2. Trial Floor
"What's a grand opening without a showstopper? Am I right?" the girl says as the screen displays one of the stone doors.
The door begins to open. Hordes of beasts that I can't describe are pouring out of it. Immediately, they begin to feed on nearby humans, ripping the flesh from bones. This is such a disgusting scene.
"I sincerely hope you all enjoy this opening event," her voice becomes less mocking. "That's a lie! Hahahaha. Venny, just look at the looks on their faces. Priceless, simply priceless."
"You are under arrest. Any suspicious movement and we will open fire!" Military helicopters are approaching them rapidly. I didn't pay attention to this before, how are they floating? Or should I say flying? Is that even possible?
"You lowlifes should never interrupt me again!" She looks at the helicopters with a deadly stare.
Boommmmmm!
In that instant they blow up. What just happened now? I didn't see a thing. How did she do that? And with just a stare no less.
"As I was saying earlier. Earthlings, right about now a text panel should be displaying in front of you," she continues.
A text panel appears suddenly before me.
[World quest: 40 citizens of Earth should clear the 10th floor of the Mistrium Tower]
[Time limit: 1 month]
[Penalty for failure: A 2nd calamity will befall Earth]
[Reward: Sunlight]
"I'm sure you lot have a lot of questions. Unfortunately for you, we won't be answering any of them at the moment. Next up are the rules of the tower. Don't worry about forgetting them, they will constantly be displayed in the sky," she snaps her hand.
[1: An individual must pass the trial floor in order to become a Tower Climber]
[2: A random skill will be given as the only starting supply for the trial floor]
[3: The reward for passing the trial is the random skill given at the beginning of the trial, access to the Climber Interface which grants enhanced physique]
[4: World quests can only be carried out by a citizen of Earth]
[5: Each citizen of Earth is granted one chance to challenge the trial floor]
[6: The penalty for failing to clear the trial floor within the provided time is death]
[7: Items, skills or equipment can increase the time frame of hidden quests by a significant amount]
[8: Climber skills regardless of rarity can be used outside the tower after clearing the trial floor]
[9: Climbers will gain Mistrium Coins upon clearing tower floors and hidden quests. The amount varies by difficulty of hidden quests and floor number]
[10: Items like equipment, artifacts and materials can be brought outside the tower by Mistrium Exchange. Mistrium Coins can be exchanged for different currencies that can be used outside]
Large screens of text are appearing in the sky one after another.
"Now for the final part," she snaps her fingers again.
The text on my panel changed.
[Do you want to enter the trial floor of Mistrium Tower]
[Yes/No]
"That will be all for now. The answer is completely up to you. Remember you are hanging on thin threads," her voice echoes.
"If you excuse us. Ladies and gentlemen, we will be taking our leave," the man says as he bows in a gentlemanly manner and they disappear.
"Aggggghhhhhhh!" I can already hear screams of panic from the hospital. Well, I don't blame them, this is indeed a lot to take in for most.
As I am swiping on my phone I keep seeing different posts and headlines about the current occurrence. The USA government is about to make an announcement.
"This is a completely unforeseen and ghastly event. But we must make haste, as the minutes go by those beasts are killing more innocent humans. We have dispatched our armed forces and we urge other countries to do the same. We will be sending a unit into the trial floor to attempt clearing it. That will be all for now," the announcement ends.
From what I am seeing most countries are also making preparations to challenge the trial floor. I am going to challenge the trial floor after all, I only have 2 months to live. I just want to attempt something obscene for once in my bland life before I die.
"Yes."
I suddenly see myself in an empty dark room.
[Starter supply: Common skill: Track]
According to the description it allows me to find any object that I have marked within a 2 meter radius. I am not conversant with this stuff. But from the description it seems pretty useless. Am I doomed already?
[Please proceed to the trial floor]
A door appears in the pitch black darkness. I walk through it.
[Goal: reach the finish line in 39 minutes]
A hallway? It looks like a hallway but it's not the modern type. It's empty? I am guessing I am the first one here. A finish line, that sounds simple enough but I doubt that's all there is to it. I should be expecting traps and beasts but I certainly hope I am wrong.
Creak..
Did I just step on a trap? If I remove my leg it will activate and if I don't time is running out.
I leap, the ground below opens before I can switch. Oh I forgot gravity? My leap time expires and I start to fall downwards, at least it isn't a spike ditch since I am still falling.
It must be another section of the floor.
Something's coming into view, a bunch of huge stone statues lined by the edges of some kind of altar in front of a statue sitting on a stone throne. The important question is where do I land? I don't see anything I can use to break my fall, if I crash into that altar I will break my bones probably even die on the spot.
I can grab the spear that the statue by the corner is holding. "Here goes nothing." I successfully grab the spear. This statue is quite tall but if I jump from here I likely won't break any bones. I jump down and luckily for me I didn't break my legs.
[You entered into a special difficulty hidden event]
[Goal: kill the ruler and his subordinates within 60 minutes]
A special difficulty hidden event? It can't get worse than this. Who is the ruler?
Rumble! Rumble!
The statues begin to rise. What are these things? They don't look like the monsters I saw earlier. Most importantly how do I kill them, they are like 20 times bigger than me. I have no weapons and a useless skill.
I guess the big one on the throne is the ruler and these ones are his subordinates. The ruler is raising his hand, in the blink of an eye a spear pierces me from behind. Blood pours from my lower abdomen. As I am coughing blood I fall into the altar, it is soon covered in my blood.
This monstrosity is looming over me as my vision gets blurry. I guess this is it.
[All requirements have been met]
[Would you like to install the 100x Check-In System]
[Yes/No]
What do I have to lose. I am already on my death bed.
"Yes."
[Initiating full body recovery. All injuries have been treated]
[Your first daily check-in reward has been automatically claimed]
[You have acquired the Mystical grade skill: Expulsion]
[Your reward has been ×100]
[Expulsion has upgraded to the Celestial grade skill: Demolition]
[Celestial grade skill: Transcendent Summoning has been acquired]
[Legendary skill: One Man Army has been acquired]
[Congratulations you have upgraded to max level 100. All physical attributes have improved significantly]