Chapter 3: I Said Josh Malum !

[Climb the tower or face annihilation!]

Josh Malum had a truly strange dream. He dreamt that a toneless voice was addressing him.

'Please, not even enough budget for a cute female AI voice. This dream sure is low budget.' Josh thought.

It said something about humanity transmigrating and joining some kind of Dimensional Tower. Said Tower would be the point where many worlds would intertwine. He would be sent to a human world, albeit not the one he knew.

It was all a game. One designed by the gods themselves. Everyone teleported in would become Players. These Players would enter and clear as many Floors as possible. Complete every challenge successfully...or die.

Since every world had access to the Tower, this was a race. The results would be compiled regularly. Any civilization lagging behind performance-wise would get annihilated.

It boiled down to get in, kill stuff, get out. Rinse and repeat while hoping to have done well. Of course, it wouldn't be just that either. But the gods truly enjoyed bloodshed.

'How bored are the gods in this dream? Ah, whatever. I am so very tired. Who cares about all that.' Josh thought while ignoring the voice.

But then, the voice said something that piqued his interest. It said that reaching the last Floor would award one a wish. One granted by the gods themselves.

There was only one thing Josh wanted, but he knew reviving the dead was impossible. He was expecting the voice to try and convince him otherwise. No, it agreed.

It said that true revival was impossible, but that identical copies could be made. A new body but the same soul. The gods had apparently backed up the data of humanity whole just for this contest.

Any sane mind would have found the whole concept ridiculous. This was definitely a crazy dream. Yet somehow Josh felt it made sense.

He felt that this lucid dream was probably the result of his subconscious trying to make sense of all the shit he had been through.

Josh figured that maybe if he reached the top he would see them. Thus, he decided to climb.

That is when the voice told him to pick a class. One that would accelerate his progress drastically. It would give him the memories of heroes of the past.

The available selection would be based on his previous life's accomplishments.

[Please choose!]

| Avenger |

| Berserker |

| Blood Mage |

| Breaker |

| Duckmancer |

| Impaler |

| Slaughterer |

| Sword Master |

| Tormentor |

| Vindicator |

All these classes sounded epic and brutal. However, Josh considered all the killing behind him. He was only a regular man, one that had snapped and somehow destroyed a triad. From now on he would simply be regular prisoner J, for Josh or Jobless. He would simply sleep in his cell while awaiting death.

Josh couldn't help but ask further. "You said something about changing my memories?"

To which the voice confirmed again. That was all it would do. He would remember these heroes' experiences as if his own.

Josh would never accept that!

He would gladly sacrifice his body, soul, or even his future. But never his memories, for it was the only place where they still existed. He chuckled before declaring. "Class: Josh Malum." The voice stopped for a second, seemingly processing the information.

[ No class selected! ]

To which he replied again. "Josh Malum."

[ No class-]

"I said. Josh Motherfucking Malum."

[ Class selected: | Josh Malum |]

Josh nodded satisfied. This was a dream, he may as well bend the system to his will.

Josh couldn't help but think this whole Tower thing would have made an engaging plot for a web novel. Perhaps he was having withdrawal symptoms? It had been a while since he had read one.

Maybe this whole dream was caused by that. Before, he was always so busy but now... Maybe he could beg the warden for...

[Special Welcoming Event!]

[First Mission: Survive! Good Luck Player!]

'Oh, is it starting? Thank you weird toneless voice, I guess.'

Then Josh was left alone, the voice vanishing completely.

****

Josh Malum awoke to the barks of dogs and the screams of humans, two things he was familiar with but would never have expected to hear in a prison. So loud! 'Five more minutes, no just one will do!' He thought. But the disturbing noises wouldn't stop.

'Guess I'll have to get up. Such a pain. Can't they let me serve my sentence in quiet and tranquility?!' Josh slowly rose, he wasn't in the prison anymore. At all! The dream and the transmigration had both been real!

Josh wrinkled his nose in disgust. He had caught a whiff of so many scents. There was the rotten egg smell of sulfur that permeated the air, there was the musky smell of wild beasts, the stink of humans losing control over their bowels, and finally, of course, the iron blood. So much blood that it made the blackish ground bright red. It was akin to a painting made from the suffering and distress of humans.

