Alessio Leone's Perspective
Alessio's day had run like clockwork.A perfect routine.Exactly as he always demanded of himself.
The aches he'd carried until the moment he disconnected from the Tower had simply vanished.A miracle… but only on the outside.
He knew that once he returned to the game, they would come back.The Tower never accepted shortcuts. It never did.Every burden had to be paid in full, in its proper time.
Even so, he didn't stray from his path.
He ran in the morning, enough kilometers to feel his lungs burn.He trained, repeating sets until his muscles shook.He studied, as always, reviewing history notes, papers stacked high on his desk.
And when all of that was done, he dove into the internet.
Even with ten years of future knowledge, he forced himself, at least once a week, to scan posts online, just in case of unexpected changes.
And the internet was completely flooded by the game.
It was inevitable: the Awakening of the Dark Tower had already taken over everything.Video uploads, forum theories, rushed analyses.YouTubers with flashy thumbnails, journalists trying to look like experts, casual players reporting "strategies" that he could only classify as bad jokes.
The number of discussions was absurd, but almost all of them were predictable—useless.
Still, it was natural. The Dark Tower wasn't just a game anymore—it was on its way to dominating the entire world. In time, real specialists would appear, but not yet.
For Alessio, for now, none of it held any value.
He read, he watched, he scrolled for hours.
As if searching for a needle in a haystack.And in every line, every video, every comment, he found absolutely nothing useful.Nothing close to the brutal reality he knew.Nothing worth even a minute of his attention.
With ten years of experience carved into his mind, everything sounded childish.Shallow theories, flawed strategies, illusions.
In the end, all he felt was discouragement.A silent weight settled in his chest, different from the burden of the Tower.It was only the realization that, in the real world, no one had the faintest idea of what awaited them.
He shut down the computer.The room sank into the soft darkness of night.
Lying on the bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, he waited for the time.The Tower's call.
If on the first day Alessio had created advantages in his stats, molding his digital body beyond anything a beginner could achieve, and on the second day had hunted down the improbable title now branded to his name, then the third night in the Tower had a different goal.
It wasn't simple.It wasn't safe.And to any other player, it would sound like a joke.
But Alessio knew.There was a single opportunity at this early stage of the Tower.One hidden challenge buried in the maze—made to punish ambition, yet to brutally reward those who succeeded.
Rare items.
Something no low-level player was supposed to even touch, much less claim.A prize that seemed unreachable for anyone still crawling through the Dark Tower's corridors.
But he wasn't just "any player."He had ten years of memories.He knew exactly where to look, exactly what to face, exactly the price he'd have to pay.
And if he managed to claim the item he was after, he would be far ahead of every other player at this stage.Not forever—he knew momentary advantage never lasted.But it would be enough.
Enough to put his next plan into motion, and the one after that.Enough to build a safety margin before the others realized what was truly happening around them.
Unfortunately, this challenge had one cruel condition.
It couldn't be done with allies.He couldn't bring Matteo, nor the girls, nor any kind of backup.
The Tower would force him to walk alone this time.One man against the impossible.
And Alessio, lying in the dark, felt his heart race with anticipation.
A rare item belonged to a league of its own.Completely different from an uncommon one, like the Lionheart Soul Helm he had secured the day before.
Uncommon items were useful flaws—granting a bonus here, a skill there. Small tweaks that, in the right hands, could become unexpected weapons.But rare items… no.They were true power-ups.
They granted stats and abilities at once.They turned any beginner into a real threat.
And that wasn't the only difference.
There was also the matter of durability and resilience.Something players, still blinded by the glow of the starting cities, couldn't yet grasp.Most had barely stepped outside the safe zones, still clueless about what awaited beyond the training fields.
But Alessio knew.He remembered.
The maps available inside the Dark Tower were practically endless and would only grow with time and updates.Regions far beyond villages and starter forests.Extreme environments where nature itself became the enemy.Acid rains that corroded metal.Volcanic lands where common swords melted in seconds.Dungeons that spewed fine sand into fragile mechanisms until they broke.
In those scenarios, any common or uncommon weapon became scrap.Nothing more than dead weight.
Only true magical items endured.Only they kept their form and function against the Tower's trials.
And that was why exploring them was far more profitable than wandering the natural continent.The guilds that discovered this truth before the others rose as empires.That was how hegemonies were forged.That was how some became practically untouchable in his past life.
If Alessio wanted a different life in this second chance fate seemed to have given him, he had to start now.He needed a rare item—and later, even higher-tier ones.Not just for himself, but for his future allies as well.Because without them, any plan, any strategy he devised, would eventually be crushed under the Tower's inevitable weight.
And claiming these items wouldn't be easy.It would be a challenge worthy of his name.
As Alessio drifted deeper into thought, the sharp vibration of his phone broke the silence.The alarm blared insistently, reminding him of the inevitable.
It was time.
The third day of the Dark Tower.The third battle.And once again, he had to win.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let his routine play out.The real world faded, swallowed by the soft darkness before immersion.
And when the Tower's call echoed in his mind, Alessio allowed himself only one final thought:
Tonight, he would conquer the impossible once again.