ch.1

"What in the world is this?"

He stared at the colorful but primarily blue screen in front of him, contemplating possibilities about it when it suddenly shifted to a plain, grey white colored screen, stating,

*would you like to challenge stage? First challenge is tutorial level for all entrants.*

Hm? Challenge?

In this moment, he came to a realization. Either, this was real or this wasn't. If it wasn't it could either be a hallucination or an afterlife. If it was real, then this was obviously created by some mysterious and powerful entity, either a part of, related to, or the controller of this 'tower'.

Based on the characteristics of this 'thing' he was seeing, he could make inferences about this entity, and therfore come to a deeper understanding of how and why this is happening, and what may happen next as a result of his interaction with this...system?

He saw that there was a choice, [yes] or [no], on the simple screen. This gave him a clue, but he didn't have enough information to come to any conclusions yet.

He decided that the best course of action was to verify whether this was happening to others, or if this was something unique to him.

Either outcome would be huge in helping him understand what's going on with this, tower system, I guess you could call it.

He got up and slowly made his way out of the alleyway, shuffling through trash and grime.

He got out of the alleyway, and could barely see anything, like he was almost blind.

He could still see the basic, rough outline of things from about half a meter away, but that was about it.

It was strange how, even when this was the case, he could still perfectly see the system.

Still, he made his way down the street, calling out in a weak voice to see if there was anyone there.

Eventually, he found someone.

They were on the street, beer in hand, looking absolutely plastered, and staring into the sky with a confused expression.

Although from his actions, he guessed the man could also see a... window? Yeah, a system window, like him, but he asked to make sure.

"Hello there."his voice sounded like satan just woke up from a nap.

The man looked in his direction, and having consumed who knows how much alcohol said

"Oscar the; ggurouk, form seasa-my, stroet?"

While he barely could keep himself up, even when sitting down. That's just how terrible his balance was.

Admittedly, he did look more like Oscar the grouch than a human being right now, due to his situation, so he didn't blame the man for the confusion. Especially since he was absolutely hammered by something which was definitely more than beer.

So he continued "are you also able to see the system window?" This time sounding a bit better, like krampus about to cough up some coal into a child's stocking.

The man responded with a bundle of mish mashed words that seemed reminiscent of a question.

So he said "the floating thingy." While pointing a little above his head, where the system window was angled so as to not block the view of the surroundings, and could be seen by just raising his head a little.

The drunk man seemed to understand, doing something similar to smiling and noding that almost made it look like he was having a stroke. The man pointed up and forward just as he had... kinda.

He couldn't really tell what was happening all to well, due to his terrible eyesight and pounding headache. But with some guess work he thought this is the kind of situation that would be playing out.

This was enough confirmation for him that at the very least, more than one person could see this system window just like he could.

He thanked the man, then turned and left.

After he got back to his trash dungeon, sat down and looked at this so called system window.

He stared at the options [yes/no].

After some thought, he nodded his head, lifted up his hand, and pressed the button of his choice.

[No]

Ding!

The system seemed to process his choice for a bit, and then gave him another window.

[ confirmation, are you certain ]

[ of your choice? ]

It gave him a warning that if he picked no, he would not be giving a tutorial level challenge.

Still, he picked no.

The system seemed to think for a bit, and then showed a system window saying,

*player will not be provided tutorial. Annalizaling system compatability.*

Under it showed a grey ring with a 1% below it and a small sliver of blue in the ring above the percent.

Under that, it was written *estimated time: 8 days*

He looked at it and nodded his head in satisfaction.

As he thought, he seemed to have made the right choice.

If he had picked yes, it probably would have sent him to some inhospitable place for 8 days. In his state, that's no better than a death sentence. Although it will be harder to adjust to the situation, at least he will be safe.

He of course, always has to be on the safe side with these things. Even if the benefits he receives are worse, the benefit of life always outweighs such gains.

Plus, since others got this system notification, the tutorial will not have any special rewards with it, likely only giving the most rudimentary and fundamental knowledge, while being quite dangerous.

He would rather train in a safer environment.

Life isn't some game, as some would imateurly think. To a person who may or may not have the strength to trek on, stopping and resting is always better than getting blisters on your feet.

There is no such thing as a tortoise who runs as fast as a hare, or a hare that is as consistent as a tortoise. A person must chose which of the two is best for them.

He is not strong like the tortoise, so he will become a hare and run from any danger, before building strength to run again.

Now, with the situation under control, he begins to think of ways to train his body.

It is undoubtedly his greatest weakness, and whatever coming danger that he will encounter.

It is clear that he will not be able to give his beloved characters their deserved stories for now, but keeping himself alive to continue doing so in the future takes priority.

And who knows, if this is truly a tower like in the stories he has read, perhaps he will find more characters to give his stories to. But this time, it won't be through his imagination.

The thought of that makes him the most excited he has been in a long time.

But he calms himself down and tries to focus.

How to strengthen my body...