Tower of Origin - Book 1 - Chapter 7 - First Game Part I (Patreon)

                                                                            Blake Artorius
                                                        Year 6137 | Month 11 | Day 1

“Since it’s your first game, it’s automatically defaulted to a Low Ranked Game,” Diane comments from next to me as we both watch the wheel spin, “but if it weren’t your first game, then you’d get prompted to select which difficulty level game you want to play before spinning the wheel.”

A few seconds pass in silence as everyone in the chamber stares at the wheel. The wheel continues spinning and spinning and spinning until it finally begins to slow down before landing on one of the options.

Right as I’m about to lean in closer to see what the option is, the rest of the wheel vanishes with a blast of red fireworks and the last remaining wedge transforms into a large square, with the option listed clearly in the center of it.

I raise an eyebrow slightly as I see the name of what I’m assuming is the game I got before more words spread out beneath it.

<|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|>

Obstacle Course Race

Low Ranked Game

Host: Adysair Gold

Chrono: 9/12

Objective: Make it to the finish line.

Rules:

1 – Pure flying powers are banned.
2 – Each Chrono must physically touch every checkpoint within the obstacle course with their body.
3 – For powers that are not pure flying but still allow the Chrono to lift themselves into the air, the Chrono may not go any higher than one extra meter above their maximum jumping height and may only remain there for up to three seconds at a time before they will begin descending.
4 – Falling off of the course into the void below will result in the Chrono being sent back to the last checkpoint the Chrono has passed.
5 – Chrono may only attack other Chrono with their powers and not with their physical body or any weapons.

6 – Mind-control powers are banned.

Rewards:

1st Place – 10 Ark

2nd Place – 5 Ark

3rd Place – 3 Ark

<|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|[-]|>

A race?

As if mimicking my thoughts, Diane mutters, “A race? I suppose that’s not a bad first game. Although it could’ve been better.”

I glance at her before focusing on the strange rotating symbol beneath the HUD.

Diane notices my look and explains, “That symbol just means it’s waiting for all of the competitor slots to be taken up before proceeds to start the game.”

Hmm, sound like a computer game’s loading or waiting screen.

“By the looks of the rules, this isn’t a game focused on combat,” Diane continues, drawing my eye back to the rules, “so while one or two Chrono will probably die in it, it’s not all that likely that anyone will target a newly awakened Chrono. Not when a newly awakened Chrono still doesn’t know how to use their power very well.”

She then turns to look at me and adds, “Not that I think they’d be able to kill you even if they tried.”

I lightly nod my head without taking my eyes off of the rules.

We were raised knowing that we’d eventually awaken as Chrono thanks to our parents both being Chrono, so of course I’d have training in combat. Which should make it easy enough to avoid the attacks of people playing a Low Ranked Game, even if I can’t actually physically attack them back.

“Also,” Diane continues, this time drawing my attention towards her to find her staring at the eyepatch covering my eye, “you’re probably gonna wanna take that off while you’re in a game. All it’s going to do is make it pointless as a disguise outside of the Tower while also limiting your field of vision.”

I nod my head again at that before taking the eyepatch off and stuffing it into my pocket.

The number of Chrono on the HUD increases from 9 to 10 as we’re speaking.

“Lastly, the Tower didn’t mention this to you before,” Diane begins, drawing my attention towards her at the mention of the Tower speaking, “but the rewards it stated were just the minimum rewards for each game. Some games will have more than just those rewards for the winner, with the rewards generally being highly dependent on the game itself.”

That explains the prize money for second and third places.

But what’s this about the Tower mentioning something? Does that mean that the voice I heard upon entering the Plane of Origin was the Tower itself speaking?

I look at her for a few seconds before shaking my head and taking a couple of steps back to begin practicing with my strings.

Since powers are allowed to a degree, I shouldn’t waste time thinking about that. It’s better to get some last minute practice in instead.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                  Diane and Blake’s Registrar Chamber
                                                         Year 6137 | Month 11 | Day 1

Diane stares at Blake as he stands at the latter half of the chamber while trying various different things with his ability.

She then turns to look at the HUD for his game and frowns.

‘I know I said it was a decent game for his first, but now that I think about it…’ she thinks before walking up to the HUD and touching the underlined word Chrono, causing the HUD to expand to show the names and Tiers of ten different Chrono, ‘what if his combat training has become rusty due to his coma?’

Diane looks down the list and sighs slightly in relief, ‘Okay, so at least none of them are known for being overly aggressive.’

‘Although,’ she thinks while narrowing her eyes at two of them in particular who are both Tier 2 Chrono, ‘those two might be a problem.’

The list itself does not show the powers of the Chrono signed up for the game, so Diane is left with only her memories and what she can find on the internet for their specific powers.

However, before she can even attempt to research one of the two Tier 2’s powers, the number of Chrono signed up increases to 11.

Diane frowns at this before managing to find some basic information on one of the Tier 2s. She then turns to look at Blake and says, “Watch out for the two Tier 2s that will be in this game with you. They will be a lot faster than you, so if you want to win, then you’ll have to rely on more than just your physical prowess.”

Blake glances at her without pausing in his power testing before nodding his head to show he understood and turning back to the strings again.

“Thankfully, one of the two Tier 2s has a mental power, which won’t help him much against you,” Diane says before stopping as she remembers the keepers who are in the room and are blatantly showing their interest in her words.

‘Shit, almost gave away something,’ she thinks with a faint grimace before turning to look at the HUD again, ‘but it is fortunate that he’s somehow naturally resistant to mental powers. Even if no one could ever figure out why that was.’

The three keepers all narrow their eyes slightly at her before glancing at Blake with suspicion clear in their gazes.

Right as the first one who had spoken upon the siblings’ entrance opens his mouth to speak, a loud ringing sound echoes from the HUD, marking the game as full.

Blake stops messing with the strings and begins walking back towards the HUD again seemingly without any care for his sister’s near-blunder.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, the words in the images for this chapter are too small to read. If you still would like to see the font and appearance for them, here they are.