[Complete Tutorial]
[Completion Time: 3 days, 4 hours, 27 minutes, and 3 seconds]
[Global Progress: 76437/100000]
"...3 days?" I smiled awkwardly at the realization...
The side effects would be, at the very least, a hangover.
Three days straight without eating, sleeping, or drinking anything...
I ended up losing track of time.
... Anyway, that wasn't important at the moment.
[Choice]
[Awakened] [Challenger]
"Awakened."
[By choosing Awakened, you will lose the right to challenge the Tower. Are you sure about your choice?]
"Again, just like that, huh? And no, I'm not sure."
"Challenger."
[By choosing Challenger, you will lose all the rights and resources of the Awakened. Are you sure about your choice?]
"Yes."
[Choice accepted]
[Challenger Lucca. You died]
.
.
.
"Blearghh!"
I fell to my knees as I exited the VR capsule, vomiting, feeling extremely dizzy. My unfocused and tired gaze scanned the room as I wiped my mouth with my fist.
"Hahaha... Cough! Cough... Ha."
Even so, I couldn't stop laughing. This game was simply...
Insane!
Not the best, but the most fucked up I've ever played, as well as the most insanely difficult.
1238 deaths—I needed that many attempts just to complete the tutorial. How absurd...
One step, one death. I thought the government had banned games like this.
"What a nostalgic feeling..."
I smiled even more with the warmth in my chest, even though I was lying in my own vomit...
The growing anticipation was wonderful.
If the tutorial were like this... I was more than eager for the rest.
But it would be good to sleep a little now...
.
.
.
[Global Message: Initiating Yggdrasil System]
[0.003%]
While Lucca fell asleep in his own vomit, letters of alien symbolism appeared before all living beings around the globe, instantly translating into human language.
"Yggdrasil System?"
"Is this some kind of prank again?"
"Just ignore it, son."
"Haa… seriously"
"… Don't they ever get tired?"
"Another one? How many were there this month again?"
[0.07%]
The only thing that prevented widespread chaos, while the percentage metric increased, was curiosity mixed with disdain. This "joke" was already known.
Hackers started playing many pranks with the advancement of AIs. It was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve major hacking feats, such as breaking into government systems, banks, and social networks on a smaller scale, so they decided to cause mass hysteria with tasteless pranks at some point. As if the collateral effects of the third world war fifty years ago weren't enough, daily.
This fact caused the globe to ignore the warnings, while the hours passed and the metric approached 100%, with only a few people taking the matter seriously, like the family of Isaac and Anna, a pair of siblings who lived with their adoptive family. A family composed of their conspiracy-theorist parents and an older brother who was going down the same path.
"Shit, here we go... Another week in this infernal bunker."
Isaac murmured, low enough for no one to hear, as he picked up an old board game. One that wasn't yet saturated in his mind with the comings and goings to the underground bunker, all because his father, mainly, was a lunatic with things reeking of conspiracy.
"Interesting."
Isaac spoke loudly enough to attract the attention of the others as he held up a board that, a few years ago, was used by braggarts and troublemakers who claimed to be able to communicate with the supernatural. A Ouija board...
"Want to play?"
"Sure, son."
"Not now."
"I'll pass."
His father and brother refused immediately, busy tuning into an old radio, trying to hear news from the outside world. Always the same thing, thankfully his mother readily agreed.
"What is this?"
His mother, Valeria, asked, clearly curious, given her raised eyebrow.
"It's a Ouija board. They say it's possible to communicate with spirits and ask questions..."
Isaac replied, without looking at his mother for long and focusing on the board. Even he wasn't immune to his adoptive mother's charm. Her beauty was so great that his father might never have married her if it weren't for their eccentricities.
... Something curious, to say the least—after all, her father wasn't much to look at.
Meanwhile...
Valeria was a brunette of Latin descent who had "unfairly" inherited all the positive aspects of that. She was simply breathtaking.
"Ooh, how scary!"
Her smile and "frightened" body language didn't help Isaac's thoughts at all.
"So even the great Valeria is scared, huh? Give me your hand."
Looking away as usual, Isaac asked for Valeria's hand while he himself placed his hand on his index finger.
"Call me Mom. By the way, why do that?"
Valeria warned playfully, giving him her hand, then curiously asking why.
"Ask a question. The spirits will guide the answer, Mom."
