Author's Note: I somehow ended up cranking this paper out. Guess I really wanted to lay the foundation for the story and game elements. I hope you all enjoy the chapter :) See y'all next week!

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I perked my ears for this part. The figure in the hood was finally going to tell us what we’d be doing here and I wouldn’t dare to miss a single piece of information. And maybe it was possible that he’d tell us why exactly we were forced to experience that blinding pain when we entered the tower.

“Well…” The figure laughed coldly. “I cannot tell you why you were chosen or even the true reason as to why you are all here.”

I internally groaned in discontent. ‘Of course. I don’t know why I even expected to get any sort of answers from the freaking aliens that would send monsters down here just to prove how strong they are.’ I heard mumbling and grumbling all around the room and realized that I wasn’t alone in my thoughts.

The hooded figure, despite only being a projection, seemed to sense the frustration in the room and smiled, revealing razor sharp teeth behind its lips. A lot of groups in the room involuntarily cringed from the unexpected sight, but the smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“It is quite obvious that you will need to ascend the tower, humans…but allow me to explain more of the…finer details. You’ve all been divided into groups of eight. Believe me when I say that not only will this happen here, but also at all the others that my race has occupied as well.”

‘How are there magically eight people…or extraterrestrials for each group? That’s just too weird. Am I to assume that it’s these aliens that gave us our powers? Or did they just unlock them? Quite honestly, I don’t even feel all that different yet.’ However, I was only getting more questions than answers and decided to put it on hold, but the hooded figure surprised me with its next words.

“Some of you may be wondering…how are there groups of eight in every single tower out there?” Upon hearing this question, my eyes opened wide and I tuned my ears to listen to his next words…“I propose that those people focus on more important things like surviving the tower rather than questions you’ll never get the answers to.”

I stared blankly at the figure for five whole seconds and then decided to stop asking myself little questions until I had time to think alone since this guy was going to be an ass about it.

“Now, where was I? Ah, yes. The finer details. There are ten planets under our control, including Earth. There are eight hundred organisms from each planet that will represent their race but they will not be marked as you are. The other races have their own advantages and the power that you’ll soon become familiar with is one that has slumbered within your people for millennia which we, the Overlords, will simply awaken for you to level the playing field. To reiterate, this means that there are nine hundred other groups in total—well much stronger than you all, but your strength will grow in time.”

My brain was in overdrive trying to process all this information. The fact that we hadn’t gone through the awakening yet even after all that pain earlier was a little unsettling, but I could be patient for a little longer…

“When you ascend the stairs to the next floor, you will be randomly matched up against nine other groups. This means that ten groups will find themselves pitted against one another on the second floor of the tower and the only way to advance is…to completely annihilate the opposing group!” There were many surprised people in the room who instantly began to converse with their new group while the hooded figure only savagely smiled at us all, once more showing his razor sharp teeth.

About ten seconds later, some tall Asian guy across the room decided to speak his mind and shouted at the hooded figure, “That’s complete bullshit! I refuse to be a killer!” Murmurs of agreement rang throughout the room, but my group, as well as about half of the others in the room, kept their silence. The hooded figure kept its silence and moments later, the noise in the room finally died back down.

The hooded figure turned its eyes in the direction of the boy who’d spoken and his voice was colder than any other time he’d spoken when he said, “It’s kill or be killed now, human. I can assure you that the other races will not have any qualms about ending your life so that they may live theirs and protect their homes. And to condition you all to such a mindset, we Overlords have already decided to help your race…adjust.”

A sinking feeling appeared in my stomach and I felt like I was going to be sick.

‘No, he couldn’t mean that we’re to—’

“Every group here shall be pitted against one other and you will battle to the death. The winners of their battle may rest for a while afterwards, watch the rest of the matches, or continue on up the tower. The choice is yours,” his words were deathly serious and the world around me began to spin as my brain was trying and failing to comprehend what I was being told.

‘I came here to save my race. I have no desire to kill my own like this…’

The room burst into an uproar of noise and protest, well from more than half of us. The people that had been forced in here had a strangle glint in their eyes and they seemed to be the calmest of everyone in the room. Knowing that some of them were convicts didn’t ease my nerves much since we could be told to fight against any group in here—innocent ones or those who would love to watch the world burn.

