“I’m alive!” Callan was breathing heavily. He raised his hands above his eyes and stared. “I’m alive!” He stood up immediately. Walked towards Mirai and hugged it. “I’m alive!”

Callan cried buckets above Mirai. It has experienced many tears falling above it. Even though it could never really feel the downpour of tears. Nor feel anyone's touch. Just the thoughts and emotions were enough.

Callan just cried and cried. It was the first time it had felt such pain and such danger. It was closer to death than he had ever been his entire life. Failing an exam and riding a rollercoaster was nothing in comparison with watching your own organs slide out of your own body.

[Welcome]

“I knew it was you! Thank you, Mirai!” He continued to cry. Mirai just thought it was good to just let him be. Callan was already experiencing enough and so was Mirai. For the first time, it unlocked a system. A feature of its own. And it was something that could help the raiders.

Even though it was still pissed as it couldn’t have unlocked something long ago. The burden and guilt of all those people, that it wouldn’t try to lie about, Mirai killed them. Even if it wasn’t with its own hands. Mirai killed everyone.

But there was no going back. There was only the future. “I’m sorry! I’ll write again! I’ll love it again! I’m not emotionless anymore!” Mirai didn’t know what Callan was talking about. But soon enough it will know Callan more than anyone. It was time, this was Mirai’s last chance. Using the system it was provided. It will carry the worst Client it has ever had yet. Or well… was he?

[Callan Satchel]

[Level: 1]

[Strength: 4]

[Agility: 4]

[Endurance: 4]

[Magic: 4]

One Hundred Thousand! It was a hundred thousand clients, yet out of all of those. Not a single one had such an even spread of stats at a level up. Nor did they have talent in both the physical and magical aspects. It was unheard of. Literally.

Though of course, such things as magic swordsmen existed. Of course that was a possibility. But that was still just a few magic stat and more on the strength stat. But either way, a magic-to-physical ability ratio shouldn’t be the main topic.

It was that all stats are the same. All stats couldn’t be the same. It was something Mirai had concluded as potential and talent.

“I leveled up!” Cheered Callan. He was extremely happy yet was still crying. He was, how many times do I have to repeat it, just a normal person. It was a surprise he even cleared the first floor. But it was not that amazing of a feat. Many have already cleared the first floor.

Though just like the majority. Most died cause they couldn’t survive the injury that they took from the floor. And that was supposed to be the case for Callan too. If it wasn’t for Mirai, he was just another dead man.

But Callan didn’t seem normal. He was talented, he had a talent for everything. It was insane. And his potential… “All my stats got up by 3… Is that normal?” Callan asked Mirai. As he rubbed his tears off his eyes. And cleaned his wet face with his clothes.

[No]

Replied Mirai. “Oh…” Callan got to thinking fast. Was that a positive? A negative? Was it shit? Or was it ok? Or maybe it was amazing? Or higher, it was the best ever! Callan just couldn’t get it out of his head. He has had a lot of greed ever since he was a child, pride was just a partner of that, and ego was the birth of the two.

“Is it good?” Asked Callan.

[Yes]

Callan could have just accepted the fact. But at the moment his greed and pride were at a high point. His ego was back alive. All he could think of was going higher. “Really… good?”

[Yes]

“Yes!” Callan kneeled and raised his hands. He yelled over excitement. It was the greatest achievement of his life. I'm not lying, it really was. Well, enough of his life. No one cares.

“Ok, but even still! I almost died.” Callan got back to reality. His ego shut down and slept. The lingering feeling of death. And those horrifying sight of his organs. It makes him wanna puke. Even though he always thought that gore was not going to affect him. Either it was cause he was just glazing or that it was his own body.

Whatever it was he still couldn’t let go of the feeling. But who will, it was hell. The feeling of death was scary. It was far too horrifying. He had fun watching death scenes on shows and even fantasized about killing people. But now, it was just disgusting.

“Mirai, what else do I have to do?” Callan asked Mirai as he collected his thoughts. He stood straight. Fixed his posture. Stared intently. And with discipline in his mind and actions.

[Endless Tower]

[Floor 1]

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

[Floor 2]

“Is that it? Is all I could really do is to just climb the tower?” Callan tilted his head. Confusion filled his mind.

[Yes]

“Is there a skill system window?”

[No]

“An inventory?”

[Yes]

“Oh! Can I get it now!”

[No]

“Shop?”

[...No]

Mirai did have a shop. But unless it was a game of guessing the word. It could never explain it in detail to Callan. It was also a waste of time, as Mirai trusted itself to handle that. All Callan had to do was climb the tower and win.

“Weapon?”

[No]

“Another room!?”

[No]

“A tra…”

A lot of time passed and Callan found out one simple thing about the place he was in. It was Hell. There really wasn’t any better explanation.

