3...2...1... Happy New Year!!!!
The date was January 1st, 2024, and the world found itself in a grip of tension unlike any typical New Year's celebration.
Normally, the start of a new year was a ti for joy, parties, and looking forward to the future. But this wasn't any normal year; it was a leap year, and in this world, that ant trouble.
Leap years had co to be dreaded because they were the signal that it was ti for the next big monster outbreak.
The idea of a leap year as just an extra day in February had almost been forgotten. Now, most people didn't even call it a leap year and Riva seed to be the only person who rembered the old aning.
To everyone else, a leap year was known as the 'Year of Death' or 'The Year of the Grim Reaper' because, throughout history, the scariest and most dangerous monster outbreaks from the Tower Of Ascension always happened during leap years.
This pattern was sothing everyone knew and feared. It had been this way for as long as people could rember and ever since the first records of humans and monsters existed.
The history of this parallel Earth differed greatly from the history of modern Earth as Riva rembered it, however, one day seemingly out of nowhere, the world around her, its history, the common vocabulary and many such things changed overnight with her being the only individual who still rembered the world order of the old.
At first she questioned whether or not she had gone insane, whether she was hallucinating about the past that never was, or whether she had been transmigrated to another world?
However, the answers to all those questions were unfortunately a resounding 'No'.
She had been chosen by one of the most powerful gods of the tower of ascension, the great god 'Gemini' to be his champion and although she did not know why and she did not know how, there seed to be a dormant voice inside of her that seed to be counting down to 0.
"Show system screen" Riva said as a blue countdown screen displayed itself before her.
[ Ti until the system successfully binds itself to the host 00y:23h:59m:56s ]
The first ti she got it, this notification was set for a 10 years long countdown, however, now the dashboard was down to a re 23 hours 59 minutes, which ant that by this ti tomorrow Riva would have successfully bound herself with the system.
"One day left..." Riva said as she let out a deep sigh, before she closed down her system screen and opened her mobile screen instead.
"Hey, Gaia, please call Rocky" Riva instructed her mobile phone's A.I. as it recognised her voice and connected a call to her brother's mobile phone.
*Brrrr*
*Brrrr*
The dialer tone rang for a few seconds, but nobody picked up as Riva could not help but feel worried about her brother.
In this world, the most famous individuals who were respected world-wide were not the sportsn or actors.
In this world the people who went on to beco politicians or policymakers were not rich rchants or social workers.
In this world, every child's first dream was not to beco an astronaut, it was instead to be chosen by the Tower Of Ascension, for everyone wanted to be a 'Climber'.
A climber was a celebrity in this world, a first rate citizen while everyone else was second class.
A climber was the title given to those who were chosen by the Tower Of Ascension as beings who were eligible to enter its grounds and challenge its various dungeons.
While for won they were chosen between ages 16-20, for n the age bracket was 18-22.
Till this day, nobody understood how the tower selected a climber, however, everyone wanted to be one as even the weakest climber usually went on to beco an individual with unimaginable wealth, supre strength and better health when compared to an average human.
Unfortunately, only one in ten individuals were chosen to be a climber, aning most kids who dread to beco one never actually did.
Rocky seed to be obsessed with becoming one and since he was coming of age soon, his ti to be chosen or not chosen as a climber was approaching.
1st January 2024 was his Birthday and at around midday today Rocky was officially going to turn 18, which was a big deal for him since most climbers who were chosen by the tower were usually chosen the very first day they turned of age.
Riva was also one such climber.
Currently 20, she was labeled the 'Brightest prospect of GenZ' and had managed to raise herself up to the position of 'Core mber' within the True Elites guild.
She had unbelievable fa, unheard talent and millions of fans worldwide, however, for her none of that mattered, for it was vengeance on a certain soone that she seeked the most.
*Brrr*
*Brrr*
"Hello?" Rocky said from the other side of the phone as Riva imdiately sighed in relief.
"Hello-, Rocky, are you okay?" Riva asked as she bit her lower lip, knowing full well that her fa made her brother a target of unwanted attention.
"Yeah, I'm okay, what would happen to ?" Rocky answered back sounding annoyed as Riva could hear the news channels monitoring the tower outbreak playing on the TV in his background.
"Why are you not ho yet? You know that your curfew is at 12, don't you? Do you want to ground you?" Riva said in an angry voice as in the absence of their dead parents it was her who had taken up the mantle of raising her orphaned little brother.
"Jeez, chill out, you're 20-, it's new years, get a boyfriend and open a bottle of wine. Also, I have legally turned 18 today, so you are no longer my guardian. I will do whatever pleases from this day forward" Rocky said in a condescending tone as he acted completely like the spoiled brat that he was.
"Oh no, you're not talking back to young man, I want you back within this house in 15 minutes or you shall have it!
You understand Rocky?
H-
How did you get in here? Who the hell are you?" Riva said over the phone as her voice turned from angry to nervous in an instant as Rocky who heard it all over the phone panicked as well.
*Crash*
The phone dropped from Riva's hand, hitting the ground below as Rocky heard her screaming and struggling in the background.
" RIVA! SISTER, ARE YOU OKAY? HELLO? HELLO?" Rocky scread over the phone as he dashed out of the friends house that he was currently at and ran barefoot towards his apartnt.
His heart rate shot through the roof as he panicked that sothing unfortunate might be happening to his sister.
He was only a five minutes walk away from his house and since he was sprinting back, the ti he would take to reach back was bound to be even lesser.
However, right as he entered the vicinity of his ho a loud explosion over the phone made him accidentally drop his mobile.
*KABOOM*
Rocky watched in horror as his apartnt went up in flas, with glass shattering and fire enveloping everything within.
"NOOOO-" Rocky shouted, as he feared for his sister's life.
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