Corruption is a scourge upon mortal worlds, but Chaos devours everything in his path, including corruption itself. The Void of Chaos is every world’s first line of defence against the encroaching corruption. He sows discord amongst the Creator’s mortals by influencing their hearts. He whispers delusions of grandeur into their weak minds, causing them to fight against each other. That is how he begins to seal any world that is being overwhelmed by corruption. He is an unceasing, unparalleled, and unending onslaught.

  As the world devolves into wars, fighting against its corruption, the world’s Karma destabilises, and a Void is born to save it. Inside that Void, maestrils come to life, and they consume Karma endlessly until the Karma in the Void overflows. Then the corrupted world experiences a Void Eruption and falls into chaos, sealing it from the rest of the Infinite Multiverse, preventing the spread of corruption.

  -Excerpt from The Relgte of The Onslaught of The Dark Void, Scroll 1: Chapter 2

  *

  For years, there had been a lot of speculation on what would bring an end to human civilisation on Earth, from nuclear war, global warming, a religious apocalypse, to aliens, among others. Contrary to anyone's expectations, the end came suddenly, and the world changed in the brief span of 120 seconds. No one could have guessed that someone would rip Earth out of its universe and thrust it inside a Tower, least of all Langa.

  A blinding flash of light appeared in front of Langa, and he felt an uncomfortable prickling sensation all over his body. In the flash, he could see thirteen pathways, each illuminated by a different colour. Beyond them, a fourteenth pathway with no colour or substance, only shapes moving around it, flickered in and out of existence, as if it wasn’t even there.

  When he next opened his eyes, the light was gone, and he stood outside a door with the words Floor Overlord written on it. Looking around, he found that the corridor he was standing in seemed to shimmer in and out of focus, as if it were constantly changing shape. He surveyed his surroundings blankly, unsure where to go next.

  Something wasn’t right here; this entire area felt out of place. It made no sense to Langa. Less than an hour ago, he’d been drinking with Neo, then some weird shit appeared in front of his eyes, and he impulsively chose to be a Player. He had expected some grand world, some dramatic change, not whatever this place was.

  "Next!" a bored voice called from the inside.

  Langa could either stand in this shapeshifting corridor or search for answers, so he opened the door.

  He didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a normal-looking office. If someone had told him he'd just entered a generic corporate CEO’s office, he would have easily believed it. There was a square desk with papers neatly stacked on top of it, and a weird-looking screen that could have passed for a computer. There were also some bookshelves along the back wall, and a file cabinet next to the desk and chair.

  "Finally, you’re here," the voice said. "Name? Hello?"

  Still taking in his new surroundings, Langa finally looked at the person sitting behind the desk. It was a young woman, with an irritated look on her face as she looked at him with her red eyes.

  "Give me your name, Player."

  The woman watched him expectantly, and she looked as if she wanted to punch him in the face. She looked very differentfrom the women he was used to. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what the issue was, but something about her felt off. Was it her complexion? There was no way a human so pale he could see her veins as clearly as if he were looking through glass existed. Her watching eyes were also dark red, and there was something unbelievably eerie about looking into them; it made Langa uncomfortable. He had never seen hair that shade of black, either.

  If it wasn't for the bizarre situation, he might have thought she was one of the ladies from the National Department of Home Affairs who always looked annoyed, as if it was the client's fault that they hated their jobs.

  He tried to process everything he was seeing rationally. He was in a normal office, with a woman who looked out of place, and it was jarring, to say the least. Langa was normally a calm person, and he liked to go with the flow most of the time. As a result, he thought himself to be perfectly adaptive to unknown situations. However, right now a certain amount of fear and nervousness gripped him, so much so that he felt as if he would suffocate. He felt like a child who had suddenly been placed in a burning pit, with no way out. He just had to ask what was happening, and who this inhuman woman was.

  "Who are you? Where the hell is this?"

