Returning home, I toss the schoolbag on the couch and head to the bathroom to freshen up. Throwing the school uniform in the laundry basket, I look at the bathroom mirror and curse aloud, "I fucking hate this body."
I could handle school bullies and estranged parents but not what I saw in the mirror. An abomination, a blasphemous existence with distinctive features of both genders. I was terrified to accept that the profane figure in the mirror was me. Instead of a well-defined muscular chest, this body had grown a perky bosom while its balls were buried between its fat thighs, not to mention I couldn't see its manhood without bending over.
I could continue to complain about my current body, recall and admire my past life athlete bod, or channel my emotions into action and get rid of all this fat before it's too late. Resolving myself, I changed into comfortable clothes, planning to go on a jog, like I have been doing for the past week. But today, my plans were halted by an unexpected omniscient announcement.
'Hello, Mortals of Earth Realm. Congratulations you have met the requirements to participate in Mortal Realm Wars again.'
'As the resident administrator assigned to the Tower of Trials No.17081995 located on Earth Realm.'
'I hereby announce that the Tower of Trials is now open for all the Mortal Reigners of the Earth realm to prepare for the Mortal Realm Wars.'
'The number of Mortal Reigners on Earth Realm is…. Zero!'
'Wait! Did I read it wrong?'
'I see. Sorry for the inconvenience.'
'Dear inhabitants of the Earth Realm, 4600 million years ago, your predecessors participated in the Mortal Realm Wars and lost. As a result, the champion realm plundered the Earth Realm before it was reset to start all over again by the tower of trials.'
'Congratulations on achieving the eligibility to participate in Mortal Realm Wars for the second time.'
'Fortunately for you, the current Earth Realm can be considered a newborn realm. Making it eligible for a three-month protection period during the Mortal Realm Wars.'
'During this protection period, other Mortal Realms cannot challenge or invade Earth Realm.'
'All sentient beings of Earth Realm are strongly encouraged to climb the Tower of Trials to become Mortal Reigners and fight for your home.'
'I hope you guys learn from your predecessor's mistakes and don't let history repeat itself.'
'Happy Leveling'
Before I could head out for my daily jog, an omniscient announcement sounded and at the end of the announcement, a translucent blue digital dialogue box, similar to the ones in the games, covered my sight. It read,
[Please designate a Door as your private entrance to the tower of trials.
Note: you can change the designated door once per day.]
After I finished reading the dialogue box, it minimized into a tiny dot in the upper left corner of my sight. When I focused on the dot, it would expand into the translucent blue digital dialogue box, reading the same.
'What the? First, I hear sounds, and now I am hallucinating.' I thought before getting distracted by my smartphone buzzing with notifications.
[99+ Whatsup unread notifications]
All the chat groups in the Whatsup Messenger app were suddenly super active, discussing the content of the omniscient announcement earlier and the translucent digital dialogue box asking everyone to designate a door as their private entrance to the tower of trials. Pretty soon, the discussion turned to debate, and then the debate turned to speculations, which turned to outlandish fantasy theories.
'God exists. He will pass his judgment on all heretics and sinners.'
'Armageddon is upon us!'
'The holy purge has begun.'
'Mortal Reigners, are they like Kings and Emperors.'
'Reigner means one who rules. Mortal Reigners can be loosely interpreted as Kings and Emperors'
'In ancient times, people believed that the Kings and Emperors were chosen by Gods.'
'Gods! There is only one God, you pagan.'
'According to the tower admin, Aliens invaded earth 4600 million years ago, proof that others exist and humans are not alone in this universe.'
'Infidels, how dare you address God as Alien.'
'Will we get superpowers if we climb the tower of trials?'
'Tower of trials is a trail set by God for us mortals to gain his blessing and power.'
'Stupid fanatic, the voice spoke about leveling at the end. What does your god have to do with leveling?'
'Leveling, is the tower of trial a game?'
'Don't know but the only way to be sure of it is by entering the tower of trials.'
'You all will be judged by god in the tower of trials for your blasphemous words.'
'Have any of you thought about entering the tower?'
'Only an idiot will think of entering the tower. Mortal Realm Wars! People, there is war in the name. I can barely fend off my neighbor's dog, let alone participate in some space war.'
'Space war! You heathen, it is the holy war of the god against evil.'
'Hey, zealot, why don't you enter the tower to participate in the holy war of your god against evil?
