Night Curfew

As promised by the strange voice, a few minutes went by. Surprisingly, there wasn't really much noise in this little village, even with 50 people all in one place. No one had really gotten up and moved around either. Most people just sat there, having anxious expressions. At most, some weak cries and murmurs were heard but no one was screaming, talking loudly, or freaking out.

From a 3rd person perspective, the situation wouldn't really look all that weird, if we excluded one strange thing. A majority of the people who were in their teens were staring into blank space, some crying, some frowning, some with neutral expressions, some with prideful and arrogant smirks, and just a few weirdos with weird grins.

It would lead one uninformed to wonder, just what were these youngsters gazing at? Well, of course, it was at their Talents! Especially their Talent descriptions and level-up conditions. Though it's not like it was only the teens who were looking into seemingly blank space. Rather, it was a majority of the people here. It's just that those older or younger seemed confused or disbelieving.

Kairos, on the other hand, was looking into blank space as well, it's just he had already unsummoned the Talent description panel, and was rather just very deeply thinking about the things he had concluded.

"Hey, what do you thi-" Just as the man who had woken up Kairos turned to him and was about to strike up a conversation, the strange voice came back.

{Hello everyone! Have your weak brains chilled out? Have you guys checked your Talent? Are you happy with it? Oh, some of you aren't? Well, sucks to suck. Ah right, I forgot to add something while describing Talents. The grade of your Talent determines the difficulty of raising its level. It also determines the boost your Talent gets from each level up. What that means is, that it isn't over for you if your grade is low as long as you work hard enough!}

{F grade talents, while pathetically weak and each level up bringing pathetic increases to power, also have incredibly easy level up conditions. If you remember, I said that "in most cases, it isn't as simple as just repeatedly using your Talent". While it is correct, it is in most cases. For a lot of F grade talents it really is that easy. Though for the few F grade trash here, don't go raising your ego thinking that you're better than those with a higher grade than you. A level 5 F grade talent can't even compare to a level 2 C grade talent, for example.}

{Of course, this also obviously means that it gets incredibly hard to raise the level of your Talent the higher its grade is. So just because you have a good grade Talent, it doesn't mean that you can just chill and let your grade carry you. You have to work hard to level it up!}

{Anyways, that's enough info dumping. Time to get to work!... Is what I would have liked to say, but sadly you all are only on Floor 0, so I can't be too mean to you. It still seems like most of you are in no condition to start our Tutorial on The Tower, so it will have to wait till tomorrow. Plus it's getting late already, and I wouldn't want to be outside during the night if I were you~!}

As the voice said that, people stopped staring into blank space and looked around to see that it was right, the sun was setting. The night was coming.

{This brings us to your first Quest! Please carefully read the panel that will appear before you, and hopefully, I don't see anyone not complying ~! This is all from me for tonight, see you all tomorrow for our first session of Tower Tutorial~~!!}

[Quest: Night Curfew

Description: Night is coming, so it's time for the Climbers to go "home". One of the buildings in the village has been designated as your "home". You are to immediately head inside and remain inside until the sun comes out. Staying outside after the allotted time has run out (after Night has come) will result in a Penalty. Going outside of your "home" after the allotted time has run out (after Night has come) but before the sun has come out (before Day has come) will result in a Penalty. Returning to the building not designated as your "home" will result in a Penalty. Good luck Climbers!

Designated "home" number:12

Time remaining until Night:00:01:30

Time remaining until Day:08:01:30

Reward: Ingredients.

Penalty: Death.]

It took a few seconds for everyone to read the Quest panel, but the moment they did they...were rooted on the spot. After all, who could remain clear-headed and logical after having their life threatened? Well, maybe people who have had their life threatened before. But everyone here was a normal modern person from Earth. No one here had fought in wars or been in life-and-death situations.

And as if to prove that point wrong, 2 people immediately stood up. One was a man in his 30s, with a military haircut and a military uniform. Obviously, he was a man serving in the military. It makes sense why he immediately stood up. He was both used to life-and-death situations and listening to orders. He calmly and with discipline stood up and, while not even looking around him, started walking on one of the 5 roads.

The other person who stood up was... a pretty-but-cold-looking girl, around age 19. She had long black hair and calm brown eyes. She didn't look around as well, and, just like the military guy, immediately went on one of the 5 roads, the same one as the military guy.

Seeing these 2 people act so decisively seemed to have woken up most others, as they too stood up and started looking around, although nowhere near as calmly.

Kairos was one of the first ones after those 2 to start searching for his "home"... though it's not like he had to search that hard. He only had to tilt his head right slightly to see the building with a sign on its wall reading "12".

'Well, that's lucky...Aha, I see.' Seemingly having understood just a hint of something yet again, Kairos walked calmly towards his "home".