  "Oh, for Master’s sake. I wish we were still using the old system. Then I could address all of you at once in the same place, as we do with the NPCs, but no, The Unrivalled had to issue a new update. Now, we’re all about one-on-one care, ensuring that every Player gets the required amount of information before being dropped off into the tutorial, argh," she said, brow creased. "I'm the Floor Overlord in charge of all the Players from the 36th Floor, You may address me as Lady Mira. As for where we are, this is the management office of the 36th Floor. You will come here before Ascending to a new Floor to get your pass... If you survive that long."

  She spoke as if she were stating the obvious, but it all confused Langa even further. That message earlier had stated that Earth was now the 36th Floor of some Tower. Was that it? Her voice came out cold and detached, yet somehow an unknown chill went through Langa's body. Was that all what had been his entire world for 27 years amounted to? Just a Floor in someone else's Tower? He could neither believe nor understand it. And what was up with this apathetic woman? Did she not see that his world had suddenly collapsed right in front of him? Did she not have any humanity?

  "Are you human?" he blurted out.

  She raised her eyebrows. "You Players from the 36th Floor sure are a curious bunch. No, I'm a vampire. Can I proceed with the introduction? Otherwise, time will run out, and you will proceed to the tutorial cluelessly. Your name, Player?"

  So, she was a vampire. Okay, that meant that vampires existed. This was giving him a headache; it was all too much to handle, and Langa needed a time-out. He didn’t feel like he had the mental capacity to handle all of this shit right now. Therefore, he did what he always did when faced with things that his mind could not comprehend or that were too much for his mind to handle.

  ‘I am in control,’ Langa thought, repeating the mantra over and over again in his head to calm himself. He pushed the bad thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind.

  ‘Okay,’ he thought again, taking a deep breath. ‘Let’s take everything at face value. Let’s pretend this is real, vampires exist, and Earth is now part of some Tower, and I’m a Player.’

  "Fine. My name is Langa," he said, and she happily wrote something down on a scroll on the desk. Who the hell used scrolls in this day and age? Well, vampires, evidently. "You keep calling me ‘Player’, and I guess that’s because of the character I chose. I just need to know, though. What does it mean to be a Player?" he asked.

  "Wow, you didn’t try to attack me like your fellow humans or scream and make an unnecessary noise after finding out what my race is… I must say, I'm impressed. People from lost worlds like yours often struggle to accept things they aren’t used to," the lady said, her annoyance with him disappearing.

  "My therapist didn’t think it was such a good quality. She called me the worst case of compartmentalism she’d ever encountered," Langa muttered, as Lady Mira continued speaking.

  "Since you are so agreeable, I’ll grant you an extra question besides the one you asked. Players are beings favoured by The Unrivalled and granted the ability to climb the Towers. The Unrivalled is with you the whole way, throughout your journey, as the System. You gain access to unique abilities and skills that help you get stronger, fight against different types of entities like corruption, and earn more Karma."

  "Then what-" Langa started, but the woman interrupted him by holding up her hand to show she wasn't done talking.

  "No, no, no. Think carefully before you ask me what you want to ask. I only have a limited amount of time with each Player, so you may ask one more question only. You’d better make it count, kid," she warned him.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  It was weird that she called him a kid; she didn’t look that much older than him. Then again, she was a vampire, so she could be a hundred years old for all he knew. Was she dead or undead? How did vampires work in the Tower? He was admittedly curious, even so, he shook his head to focus.

  He needed to be sure about what to ask. Alright, he thought about the facts. So he was a Player. Great, awesome. Whatever that meant. Only one question, huh? Was there a reward for climbing the Tower, like a game? What was that about an unrivalled person becoming his System? What was that System in the first place? Why was Earth dragged into this? She said he would have to fight against different entities; did that mean that Earth was not safe anymore? Was his family safe? Were his sister, niece, nephew, and even his brother-in-law alright? Would he ever see them again?

  He decided to ask a broader question, hoping she would give a broader answer. "Is the Earth safe for my family?"

