Chapter 1- Endless death

Bone-biting cold crept through his body. Zane snapped open his eyes, then slammed them shut with a painful yelp.

Abrasive sand rubbed under his eyelids—painful, but nowhere near as agonizing as burning to death.

'Wait, why am I feeling pain?,' thought Zane as he forcefully opened his eyes.

A wooden wall loomed just inches away from his face; the tight, claustrophobic space answered his question.

'I am in a coffin, so I am dead. Then why am I feeling pain?'

Excitement, more than pain, forced his hands to push against the almost rotten wood above him.

That was a mistake.

Rotten wood mingled with damp soil rushed down, completely submerging him in a sticky mix of liquid.

Zane gasped.

Again, that was a mistake, as the mixture filled his mouth and blocked his lungs until they ruptured, killing him instantly.

Congratulations for being the first one to die after death.

Your worth exceeded that of Hades. I suggested the Inquisition of the Universe hire you as a messenger of death.

But alas, your worth overshadowed everything, and the universe planted one of its properties into you!

Are you happy? Haha, I know you are!

[Attuning your deck element: Endless Death.]

[Endless Death: Every death of yours grants you a card. The more gruesome and unique your death is, the higher the grade of the card.]

Dying suffocating, gulping down the entire mass of the rotten wooden lid of your coffin, is… too unique, if I must say.

Albeit not as gruesome as burning alive, it was unique nonetheless.

[Congratulations on obtaining your first card.]

Name: Lid of Eternal Rest

Grade: Unique

Variant: 3

Evolutions Left: 0/3

Level: 1 (0/100)

Categories:

Primary : Control

Secondary : Debuff

Sub: Domain

Base effect:

Suffocating Grip (Control):

Trap enemies in an invisible force that constricts their movements, immobilising them for up to 60 seconds. Struggling against this force result in this time double in each second and the force triple for each seconds they struggled. 

•Effect Radius: 15 meters.

•Energy Cost: 50 per activation

•Limitations: Can target up to 3 enemies simultaneously.

Effect 1: Rotten Veil (Locked until next evolution.)

Effect 2: Coffin Call (Locked until next evolution.)

Effect 3: Gravekeeper's Domain (Locked until next evolution.)

(NB: Cards are graded as follows: Ordinary, Common, Uncommon, Unique, Rare, Epic, and Legendary, as far as you need to know.

To increase the level of a card, essence points are needed. To earn essence points, you must kill either Mirages or… hehe.

Evolution happens after every two level-ups.)

Great. Zane watched the screen flickering before his eyes as he lay in a swaddle of liquid.

He pushed himself off the ground, looking back at the sight where he had just died.

The entire coffin was covered in rubble. He started to dig it out. His nails tore in a few places, but pain was the least of his worries now.

When the coffin finally emerged, what greeted him was a skeleton that slowly shattered into dust.

'It's real.'

Zane leaned in to look at the clothes the skeleton wore, then looked down at his own naked self.

"What's the hell is actually going on?"

His question was met with a sudden breeze, followed by a mechanical voice that scared him enough to jump back.

[Connecting to the Tower of Possibilities.

Unlocked:

Info (One-time)

Deck Status

Body status 

Map]

With this voice, four icons materialized in the left corner of his sight.

For a clear understanding of the current scenarios, I suggest you open Info, a one-time consumable tutorial.

Zane had to just fix his gaze on the Info icon for it to open. A multitude of memories flooded into his brain, like stored data transferring from one computer to another.

His first reaction after reading the memories were to spin around and look into the distance, where a cylindrical tower rose high into the sky, reaching heights impossible for human sight.

Then his eyes fell on the sun—much bigger and whiter than he remembered.

It cast a shadow of the tower that extended in his direction.

"Tower of Possibilities…" Zane muttered in awe, recalling the details the memories explained.

Thousands of years ago was 2025, the year of his death and the beginning of a new era.

It was mid-April when a strange, almost gothic structure, later called the Tower, replaced the Eiffel Tower.

Everyone who entered it disappeared, forcing authorities to shut down the entirety of Paris.

The same scenarios began to occur all over the world, with governments scrambling to block any entrances.

The world was in panic, but that quieted down after some time. Until, two years later, someone exited the tower.

He called himself a Climber and carried power beyond humanity's imagination.

More and more people began to emerge from the towers, each wielding power that terrified the world and altered its political atmosphere.

At first, these Climbers tried to stop anyone from entering the towers, rightly explaining the dangers—even death—inside them.

But soon, people began receiving messages directly in their brains.

They could enter the tower with just a thought. And so, the era of Climbers began.

The appearance of the towers not only strengthened humans but caused all living beings to evolve.

Evolve into their ancestors.

Chickens became T-Rexes, wolves howled at the moon with swinging tails, and dragons soared through the skies.

But humanity retained its spot as one of the apex predators as humans grew tremendously stronger as they started to climb.

No memories existed about this tower or what Climbers did inside to wield their power, but one sentence crept into Zane's spine:

To gain power, they had to kill. And so, all of them became killers.

"This isn't creepy at all," Zane said, shivering as a breeze passed by.

His brain worked overtime to decipher the reality painted before him, despite his attempts to believe it was an illusion.

"Wait, monsters evolved into their ancestors…" Zane had a feeling this was an important warning.

That feeling was confirmed when the ground beneath him trembled.

The pool of water above the coffin began to vibrate.

Like an earthquake.

But why did it feel like the quake was moving closer to him?

Zane suddenly saw his shadow stretch… no, that was another shadow intervening with his, fully covering his form as a huge neck loomed into the distance.

The quake stopped.

'Don't look back. There is nothing…'

Zane bit his lip, goosebumps rising on his body as a foot came down.

Squelch.

That was the only sound the atmosphere carried as the quake moved past, as if nothing had happened.