"Hmm... Everything is well. So... Is the government hiding something?"
As expected...
That nonsense again. Of course the government was hiding many things, Isaac thought with slight disdain. His finger on his index finger tensed slightly, almost imperceptibly, even looking closely, and the index finger moved slightly. His destiny — "YES".
"Ack... What?!"
Valeria recoiled abruptly, startled. Her reaction caught the attention of her husband and son, who looked with concern and curiosity.
"What is it?"
Asked Isaac's father.
"It works... Darling, it works!"
"Come here!"
Instead of answering, Valeria shouted excitedly! Her visible excitement at the events, easily convinced of how the game worked, almost made Isaac show his disdain...
... This side of them was irritating, but Isaac couldn't do anything but live with it. Nothing was perfect, after all.
"What works?"
Father and son asked simultaneously as they approached Valeria and Isaac curiously but again received no answer. Valeria simply grabbed their hands and pressed their fingers onto the index finger on the board.
"Ask a question!"
Valeria said. Her excitement was palpable now—her chest heaved with her irregular breathing, forcing Isaac to look at the four fingers on the index finger.
His conscience weighed on him a little now, but he couldn't stop; otherwise, he would only make Valeria look ridiculous, even if the audience was also composed of two lunatics.
Unfortunately, he hadn't taken one thing into account now—there were two more people present, so when his father asked a random question...
"... Isaac?"
His name was called in unison by the three of them when his trick was revealed. Isaac ended up using too much force trying not to ridicule his mother.
But now, both father and son walked away without saying anything more. It was like a silly little joke to them, but even if they tried to hide it—Isaac and Valeria saw it. It was a fleeting glance, but that simple look made Valeria get up and leave without even looking at Isaac.
"... Shit"
Isaac muttered to himself while running his hand through his hair. He realized his mistake, but he knew that wasn't what made his mother even look at him, but rather the ridiculous, superior look his father and brother gave her...
It wasn't the first time this had happened. Ever since his brother started taking an interest in their father's hobbies, Valeria had begun to receive disdain from her own husband; after all, now he had another partner, and she was the one who truly invested her time and effort in it.
... Whether he liked it or not, his brother really was an incredible conspiracy theorist. Isaac had never seen anyone believe in so much nonsense, but that fact was enough to make his father sideline Valeria, who, despite liking such things, had never invested so much emotionally in them.
Isaac found this ridiculous and unacceptable. He couldn't believe what his father was doing, while Valeria distanced herself more and more from her own family, as if the recurring fights between her sister Anna and their parents weren't enough...
Isaac felt like the only normal one among lunatics, although he understood and completely envied his sister. Unlike him, she had the attitude to respond to the situation instead of watching her family fall apart.
He couldn't even talk about Valeria's frequent nights out in recent months. It was a fact that his mother slept with different men in response to her husband's disdain...
Only his brother and Anna didn't know this. His father knew and didn't care, something his brother would do too if he knew, while Anna was hardly ever home.
... Home.
That word seemed so distant now from... Isaac's mind.
While Isaac was lost in his thoughts, brooding over the situation, a message appeared before him, pulling him from his reverie.
[Global Message: Yggdrasil System (100%)]
Only something so ridiculous could pull him out of the sadness in his mind. He smiled, clearing his thoughts.
Isaac decided at that moment that he would try to follow the same path as his sister, but, unlike her, he would actually leave, taking Valeria with him. He would get far away from this mess; his birthday was approaching, so it was a matter of a few more months.
... Unfortunately, disaster comes unexpectedly.
Feeling a slight tremor in his leg, Isaac looked at the ground with a raised eyebrow. The tremor was coming from there...
And it was getting stronger. Slight and steadily stronger, as if something was coming.
"Wh... What?"
His voice came out frightened as the utensils inside the bunker began to fall to the ground, along with his father's angry shouts. The old radio had fallen to the ground.
The next thing that happened was the furniture shifting from its place with the vibrations...
And then, they themselves could no longer balance. Everything shook like an earthquake, but it wasn't over yet.
To Isaac's despair... It was still approaching, and then...
There was nothing more then.
Isaac could only watch the ceiling crumble in disbelief—something colossal swallowing everything amidst the rubble...
One second. The entire area was reduced to a plain in just under a second...
No one survived.