Inside a dimly lit room with plain white walls and metallic floors. There was a long table made of wood, ontop of it were two buttons with a flash card faced down in between them. Inside the room, if someone were to look close enough, one could see a small humanoid figure in a corner. Hugging its knees without making a sound.

[ Eircheard99 - What the!? ]

[ Ppororo - Ah! That scared me! What the fuck?!] ]

[ Baobap - Oh? Is it a dwarfs stream? ]

The figure sitting in the shadows of the poor lighting peeks out a bit over their arm and looks at the blue holographic screen floating in front of it. The figures eyes were a strange, yet beautiful liserian purple. It's eyes seemed to almost gleam in contrast to the dark surroundings.

[ Ppororo - Wah! ]

[ Baobap - Uh… That's a bit.. ]

[ Eircheard99 - Creepy, right? Is he a demon? But I don't think those small imps even come with purple eyes… ]

… Annoying. The figure sitting in the dark thinks to itself. After a few seconds of staring at the comments sections of the streaming window, the figure retracted its gaze swiftly and buried its head back into its knees. The room was still utterly silent. Even breathing couldn't be heard, making it eerie.

[ ✮ Ocean Sword has sponsord 5 coins! ]

[ ✮ - Hey! Don't just sit and cry in a corner, get up and read the flash card! ]

[ Eircheard99 - What? Why is a ranker here? ]

The figure visibly flinched when it heard a persons voice. Its head quickly raised back up and looked towards the hologram with surprise. The figure- or human, had a youthful face. He had large round eyes like that of a child's, Strands of hoary colored hair fell around his face.

[ Ppororo - H-Hea just a kid! ]

[ Eircheard99 - Huh!? What's a kid doing in the towers tutorial!? ]

[ Baobap - … How are they managing the tower entrance outside? ]

The boy blinked at the flowing comments. He didn't answer any questions no matter how many times the viewers asked. He kept silent, still staring at the screen with slightly narrowed eyes.

[ Eircheard99 - Uhg… Can this kid even read? ]

[ Ppororo - How. Old. Are. You.??? ]

[ ✮ Ocean Sword has sponsored 5 coins! ]

[ ✮ - What's your name? ]

[ Eircheard99 - Right, since he reacted like that from the last sponsor, it means he's not dead at least. Nice OS. ]

The boy widened his eyes and became a bit more wary and replied after a few seconds. "… My name is Zai." His expression quickly changed to an expressionless one.

[ Baobap - Ah, he need to think of a nickname… Can he just use his name like that? ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword - It's fine as long as he doesn't use his last name along with it. ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword has sponsored 5 coins! ]

[ ✮ - Can you read? ]

[ Eircheard99 - Just say everything at once… Rankers really have a lot of coins. ]

[ Ppororo - No. You're just broke. ]

"Uhm, I can read, It's just that the letters look weird.." Zai looked away from the blue screen and hid an awkward smile. When he heard a persons voice, Zai was able to rein his thoughts in, finally being able to recollect and organize himself again. Zai set his gaze towards the table at the center of the room.

[ Ppororo - … He doesn't have the translate skill? ]

[ Eircheard99 - Isn't he lying just to get coins? ]

[ Baobap - You only get the translation skill when you flip the card over. ]

[ Eircheard99 - Oh. ]

[ Ppororo - Ah. ]

Zai made his way over to the table warily. When he came in front of the table he only glanced at the flashcard, then started inspecting the table. The table was made of wood. On the right it was rough with a scraping texture. On the left side of it, the wood was soft, he tried to peel some of it but felt a repulsion force. Zai gave up after a few more tries and felt underneath the table with his hands. His hand stopped when he felt what he could only make out to be carvings. The room had light but far from enough to make out what the carvings under the table read. He dropped onto his knees and crawled under the table, then laid on his back and felt the engravings on the wooden table, but he couldn't make any sense of the strange symbols and letters he felt.

[ Ppororo - What? There was something there? ]

[ Eircheard99 - … You didn't know? ]

[ Baobap - You wouldn't hav understood the text even if you had found it. The translation skill doesn't work in the engravings. ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword - It's in Noath. The language is practically indecipherable. ]

Zai crawled out from underneath the table with a stoic expression. He dusted his clothes off and looked at the flashcard laid faced down and hesitated for a moment before picking it up.

[ Aquired skill : Translation - Automatically translates most common languages used within the tower. ]

A notification window abruptly pops up close to Zai's face. His eyes widened in surprise, he whipped his head to the comments section of his live stream window.