Overall, this wasn’t a scenario I could’ve foreseen happening, but even if I absolutely abhorred the idea, which I really did, I could completely understand the logic in the hooded figure’s plan. If we were pitted against one another right from the beginning and forced to kill one another to save our world, then would we stop to show any mercy to those other races we’d clash with in the tower? This was more than likely a measure taken to weed out the weak from the strong. And though it seemed extremely heartless of me to think so, I knew where my heart lay—I would be strong. Innocent or not, the group I’m put up against would have to be killed.

I looked back to my group, my friends, to gauge their reactions at this shocking information. Clara and Pixie’s eyes were filled with a mixture of horror and fear. Kualin and Akito seemed to take it all in stride and had impassive looks on their faces. Kyra, Milik, and Izzy’s eyes all had turned wide at the news. It seemed like everyone in my group except for Clara and Pixie were strong enough to deal with this type of situation. They’d need to be protected in this first fight instead of forced to fight.

This thought made me feel a little better about the situation. Rather than thinking about it in a way that made me out to be a cold-hearted slaughterer, I was now looking at it as protecting those I care about from harm.

The hooded figure waited for the noise to die down once more before speaking in a cold tone, “And for those groups that believe you are too righteous or cannot strike a killing blow, you will die.” His face showed a cruel smile and I felt a cold shiver run up my spine since he didn’t elaborate on how those who chose not to fight would die. The smile went away but I could tell he was still amused. The hooded figure then said, “Do remember, this is for your planet’s sake. And for those of you who don’t fight for your planet or loved ones, rather you fight for a darker goal, yes I know you’re here, then take this as an opportunity to cut loose.”

Was I seriously hearing what I thought I was hearing? This bastard was egging on all those crazy bastards? The sinking feeling in my gut deepened at the thought because if those insane bastards like Matt progressed through the tower instead of the ones who wanted to protect the human race, then things would only get extremely difficult later on…and there was nothing I could do to change it.

“Now, before we carry on with your awakenings…”

Awakenings? My stomach felt sick at the thought now because even though I’d been looking forward to the strength we’d supposedly gain, I knew that my mood was ruined now due to the battles we’d have on the first floor with each other.

“For those that survive here, what you all must understand as you climb the tower is that each floor you visit is a world of its own. Do not allow the exterior size of this tower to fool you. And most importantly, do not mindlessly believe that the other groups on your floor are the greatest dangers. I suggest you all do three things: become strong, find a reason to fight, and persevere.” As soon as the hooded figure had finished speaking, the blood-red liquid covering the ceiling began drawing in from the edges of the ceiling until it condensed into a mass wall. The red liquid hung high above our heads and then, without warning, it fell.

The people in the center of the room tried to back away as quickly as possible and many people were cringing back at the thought of getting hit by that much liquid from that height, but what we’d all expected to happen didn’t. Just before the liquid wall hit our heads, it stopped about eight feet above the ground and tendrils of the liquid broke from its surface. A single tendril swiftly attached itself to the center of my chest and I saw every tendril around the room connecting to someone else. I was too shocked to really think about resisting and before I could even comprehend what was happening, I felt a pulse ripple from the tendril and, as if my body was responding to some signal, a dark golden glow surrounded my body. Everyone around the room was glowing in some color and it floated about an inch off of their skin like a cloak of sorts.

The color on my body began to condense and pull in towards my chest. The feeling of it tickling my chest even through the material of my jacket, shirt, and strike vest was warm and pleasant. I felt safe. The golden color condensed itself into the gaseous form of a Roman numeral number one and floated straight through my clothes until I felt it fuse itself into the skin right above my heart.

Almost instantly, my body felt lighter and I could feel some sort of energy coalescing around my body and although it was in constant contact with me, I could only feel its purity and strength but couldn’t identify what it was.

I looked up towards the liquid which the tendrils had come from and saw that it was receding back towards the ceiling. Other people began to look in wonder at it and the hooded figure began speaking, “Soon, we will start the process for proceeding to the next floor, but I’m sure you’ll all want to get…reacquainted with yourselves.”

The hooded figure waved his hand and a multitude of garage-sized buildings literally popped into existence out of thin air. They were styled modernly, but only had one door leading into them. No windows or anything like that.

