At first, no one spoke.
Then, whispers began to spread like ripples across the platform.
"This… this is it, right?" someone said.
"The Tower. The same one the Reclaimers talked about…"
Faces turned pale — shock, awe, fear — all mixed together.
The voice echoed again, colder this time — like static from the void itself.
> [Equipment Selection Initiated.]
Then came the sound — a faint metallic clink, clink, clink — as objects began to fall from above, raining gently onto the crystal floor.
At first, we didn't understand.
And then we saw them.
Weapons.
Hundreds of them.
Baseball bats, cricket bats, swords, bows with single arrows, whips — all scattered across the glowing surface like debris after a storm.
Everyone stared for a moment — then chaos broke loose.
People ran forward, grabbing whatever they could — some picked two, some three.
A few even tried to carry everything they could hold.
That's when it happened.
Their bodies froze mid-motion.
Blue sparks crawled over their skin like lightning veins — and then, in an instant, they disintegrated into dust.
No scream. No warning. Just gone.
Silence followed. The kind that bites.
Everyone stopped moving.
Eyes wide. Hands trembling.
> [Rule : One Weapon Per Challenger.]
The message flashed in our minds like a death sentence.
From that moment, no one dared touch more than one.
But still — confusion ruled.
People hesitated, stared at the pile, unsure what to pick.
Was a sword safer? Or a bat? Would a bow even work here?
Yet among the crowd, a few didn't hesitate.
They walked straight to the pile, calm and confident, like they already knew the rules.
Most of them picked sword and whips and bows — simple, ordinary weapons.
That's when I realized — those weren't random people.
They were the academy ones — trained, prepared, maybe even waiting for this day.
I chose the metal baseball bat cause it was easy to swing rather then the cricket bat and the other weapons i doesn't had experience with them.
The voice spoke again:
> [Selection begins in 10 seconds.]
As the countdown ended, the massive gate shuddered — and from its cracks, something crawled out.
It wasn't human.
It wasn't animal either.
It was like someone took a lizard, a centipede, and a very bad nightmare — and mashed them together.
> [Eliminate the Voidlings to qualify.]
That was our test.
Our very first exam in this twisted cosmic engineering college.
The creatures moved fast — slicing through people like blades through paper.
One hit, and they dissolved into light — no blood, no body, just erasure.
I remember standing there frozen.
My brain refused to process it.
And then a Voidling leapt toward me.
> "Okay okay okay — this is fine, I've fought mosquitoes bigger than you during monsoon!"
It wasn't fine.
I instinctively Swung it once at him, Missed.
Swung again — connected.
The creature exploded into black mist.
And a message appeared before my eyes:
> [1 Voidling defeated.]
[Basic stat synchronization complete.]
[Trait Unlocked: Observer's Instinct.]
My whole body vibrated with a strange warmth, like adrenaline mixed with static.
For the first time, I realized… this wasn't a dream.
---
When the test finally ended, only a fraction of us were left.
The rest — gone, erased, forgotten.
The gate opened again, revealing a staircase of light spiraling upward.
> [Selection Passed.]
[Welcome to the Tower, Challenger.]