Chapter 17: Chapter 17 The Trick Tower
*Author's Note*
To answer most questions about Level, Skill, and Power comparisons, providing that is HK-47's job. Potential Max Class Stats are going off the highest registered value from all source materials, not the slowed down stuff we've seen in live-action movies, but closer to Star Wars Visons. Relatively speaking, the Players train 5~10x faster than normal depending on their dedication, resources, and Easy Masteries. So Rayleigh fights like a 25~30-year-old Jedi, but many Jedi are Padawans until their late 20s, so that doesn't mean he is all powerful. Don't compare the sitting ducks killed via Order 66 with standard Jedi. The Clone Wars HEAVILY weakened the Jedi, and just about every Live Action Jedi fight was nerfed because actors can't move that fast.
Also, just because Rayleigh left the Star Wars world, doesn't mean he's not coming back. For Hunter X Hunter, One Piece, and Star Wars, the MCs are all different ages when the good stuff happens, so there isn't a problem with checking them all before hitting the MCU. MC won't be a Straw Hat though, but will be at the Summit War of Marineford and take part in the Clone Wars.
Don't mind the rivalry between Players. The only real thing they have against each other is that only one can get the grand prize. If a Player isn't aiming for the Grand Prize, then he can do whatever. The only story that will be told will be Rayleigh's. There will be no switching to another POV unless that person is interacting with Rayleigh. And the Tavern is not Evil. They sneaky, but not devil sneaky. More like Home Room Teacher springing a pop quiz sneaky.
And finally, to those peeved at the lack of Metaknowledge, don't be. The Force is the Ultimate Plot Armor and even without Metaknowledge, it will ensure all the nice things happen to my MC as long as he stays in Balance. At max level the Force is weaker than many power systems, but only the Force has built-in Plot Armor which is why my MC has it as his main class.
Chapter 17 The Trick Tower
As Rayleigh suspected, the blimp's speed slowed to the point where it took an additional three hours to arrive. Gon woke up refreshed, and Rayleigh's meditation functioned the same as sleep, allowing him to fully recover.
The blimp seemed to reach almost the other side of the continent, and at its edge was a towering plateau. On top of that plateau was a stone tower larger than any building Rayleigh had ever seen and wider than the downtown area of most cities.
The blimp landed on the very top, where it opened and asked all the participants to walk out to the top of the tower. Those observant enough to see from edge to edge confirmed that the top of the tower was completely devoid of anything but an irregularly assembled stone floor.
Once everyone gathered together outside the blimp, the bean-head man announced, "You are here at the Trick Tower. It's here that the third trial round will take place. Concerning the trial itself, here are the Jury's orders. Within a 72-hour time period, you'll need to get to the bottom of this tower. Alive of course. The trial begins the moment we have left. Good Luck."
And with that, the bean and the other non-participants returned to the blimp and took off, starting the timer for the trial.
Rayleigh and a number of others walked to the side of the tower and confirmed the coarse stone walls. One of the more confident examinees immediately dropped down and began descending.
Killua stood next to Gon and Rayleigh, watching the man go, and seemed impressed.
Ray said, "If the rough surface smooths out halfway down, wouldn't he have to climb back up?"
Gon asked, "You think that could happen?"
"Normally, no. But this is called Trick Tower, right?"
Killua remarked, "We'll know if he comes back up in an hour or so, right?"
Gon pointed towards the distance and said, "Umm, look."
Leorio and Kurapika came over, and everyone saw the giant harpy-looking monsters attack the climber and tear his limbs to pieces.
Ray considered jumping down, landing on a harpy, and using it to coast down to the ground, but something told him that wouldn't work, so he'd leave that until he didn't have a better option.
Thankfully, Ray, Gon, and Killua spotted a few participants falling through some trap doors. They checked each, but they were locked after the person fell through. An examination of another area revealed a few more trap doors that hadn't been used yet. The trio shared a look and figured this was where they would be separated, but decided to tell Leorio and Kurapika first.
Gon ran up to the pair first and said, "We found a way to go down, but there's a problem. We don't know which door to use."
The pair were taken over to where the trio found five trap doors and pointed them out for Leorio and Kurapika to check out.
Leorio stated, "Five doors. Each one is close to the other. I don't like this."
Kurapika pointed out, "There are probably some that are traps."
Rayleigh countered, "No, I don't feel any danger from any of them."
Gon said, "Each door locks after someone uses it."
