[ERROR Difficulty - 0th Floor]
{Aasal Hayes}
From being suddenly thrust from his apartment bed to the void was shocking, to say the least. He was falling and accelerating, until he spotted a rocky surface and barely managed to grab the ledge.
"YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!"
Staring into the abyss, Aasal could only imagine what would happen if he kept falling into the endless dark.
He pulled himself up from the jagged ledge and looked around. He was standing on the edge of a dark plateau, the sky above dim and colorless, like a flickering TV screen frozen in static. Jagged cliffs and loose debris, it looked like the ruins of a battlefield long forgotten. There was no sun, no stars—just an oppressive emptiness. He wondered,
"Hello? Anyone out there?" Aasal yelled. "How can I even see anything if there's no light source?" he wondered.
A few seconds later, a message rang in his ear
[Welcome to the Tower, and the 0th Floor - Tutorial Grounds! ]
[With a world destined for destruction, the Tower was sent to activate when mana reached a certain threshold on Earth. Sent by [REDACTED] for the purpose of [REDACTED], challengers will be able to learn and pursue unforeseen power.]
[During its beta period to adjust to Earth's environment and collect data, only 1,000 challengers have been selected, spread throughout different difficulties. During this period, challengers will receive certain privileges, and a head start in the Tower.]
[The beginner floors will be 1-10, and once the 10th floor is cleared, teleportation back to Earth will be enabled for that respective difficulty. More information and perks will be available as users earn increased authority.]
[Good luck to all challengers and remember: the Tower is always watching.]
Aasal stared at the blue screen that had appeared in front of him, silence creeping back in. Some parts of the message were incomprehensible or censored. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he had a feeling the answers would come later.
'This reminds me of one of those system novels,' Aasal thought. 'Guess I'll treat this thing like the system from now on.'
He tried tapping it, grabbing it—nothing worked. It wasn't tangible, but it followed his gaze. When he willed it to disappear, it faded. When he wanted it back, it reappeared.
He focused on a tab labeled [Status]. It opened at his thought.
{[Name: Aasal Khara Hayes ]
[Age: 17 ]
[Race: Human ]
[Talent: Clone]
[Class: Select ]
[Skills: None ]
[Titles: XfhD#2q9… Difficulty Challenger (???), Beta Tester (Unique) ]
[Conditions: Lethargic ]
[Statuses:
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 10
Vitality: 3
Luck: 0.5
Charisma: 2
Free Points: 0]
[Remarks: Needs work]}
"How does it know my middle name?!"
Aasal's face turned bright red.
He didn't want to talk about it.
But that faded quickly.
His eyes widened as he read his talent: Clone! Without hesitation, he expanded the entry and read the description.
Talent (Passive): Clone — Another You! (1/1)
Summons another you!
Although the description was extremely vague, Aasal was still brimming with excitement. He imagined a clone studying for him, doing his chores, fighting his battles. 'Well, I learned the most widely spoken languages before the age of six easily, but it's the limitless applications of a clone!' The possibilities made him giddy.
He tried to summon the clone, though he had no idea how. If anyone had been watching, they'd think he was trying to poop out a log.
After nothing happened, he paused. The (1/1) tag meant something.
"Wait… it's already summoned?" he muttered.
Then it hit him—the memory of a second figure near him when he first woke up. He thought it was just a pile of blankets or bags of garbage. But no. That was the clone.
"Did that idiot fall into the void?!" he held his breath, peeking over the edge. Black nothingness. Nothing but an oppressive silence and depth that made his skin crawl. He staggered back from the ledge, feeling uneasy.
Without knowing what happened to the clone, he focused back on the screen and expanded the [Conditions] tab.
Lethargic
Years of aimless boredom have settled into your bones. Time to stop being a bum and get moving!
Ignoring the insult written in the description, he studied his stats.
"My stats are absolutely trash! Intelligence is my only redeeming feature, but even that's overshadowed by my very low stats. Considering 5 is average and 10 is the peak for pre-tower humans, I guess I'm just barely above functional."
He noticed his charisma stat and scowled.
