Fate.
The one thing even the gods cannot change.
Truly, it is the thing that allows only a select few, the most sacred individuals, to be touched by the Creator and elevated to a higher rank, granting them everything they desire.
The thing that brings everyone and everything into existence.
One of the three cornerstones that determines the laws of the Tower, or Aculon, and the thing that reflects people's reality.
But what if the Creator's power touched you, just as he touched those people, and allowed you to change your life with his own hands? What would you do then?
Perhaps you could have become wealthy.
You could have become one of the tower's leading merchants.
Perhaps you could have become a king, or even an emperor.
Perhaps you could have even found a chance to sit alongside the gods and goddesses.
Isn't that right?
There was someone else who had these thoughts. Someone who wanted to enter the miraculous tower and pass through the door between life and death, someone who wished to progress along this path while the spirits within these doors tried to pull him from one side to the other.
That person was Altair himself.
He was just one of eight billion people living on a planet that was still considered a baby within a newly born system of this galaxy, called Via Lactea, or the Milky Way, which was considered newly born by the gods and goddesses.
An ordinary man in a world at war.
He was a young man with a dream and the desire to live it.
He was just one of billions of people in this world, where the tower, Aculon, had taken root, who had a dream.
Exactly twenty years ago, on the first day of January, in the year 2010, the tower itself had suddenly appeared in different parts of the world.
Each of these towers had merged with the oceans and even the landmasses themselves.
On that day, everyone, from a newborn baby to the oldest living person, saw only one thing before them:
[Aculon is calling you!
How about joining this game where gods and goddesses, Titans and Titanesses come together?
Who knows, maybe you can become a warrior, maybe a knight, and be on your way to becoming a king. Or perhaps you can become a god or a goddess.
Everything depends entirely on you. All you have to do is go to that black tower, that thorn, and enter it, never to leave again.
You have been invited to this game; joining is entirely your choice.]
It was a strange image.
It was a warning device resembling a blue, semi-transparent game window with black frames... a notification window, one may say.
Upon seeing this, many people around the world sprang into action. Everyone seemed to have accepted entering a path from which there was truly no return.
Altair was born that day, on the first day of January.
A long time had passed, long enough for a baby to grow up and stand on its own two feet.
Twenty years exactly.
Today was the first day of January, but the year was 2030.
It was Altair's birthday. It was the day he would say goodbye to his old home, the orphanage, and enter the tower.
The young man was now ready. He would enter the tower, just as everyone had imagined, and realise his dream.
He would find his place at the very top.
That was why he had set off three days earlier, travelling to the tower closest to him, in the Newcastle area of northern England.
Upon arriving in the region, he had the chance to experience the tower's grandeur up close for the first time in his life.
Knowing that once he entered the tower, he would not be able to leave, he had sold his small possessions and prepared a small bag for himself.
Information about what exactly happened to those who entered rarely came out, but one piece of information that did come out was that it was a good idea to bring things from outside.
The young man had brought a high-quality hunting knife, two bottles of water, about a litre each, a few ready meals, and a large camping bag filled with a lighter, cotton wool for lighting fires, and similar items.
After completing certain formalities and obtaining the approval of the soldiers surrounding the tower, the young man finally managed to enter through the tower's barrier and waited in line for a while, like dozens of others around him.
When his turn came, he touched the door of the tower, Aculon. Upon doing so, a new system window opened before him for the first time:
[Do you really want to enter Aculon?]
Altair stared at this system window in front of him for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and said, "Yes."
As soon as he uttered this word, the system window in front of him instantly cracked and shattered into pieces within seconds, and Altair vanished from where he stood.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a white space. There was a table in front of him, a large, wide table, and on this table lay several dozen cards.
As Altair tried to understand what was happening, something called 'Skill Card Draw' appeared in front of the system window.
[Skill Card Draw
Welcome to Aculon!
This is the area where users will select two random abilities upon their first entry into the tower. There are exactly 84 cards on the table in front of you.
Of these cards, 3 are Godly, 5 are Holy, 6 are Legendary, 10 are Unique, 15 are Unusual, 20 are Rare, and 25 are Common grade cards.
Please select the first two abilities you will use in the tower. The grades of the cards will be invisible to the naked eye, so remember that everything depends on chance.
We wish you good luck.]
When Altair read the explanation written on this system window, he took a deep breath and then approached the table, but something was wrong.
As he approached the table, he saw small flashes of light, and these flashes began to grow brighter with each step he took.
When the young man finally stood in front of the table, he tilted his head and asked, "What?"
Each of the cards on the table glowed in a different colour.
Green, blue, purple, red, yellow, white, and black.
Seven colours in total.
Seven colours for the seven different grades, just as the system had said. It was really easy to understand.
The young man didn't wait even a second and began to distinguish the cards by colour with his eyes, confirming the theory he had just thought of.
He could indeed see the grades of the cards in front of him without turning them over, without selecting them.
It was unbelievable.
The young man could quite simply see the three black cards.
The three cards of Godly Grade.
He took another deep breath, feeling as if sweat was pouring from his head, but he didn't just wait; he thought he had to act.
After all, he knew he couldn't wait here forever.
So he went to the bottom of the table and then approached one of the three black cards, the one in the lower right corner of the table, grabbed it and turned it over.
With that, the card glowed intensely, the bright white room plunged into darkness for a few seconds, and then returned to its original colour. The card had vanished.
Altair realised he had made the right choice and immediately turned to the remaining two cards.
These cards were side by side, two of the cards in the third row from the bottom.
The young man did not want to make the wrong choice. Even though he did not understand what the cards were, he still did not want to choose the worst of these cards, which were the fewest in number.
So he swallowed hard and, without thinking twice, left everything to 'fate' and chose the card on the left from the two cards lying side by side.
The room darkened again and returned to its previous state, and at the same time, the table and the cards on it vanished in an instant, along with the cards Altair had chosen.
For a few seconds, nothing happened, and then two large system windows, appearing as two separate, elongated, jet-black cards, opened before the young man.
Altair smiled and then asked, "Well, what have I gained?"
As soon as he said this, words began to appear on the cards:
[I Choose My Own Career! (Godly+++++/Active)
One of the few abilities created by the Creator, the Supreme Chaos, with his own hands. An ability that ignores the rules of time, space, and fate, allowing only the chosen one to alter their own reality.
The user will now be able to choose another "career" based on their personal "stat" points every 10 levels gained.
The user will be passively loved by sacred beings. Each one will be able to sense Chaos's touch.]
[Dual Mastery (Godly+/Passive)
Thanks to this talent, the user will be able to train themselves within two power centres.
Aura and Magic will now be able to exist actively within the user's body without harming them.
The user is the only example of their kind in this regard, apart from sacred beings.]
Altair smiled at these system windows. Although he didn't know what the meaning of what he had just read was, it wasn't difficult to see that he was quite happy.
The young man was very happy to be in the tower, but to tell the truth, he would soon regret this choice very, very much.
He had waited almost ten minutes where he was. He didn't really know what would happen, but there was no way out of here.
The waiting time had jumped from twenty minutes to thirty minutes, and with that, another system window had opened in front of him.
Still, this system window... how should one put it... was a bit different... it was frightening:
[The user's selections have been detected!
The "Tutorial" difficulty is being adjusted based on the user's skill selections!
Based on the user's skills, "Hell Difficulty" has been granted to the user.
We wish you good luck, dear user Altair Moon.]