Hub World, Earth, Japan, Saitama.
"We still haven't heard from Genra yet?" Rig, sitting int he living room of a mansion in the city of Saitama, asked nonchalantly.
"Not yet." One of the Alpha Clones replied. "However, there is news that Soramoto Sumire was seen near the Mugen Tenshin Village."
"*Sigh* And that's all Christie's fault." Rig said in an annoyed tone. "All because she got Genra's adopted daughter involved with Subject 47. I wouldn't be surprised if we received a report that everyone in the Mugen Tenshin Village had been wiped out in a few days."
The Alpha Clone had no way of denying Rig's hypothesis. So, instead of speaking, she simply stood by and waited for orders."
"Anyway, how many of your kind made it to the designated safe houses?" Rig asked after not receiving a reply, not that he was expecting one.
"Of the one hundred ninety-two Alphas sent to eight different landing locations, only one hundred sixty have arrived at the safe houses."
"So, we lost an average of four from each LZ, huh?" Rig asked rhetorically. "Well, I guess that should be enough for the operation. Good thing we're not actually expected to do anything other than cause chaos at the concert. Because I'm certain that if she's there, none of you will survive."
Once again, the Alpha Clone did not reply. Nor did she show any signs of fear or discomfort at the very real possibility that she would not make it off of Japanese soil. And the reason for that was simple. DOATEC, or rather Victor Donavan, made it so that none of the clones had much in the way of self-awareness. Instead, they were only meant to follow orders and carry out their missions.
"Whatever." Rig said, waving the Alpha Clone away. "Instruct a team to start casing the venue. Not that it will make a difference if she's there. Still, I want you all to have a way into the venue without alerting security."
"Understood." The Alpha Clone replied succinctly before turning around and leaving the living room to carry out her orders.
"*Sigh* Why does the old man have to poke this hornet's nest?" Rig asked himself now that he was alone. "This just sounds like an invitation for her to come to DOATEC and destroy everything."
Hub World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.
While Rig was lamenting the choices of his father, Tatsuo was sitting in his bedroom with is smartphone in hand, this thumb hovering over Yakumo's contact entry.
"*Sigh* I don't think I've ever been so nervous before." Tatsuo muttered to himself while thinking about the conversation he was about to have. "There's a strong possibility that my relationship with Yakumo-Chan could be ruined after this conversation."
After speaking that thought aloud, Tatsuo sat in the same position for a few more seconds. Eventually, after taking a deep breath, Tatsuo shook his head.
"No, I'm no coward." Tatsuo thought aloud. "This is just something I'll have to deal with. If she decides she wants nothing to do with me, I'll just deal with it."
Decisively pressing the call button, Tatsuo raised his smartphone to his ear. Originally, he wanted to have this conversation in person. However, when he remembered his schedule up until the day of the concert, he concluded that he would not have time to set up a meeting with Yakumo. So, doing it this way was his only option.
Two rings later, the phone call was answered and Yakumo's voice sounded through the smartphone's speaker.
{"Tatsuo-Kun, good afternoon."} Yakumo said in her usual tone. {"Is something the matter?"}
"Kinda..." Tatsuo replied, sounding a lot less confident than usual. "Actually, there's something I need to tell you. A secret that I never intended to tell anyone other than my family. But considering what's coming up, I decided to let you know."
Tatsuo could imagine Yakumo tilting her head slightly after hearing that. Even so, she waited for Tatsuo to continue, figuring that what Tatsuo was about to tell her had to be important.
And she was right. Tatsuo went on to tell her something almost completely unbelievable. Even so, she listened until the end. Hearing about other worlds and Tatsuo's ability to travel between them was not what she was expecting to hear, after all.
{"I see."} Yakumo replied after taking a few moments to partially digest everything she just heard. {"But why exactly are you telling me this now?"}
Knowing that he had reached the part of the conversation that would define his relationship with Yakumo going forward, Tatsuo took a deep breath.
"The reason I told you now is because there's a good chance that people from other worlds will be coming to the concert on Friday night." Tatsuo said solemnly. "And some of them are women and girls that I met on my trips to those worlds. And nearly all of those women have feelings for me..."
When he reached that point, Tatsuo could hear Yakumo's breath hitch. Even so, as to not lose his momentum, he did not wait for her to comment, pushing on to get everything out in one go.