He was stuck in an endless white void. With Mirai, with only 3 abilities it had. A status screen. That was just stats and nothing else. It was stupid. A screen that showed the floors. It didn’t even have any other descriptions. What a floor was going to be. Mirai didn’t know it either. But it did know the later floors based on what others have told it. Callan also found out that you could climb a floor infinitely, and every clear is a level up. Though you could only level up twice on a single floor.

And there was the third and final feature.

[21:34:32]

It was a timer. Or more specifically, a deadline. A point that you have to clear a new floor. Or in 5 minutes of not clearing a new floor, you just die. It was an inescapable thing. However, Callan did learn it becomes longer the higher the floors. But it still meant that death was always around the corner.

Callan took a deep breath and started planning inside his head. He was shit. He may be talented as Mirai has said indirectly. But so what if you had talent or potential or any of that? If you rely on such a thing on a tower that just has nothing to offer to help you other than leveling up.

“Hard Work!” It was the only thing Callan could reach out to. Callan removed the tied clothing on his right arm and tied it on his forehead. “It’s time to be a nerd!”

Callan had roughly 22 hours left before he needed to clear floor 2. He wouldn’t be in a hurry. Even if he could clear a floor immediately in whatever way that was even possible. Just clearing a floor without utilizing the time limit was stupid.

Callan found out that the unbeatable floor at the moment was floor 51. And that everyone cleared and cleared each floor till they faced near death and stopped. That’s when they used the deadline timer as just the time to clear a floor.

Even if they soon used the same tactic. It had already wasted way too much precious time. Callan was definitely not the first to think of such an idea. He didn’t hear that from Mirai. But it wasn’t like every single one of them were stupid.

“Game Plan!” 22 hours on the book. Callan used the 30 minutes to plan his schedule. Callan was lacking everywhere. His not exercising for his entire life, was not an exaggeration. It was true. Callan is 18 years old and is an aspiring author. He had not only made his body suffer through not exercising. But it also suffered from constant sitting and little to no movement at all.

His physical body was lacking… “wait…” or was it? Looking at the stats. His strength, agility, and endurance were 4. Callan looked down on his body and removed his shirt. It was jacked. It wasn’t that jacked. But he had some muscles. It was small but visible.

He stood up and started to do some jumping jacks. He wasn’t getting tired. Before just walking to his school made him so tired he had to just never stand up from his chair till lunchtime. But at that moment he could do it.

Callan stopped before he wasted any more unnecessary energy. That unexpected development changed his plan. He wanted to first do some simple push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. But simple wasn’t needed anymore.

Callan was no professional. He never learned how to work out, so he only knew the basics. But he once read a manga about just doing 4 different exercises for 2 years. It should just be enough. And if it wasn’t he already thought of plans for the future.

Enough padding of words. The plan was final. For the first hour, Callan is to run as far as he can and as fast as he could. It didn’t matter if he gets tired. The exercise was for his heart and willpower. He already had confidence in his willpower due to the determination he went through on the first floor.

After the hour, that left 21 hours. The next 30 minutes are used as a break. If he wasn’t that tired though, he wouldn’t take a break at all. Push-ups were next, he would do as much as he could. Till he hears a bone crack. If it was just simple bone cracks those didn’t count. He wanted real cracks that almost made his bone break.

It only took 30 minutes. After that, it was time for his squats. His arms hurt like shit. It was broken, that was just it. But that didn’t mean his legs weren’t. After 30 more minutes of that, he stopped. His entire body was so tired he could just die.

Callan lay on the ground out of breath. “Is there no water!” Mirai answered with a no. There was no water. Callan didn’t think about that water shortage and was running out of hydration. But thankfully the next part of the plan was rest.

Yes, just rest. No more after that. It feels like a waste. But it wasn’t. If he trains more with broken arms and legs, it would never heal in the span of 20 hours.

And so, Callan thirsted. His mouth turned dry like a dessert. His eyes were burning like he was looking at the sun. His body was so tired it couldn’t stand up.

A few minutes passed and Callan was already regretting his life choices. He was so bored that it was hell. Just kidding, an author is never bored when left alone. Well... he isn't. His body just felt uncomfortable.

And so what did he do as a pastime? Well, he just continued his story inside his head. Yes, I know that he said he would forget about it. He even said goodbye and went through some phases. But what do you expect? He is a human. At New Year's they make a resolution and in just a day it was broken like yesterday never happened. It’s humans, I know you understand. And give him some slack, he loved his stories. He already cried about discarding all he said too, so yeah.

20 hours later and…

[Raid The Next Floor]

Callan was standing in front of Mirai. It couldn’t really talk with Callan… he really couldn’t speak much. That was a waste of water. That was just a stupid choice of movement. It benefits nothing but dehydration.

“I hope I get water on this floor.”

[Yes]

He asks for water? Fine then. Then water he will get. Oh, no... of course I won’t drop him in the ocean. It’s far too early, just a pond would do.