  "Look, your world was integrated into the Tower because it was overrun by corruption, and it was in danger of a Void Eruption, so it will be dangerous because maestrils will come into your world from the Void," she said, and then she frowned. "That's a loaded question, and I don't know how to answer it. If your family are Players, then it depends on the extent of their power when, or if, they finally manage to climb up to the 36th Floor again. If they are NPCs, then they are only in danger if they step out of the safe zones, or if the being who ends up ruling the 36th Floor does not allow them to be safe."

  "What do you mean, ruling? Is someone going to take over the world?" Langa asked in panic. He had seen enough movies with one-dimensional villains whose only goal was to take over the world that he knew how disastrous it could be for innocent people.

  "I assume so, since the theme of the 31st to the 40th Floor is conquest. No more questions," Lady Mira said sternly.

  Alright. From that, Langa gathered he couldn't return home right now and that someone, one of these Players, would end up taking over the world. His sister was a very cautious person, so he hoped she wouldn't leave the safe zones if she hadn’t chosen to be a Player. He was unsure about Neo and Khaya, though. Neo loved thrills; the cheaper, the better. Khaya enjoyed video games; she dreamed of being a great hero and being whisked into the adventure of a lifetime.

  Those two might have chosen to become Players. His brother-in-law liked to be in the centre of things, and he might have also chosen to be a Player. The two of them did not have the best relationship, but Langa did not want anything to happen to him; after all, the man had raised him. He bit his lip in worry, thinking about his family, and then shook his head. Right now, there was nothing he could do for them.

  "Thank you for the information," he said. It couldn't hurt to be polite. People were more likely to be more open if he was polite to them.

  She smiled, revealing two fangs on her front teeth. "Good. Now we've wasted time, so here's your quick introduction. Look into the soul bowl on the floor, and think about who you are as a person. That way, the System will know how best to work with you."

  He wanted to ask more questions, but since she said that time was running out, he looked down to see a large bowl of golden water on the floor. He was sure it hadn’t been there before.

  His reflection stared up at him, rippling with the water. He ran his hands through his dreadlocks, unsure what she meant by thinking about who he was. Was he supposed to say he was Langelihle Zulu, a boy abandoned by his mother 20 years ago after his father's death? No, he had risen above that identity. He would not let his mother define him anymore. He was Langa Zulu, a man raised by his sister, who only knew how to run from his curse, and how to run from even his own talents and psychological issues.

  He was Langa Zulu, a man who once loved to run on the track, until he became jaded by people’s expectations and a lack of a challenge on the track, until even the running that he used to love so much became a boring chore.

  [System connected. Welcome, Player Langa Zulu.]

  The words floated in front of him, and he wasn’t even freaked out anymore. This was his new normal now.

  "Excellent! Let's hurry up. You will receive a tutorial kit to use during the tutorial; please take good care of it as it won't be replaced. Since you were in the first top 40% of humans in your world to choose your character, you'll be given a silver tutorial kit," she said. "Your integration into the Deiwos Tower has provided you with access to The Unrivalled's System. All characters that exist within the different Towers have this System. It allows you to keep track of all your progress and attributes. Please check for me that your menu works as intended. Just say Status," Lady Mira said hurriedly.

  "Status," Langa said, and yelped when a blue screen appeared in front of him. Okay, maybe some things would still freak him out.

  [Name: Langa Zulu

  Race: Human

  Age: 27

  Character: Player

  Level: 1

  Class: N/A

  Available Karma: 10

  Total Karma: 10

  Deity: N/A

  Highest Floor: 0/101 (Deiwos Towers)

  Attribute: LOCKED

  EXP: 0/100

  HP: 100/100

  STA: 150/150

  MP: 60/60

  STR: 5

  AGI: 17

  MND: 6

  VIT: 10

  Free Attribute Points: 0

  Alignment: (0) NEUTRAL

  SPECIAL STATS: N/A

  Regeneration Rates: STA: 0.05STA/s MP: 0.06MP/s HP: 0.2HP/s

  LOCKED: Affinities and Resistances, Titles, Skills, Equipment and Inventory]

  "Wow, it really looks like a game screen!" Langa exclaimed in surprise.

