[EthanAsh666: What the hell are you? Some kind of idiot?!]
[EthanAsh666: I told you to fall back. The enemy's pushing—why the hell are you farming monsters? Are you into them or something?]
[JohnRick01: Sorry, monster drops can be valuable sometimes. I didn't know the enemy had teleport skill.]
[EthanAsh666: Without a tank, our party's screwed in this match.]
[EthanAsh666: Everyone falls back to base and waits for damn Rick to respawn.]
[AshleyLeon123: Sure thing.]
[MagisterDao: I'm with you.]
That night, in the middle of a quiet apartment block downtown, only Ethan Arkwright's apartment was still alive with sound—yelling, to be exact.
Tonight was the scheduled pre-tournament match for him and his team in their favorite MMORPG, one that was popular worldwide. The game? Tower of Ascension.
This was a crucial match that would determine whether they advanced to the main tournament. If they lost this tower war against another party, their journey would be over.
Ethan would have to wait another year for the next tournament—and hell no, he wasn't about to let that happen.
He was determined to give his best, even if staring at the blinding light of his computer screen left his eyes and head aching.
[EthanAsh666: Rick! Where the hell are you?!]
[JohnRick01: On my way.]
Ethan's fingers pounded the keyboard, rapid and relentless, his focus razor-sharp.
But they were out-leveled and broke on gold, which forced them back to their base. The enemy kept pressing, threatening to destroy their main tower.
[EthanAsh666: Pop your ult! Knock them back!]
[EthanAsh666: Dammit!]
[DEFEAT!]
Rage boiled over inside Ethan. He yanked off his headset and slammed it against the monitor. The whole team was pissed, but no one more than Ethan himself.
[JohnRick01: Sorry, Ethan.]
[EthanAsh666: Just get fucking lost already!]
He shut down his PC and stormed out to buy beer at the nearest store. Still seething, he cursed Rick the whole way for being dumb enough to die chasing some low-tier monster drop.
"Now I've gotta wait a whole damn year for the next tournament."
"Damn you, Rick! I'm kicking you from the party tomorrow!"
Not one beer, not two—Ethan grabbed three cans at once, plus a pack of cigars to calm the raging gamer inside him.
He always did this after a loss. Even the store clerk had learned to tell when Ethan had just lost a match—he always showed up for beer and cigarettes.
"What's up? Lost a tournament again?" the clerk teased as he went to grab stock.
"Shut up. I'm not in the mood."
"HAHA! It's just a game, why take it so seriously?"
"Same reason you take this store seriously. It's just a shop, so why work so hard?"
"Relax, Ethan, I'm only joking," the clerk said, carrying in a box of snacks from the distributor.
Ethan tore open the cigarette pack, lit one, and inhaled deeply, blowing the smoke out slowly.
His anger started to fade. Rick had been careless, yeah, but he was still a good friend. No matter what, Ethan couldn't stay mad at him forever.
"Maybe I'll hold off on kicking Rick from the party… for now."
He spent hours outside that store, lucky that the clerk was a friend and let him chill there until closing.
One can of beer went down. Then the second. Then the third. Still not enough. Ethan bought more until the clerk warned him about getting drunk.
"I'm not cleaning up your mess if you puke. You deal with it yourself."
"Quit nagging. What are you, my mom?" Ethan groaned.
"Just shut your store already. I'm heading home," he added.
Smoking all the way back, Ethan carried a plastic bag stuffed with beer cans—twelve in total. He planned to drink them all that night, drowning his frustration in alcohol.
HONK!
His drunken stagger slowed his reaction time. As he stumbled across a busy road, headlights flared from the right. A gas truck barreled toward him, horn blaring.
"Aw crap!"
Ethan panicked, dropping his beers and trying to dodge. But the truck was too close, too fast. It slammed into him, sending his body flying dozens of meters.
The driver screeched to a stop, jumped out, and stared at Ethan's mangled form.
"Damn it! Why'd you have to be drunk in the middle of the street?!"
Ethan's world went dark. The brutal impact crushed his chest and head, fatally damaging his organs. Before the ambulance even arrived, he was already gone.
Did I… just die?
Died with a tournament loss on record. What a joke.
