Chapter 2: Chapter 1: A Light

<Skill, [Splitting Gale], activating>

A raging cyclone of violent thunder, rain, and wind ravaged the world around it. Pelts of thunder struck the ground, producing charred craters in the ground. It was almost misty, a white haze filling the battlefield.

“Die you bastard!” A black-haired man dressed in a blue trench coat yelled.

He was talking to another figure nearby. A long-haired man dressed in a black robe, a purple streak running down his hair. The long-haired man held a sabre in his hand. It looked like the weapon of a fallen angel, black feathers hanging off its ebony hilt, its blade dyed a deep gunmetal.

The cyclone raged toward him and the man raised his sabre in the air, a confident smirk on his face. Then he cut down, an ear-splitting sound ringing in the air, and a brilliant white flash erupting from where he stood.

As the light died down, the cyclone was no longer anywhere in sight. There the long-haired man stood, taking on a victorious pose, a murderous glint in his eyes. He raised his sword once more, aiming it toward the other man.

Damn it! The man dressed in a blue trench coat cursed in his mind, preparing another spell.

<Skill, [Myriad Blades], activating>

He cast a spell as a last-ditch effort, hundreds of dozens of spectral swords appearing behind him. With a single command, they flew toward the long-haired man, lunging themselves like arrows.

At the barrage, the long-haired man’s grin grew even larger, his blade cutting through the incoming swords, rendering them useless. More and more swords flew toward him, the man dodging with a single swift side-step. His grin grew even larger as he crouched to the ground, mana raging around his body.

Whoosh!

The long-haired man disappeared from view and sight, the torrent of mana growing where he once stood. Then a sudden ping sounded in the ear of the man wearing a trench coat. Looking down, he could see a sword impaled in his chest. As he turned his head, he could see the long-haired man standing behind him, a cocky smile on his face.

“I’ll die if you do first, number 2.” He spoke. The long-haired man pulled his sabre from out of the trench coat wearing man’s chest, a notification appearing in front of him.

<Notice: Player [Heartstealingthief] has won the duel>

---

“Not again!” Ciel cursed. He leaned back in his chair, the faint light from his computer monitor illuminating his face in the otherwise pitch-black room.

Fuah. He took in a deep breath, feeling his tensed muscles and sprained arm. Closing his bleary eyes, tired from staring at a screen for 40 hours straight, he reflected on everything that brought him to this moment. A moment where he would care this much about a dumb game to bring harm to his own body and wellbeing playing it. If he from 7 years ago could see him now, he had no doubt that he would slap Ciel in the face for being such a fool.

Too bad. Feyrith chuckled. He couldn’t help but feel entertained by what he had just experienced. It had been the, what? 596th time he had challenged Heartstealingthief to a duel, and the 325th loss he had faced. It had to be now, of all times.

Those moments playing were exhilarating, one of the few things that filled up this unnecessarily large room. It was a shame that he lost, but it was time to call it a night anyway. Or was it a day already?

Ping!

Ciel heard a notification from his headphones and opened his eyes, seeing that Heartstealingthief had sent him a message.

[Heartstealingthief]: What were you thinking challenging me? You were going to lose anyways.

Reading the message, he could feel the veins popping out of his head. His rival was as annoying as always, not having changed a bit since he first met him 6 years ago.

[Boredservant]: …

[Heartstealingthief]: Don’t be so glum. You did well; I mean as well as the eternal number 2 could do ;)

Reading his rival’s next message, Ciel’s annoyance only grew larger.

[Boredservant]: -_-

[Boredservant]: I hope you get hit by a truck.

[Heartstealingthief]: I could say the same for you :)

[Heartstealingthief]: As per our agreement, I get first dibs on the next floor, right?

[Boredservant]: F*** ***

Ciel wrote in pure rage. He used asterisks in place of the other, more unpleasant characters, so the system wouldn’t block his message, but he was this close to plainly cursing.

[Heartstealingthief]: HAHAHA, I couldn’t imagine being you right now.

[Heartstealingthief]: You were so close to being the first person to visit the final floor.

[Boredservant]: <Your message has been redacted>

[Boredservant]: <Your message has been redacted>

[Boredservant]: sjbvesinjvbunaonveoibboisiobnjmkomofhtcxdrz

Salt rubbed in his wound. Ciel ended up doing what he had been avoiding for this entire chat log. Of course, the system immediately rejected it, leading him to spam characters in retaliation.

To reiterate, it was ridiculous he would get this worked up over a game. Him caring at all was itself odd, but for a game of all things. To calm himself down, he turned his attention over to the shelf near his desk, barely making out a box that was sitting there.

Tower of Pandora. This game that had accompanied him for the last 7 years of his life, from the start of his high-school years, all the way to the end of his university days.

He sat there staring at the box of the game someone gave him so many years ago. In the beginning, it had sat there in that exact spot, gathering dust. Untouched for months on end, until Ciel finally tried it. Instant addiction. Those were the two words that best described what happened afterwards.

He couldn’t think of a specific reason as to why.

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Was it the game’s refined combat system? What many called the pinnacle of action-based RPG combat.

He agreed, the combat was fun. Fast-paced with ample room for strategic manoeuvring. What wasn’t there to like?

It had an easy-to-learn hard-to-master system made it possible for even him a complete newbie to do well enough during the start of the game.

