บท 1: Pilot
3…2…1… Happy New Year!!!!
The date was January 1st, 2024, and the world found itself in a grip of tension unlike any typical New Year's celebration.
Normally, the start of a new year was a time for joy, parties, and looking forward to the future. But this wasn't any normal year; it was a leap year, and in this world, that meant trouble.
Leap years had come to be dreaded because they were the signal that it was time for the next big monster outbreak.
The idea of a leap year as just an extra day in February had almost been forgotten. Now, most people didn't even call it a leap year and Riva seemed to be the only person who remembered the old meaning.
To everyone else, a leap year was known as the 'Year of Death' or 'The Year of the Grim Reaper' because, throughout history, the scariest and most dangerous monster outbreaks from the Tower Of Ascension always happened during leap years.
This pattern was something everyone knew and feared. It had been this way for as long as people could remember and ever since the first records of humans and monsters existed.
The history of this parallel Earth differed greatly from the history of modern Earth as Riva remembered it, however, one day seemingly out of nowhere, the world around her, its history, the common vocabulary and many such things changed overnight with her being the only individual who still remembered the world order of the old.
At first she questioned whether or not she had gone insane, whether she was hallucinating about the past that never was, or whether she had been transmigrated to another world?
However, the answers to all those questions were unfortunately a resounding 'No'.
She had been chosen by one of the most powerful gods of the tower of ascension, the great god 'Gemini' to be his champion and although she did not know why and she did not know how, there seemed to be a dormant voice inside of her that seemed to be counting down to 0.
"Show system screen" Riva said as a blue countdown screen displayed itself before her.
[ Time until the system successfully binds itself to the host 00y:23h:59m:56s ]
The first time she got it, this notification was set for a 10 years long countdown, however, now the dashboard was down to a mere 23 hours 59 minutes, which meant that by this time tomorrow Riva would have successfully bound herself with the system.
"One day left…" Riva said as she let out a deep sigh, before she closed down her system screen and opened her mobile screen instead.
"Hey, Gaia, please call Rocky" Riva instructed her mobile phone's A.I. as it recognised her voice and connected a call to her brother's mobile phone.
*Brrrr*
*Brrrr*
The dialer tone rang for a few seconds, but nobody picked up as Riva could not help but feel worried about her brother.
In this world, the most famous individuals who were respected world-wide were not the sportsmen or actors.
In this world the people who went on to become politicians or policymakers were not rich merchants or social workers.
In this world, every child's first dream was not to become an astronaut, it was instead to be chosen by the Tower Of Ascension, for everyone wanted to be a 'Climber'.
A climber was a celebrity in this world, a first rate citizen while everyone else was second class.
A climber was the title given to those who were chosen by the Tower Of Ascension as beings who were eligible to enter its grounds and challenge its various dungeons.
While for women they were chosen between ages 16-20, for men the age bracket was 18-22.
Till this day, nobody understood how the tower selected a climber, however, everyone wanted to be one as even the weakest climber usually went on to become an individual with unimaginable wealth, supreme strength and better health when compared to an average human.
Unfortunately, only one in ten individuals were chosen to be a climber, meaning most kids who dreamed to become one never actually did.
Rocky seemed to be obsessed with becoming one and since he was coming of age soon, his time to be chosen or not chosen as a climber was approaching.
1st January 2024 was his Birthday and at around midday today Rocky was officially going to turn 18, which was a big deal for him since most climbers who were chosen by the tower were usually chosen the very first day they turned of age.
Riva was also one such climber.
Currently 20, she was labeled the 'Brightest prospect of GenZ' and had managed to raise herself up to the position of 'Core member' within the True Elites guild.
She had unbelievable fame, unheard talent and millions of fans worldwide, however, for her none of that mattered, for it was vengeance on a certain someone that she seeked the most.
*Brrr*
*Brrr*
"Hello?" Rocky said from the other side of the phone as Riva immediately sighed in relief.
"Hello-, Rocky, are you okay?" Riva asked as she bit her lower lip, knowing full well that her fame made her brother a target of unwanted attention.
"Yeah, I'm okay, what would happen to me?" Rocky answered back sounding annoyed as Riva could hear the news channels monitoring the tower outbreak playing on the TV in his background.
"Why are you not home yet? You know that your curfew is at 12, don't you? Do you want me to ground you?" Riva said in an angry voice as in the absence of their dead parents it was her who had taken up the mantle of raising her orphaned little brother.
"Jeez, chill out, you're 20-, it's new years, get a boyfriend and open a bottle of wine. Also, I have legally turned 18 today, so you are no longer my guardian. I will do whatever pleases me from this day forward" Rocky said in a condescending tone as he acted completely like the spoiled brat that he was.
"Oh no, you're not talking back to me young man, I want you back within this house in 15 minutes or you shall have it!
You understand Rocky?
H-
How did you get in here? Who the hell are you?" Riva said over the phone as her voice turned from angry to nervous in an instant as Rocky who heard it all over the phone panicked as well.
*Crash*
The phone dropped from Riva's hand, hitting the ground below as Rocky heard her screaming and struggling in the background.
" RIVA! SISTER, ARE YOU OKAY? HELLO? HELLO?" Rocky screamed over the phone as he dashed out of the friends house that he was currently at and ran barefoot towards his apartment.
His heart rate shot through the roof as he panicked that something unfortunate might be happening to his sister.
He was only a five minutes walk away from his house and since he was sprinting back, the time he would take to reach back was bound to be even lesser.
However, right as he entered the vicinity of his home a loud explosion over the phone made him accidentally drop his mobile.
