Moonlight was flashing through the narrow gaps of the room where I, Cad Cooper, was sitting. I had short, brown hair, murky green eyes and had an above average height. I was curled up with my new litrpg book, and was about to embark on the latest and greatest apocalypse story when a blue screen appeared into my vision.
Initiation commencing…
Initiation of universe 37 complete!
Hello, and welcome to the multiverse, sentient beings of universe 37. Worlds with sentient beings will be randomly selected into the categories of:
War Training World: 86%
Production World: 6%
General World: 4%
Factory World: 3.993%
Universe Capital World: 0.007%
A game-like prompt appeared in front of me, blue screen and all. “What in the world is going on….?” I muttered, “Have I gone crazy? Maybe I got drugged?” I didn’t feel woozy or disoriented. “Wait...This is very similar to the books that I read all the time, this could just be a crazy dream my mind is making for me?”
Well, whatever the case, it is best to just act as if this is real, for the off chance that it is, I thought. What if there are monsters just like in the books? I shivered despite the blankets on me, flashbacks about gruesome movies and books describing in detail all about horrible monsters. My heart was speeding up but the prompts didn’t wait for me to calm myself.
Rolling…Congratulations! Planet earth has been selected as a War Training World!
To temper you for the multiverse and give you a greater chance of survival, earth’s inhabitants must climb to the top of each of the 10 Great Towers before it is too late. The towers will spawn in one minute. Good luck, and happy climbing.
“One minute??!”, I exclaimed. My parents were out at work and usually they came back in around one hour. I stopped and just thought about what to do for around 10 seconds. What would the main character in a story do? Shaking my head for the time wasted, I dashed down the stairs, into the hallway, grabbed my bag - a climbing bag from when I was on holiday - and my brown coat and slipped on my shoes.
I rushed into the kitchen and filled my bag with any sharp looking knives. Unfortunately, in England, there were regulations against having guns as a civilian, so no guns. Also, I grabbed two water bottles, filled them at the tap and chucked them into my bag.
Then everything went black.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I found myself in a circular plain grey room, with no windows or doors. I began to panic a little and look for an exit. Somehow, the room had lighting with no visible source - the only object in the room was a stone pedestal, barely reaching up to hand height. Without seeing anything dangerous, I walked forward to inspect the pedestal but the blue screen appeared in my vision again.
Welcome to the 4th Great Tower. This is floor 0. You can return to this room whenever you are in a safe space or at the end of every floor. In this room you can: assign classes, access the 4th Great Store and go to any floor that you have beaten. There is also +200% health, stamina and mana regeneration in this room. The first time you enter this room a help AI will answer very basic questions about your new life.
World Achievement unlocked! Trailblazer (title):
The first person to enter a Great Tower.
Technically you were tied with about 500 other people, but whatever.
Reward: + 2 to all stats.
I just stared at that last line for a few seconds. There are stats now? Do they mean the stats like in video games? A popping sound came from my right and a weird human-shaped mist creature appeared. Despite what you might expect, I wasn’t very surprised that mist creatures can randomly teleport next to me, I just assumed that this was like the books I used to read and there was often teleporting in them.
{Hello I am here to help you acclimatise to your new life. I will first go through a rundown of the basics and how you should proceed in this Great Tower.}, the mist-man (that's what I was calling it now) spoke into my head in a very robotic voice. “I umm, alright… go for it”, I replied.
{Firstly, if you think ‘menu’ it should come up with a screen showing you: race, class, stats, skills, titles and quests.}, it (he?) said. Focusing, I thought ‘menu’ with all of my concentration. Surprisingly, it was relatively easy and a screen appeared in my vision:
Status:
Name: Cad Cooper
Level: 0 (0/100)
Class: N/A
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 100/100
Mana Points (MP): 110/110
Stamina: 100/100
Stats:
Strength: 11 Agility: 12 Endurance: 10 Vitality: 10 Toughness: 9 Wisdom: 12 Intelligence: 11
Perception: 12 Willpower: 8 Luck: 6
Free points: 0
Skills:
Titles: Trailblazer
Quests: N/A
Well that was interesting… My luck was extremely low compared to my other stats, probably how I ended up spawning in a Great Tower in the first place. “Mist-man, can I have a rundown of how the stats work?” I asked.
{Unable to answer that question.} I supposed was really is the ‘very basic’ information then. “Any other useful information you can tell me?”
{At random intervals monsters will overflow out of all the Great Towers, progressively increasing in quantity and power - the only way to stop this is by completing all floors of the Great Tower that you are in. You can unlock classes at the end of floor 10 of any Great Tower and there is a boss at every 10th level. Finally, you cannot leave the tower until you complete at least 5 floors.}
“WHAT??” I exclaimed. There is no way I was stuck here for 5 floors! I had no idea how long each floor even was - I could be stuck here for months!
Proceed to Floor One?
I calmed my racing heart. I guess I have to start levelling up to become strong enough to defend humanity. There is no time like the present. I got ready to run at the slightest notice and then thought yes.