While he did that he looked around to better understand the structure of this small village. After all, in the beginning, he had been sleeping, then after he woke up he heard the strange voice so obviously in his still-half-asleep state he screamed Status, then came the voice's speech, after that, he had been too busy thinking about his Talent. So he hadn't really taken a good look at his surroundings.

There were only 6 buildings he could see from where he stood. There was one building in the center of the little clearing that seemed a bit better than the other ones. Kairos guessed that was the Town Hall. It was labeled with a "1".

The other 5 formed a pentagon around the clearing. Each one had a random number on it. Between the 5 there were 5 roads, 4 of them leading to a stone wall and 1 of them leading to a closed gate.

Each of the roads seemingly split into 2 before the stone wall. Kairos guessed that these split roads led to other buildings. He was almost 100% sure considering that quite a few people have already checked all 6 buildings visible from the clearing and hadn't headed inside, seemingly still not finding their "house".

"Bah, what are you fools doing?" It was at this point that an old-sounding voice was heard from around the center of the clearing. Kairos, having already found his house and having more than enough time to go inside, decided to turn around to see what was going on.

He saw an old-looking man, his hair and beard already white, still sitting calmly on the ground. He was the only one who had not stood up yet. Feeling curious, Kairos decided to humor him for a bit.

"What do you mean, Sir?" Kairos spoke respectfully.

"Humph. Is everyone stupid? This is obviously one of those reality shows! I mean, really, a medieval village? A strange voice in our head? A "Status"? A "Talent"? We will "die" if we don't find our "house"? What moron would believe this?" The old man said with a mocking tone and expression.

"I've watched shows like these with my grandson. The last one I saw was some man waking up and getting tricked that the zombie apocalypse had started. Haha! He acted just like you guys! So scared! I bet the viewers are all laughing at you guys right now! My grandson probably signed me up for one of those shows. Humph, that rascal, once this show ends I will spank him so badly!!" The old man feigned anger, but it was obvious he wasn't really all that angry at his grandson, if at all.

"Sir, If I may, why are you so sure this is a reality show? And even then, what do you lose if you play along? At most, you will just get humiliated a little bit. But what if it's real, aren't you scared of dying? Plus, how will you explain the voice in our head and the Status panel?" Kairos decided to continue, his main reason moving away from mere idle curiosity to actually being interested in what the old man was saying. After all, although the way he said it was arrogant, it wasn't a bad point.

"Bahaha! Well, it's obvious. Man, technology is getting so advanced these days! It's obvious someone from the staff implanted a hearing device in our ears while we were asleep, that's how we are able to hear that strange voice. As for the "Status panel", it's obvious someone put some very advanced lens on our eyes, that's why we can see it! I refuse to humiliate myself! If I had stood up and started looking around all scared and panicked, I bet my grandson would've laughed his ass off!" The old man said, barely able to contain his laughter and even failing.

"But-" Just as Kairos was about to continue arguing, a strong hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked back to see who it was.

"Just leave him. You can't save those who don't even want to be saved." It was the 22-year-old man who had woken up Kairos. He was tall, taller than Kairos, standing at around 1.90 meters. He had messy blonde hair, with bangs right above his eyes, which were green. He looked lean, but judging from that grip on Kairos' shoulder, he was very strong.

"Dad..?" Kairos said in a daze.

"...I'm not your dad, kid." The man said, seemingly annoyed and having remembered some very bitter memory.

Yes, now that Kairos looked at him better, he wasn't his dad. No, looking at it better, he looked nothing like him at all. It's just the vibe this man gave off made people at first think of their father. But now looking at him better, he had a dependable and mature aura. Though more like a big brother than a father.

"Anyways, leave that old man behind. I saw that you were walking towards building number 12. That's my building number too. Let's go." The man said, having gotten rid of the expression on his face that just screamed "I'm so annoyed right now".

"A-ah, wait up! I'm building number 12 too!" A young girl came running at the duo of Kairos and the "big-brother-aura" guy. She looked around 15 years old, with blonde hair and green eyes. Kairos would've thought these two were siblings had it not been for their faces. If one were to take away their hair and eye color, they would look nothing alike. Actually, now that she had come a bit closer, their hair color wasn't exactly the same. The guy had a darker yellow, close to golden, while the girl had a lighter yellow, surprisingly close to white, though an obviously healthier white than the white-haired old man.

"Alright, let's go!" The girl said once she had caught up to the duo, and immediately started walking towards the building. Kairos shrugged and went forwards as well, leaving the old man behind. He had been a bit curious and interested in his points, but that was the extent of it. He obviously wouldn't risk death just to convince the man to get up.

The man who had grabbed Kairos' shoulder also went towards the house, leaving behind the old man as well. He had even less interest in that grandpa than Kairos did.

"Humph, you'll see what clowns you are once this timer runs out!" The old man said his last words before deciding to shut up and just wait so that he can laugh at everyone after their supposed "death" should've come.