All the roads of Melthis were covered in white fog, appearing unclear. Aoi went to the library and found his seat once again. Outside the library, the students who were rushing to class were noisy, but after he entered the library, the world immediately became quiet.
There were quite a few people studying in the library. Aoi silently walked up the stairs with automatic handrails without making a sound.
He found the quiet to be the closest to a strange feeling of "reassuring." Under these conditions, he would very easily enter a focused state of mind.
After he sat down, he turned on his cell phone and opened the game called"Tower of Babel". The image still looked the same as usual. The player took on the role of a black-robed "Savior" floating in the sky, and below was a pixelated urban perspective, with only the color of the sky changing from night to day. He went through the "Operator list" option and selected "Sin Hunter Nightblade" to check on the situation of the character from the previous night.
"Core Operator · Nightblade Information Log."
"As soon as she returned home, she took a hot bath, mood +1."
"She consumed grilled food as her late night dinner, mood +1."
"Insomnia struck, and after 2 hours of sound sleep until dawn, mood –1."
"However, as a minor consolation, the afk income is stable at 0." "Such laziness" Anyi thought. "she simply lay still all night." In the end, Aoi shook his head in admiration.
He still clearly recalls Route 1, after obtaining the Telekinesis girl named Lily, who practiced day and night without stopping.
'If you don't strive today, the world will end tomorrow,' Operators will only know how to catch fish by lying on their backs,' the quote read. 'What should we do with the Tower of Babel?'
In actuality, he knew that this was completely normal. Afk's income was 0 most of the time. The feedback mechanism in Tower of Babel wasn't too ideal, leading to the income cycle being quite extended.
Aoi shook his head, raised his hand, and opened the "Nightblade" character on the card.
Core Operator :
Title: Nightblade
Gender: Female
Rank: Material World
Grade: Metamorphosis
Race: Human
Operator Position: Hunt / Ambush / Destroy
Milestone: Sin Hunter
Main attributes:
Body: 42
Presage: 35
Technique: 27
Secondary attributes:
Charm: 10
Loyalty: 3
Mood: 4
Traits:
Like an elegant cat ( Technique speed increases significantly over a wide area, up to a high level )
Glory and Vengeance ( Large range reduces the chance of Mood dropping to 0)
Capacity:
Dark Blue · The World (Mastery 5%)
Demon Hunting Bloodline · Dark Color (Bloodline)
Item: Night Blade - 1
Description: This sword belongs to a Legendary Hunter Family heir, who was born with a heavy responsibility on her shoulders. The Family's consciousness was extremely strong, and she sought revenge and a path to restore the family's glory.
Aoi observed that the "Nightblade" character's Loyalty was low, and her Mood wasn't too good either.
These were both essential elements. If the Core Operator's Mood and Loyalty were extremely poor, then it would cause a decrease in her training performance, self-limiting tasks, a lack of cooperation with teammates, and even team attacking or suicides.
Even if they ultimately committed suicide, there was no way to escape the Tower of Babel's control, but resurrecting them would undoubtedly consume extensive resources belonging to Aoi.
"Okay, maybe I should let her rest a little more" Aoi thought. Then, he spotted a small red mark on the right-upper corner of the screen, which made him remember the existence of the main story.
"There are still ninety-nine days until the first crisis of world destruction" he sighed slightly, realizing that if he wished to perfectly finish the game known as"Tower of Babel"he had to go to the extreme.
He knew this clearly. He sunk in deep contemplation as a performanceist, still dwelling on the situation deeply.
Aoi looked at the "Nightblade" character with low Mood and Loyalty.
While training might lower Mood, low Mood also can reduces Loyalty. Nevertheless, Loyalty and Mood haven't decreased to the bottom 3 yet, meaning there are still training vacancies available!
It's better to raise Mood and Loyalty through other methods before perishing.
"Dark Blue: The World" mastery is only at 5% for now and still requires a lot of training.
"In order to deal with the crisis, you must to quickly become stronger, Nightblade!"
"I will personally choose 'Simulation Training' from the 'Educational Adjustments' options" Aoi decided.
He selected "Nightblade" as the Core Operator for the simulation training. The message "Simulation Training, selected" confirmed his choice.
Without an "Educational Adjustments Card" Aoi could only use 10 Source Force Points for the simulation training.
In"Tower of Babel", for whatever one wishes to do—from Gacha to Operator training, basic construction, and more—a certain amount of Source Force is required.
Now, the Tower of Babel has 50 Reputation, which can be exchanged for 50 Source Force points. In addition to the original 50 Source Force points, Aoi has a total of 100 Source Force points in his possession.
"Nightblade, get up and train!" he encouraged.
——————
White mist hovers around, and the temperature inside the city can be extremely cold. Kaytlyn is on her way to school. People in the Black Star Society don't know her real appearance, so she still has a fake identity in the world. She is now a Herrendor college student, but she's not thinking about her school life at all. All she can think about is the Tower of Babel.
Kaytlyn lifted her hand and took a look at the dark mark on the back of her hand.
"Tower of Babel..."
Based on the available information, this is an ancient, mysterious organization, whose leader calls himself a "Savior."
