“Welcome Diver!”

Azaan tried to look around to find the owner of the loud and bombastic voice but he could not see anything. Everything looked blurry and he was stumbling which ultimately caused him to fall. Thankfully though, it did not hurt much. He waited for a few minutes, expecting and awaiting the voice to speak again but there was only silence. Not being able to do anything anyway, he tried to relax which seemed to help in lessening the headache.

After a while, his headache stopped and his vision also started to recover. As the blurriness decreased he saw that he was located in an all-white space. Panic rose in his heart as he quickly checked around to see whether he had been kidnapped but the room, if it could be called that, was unlike anything that he had seen before which caused the panic to subside a bit.

The room was all white but not in the sense of it being colored white but as if it had been made of white light. The floor was similar, he used his fingers to press into the floor and he could feel them going inside the floor. He pushed his fingers in with more force but no matter how hard he tried they did not go further than the initial mark.

He tried to stand up, and thankfully, his legs did not go inside the floor even when he applied a lot of force. Looking around, he tried to find a way out of the space. He moved to the walls to see where the heater was, after all, considering how cold it was, he would have been shivering from the light clothes that he had been wearing when he went to sleep.

He went along the wall on the left side but as he kept moving, he could see nothing and no matter how much he moved, he could not see the end of the room. He had stopped after a while as there was nothing here besides him. Then he noticed that the air inside the room was entirely still except for any of the disturbances that he may have caused. He was starting to panic again.

“God help me.”

He whispered silently. As he was surveying the room again, he suddenly saw someone in the center of the room.

"Who are you?!"

He shouted at the person, receiving no response. He kept waiting and felt time pass frustratingly slowly. Still, he kept waiting and after what seemed like an hour he started to move towards the center.

As he got the clear view, he found his initial impression to be false.

"Is it a statue?"

It certainly looked that way to him, being made of a material similar to that of the room. It was entirely white, from hair to skin to clothes. Its eyes did not have any discernible pupil, he observed. As he got even nearer, he found a circular ring inside its eyes that seemed to act as the border of the pupil though there was still no distinction within and out of that border.

By the time he noticed this, he was already in front of it. He raised his hand to try and touch it. Just as his hand got near it,

Flash!!!!

Light erupted from the eyes of the statue. The light was blinding and being so close to it only made it worse for Azaan. Again, he fell onto the ground but this time the blindness was even more severe.

Ahhhhhhhh!

He felt as if someone was forcing spikes into his eyes. He was rolling on the ground when suddenly the pain stopped. It was so sudden that he could not comprehend what happened, still, he quickly backed away from the statue, looking fearfully at it from afar. This time he found the eyes glowing with dark blue light and those eyes were focused upon him.

Thump

Thump

Thump!

An unknown dread started to hijack his mind, causing him to scramble away from the statue. It did not make him feel any better though. It only increased. At this time, he felt pain in his heart. The pain started light, but it increased quickly. It only took a short while for him to feel as if his heart was going to explode. The pain was so intense that he could not even whimper.

Again, all of it stopped as suddenly as it had started. Suddenly he heard a voice. The voice, he could understand but not at the same time.

“Welcome and congratulations for being chosen, Azaan Ali son of Zeeshan Ali and Yasmeen Ali.”

The voice was soft unlike the first one. By this time he was covered in sweat and was praying in his heart. Still, some part of his heart was serene hoping that a long due wish of his would-be fulfilled, that he would die. But he could not die without giving his all to survive so he started to walk near it. Trying to control the trembling of his body as much as he could.

“Chosen? For what?”

He spoke slowly, afraid that talking fast might cause him not to be able to pronounce properly.

Thump

Thump

Again the voice spoke and this time he noticed the light emitting from the eyes blink as it did so.

“You have been elected to be a part of this planet’s first wave of divers. This place will act as your launching station. From here, you may either dive into the Endless Dungeon or use your contribution points or achievements to buy anything imaginable. I will be your guide and you can consult me for a reasonable price.”

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Azaan just stood there silently, processing the word that he had just heard. He started considering what to say but before he could speak, he saw the light blink again.

“You may ask three questions of type E importance for free.”

Now Azaan started to carefully consider the questions that he would ask. He started to review his situation while sitting down on the floor a bit away from the statue. This thing had talked about:

* Diving

* Contribution points

* Achievements

* Being able to buy anything

* Price for any piece of information

* E level information

There were also other things that he considered, such as:

* What was this white space

* What was the statue

* What was this Endless Dungeon

He pondered upon these questions considering how to maximize the three questions that he could ask. After considering for a while he decided on the three questions that he was going to ask. He started to slowly approach the statue, staggering even at his slow pace.

