The entrance to the tower opened up as we walked toward it, the ground screaming as the mighty doors forced it apart. Inside was a slide made of stone. There were no stairs or railing. It was a nearly sheer ramp.

And that slide went down. Not up.

[Trial 3: Enter the Tower. You didn't think this was going to be easy, did you? No. Surviving is easy. Being rewarded is hard. You have to earn your way into the tower. Each of the five thousand entrances have their own tests. All of them will close in two days. You'd better hope you make it inside by then.]

“Hey, are you serious?” I asked.

The blue boxes didn't reply.

I looked at my surroundings in trepidation. Aside from the hundreds of dead bodies strewn across the park, buildings had been reduced to rubble, storm clouds were gathering, and a suspicious number of fires lit up the city.

Despite that, I couldn't hear a single sound.

“What are you looking for?” Jemima asked.

She skipped over to me, clasping her new sword in her hand. It was as long as her torso and legs, but despite its size she was swinging it around like it was a plastic toy. For a moment I thought we might have been tricked, but then she tripped and sliced through the wooden planks of the park bench like they were butter.

“There should be more people here,” I said, ignoring the sight of the now bisected bench. “If the blue box is right, then there's a billion people and five thousand entrances. Only two of us making it here doesn't add up.”

“Ah, screw that noise,” Jemima shrugged. “We made it. They'll come later if they do. Come on, we’ve got to figure out how to get inside.”

She turned back to the tower entrance and I moved to follow her. Then I paused. A slight glow on the ground caught my attention, and it led me to a puddle of slime that was either garbage or one of the dead bodies the blue boxes had mentioned.

There was something in the corpse.

I bent over to pick it up, grimacing as slime coated my fingers. Fortunately, it slipped right off as I picked up the glowing object, and when it fully released me I found myself holding a spherical rock.

[F-Rank Essence stone. Classification: Crafting material.]

I blinked in surprise as a blue box appeared atop the stone. Unlike the usual blue boxes this one was more silent, and emotionless.

“What is this?” I asked. “I mean, you're not exactly giving me a lot of information.”

There was no response, but a quick check with my eyes showed me that all of the nearby corpses had stones in them. If they were valuable, then it might be better to take them with us.

A squeal interrupted my thoughts and I whipped around to find the source. What I saw was Jemima was squishing the life out of a bean bag chair.

“My bean bag! We must have brought it with us!” Jemima smiled widely. “Oh man, I don't know what I would have done without this.”

My friend switched her equipment around, donning her sword in one hand and the bean bag chair in the other. She looked like a discount hobo knight and the only thing that would complete the look was a dingy bathrobe.

“Okay, okay, but still, this test is damned annoying.” Jemima stamped her foot against the ground in frustration. “The tower is going up, but the entrance goes down. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Down is up and up is down,” I said. “I get it.”

“Do you?” She turned to me.

“No, but we just need to survive the descent,” I said. “So, we need a sled.”

I glanced down at the slide that began at the tower’s entrance. I couldn't see all the way down. The end was probably a sheer drop.

“How the hell are we going to find a sled?” Jemima waved her sword, the edge terrifyingly sharp.

But it was her other hand that interested me now.

“Your bean bag chair,” I snatched the chair out of her hands and ignored her protests. “This is a good cushion. We just need something to put it in.”

“Oh! Oh!” Jemima’s eyes lit up. “I know exactly what we can use. Look, look, it's all hard on the outside!”

She rushed to the side and came back a minute later dragging a large object in her free hand.

“Huh.” I examined it carefully. “That could work.”

Five minutes later Jemima carved out the final piece of flesh from the object in her hands, scooping liquids and raw flesh to the side. Three eyes had one been socketed into it, but they were gone too, sacrificed to make room for the beanbag chair we plopped onto its hollowed out interior where its skull and brain had once been.

We’d made a sled out of a giant's head and a bean bag chair.

Perfect.

“Okay, I think I've held back enough now,” I said.

With those words, I promptly hurled on the ground.

“Ew,” Jemima scrunched her nose in disdain. “I did mine in the bushes, like a civilized person.”

Her words were drowned out as I made the most disgusting sounds known to man. Only when my stomach had emptied and then some did I stand up straight, wiping my mouth with my sleeve.

