AEON-9943-EARTH
In a small apartment tucked between a laundromat and a rundown ramen shop. Soji Takashi lived the kind of life no one would ever bother to even write about. His life was just plain and average...
He was twenty-one. Average height standing at 5'6. Average body. Messy black hair. A forgettable face that blended into crowds like spilled ink on wet paper. His dark red—eyes, were tired and hadn't sparkled with anything resembling wonder since he was at the age of a child.
He wore cheap jeans and an almost tattered white shirt, ate cup noodles three times a day, and worked two jobs that barely paid enough to cover his rent and the occasional pack of convenience store cigarettes.
To the world, Soji was another ghost drifting through modern life. Nothing special at all. No sob story. No great tragedy. No grand ambitions. No friends. No girlfriend. Nothing...
He wasn't bullied or abandoned. He hadn't lost his family in some cruel twist of fate or something. They were just alive, just distant. Simple, polite phone calls happen on holidays. And hollow words are exchanged like passing cars.
His grades had always been decent, but not outstanding. He wasn't strong, wasn't fast, wasn't particularly clever, and wasn't good at anything. He wasn't known for anything; he never stood out, never even wanted to.
He didn't hate his life. He didn't love it either. It simply... was. And he just lived through it. Sometimes he thought that was worse, and he was right.
"Another day in paradise," he muttered one evening, staring at the buzzing streetlamp outside his window. The ramen shop's sign flickered. His apartment smelled like old rice and damp books.
He worked nights at a 24-hour convenience store where drunkards came in looking for microwavable pork buns and regrets. During the day, he stocked shelves in a nameless warehouse filled with boxes no one cared to open.
His only hobby was playing old JRPGs on an emulated console that wheezed whenever it loaded battles.
If someone had asked him what he wanted in life, he wouldn't even be able to answer, as he doesn't know what to say.
Then suddenly something strange happens.
The dream began like all the others: muted, distant, like watching his own life from a void. But then—a voice. No, a presence. It didn't speak in words, but in meaning. A cosmic whisper that curled around his bones, threading itself into the marrow of his soul.
"You have been chosen."
The world around him has shifted. He stood in an endless white expanse, barefoot, surrounded by silence so complete it felt like it was watching him.
Then came the vision of a tower. Very tall and impossible in scope, stretching beyond the sky, its foundation lost to screaming dimensions. Flames. Storms. Blood. Hope. Glory. Death. And a single truth branded into his heart:
Climb. Fight and Survive. And at the end of the summit... Wish.
Soji woke up gasping, drenched in sweat, heart hammering like it was trying to flee his chest. His digital clock was barely functioning while flickering, and it read [3:33 AM].
He staggered to the sink, splashed water on his face, stared into the mirror for a bit, and for the first time, he didn't recognize himself.
His red eyes glowed faintly—just for a heartbeat, before returning to their usual dullness. But something had changed.
And when he stepped outside, the world seemed to shiver.
The night air felt... wrong. Too still. Too quiet. A car's headlights passed, but the shadows bent the wrong way. A black butterfly hung motionless midair, its wings locked mid-flap like time itself had skipped a beat.
Soji blinked.
Then—ding.
A chime echoed inside his skull.
And in front of him, floating in the air like a hologram stitched from starlight, a translucent blue window snapped into existence.
[ SYSTEM INITIATING... ]
[ Subject: NULL VARIABLE ]
[ Retrieving Information... ]
[ Subject: Soji Takashi ]
[ Invitation has been granted... ]
Soji stumbled back, falling onto the cold pavement.
"The hell...?" he muttered, eyes wide.
"I've been playing too many games lately... I may be hallucinating. I have to be."
But when he reached out, his fingers touched it. The interface rippled at his touch, responding with a satisfying, digital chime.
It was real.
[ You have been selected by the Divine System of the Ascendant Spire. ]
[ You are invited to climb the Tower. ]
[ Only the Worth--ERROR... Continuing interface ]
Suddenly the systems flickers red before going back to normal.
