Despite being an F-Rank player, Psyche's one and only dream was to reach the tenth floor of the tower.
Since first-time players were banned from leaving the tower without completing the tutorial, before the first player went back to the real world, almost fifty years ago, nothing was known about what happened inside.
However, luckily for Psyche, when he awakened at fifteen, lots of people had already completed it, and the trials to complete from the second to the ninth floor were no longer a secret.
The real problem was what came after the tutorial.
Once you reached the 10th floor, you were given a choice: either to keep climbing or go back to the human world.
Of course, you could choose to leave. Aside from not being able to level up further, there were no other setbacks. You could still move freely between floors one to nine. Lots of people became famous and wealthy by selling products from the seventh floor. And many more sold intel to newcomers. Before Psyche was born, his own family had amassed a good amount of riches by doing these.
But humans were greedy creatures.
And the tower had one thousand floors.
Soon, players started to reject going out, prompted by the expectations of what could be found above.They climbed to the 20th, 30th, 40th, 100th, 300th floors…They found copper, silver, gold, crystals, dragons, other worlds, cultivation books, and many more. Each floor had its own resources up for grabs, and the first players were pioneers.
So they climbed to the 400th, 500th, and 600th… And realized they were no longer being given the choice to leave.
Worse than that, powerful rankers were forced by the tower to contain their abilities when climbing down the tower, making them weaker and weaker the lower they went.
By this point, the higher you went, the more enemies you would make and the less the chances of going back alive. Meaning that they only had one choice left: To keep on climbing, for who knows how long.
And that's how humanity was able to reach the 800th floor in under 50 years.
Because that was all they could do.
Once this news was made public, many newcomers stopped climbing and took root on the lower floors, where peril had long since been extinguished. They married, reproduced, and monopolized the resources on each floor.
One such place was the Capital City on the first floor, where his family lived.
The first floor was very, very vast.
It was said that the first hunters felt as if they had entered heaven.
Even now, from the small gap that functioned as a window in his new room, Psyche could not even fathom where the first floor ended and the second one started. If that was even possible to discern to begin with.
He saw two different cities floating in the bright blue sky, birds the size of whales soaring, and two suns shining brightly on the horizon. Under such a far-reaching sky, it was no surprise that there was absolutely no one who cared about a small man like him.
It was like comparing space to an ant.
Or so he thought.
'A blind night.'
That characterization had been on his mind since the moment he woke up in this new place, with both of his knees broken and his back tied to the bed.
He had been confused about the sudden room upgrade, but didn't refuse it. His previous cell could barely contain E-Rank players; it only made sense to keep Psyche there because he was an F-Rank player with no real offensive skills. The new cell, however, clearly had been built to hold rankers as prisoners, even with the tower's restrictions.
For starters, the belt around both his wrists was made from the highest quality of monster leather. He hadn't seen many power-suppressing artifacts, but he could tell by the light blueish glow that could be appreciated after carefully examining it for some time that it was an A-Rank item at the very least.
That wasn't all; the room itself could be seen very faintly emitting the same glow from each of the four white-coated walls and the marble floor.
It was a big room, of around three to four hundred square feet, and yet all of it was a container. Psyche imagined it must have cost hundreds, if not thousands, of millions.
And yet it was being used on him.
'What an overkill.'
Of course, his family couldn't have known that he was no longer under the effect of a mysterious blessing from some unknown god. Besides, it was only an E-Class blessing, meaning that the god that had given it to him was not one of high rank, like Aphrodite.Probably just a lesser being with moderate skills. Hardly a powerful god at all. But he wasn't planning on telling them that.
'Heck, the room even has a personal bathroom.'
To Psyche, who had been guarding his warm feces from strangers for the past fifteen days, it was a five-star luxury stay.
"…?"
"…"
A queen-sized bed, warm light lamps, and a small living area with heated floors. He had to thank whoever it was originally built for. His family surely respected that player as much as they feared them.
"…over here."
"…!!"
"… Oh, my."
Despite not being able to use his legs, Psyche didn't feel any pain. His family probably used healing and numbing potions on him while he was asleep. That is how he was able to lie fully on the mattress with zero discomfort, and realize that it was an orthopedic one by the way it comfortably hugged his spine.
"Oh~"
"Waaah!"
"…Beautiful."
It was better than his previous cell.Aside from the floor-to-ceiling transparent glass on one side of the room, where a dozen masked figures observed him.
"This is our best-selling product." A man's voice declared.
It was strained and crusty, the kind a smoker would have.
'Blasius.'
His second eldest brother.
Sure enough, the robust, short man in the bunny mask always served either as a presenter, host, or intermediary in any Psyche-related transactions. He was also the one holding the auction each month.
He had never come to his cell before. That was Adolphe's job, but he assumed his other brother's disappearance was related to the incident between the two the day before.
The guards had come and split the two up, knocking out Psyche and aiding Adolphe.
He regained consciousness in the middle of the night to find his knees broken and his room replaced, but weirdly, there had been no notifications from the system back then. But he didn't have time to question whether or not Aphrodite was watching him before the lights went out again.
Psyche turned his head, not giving the visitors another opportunity to look at his face.
One woman spoke, worry noticeable in her tone.
"Is it damaged?"
A murmur traveled around the small crowd.
"Oh, no!"
"How awful!"
Whatever it was they were paying, surely it wasn't for damaged goods.'I wonder what they're selling this time.'It was rare for his parents to allow clients to see him this close.Blasius quickly took over the panicked individuals.
"Steemed guest, there's no need to worry," he spoke with the smoothest tone his damaged vocal cords could muster, "the angel has not been hurt at all."
The angel.
So that was the story they had created this time.
The name brought on his retching. Repugnance washed over Psyche, and he suppressed a gag.
-Tap.Tap.Tap.
"Oh, our dearest Angel," he heard Blasius' voice behind him, tapping on the glass to call for his attention. "Please, allow us simple mortals to contemplate your greatness by showing us your face."
"Oh, please, Angel!"
"We beg of you!!"
The theatrical scene seemed to have worked on the clients. However,
"…"
Psyche still didn't turn.
Blasius must've known he wouldn't cooperate with them, no matter what.They would never get him to do what they wanted.
-Ssssssssst.
That was when he felt both belts around his wrist tighten and burn.
"…!!"
Psyche bent over in pain.
At the same time, the burning smell of skin penetrated his nose, and his knees, previously unmoving but not in pain, sent a sharp tingling sensation shooting through his body.
The containing artifact must have had a numbing function intended for torture purposes. As soon as he tried to get both off, not only his knees, but his guts and face started to bring back the sensations of the wounds and bruises he had attained before when fighting against his assailants.
As he groveled in pain, Blasius and the buyers must've misinterpreted his pain as anything but that.
"Oh, oh, angel!"
"The angel is transforming!!"
"He's going to extend his wings!"
Blasius didn't miss his chance.
"The angel must know you are devout believers!"
"Brothers and sisters, we need more funds for health and regrowth potions!!"
"Only that way will the angel show his wings!"
Psyche could hear the sound of notes and bills being passed around, even noises he suspected were jewels or crystals hitting the concrete floor.
Meanwhile, the pain did not subside. If anything, it reached his limbs and made him feel as if his own spine was shifting in place.
He really, truly, completely despised them.
There was another tap on the glass.
-Tap.
Behind him, only one man kept looking at him, without averting his eyes or reaching into his pockets.
With a look of disinterest and boredom slipping through the mask's empty sockets. The man's words were directed at Blasius, but his frog mask never left Psyche's nape.
"Do you… Take us for fools?"