In the meantime, Jemima was squatting next to a pile of glowing essence stones that I'd gathered as she carved the head open. There were exactly two hundred spheres, all of them labeled by the blue boxes as F-rank.

She looked up at me with a questioning gaze.

“Not all of the bodies had them,” I explained. “I have no idea what they're used for.”

“At least your hammer finally got some use,” she said pointedly.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I looked down at the hammer in my hand. It was covered in liquids that belonged to three dozen different types of bodies. The hammer itself was a double headed one, and it had come in handy when I'd been forced to use it to crush bones to get to the stones inside the bodies.

Maybe it wasn't so useless after all.

[Do you wish to take the third trial?]

The blue box appeared the moment we stepped up to the entrance of the tower.

“We do,” I said.

Jemima plopped the hollowed out head down at the entrance. After some discussion, we’d filled the bottom with the essence stones and then laid the bean bag chair on top of it.

Since the original head was bigger than we were, it was an easy fit for both of us as we sat inside it. The giant's skin was unnaturally hard, and even Jemima’s sword struggled to cut through it in a single swing, so we weren't worried about it breaking apart.

For handholds, we used the three eyeholes.

“I wish I had a drink,” Jemima groaned. “Why did it have to get rid of my buzz?”

I shrugged. “I'm not complaining. Come on, push.”

We reached over the side of the skin of our makeshift sled and pushed off the ground, both of us carefully making sure that we went forward and didn't roll. We'd be squashed into paste by the stone ramp if we tumbled down it like a snowball.

As we pushed off the top, our screams mingled together in a symphony of chaos and fear. The initial push was barely needed, and the steep incline took us the rest of the way.

“This was not a good idea!” Jemima shouted.

“Feedback is not appreciated here!” I shouted back.

Our descent lasted a full minute, with the slide quickly becoming a sheer drop. Soon, I spotted a light in the distance, and then the light drew closer. And closer. And. Closer.

We were going to hit it head-first.

Jemima swore as a door appeared before us, three eyes carved into its surface. Each one of them watched us with a different emotion carved into them, and as we approached the doors swung open to let us inside.

I went flying the moment the sled hit the ground, and dozens of essence stones flew out with me.

“Watch out!”

Jemima landed on my back, knocking the crap out of me, and a soft bump after her told me that the beanbag chair had landed on her.

“You're too skinny,” my friend groaned. “It's all bone.”

“I'm going to whack you if you don't get off me,” I replied.

She rolled over at my words, a shrill laugh escaping her lips.

“Hey, look,” Jemima poked my ribs. “Up.”

I swatted her elbow away and rolled onto my back, following her gaze to the ceiling. Above us was a coloured mural depicting several constellations in a galaxy, but I didn't recognize any of the stars.

A faint sound tickled my ear as I steadied myself. Somebody was playing music on a harp.

[You have entered a safe space.]

[You cannot be harmed in a safe space.]

I looked around and realized that the essence stones had disappeared the moment they hit the ground.

[You have unlocked your inventory! To view your inventory, say or think of the word or concept, ‘inventory’.]

[You have unlocked your status screen! People have longed to see their value put into numbers, but now you can increase them. Exciting. To view your status screen, say or think of the word or concept, ‘status screen’.]

[Your trial 3 reward is being generated. Please accept your trial 2 reward first.]

The floor rumbled as two pedestals emerged in the center of the room. Atop each one was a solid gold box with rainbow lights flowing around it. These were the rewards the blue boxes had told us about.

It was obvious which box was mine. Somehow, my face had been carved into its four sides.

“I have a legendary box too but I don't put it on a pedestal,” Jemima said. “I do like the presentation though.”

Without hesitation I strode forward and reached out for my box. The moment I grazed it, the world froze around me.

[Common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. Normally, people are happy to sniff a rare skill. You've bagged one that's far superior. Survivor of the Earth. Wielder of Hammers. Rider of Heads. Prepare yourself for the magnificence that will be bestowed upon you, and learn to appreciate its glory. For you have been deemed worthy.]