[ Ppororo - Oh~ He finally got it! Hey! You can call me Noona~ I'll specially allow it for you. ]

[ Ppororo has donated 10 coins! ]

[ Baobap has sponsored 5 coins! ]

[ 𖣂 - Zai you can read the system window now, right? Try saying status. ]

[ Eircheard99 - Why is everyone throwing their coins out of nowhere!? ]

Zai blinked a few times before sighing a breath of relief. With a charming smile, he replied. "Yeah… I can read now. Thank you."

[ Ppororo - … ]

[ Eircheard99 has donated 5 coins! ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword - Haha. ]

"Status." Zai didn't look at the streaming window again and did as he was told. Immediately, a different holographic screen came out.

[ Status ]

Name : Zai Piroul

Level : 1

Race : Human

Class : N/A

HP : 50/50

MP : 10/10

STR : 4

AGI : 2

DEF : 3

INT : 1

LUCK : 2

⇩

I don't really understand what these numbers mean but I can tell it's bad… Zai's eye twitched at the sight of his pathetic stats.

[ Baobap - Hp is the amount of health you have. If it reaches zero you die. MP is what you use to activate skills STR is the amount of physical damage pou can do. AGI is how fast you can run and activate skills. DEF is your physical defense, it helps tank damage and makes it so your health will go down slower. INT is for non-direct physical skills. like fireball, the higher it is, the more damage you can do with these skills. LUCK is for things like puzzles and the success rates of status effects you can inflict and the chance of them affecting you. ]

[ Eircheard99 - Do you have that on your clipboard or something!? Wtf?? ]

[ Ppororo - Anything for our son~ ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword - Haha. Zai you can see your skills by pressing on the arrow at the end of your status window. ]

"Ah." Zai was momentarily taken aback by the sudden influx of new information. He took a while carefully reading everything before looking back to his status screen. He hovered his finger ontop the arrow, his skills tab popped out as a separate window next to his status. It was embarrassingly small.

[ Status ]

Translate : Automatically translates most common languages used within the tower. ]

… That's it? Zai pricked up his brow and frowned but quickly replaced it to a stoic look. He tried playing with the system a bit before closing it with a gentle swat to the side. He then redirected his gaze back to the flashcard that was in his hands this whole time.

[ A decision you must make! A choice that will influence what course your future will take. Destiny and fate are intertwined. Young traveler, the towers challenges and trials await. They are but mere obstacle son your path towards conquering the towers floors. We hope you stay true to yourself and do not stray from your chosen path. ]

Zai's eyes narrowed at the last sentence but eventually glazed over it without much thought. He then glanced at the two buttons on the table that appeared after he read the system prompt translating the contents of the flashcard. The glass casing surrounding the buttons had strange symbols that exuded a sort of aura unique to each other. The left button gave off a peaceful, comforting presence. Zai stared at it for sometime before a new notification brought him back.

[ The Lily of The Valley smiles and expresses that she would be willing to give you a blessing and offers a safe place if you press her button. ]

——

[ Eircheard99 - H-huh!? It's THE Lily!? ]

[ Ppororo - Ah! Zai press the button quickly!! She's a Goddess! ]

[ ✮ Ocean sword - Lily likes to shelter players who came in to the tower by accident. She's a good choice, considering your situation. ]

The corner of Zai's mouth twitched unnoticeably. What do you even think my situation is? Zai ignored the comments that were flooding in rapidly, repeatedly telling him to go with the Goddess. He deliberated internally on what he should do. So would it be like climbing the tower on easy mode? That sounds boring, though safe. But it's in complete contrast with the content of the flashcard. Something feels weird, almost suspicious. From the rumors I heard from outside, the tower is bizarre and terrifying. The tower doesn't like stagnating players, it wants people to go through obstacles and overcome them and become stronger… Right? This kinda sounds like it's nurturing people? Anyways, this 'Godess' says she has a sort of sanctuary for people who cant or don't want to climb the tower.

Zai shook his head, not wanting to think of confusing and complicated things he doesn't have answers or explanations to any longer. He looked towards the other button on the right side of the table. The casings symbols were visibly different from the Goddess's. The aura emanating from the glowing, engraved symbols was eerie, it's a feeling that makes your hair stand on end. It's as if the glass casings sole purpose is to seal something purely sinister.

Uh, so is it a choice of be lazy or productive..? It feels more like choosing between good and evil though. As Zai was contemplating of what choice to make, another notification window caught his attention like before.

[ Ater notices your gaze and scoffs at you. ]

Blinking wide eyed, Zai was somewhat perplexed and a bit embarrassed. The message was short. Comparing this guy with the Goddess… Their vibes are totally different.