[ Those who reach the summit may claim one wish. ]
[ Warning: The journey is perilous. Death is permanent. But the Glory is eternal. ]
Beneath it, two shimmering options appeared in perfect symmetry:
[ ACCEPT ] | [ DECLINE ]
Soji stared at them. His hand hovered. He let out a shaky laugh.
"Yeah, right... me? Climb some death tower for a wish? I can't even climb out of bed half the time."
Then, almost without thinking, he pressed [ DECLINE ].
Instantly, another message appeared.
[ Confirmation Required: Declining will forfeit your invitation permanently. ]
[ Are you certain? ]
[ YES ] | [ NO ]
Soji froze...
He looked down at himself—tired hoodie, scuffed shoes, the reflection of streetlights in shallow puddles. A life of drifting. A life of nothing.
He remembered the stacked cup noodles. The hollow holidays. The empty dreams.
"I'm... average," he whispered.
"What chance would I even have?"
But something twisted in his chest. A silent ache. A truth he had always swallowed.
"If I say no now... nothing will ever change."
His hand trembled...
Then, with a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, Soji pressed [ NO ].
The option faded.
And he quickly tapped [ ACCEPT ].
The system chimed and flashed brilliantly.
[ Invitation Accepted. ]
[ Welcome, Soji Takashi. The Tower awaits. ]
And as the screen dissolved into sparks of starlight, Soji didn't know whether he had just taken the first step toward greatness... or the last step of the life he once knew. His body started to fade away just like how the system interface dissolved into sparks.
Time seemed to slow down, as if the universe itself held its breath.
"This boring life... Finally I can be free... But at what cost?" He clenched his fist.
As his body faded, the city around him unraveled. The neon signs twisted into ribbons of light, and the pavement cracked and fell away like ash in the wind. The ramen shop collapsed inward, turning into paper cranes that fluttered into the night. Time fractured like glass.
Then—darkness.
But not emptiness.
He stood again. Or perhaps floated. Gravity had no meaning here.
A great eye—no, a symbol, shaped like an iris made of interlocking runes—opened in the void above him. It pulsed with golden light, then dissolved into streams of code and ancient scripture that wrapped around his form.
They slithered across his skin, embedding into his soul, filling him with a sudden pressure—like the air had turned into stone.
Then a voice—not human, not machine, but something vast and ancient—spoke.
It wasn't sound. It was truth, planted directly into his being.
"You do not belong here."
The words hit like thunder, echoing in his bones.
"You are an anomaly. Unranked. Unsanctioned. Unprepared. Unworthy."
Soji tried to speak, but no voice came. The very space around him trembled, as if reality rejected his presence.
"Your thread was not among the chosen. You were not meant to touch the Spire."
The space around him pulsed red, like a warning light in the heart of a divine machine.
"You are weak, unworthy, and fragile. You should have declined."
Flashes of death—brutal battles, screaming winds, creatures made of shadow and fire—rushed through his mind. He saw hundreds of challengers fall. Some in glory. Most in silence.
His breath caught in his throat.
"And yet..." the voice continued, quieter now. "...you were allowed."
The great eye paused, heavy with judgment...
"By her hand. The Architect. The First Light. The Goddess of Creation. My Creator."
The name carried such gravity that the void itself bowed under its weight.
"She placed her mark upon you, a decision that defies the logic of this realm."
Soji staggered as the pressure was lifted, only slightly.
"Know this: You walk a path you were never meant to tread. No blessings. No legacy. No protection."
He clutched his chest. Something inside burned—not pain, but awareness. He was truly alone.
"You may climb. You may die. But the Tower will not bend for you."
A final surge of energy wrapped around him, forming a glowing thread from his heart to the void above.
"Prove you are worthy of this intrusion... or be erased."
And then, silence. The weight vanished. The darkness peeled away like smoke.
And Soji fell—downward, upward, nowhere—until his feet struck solid ground again.
A new world awaited. But the warning rang in his soul like a tolling bell.
He didn't belong here.
And yet... He was here.
The unworthy... Named... SOJI TAKASHI.