The void sang the myriad songs of a forgotten past, the lights of beginning moved towards an unknown future while in the moment present, the path to a new tomorrow was being pioneered.
Shattered fragments of once-great structures, towering monuments now reduced to cosmic ruins, battlegrounds where higher beings once clashed, their echoes still lingering like the last notes of a symphony all drifted around a certain chessboard platform.
All of it floated in a universe without ceiling or floor, only stars, colors, and light. There was not much present in this realm to begin with. Everywhere the eyes went, one could only see shattered runes, aftermaths of countless battles, and energies of various elements of the world.
There was an emptiness present here and yet, here, in the eye of chaos, only one piece remained untouched: a single, pristine chessboard, suspended in timeless gravity.
And atop that board… a final showdown had taken place.
"Phew."
One figure stood tall, his eyes glowing with a symphony of colors. There was a kind of glee in those eyes that could never be explained with simple words.
A young man, maybe in his early twenties, his black hair ruffled by invisible winds, his red eyes shimmering like forged rubies beneath a cosmic sky.
His presence was effortless but absolute. Ancient relics adorned his body: robes inscribed with shifting constellations, gauntlets that pulsed with the rhythm of time, ornaments that once held the powers of catastrophes. And in his hand… a weapon not made for mortals.
A whip-like sword, constantly shifting in form, part steel and part starlight, a blade of the old world. An [Archaic] relic, one of the few to ever emerge from the depths of the [Tower].
He was at the end of a journey that had spanned merely over half a decade in real world time— but far more within the floors of this tower.
Across from him as he breathed his concluding breaths of relief, the last opponent remained.
It was something… indescribable.
Its form had the silhouette of a dragon, divine and celestial, yet its wings were feathered in holy symmetry—- not scaled, but radiant, like those of an angel sculpted from light.
Its eyes were a paradox as they held the cruelty of demons and the serenity of gods. It was a being beyond labels, something that once had a name, but had long since outgrown it.
The man, the winner of the battle, smirked as he glanced at the being.
Not with arrogance, but something deeper. Recognition. Pity. Understanding.
He raised his blade… the time had arrived to see the end of this near impossible to clear game.
"Farewell."
The being, in return, smiled. Not with hate. But with peace.
It did not speak. There were no final words. No cries for mercy or shouts of vengeance.
Only a sigh, one that scattered light through the void like dust, and then a bow of the head before the true victor of this grand world.
-Sparaat!
The man's whip-sword lashed out, singing through the air like a requiem.
-Tap.
The symphonic sound that emerged at the handle of the sword, turned into a world-shattering echo that gave the only eternal being of this [Tower] their longed salvation.
"…"
In the next moment, the light that was the divine being collapsed into itself… vanishing, with silent brilliance.
The stars held their breath for a moment, awaiting the announcement of the world.
Then, a sound echoed throughout the remaining world…
[Ding!]
A crystalline window unfolded before the man, hovering in the center of the chessboard like a golden crown.
⟪ You have cleared the 100th Floor of the Tower of Beginning. ⟫
⟪ As the requirements for the completion have been met, the game will now undergo a maintenance period. You will be logged out safely. ⟫
⟪ Rewards for completing the floor will be made available after a maintenance period and a following content will be made available. ⟫
⟪ You will be rewarded the permanent
⟪ Your achievements will be highlighted in the [Akashic records]. ⟫
⟪ May the fortune be on your side. ⟫
"Haaaa." The man exhaled. Just once.
The smile on his face was not of victory, but of closure.
The stars resumed their motion. The chessboard began to dissolve. The fragments of the world he'd climbed through crumbled into stardust.
And for the first time… there was silence.
The world came to a safe end as the light before his eyes vanished slowly… in his last moments, he shook his head, his heart wanting nothing more than to scream curses at this damned tower.
But, he did not let those words slide out.
-Ooooooooooong!
For him, the game that he had devoted more than half of a decade of his life to had just come to a closure, something even he did not believe was possible at first.
But he did it. And, he was the only one to have ever been able to do it.
===ChatRoom===
ILOVEME: Wow… he really did it.
Kikuthecutie: Damn human. He really defeated the final one.
June_Fay#3: To think it was possible, damn.
[ILOVEME has donated 100 Coins.]
ILOVEME: Thank you for showing me such a fun story.
Lokhnessy: KiRA! KiRA! What are you going to play next~? What kind of content will you be streaming now~?
…
==============
In total, there were twelve people that watched his streams. These twelve people were the only ones that supported him throughout this hopeless journey.
"Thanks for watching, everyone." His eyes gleamed with great happiness as he saw the familiar names on the floating window before him inside of his capsule.
The game had just ended, so, it meant that the thing that all these people had mostly stayed behind for had ended as well. Soon, he would not be seeing many of them… the end of content was the same as the end of a book that wasn't going to have a sequel or anying new related to it anymore.
This was it.
"We shall end the stream for today, everyone~. See you all next time and let us decide the contents of the new content together~."
When he was finishing his final years of University, when he had no job to support himself, when he had crazily devoted all he had into this game, there were many times when he found his endeavours to be hopeless.
The Tower of Beginning was not something that could be cleared. The creators of the game must have made it in a way that made it impossible to be cleared.
There were so many complicated things that many players did not even make it past the tutorial, much less the first floor and the following. The game was a nightmare ever since it was launched but some continued playing.
There were few who were able to reach beyond certain floors. Among the [TOB] community, they were given various titles. However, there was only one name that shined above everyone else.
The stagnant water name that finally, after so many years of dedicated, insane trials and errors was able to clear this damned tower: KiRA.
"Huuu…" it was an obsession.
The tower of beginning– at first, it was simply a VRMMO that everyone was playing. However, when people started leaving because of the insane difficulty and all the weird real world mechanics it had, something swelled up inside of him.
He wasn't a big deal in this world. He had no real motivation to continue with his professional field either. He was finding meaning for his life, and this psychopathic game gave him the reason and meaning that he needed.
"But now that it's over…"
The last of the system prompet said some new content will be made available but, as someone who had been through the game countless times, he knew there was nothing after this.
The [Tower of beginning] did not exist for him in that game anymore and there was nothing much outside of the tower.
'Whatever the content may be, it's most probably just some side quests." He did not have great hopes for this anymore.
Every journey, every story had an inevitable end. And, he knew, for him and that world that gave him so much, this was that certain closure.
Now, it was all over.
This simple two room apartment that he had been living in for all these years, this old VR capsule that used to be one of the cheapest ones back when he started this game, and the old computer that rested on his desk, everything had been the same all these years.
His room was dirty since he had only been playing this game since last week, so he needed to clean up first.
"And then, I'll have to start looking for what to do from now on as well…"
He believed he would be happy after finishing this game. He believed that he would have a unique feeling after he was done, but all that was present inside his heart right now was a strange emptiness.
"Haaaa." He was lost.
So for now, he decided to just go to sleep.
"Yawn~."
And, since he decided to go to sleep at this late hour, he missed the strange blue screen that had appeared on his computer screen on the desk, on his capsule's status screen… as well as every single screen in the city, as well as the world around him.
⟪ Time remaining until the maintenance period ends: 8:57:55. ⟫
He would find out soon but his world was going to change forever now.
And, as someone who was known for being the [Stingy Dog] of the tower, he was going to be in quite the spotlight as well.