[Welcome to the Tower of Immortals]

[Choose the Difficulty. Rewards and Growth Potential will increase with Difficulty.]

I was half asleep when I saw distorted words hovering in front of me. I swatted at the pesky light that ruined my sleep.

[Nightmare Difficulty Selected.]

I went back to sleep without the light shining in my eyes. A rough shake wakes me up. I open my eyes and see a man shaking me to get up.

"You slept long enough; get up."

The man who woke me up looks stocky with a gruff voice. I look around surprisingly clear-headed; another man and a woman are standing nearby. This is definitely not my room; the floor and walls are made of marble-like stone.

"Are you coming to your senses?"

I stumble backwards, "what, who, where...." my speech is garbled as the panic of unknown sets in.

"Hey, calm down. Did you see those messages? Let's have a chat."

"What messages, where am I? Who are you guys?" I blurt out whatever is on my mind.

"You know, the message regarding the tower of Immortals."

Is this..., did I get teleported. I have read isekai novels, where those lights asking for permission. Shit, did I fuck up my choices by swatting at it?

"I was sleeping so; I don't remember much. What was the message, and what are we doing here."

The man told me about the message and choosing Difficulty; we were given four choices: Easy, Normal, Hard & Nightmare. Everyone here chose Nightmare.

If I wasn't half-asleep, I would have chosen Hard Difficulty. I have played enough games to know that Nightmare difficulty is going to be a total shit show.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I looked around; there is what looks like a sitting area with sofas and tables off to the right. There is a pool of water with slight green colour in the centre and rows of beds to the north of the room. There are no doors or windows despite that the room is well lit.

"So, what is the situation? Has anybody got any clues to what is happening?"

I looked at all of them; the guy standing next to the woman looked uninterested and wasn't paying attention. The stocky man pointed behind me.

"Look at that black square for 15 to 20 seconds."

I turned around, and there was a large black square near the ceiling. I kept looking at it, and then there were words floating in front of me.

[Time left Until the Start - 9:16]

I stretched my hand, and it passed right through the words; it looks like the words are projected in my mind, not floating in the real world. I moved my head, and the words remained in the centre of my vision.

The time was counting down, so almost 9 minutes left for who or whatever teleported us into this box of stone to show their intentions.

"We should introduce ourselves; let's sit down and talk." The stocky man started moving towards the sitting area.

We sat on the sofas, and the stocky man was the first to introduce himself. His name is Ethan, 36 years old, and he was on his way home from the night shift when the message appeared before his eyes.

Next was the woman her name is Debra she is a programmer working for some engineering company. She was watching TV at home when she got teleported here.

The other guy who is still not paying full attention is Andrew. He is 23 years old and was drinking with his friends when he was teleported here, fully drunk.

Another interesting thing was that touching the water in the centre of the room completely restores you. Andrew was a complete mess and accidentally tumbled into the pool, and that's why I felt refreshed because Ethan splashed some of that water to wake me up.

Next, I introduced myself; my name is Aron. I am 27 years old; I was on vacation after finishing my education and was planning on taking a few months off to travel before applying for work.

"Well, now that we know more about each other, how about we discuss what is about to come."

"I think this is similar to novels or games; teleporting us here and the messages." I started with what my thoughts were leaning towards, and that is the possibility of this being like those isekai I have read.

"Yeah, this is similar." Debra agreed with my assumption.

All four of us are familiar with games, so it wasn't hard to agree. As we started to get more into the discussion, the timer ran out, and we all got the notification.

[Portals to Floor 1 will open in 1 Week]

[User Interface Available in Access Room]

[Forums Access Unlocked]

[Free Attributes Awarded]

After reading those messages, I was excited. I had no fear of what I would face; I was ready to explore this new world, and if I died trying, so what. I never feared dying before, and now that I could get stronger, I cared even less.