'He won't. He is afraid that his god will punish him for watching too much porn.'
'Hey, guys. My parents are at work. I am thinking of entering the tower. If anyone is interested, you can come to my house, and we can enter together.'
'You're crazy!'
'I am in. DM me your address.'
'Me too.'
'You people have gone crazy.'
After back reading through a few chat groups, especially my class chat group, I understood that these people had no more information than I did and felt a few brain cells die as I read the ridiculous theories about the tower of trials. Considering I had transmigrated, I should be prone to indulge in these ludicrous fantasies. Still, I had a feeling that there was something more bizarre afoot than the most outlandish theories these people can come up with.
Having established that I wasn't going crazy, everyone in the world had heard the omniscient announcement and could see the translucent dialogue box. I decided to head out for my daily jog and check if the outside world has also gone crazy, like the online world.
"Huh?" As I grabbed the doorknob of my house's main door to head out, the tiny blue out at the upper left corner of my sight expanded, and a translucent blue dialogue box popped up. Which read,
[Do you want to designate this door as your private entrance to the tower of trials?
Yes/No]
It appears that I can designate any door I am in contact with as my private entrance to the tower of trials. This discovery made me cautious, as the shit just got real. I started to have second thoughts about going out.
The online world might have gone crazy, but it will do me no physical harm, unlike the outside world. I bet people are scared and don't know what the future holds for them. After all, an omniscient voice did announce that the earth was reset once, and could happen again. This kind of uncertainty can be a lot to handle for a person's psyche and result in different reactions from various people. I would not be surprised if a riot were to break out on the streets. For caution, I decided to work out at home today.
After four hours of intense workout, strategic break, and workout. I finally decided enough and stopped for today. And determined to get some news updates. From local news channels to the top ten trending searches in the search engine, the tower of trial's tutorials had become the talk of the town.
Many brave and adventurous souls, popularly being referred to as trial takers by the media, entered the tower, following the instructions in the blue translucent window. Upon entering their private doors, the trial takers had magically traveled to the tower's ground floor, also called the tutorial floor, by the blue translucent screen.
To climb the tower, one must complete the tutorial. Upon completion of tower tutorials and the other higher floors, the translucent blue window evaluates the performance of the challengers to reward them with tower currency, shortly dubbed T-coins.
The trial takers can use the T-coins for purchases in the tower commerce, T-commerce, a new feature of the translucent blue screen that unlocks upon completing the tower tutorials. In T-commerce, trial takers can exchange their T-coins for various magical Skills, Abilities, Items, and knowledge.
Trial takers who entered the tower had brought back a lot of information about the tower and blue translucent window to the others who didn't climb the tower of trials. For example how they referred to the blue translucent window as the tower system, T-system. According to them, the T-system is the voice of the tower of trials. And the greatest boon from the tower to the trial takers.
The T-system is very user-friendly. It can communicate with all beings with the most optimal method for the said being. For example, the T-system can communicate with a literate human in their preferred language, which is unsuitable for an illiterate human who doesn't know how to read.
In such cases, the T-system uses the natal tongue to convey the information mentally, which is not efficient as displaying the data, for similar reasons why customers prefer customer service apps over automated customer service numbers.
Also, others cannot view one person's T-system without the permission of the said person, which is very important for a person's privacy because of the status window feature of the T-system uncovered by the adventurers. The T-System stats window can quantify and display each person's physical, intellectual, and magical prowess. Everyone can access their stats window with the simple command, 'View Stats.'
"View Stats" Hearing my command, the tiny blue dot in the upper left corner of my sight expanded into a translucent blue screen displaying various data.
[Name: Ryan Hunt (Obesity)
Level: 0 (Exp: 0%)
Meta: please develop your meta to ascend as a Mortal Regainer
Floor: please designate a door as your private door to enter the tower of trials.
Heath: 80/100(-20)
Stamina: 50/100(-50)
Strength: 6
Agility: 4
Defense: 7(+1.4)
Intelligence: 8
Stat points: 0
Skills: None
Items: None equipped
T-coins: Nil
Note: User under abnormal status, Obesity.
Obesity- the user gains 20% debuff in health, 50% debuff in stamina, 20% buff in defense, and stamina recovery speed decreased by half.]