*KABOOM*
Rocky watched in horror as his apartment went up in flames, with glass shattering and fire enveloping everything within.
"NOOOO-" Rocky shouted, as he feared for his sister's life.
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Raj_Shah_7152 New Book, New Adventure, Lets go!!!
บท 2: Abduction
(True Elite Guild Headquarters, The Upside)
Rocky shivered uncontrollably as he could not get a grip on his emotions.
First responders had arrived pretty quickly at the blast site, and so had some climbers from the True Elite Guild that his sister was a part of.
The firefighters did not let Rocky near the flaming apartment; however, they searched every last room of the apartment for any sign of Riva or her dead body but found no traces of life.
Whether it be unfortunately or fortunately, they found no signs of any dead body within the apartment, as Riva was declared to be missing.
The climbers from the True Elite Guild, who were apparently Riva's team members, juniors, and superiors, searched the house for any sign of forced entry or struggle. However, despite using detection spells and advanced tower technology, the blast seemed to have reduced the entire apartment to ashes, and even if there were signs left behind by the intruder, they seemed to be incinerated by the fire.
Among the climbers that had come to the blast site, Rocky knew one 'Uncle Joe' really well as he was the second in command in Riva's raid party and was someone whom his sister trusted a lot.
It was to this Uncle Joe to whom Rocky revealed everything he knew about today's accident, and it was he who escorted Rocky from the blast site to the True Elite Guild headquarters for his own safety.
Although Rocky protested a lot, saying that he wished to search for his sister on his own, Joe firmly denied his demands and forcefully brought him to the guild headquarters for a meeting with the guildmaster.
*********
(The guildmaster's office)
Rocky shivered as he constantly worried about the state that his sister was in as although he did not vocally express it much, his sister actually meant the world to him.
Their parents were normal middle-class people who were not chosen to be climbers.
Their father was a financial consultant, and their mother was an orthopaedic doctor as the Yadav family of four was a small and happy unit.
Two years ago, just a day or two after Riva turned 18, their mother and father died suddenly in a car accident as Rocky and Riva were orphaned overnight.
It was on this very day when Riva got the news that their parents had died, that she awakened as a climber and the life of the brother and sister suddenly changed overnight.
After their parents' untimely death, Riva took up the financial mantle of the family and looked after Rocky's every need while also making a name for herself as a rookie climber.
She was a prodigy, a rising star, and someone who uplifted the Yadav family from middle class to urban elite in a short time.
For Rocky, she was his only family still alive, and Rocky was ready to go to hell and back if it meant that he could save her. However, unfortunately, the incident surrounding Riva was climber related, and he was not qualified enough yet to interfere.
"Man, Joe, I told Riva to move into the upside, man. We have an apartment for her here.
It would have been safer for her here, man, however, just because she did not want her little brother to go through a stressful high school change, she kept declining the apartment.
Fuck, man."
"Hey, bunny, keep your voice down, man. That kid is sitting right inside the guildmaster's office; he may hear you," Joe said as Rocky heard everything the two talked about outside.
Rocky and Riva used to live on the 42nd floor of a high-end luxurious apartment, and the area they lived in was by no means a district full of crime or problems.
They lived amongst really wealthy families who had a considerable influence over the local administration; however, the upside was undoubtedly in a league of its own.
A fortified mini-township where only mega billionaires and the most important climbers of the country lived, the upside was a residential area where buying a house needed more than just mere money.
It was Rocky's dream to buy a house there someday after he became a climber; however, he had no idea that his sister had already gotten an offer to buy an apartment there.
The fact that she declined a life of luxury just because he would not have to go through the stress of changing schools made Rocky feel even more emotional as he was reminded of just how kind and noble his sister was.
*SWOOSH*
Rocky was surprised when the office door suddenly flung open, and a tall and handsome man walked into the room with a deep frown on his face.
Rocky did not even need to take a good look at his face to recognize him as he was arguably one of the most famous and influential humans on Earth at the moment.
Hailed as one of the three strongest climbers and the leader of the undisputed strongest climber guild of them all, he was guildmaster Karna, a ranker who had managed to cross the threshold of being a mere human by ascending to floor 51 of the tower. His presence itself was suffocating, his aura intense. No matter what room he walked into, it was assured that he would become the centre of attraction in that room.
As he sat across from Rocky, he looked into Rocky's eyes and let out a deep sigh before extending his hand as if offering it for a handshake.
For a moment, Rocky was perplexed; he did not expect the guildmaster of the prestigious True Elite Guild to shake his hand. However, after leaving him hanging for a few seconds, Rocky finally responded as he shook his hand.
Up to this point, Rocky trembled constantly. However, as soon as he shook Karna's hand, he felt a sense of warmth washing over him as his nerves calmed down, and he stopped trembling.
"Rocky Yadav, let me first offer my sincere apologies for this lapse in security from the True Elite Guild.
We were supposed to be protecting your sister, but we failed. I don't know how to softly tell you this, but I reckon you would not want anything less than the absolute truth regarding this subject, so I'll not mince my words.
It looks like agents of Olympus gods have kidnapped your sister," Karna said as Rocky suddenly felt his heart rate spike and his vision double after hearing this sentence.
*Crash*
He slipped awkwardly from the chair he was sitting on and hit the floor below as his body began shivering as if it was going into epileptic shock.
"AMELIA, AMELIA, SOMEONE SEND THE HEALER HERE, THE BOY'S UNDERGOING AN AWAKENING. AMELIA-"
Rocky heard guildmaster Karna shouting before his vision completely blacked out, and he lost consciousness.
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