"Why is it so low? I'm charming!" he insisted, before catching sight of his reflection in a nearby puddle.
He was about 5'6", with ruffled black hair, light olive skin, and onyx eyes. His hoodie was musty, his shorts were full of holes, and he looked like he hadn't combed his hair in weeks.
'I'm still growing,' he told himself.
His luck was even worse but considering how he was somehow in an error difficulty, it could only make sense.
He expanded the options to see the description of them:
Strength – A measure of a person's raw physical force, including lifting capacity and melee attack power.
Agility – A measure of a person's raw speed and reflexes.
Intelligence – Represents cognitive processing, memory, and mana affinity. High intelligence allows faster learning, better analysis, and more efficient magic use.
Vitality – Affects stamina, physical resilience, and natural recovery rate. Vitality determines how fast a person can heal from damage.
Luck – Influences drop rates, hidden opportunities, and other intangible probabilities.
Charisma – Impacts how you are perceived by others, influencing leadership ability, negotiation, persuasion, and overall social influence.
Free Points – Points earned that can be manually allocated where the person sees fit.
Looking away from the descriptions, the [Titles] tab caught his attention.
Beta Tester (Unique!)
One of the first pioneers in Earth's Tower.
Permanent 20% boost to allocated stats.
"That must be one of those 'privileges' the message mentioned."
XfhD#2q9… Difficulty Challenger (???)
XfhD#2q9… df3# 9fd9s0 3sah$3
C!sD5 aS!4f
'Uhhhh, what am I looking at here…'
Unintelligible letters written in weird script. He wanted to make sense of it, but seeing no type of pattern, he lost interest and looked at the last option and clicked Select.
[Analyzing Potential…]
[Potential Confirmed]
[Please Choose a Class:]
- Sword Saint
- Void Dweller
- Arcane Tyrant
- Scholar
His jaw dropped.
"These are insane!"
But before he could pick—
[No-Class Selected…]
[Class cannot be changed]
[Option is Final]
[Second Option is Given]
[User selects No-Class]
[Third option is Given]
[User selects No-Class]
[Fourth Opti0n iS f04Fh#df…]
.
.
.
"WHAT IS GOING ON," Aasal screamed in bewilderment. A bunch of notifications were popping up on his screen to select a class, but each time it was somehow picking No-Class even though that wasn't even an option. Aasal was not in control of what was going on and the final message popped up.
[Are you sure?]
☑ Yes
☑ No
"OBVIOUSLY NO," quickly giving a command to the system.
[User selected: Yes]
[Selection Confirmed: No Class]
[Your bravery is noted.]
And just like that, Aasal fell to his knees in frustration. He pulled up the No Class description absentmindedly.
He tapped the new class entry.
No-Class
Most likely a fool.
Grants nothing to the user.
A vein pulsed on his forehead. He tried to pull his hair out.
"WHYYYYYY—?!"
His shout echoed through the void.
In the distance, something stirred. A massive beast, slumbering, opened one eye.
ROARRRRR!
Aasal froze. The ground beneath him rumbled.
"…What was that?" he whispered.
Panic set in. He turned in every direction, searching for somewhere to hide. The terrain was bleak—sharp cliffs, shattered stone, and fragmented ruins. There was barely any cover. The ground cracked under his feet with each step, echoing across the empty plateau.
He whispered to the system. "Inventory… open inventory. Please tell me I have a sword or something."
"GIVE ME A DAMN SWORD."
No response.
He looked around wildly. "System! I need a weapon! Sword! Gun! I don't care, just give me something!"
But the system remained silent.
Aasal sprinted toward a crumbled archway, ducking behind it as best he could. His breathing was erratic.
He peeked out, eyes darting, then whispered, "Maybe it didn't hear me. Maybe it's just… waking up from its nap."
A second roar shook the entire surface.
"Shit," Aasal squeezed his eyes shut.
'I have no class. I have no weapons. No skills. I'm literally defenseless. What do I do now…?'
Far away, the sound of movement grew louder.
And then—
Somewhere else entirely, under a calm blue sky, the clone was following the rock step trail