[Name: Ryan Hunt (Obesity)]
Adding obesity as my abnormal status to my stats window, the T-system was indirectly calling me fatty. I could ignore that but not the debuffs I gained because of it.
[Heath: 80/100(-20)]
An average human's health points get capped at 100 points at the zeroth level. But thanks to the 20% debuff in health, my health points are reduced and capped at 80 points.
[Stamina: 50/100(-50)]
Similarly, at the zeroth level, an average human's stamina points capped at 100 points, but mine was penalized and capped at 50 points because of the 50% debuff in stamina.
[Intelligence: 8]
The primary attributes of an average human being at the zeroth level are 10 points at max. As a result of the education system of modern society, my highest attribute was intelligence, with 8 points.
[Defense: 7(+1.4)]
And thanks to my body's predecessor, who found comfort in food, my second best attribute was defense with 7 points with an extra 1.4 points thanks to the 20% duff provided by the obesity abnormal status.
[Stamina recovery speed decreased by half.]
[Stamina: 10/100(-50) >>> 50/100(-50)]
After working out for 2 hours straight, I was beyond exhausted. My body was sore and ached all over. Stamina had reached the bottom. With basic math, I deduced that the stamina consumption rate was 10point per 30 minutes. The Internet agreed with me on that.
Having rested for two hours, my stamina eventually recovered to the peak of 50-points. It took 2 hours for me to recover 40 stamina points. That meant my stamina recovery speed was 10-points per 30 minutes. According to the net, an average person's stamina recovery speed is 10-points per 15 minutes and even less for trained individuals. Due to the debuff, the time it took me to recover my stamina was double that of an average person.
Obesity isn't the only abnormal status. Old age, Depression, Handicapped, Mentally challenged, Cough, Cold, Asthma, etc. Every physical or mental ailment that hinders an individual's health, physical and mental attributes or daily life is identified as abnormal status by the T-System. The Internet is full of people discovering that they are unhealthy through the abnormal status in their status window.
Scouring through the media and internet posts, I learned that trained individuals could break through the stats limit despite being at the zeroth level. For example, a seasoned athlete's physical attributes are above 10-points, and stamina points have crossed the 100-points threshold. And a recognized scholar's intellectual stats are above the 10-points limit. Unfortunately, there haven't been any reports about anyone breaking past the boundary of 100-points in terms of health points yet.
Talks about health points have blown up the online world. There is a huge debate whether the health points represent an individual's lifespan or just a person's health. But the popular belief is that health points only determine how healthy an individual is. Yet the discussion on it continues to get heated due to a five-syllable word, immortality, which every living being covets, but no one has been able to attain so far. Still, the presence of the mystical tower of trials has added and will continue to add new chapters to that eternal pursuit.
The discovery of the status window not only helped people view their stats but also helped us understand how the tower of trials functioned and its role in humanity's future. It helped the average humans understand that risking their lives to climb the tower would be in their best interest. The level, meta, skills, items, and T-coin categories in the status window were the real kicker. People finally understood what the tower administrator meant by 'happy leveling.'
T-coins are not the only reward given at the end of the floor. Based on their achievements, the trial takers also get rewarded with experience points, skills, and items. As the name suggests, experience points will boost a trial taker's level. And with every level up, they are rewarded with stat points which help them grow their basic stats.
The status window had made it clear to everyone that climbing the tower of trials would help them gain the power to change their fate, something that nothing else in the world could offer. This realization also came with the dreadful truth that everything the omniscient voice announced was true. The calamity that had reset the earth as we know it today, the disaster that brought extinction to our predecessors 4600 million years ago, the Mortal Realm Wars, is back. Humanity has less than three months to prepare for it.
[How to clear the tower of trial's tutorial?]
[Everything about the tower of trial's tutorial.]
[10 crucial facts about tower tutorials.]
[Tips to clear tower tutorials.]
[First 100 million people who clear the tutorial will gain extra rewards. True or False?]
[I bought a Soldier King serum for 100 T-Coins.]
[I healed my mother's hip using a 100 T-coin ailment elixir.]
[My years of karate practice turned into a karate skill after defeating a Dire Wolf in the tower tutorial with my bare hands and karate.]
[T-System awarded me Bull Strength skill after completing tutorials.]
[I bought a Zit-free potion for 10 T-coins.]
[I am a 67-years-old veteran who just had intercourse with my 28-year-old wife for 3 hours straight using 20 T-coin Viagra potion.]