Maybe I'll haunt my enemies in-game.
Forget it. I'm dead. What can I even do?
[You can choose the second option, EthanAsh666.]
[Congratulations! For your persistence, the system has chosen to pull your soul into Tower of Ascension, where you'll live forever.]
[Congratulations! For your loyalty to the game, the system grants you a special ability in Tower of Ascension.]
[Talent: Infinite Skill Level]
Ethan couldn't see a thing. The afterlife was just endless darkness. Yet somehow, a voice—like some AI-generated system narrator—echoed clearly. It spoke of the Tower of Ascension, of power, of a special talent.
This has to be a hallucination. I'm dead. Tower of Ascension is just a game someone coded. There's no way I could actually be there.
[Description: Break the maximum level cap. Turn weak skills into strong ones, and strong skills into the strongest. Beware the consequences of such power.]
That sounded ridiculous. Level caps were set by programmers. This was laughable.
[New Identity Assigned:]
[NPC -> Player]
[Name: Alaric]
[Beginning soul transfer to Tower of Ascension system!]
W-Wait! You serious? This is insane! If this is real, I want to use my account!
[Request accepted.]
[Email: [email protected]]
[Password: …]
Shit! I can't type! The password is EthanTheStrongest123!
[Email: [email protected]]
[Password: ******]
[Two-factor verification required.]
[Check your email and click the attached link.]
TWO-FACTOR VERIFICATION, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Forget it! I'm Alaric!
[Request accepted.]
No problem. I know all the hidden treasure chests, gacha tricks, cheap auction deals, and more.
This'll be easy for me… right?
[Host transferred to Tower of Ascension!]
A golden light burst before Ethan, so bright it blinded him. The system's words echoed: an NPC would be converted into a player for him.
But Ethan had never heard of this "Alaric" before. Who the hell was Alaric?
In seconds, the golden glow faded, and voices broke through. When Ethan opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful city that felt strangely familiar to him.
The air in the city was fresh and real, and the streets and ground were solid, just like in reality.
Crowds of people walked up and down the streets, and with the game's player features now unlocked for Alaric, he could see everything.
He could read NPC names, their jobs, and even spot real players along with the color of their cursors. Clear as day, he could tell the difference between NPCs and players.
From the outfit Alaric was wearing, Ethan guessed he was just an ordinary young man—one of those NPCs that appeared during the game's starting event to guide new players.
But now that Alaric had become a player himself, Ethan wondered—who was going to guide the new players through the beginner tutorial?
He turned toward a mirror. Alaric's face was handsome, exactly like the typical NPCs from Tower of Ascension, not a customizable player template.
And more than that—through the mirror, he could see the green cursor floating above his head, marking him as a player now, not an NPC.
I really did get pulled into the game. This city, the beginner's event, the features—it's all Tower of Ascension.
Alaric fixed his eyes on the city gate, where new players always appeared. Each time someone logged in, green light flared as they spawned.
There were countless of them, all clustering around a single figure—another NPC meant to trigger the game's first event.
[Welcome to Tower of Ascension]
[Please choose one of the options below:]
[Beginner || I'm new to this game and don't know anything.]
[Expert || I've played this game before and know a lot. Skip to the mission.]
A notification panel popped up in front of Alaric, giving him two menu choices.
The first option, Beginner, meant he would have to go through the entire tutorial. The second, Expert, would automatically grant him rewards as if he had already cleared it.
The tutorial will just waste my time. I'll go straight to Expert.
[DING! Congratulations, you have completed the Beginner Tutorial.]
[+500 EXP]
[+250 Gold]
[1x Beginner's Chest (Common)]
[1x Weapon Set (Common)]
[1x Armor Set (Common)]
[DING! Congratulations, you leveled up.]
[Level 1 → Level 5]
[Attribute Points gained: 50 AP]
Alaric nodded. Not only had he gained EXP, but also gold, a chest, a weapon set, and an armor set. The quality of the items, though, was at the weakest tier.
"There's a lot I need to take care of," Alaric muttered. "Distributing attribute points, using the beginner's chest reward, and heading to the spots where rare or even epic treasure chests are hidden."
I hate to admit it, but I've got to start everything from scratch. Damn, this is exhausting!