to ask more questions, but since she said that time was running out, he turned to look at the full length mirror on the wall. He was sure that it had not been there before. His reflection stared back at him, a 1.7 meters tall, dark skinned black man in jeans, a white shirt and sneakers. He ran his black eyes up his body, unsure what she meant by thinking about who he was. He sighed, running his hands through his shoulder length dreadlocks, trying to think. He was Langelihle Zulu, a boy abandoned by his mother 20 years ago after his father's death. No, he had risen above that identity, he would not let his mother define him anymore. He was Langa Zulu, a man raised by his sister, who only knew how to run on the tracks, how to run from his curse, and how to run from even his own talents and mental issues.

He was Langa Zulu, a man who once loved to run on the track, until he became jaded from people's expectations and from a lack of a challenge in the track, until even the running that he used to love so much, became a boring chore.

[System connected. Welcome, Player Langa Zulu.]

The words floated in front of him, and he was not even freaked out anymore.

"Excellent! Now that that's done, let's hurry up. You will be given a tutorial kit to use during the tutorial, please take good care of it, it will not be replaced. Since you were in the first top 40% of humans in your world to choose your character, you will be given a silver tutorial kit." She said. "Your integration into the Deiwos Tower has provided you with access to The Unrivaled's system. All characters that exist within the different towers have this system. It allows you to keep track of all your progress and attributes. Please check for me that your menu is working as intended. Just say, Status," Lady Mira said hurriedly.

"Status," Langa said, and he yelped when a blue screen appeared in front of him.

Name: Langa Zulu Race : Human

Age : 27 Character: Player

Level: 1 Class: N/A

Available Karma: 10 Total Karma: 10

Deity: N/A Highest Floor: 0/101 (Deiwos Towers)

Attribute: LOCKED EXP: 0/100

HP: 100/100 STA: 150/150

MP: 60/60

STR: 5 AGI: 17

MND: 6 VIT: 10

Free Attribute Points: 0 Alignment: (0) NEUTRAL

SPECIAL STATS: N/A

Regeneration Rates: (View more)

LOCKED:

Affinities and Resistances

Titles

Skills

Equipment

Inventory

"Wow, it really looks like a game screen!" Langa expressed in surprise. It really did look similar to the games that he played with Khaya from time to time.

"What game? You better take this seriously, or you will die. Anyway, please pay close attention, you can only learn 5 passive skills, 10 active skills and only 10 divine skills, so choose wisely because some of them cannot be switched out. To switch out your skills is very karma draining, and it's much better to just be selective of the skills that you choose to take. All nonessential messages are disabled during combat by default, you can change it later if you want. Anyway, time's almost up, so get your tutorial kit."

Langa was just about to ask her where he should get the kit, when a new message popped up in front of him.

[The Unrivaled Tower Master wishes to bestow you with a gift.]

He stared at the new prompt that appeared in front of him, with uncertainty. He could not explain it, but there was an uneasy feeling all over his body and it felt like someone was watching him. The weirdest thing was that he was sure that he did not know the language that the prompts came in, or even the language that Lady Mira spoke, but he somehow understood all of it.

"Who is-"

"A god. The time is almost up. Please accept your tutorial kit," Lady Mira said.

"Um, yes?" he said, unsure. A god? They had real gods here? "Did that god bring me here?"

"Technically, I guess. But the pantheon that rules over this tower is Deiwos clan, along with a few independent minor gods and demon gods," she told him.

Langa took a deep breath, once more calming himself down, trying to take everything in, and not let it all freak him out. Gods and demons were real as well apparently.

[The Unrivaled Tower Master has bestowed you with a gift.

Tutorial kit (Silver) x1]

Sure enough, a small backpack appeared in front of him out of thin air. He was not surprised anymore, so he just picked it up and slung it on his back.

"Alright. You will be able to retrieve the kit once you get to the tutorial area." Lady Mira said. "The tutorial will last for seven days, and it will take place in an abandoned world. In order to pass the tutorial and be able to enter the 1st floor of the tower, you need 1000 karma. Let me tell you, it is not easy to farm karma in a world abandoned by the gods."

Okay, more new information. The uncomfortable feeling from earlier started to encompass him. "Karma?"

"Yeah. I'll give you one last piece of advise. As a person from a lost world, make sure you make allies with those from natural worlds, they will help you with the information you need." Her voice sounded distant, "if you want to survive until the end, make sure to find your Calling!"

He wanted to ask her to explain what she meant by all of that, but another blinding flash of light later, and Langa appeared at a different area.