Killua added, "And each only had enough room for one person to pass through. That means everyone has to enter through a different trap door."
Leorio tested the one close by and confirmed, "It does look the right size for the passage of only one person."
Rayleigh said, "There's no point in delaying, so let's just pick a door."
Killua added, "We already decided to try them out."
Gon nodded, "Even if it's a trap, no regrets!"
Rayleigh asked Kurapika and Leorio, "What about you?"
Leorio answered, "It's ok. I've been told I'm a lucky guy before."
Kurapika asked, "How will we choose which door to go through?"
It was then that a rock-paper-scissors tournament started atop the Trick Tower.
Gon won first place, and Killua defeated Rayleigh with a grin and got second. Leorio somehow got third, and Ray got fourth, with Kurapika getting last. The latter looked at his hand with disappointment, as if he was upset that it had failed him.
After everyone picked a trap door, Kurapika said, "We all go at three. Our roads split here."
Leorio said, "See you again at the bottom."
And with a count of three, everyone stepped on the panel and slid down below.
And then they saw each other again in the same room.
Killua and Gon shared an awkward look.
Rayleigh chuckled and checked out the room as Leorio stated the obvious, "All the doors ended up in the same room!"
At one end of the room was a stone pillar beneath a sign. The pillar had a pile of bracelets on top and the sign said, [Choice of the Way by the Majority. For the Five candidates, you'll have to reach your goal by following the majority's choice.]
Leorio put on the bracelet first and said, "It has two buttons on it, O and X."
Gon said, "We're lucky we already have five here."
Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before quickly turning to Rayleigh, "Hey, is that what you meant?"
"Huh? Meant what?"
Killua turned to Gon and said, "When Ray said you can go back to help Leorio and Kurapika, I asked why he let you go when Hisoka was too dangerous. Ray said he could see into the future, and that if you didn't go back, Leorio and Kurapika would not have made it through the fog in time and we would have failed the third round."
Everyone looked at Ray, who remembered telling Killua about that Shatterpoint and said, "Oh yeah. I guess this would be the reason for that."
Gon shouted, "Woah! Cool!"
Kurapika asked, "You can see into the future?"
Leorio enthusiastically asked, "Do you know what the winning lottery numbers are?!"
Rayleigh smiled awkwardly and said, "I can't choose what I see, so don't ask about the future."
Kurapika and Gon accepted it easily, while Leorio sighed. Everyone put on the bracelets, which caused a speaker on the wall to give an automated message.
[All right. This Tower contains numerous Passages. Each one has its own crossways. You can only move forward by following the majority's choice. It's impossible to pass if the choice comes from only one guy. The difficulty is that cooperating is the essential condition. On that note, just fight well.]
The wall under the speaker then slid up, revealing the door.
The door itself had a message on it.
[O to Open. X to Not Open]
Everyone read the message and hit the O button on their bracelet, which caused the door to open.
The first step into the passage, though, immediately gave the choice of Left and Right.
Before anyone could press their buttons, Rayleigh said, "Give me a moment, I'll check ahead."
Rayleigh then sat down and closed his eyes. Clairvoyance didn't let him see through walls, but the left and right options were only barred gates, allowing his perception to easily pass through and explore the nearby area. After mapping it out a bit, Rayleigh said, "They go the same way, but the right one is slightly longer."
Rather than pushing their buttons, they all just stared at Rayleigh. Kurapika was the first to break the silence, "What else can you do?"
Not caring to hide it, Rayleigh listed off, "Clairvoyance, through not through anything solid. Telekinesis, limited precognition, empathy, temperature resistance, sound muffling, speed, sense, and strength enhancement, though not at once; stealth, psychometry, and material destruction."
Leorio understandably remarked, "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU LEARN HOW TO DO ALL THAT?!"
Rayleigh shrugged, "I grew up in a very strange environment. Not everyone can do it though, so don't ask me to teach you."
Kurapika didn't outwardly react, instead he seemed to be analyzing their options. He asked, "How strong is that material destruction?"
Rayleigh replied, "Well, given enough time, I can destroy stone or steel walls. Some things are harder to destroy, and I can't use it on people like the Hunter Chairman."
Killua asked, "Wait, you can use it on people?"
"Yeah, but unless I think they can survive it or they are someone who will stop at nothing to kill me, I doubt I'll ever use it on a person."
Killua added, "And he has a laser sword that can go through stone like cardboard."