  It looked similar to the interface of the games he'd sometimes played with Khaya. She loved to play badass sword-wielding heroes, and would often force him to party with her. He always complained, saying it was annoying, but the truth was that playing games with her had helped him keep his mind focused when all it wanted to do was wander. He never told her how much she had helped him. Would he ever get to?

  "What game are you talking about? You’d better take this seriously, or you will die," Lady Mira warned him.

  "It’s nothing. I'm not sure if these stats are good or not, though," he said, looking at his status screen.

  "The average stats for humans range between 5 and 10. If they’re within that range, then you're good," she told him.

  That meant that at 17, his Agility was insanely high, and everything else was about normal, with Vitality slightly on the higher end. Mind and Strength were on the lower end, but they weren’t below average, so that was comforting.

  "Please pay close attention. This is important. You can only learn a maximum of 5 Passive Skills, 10 Active Skills, and only 10 Divine Skills, depending on your Sponsorship Contract. It's also a maximum of 3 Active, 2 Passive, and 3 Divine Skills per Tier, as well as only 3 Titles/Blessings per Tier. You can only equip 1 Titles/Blessings multiplied by Tier at a time, but thanks to the grace of The Unrivalled, even at Tier 0, you can equip one Title/Blessing. Please choose your Skills wisely, because some of them cannot be switched out." She paused. "Most Players would rather be stuck with a bad Skill than go through the process of unlearning a Skill. It's much better to just be selective of the Skills that you choose to take from the very beginning to save yourself the trouble. Also, all nonessential messages are disabled during combat by default, you can change it later if you want. Anyway, time's almost up, so get your tutorial kit."

  Langa was just about to ask her where he should get the kit when a new message popped up in front of him.

  [The Unrivalled Tower Master wishes to bestow you with a gift.]

  He stared at the new prompt with uncertainty. He could not explain it, but there was an uneasy feeling all over his body. It felt like someone was watching him. The weirdest thing was that he was sure he did not know the language that the prompts came in, or even the language that Lady Mira spoke, but he somehow understood it.

  "Who is-"

  "A god. Time is almost up. Please accept your tutorial kit," Lady Mira said.

  "Um, yes?" he said, unsure. A god? They had real gods here? "Did that god bring me here?"

  "Technically, I guess. But the pantheon that rules over this Tower is the Deiwos Clan," she told him. "Usually each Tower is limited to certain types of races. So far, this Deiwos Tower mostly has beastkin and elves, but there are other races, like yours."

  Langa took a deep breath, once more calming himself down, trying to take everything in, and not letting it all freak him out. Gods and fantasy races were real as well, apparently.

  [You have received:

  Tutorial kit (Silver) x1]

  Sure enough, a small backpack appeared in front of him out of thin air. He was no longer surprised, so he just picked it up and slung it on his back.

  "Alright. You will retrieve the kit once you get to the tutorial area," Lady Mira said. "The tutorial will last for seven days, and it will take place in an abandoned world. To pass the tutorial and be able to enter the 1st Floor of the Tower, you need 1000 Karma. Let me tell you, it is difficult to farm Karma in a world abandoned by the gods."

  Okay, more new information. The uncomfortable feeling from earlier started to encompass him.

  "So, where is this tutorial taking place?" Langa asked.

  "You’re pushing it with the questions. There are three types of tutorial placements. The Unrivalled will usually place you with the people you were with when the integration began. However, in her infinite wisdom, she may choose to randomly place mortals from different unrelated worlds together in one tutorial," she said. "The final type of placement is special. If there is a group of unrelated mortals whose Karma is tightly bound, even though they have never met, she may be compelled to place them together in order to preserve the natural flow of Karma."

  This Karma stuff seemed important, and even though he doubted Lady Mira would be able to tell him much, Langa still asked. "Karma?"

  "Yeah. I’ll give you one last piece of advice. As a person from a lost world, make sure you make allies with those from the natural and blessed worlds; they will help you with the information you need." Her voice sounded distant. "If you want to survive until the end, make sure to find your Calling!"

  He wanted to ask her to explain what she meant by all of that, but there was another blinding flash of light, and Langa appeared in a different area.