Tower of Origin - Book 1 - Chapter 8 - First Game Part II (Patreon)

                                                                        Blake Artorius
                                                   Year 6137 | Month 11 | Day 1

Still only two Tier 2s in the game, then? That shouldn’t be too bad.

Although I doubt I will be able to win first place in the game. Not considering how much stronger a Tier 2 Chrono is than a Tier 1, even just in physical and mental capabilities alone.

The HUD turns pure red as I’m walking over to it before it begins to flash.

“I won’t be able to watch your game from in the Tower, but I’ll be sure to watch the records of it tomorrow,” Diane says, but I ignore her as I find a strange blue ring beginning to form beneath my feet. The ring grows larger for a few seconds before the inside of the ring suddenly fills with some sort of deep-blue lightning, just like the lightning striking everywhere outside of the tower. At the same time, I quickly find myself falling into the circle made by the ring, with the lightning running through my body seemingly without hurting me in the process.

The last thing I hear before everything goes dark is Diane shouting, “Good luck!”

As I’m waiting in the darkness, I can’t help but feel a strange thrill begin to run through my body.

It’s the same type of thrill that I feel whenever I play a game at the arcades around Faust, and it actually makes me almost smile from the feeling of it.

However, some of the feeling dissipates as I hear sounds returning and find myself suddenly appearing in the middle of some sort of large circular platform.

When I look around the platform, I find a large dark-blue barrier surrounding it made out of that same lightning, but my attention is quickly attracted towards the keeper whose voice is resonating throughout the platform as he slowly floats down towards us.

“Welcome, one and all, to tonight’s Obstacle Course Race! I am your host, Adysair Gold!!!” the keeper – who has the same slitted eyes as the ones in the chamber, except with flecks of gold and blue mixed into them – shouts with too much fanfare for my liking. “I’m glad you could all make it to another wonderful game played by our beloved Chrono! BUUUT!!! Before we get to that, let’s start things off with the pre-game interviiiieeeews!!!”

I frown at his words that are obviously meant for the audience watching us on Arkea before crossing my arms and moving to a corner of the platform, away from the other Chrono as the keeper’s feet touch onto the platform. He then begins to look around before almost immediately narrowing his gaze on a man who has some sort of gray suit on. The man’s title and name are displayed above his head in the same color as his Chrono eye – a deep purple – and he doesn’t seem to have any problems with doing an interview, unlike myself.

Oh? That’s certainly an odd title.

“Welcome again, Egoist!!” Adysair exclaims with a warm smile on his face as he manifests a mic into his hands and gives it to the Chrono, “Before we get into the nitty gritty stuff, how bout we just start with a simple question. How has your day been?”

Egoist – which I still think is a strange title – accepts the mic with a confident smirk and says, “Not bad, but the best part of it,” he pauses to raise his head and seemingly look at something where there isn’t actually anything, “is being able to be here for all of you wonderful people!”

My brows furrow slightly as I watch.

Did he really just look up at the audience and compliment them all?

Is he some sort of attention seeker? Why should we even care how the audience feels?

Clearly unable to hear my thoughts, the host of tonight’s game continues speaking after a brief chuckle, “That’s good to hear, but how do you think you’ll do in tonight’s game? What with being one of the only two Tier 2s in this game’s lineup?”

Oh? It sounds like the host might have already written off all of us Tier 1s for this game.

Although, I don’t really care what he thinks either way.

At this point I move my gaze between each of the other Chrono standing on the platform.

Unsurprisingly, most of them are looking at either the guy being interviewed, or another guy who has a pretty large build.

Is he the other Tier 2, then?

As if hearing my thoughts, the first Tier 2 guy begins speaking again, “I feel pretty confident about this win, but it could get a little hairy since Anchor is here along with us.” When I turn to look at him, I find the guy staring directly at the guy I was just speculating was the other Tier 2.

Okay, I guess that confirms that.

I listen in on the guy’s interview, along with the next two interviews after it to see if I can get any good information on the other Chrono. In the end, I find out that the Egoist guy has a mental power, while the Anchor guy has some sort of defensive one. So neither of them will be a threat to me in regards to their powers.

That said, I will have to figure out how to deal with their stronger and faster bodies, seeing as this is a race.

It isn’t until over ten minutes – which is too long for a pre-game interview in my opinion – that I realize that there are at least three or four Chrono staring at me.

I blink twice in confusion before looking up and seeing just my title in pure white letter.

Oh. They’re probably wondering why I’m using the anonymous filter.

Suddenly, I hear a chime echo in my head, followed by a HUD appearing in front of me.

My eyebrows raise slightly at the sight of the HUD before I glance at the host who seems to be approaching me.

No thank you.

I press yes without even a hint of hesitation, causing the host’s eyes to immediately widen in what I can only describe as shock before shifting to irritation.

Yeah, sorry, but I don’t feel like playing along with this interview crap.

The keeper sends me a brief glare before moving to find a different Chrono to interview. However, right as he is about to hand off his mic again, a loud chime echoes throughout the platform.

Please let that be the end of the interviews.

As if answering my silent prayer, the keeper begins to fly into the air again whilst shouting, “And it looks like the pre-game interviews are over! Which meeeaaaans….”

He pauses while swinging his arms to the side and causing a large list of this games rules to appear next to him, “It’s time for the game to begin!”

I let out a brief sigh of relief, only to tense up almost immediately after when the lightning surrounding us suddenly vanish, revealing two different paths on opposite ends of the platform, with one of them being right behind me. Although based off of what I see later on the paths, they are just the start of the obstacle course.

After seeing several different Chrono immediately begin sprinting towards the paths, I take off as well.

That was an abrupt start.

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For those of you who can't see the images:

Stephen Blaecson – Egoist

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