Trending searches on the world wide web were regarding tower tutorials, how to clear it, tutorial completion rewards, superpowers, and various mystical items in T-commerce. Everybody who was unsatisfied with their current life or intelligent enough to foresee the revolution about to come considered entering the tutorials to test the waters. To check if climbing the tower was their cup of tea.
No matter how curious or desperate average humans are, they will never consider risking their lives in an unknown mystical tower. So it was astonishing to learn that many people have attempted clearing the tower's tutorial floor in the past four hours since the tower administrator announced that Earth's humanity could access the tower of trial to become mortal reigners.
The reason for that was the unique rewards award for taking part in tower tutorials, i.e., even if a person fails to complete the tower tutorial, they will still be given a part of the promised rewards.
"Designated Private Door." Pointing at the old and moldy closet door, I use the command designating it as my private entrance to the tower of trials. Immediately the tiny blue dot in the upper left corner of sight expanded into a translucent blue screen reading,
[Are you sure you want to designate this door as your private entrance to the tower of trials?
Note: You can change the designated door once every 24 hours]
"Yes," I answered without hesitation because I was about to designate a private entrance to the tower, not enter it.
[Your closet door is now connected to the tutorial floor of the tower. You can use it to enter the tower of trial and complete the tutorials at your convenience.
Note: You can change the designated door after 24 hours]
[Private Door: Closet Door
Floor: Tutorial Floor (Ground Floor)
Floor Privilege: Floor Info, Floor Rewards
Tutorial Floor Info: Defeat your opponent to prove you're worthy of climbing the tower of trials.
Note: The opponent's prowess will be equal to the trial takers.
Tutorial Floor Rewards:
Tutorial completion rewards:
1) T-coins depending upon performance.
2) Skills based on achievements
3) Full Recovery
Tutorial Fail Reward:
1) Resurrection
Note: Fail rewards are only available in tutorials. Other floors will have a fail penalty.
Door Cooldown: 24 hours remaining]
I chose the closet door as my personal entrance to the tower because I did not have many choices in this single-bedroom house and not because I was a fan of Narnia. Compared to its competitors, the main door, kitchen door, bedroom door, and washroom door, the closet door was the only door in this house less frequented by me. This way, there won't be any inconvenience in my daily life.
[ Tutorial Fail Reward:
1) Resurrection ]
Since the reward for failing the tutorial is resurrection, it would be wise to assume that there is a possibility of certain death in case of tutorial failure. And few of the posts on social media will prove my assumption correct.
[I fought a Giant Rat and died during tutorials, but I didn't die in real life.]
[I was bitten to death by a Rust Bug in tutorials.]
[I turned into a Zombie as a Zombie feasted on my guts in tower tutorials.]
[A Goblin slit my neck during the tutorials.]
Failure in the tutorial will lead to certain death. Still, thanks to the resurrection awarded after failing the tutorial, the dead trial takers are resurrected so that they can attempt the tutorial again. Since there is no limit to how many times a person can take the tutorial. This is why many desperate and adventurous people opt to clear the tutorials.
Still, no matter how gullible average people are, they would not risk their lives trusting the T-system. But when more and more people started to come back despite dying on the tower's tutorial floor, many decided to risk it.
Yet the actual trend of entering the tower of trials was fuelled by a rumor that the first hundred million to clear the tutorial will be awarded extra rewards. But the rumor died down soon when many disappointed trial takers took it to the Internet posting their experience in the tower and how the rumors were false. Either way, the rumor had achieved the motive behind it, as within just four hours of the tower becoming available to humanity, millions of humans worldwide had cleared the tutorials.
[Man with bulletproof skin robs a store, caught on store security cam.]
[A female athlete broke the world record by sprinting three times faster than a cheetah.]
[Magic sword that can cut through concrete blocks.]
[150 T-coins Memory Recovery Potion cures a 67-year-old man from Alzheimer's disease.]
[A man reaches the 3rd floor in a single jump.]
As time went on, news outlets and social media buzzed with posts, videos, and images of people achieving incredible and supernatural feats that in the past would be considered photoshop or CGI. And even far down the history would be regarded as a Miracle or Witchcraft.
[Alice Pharma is willing to pay $10,000 for each Memory recovery potion. Contact info...]
[A millionaire willing to pay $100,000 for one ailment elixir.]