“Enter these shelters with your groups and rest for an hour. You all have a lot of information to learn and getting to know your group members even a little bit will help you in the coming battle. About your powers, you all need only say status, mentally or aloud, and all will be explained. Your time starts now.”

I definitely felt different, but I’d wait until I reached the shelter to figure out what exactly had changed. I already heard many people yelping in surprise at whatever they’d seen once they’d either said ‘status’ aloud or mentally. I had a fairly good idea of what to expect just from that one word, but all in due time…

Other groups had already begun walking to different shelters to discuss the situation and beckoning to my friends, I began walking to the nearest one which was only about twenty or thirty yards away. It didn’t take long for us to make it to the door and get inside, but what I saw was, well surprising to say the least.

It was as if I’d stepped into a five star hotel of sorts. The floor was layered with a smooth looking white rug and there were four red leather couches in a rectangular position in the middle of the room. The couches were large enough to hold two people each. Off to one side of the room was a doorway which led to a toilet seat and sink. Opposite of this door on the other side of the wall stood a large black refrigerator.

‘Hmmmmm!?’ My eyes lit up at the sight of the refrigerator and rushing towards it, I yanked the door open and felt tears in the corners of my eyes. There was every drink and snack I could ever ask for and even more surprising was the alcohol stocked on the side of the door.

“Alex, anything good in there bro?” Milik’s voice came from behind me and I heard him walk up next to me and then the sound of his knees hitting the ground next to mine at the sight of the refrigerator’s contents.

“Heaven, Milik. It’s heav—”

Someone cleared their throat behind me and I bowed my head in shame.

‘Yeah, well, I guess this isn’t really the best time to be drooling I suppose.’ With a sigh, I shut the refrigerator door and moving over to the nearest couch, dropped my pack next to it and sat down in the couch with a loud thump. Everyone was already sitting down and Milik plopped down next to me on the same couch. Akito was sitting with Izzy, Pixie was with Kualin, and Clara was with Kyra. I couldn’t help it when my eyes rested on Clara for a moment longer than necessary, but well, it is what it is.

“Alright guys, so firstly, I guess we should talk about the group fight…I need to know who’s willing to do what needs to be done…” My words came out clearly, but I did my best to hold back any hint of expectation in it. I didn’t want to force or encourage anyone into killing other people. If it really came down to it, then I’d gladly stain my hands red in the blood of the other group to spare everyone else from doing so themselves. Blood of the innocents had been on my hands since that night one month ago.

“I’m willing,” Akito’s strong voice spoke up almost instantly after I’d asked the question and I looked at him in surprise. Despite his earlier display with that asshole Matt, I’d always thought he’d be the big teddy bear type of guy. Guess I’m still learning about everyone.

Silence dominated the room for a couple more seconds before Kualin and Milik both spoke at the same time saying, “I can do it.” They looked at each other surprised for a moment and then—

“Jinx! Double jinx! Triple jinx! Quadruple—”

“Ahem!” Izzy’s irritated voice broke them out of their competition but they were both still grinning at each other.

“Seriously, I’ve known you two for all of ten minutes and I already know you’re never going to stay serious for any longer than that.” Although she said this sternly to them, a smile was on her face but it quickly dissolved itself into a solemn look.

“I don’t know if I’ll have a problem with the other races…but to do that to another person…I can only kill another person if they were trying to kill me first. Even then, I might only want to incapacitate them…,” Izzy’s blue eyes were cast down towards the floor and a couple tears were sliding down her cheeks and dripping onto the carpet below.

“Nobody is going to be forced to do anything that they don’t want to, Izzy. Even when we’re up against the other races on higher floors. There’s always more that you can do besides fighting. The most I can ask you to do today is to protect yourself if we fail to do so for you.” I spared a glance at Akito whose eyes were cold and steely with determination.

‘I’d love to see someone try and get past that mass of muscle.”

Kyra dropped her hands from her hair where she was twisting one of her braids and said, “I can do it if I need to, but I’d prefer to not go so far on our own race.”

