Harley awoken, his eyes fluttering to a world of white. His head felt heavy, in pain, disturbed by the sensation of swirling worms. He tried to stand up, but an ache shot from the slightest movement to his entire body, forcing him back to the ground. Harley stared at the white sky, in a trance from the pain of his body.

  The moment of pseudo immortality given by the disappearance of pain were now gone. Harley’s entire body screamed for destruction, his mind blank, tears just falling on its own. In the spurt of a moment, lightning split the white sky in jagged streaks with an iridescent glow. Bricks of the sky dropped until the spectral colors covered the world.

  Harley lay on the ground, still lost. In the blink of an eye, everything went back to normal, and he shot up. “Oh my GOD!” He shouted, looking from side to side and punching the air with both arms. Harley stood up, his lips curled up to his eyes. “That felt… so weird… it was I was a totally different person! Fun!” He squealed like a dying rat.

  “Good Morning.” Said a voice behind Harley.

  “Why does everyone have to speak behind people whenever they just appear randomly?” He slowly turned his head to the white rabbit from before, followed by the rest of his body. “Also, really? Couldn’t think of anything better a white void as the lobby?” Despite more questions he had, his mouth was forced shut.

  “Before you add, yes, I am naked, and no, I do not have a dick, a pussy, nor nipples. At the same time, it is not creepy. Got it!” His entire body leaned, bobbing his head.

  “Blegluglu!” His hand shot out, rapidly slapping his lips. “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Anyway, it seems like you know a lot… about what’s going on.”

  “Not really, I just have read some things.”

  “Hmph.” The rabbit snapped his fingers, a screen appearing directly beneath it. The screen showed a timer, striking seven minutes and eleven seconds.

  “Is it the time left from where I just came from?”

  “Yes. Also, here.” The rabbit played with its hand again, waving in Harley’s direction.

  [Name: Harley]

  [Title: Outside The Box Thinker]

  [Level: 1]

  [Unique Trait: Liar]

  “A title…”

  “Duh. You blind? Anyway, I’ll be back when the timer is up, see you. Oh. Wait. This is just an entry lobby, don’t worry-” The rabbit leaned to Harley’s face, there was enough gap for an ant to pass through. “-there’s a lot of effort put into this… game.” A veil of black mist draped above, falling like sand, taking the rabbit with it.

  “Could have just opened a portal and went in.

  Welp! Nothing to do!”

  Harley yawned, sirening like an ambulance. “Should I even check the title?”

  …

  …

  “Okay, fine.”

  [Outside The Box Thinker]

  [You finished a mission without even following the intended solution. Great job.]

  “Effort, huh. Is this all that exists? Like… seriously? There’s not even any stat on my “STATUS SCREEN” quote and quote.” Harley yawned quickly for a second, his body feeling tired. His legs twitched like chicken’s, dropping him down to his knees. He let out a yawn, wide and loud for five seconds.

  “Anyway. So this is just like an entrance area? Or maybe this is where we were supposed to go. He did say there were too many people. That hill thing was probably just to weed out anyone, though is it really survivable if you just stay at the top?” His mind drifted into the past, fixating on the monster's movement.

  “Yeah, never mind. They are so fucking slow. Their numbers already made them trip as soon as they appeared. The moment they got halfway to the top, the goblins probably died while getting crushed by the orcs. The slimes… idc, that shit burned my shirt. Oh… that’s why I felt like something was missing. My back has a hole it’s exposed to.”

  “Okay. Well, that was just the tutorial, then.” Once Harley’s thoughts settled, he looked around. His hand pressed on the ground while his upper body twisted. There was nothing but a stretch of infinite white, yet at the sky, something struck into his mind. There was no pain nor confusion, but it felt off, like it was missing a detail from before.

  Harley yawned once more. He scratched his temple, laying down on the ground right after. Harley shut his eyes. Just a few seconds in the darkness, he fell asleep.

  ***

  Inside an office room. Behind a desk piled with untouched paperwork, a naked rabbit had its head down on the desk, fast asleep. Then came a knock at the door. Three taps later, it let itself in, walking beside the rabbit. It pulled the rabbit’s ear, abruptly waking it up.

  “Because of the sudden change done for the start of the tower, a lot of things were glossed over. Transport everyone to the first floor. A lot of people lost their mind, briefing them about the tower will have no use when most have gone insane.”

  The rabbit leaned back on the chair, stretching its arms with a yawn. “Did we at least remove a lot of people?”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Thirty percent is expected to pass the first floor.”

  “Thirty percent of the remaining? Or all?”

  “Of the remaining.”

  “Okay, I’ll get to it.”

  ***

  [First Floor]

  [Reach The Light]

  [Reward: Stats]

  Harley opened his eyes to the status screen. His back ached against the cold, uneven rocks beneath him. “Well… I guess something changed again while I was asleep.” He lifted himself up, stretching his body.