"What are contribution points?"

As he asked his question, he noticed how calm he was when he could not even walk straight just a few moments ago. He dismissed it for now though, it was not like he could do anything about everything that was occurring at the moment. He focused his attention on the statue and again its eyes flashed.

"Contribution points. They are the most basic currency that you can obtain. It can be used to buy various things such as improved physique."

"Really? Can my body really be cured?"

The eyes flashed again and asked

“Is this your second question?”

“No.”

He quickly replied. After his reply, the statue continued.

“Contribution points can be obtained by completing specific contracts that we provide or by exterminating corruption inside the Endless Dungeon. But be forewarned that earning even a single contribution point is not an easy thing to achieve.”

Azaan added another point to his list of questions, namely corruption, and asked his second question.

“How do I survive?”

He certainly did not think he was capable enough to suddenly survive the implied fighting that would be taking place. Because of his medical condition, he was not able to perform strenuous activities. Even now, after all the hardships he was still not even equal to a normal human physically. And even though he wanted to die, it could only happen after giving it his all.

The eye of the statue flashed again.

“Every new diver is granted 2 contribution points and basic inventory storage. These two will provide you with a chance to survive if utilized correctly. Now shout ‘Shop’.”

The statue pauses there waiting for him. He does as asked and shouts,

“Shop!”

A bit too loud, he thought but suddenly his focus was captured by the hologram-like thing floating in front of him. He looked about to see if there was a projector here but found none. Again, he dismissed his thought and focused upon the hologram.

The hologram had the title, ‘Shop’, in bold at the top center while below there were five headings. Self-Enhancement. Mutation. Powers. Equipment. Healing/Recovery. At the bottom of this menu, there was a ‘2’. Most likely the contribution points, Azaan thought.

As he kept looking at the menu, a flash of light brought his attention back to the statue.

“Bring your attention to the ‘Equipment section’. Here you can buy any item ranging from fictional to what you would consider science fiction. What I would advise for your case are a simple light sword and a very strong poison. It requires minimum physical exertion and no skills from you. These are the items that I would recommend.”

As the statue said that, his menu automatically displayed two items. One was a sword and the other a bottle with pinkish liquid. The sword has swirling patterns all over it, similar to the Damascus steel that he had seen in youtube videos. Both had some descriptions written under them with a price on the side in bold. He read their names and their description though the only thing he could understand was that the sword was very sharp and the poison was very poisonous.

“How do I return?”

The statue’s eyes flashed again.

“To return to your home/planet you must dive into the dungeon at least once after entering this space. You are required to dive at least 10 times in a month and if you are found not to be making sufficient progress towards this goal near the end of the month, you would forcefully be made to do so. To be able to enter, you would be provided with the "Mark of Recruitment", through it you will gain access to your inventory space and the entrance and exit from the dungeon."

As he was checking for the mark, pain erupted from his right hand and both of his hands. This time though it was very light and ended quickly. He checked his hands and found that there were some criss-cross lines drawn in the webbings between the fingers. He moved his finger across the mark but did not encounter any bumps, it was as if it was a part of his skin. Its color was similar to his skin which made it even harder to see.

He looked at the statue to see whether he would say something else and started to slowly back away when he found it silent. The fear and dread were returning as the distance between both of them increased. It was as if there was a calming aura that settled down his fears. The equipment menu was still open. The sword was priced at 0.05 while the poison at 0.5. He bought them. His points were reduced but he did not find them anywhere. As he was wondering what to do now, he remembered the statue saying that the mark also acted as the inventory space. It seemed that he was still affected by this heavy atmosphere that was present in this space now.

“Inventory Space”

A menu really did pop up. It was an inventory that was similar to those found in games though it only had five spaces. He clicked the sword icon and suddenly felt a weight added to his right side. He looked and found the sword fastened there. As he clicked the bottle icon, again it was automatically attached to his left side.

“Shouldn’t it be like those cultivation type bag of holdings, maybe there are some in the shop?”

He opened the shop and searched the inventory items but as he saw the price he quickly shut it down. Even the cheapest of them was priced at hundreds of points so he did not feel any need to make himself miserable for no reason.

Now that he was done, he went towards the statue, and strangely, he found himself trembling very little compared to before. Mentally noting it as another question, he spoke to the statue.

“I want to dive.”

Its eye flashed and suddenly, it was dark.