That incited another look. Rayleigh shrugged, took out his lightsaber, and cut through the bars leading to the path on the left, before disengaging it and returning it to his side.
Choosing not to bother with the buttons, the group just walked through the melted bars and headed down a few flights of stairs before reaching an open area with a stage in the middle over a seemingly bottomless pit.
On the other end of the stage was a group of hooded figures.
One of them removed his hood and stepped forward. Some cuffs on his wrists unlocked themselves, and the man shouted from his side, "We are the jurors for the trial. Our mission is to fight you. The matches are one on one, and everyone can only fight once. You can fight in any order. You'll have to get three victories if you want to pass. The rules are simple, everything is allowed!!! There is no limit, the defeat of one means the victory of the other. You have to choose if you will accept the trial or not. O if you accept, or X if you refuse."
Rayleigh said, "The other way leads here too, just a longer path. No way forward except past them."
Hearing this, everyone chose O.
The one without the cuffs shouted, "Okay, I'm the first one out. Choose who will fight me."
Rayleigh stepped forward and said, "Dibs on first," before Killua or Gon could react.
Gon quickly said, "Dibs!" almost at the same time Killua did, but was an instant faster, causing Gon to go second and Killua to go third.
A platform extended out from their end of the wall and to the stage. From the speaker, an announcer said, "Only the Fighter may step forward."
Rayleigh got a good look at his opponent. Bald, scarred, and built like a soldier. They stepped on the stage at the same time, and the man stated, "I propose a fight to the death or until the fighter says he gives up."
Rayleigh shook his head, "Sorry, I'm a pacifist. I don't kill if I don't have to."
This took the man off guard, who then asked, "Then what do you propose? I won't accept a game of tag or a chess match."
Rayleigh couldn't exactly hear the man's thoughts, but the intention of dragging the match on as long as possible was clearly seen in the man's eyes.
Rayleigh suggested, "The match will be Ring Out. The fight continues as long as both of us are inside the ring. You cannot kill your opponent, but you cannot surrender either."
The scarred man raised an eyebrow and looked over the edge of the stage. A ring out meant death. He asked, "Are you sure you're a pacifist?"
"What, you don't agree?"
"Hehe, I accept your determination."
The man got into a stance and charged forward, "Let's Go!"
Rayleigh charged forward even faster. The man attempted to grab Rayleigh, but the monkey-child evaded and passed the soldier by.
The moment he did so, Rayleigh also grabbed the man by his arm and spun the man around twice before tossing him over the edge of the area. Back over to the platform where the other cloaked figures stood.
Rayleigh smiled and said, "Ring out. You lose."
Gon and Killua cheered, and Kurapika and Leorio only seemed mildly impressed, considering what Rayleigh told them about his abilities earlier.
The bridge was extended again and Rayleigh returned to the group. He asked, "Killua, you saw it too, right?"
Killua nodded, "That guy was a grappler. He was aiming to pin and hold you down all the way until our time passed."
Kurapika picked up on what they were saying, "You mean they care more about keeping us here than their victories?"
Leorio added, "That is tricky."
The next person up was a hulking figure. He removed his cloak and revealed a disgusting, Frankenstein-like appearance.
He walked onto the stage and met Gon. The large brutish man said, "I killed nineteen people before I was caught, but that's a terrible number. With you, I'll have an even twenty, so why don't we make this a fight to the death? Though if you beg for mercy, I'll let you live if you admit defeat. What do you say?"
Gon replied, "Alright."
This actually seemed to stun the man. He continued, "But I'm a bit hard of hearing. Even if you admit defeat, I can't guarantee I'll stop hitting you."
Gon nodded back, "Sure, no problem."
The man lowered his head and tried to release a creepy laugh, but it came off oddly strained and awkward. The announcer stated through the speaker, "Let the Match begin!"
Gon circled him with a bit of caution, observing him like an animal.
Leorio asked, "Do you think Gon stands a chance?"
Rayleigh and Killua shared a look. They both suppressed their smiles and tried not to laugh. This guy had no feeling of danger at all.
Seeing how cautious Gon was being, the misshapen fighter jumped into the air and slammed his fist into the stage. The ground cracked and shattered rock spread around.
Rayleigh flinched, but not at the attack. Being empathic wasn't always a good thing. Rayleigh could practically feel the pain that the man's idiodic showboating inflicted on him, and it almost made Rayleigh's hand hurt.
