The television flickered in the corner of their cramped Dublin flat. RTE News played at low volu.
"...Guild Ironclad suffered devastating losses today on Floor 45. Twelve Challengers are confird dead, including Guild Master Patricia O’Brien’s daughter, Sarah. She was nineteen years old."
Jas stared at his plate, fork in hand, knuckles white. Across from him, his mother stirred her tea without purpose, eyes fixed on the screen, shoulders drawn in as she watched families weep outside Dublin Tower.
The anchor kept talking. "This marks the forty-third consecutive failed attempt to clear Floor 45. Families of the deceased will receive standard guild benefits, totaling approximately two million euros per Challenger..."
Jas set down his fork with a soft clink against the plate.
"Mum, I’ve been aning to tell you sothing." The words ca out quieter than he intended. "I’m going to beco a Challenger."
The spoon stopped mid-stir. Her fist tightened around the handle and she kept her eyes on the swirling tea, not looking at him. Several seconds passed.
The TV moved on to a comrcial for Tower gear insurance.
"Mum—"
"No."
"I know what you’re thinking, but—"
"You don’t know what I’m thinking." Her eyes were already wet when she finally looked at him. "You couldn’t."
"I already lost your father to that tower," she said, her voice unsteady. "Do you rember what they sent ho?"
Jas’s throat tightened as the mory ca back. The wooden box. Barely enough inside to confirm it was him.
"I can’t bury you too." She grabbed his hand across the table, gripping it hard. "Jas, please. You’re all I have left."
"I know—"
"Don’t do this." Tears slid down her face. "I’ve worked three jobs to keep you alive, to give you a real chance at sothing. Don’t make bury my son."
Her voice broke on the last word.
Jas squeezed her hand. His voice was low, steady. "I’ll be careful. I promise. I won’t be reckless like Dad was."
"Your father said the sa thing." She pulled her hand back like she’d been burned. "He promised he’d co ho."
"This isn’t the sa—"
"It’s exactly the sa."
"Look at where we are." Jas gestured around the flat. "We’re rotting here and nothing is going to change that."
"We’re alive—"
"Barely." His hands pressed flat on the table. "Dad’s brothers took everything after he died. Three million in Tower Credits, the life insurance payout, all of it. They called it family property. And we can’t even fix the heating. You work seventy hours a week and we still can’t get ahead."
"I don’t care about the money—"
"I do." He held her gaze. "You’re destroying yourself and it won’t stop unless I actually change sothing."
"And you think dying in a tower changes anything?"
"I’m not going to die."
"Everyone thinks that." Her voice dropped. "Your father did."
Jas leaned back in his chair. Rain had started against the window outside.
"I can work minimum wage for forty years and we’ll still be sitting in this sa flat. Or I take the risk and maybe we get a real life out of it. That’s the choice."
"Or you die in the Tutorial like eighty percent of everyone who walks through."
"Or I’m part of the twenty percent who walk back out."
She didn’t answer. Her hand was trembling when she picked her fork back up. She started eating again in silence, tears still on her face, not looking at him.
They finished dinner without another word. The TV kept running through Challenger morial segnts and Guild recruitnt ads.
♢♢♢♢
11:58 PM.
Jas lay on his bed fully dressed, staring at the water-stained ceiling. His hands wouldn’t stay still.
He could hear his mother in the other room, still moving around. She wouldn’t sleep tonight. He knew that much.
He tried to rember his father’s face and found that seven years had worn most of the details away. He rembered the laugh. He rembered the last ti he’d seen him suited up in Challenger gear, telling Jas he’d be back soon.
He pushed the mory aside.
After his father died, his uncles moved fast. Nearly three million in Tower Credits. Life insurance. They’d called it family property, and said the money belonged to all of them by right. By the ti his mother had managed to get a solicitor to look at it, the accounts had already been emptied.
Jas checked his phone on the nightstand. 11:59 PM.
Everything he’d said at dinner was true. He’d ant all of it. This was the only path forward that made any real sense.
But eighty percent didn’t make it through the Tutorial alive. Four out of five people who made this sa choice tonight would be dead inside seventy-two hours.
He could choose Civilian. Stay safe. Work his way through life like everyone told you to, slow and steady and unremarkable.
But then what? Another fifty years in flats like this one, watching his mother run herself into the ground while his uncles lived comfortably off money that had been his father’s?
Jas stood and walked to the window. Rain streaked down the glass. He stood there a while with his forehead almost touching the cold pane.
He thought about his father one last ti. His dad would have said sothing stupid and optimistic about taking chances and not living with regrets. Sothing exactly like that.
Jas turned from the window and took a slow breath.
Then midnight hit.
A sound like a chi went off inside Jas’s head. So blue words showed up in front of his eyes.
[INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.]
[YOU ARE NOW ELIGIBLE TO BECO A CHALLENGER.]
Jas’s breathing stopped for a second.
[PLEASE REVIEW THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CAREFULLY.]
[DESIGNATION OPTIONS:. Civilian]
[CHALLENGER: YOU CAN USE THE TOWER SYSTEM.. You MIGHT DIE. YOU MIGHT ALSO GET POWER AND MONEY.]
[CIVILIAN: YOU CAN STAY ON EARTH. YOU WILL BE SAFE. YOU WILL LIVE A LIFE.]
[YOU CANNOT CHANGE THIS CHOICE ONCE YOU MAKE IT.]
[PLEASE SELECT YOUR DESIGNATION.]
Two buttons showed up in front of Jas. They were glowing a little: [CHALLENGER]. [CIVILIAN].
Jas looked at them. His finger was in the air not moving.
He thought about his mother, who was probably still awake in the room, probably saying prayers that he would choose Civilian.
He thought about his father and the box that ca ho to him.
He thought about this apartnt. What it would be, like to stay here for fifty more years.
His hand drifted toward Civilian first, stopped, pulled back without touching it.
Then moved to Challenger.
Eighty percent don’t make it out alive. But twenty percent do.
Jas steadied his hand and pressed it without letting himself think any further.
VERIFIED TITLE: CHALLENGER]
[WELCO TO THE TOWER CONNECTION]
[ PREPARING TUTORIAL, FOR SHIPNT]
[TRANSPORT BEGINNING IN 30 Seconds]
It was just 30 Seconds but that was all he needed to say goodbye to his mom.
[TRANSPORT INITIATING]
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