"None shall climb."
The moment I said it, everything vanished.
The trees, the grass, and the fresh air of Verde Arx all disappeared like it had never been there to begin with.
Instead, it was replaced in an instant by something cold and breathless and black space— a darkness that didn't just surround me but slipped into my lungs and pressed against my ribs like it wanted to keep me from breathing.
I didn't fall, and yet I was falling.
Islands of fragments of memories surrounded me from every direction.
They were not the kind of memories that people want to remember, but painful ones I thought I had already buried: the cries I couldn't stop and the nights I thought I wouldn't wake up again.
It felt like I was reliving them all at once.
Despite the ache and despite the sting behind my eyes as I watched those memories, I felt… a strange calmness like my heart finally found peace.
"I wish I could stay like this forever."
But those fragments shattered like glass and suddenly… I wasn't me anymore.
I was looking at myself far away like I had stepped out of my body and watched it sink, or more like being pulled down by hands darker than the darkness; the same hands that tried to force me to open the door.
They wrapped around my limbs and dragged me faster and deeper.
I don't know what brought me back little by little. I could feel my breath returning back to my lungs, along with my strength to twitch and move my fingers.
Thus.
I opened my eyes.
"Where is this place?"
Looking around, all I saw was mossy stone bricks.
It was not the kind from alleyways or ruins, but endless moss-covered bricks stretching in every direction like someone took the idea of a prison and made it into a world without corners or sky or ceiling.
Bricks above me, bricks below me, bricks around me, bricks, and more bricks… and even more bricks.
"There's no doors or windows either," I mumbled, looking around once again just to make sure. "Is this even the second floor?"
I never really knew what the Tower that promised a miracle if you reached the hundredth floor looked like. But for some reason, I had always thought it would be filled with bloodbaths on every floor like a survival of the strongest and survival of monsters eating monsters.
"Don't tell me..." I muttered as I looked down at the ring on my pinky finger, "...this thing really brought me to the wrong—"
\\ I swear all of you really talk a lot to yourselves. Pipe down, will ya?!
"Who is it?!"
I snapped around to check where the source of the voice was coming from, but there was nothing.
\\ Right. I am called < SWAIN >, one of the Administrators sent here to judge your worth.
The tone of the voice was arrogant.
\\ Starting now, all of you are officially a climber of the Tower and face a lot of your fellow gifted climbers. If you don't want to be killed, use your gift and fight them. Kill them.
For a second, I wanted to scream for him not to hide but to talk to me face to face. But then again, this is the Tower and it would be weird to expect something normal from it, so I simply relaxed my shoulder and stood still.
\\ I'm sure all of you have reasons as to why you are standing right now at your respected chambers. Revenge. Glory. Redemption. Perhaps because of MIRACLE the top has to offer.
That made sense. I first wondered why the voice— the administrator— kept saying all of you every single time he spoke when there was no one else in the chamber but me.
"So there are other chambers too…"
\\ But remember! Throughout human history, from ancient times to present, the sole purpose of you, Gifteds, coming from hundreds of Arx on Floor 1 has been to climb the Tower.
\\ Survive!
\\ There is always a prize for your survival. What you will obtain depends on your performance. However, in the case you are defeated, I shall say it in advance that there is the possibility that you will regret that you climbed.
I clenched my fists.
"...Survive."
It was not a word to be taken lightly, but I have been doing my best to survive in that city of trash— Ferroa Arx. After all, if the administrator was telling the truth, there were not only two cities within the first floor but hundreds of them.
Still.
"I'll surv—"
\\ All of you might be thinking 'I'll survive. This is just an easy task' and other foolish goddamn phrases. Everyone says that. But you don't survive by saying it. You survive by making everyone else not.
\\ Oh, right. Even if the floor two through five are designed for hatchlings like you, you damn little eggs waiting to crack, don't get too complacent.
\\ That is all. Let's meet again after you manage to survive.
I frowned.
Again, the floors were really different from what I thought they were. I mean if four floors were placed as a training for new climbers, then the rest should be the very definition of hell.
Clenching my fists, I looked around. The room may seem empty, but living in a city of trash made me realize that not all empty boxes are useless.
Suddenly, a massive door of steel descended from the ceiling and slammed into place against the far wall. Dust and sparks scattered as its weight settled into the stone, sending a dull tremor across the chamber floor.
It looked like something made to never open again: riveted plates, giant locking bolts, and a rusted centerpiece in the shape of a clock face with its hands frozen at midnight.
Above it, a huge blue and translucent window appeared.
|| Floor 2: Trial of Selection ||
|| Content: Hidden until [11:59:59] ||
The clock began to tick, matching the countdown displayed on the screen.