The harp music around me stilled and my hand shivered as the reward within it trembled. Before I could let go of it, the skill box rose into the air, taking me with it. One meter. Two meters. Five meters. When it stopped, it began to turn. Spinning around and around, I saw the runes on the box glow brighter and brighter until they exploded in a shower of golden light and confetti.

“Oof.”

I fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of me, and streamers of golden light fell with me. A single groan escaped my lips, though I wasn't actually hurt, and a blue box responded to my woes.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill: Crafting(legendary)! This skill needs a hammer. You have a hammer. It's a match made in heaven!]

[Crafting(legendary) has reached tier 0.]

[Requirements have been generated to unlock your tier 0 passive. You must craft an item of any type and rarity to unlock Crafting’s tier 0 passive. 0/1 requirements met.]

Crafting(legendary): From the humblest of blacksmiths to the greatest of Stars, all who follow the path of the craftsman must wield this skill to succeed.

Tier 0: Unlocked. As a reward for simply having this skill, all basic crafting knowledge instinctively comes to you when you wield a crafting tool.

Tier 0 passive: Unlockable. Requirements met: 0/1.

Tier 1: Unlockable. Requirements met: 0/4.

Tier 1 passive: Locked.

[Fun fact! A legendary skill doesn't just pop up every day. This baby can reach up to tier 9! Each new tier improves your skill’s effects and unlocks a new passive ability.]

That sounded impressive, but I wasn't impressed by what I saw. So, I could make stuff? WOW.

That was absolutely useless.

“This is too much information!” Jemima shouted, clutching at her head. “What the hell is a [Heavenly Destroying Star]?”

Beside her, her sword was glowing bright gold and black. I couldn't tell what skill she'd received, but it sounded better than mine. Which definitely didn't make me jealous. Definitely not.

Jemima’s eyes gleamed as she spotted me. “You're so jealous.”

“Am not,” I shot back.

[You have received a reward!]

[Trial 3 reward: An explanation.]

A series of blue boxes appeared, and this time I read them steadily and quietly. Beside me, Jemima had also cooled down, her enthusiasm draining with every word she read.

[Holy crap. You made it. That's an accomplishment you should be proud of. Okay, I wasn't expecting so many of you to enter so quickly. Jeez. Your planet must really suck if you don't want to stay on it after it's been destroyed. Whatever happened to loyalty? Well I hope you're reading this on the toilet because I'm about to drop a lot of crap on you.]

[Anyway, here’s the down low, as you people say. Your planet isn't gone. And it's not dead. It's been integrated. A very special word for very special planets. We have saved your planet, which you clearly didn't appreciate, and reconstituted its matter to create an entirely new tower floor for denizens to romp and play in. The organic matter that existed on your planet has been repurposed as well. What an honor!]

The influx of messages paused, as though giving us time to think.

All it did was give me time to panic. The Earth had been destroyed and all I got was a lousy hammer. In the face of beings that could obliterate our society in hours, even Jemima’s sword was little comfort.

[I’m sure you're all absolutely thrilled and horrified by these revelations, but don't worry. The System is fair, and the towers always provide a path to power. Your new floor is being created right now from the remains of your planet and when it's complete it will be assigned an administrator. What's an administrator? I doubt you'll live long enough to find out, so I won't waste my time explaining. More importantly for you, you've been given access to the System, and all the abilities this entails. To earn more, you must climb higher into the tower. Not all societies abandoned their world as cold heartedly as yours, and many, many floors exist only to be challenged. When you arrive at your own floor you'll be given a choice. Stay there or climb the towers. Can you stay safe on your own floor for the rest of your lives? Maybe. But survival is never guaranteed, and you have one last trial to complete. I think you've gotten the gist of things now, so you don't need an hour to digest my explanation. Let's begin straight away.]

[Trial 4: Interview with a Star.]

[You are being transported to the fourth trial area. Good luck.]

“What?” I shouted the question, and it bounced off the walls around me.

“Hey!” Jemima’s yell hit the air at the same time.

Before I could react, the world around me darkened and blurred, eerily similar to the way it had when I'd blacked out after drinking. When the sensation faded I stumbled forward, grasping at my surroundings. A faint red glow permeated the area, and as I looked around, I realized that there was something very important missing from them.

Jemima was gone. And for the first time a sense of hopelessness struck me.

I was alone.