The days following the interview were turbulent to say the least. There was an uproar of the people against the government which was supposed to protect them. They had committed the crime of human experimentation and violated the trust of the people and abused the position of power which they had been granted.

Other countries also jumped on the bandwagon, increasing the pressure they faced exponentially. The government was forced to make concessions again and again until they had no other choice but to allow foreign interests to take a slice of the pie.

All kind of soldiers went into the darkness, but very few came out again. Each individual soldier was noted and recognized for their valiance. The ones who returned were lauded as heroes and promoted rapidly, while those that failed had their names forever recorded on a huge marble monument which was erected next to the tower.

Although the government had made concessions for other countries, this wasn’t enough to appease its own people. There were riots and protests daily and tension continued to rise as the people who felt let down by their governing body watched their military strength increase drastically with each successful warrior.

It was mere days before unknown groups of anti-governmental organizations became uncomfortable with the status quo. Supposedly they numbered in the thousands and were lead by a certain one handed man. Even with batches of enhanced soldiers, the encampment around the tower crumbled and hundreds of civilians managed to force their entry into the tower.

Again, many of them weren't lucky enough to make it out alive, however those that did were a force to be reckoned with. They also set up around the tower and opposed the coalition of global governments. They fought for control of the tower for months and eventually both sides decided it was in their best interests to relinquish all forms of control of this resource and allow anyone who wanted to enter to tower to do so freely and at their own risk. The reason? It was simply too expensive to train large groups of people who would end up dying pointlessly inside the tower. They would instead offer to recruit anyone who successfully passed the trials of the first floor.

After someone crazy enough to enter the tower for a second time set foot on the next floor, a blackboard appeared on the outer shell of the tower. It listed floor 1 to 100 and next to the floor number was the name of the first person to clear it.

Many tried to abuse this ‘simple’ blackboard by writing their own names or that of others, but no chalk from outside interference would stick to the surface of the blackboard. In the end this was dubbed as the most reliable leader-board to evaluate a group’s position in society.

After the appearance of the leader-board system, many new groups emerged. They would henceforth be known as leagues. And those brave enough to climb the floors of the tower were hunters.

While all of this was ongoing, there was another revolution happening in society. Many young adults and students returned to their homes in these uncertain times and no longer went to school. Instead, hunter training facilities became extremely popular, although people with exceptional intelligence and learning ability still were able to have a normal education. It was close to normal at least as the number of gifted students were lower than the total number of students in the past, educators could focus more on their individual abilities and they could guide them along more targeted paths towards eventual careers, effectively cutting down on useless knowledge being taught as well as the time required to complete the syllabus.

You might be wondering why people would disregard a normal life without the threat of death, for a challenging, almost impossible trial. The answer, of course lies with the reward for success. The tower offered the common people a chance which they had not been given in the past. They could rise up and gain real power in society. All they needed to do was rely on their own ability and their luck.

As always, when there is a chance for anyone to become powerful, there are a few bad apples who are destined to succeed. Whether they used nefarious means to climb the floors or genuinely possessed the ability to be a hunter, making them much, much more terrifying, they would appear. And appear they did.

The entire balance of society was shaken by the appearance of the tower and this is where my story really begins.

It felt so long ago that I was watching the advent of the tower through a safe screen, hundreds of miles away. It was only a few months, not even a year but now everything had changed. I used to dream of this,about living in a society where humans could possess super powers. I read all the manga, watched all the cartoons. Heck, I even loved watching all the marvel movies I could get my hands on.

But in the world of fiction, they never properly expose the effects of the mere presence of those beings on normal citizens. Funnily enough buildings take precedence there. They never show the corpses trapped underneath.Therefore, nothing I’d read, watched or dreamt of could have prepared me for this.

I watched, frozen in terror as a hunter dressed completely in black with a Red F across his chest unleashed a cloud of black gas towards another man equipped with a huge two-handed war blade. This man was wearing brown leather armor and had a golden sigil in the shape of a circle with a tower engraved upon it.

Both men were standing in the sky, making it all the more devastating when the gold man swung his sword, dispersing the black gas into the surroundings randomly. He charged towards his aggressor, ending the fight quickly with his weapon embedded in his opponents chest and in doing so his tailwind destroyed everything in the area. Debris was flung tens of meters away and many lost their lives. Gold man didn’t seem to give a shit as he turned his back and left the scene without a care in the world.

My father and I had decided to go and explore the cities hunter training facilities that day as even if we weren’t prepared to enter the tower, we should at least be able to protect ourselves from normal people. We had just finished touring around when the attack began. Thus, we also ended up among the many victims of Gold man’s carelessness.