Aside from that entrance that just appeared, the room was still made up of moss-covered stone bricks. There was no possible way to escape or go outside. In other words, the chamber was a perfectly sealed room.
Nevertheless.
I could see the interior of the room like broad daylight despite the fact that it was perfectly sealed, which means not a single ray of light should be able to enter.
Closing my eyes, I thought of possible ways of what to do inside the sealed room.
\\ Starting now, all of you are officially a climber of the Tower and face a lot of your fellow gifted climbers. If you don't want to be killed, use your gift and fight them. Kill them.
His words still echoed inside my mind, and that means only the stronger one would be able to survive in such a battle. But if what he said was true, then I must not trust even a single person in order to survive.
"This shitty world… you'll have to change it…"
"Mr. Junon…" I muttered, opening my eyes.
There's no meaning in his words nor can I change this shitty world if I can't survive the lower floors, that's why I'm going to survive no matter what.
If so, now's not the time for me to stay still and do nothing. But then again, even if the room was empty, and even if there was no other materials to help me train...
"Not all empty boxes are useless!"
My plan was simple: touch the mossy stone brick's wall, dash as far as I can, and run towards the opposite wall. Do nothing else, but repeat this again and again.
If I want to survive, then the first thing I need isn't power but stamina because at the heart of stamina is something far more important: tenacity. The will to keep moving when the world tells me to stop.
The refusal to break, even when my body is already cracked.
I ran.
And ran.
The clock constantly ticked as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours.
|| Floor 2: Trial of Selection ||
|| Content: Hidden until [09:59:59] ||
I could feel my legs giving up, like each step was dragging the whole world behind my back. I want to stop and rest right at this instant.
However.
I must not stop.
The most important thing in this training plan… is that I don't stop. Even if my speed drops. Even if my legs threaten to snap beneath me. Once I stop, I'll lose my rhythm, my breath will catch up to me, and everything I've built up until this point will start to fade and the efficiency of this training drops in half.
Momentum is everything.
|| Content: Hidden until [08:59:59] ||
So I must not stop.
|| Content: Hidden until [07:59:59] ||
Even if my legs go numb, I'll crawl forward. Even if my lungs burn and my vision blurs, I'll keep moving.
Because if I don't, if I even think about resting... I would remember the warmth of Mr. Graycat's body going cold and I would remember how Mr. Junon's corpse vanished like it never mattered.
|| Content: Hidden until [06:59:59] ||
I dropped down onto the ground and braced my hands against the floor.
Push-ups next.
The floor felt colder than before. Damp, gritty, and made of uneven stone tiles that bit into my palms with every shift of weight. My arms were still sore from the run, but that didn't matter.
Down. Up. Down. Up.
I counted in my head, not in numbers but in breaths.
One inhale, one exhale.
|| Content: Hidden until [05:59:59] ||
Each push-up came with the pressure of everything I was trying to outrun. Shame. Rage. Weakness. The feeling of being discarded, and the way people looked at me like I wasn't supposed to exist.
|| Content: Hidden until [04:59:59] ||
My arms trembled after a hundred of push-ups, and my breath shortened by two hundred.
|| Content: Hidden until [03:59:59] ||
By the two hundred and fifty, I was gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might crack.
Still, I kept going.
Because the truth is, I had nothing else but this body that had the strength even after consuming only one rye bread per day.
So I forced it to keep going.
|| Content: Hidden until [02:59:59] ||
Down. Up. Down. Up.
Until the stone turned slippery from sweat. Until my elbows buckled halfway and I collapsed face-first against the floor.
I lay there for a second.
Just one second.
Then I dug my fingers into the stone bricks and pushed myself back up again. Pain isn't the enemy, and neither is fatigue.
|| Content: Hidden until [00:59:59] ||
The enemy is stopping.
And I'll beat that enemy a hundred times if I have to.
|| Content: Hidden until [00:00:00] ||
Down. Up. Down. Up.
Until.
\\ Floor 2: Trial of Selection will begin shortly.
I paused mid-push up and lay down on the floor with my back, panting.
\\ Let me explain it again: this is the Tower. You are climbers. And from now on, the only rule is survival.
\\ Some of you are born lucky. Some of you are born cursed. And some of you… well, like that idiot in Ferroa Arx's trash tiring his body before the trial even starts.
The words bit, but I didn't react.
Instead, I stood and looked up at the translucent window that now displayed the content of the trial.
|| Floor 2: Trial of Selection ||
|| Objective: Form a group of three before the timer ends. ||
|| Failure to group will result in elimination. Or death. Whichever comes first. ||
|| The maze contains monsters, traps, and other climbers. Not all are friends. ||
|| Time Limit: 4 hours ||