Nodding to her I say, “Then can I trust you to protect those that don’t want to fight? I know it’s a lot to ask for, but with the other guys and me up front, it’ll be difficult to keep everything from slipping through…”

Her firm nod was the only confirmation I needed. Just by basing off of personalities and how they held themselves, I had already felt like Kyra and Izzy were going to be our best help from the girls in the group when it came to fighting and I wasn’t disappointed by their answers in the slightest. Although, they chose not to hurt other humans, I knew I could more than likely count on them in the higher levels of the tower.

Looking at the last two girls of the group, I say, “Pixie? Clara? What about you two? No pressure. It’s just best to have a game plan when we go out there.”

Pixie’s lips set into a pout and her lower lip was trembling. I smiled at the sight because I felt like I knew what was coming.

“I want to fight to help you all because you’re my friends! It’s just…well, I’m weak,” she finished with an unsure look on her face.

I sadly looked at her and Clara. Out of all the people in this room, it was definitely these two that I didn’t want anywhere near violence. Pixie because she’d become one of the first friends I’d made in this crazy new lifestyle and she was unbearably sweet. We called her Pixie for goodness’ sake and I didn’t want her to be traumatized. I didn’t want Clara fighting because, well, whatever my feelings were for her, I didn’t want her getting hurt. I’d probably break whoever tried to, but that’s their problem.

“Pixie, it’s fine. Hah, to be honest, I don’t want you getting yourself hurt. Tell you what, why don’t you give it a go when you’re stronger. Okay?” Her eyes lit up at my words and she gave me a big smile. Who knew someone would be so happy to be able to fight? But I guess she was only happy because she’d get to help out someday even if she can’t today.

Clara’s blue-green eyes were already on me when I turned towards her. Giving her a light smile of encouragement, I waited for her to speak. After only a couple seconds she said, “I honestly think the best I can probably ever do is support you all…I’m sorry. I don’t even have it in me to maim someone, let alone kill them. I’d only do so if there’s no other way out.”

“That’s logical. I suppose you’re not our light element for nothing, right?” I gave her a warm smile which she slightly blushed to and looked away.

‘How she looks when she blushes! I could die happy now!’ My silly thoughts invaded my mind and I forcefully pushed them out to focus on the task at hand.

“Well, okay guys, now that we got that sorted out, let’s say we have Pixie and Clara stay behind Izzy and Kyra. Izzy, I’m only putting you in front of them because, although I don’t expect anything to get past me and the guys, you were going toe to toe with that Matt guy from earlier and so I know you won’t shy away from anyone who breaks through, right?”

I felt a little bad for placing this bit of duty on her, but I figured that standing up for herself and not wanting to kill anyone is better than anything Clara or Pixie would be able to do.

“Akito and Kualin, you guys will take point since you’re the biggest and Milik, you can flank Kualin while I follow behind Akito. Just watch each other’s backs. Don’t let anything happen to each other. Fighting as a smaller unit within larger groups is advantageous for us if they stay disorganized and even if they surround us, we’ve got this giant on our side. We’ll be fine,” I jokingly pointed towards Akito as I finished, but then I was struck by another possibility.

“But if they do surround us, then let’s break out and get our backs to the girls so that they’re not exposed to the other group. Agreed?” Everyone agreed with my game plan so now it was time to move on to the next pressing matter.

Holding up my hand to everyone so no one would speak, I say, “Status.” A golden window popped into existence in front of me and on it were words that I decided to read aloud, “Welcome, Alexander Taylor, to the Infinity Complex. This system will track your growth as you gain experience. The Infinity Complex has a broad range of functions such as allowing you to check your status, keeping inventory, keeping track of skills, and partying up. You need only say or think the words ‘status’, ‘inventory’, ‘skills’, and ‘party’ to access the Infinity Complex and to wave them out of existence to close them. The Infinity Complex has other uses which will only be revealed as you grow stronger. Only thoughts are necessary to interact with the Infinity Complex, but you may also use physical means to interact with the Infinity Complex.”

Milik started bouncing up and down in his seat with an excited look on his face and I couldn’t help but get caught up in it as well. “Dude, it’s like a freaking video game! This is so awesome!” I fervently nodded in agreement with his words while the girls were looking at us like we were fools.

Scratching the back of my head, I sheepishly say, “Well, let’s all check what we’ve got shall we?”