When the man retrieved his fist, he turned and showed his back to everyone. There was a twelve-legged black spider tattoo on the right side of his back.
Thanks to the local knowledge Rayleigh gained when he came to this world, he knew that was a mark of the Phantom Troupe, a notorious group of thieves and murderers.
Revealing the tattoo and recovering from the reckless ground smash left him completely open, and Gon, apparently not caring about the tattoo in the slightest, used the opening to smash the guy's face in and knock him to the ground.
The man panicked and shouted through broken teeth, "What are you doing?! I am Majitani, a member of the Phantom Troupe! You better give-"
Gon smashed his face again.
On the side of the spectators, Rayleigh could not have noticed Kurapika's mood change more if the man had set himself on fire.
Rayleigh asked, "Anything you want to share with the class, Kurapika?"
Kurapika's eyes had actually changed color from how angry he was. Leorio answered for him, "Kurapika said that the Phantom Troupe killed his clan."
Rayleigh asked, "What does it have to do with this guy?"
Leorio asked, "What do you mean? He had the tattoo!"
Gon had already finished pounding the man's face in and was starting on his ribs.
Killua said, "That guy's a phoney."
"I GIVE UP ALREADY! MAKE IT STOP!"
Gon then jumped back and realized he may have hit the guy a little too hard.
Rayleigh shouted, "Gon, that guy was only pretending to be strong."
Gon looked over him again and said awkwardly, "Oh." He then bowed to the remains of the man he pulverized and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were strong and got too excited." When he saw the man's punch, he mentally adjusted himself to fighting someone capable of doing so.
As Gon returned, the announcer said, "Not a single victory. And it's only been five minutes! You better win this next one!"
Killua stopped out, and from the back of the other side, another hooded figure stepped up.
Leorio comfortingly said to Killua, "Don't worry. It's okay even if you lose."
Killua looked at Ray and said, "He is really starting to irritate me."
He looked back over to Leorio and said, "You're actually giving up on me without even seeing the other guy?"
Leorio said, "Well, you're right. Some of those guys really don't look that strong."
The new arrival stepped onto the stage, and Leorio took a good look at him before taking a step back.
Gon noticed this and asked, "You know him?"
Leorio gulped and turned to Killua. "Just give up the match. You can't fight that guy. He's the most prolific serial killer in the history of Zaban! He's killed over a hundred and forty people. None, none of them were found in less than fifty pieces! Some were even cut into over a thousand pieces! And, that's not all! He, he doesn't use any weapons. He tore his victims to pieces.. With his bare Hands!"
The more Leorio described him, the more he started to stutter. The fear he felt for the man was palpable.
Killua's eyes hardened at the man's lengthy introduction. One look at the guy and no one had to ask if Leorio's words were true. To those sensitive to such things, you could almost see an aura of blood covering the man's fingers and hands.
Killua stepped forward, and Leorio tried to stop him, but Gon and Rayleigh blocked him, allowing him to go forward.
Leorio asked, "Why didn't you stop him?! He's your friend, right?!"
Rayleigh nodded back, "He'll be fine."
That caught Leorio off guard. Since Rayleigh claimed earlier he could use precognition, they could assign a bit of truth to his claim.
Killua stepped onto the stage and politely asked, "How do you want to fight?"
The serial killer replied, "Fight? This won't be a fight. I don't care about this exam or anything. All I want is to touch flesh. To feel the sensation of tearing flesh, shredding flesh, and crushing flesh beneath my fingers. As for you? All you have to do is scream."
Killua looked unperturbed and asked, "So, you think it's better to die than to lose?"
"Yes, and you're gonna-"
Killua vanished in front of him and appeared behind him. His speed was not a single step slower than Rayleigh's fastest Force Enhanced speed.
The killer felt a pang of cold coming from his chest and saw the blood dripping down his shirt. He turned to see Killua, standing there, holding his slowly beating heart in his grasp.
The man realized what had happened. He stepped forward, "That's mine, give, give it back!"
Killua smiled cruelly and crushed the heart in his grasp. The man's strength ran out before he made it more than a few steps, and he fell to the ground, never to get up again.
Neither Kurapika nor Leorio had suspected such an outcome.
Leorio asked, "Who is he?"
Rayleigh answered, "Killua is a prodigy born from a family of Assassins."
Killua turned to the other side of the area and said, "Three to zero. I suppose with this, we can go, right?"