She is the "Lucky" person selected to become a member of it. Kaytlyn knows that someone who can control her must be an incredibly powerful existence, perhaps even able to control many other people.
The Tower of Babel might be an extremely expansive one, having existed for a long time, with enough influence to shake the world of mystical organizations.
And the goal of the Tower of Babel appears to be... the salvation of the world? Kaytlyn is astonished, wondering if the world is about to be destroyed.
All of a sudden, the surroundings became quite silent.
Kaytlyn, who regained her composure, realized that there was no one next to her.
Today, the road was extremely quiet, unlike the usual. What on earth was going on?
[This is Imaginary Space, Educational Adjustments will be performed on you, Simulation Combat Training.]
A familiar young man's voice sounded in Kaytlyn's head, causing her to tense up.
"Huh?" She swallowed her saliva.
"Savior" cannot be considered an average powerhouse, able to grant Kaytlyn the power of the Outer God.
Even though if he is not an Outer God himself, he is definitely a great presence that cannot be underestimated.
In short, she has no choice but to obey that person no matter how extreme the circumstances.
[Training begins]
Fog swirled around the street. A huge, black and empty monster appeared, with numerous tentacles constantly swaying around. Kaytlyn was stunned, realizing that the black monster in front of her was actually the Dark Photography shadow version!
The next moment, the "Dark Photography" shadow's tentacles moved surprisingly fast and with great force!
It attacked Kaytlyn, who was still bewildered and hadn't yet had time to react.
She received a strong blow in her body, causing it to crack.
The pain was unimaginable, unlike any she had ever felt, her upper body having been smashed by more than half of the tentacles, bloody and covered in flesh.
She fell to the ground, unable to move, her face grimacing.
[The level of pain is 15% of the real world.]
Hearing this, Kaytlyn clenched her teeth and break out in a cold sweat.
"Why... can't it be set to 0?" she thought. Even though it was only 15%, it still hurt terribly, but she sucked it up and refused to make any sound.
[Actually, it is possible to set it to 0, but doing so would make this training meaningless and even counterproductive.]
[Aside from generating completely real pain, the intense pain felt here can definitely cause one to collapse and perish. 15% is the ideal value for "Educational Adjustments" which can be endured without significant risk of loss of actual life.]
Kaytlyn snarled and bared her teeth, the agony from her wounds clearly evident. It's as if her flesh and blood were screaming, and the huge shadow of the monster roared and screamed loudly, spreading fear and despair through the area.
"Have to fight, must fight!" Kaytlyn's damaged body recovered quickly as she resumed her combat.
She quickly retreated to the nearby unmanned marketplace and decided to take this fight more seriously, having taken yesterday's success into account.
"I can do it, I just need to perfect our strategy..." she muttered to herself as she prepared.
"Ooh!" the massive shadow monster smashed through the wall and rushed into the empty marketplace, its many tentacles lashing out to attack her.
Kaytlyn's face remained expressionless, her hands firmly grasping her black sword as she advanced.
She died once more.
This time, her head was crushed in one spot.
She continued to die over and over again, experiencing countless deaths, at least dozens of times.
Yet, despite her attempts for adaptation, she realized that it was impossible to ignore the pain from the blows of the tentacles. She gave up in exhaustion.
"I can't take it anymore... I need to rest... I won't escape... It's okay to take a break for several minutes..."Kaytlyn pleaded, but unfortunately, her request was not acknowledged as the "sound" in her head was unresponsive to any attempts at communication.
Kaytlyn was overwhelmed but still able to endure the situation. "Savior" has no feelings, all she could do was continue to fight. Taking a deep breath, Kaytlyn considered a new method to break the situation.
The dark cross great sword fluttered in her slender hands, and she challenged the monster once again.
However, her attempts failed. Slowly, Kaytlyn began to learn how to dispatch the monsters.
Unlike other people, she needed to expand her sense of battle to overcome the challenge ahead.
The large monster's attack could cover a large range, so Kaytlyn realized that she would need to rush in and dodge through a bigger area, instead of using the technique of moving at a small angle. Gradually, as the opportunity presented itself, Kaytlyn became better at fighting for longer and longer periods of time!
Despite countless failures, she continued to persist and strive to overcome the challenge.
"Fight!" Kaytlyn grit her teeth and slashed at the monster multiple times with her dark cross great sword, finally vanquishing it.
She had done it and won, proving herself to be a worthy fighter.
[Congratulations, Nightblade. Your training is over.]
[You successfully passed.]
Kaytlyn didn't respond. She didn't have the strength to speak.
In a split second, the people around her reappeared. After standing in place for a moment, Kaytlyn collapsed to the ground.
The people on the street witnessed a stunning girl fall to the ground, her face turning pale and starting to pant.
Kaytlyn lowered her head, unable to move a single finger and covered in sweat.
Her eyes were void of life, as if she had been put through a wringer for three days and nights. She was completely finished.
"Ho... ho..." she panted, as she slowly stood up, barely able to move.
"Finally, I got out of there" she said, attempting to hold back her tears and exhaustion.