“Status,” rang around the room and my friends began to read their own iterations of what I’d read to them moments ago. On seconds, they started tapping away at invisible objects in midair and looked as if they were intensely reading information.

‘Status,’ I quietly thought. Sure enough, the golden window popped into existence except this time I got the real deal rather than a notice.

Title: Lord Sky’s Heir

Name: Alexander Taylor

Class: Sky Walker

Level: 6

HP: 160/160

MP: 100/100

STR: 13

VIT: 12

DEX: 15

INT: 20

WIS: 17

LUK: 11

POINTS: 25

MONEY: 47 USD

‘Hmmmm? What are these? This title and class? I know titles often give boosts to the stats and skills of a player, but how did I get it?’ Clicking on the title, a new screen popped up and I read the lines that popped up.

Title: Lord Sky’s Heir

Gods once raged across the multiverse battling one another. Among the top-tier gods was Lord Sky, the divine manipulator of all skies and the absolute controller over its elements. Lord Sky used his total control and complete manipulation of the air to decimate galaxies and send even the other seven top-tier gods fleeing. Lord Sky’s will lives on in you! Train hard to improve your mastery!

50% increase to air elemental attacks

50% increase to air elemental defenses

50% decrease to air element related skills

50% increase to DEX for control over air elemental skills

25% increase to INT for control over air elemental skills

25% increase to WIS for control over air elemental skills

I nearly fainted from the sight of the beautiful boosts that this title gave me. And from that last line of the description it gave me, it seemed as if there was a title even higher than this one. Waving my hand, the title description faded out of existence and I was left looking at my status again. There was, however, only one problem with this title and it was that I didn’t have any air elemental attacks or defenses to use!

‘Or do I? Skills!’

Another golden window popped up and this time, my eyes lit up at the three skills in the window, but it also raised another question. Where did I get these skills?

Guidance of the Wind (Passive) LV 1 EXP: 43.26%

An inherent quality passed down to Lord Sky’s heir. The wind is graceful and ever flowing. Learn to embrace it and your attacks will become swift and true.

50% increase to physical attack speed

35% increase to physical attack accuracy

Mana Affinity (Passive) LV 1 EXP: 0.00%

Mana is the energy all things, organic and inorganic, draw power from. Increase your control and sensitivity over this power and improve your state of enlightenment into the original energy. Your senses have been attuned to recognize, feel, and see mana.

10% increase to Mana Recovery Rate

5% increase in total MP

5% increase in Magic Attack

5% increase in Magic Defense

25% increase to MP related skills

Air Manipulation (Active & Passive) LV 1 EXP: 22.49%

To embrace the nature of air is one of mankind’s greatest wishes. You have the power to embrace and form the air into various useful constructs. Skill grows as long as user is in contact with air, but grows quicker when air is used.

Avoiding the darkness in my vision to avoid fainting from seeing these amazing skills, I turned to look at what everyone else was doing—they were all intently staring off into empty space and I could only assume they were still reading things and getting used to the Infinity Complex. Waving my hand, the skills box and status screen disappeared from existence.

“Hey guys, what level are you all?” I asked, slightly perplexed with my own status. “I’m a level six and I think I know why, but I’m trying to confirm…”

“We’re level one,” Pixie gestured to herself, Clara, and Izzy.

“I’m a level three,” Akito responded.

“Three as well, bro” Kualin chimed after Akito.

“I’m a level two,” Milik said with a sigh.

“Oh, I’m a level two as well,” Kyra finished as her green eyes flashed towards Milik.

“Okay, well, Pixie, Clara, and Izzy, were you guys in contact with the monsters at all when they invaded a month ago?”

They all said no in response to my question and then I gestured to Akito, Kualin, Kyra, and Milik. “How about you all?”

“Briefly. I had to fight one off of me.” Milik said in a chilled voice. Kyra said much the same thing as Milik did. She’d been out at a park before fighting one off and running back to her home.

“New York City was hit pretty hard and yeah, it was difficult to maneuver with all the damn monsters moving around so I had to bash a couple of them on my way to a relatively safe area,” was Kualin’s response to the question.

I nodded at all of them and caught Akito’s eye. “In Alaska, a lot of weird looking animals came into my city from unpopulated areas and started wreaking havoc in the construction site I worked in. Needless to say, I had to protect myself,” he was cracking his knuckles by the end of the sentence and I felt only slightly sorry for anybody, or monster for that matter, that received a punch from the hulking man.