  He awoken inside a deep tunnel. It was a tight space, just enough for his body to move at the bare minimum. At the end was a dim light suppressed by the darkness. Harley could go blind in the absence of light. Only the small dot at the end and the screen left his eyes with a little air to breathe.

  With a little flicker of his eyes, the surroundings began to craft themselves in gray hues. With a few more passing seconds, something glowed other than the light at the end. It was the color of gold, something hard to dismiss from the white light. Two golden lights shone at Harley.

  “Okay… that’s not a monster, is it…? Okay… I don’t even get a weapon?” Harley tapped his foot around, blindly kicking the wall and injuring his toe. “Fuck!” His efforts weren’t pointless. A few steps to the left, Harley stepped into something that was made of metal.

  “A sword!” He gasped, leaning down immediately. His back reacted badly from the sudden movement, cracking loudly. It wasn’t anything painful, but the sudden stop made him straighten up.

  Harley retracted his hands and felt the metal with his feet. It rang, bouncing against the floor. The metal stretched just a few bit longer than his feet. In the opposite direction, the hard smooth layer felt a little soft and shorter.

  “So it was a dagger. Well, it’s better than a sword in this environment.”

  Harley picked up the dagger, covering the sharp blade with his foot. “Okay!” He swung once and struck the wall. “Okay! Yeah! The sword definitely… sucks… here…”

  “I can see two bright eyes, but what monster has golden eyes?” Before long, more golden eyes appeared, amounting to ten monsters staring at Harley.

  “They are quite far… but… it’s small… right?” He leaned, squinting his eyes. “I mean… so it’s definitely around my knees.” Harley moved forward, one little step at a time. His arms were spread to the sides, using the walls to guide his way.

  The glowing gold eyes remained fixed, unbothered by the approaching human. Harley stopped as he drew close. Small monsters were harder to face than human-sized ones. Adding the darkness to nimble, small monsters made it much harder.

  Harley stood far, unmoving for a few minutes, mulling over what he could do in the situation. “Ughh…” He moaned for the hundredth time. For the past hour, he had learned only one thing: the monsters didn’t respond to sound. With that in mind, the monsters could also not even be monsters.

  “Tsk…” He grovelled while biting his nails. “There’s no harm in being cautious, but seriously, seeing gold eyes makes me think they are rock monsters. With a dagger, I won’t even be able to stab it properly. Ughhhh!!!!!! Fuck! Fine! I’ll just move slowly. Maybe I can cheese it like a game. Maybe they have a range, I can just try to grab the nearest one.” He stared at the eyes. “Though they are all next to each other!”

  An hour had already been wasted on useless thinking. Harley was supposed to be a brave human. That was his reasoning to the cat from before, which proves to be an obvious lie.

  Another step closer, and the eyes shifted. Harley pressed onto his dagger, leaning down. The two eyes then detached, climbing onto the walls and above. In just a few seconds, he was surrounded by ten monsters in every direction, moving with speed faster than he could react.

  All the eyes jumped at him simultaneously. “Shit!” The glowing eyes revealed themselves as heads of arm-sized termites built upon stoned bodies. No pain! He hurriedly thought as the termites began to bite his limbs. Harley shoved any thoughts of death aside, living only for the moment, rid of fear. He used his left hand to grab a termite and stabbed the glowing head with his dagger. It burst into sticky gold blood, illuminating the tunnel to a golden glow. He soon after proceeded to continue to the next termite.

  That said, shortly after a second of pseudo-invulnerability, pain consumed him. Harley’s body was covered in severe cuts that penetrated his body from the arms, legs, waist, and shoulders. He couldn’t contain the scream rising from his throat and lost it, loosening the grip of his dagger. His heart raced, his mind in disarray. Harley pushed through the pain, knowing that any delay would lead to his immediate death.

  He gave a quick quiver, shaking his shoulders and hips to clear his body of monsters. In the process, blood spurted, adding to the pain. Fortunately, his trait wasn’t failing him to an extreme extent. The pain was like a broken meter, jumping up and down. With the gaps of painless seconds, Harley compelled himself to kill more.

  Through gracious miracles, Harley managed to move. Even so, the termites wouldn’t stop from a simple shrug. They all came back, adding more cuts, but at the same time, he took one at a time, repeating the same process till no more could engage him.

  Soon, the ground lay a mix of crimson and golden blood. Harley’s body and mind gave in, the pain blurring all his senses, the light at the end of the tunnel only looking like a dot, smaller than an ant. He fell, bathing in blood, his body all mutilated. Tears began to fall, fading the pain into nothing but a timer for death. The end of the tunnel was nowhere near, not even a chance to crawl. His life was a fleeting moment; that was it, the end.

  [4 Lives Remaining]