Today, Sanjay was sixteen years old. It had been one week since he came into this world.
Yes, he had suffered the famous transmigration from his last life on Earth. On Earth, he was part of the special forces of the Indian Army. Towards the end of the twenty-first century, World War Three broke out, and this time, India played an active role with its vast resources.
While fighting against the enemy, he died under a suicide bomber while saving his teammates. But then he opened his eyes and found himself in a bed in a tiny room. At first, he didn't understand anything. Confused, he rushed toward the washroom.
After spending the entire day inside the washroom, he realized his body looked completely different. Years of wars had left his hands rough and his body covered in scars, but these hands looked quite young. He looked at the face in the mirror.
His hair was black, his eyes were brown, and his skin was fair. He looked like a mix of East Asian and Indian features. He appeared much more handsome than in his previous life.
He sat on his bed and started thinking about what to do next. His first priority was securing his environment. So he went outside to take a look at his surroundings and figure out where he was. Just outside, he saw huge buildings, much taller than anything in his previous world.
He saw multiple cars flying in the sky. Even with a soldier's mind, his imagination had limitations. He was flabbergasted by what he saw. He couldn't believe it. This world looked much more advanced than his previous one.
He went back inside his house and looked around, as he hadn't had the chance earlier. He saw a sword quietly kept in the corner of the room. He picked it up and looked at it. It didn't look fake, so the original owner was likely into collecting such items.
He kept the sword back and looked around. There was a computer that looked like a laptop but with a more sci-fi design. Clearly, it was more advanced. He saw an ID card with the name Sanjay Sharma written on it. The original owner had the same name as him. It looked like a school ID card. Judging by the situation, it seemed the owner lived alone. He took out his sci-fi-looking cellphone and started searching for any contact details.
There weren't many people in the contact list. Not many had called him either. None of the contacts seemed like family members. He needed to find out more about the original owner.
He sat at the laptop and opened it. Luckily, it used facial recognition; otherwise, he wouldn't know what to do without information about the original owner's password.
He started searching about the world. It was easy. After a few hours, he was able to gather the information. This world was similar to his previous world in geography but completely different politically.
The boundaries were drawn between the continents. There were Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.
Asia, being the largest continent, faced numerous challenges. Despite being the most populous continent, North America still held the most powerful nation. This world was much more hostile than his previous one.
Every century, there was a war between continents. With advanced nations equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, population size did not matter. As a result, the population of the entire world was not more than two billion. Given the frequent wars, this didn't surprise him.
But in the war twenty years ago, something unprecedented happened. Due to the multiple uses of nuclear bombs, space was torn apart, and monsters started rushing in. Every nation fought their best with their arms and guns. However, the guns had no effect on the powerful monsters. Only the weakest ones were defeated.
Everyone discovered that guns were useless against the most powerful monsters. After losing one-third of the population, there was still no effective way to fight the monsters. A young scientist, while researching the monsters, found out that the powerful monsters had some kind of shield that prevented weapons from touching their skin.
A new power was discovered. The young scientist, being a fan of anime and manga, named it Mana. But there was no way of harvesting it. Killing the powerful monsters with mana was out of the question, and the weak ones had mana, but no scientific instrument could detect it. Within a year, humans lost all hope.
But then, a ray of sunshine appeared. Out of the broken space, multiple towers descended on every continent. The towers sealed the broken space, preventing more monsters from coming in.
Humans, relieved to see the worst was over, began entering the towers one by one. Inside, they discovered a completely different world. Each floor was a world of its own, with its own story. Some were medieval, some modern, and some magical.
The people who entered gained superhuman powers and, most importantly, mana. Using this, they were able to slay the powerful monsters that had already entered their world. A new term was given to them: Players or Metahumans.
After one year, people started clearing up to the third floor, but then the worst happened. In Antarctica, due to its sparse population, the first floor of the tower was not conquered. As a result, a dungeon break occurred. All the weakest monsters started emerging from the torn space.
Millions of monsters entered. Everyone in Antarctica died due to the break. It was impossible for the existing mana-wielding people to fight so many monsters. No continent provided support as Antarctica was too far away and isolated. It seemed the monsters wouldn't be able to travel across the vast oceans to other continents.
Two years later, a second break occurred. This time, people realized they needed to keep clearing each floor to prevent tower breaks. The time limit for clearing each floor corresponded to the floor number: the first floor needed to be cleared within one year of the tower's descent, the second floor within two years, and so on.
Hearing this drastic news, Sanjay was astonished. What kind of weird world had he entered?
With the immense number of monsters, even a single tower break would make survival nearly impossible.
In response to the emergency, every continent implemented multiple reforms to prevent tower breaks. Schools were redesigned to train young minds to conquer the tower. An association was formed in Asia named the Asia Player Association. Its sole purpose was to track all the players entering the towers and prevent any from going rogue and harming innocent people. Multiple guilds also rose alongside it.
Within ten years, through joint collaboration among multiple nations, Antarctica was reclaimed from the monsters. Special units were placed there to keep clearing the tower levels, ensuring no powerful monsters emerged from tower breaks to attack other continents.
After reading the world's history, Sanjay began researching the tower. The tower had one hundred levels. Every newbie needed to start from the first floor and move up. Upon entering, everyone could receive a skill, ranked from F to S. These ranks were determined by the Association based on past records and usefulness.
To climb the floors, players needed to complete tasks provided by the system. Tasks could be done as a team or individually. After each mission, players would receive a score based on performance, and their rewards would depend on it. However, information about rewards was not available online.