"And one of those women, Sumire, though I call her Violet to not get her mixed up with my mom, is my girlfriend." Tatsuo confessed with his eyes closed, as if that would help in some way. "And the other women... Well, they're pushing me to either leave her or start a harem... And I don't know what to do... Especially because I've realized how you feel about me, and I don't wanna hurt you. Especially since I really like you, too, Yakumo-Chan. So, I decided to tell you the truth before you met them."
The silence that followed was deafening. At least, for Tatsuo it was. AS for Yakumo, she was trying to wrap her head around everything she just heard. Though, hearing that Tatsuo already knew about her feelings and that he liked her, too, caused an extremely noticeable blush to creep on to her face, neck, and ears.
{"This is... a lot to take in."} Yakumo finally said after a while in silence. {"To be honest, I'm not sure how to deal with it. Can you give me some time to think about it. I'll try to tell you what I'm thinking the night before the concert."}
"Yeah... That's fine." Tatsuo replied, knowing that this could not have been easy for Yakumo to grasp all at once. "Take your time. And it doesn't have to be before the concert. It doesn't even have to be before school starts. Just take the time to make the best decision for you."
{"Okay..."} Yakumo said quietly before hanging up the phone call without a goodbye.
Listening to the sound of his phone beeping in his ear, Tatsuo felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Still, he knew there was nothing he could do about it. So, after getting his thoughts in order, he put his smartphone back on the magnetic charger and sat up.
"Okay, there's no point dwelling on something I can't do anything about." Tatsuo said to himself, his mental conditioning from his time in DOATEC's custody allowing him to compartmentalize the issue with Yakumo for the moment. "Let's just jump into the [Challenge Tower] for now. I wanna see just how well I do."
Then, without hesitation, Tatsuo mentally navigated through the [Dimensional Chat] tab in his [System] before paying the 100 Coins fee and starting the [Challenge Tower].
As soon as Tatsuo chose to enter the [Challenge Tower], a phenomenon he was familiar with started. The world around him turned monochrome as everything in the world stopped.
A moment later, Tatsuo was covered by a sheen of light before he vanished from his place atop his bed.
[Challenge Tower], 1st Floor.
{[Notification]
-Welcome to the [Challenge Tower]
-In the [Challenge Tower], you must face enemies of various levels of strength to pass to the next floor.
-With each floor cleared, you will receive a corresponding reward.
-Please note, clearing floors will only grant a reward for the first clear.}
As soon as Tatsuo entered the [Challenge Tower], before he could even take in his surroundings, the above [Notification] popped up in his field of vision. But since what was said in the [Notification] was either common sense or already mentioned in the update notes from the day before, he only glanced at them before dismissing the [Notification].
Now, with his field of vision clear, Tetsuo was free to look around the area of the [Challenge Tower's] first floor. Unfortunately, there was not much to see.
The place Tatsuo found himself in was a simple brick room, about a hundred square feet in size. On the wall opposite him, there was a door, the only way out of the room, and more than likely the stairs to the next floor were behind that door.
{[Notifications]
-Would you like to begin the Challenge on the 1st Floor? Y/N}
Mentally selecting "Yes" without hesitation, Tatsuo watched as a man, about 5'7" tall with an obese physique materialized in front of him.
{[Notification]
-[Challenge Tower] - Start
-Objective: Defeat all foes within the time limit
-Time: 00:10:00
-1st Floor Challenge: 1 foe at rank F-
-Challenge begins in 5 seconds. Ready yourself for battle}
Seeing the challenge presented in front of him, Tatsuo's expression dropped.
"Seriously?" Tatsuo muttered to himself while watching the man in front of him start warming up... and getting winded while trying to bounce on the balls of his feet. "So, there won't even be a challenge until I get C+-ranked enemies."
Already bored with this, Tatsuo just waited until the five-second timer counted down. Then, as soon as the signal was given to begin, with only physical strength, he flashed in front of the enemy and threw a punch, his fist piercing directly through the obese man's torso and destroying his heart, bringing an end to the first challenge.
{[Notifications]
-Congratulations! You have completed the first challenge.
-For clearing the first floor you have been rewarded 10 Coins.
-Please claim your reward and move up to the 2nd Floor.}
"Yeah, that went exactly how I expected it to." Tatsuo muttered as 10 Coins were added to his total.
Shaking his head, Tatsuo walked to the other side of the room, opened the door, and started climbing the stairs. When he reached the second floor, he reached a similar room. Though, it was slightly larger, at about one hundred fifty square feet. On top of that, there were now three enemies, each at F—rank.