The man Rayleigh defeated earlier answered hesitantly, "Yeah, sure. No problem."
The group walked over to the stage, and Killua asked Ray, "Is it alright that I killed him?"
Ray didn't know what he meant for a moment, then he remembered that he didn't kill his own opponent.
Rayleigh shook his head and replied, "I'm a pacifist, not a pussy. Who you kill is your business. Besides, I can't say I would have spared that guy either."
Killua nodded. He had entered Assassin Mode without thinking and didn't know how someone who called himself a pacifist would react to a killer.
Rayleigh honestly didn't care. He didn't kill if he could avoid it for two reasons. One, this wasn't a game, so no EXP for kills. Two, the Force didn't like it when he killed while connected to it. He would have to figure out how to cut his connection completely from the Force at some point if he wanted to do things the Force would react poorly to in case he ran into more guys like that serial killer in the future. If he killed someone without being connected to the Force, it wouldn't care when he reconnected. Best of both worlds.
On the way through the next room, Kurapika asked, "How did you do that?"
Killua showed his ability to retract the skin on his fingers to make his nails seem to grow into claws. According to Killua, "My parents are much more skilled than I am. If they ripped out his heart, the wound wouldn't have bled."
Rayleigh nodded, "That's cool."
Leorio gave him a weird look and asked, "Are you sure you're a pacifist?"
Rayleigh shrugged.
They came to another split, with an option to go upstairs or downstairs. Rayleigh sat down again and closed his eyes. His passive clairvoyance worked regardless, but he couldn't see further than a few dozen meters unless he properly meditated.
After a minute, Rayleigh said, "Upstairs circles around. Downstairs is better."
The group voted downstairs and headed further into the tower.
The group went through room after room and choice after choice.
Some rooms included traps they had to run away from, like an Indiana Jones style boulder speeding down a sloped corridor.
There was a quiz room that didn't allow one to get through without answering 100 Questions correctly. Rayleigh used his Lightsaber on the room's door.
There was a giant labyrinth, but Rayleigh used Shatterpoint on the wall closest to the exit.
Any room that was just a waste of time, like winning at Go, elaborate puzzles, or choices which were obviously traps, were passed with a Lightsaber or brute Force.
The current room they were in said they could chose a door that would lead to the exit in three minutes. The other door would take forty-five hours.
It had been about five hours since they started, so if they really wanted to, they could pass the forty-five-hour door and still make it with plenty of time to spare.
For the three-minute door, it would only open if two members were bound to some chains on the wall.
At this choice, everyone looked at Rayleigh, who was already taking out his lightsaber. With a slow plunge, he started burning open the door for the shortcut.
Leorio commented, "I got to admit, isn't this cheating?"
Gon answered, "The Trial was just to make it to the bottom."
Killua nodded, "Yeah, if that guy who tried climbing down made it, would that be cheating?"
Rayleigh himself stated, "If I really wanted to cheat, I'd just keep smashing the floor till we reached the bottom."
Every room had a camera, and the man watching their room was grinding his teeth. They were technically correct. There weren't any real rules. Just make it to the bottom alive.
After burning through the door and waiting a bit for the melted metal to cool down a bit, they entered the passage and found a sled. The problem? The sled only had room for three people.
Killua got out his skateboard and said, "Ray. You and Gon can share a seat. I'll ride in the back."
Ray and Gon shared a look and nodded. They got into the same seat and snugly fit next to each other, while Kurapika and Leorio got into the other seats. They pushed the sled towards a ramp, and Killua got on his skateboard and held onto the back of the sled as it started sliding down.
Rayleigh and Gon both raised their hands in the air as the slope descended almost vertically at a frightening speed. The path then sharply turned and twisted in what ended up being an exhilarating rollercoaster-like experience.
After a few minutes of blindingly fast speed, the path leveled out and the sled slowed down before coming to a stop. Everyone looked back and confirmed that Killua was still there and smiled.
The room only had one path, and after a final choice door, they entered a completely empty but massive room filled with doors.
An announcer said through the speakers, "Third Round, first to arrive. #58 Rayleigh, #99 Killua, #403 Leorio, #404 Kurapika, #405 Gon. Time used: 4 hours, 53 minutes."
With that announcement, everyone cheered. Now they just have to wait 67 hours for everyone else to show up.
*Author's Note*
Do remember to leave reviews about what you liked. I read each and every one.
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