And that's how we got to where we are now.
"I hope you don't blame me, my king," Fletcher said as he got down on his knees and kowtowed to the corpse of the man who had been his ruler, mentor, and close friend for over a hundred years.
If it were possible, he would've chosen a different decision on how to deal with Ryuk Yongsun, but the item he used to regress allowed him to see the results of many timelines where he didn't make this hard decision.
All of them ended in the destruction of Earth.
It was only with the death of the man who was too benevolent for his own good that there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
While waiting for the tower to appear, Fletcher used his qi to dig out a grave for his king.
Burying the corpse, he said a prayer.
He wasn't a religious person, but this habit was one that he developed from one of his wives.
He had to apologize to her in advance. If she knew what he was going to do, she'd die of a heart attack.
"Don't worry, you'll never know about it," he smiled.
Although he was planning on playing the role of a villain, the truth of the matter was that now that he now needed to play two different roles. One was actually the role of the man he killed. He needed to become a hero, a benevolent leader, someone who gave humanity hope.
The other role was to be the villain who killed anyone who was in his way.
"Calling myself a villain, when I'm this old mentally, sounds like I'm a freaking teenage boy still obsessed with anime," he laughed.
As cringey as it was, it was the only path for salvation.
He knew it.
Sitting down, he waited patiently, gathering qi to recover what he had used to dig the grave.
Then—
The ground began to tremble.
At first, it was a low, pulsing rumble. It sounded like the heartbeat of something ancient awakening.
Then, with a sound like thunder tearing through the world, the earth before him split open. Soil erupted upward in great waves, trees snapped like brittle twigs, and entire patches of forest were swallowed whole as something massive forced its way toward the surface.
The air itself seemed to shatter under the sheer pressure, a deafening roar echoing through the wilderness.
"It's here," Fletcher muttered as he stood up.
From the wound in the land, a colossal structure rose, an obsidian monolith that scraped beyond the clouds, its surface reflecting flashes of lightning that came from nowhere.
The tower.
The tower's base was wreathed in swirling debris: uprooted trees, shattered stones, and clouds of dust. Its emergence warped the surrounding landscape.
When the last of the tremors subsided, silence returned. An unnatural and heavy silence.
The tower loomed in the center of the ruined forest, so tall that its peak vanished into the heavens.
Faint symbols pulsed across its surface like veins of molten silver, breathing in rhythm with the world.
To anyone watching, it was clear: this was not something born of Earth.
It was something completely unknown.
And for Fletcher, it was the beginning of the end.
The end he's been a part of before.
An end that he had to prevent.
Before anyone nearby could even approach the tower, Fletcher dropped down from the cliff and used his skills to safely make his way down to the bottom.
Dashing into the tower, he passed through the blue portal that was at the entrance.
One step, he was in the outside world; the next step, he was in this black room.
There was no portal behind him.
No way out.
Now that he was inside the tower, he couldn't leave until he passed the first level.
[Welcome! This is the tower. Here, you will either become a legend or become a story to tell over a campfire. Please, register a username to get started.]
A lot of tower climbers, more commonly known as players, early on would make the mistake of using their real name.
But once they realized people could trace them in the real world and harm them or their loved ones, new players learned from their mistakes and used an alias to remain anonymous until they were strong enough to survive on their own or until they had the backing of a guild.
"Uno," he answered.
[Uno. Is that your username? Please confirm. Once you pick it, you can not change it.]
"Yes."
Uno.
One in Spanish.
The reason for the username was simple. It was his favorite number. Nothing fancy or cryptic about it. But it was catchy enough that when he starts making a name for himself, it'll spread and leave a good impression rather than some cringe name like "The Heavenly Demon" or "Daddy Longfingers".
[Then, Uno. May you have Lady Luck on your side as you climb the tower. I hope to see you on the next floor.]
An illuminated stair suddenly appeared before him in the dark room.
He didn't hesitate to take a step forward.
Walking up the stairs, once he reached the end, there was another portal. He walked through and found himself in an empty arena.
He was standing in front of a rack of weapons.
With no instructions being given, many newcomers might be confused about what to do, but as it was his second time, Fletcher grabbed a longsword and a shortsword, wielding them in both hands.
Then shortly after, the rack disappeared, and the sound of a growl appeared before him.
He turned around, and there was a green creature with sharp ears, teeth like a shark, a short body with grotesque fingernails — a goblin.
He remembered his first time encountering a goblin. He nearly died when the goblin rushed at him. He had picked up the shield only that time, and he spent most of the time just hiding behind the shield. His ankle was slashed at, and if it wasn't for his desperation and a lucky hit, he would've died to the goblin.
But this time around was different; he dashed forward and, with a single attack, the goblin was killed.
The rack then reappeared as the goblin vanished into thin air.
It was for the players who made the mistake of not grabbing a weapon, those whose weapon broke, or those who deemed they had picked the wrong weapons.
Ignoring the rack, he could feel the qi in him naturally grow. This was a gift from the tower. But he could also absorb the qi that the goblin had left behind, which wasn't something that newcomers could do.
Managing to absorb all the qi a few seconds before the rack vanished, three goblins appeared before him, and he made quick work of them.
This pattern continued until he finished a battle against twenty goblins.
Twenty goblins seem overkill when a single goblin could kill most humans, but by this point, the amount of qi that a human would have would make them strong enough to deal with ten. The other ten would have to come down to their skills and talent.
[Congratulations, Uno. You've cleared the first floor. Would you like to advance to the next or return to the outside world?]
"Advance."
[Understood. May you have Lady Luck on your side as you climb the tower. I hope to see you on the next floor.]