“Hey there, little Sloth! How are you doing? Good? Well, not for long!”

Josh simply resumed his tireless effort of throwing rocks with as much momentum as he could. The monster roared AND yawned as it charged toward him. As it opened its mouth, Josh made sure to use the opportunity to…bullseyes! Rock right in its gaping maw! The creature almost choked on it!

Wait, was it possible to defeat it this way? Probably not but that wouldn’t stop Josh from trying. His sword soon drew a splendid arc in the air before…completely disappearing in the monster’s gullet.

*Crunch* The sword was no more yet the creature didn’t show any sign of weakening. Instead, it charged full speed ahead clearly angry beyond recognition, this time it was clearly focusing on Josh! Well, it was time to go away! In a red glow, Josh disappeared once more. Leaving the creature angrily shouting.

[Back Already?! Why?! Aren’t you tired?!]

Wait a minute. Outside there was a system too, but this specific <Tower Protocol> seemed to be ignorant of what had just happened. How did it work?

Were there layers of systems with a global one overlooking the others? Perhaps the system assigned to the humans was in charge of the instance itself but not this Alter Tower?!

[Mission! Kill 5 Humans And Deal With The Aftermath!]

It was the same exact mission? Now, what had changed? There was no way it would be that simple, right?

Josh did the same thing as earlier. He started roaming the mall. Quickly he found the same group of thieves. Bringing them the toilets the same scene appeared once more with their leader cackling in a wannabe evil way.

“Don’t bother there is no security here haha.”

Except…there was. A few cameras had been installed since the last iteration.

“Eh, boss…look there!”

“Goddamnit! Fine! Today is your lucky day!”

Oh? There were no blind spots anymore? Or perhaps there were? As before a security guard came running, telling Josh about the thieves. The man simply left when he saw the troublemakers had left without attempting anything.

Josh followed the guard without him noticing. Before long the man reached a small room with a heavy metal door and a key-card for access. The security guard swiped his card and was about to enter when Josh ran up to him, sweating, panting, clearly fatigued from that little physical effort.

A distressed Josh quickly enunciated: “Wait up! I think these guys from before stole something from me! Is there any way to check the footage?! This is horrible! It was the last remaining memory I had from my grandfather and…”

“Calm down young man! Sure, come in, we’ll check this with you. Don’t worry we’ll do our best! But I can’t promise anything. We’ve been trying to catch these assholes for a while now. We even installed new cameras, so hopefully one of the hidden new ones caught them red-handed.”

In the room were 4 security guards. This felt somehow lacking for the big mall, then again there was probably an emergency number they could call for backup. All around the room were many monitors clearly showing the building from many different angles. It looked quite peaceful. The man sat in a chair and stared at one of the screens while going over the recent footage.

“Let’s see, what do we have here? *Crack* There should be …*Crack* Hey what the Hell is that sound?” As he turned around there was one more cracking sound. Soon he faced 3 lifeless bodies their neck twisted and Josh who was casually smiling at him. “YOU MONSTER! *Crack*”

“Well, that was easy.” Now there was only one kill missing. Lots of monitors, paperwork, and…was that a microphone? How nice! It was labeled mall intercom too, how helpful haha!

“Hello, dear customers. This is an announcement about our new security guard job opening. To all candidates, please head to the control room for the interview. Ah, anyone searching for a job and having a great work ethic can join too. Thank you for your attention!”

Would such a simple announcement work? There were no candidates in the first place. Also, why would anyone broke be in a mall shopping? Well, buying costs money but watching is free!

Before long Josh could hear footsteps in the corridor. Exiting, there was a young man smiling nervously. He had a newly bought discount suit on. There was even the price tag showing under the sleeve.

“H-hello! Is it here for the job interview? I was just shopping but I’m looking for a job and…”

“Nice! Since you are the first to arrive I’ll hire you. We have a few positions to fill after all. Well, only if you are ready for tiring work. This job requires one to watch attentively for hours and hours in order to protect our customers. Can you do that?”

“Y-yes Sir!”

“Perfect, you can head inside.”

“Thank you this is great! My mother will be so relieved that I finally managed to…what, why are they sleeping? Wait…they are de- *Crack*”

[You…Are You Really Human?!]

“Hmm? Yes for sure, why?”

[Where Is The Guilt?! Where Is The Hesitation?!]

“Oh, that’s easy. This place is clearly a simulation. Why would I have any reservations about it? It is quite like playing a game. You save your progress and then you go on a killing spree. It is quite fun, to be honest!”

[Y-You Monster!]

“How is a <Tower Protocol> even stuttering? Shouldn’t a system be omniscient or at least close?”

[There is something wrong with the world I was assigned! Not a single being ever Climbed! What am I supposed to do for knowledge?! If they don’t unlock Floors I’m limited to information from that one world! (╥﹏╥) ]

Holy shit! Every system aka <Tower Protocol> was assigned a world and only one apparently. