William stood before the Luminara tree, eyes glued to the ground, fist clenched, face twisted like someone had just told him his thing is small, and he knew they were right.

After twenty minutes of grieving over his sorry-ass troops, William drifted into memories of his life. He’d never needed anyone’s help to get through his problems. The world never made it easy on him.

He looked up, jabbing a finger at the artificial sky and shouted, "So what if I’ve got weak troops? So what if they’re just tiny fairies? Size doesn’t mean shit! I’ll make them the strongest race in this universe. I’ll turn this tower into such a nightmare that even gods will piss themselves trying to conquer it!"

Every word dripped with stubborn will. Nobody was around to hear him, but somehow, those words reached a place where one of the greatest sacrifices was made. Something was waiting for a tower lord worthy to claim it from among billions.

After clearing his head, he muttered, "Ahhh... might as well check the rest of the tower’s status. Whatever it is, I’ll have to make do."

He pulled up the tower status again and scrolled through it. "Three floors to start. Recruitment limit for Beginner Tower (Low) is 20, probably goes up when I upgrade the core. Even if my troops are tiny, stack enough of them, and they’ll fit any hole," he said with a crooked smirk.

Then he spotted the trait section. "What the actual hell are these? Two traits that sound like potions out of some medieval fantasy world, and one that gives seeds to farm minions."

He skimmed the upgrade requirements for the tower core. Looked similar to those global lord novels: resources, some energy, and stronger troops.

Right now, he didn’t have a damn clue where to get resources or what these tower points even were. William gave the Luminara tree a narrow-eyed glare. "Should I just chop this damn thing down for wood?"

He wasn’t about to fry any brain cells over this, so he just cut to the chase. "Hey! System, you there? What is this TP? And what about resources? Am I supposed to go out and gather them myself?"

Right on cue, the system panel flashed up with its scripted answers.

[Tower lords can’t leave their towers during the ascension trial.]

[Tower points (TP) are the official currency inside every tower.]

[With TP, lords can buy anything they need from the tower merchant assigned to their region.]

[Lords can also use T.P. to buy and sell with other lords in their region, for that visit regional chat.]

[Regional Chat and Tower Merchant functions can be found in the lord’s status.]

[For now, lords can only obtain TP from the tower trail, which happens after every three days.]

[Each lord starts with 100 TP]

A flood of messages flashed across his vision, each one cold, emotionless, and straight to the point. As William scrolled through, things finally started to click. "Well, damn. Can’t leave the tower? That sucks for most people, but if I’ve got everything I need, I’m chill with the greenery."

After reading about the tower merchant and regional chat, he muttered, "I’ll check these after this so-called ’talent’ is assigned. Maybe I can get something better than fairies from the tower merchant. But first, I want all my cards on the table."

"And don’t even get me started on regional chat. It’ll just be couples whining that they fuck each other, or some bastard playing young master. Last thing I need is to get rage-baited by a bunch of idiots."

Before he could think about anything else, the system panel again appeared.

[Dear lords, in 60 seconds, your talents will be drawn]

[Warning: The higher your talent rank, the more it will be painful, as your body will be forcibly altered to fit your new power.]

William just looked at the notifications, emotionlessly. He’d already given up on landing a good talent after pulling fairies for troops, but the mention of pain made him a bit uneasy. He snorted, "Hell, I could probably handle popping out triplets if it means getting a decent talent."

"Still, better prep a little. If I actually luck out, the pain’s probably gonna be a real bitch." He strolled over to the flower bed circling the tree. Red, blue, and green flowers grew together, they all looked sort of like ’Hellebores’ from Earth.

From what he’d read in the tower traits, the green flowers were supposed to boost health regen. The blue ones were for mana, though he didn’t know if this one would even help. Nevertheless, he plucked three of each, figuring maybe stacking their effect is possible.

The red flowers were supposed to boost attack power, he figured there was no point in grabbing those.

Flowers in hand, he went back to the Luminara tree and sat down with his back against the trunk. He waited until the countdown hit five seconds, then crammed all six flowers into his mouth at once. Biting down, he muttered through a mouthful, "Hawf! No taste."

⟡⟡⟡

Billions of towers dotted the Tower Expanse. When the timer hit zero, pillars of light shot up from every last one. Some flared bright, others barely managed a flicker. A few went hundreds of meters into the sky, while others barely cleared the tops of their towers.

But from one tower, the light didn’t just shine, it exploded. It was so intense that anyone dumb enough to get close would be roasted alive in seconds. That beam went straight through the sky, like it was trying to stab a hole in the sky.

That was William’s tower. Inside, the whole floor echoed with hoarse, tortured screams.

⟡⟡⟡

William’s eyes stayed on the countdown. When it hit zero, nothing happened, just dead silence. Then, ’Bdum!’ A deep, echoing thump shattered the quiet. William frowned, muttering, "Huh, another dramatic sound effect?", with no clue where the noise was coming from.

Almost instantly, the thump came again, faster and louder this time.

’Bdum!... Bdum!... Bdum!’

He stared at his chest, the sound was coming from his own heart. Suddenly, a pillar of white light blasted from the tower’s core. In the same instant, pain tore through him, starting in his chest.

Then it spread like wildfire, racing through every vein and muscle. It felt like he was being burned alive from the inside out.

William’s mouth gaped in a silent scream, a raw and broken sound tearing loose from his throat. He curled in agony, hands clawing at the back of his head, fingers digging in as if he could rip the pain out by force. But it only got worse.

Suddenly, his whole body levitated, four feet off the ground, and the pain cranked up ten times more.

First, his skin caught fire, turning charred and flaking off in seconds, leaving nothing behind.

Then his muscles and veins tore free from bone, followed by the stomach-churning crack of bones snapping, one after another.

It was like his body was being taken apart piece by piece, but not a single drop of blood spilled. Then, out of nowhere, dark crimson, almost black, liquid materialized and snaked its way into his veins, mixing with his blood.

William’s trachea was gone as he hung limp in the air, voiceless except for the gruesome sounds of his own body coming apart. He was still completely conscious, forced to feel every last shred of agony.

If not for his pounding heart and those open black eyes from which tears came out just to be evaporated. If not for these, no one in their right mind would call him alive.

He endured that torture for a full minute. Then,

’Crackle...Crackle...Crackle’

The sound of crackling came again from his bones, but this time instead of shattering, they were rebuilding, shifting themselves back to position.

As his skeleton snapped back together, a new sound joined in, the stretching and twanging of muscles and tendons reattaching.

’Twaaaaang!’

His muscles and veins snaked around his bones, followed by fresh skin knitting itself across his body, starting from his chest and crawling outward. It was rebirth in the most painful way possible.

The reconstruction took another minute. Finally, the pillar of light faded.

William drifted gently to the ground, touching down beside the Luminara tree. The moment he hit the dirt, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold.

Then, out of nowhere, a voice rang out, not robotic like the tower system, but bright and cheerful, unmistakably a girl’s.

A white system panel with golden text popped up in front of William’s unconscious body, following that bubbly voice.

[Absolute Gacha System: Activation in progress...]

[Linking with tower system...]

[Connection Progress: 0%... 43%... 78%... 99%...]

[Absolute Gacha System online and ready to roll!]

[Congratulations, Host! You have awakened Ex-Rank: Absolute Tower Gacha talent.]

⟡⟡⟡

[A/N]: Please consider supporting by sending some Power Stones and Golden tickets. Your support means a lot and really helps me continue writing.