Missions for each tower varied. All missions were public until the tenth floor. After that, players needed to join the Association or a guild. This was to prevent individuals from becoming too powerful without oversight. Every member joining a guild or association had to sign a soul contract, which allowed the guild or association to monitor their real-time powers.
Most people didn't climb the tower, opting to work for the guild or take up day-to-day activities after completing the first level. But fifty percent of players who climbed the tower became the true elite of society. As in ancient times, power still determined status.
After reading all this, Sanjay took a deep breath. The situation was much worse than in his previous world. There were monsters, hostile continents, frequent wars, and high mortality rates. Reading this kind of story in a novel was one thing; living it was another.
Two days later, after figuring out the basics, he finally started attending school again to learn more about the world. After attending school, he discovered that he was graduating. The theoretical exams had been completed last week before the original owner had somehow died. Luckily, he figured out that the original owner was an orphan. Both his parents had died inside the tower two years ago.
At that time, he had been fourteen, so the government hadn't sent him to an orphanage. After the tower's descent, many parents had died, and fourteen had been made the legal age to live alone. However, the government paid a basic minimum until the age of sixteen, which was considered adulthood.
Present day, the entire classroom was tense. Today was the day they were going to enter the tower. No one knew what would happen.
Only forty percent of the students decided to enter the tower through the school's bus facility, while others went with their parents. Sanjay was one of those who came to the school. The class teacher guided them to the bus that would take them to the nearest tower, not far away.
Sanjay looked at everyone. All of them appeared tense. It seemed he didn't have many friends, as no one talked to him or showed any interest in him over the past week. Last week, they had been given a brief summary of what to take care of.
Sanjay had figured out most things. He knew he couldn't complete ten years of education in a week, so he left everything to luck for now.
The bus reached the tower, and everyone got down. As soon as Sanjay stepped off, he saw the enormous behemoth that was the tower. It stretched from the ground to space. Not just the atmosphere but through the sky, cracking space itself. He could see the black void at the top of the tower.
His hair stood on end. For the first time, he was afraid, seeing such a majestic and supernatural structure. Soon, his training kicked in, and he calmed down.
The class teacher wished them good luck, and soon they found themselves standing in line to enter the tower.
After waiting for a few minutes, it was Sanjay's turn. He saw a soldier with a sword strapped to his back.
"ID," the soldier said.
He showed his ID. After seeing his age, the soldier nodded, "Enter."
Sanjay walked through the huge black door. His head started spinning along with his entire body. After a few seconds, he found solid ground and knelt to catch his breath.
"What the hell was that?" he muttered. After acclimatizing, he stood up. He was on the top of a building.
"So now what?" he wondered aloud.
Soon, he heard a voice. "New Soul Detected." He recognized it as the system voice that the tower granted everyone who entered.
[Error! Error! Error!]
[Multiple souls detected.]
Sanjay was astonished. What was this? He had never heard of this during his research. Did the tower discover his transmigration? But how?
[Commencing eradication! 3… 2…]
Sanjay closed his eyes. "Commencing eradication" likely meant the tower would remove his soul from the body, meaning he might die again.
[1]
Sanjay felt excruciating pain in his chest. It hurt. It felt like someone was crushing his heart. He shouted, "Ah...!"
But no one came to his rescue. What felt like an eternity soon came to an end.
Sanjay slowly opened his eyes. He was still alive, and he was thankful for that. But he felt like he had lost an important piece of himself. Most likely, the tower system had erased the remaining soul of the original owner.
[Eradication completed.]
[Assigning Skill! Due to erasing a soul without the permission of the owner, points will be given as compensation.]
He didn't know that points could be granted or that the system would compensate for erasing a soul. But why would the system need to do that? Maybe there was more to the system than he knew. He didn't dwell on it too much.
Points were necessary to increase variable stats like strength.
[Skill Assigned! Please say a name you want to register.]
"Umm, a name? What name can I give?"
"CoolDude69," Sanjay said.
[Error! Name already taken. Please choose a different name.]
"Huh! Okay, then how about Ladykiller?" It sounded fancy to him.
[Error! Name already taken. Please choose a different name.]
"What the…? That is also taken? Okay. Then City Hunter," he said, remembering his ex-girlfriend mentioning this Korean drama in his past life.
[Name confirmed! Welcome to the tower, City Hunter.]
[Skill assigned! Say 'Status' to view your stats.]
"Status," Sanjay said.
A screen appeared in front of his eyes.
STATS
Name: City Hunter
Level: 1
Exp: 0/100
Skill: Replicate
VARIABLE STATS
Strength: 7
Agility: 8
Mana: 10
INVARIABLE STATS
Intelligence: 6
Luck: 5
Charisma: 6
Current Available Points: 4
"Okay, let me see where to allocate points. On the web, I saw most people recommend dividing them equally so that all the stats are balanced. Ten is the limit for humans; above it is what makes anyone an actual player. It's common knowledge that only variable stats can be changed, and invariable stats are what people are born with."
"Why can't anyone increase the invariable stats? Can't it be done?" He pressed the Luck stat, and suddenly it went up to six.
"What?" His mouth fell open.
"The points given by the system can be added to invariable stats?" Sanjay was astonished.
He knew what to do next. As a soldier in his last life, he understood how important the luck factor was on the battlefield. It could mean the difference between life and death. He kept pressing the Luck stat to the max.
His current stats were:
STATS
Name: City Hunter
Level: 1
Exp: 0/100
Skill: Replicate
VARIABLE STATS
Strength: 7
Agility: 8
Mana: 10
INVARIABLE STATS
Intelligence: 6
Luck: 9
Charisma: 6
Current Available Points: 0