[Jane Cosmetics is willing to pay $500 for every Zet-free potion. Contact info...]
[Life Care inc willing to buy 1000 Soldier King Serum for $10,000 each. Contact info…]
[Alice Pharma announces that it will buy any potion or elixir for a fair price. Contact info...]
Those who deemed their lives too precious to risk in the tower decided to get their hands on the magical items in T-commerce like they got the other things done in their life, using money, loads of money. Companies and prominent families were willing to throw craploads of cold hard cash to get their hands on as many magical items from the tower as possible. Companies wanted to research and manufacture the magic items from the tower. In contrast, wealthy families wanted to bulk up with magic items before entering the tower to conquer the new and magical unknown.
Now for the people worldwide, entering the tower of trials was no longer about risking their lives but an opportunity to amass wealth and strength, which they feared missing out on. Like a wildfire, everyone wanted to clear the tower tutorial and gain their share of wealth and power.
Let's take my class as an example. The class's WhatsUp messenger group, which was buzzing earlier, went cold for a while when one of our classmates managed to complete the tutorial.
'My opponent in the tower tutorials was a Leaf Ape.'
'It looked like a Gibbon with green fur. It was larger than any Gibbon I had seen, about 1.4 meters tall, and moved like humans.'
'Fortunately, it wasn't armed, but it fought ferociously and charged at me with bloodshot eyes. Following my training, I dodged its attacks. Seeing an opening, I grabbed hold of its fur and slammed it to the ground. Next, I swiftly immobilized it with a spinal lock. I almost suffocated on its smelly body odor as it struggled to break free of my grasp. Thanks to the adrenaline rush, I ignored the awful smell while my grip around its neck and spine grew tighter. Finally, it stopped struggling. But I didn't let go until I received the tutorial completion prompt from T-system.'
'Honestly, I think I won because of the field advantage. After all, Gibbons are renowned for their dexterity in dense tree canopies.'
'As for my tutorial completion rewards, the tower compiled my Jiu-Jitsu experience into a skill 'Jiu-Jitsu Mastery' and awarded me 1000 T-coins.'
John Johnson Jr., a member of the high school jiu-jitsu team, made it to the regional matches but couldn't continue further because of domestic problems. He made it sound like the tower tutorial is a walk in the park. According to him, he choked a large Green Gibbon to death using a spinal lock.
John was an athlete trained in martial arts. Thus, his successful completion of tower tutorials on his first try was understandable. So you would think that my classmates would not imitate him, well you guessed wrong. They jumped headfirst to complete the tutorials. A few completed the tutorials, but most of them failed.
[Tutorial Floor Info: Defeat your opponent to prove you're worthy of climbing the tower of trials.
Note: The opponent's prowess will be equal to the trial takers.]
The tower of trials wasn't an execution but a trial. The opponent one faced in the tutorials would be the same strength as the trial takers. As long as one stayed calm and reacted fast, they had a high chance of clearing the tutorials. So it did not come as a surprise when a few of my classmates completed their tutorials on their first try.
Leaving those that failed to clear their tutorials on the first try aside, another debate took over the class chat group, Tutorial rewards. Not everyone received skills or the same amount of T-coins. Among those that completed the tutorial, John was the only one to gain a skill and whooping 1000 T-coins. Begging the questions, on what basis did the tower calculate the tutorial completion rewards?
The debate on tutorial completion rewards in the class chat group took traction when classmates who completed the tutorial on their second or third try joined the chat. Understandably tutorial completion rewards for those who completed the tutorial on their second or third try were much shabbier than those who completed it on their first try. But I understood why my classmates were pissed because they had to die once, twice, or even more to get a fraction of the original rewards.
Reading my classmates' chats made me want to enter the tower to complete the tutorials on my first try. But unlike them, I had a debuff named obesity. Though the T-system read that the opponent's prowess will be equal to the trial takers, I didn't know if it included debuffs. My current life was my second chance, and I didn't want to risk it. But my mindset changed reading the next chat in the class group.
'The great me completed tower tutorials on my first try and was rewarded with a passive buff 'Increased Leg Strength' and 600 T-coins.'
'Come out, Fatso Ryan! Stop lurking and come out.'
'I will kick your balls back into your stomach with my Increased Leg Strength.'
'Ryan, guess what, I bought a soldier king serum just for you.'
It was Micheal Huffman.