“Okay, so it seems like the experience we gathered is correlated to the events from that day. Good stuff. Did everyone get five points for each level they raised?” I asked Akito, Kualin, Kyra, and Milik again. They all responded in the affirmative and I leaned back into the couch thinking about all the new information that had been engulfed by my brain in the past like half hour since waking up in the tower.

“Anyone know how much time we have left?” I asked everyone.

“About forty minutes,” was Pixie’s helpful response.

“Has everyone also got a class and title?” I asked my friends.

“Well, I have a class…no title though,” Izzy said to the agreement of everyone else except for Milik.

“I’ve got both too. My title is ‘Lord Darkness’ Heir’. It gives me a bunch of great buffs and whatnot. Super cool stuff,” Milik was again bouncing up and down next to me and I looked at him with a strange feeling of brotherhood in my heart.

“Did you click on the title?” I quickly asked Milik.

“Yeah, bro of course! It was talking about how this Lord Darkness dude was a top-tier god who vanquished enemies across the entire multiverse with his unrivaled domination over the darkness. I even checked my skills and I got one as his heir along with a darkness manipulation, but I’m fairly sure our marks signify which manipulation skill we get. This is so cool, bro!” He excitedly finished.

Honestly, I couldn’t help but agree with his words because this was really cool, but I didn’t want to burst his bubble by reminding him we’d be using our newfound strength to battle against and kill other humans soon…

“So what should we do with the points we have now?” Kyra asked us all. We all pondered over the thought for a moment, but then I had a brilliant idea.

“Oh! The Infinity Complex has some sort of party system, right? I’ve played some massive multiplayer online role playing games where a feature of the party was to be able to see each other’s health as well as point allotments in their stats. Why don’t we enter into a party, check each other’s stats and then come to a decision on how we should spend our points?” Getting nods of encouragement all around the room from my suggestion, I say, “Party.”

A golden window pops into existence before me with instructions laid out on it which I decide to read aloud, “This is your first time opening the ‘party’ window. To add members to the party, simply say their name mentally or aloud with the intention of welcoming them into your party. Party members may view each other’s statuses and share experience gained in battle. Party size is not limited in number.” Tapping the screen, the white words on the golden screen fade away and are replaced with a column of slots. At the top of the column is the word ‘NAME’ and above that was ‘PARTY NAME.’ This is a fairly simple system, but super interesting stuff…

Thinking on what a party invite would look like in a game, I say, “Invite Akito, Clara, Izzy, Kualin, Kyra, Milik, and Pixie…” Once I’d said that, everyone in the room showed a little look of astonishment and some even let out an ‘oh’ of surprise. They then tapped at an invisible screen in front of them and I saw the ‘NAME’ column filling up with my friends’ names until all eight of our names were listed. My name had a little black star next to it, which I assumed meant I was the party leader. It only made sense since I was the one who’d invited everyone.

“Should we change our party name?” I asked everyone in the room and Kualin’s eyes lit up at this.

“We should call ourselves ‘The Overgods,’” Kualin suggested to us all.

“Why that name? Doesn’t it seem a little pretentious?” Was Izzy’s response.

“I kind of like it. Sounds badass,” Milik excitedly said in agreement to Kualin’s suggestion.

“Yeah, I get it. The only being that could be stronger than an Overlord is an Overgod, right? And one day, we’ll be strong enough to release the hold that these bastards have over us and our planet,” was Kyra’s way of reasoning through it and Kualin only grinned in agreement.

Bringing my hand up to the screen, I tapped on the words, ‘PARTY NAME,’ and a small golden box popped up in front of me.

You are attempting to change the party name. What will be your new party name?

“The Overgods,” I said aloud and with a dinging noise, the golden box disappeared in a flash of light and in its wake, the party box was still up and I noticed with satisfaction that the party name had been changed and even the font of the text had changed. It had become more elegant and artsy to express the name.

With a delighted smile, I looked around at all my friends. The Overgods were in business.

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Author's Note: Alright, this is new to me so you guys give some suggestions on other people's skills and stats. Used 10-12 as an average value on stats. Please leave comments and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!