But even with more foes to defeat, with Tatsuo's strength, it made no difference. All three enemies, a woman that looked like your typical Karen, a small dog, and a man with almost no muscle density, fell in short order. Then, after receiving another 20 Coins, he headed up to the third floor.
The third floor, like the first two, was a brick room that was only slightly bigger than the last. And the number of enemies had tripled once again. But because they were still F—Rank, they posed no issue to Tatsuo. Instead, they only added 30 Coins to Tatsuo's total amount.
"*Sigh* How much you wanna bet the next three floors will be filled with F-Rank enemies." Tatsuo muttered as he climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. "I gotta admit, this is not what I was expecting. You know, I thought the [Challenge Tower] would actually be… challenging."
Although the lower floors of the [Challenge Tower] would not be considered challenging to anyone currently in the [Chat], there's no guarantee that would be the case for future members. As the random invitations could invite anyone from a world. They did not have to be someone powerful.
Either way, Tatsuo continued to tear through the enemies on each floor. The number and strength of each floor, up to the ninth followed the same pattern as the first three. Along the way, Tatsuo gained an additional 390 Coins, as well.
However, when Tatsuo reached the tenth floor, things changed. Even if it was only slightly. For one, the combat area was much larger than any floor before it. On top of that, his enemies were all of those he faced from floors one through nine. Not that that would be an issue for someone with B+-Ranked overall physical abilities. Still, it was something to think about going forward.
[Challenge Tower], 10th Floor.
"Well, this is still boring." Tatsuo muttered after taking down the last enemy on the floor. "But I guess this will actually become a challenge once I get to a high enough floor. Still, getting to that floor will be boring."
{[Notifications]
-Congratulations! You have completed the tenth challenge.
-For clearing the tenth floor you have been rewarded 100 Coins.
-Please claim your reward and move up to the 11th Floor.}
{[Notifications]
-You have cleared ten floors of the [Challenge Tower], would you like to save your progress? Y/N
-Please Note: restarting the [Challenge Tower] will not provide rewards. Only first time floor clears grant rewards.}
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Tatsuo muttered as he mentally clicked "Yes." "You've said that like three times already. You don't have to keep repeating yourself."
With that said, Tetsuo climbed the stairs to the next floor. All the while, he continued to complain about the tedium of this [Challenge Tower]. Still, with great efficiency, he continued to climb, blowing through the E- to E+-Ranked enemies on the 11th through 20th floors with little issue. Though, fighting professional athletes, martial artists, and special forces soldiers was somewhat novel.
The extra 5,500 Coins Tatsuo picked up along the way made it feel more worth his while, though. He was hoping that there would be rewards other than Coins, though. Like unlocking features for either the [Training space], or the [chat itself would be nice.
[Challenge Tower], 21st Flor.
Reaching the 21st Floor, Tatsuo was greeted by a familiar [Notification].
{[Notification]
-21st Floor Challenge - Start
-Objective: Defeat all foes within the time limit
-Time: 00:30:00
-21st Floor Challenge: 1 foe at rank D-
-Challenge begins in 5 seconds. Ready yourself for battle.}
Rolling his eyes at the usual [Notification], Tatsuo turned to look around the area. This time, instead of just an empty brick room, he found himself standing on a stone martial arts ring in the center of a stadium with short grass surrounding the stage and a stone walkway leading to the stadium's entrance.
"Hmm... This looks kinda familiar." Tatsuo muttered to himself as he finally turned to look at his opponent, who was beginning to materialize in front of him. And when he saw who is opponent was, Tatsuo almost dislocated his jaw because of how fast it dropped in his shock.
Standing on the other side of Tatsuo was a short, bald young man, looking about fourteen or fifteen years old with six dots on his forehead and no visible nose wearing an orange martial arts gi with the kanji for turtle printed on the left abdomen, a blue sash around his waist, blue wrist bands, and blue martial arts shoes.
"No way…" Tatsuo muttered to himself as his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "That's Krillin, right? And I'm guessing it's the Krillin from his first World's Martial Arts Tournament appearance. Though, it's kinda hard to tell. I mean, he never really grew much throughout the whole series."
And Tatsuo's guess was correct. His opponent on the [Challenge Tower's] 21st Floor was Krillin from Age 750 during his first time attending the World Martial Arts Tournament where he became a semi-finalist before being defeated by Jackie Chun, or rather, the disguised Master Roshi.