Trystan and Henry spend the rest of the week preparing for what is about to come down, since Trystan knows exactly when the first blue box appears he works with Henry to plan a party of both of their families and most of their friends.

“I figure, if I tell them all of the information with just a few minutes before the boxes appear they’ll be much more likely to actually accept the information.” Trystan confides to his friend as they start wrapping up the small document that they’d been working on.

Henry nods, “That would probably be the best time to actually tell them. Long enough for them to get over the shock of you being crazy, but short enough that if the boxes actually appear that they’ll be willing to listen to you and hopefully not quite as shocked about them showing up out of nowhere.”

Henry pauses for a moment, “So is there any other information we need to add in?”

Trystan reads through the small google doc he’s created once more, “I don’t think so, I have information about the Test, information about the first floor, how to get skills, what skills are useless, how increasing skills is more important than using the shop to increase them.” He shakes his head, “No, I think that this is going to be the best we can do. I’m hoping that if everything goes well that we can all meet up at Riverside, marked it in the document in a very rough map form, so hopefully people can find it.”

Henry nods, “Well, it's just about time, should we…” he trails off and gestures down the stairs.

Trystan nods and hits the print button to print off a few copies, once they are finished he makes is way down the stairs, where the party is already going on. Mostly just their family doing a game night together, though a couple of their other friends are also present, Ashley and Ben seem to be kicking some butt in some Smash Brothers. The parents appear to be playing a game of Spades, and he catches his sister apparently helping his dad to cheat. He shakes his head slowly as he takes a deep calming breath to start preparing himself.

“Mom, Dad…” He tries to speak up but his voice catches in his throat and seizes up for a moment. Swallowing and pushing down his fear he tries again.

“Everyone. What I’m about to tell you is going to sound crazy, and in any other circumstances, I would say that I’m nuts. But I’m also going to be proved correct in about 5 minutes, so please try and wait at least that long before calling an ambulance for me.”

His voice rings out loudly and the general sound in the room slowly stops as people turn to pay attention to him, well except for the friends which seem to be ignoring him for the most part.

“In 5 minutes, we will all begin seeing blue boxes appearing in front of us, asking us to volunteer to go to the Tower. With this happening a game of domination and survival will be started, with us, versus multiple other races from across the Universe.”

All sound stops as he continues his speech, even his friends pause the TV looking at him in shock. His parents get a look of great concern on their faces as he continues to speak. Looking at him as if he is completely off the deep end.

“I’ve taken the liberty to print off most of the information that I know, so that we can be part of the first wave. This is my second time through this, the first time I died before we finished getting halfway up the Tower. But the first time we all also got drafted in the 3rd week, we didn’t volunteer. The information is in the paper’s that Henry is passing out, but we really do need to volunteer. It unlocks special abilities and gives more points during the test then being drafted. And since I know what happened last time I know that we will all be drafted.”

His mom starts to step up to him, “Honey, I think...I think that you need to sit down…” she trails off as she reaches out to feel his forehead with the back of her hand.

Trystan steps slightly away, “No mom, I know that this sounds crazy, but please, please just trust me for a few more minutes, then everything will come out, and either I’m completely crazy and I’ll go willingly to the hospital, or you’ll see that I am telling the truth. I don’t know how I ended up back here, but for me years have passed since this day. Each week out here is over a year in the Tower, and by the time that we wound up being drafted we were already too far behind to do anything but to struggle to survive. This time, this time if we follow the information that we have now maybe we will be better off. More capable, stronger, and maybe we can make changes in the future, to keep us from becoming enslaved by the Tower.”

As Trystan ends his speech to his mother an audible bell tone dings. And in front of each person, visible only to them, a blue box fades into existence.

Congratulations!

Your species: ‘Human’ have been selected to compete in the Tower.

Battle for Resources, Power, and Freedom in the Tower. Many will enter, but only one species may be allowed to keep their place within the Universe.

Reach and claim the 100th floor of the Tower as your own, defending it against all-comer’s and be rewarded with freedom, technology, and power.

Failure will result in the enslaving of your race as a new NPC of the Tower.

Volunteer’s are now being accepted and will receive an accelerated starter pack upon completion of the Test.

Select [Yes] to being the Test.

[Yes] ---- [No]

The party goes completely silent now, even Henry, who knew that this might actually be true and had had a week to prepare looked to be in shock. Everyone else just stood or sat where they were, with their mouths hanging completely open.

“No one select No!” Trystan shouts as he starts to see a few people start to move their hands. “We have 12 hours to actually make our decision, and we can talk it out to try and make sure that everyone makes the right one for them. I know that the first time around everyone in this room was drafted, either in the 3rd wave or the 4th and final wave. So it would be better if we join willingly rather than being forced, they even gave a bonus for the first wave of volunteers.”