Later, once he had, more or less played the game for an entire year, that same system allowed him mastery over combat, refinement in each of his techniques. That seemingly simple system had so many nuances in place, allowing the creation of new techniques, such as the infamous skill chain, available to only the best of players. That wasn’t it though; the combat wasn’t what made him gravitate to the game, seeing as there were many players better than him at combat, made obvious by his performance in his previous duel.

Was it the seemingly never-ending possibilities found inside of the game’s path system? Allowing players to create unique characters with unique skills and mechanics? A system that enabled any kind of weird, unique, or straight up ridiculous playstyle.

It was certainly entertaining, especially when you met other players who had unique builds. One of his most memorable encounters was with a player who specialised in charm attacks. Watching them absolutely obliterate a horde of enemies by making them fight each other was one of the coolest things he had ever seen. Though, that wasn’t it either. Although he enjoyed the system, he wasn’t one to explore it too far, sticking instead with the classics, like his current mage build.

The last reason he could think of, the reason many of the 700 million players of Tower of Pandora had started playing the game, the godlike story engine.

He remembered reading that, Mashware, the studio that developed Tower of Pandora, very limited in resources before the massive success that was Tower of Pandora, employed their developers to create an algorithm capable of writing and creating a forever developing story, every single NPC having a backstory and origin.

The story was good, amazing even. It was one of the things he enjoyed the most playing through the game. Especially that mid-game story, Ciel’s personal favourite when compared to the rest of them, but that wasn’t it either.

It was more like it just clicked for him. The moment he stepped foot into that world, it was as if he had found a place to belong, like returning to a home he had never been to.

He didn’t like to brag, but he was quite good at it as well. Another reason he had continued playing was to put his name on top of the game’s leaderboards, that unreachable title of number 1. After years of conquering labyrinths, leading raids, defeating bosses, competing in duels, and uncovering the many hidden secrets of the game, he had gone all the way up to second place.

Especially that last one. He did a lot of that. Upon his first discovery of an ancient relic hidden amid the 39th floor, Ciel had got hooked on the concept of treasure hunting. In hindsight, maybe that was why he was so addicted, but that aside.

In his search for more information about the game’s world and lore, he encountered entire hidden dungeons, and even societies, filled with many of the game’s most valuable and powerful loot.

Those adventures and the glory that came from them, every single moment in the game was exhilarating and adrenaline pumping. Even when he had to deal with his less than pleasant rival, he was always having fun.

[Heartstealingthief]: XD, don’t mind if I do then.

[Heartstealingthief]: Farewell then, my dear number 2.

Tch. Ok, maybe he wasn’t always having fun. At this last message, Ciel didn’t feel a need to reply. In his quest to become the number one player in Tower of Pandora, he encountered a large immovable wall. Rank 1, the greatest player in the whole game, the person that drove him crazier than anyone else in the entire world, “Heartstealingthief”.

He first gained his fame for clearing the previously thought to be unbeatable, 50th floor, solo. For this achievement, the community gave Heartstealingthief the nickname “Demon King” from the sheer power he showed in the floor replays.

His rival had been at every corner he turned, and in this case, he was literally standing in a corner that Ciel turned. Would it have been safe to say he had stolen every item and title he had ever wanted? Yeah, it was. Terrible naming sense aside, Heartstealingthief was the real deal when it came to skills at the game, and in Ciel’s opinion, in pissing him off.

Ciel had spent an entire day cooped up in his room in an attempt to speedrun the 99th floor. He needed to do this to gain the qualifications to challenge the final floor and finally beat the tower, once and for all. Low and behold, as he reached the 99th floor gate, the final barrier between him and the final floor, he met a familiar face.

It seemed like Heartstealingthief had the same thought as him and wanted to be the first to clear the tower. After some bickering, the two had decided to settle it in a duel. Whoever won would get to be the first person to clear the tower.

Would it have been safe to say that his rival had stolen every item and title he had ever wanted?

Yeah, it was. There was no other way to put it.

[Boredservant]: Hurry up.

[Heartstealingthief]: You’re making me want to be very slow all the sudden.

[Boredservant]: If you’re not going, I will.

[Heartstealingthief]: No need to be so impatient. I mean, I already know this since you play this game after all, but you aren’t very popular with girls, are you?

[Boredservant]: Shut up. 3

[Heartstealingthief]: >_<

[Boredservant]: 2

[Heartstealingthief]: Alright, for real this time.

Ciel leaned back, his eyes still focused on the screen as he watched his rival’s character slowly make its way over to the gate.

‘This is it, huh?’

Ciel thought to himself as he watched Heartstealingthief’s avatar disappear.

7 years of his life.

While those 7 years weren’t specifically dedicated to clearing the tower, it was definitely a goal at the back of his mind. He was both glad and upset at the same time. It wasn’t as if the tower being cleared would make him stop playing, it was just a shame he wouldn’t be the one clearing it.

Suddenly, Feyrith’s entire screen froze, his monitor suddenly turning off.

Huh?

A blinding white light filled up Feyrith’s room, originating from his screen. He felt his senses start to get weak, his body falling asleep. Before it did, though, he could’ve sworn he heard a familiar mechanical voice ringing in his ears, the voice of the tower.

<The trial has begun>

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