When the clock struck midnight, Reis became immediately aware of a faint heat radiating from the chip at the back of his neck.
That could only mean one thing: the Black Tower was open.
He pressed the chip firmly.
Five seconds passed.
Reis vanished, slipping out of the room in an instant.
When his sight returned, he found himself standing in a vast square alive with movement.
The space was so immense that its far edges faded away into the distance.
It was filled with players moving about and laughing, some gathered in lively groups speaking with excitement, others showing off their moves or testing their abilities as if they were in a waiting area before the beginning of a real adventure.
The air was filled with sound, footsteps, laughter, and scattered shouts until the entire scene felt like a bustling festival.
For a brief moment, Reis felt like just another face in the crowd, but then a cold blue light flared before his eyes, cutting through the noise and capturing all of his attention.
Words began to take shape slowly, appearing and fading as if etched into the air by an unseen hand.
[Artemis System: Welcome to the Tower of Arcanos.]
The message lingered for only a moment before dissolving into nothingness.
Reis blinked, his steady gaze fixed on the empty air.
"Was.. was that just an illusion?" he whispered.
Before he could finish the thought, the light flared again, brighter this time, carrying an additional line beneath it:
[You have entered: The Gathering Square.]
Reis tilted his head slightly, studying the words as though merely testing them.
He reached out into the air but felt nothing, the screen stayed suspended before him.
A faint smile curved his lips as a thought crossed his mind:
"Is it linked to me?"
The instant the question formed, the window blinked back into existence, answering his intent without hesitation.
Genuine curiosity lit his face, his eyes gleaming with a calm, rational wonder.
"So, simply thinking about it is enough to summon it. Easier than I expected."
The window shifted and expanded into a full panel of information:
[Artemis System – Profile]
[Name: Zereis Van Valeria]
[Age: 15]
[Class: Novice Player]
[Level: 1]
[Physical Strength: 5]
[Spiritual Power: 5]
[Special Abilities: {None}]
[Energy: 100/100]
[Health: 100/100]
[Coins: 0]
Reis fixed his eyes on the floating panel, each line gliding past in an eerie, deliberate silence.
Then, without warning, his gaze locked on the very first line.
"Zereis Van Valeria."
The name had not appeared out of nowhere, yet it was not one he had ever borne in his previous life. In the world he had left behind, he had been known by a single name.. Reis, the orphan with neither family nor lineage to claim.
Now the system had given him a completely new identity and a name he had never known before.
No fear crossed his face. He tried to make sense of the contradiction and understand where the name had come from and what it meant for his identity.
His eyes swept over the rest of the panel. Simple numbers, toggled states, a balance of zero coins, data that could not lie.
A single calm thought passed through his mind. This system does not deal in nonsense.
Before his thoughts could drift into speculation, he sensed that the word Valeria carried a trace of a distant memory.
As Reis tried to probe deeper, the blue light pulsed again, bringing forth a new window:
[Available Missions]
[Clear the preliminary trial of the first floor.]
[Collect 10 coins within the first 24 hours.]
Reis read the missions quickly. They were simple enough.
"A trial and ten coins in a day."
The screen did not linger. It went dark for a moment before returning with a faster pulse, now glowing in a vivid, urgent red.
[Notice]
[You may remain in the tower for only three days.]
[In your world, this equals three hours.]
Reis went still, weighing the words with care.
Three days here, three hours there. He would return to his room at exactly three in the morning as if nothing had happened.
At least that would give him four hours of sleep before waking at seven to prepare for class at the academy.
The boundary between the two worlds felt precise and deliberate, drawn carefully to keep his life from collapsing on either side.