I was sitting on a rock, still trying to assess the situation.
Currently I was on a random beach with tons of people. The last thing I remember was falling asleep on my bed.
This was quite a worrysome situation, I already opted out that I was dreaming so I could only reach one conclusion.
I was kidnapped!
…Or thats what I would have thought if it wasn't for this tiny little message.
[Tutorial starting in 9:54]
As a novel enthusiast,this gave me a small idea of what could be happening.
A cliche used by apocalyptic light novels. Humanity awakens superpowers and takes on a tower or something similar.
My emotions were hard to describe, I could express it as a constant feeling of dread, like something I really don't want to happen is happening.
If this tutorial was really something akin to those novels I was screwed. Some insane people wish for the world to turn into a novel but I was not one of them.
[Tutorial starting in 8:12]
I looked around for a bit, I could see people from all ages gathered around.
I saw both men and women alike. I even saw a couple children around 10. All of them were speaking korean which made me think about the criteria of the people gathered around.
I sighed as my anticipation rose, everyone here was tense and wary, some small groups had already started to form.
"This situation really is weird". A tall boy around my age spoke to me.
I too was in a small group as humans are naturally social creatures and being alone in the unknown was't thrilling.
Minutes before I tried asking people if they saw the message I had gotten, but they only gave me strange looks.
[Tutorial starting in 5:31]
Being the only one able to see this was also worrysome, what exactly was that interface and who was showing it to me?
There was also a small conmotion over to my right, as a blonde girl was suddenly bleeding from her eyes, ears and mouth.
A couple people tried helping her as she was unable to stand up. What was even happening?
[Tutorial starting in 0:42]
As the timer went down my hands got sweaty, I wasn't religious but I prayed for this to actually be a good thing.
[Tutorial starting in 00:01]
Then, when the timer finally reached zero…
SWEEEESH!
The whole world was covered in gold as a wave shook the whole terrain. Suddenly I was unable to move my body as something surreal descended.
Fuck! Shit!
I cursed internally.
"Humans, the time has come. All barriers have been shattered and your sheltered lifes have ended".
I felt as if a river was flooding thorough my eyes. My mind stopped for a moment.
"We can't keep protecting you, but as pity, you have been granted a peek to the truth. To all of you, this will be the very first step to attain enlightenment".
As the light blinded my vision, I wasn't able to see the being above me, the more I focused my gaze the brighter the light was.
"You humans need to grow, just like when children learning to walk the first steps are always hard, but you mustn't give up".
I finally got a peek of it, but the only thing I could see was a winged silhouette with countless eyes shinibg brightly.
An angel?
" Your first task will be discovering the secret of this island, and as such, act accordingly . Remember that we will always be watching, may the gods be wih you".
The holy being scattered in a thousand particles as a single white feather fell from the sky. Coming with it, spears, swords and some food fell down.
"Haah…haa"
I tried to control my ragged breath as that interaction was too much for my mind to handle.
[Congratulations! The system has recognized you, Cassian Ardani as the hero!]
***
The chaos subsided a bit after a while and everyone started chatting with each other.
Another thing that changed was that everyone got a status window.
I determined that the status window appearance was determined by the idea you had of it.
Me and those acostumed to reading light novels got a typical floating panel, everyone with different designs.
But people who did not know about ghis trope had their unique status window, some got mirrors and some got books.
To be more precise, I believed the status window read the mind of the user and tweaked it's appearance into what the user thinks to be an appropriate medium to see oneself's stats.
The status window being inside my mind was weirdly ominous but I couldn't make it leave so I checked it again.
'status window'.
Identity
[User: Cassian Ardani
Age: 17
Race:Human
Titles: Student]
Progression
[Lvl : 1
Existe?ce rank: f-[ERROR]
Floor: 0]
St?ts
[ERROR]
[STATUS WINDOW CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE]
>Reloading( 0%~~~0.0%)<
It showed this for some time and I seemed the only one having that problem. Also the reloading bar hadn't increased at all.
Another weird thing was that I had another system, every time I opened my status window it showed a golden panel with intrinsicate runes and decorations, but at the side of it there was a differet panel.
It had an old-fashioned weird style, clearly something designed by someone else. It reminded me of older OS interfaces.
{Hero system}
Greetings! You have entered the tower, and with it your strugles begin. To prove you're worthy clear the 0th floor and more system functions will be unlocked!
*[Quest: clear the 0th floor]
(Reward: unlock systen features )
My situation wasn't ideal, not being able to use the status window and my special system not doing anything weren't good signs for me.
Some people from the group I was in confidently strode forward towards the pile of weapons, grabbing bows, daggers, swords and others.
It bringed the attention of the whole 100 people on the beach as everyone looked at them.
A girl stood in front of the pile of weapons. I remembered her from before, she had an A rank trait called [Golden eyes] , the moment she told the group her trait everyone silently agreed to make her the leader. From what I gathered, almost no one had a skill and the main thing they had were shitty traits between F~D rank.
"Everyone! I know this situation is surreal but we must stay calm".
Her voice resonated as tens of eyes stared at her.
"I suggest we get organized and share what we know with each other, that bright being has given us some weapons and food so there's surely something danger in this island".
Her eyes glowed and she then proceded to use a bow to fire two arrows, the first one hit cleanly a tree and the second one impaled the first, it was quite impressive as the tree was far away.
"As you can see, some of us have been given a talent, mine improves my sight greatly, I know all of this sounds fantastical but I beg you to believe me".
So she has chosen to put herself at the center and guide the group, for a tutorial the info they have given us is close to zero making this first stage more of a survival test.
The short haired girl explained the concept of status window and some narrarive tropes like transmigration and such.
The vibe softened as people from all ages chatted with one another. I expected more conflict to chose who's group to follow as there was another group of rough-looking people, but it seemed they were to shocked to act yet.
What was I doing? Currently I was chatting with the short-haired girl's group as we were all quite young and below 30.
Another reason was that the short-haired girl seemed to be the strongest at the moment so being with her was quite assuring.
Soon it was settled that my group would explore the island for a bit, so we grabbed weapons and headed towards the jungle.
I uneasily grabbed my spear as I looked back at the beach.
Something that has been bothering me for a while was the blonde girl.
Since the moment we arrived here she has been unnaturally bleeding for apparently no reason. And right after the angel appeared she hasn't stopped staring at me.
Staring back at her, her lips twitched slightly.
Seriously, what's wrong?