People could be seen running around flailing their limbs in uncoordinated motions. No, in their wild panic they looked more like animals, pushing each other, screaming atop of their lungs, crying, soiling themselves, some were even frozen in place doing nothing but shaking.

What made them like that? The beasts. Twin-headed hounds that were having fun chasing, catching, gnashing, and devouring the weak humans. A fiery aura surrounded each of these. These were clearly cerberuses. Josh knew not only by their appearances but also thanks to the floating nameplates above their heads.

<Cerberus Lv1 >

The dogs, no monsters, were big, muscular, bloodthirsty, sending saliva flying all over the place, and overall extremely dangerous for sure. Some, having successfully hunted their prey, were busy munching on unrecognizable corpses.

The whole scene was tainted with a bloody red glow seemingly coming from the sky itself. It was softly illuminating the carnage happening, making it all look surreal.

That is when Josh noticed a familiar face, the thief he had met in the morning in fact. Well, all that remained of him was a severed head. He too had died, like countless others.

That is when Josh heard the growling of a Cerberus that pounced on him. A normal guy would have shat himself panicking. Had it been two years ago, Josh would have reacted in such a way too. But the current Josh simply high-kicked the creature sending it tumbling.

That action sent a pang of pain in his leg, but he simply disregarded it. Back when he was first training himself, he had experienced plenty of pain already.

Back then, he barely knew how to dodge a punch, yet he fought gangsters on a daily basis. It reached a point where every hospital in the country had welcomed him at least once. Of course, his real name had never been on any of the official records.

The hardest had always been to pick the right targets for training. The best was someone that would voluntarily brutalize him without severely injuring him. Then he slowly upgraded to more challenging enemies.

If there was one thing Josh learned: one should never let the opponent recover.

As soon as the hound fell, Josh instantly started kicking one head until a satisfying CRACK came. The remaining one tried biting him while howling in pain. But he dodged it easily and kept kicking until the monster stopped moving entirely.

Blood splattered everywhere tainting his white straitjacket. How regrettable, it was his cutest one. (and only).

Josh thought this had to be the craziest jailbreak of all time. In this case, one apparently involving Cerberuses. The name sounded magical, but in fact, they were nothing but gross-looking rabid dogs.

After that brief fight, three more jumped at him. They all suffered the same fate. So quickly that it sent a message to the other creatures. Josh simply sat on the corpses the rough fur being slightly uncomfortable, no Cerberus daring to approach anymore.

The voice had said to survive. Now he just had to wait. Meanwhile, many were dying.

Josh himself used to be a happy-go-lucky youth at one point. The type that would have definitely run to the others to help them. But, years of brewing resentment had left him pessimist about the world. The world did not care. About anyone.

After all, when the people he loved died no one even batted an eye. The Dragon Triad had simply assigned a fall guy and that was the end of it. Josh had ended that man's life peacefully. Poisoning someone in prison turned out to be relatively easy.

Cries of help resonated. "Please help me! Please!" Only to get instantly silenced by merciless maws. Most of these were normal everyday people. They were not ready for this. Josh kept a vigilant gaze as people kept dying and dying. Most of them not showing a shadow of adaptation capabilities.

Josh would not save anyone unworthy. Not because he thought he had the right to judge. Simply because there was a high chance these people would die even if he DID save them. If not today, tomorrow for sure.

All the humans staying calm were in no real danger. There were enough fools running toward the Cerberuses to keep them busy. Too many escaped a creature just to offer themselves to another.

That is when the sound of a horn resonated and made all the creatures retreat. At that point, there were about a hundred disheveled humans still alive including Josh. Out of all of them, 5 peculiar individuals stood out:

1. A little girl, maybe 10 years old. Completely soaked in blood but intact.

2. A young man with a huge grin on his face and blood on his hands.

3. An unharmed young lady with flamboyant red sneakers.

4. A muscular middle-aged man holding a dead Cerberus as a weapon, seriously!

5. An old granny slowly walking with a cane in hand. One that Josh recognized as hiding a sword inside.

Of the lot, these seemed to be the ones adapting the best to the situation. That is when something popped in front of everyone's vision.

[Once again, welcome to the Dimensional Tower! =) ]

[Special Welcoming Event Part 2!]

[Choose one: Fight as a group | fight alone]