His dad finally closes his mouth and looks to his son, “I’m still not sure that I don’t believe that this is some sort of huge Senior prank that you’re pulling on all of us. Though I’d be damned if I knew how you were pulling it. But tell us what we need to know, what are you hoping for?”

Trystan nods slowly, “I’m hoping to get all of us in on the first wave of volunteers, I’m hoping to be able to keep everyone alive, and I’m hoping that by doing this, and by hopefully getting the right support, that we will all be able to remain free. The first time I lived through this the combined forces of Humanity died on the 50th floor facing the Hikarin. A race that has specializations in light based abilities and ki cultivation. But they weren’t the only other race, and we need to be so much stronger if we are going to survive.”

Trystan’s dad nods and then looks over to the other parents in the room and motions off to the side. They all nod and then walk off into a side room, his dad grabbing one of the paper packets before they do so. Trystan’s friends come up to him and Henry and begin asking a ton of questions, so many that Trystan has to hold up a hand, “Look, I can’t hear the questions to answer them, one at a time.” That quiets them down for a second and then Ashley speaks up, “This looks and sounds like a game, what System are they using?”

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Trystan looks to Ashley, “Thanks for the question, I don’t think it’s any specific System that we know of. It’s a point buy System, allows you to purchase abilities, skills, and attributes. One of the first things that everyone needs to know, and it is in the writeup, is that skills that you learn and grow naturally become far stronger than the ones that you just by from the System. How well you do on the Test will determine how many points you end up with for your starting purchases as well as where you end up starting in the Tower. There is one major choice that needs to be made early on, I didn’t last time and I would up underpowered for most of the time. Like in many books that we’ve read they have Ki Cultivation, but they also have Mana Manipulation, and Psychic Disciplines. Some abilities aren’t able to be purchased with other’s. Like if you get Ki Cultivation, the System locks you out form purchasing Mana Manipulation, or if you activate a Draconic Bloodline the System will then keep you from activating a Vampire Bloodline. Ki Cultivation focuses on the body, Mana Manipulation focuses on manipulating external energies, and Psionic Discipline focuses on enhancing the mind.”

Ashley nods, “Okay, so what would you recommend? What kinds of abilities are available, what kinds of bloodlines?”

Trystan shrugs, “Not sure if I have any specific recommendations, depends on what you want to do. Last time through I used Ki Cultivation, this time I’m going to be doing Mana Manipulation if I can earn enough points. There was an almost limitless number of abilities, from generic overarching abilities, like Ki Cultivation, to specific targeted abilities, like Pyrokinesis. The only limit is based on how many points you have to spend on them. Bloodlines aren’t quite as diverse, but there’s still a ton of them. If you imagine that there is a bloodline for each supernatural type we have in our legends you’d be fairly correct. Fae, Vampire, Werewolf, Demi-God, Draconic, etc. I never managed to save up enough points to activate a bloodline the first run through, not sure what I would aim for, some of them were just so expensive that it’d be unlikely to be able to get anything other than that until you were almost half-way through the Tower, which isn’t the safest choice in the world.”

Ben looks over to Trystan, “So what’s the OP build to keep us alive?”

Trystan grimaces, “Really it’s what feels best to you all. I would strongly recommend getting one of the 3 bases as soon as possible. Beyond that it’ll be based on what you are most comfortable with, and what you can do to bring out the full effectiveness of the power’s being chosen.”

Ben nods, “Any classes?”

Trystan shakes is head, “Not that we ever found, it seems like a classless System, but there were rumors of classes existing, so it may be more of a prestige class deal that you have to find just the right things in order to unlock. Honestly I’d probably suggest that Ashley pick up power’s in the psionic arena, she’s got the brainpower and willpower to dominate in that area, and as much as you hate to hear it...Ben, you may want to focus on stealth and healing, since I know you don’t actually like confrontation. That said, “ he pauses and looks at Ashley, “I could see you rocking a dual sword wielding build fairly well.” Trystan grins over to her and she smiles back.

Ben looks over Trystan’s side and motions to Trystan who looks over his shoulder and sees that the parents are standing to the side listening in.

His dad motions for the room to quiet down a little.

“We’ve all talked it over and read through the information provided to us. Trystan, we’re going to suggest that everyone hit yes, just like you want, but before we do that, we want a solid plan to get everyone to the same place, we stick together and we keep everyone alive. If this has all already happened, then staying and waiting for the drafts to start is obviously going to go wrong. But before we do that. I noticed that there seems to be some information missing from the paperwork, what is it that you aren’t telling us, and what can we bring with us on the test?”

Trystan looks aside away from his father’s gaze. “There’s a few things I haven’t said, some that I won’t, I can’t risk changing too many of the good things. But the biggest thing that should be known. PvP is, by the System, allowed and even encouraged. Killing another human grants you their saved available points, which is a much larger chunk than what you can get by killing monsters and finishing quests.”

Trystan sighs and meets his father’s gaze, “During the first time through the killing of other humans became a very large thing, with an organization created to make money and encourage it even further. That’s because they found out about the second secret.”

Trystan pauses for a moment and then continues, “Once you arrive in the Tower you are safe and free from influences outside of the Tower, you can theoretically live out a full life inside of the Tower, and losing the game portion of the Tower doesn’t do anything to you. It’s Earth and those that remain on earth that will end up getting screwed over, as well as any future progeny. People born inside of the Tower become marked as NPC’s and cannot leave the floor of their birth unless their race wins the game, people still on earth will get transported into the Tower as NPC’s upon the loss of the game. That’s why it’s so important to win, because if we don't ...if we don’t then humanity will get enslaved until the end of time, it’s where many of the current NPC’s came from in the Tower, previous games.”

Trystan swallows and then continues, “As for what can be brought, anything you can carry with you can be brought, but things work different there, without being a part of the System things just don’t work the same. It is possible to add objects to the System, and to craft things to be a part of the System, but it’s difficult.”

He looks to the Henry’s father, Charles, “For example, if you brought your rifle with you, as a part of the system and as a common rarity item it might do 25-50 points of damage, more or less then adjusted by skill, luck, and location hit. But a common sword would likely have a damage rating of 35-75, there was an attempt to bring guns in through the first time, and they even managed to get them connected to the system, but gunpowder wasn’t readily available, it had to be purchased with points from the System, and in the end they just didn’t scale well with the other weapons. That said, I do know of at least one person who managed to improve and engage the system in creating some rather spectacular guns, unfortunately he died on the 30th Floor and his gun’s were all soulbound to him, so when he died so did they. What I would suggest bringing is a backpack full of food and any other supplies you might want, you can get almost anything from the System’s store with points, but then you are delaying increasing abilities and attributes for those instead. That stated, it will happen, some of the Floor’s you can only survive on by purchasing food and water through the system. Along with a few floors where medicine and antidotes are all but mandatory for survival.”

Charles nods slowly and so does his father, his father glances over to Charles, “Well we’ll bring what we can, and do a pit stop at a few stores...doesn’t really matter how much we spend now does it? How long from when we click yes till we get transported?”

Trystan shakes his head, “Not really, just remember, we have to be able to carry it, I’d recommend nothing larger than a hiking bag, and even that might get caught and damaged through the Test. The last time through people didn’t get transported until about four days after the initial blue box, so Wednesday, but I never did find out exactly what time. So as long as we’re ready by then we should be fine.”

His father nods and then visibly presses something in the air, shortly thereafter so does everyone else, including Trystan, his mother takes another moment before she too presses the air, but she looks worried the entire time. Once everyone has pushed their acceptance they gather around Trystan as he further explains some of the items in the paperwork, specifically drawing a map to ensure that people can try and meet up at Riverside after completing the Test.

“Unfortunately the Test is different for each individual, all we know is that there is always a conflict and puzzle that needs to be solved, and how you solve it and how long it takes directly impacts how many points you receive.” Trystan explains when questions start coming in about the specifics of the Test.

Trystan’s father looks to Charles and they nod to one another, “Okay, we’re going to make a trip to Military Surplus store, pick up food, supplies, and some other equipment. We’ll be back shortly.”

Charles looks over to Susan, Henry’s mother, “Honey, can you go to the house and pick up anything we might need? I think we’re going to be sticking together until the transfer happens, that way we can be as prepared as possible.” Susan nods, grabs her keys and heads out.

Trystan looks to his father, “Hey Dad, can I go with, there’s a few things I’d like to pick up as well...plus something I would like to experiment on if possible.”

John nods, “Sure son.” He grabs his keys and they all walk out to the car and start driving to the nearest Military Surplus store.

As they drive they see all around the city multiple people standing around the street, looking at one another and gesturing at the empty air. Already on the radio was the news of the mysterious blue boxes appearing. Guesses were flying in from all over on who exactly was responsible. Whether it was the Russians, the Chinese, or the Japanese, or if it was some massive marketing scheme for a revolutionary gaming system that was about to be released. Only one person called into the station with something close to the truth, that aliens were responsible for the blue boxes and that the world was being turned into a large game for them. He was laughed off the air by the hosts.

Trystan just shakes his head, they were laughing at the person who was closest to reality, and if only they actually knew it. Unfortunately it would be something that was discovered over the next week, and by then it would be too late for far too many. For now, all that can be done is preparing his friends and family, ensuring that all of the supplies necessary were purchased, and that everyone had the tools necessary to survive.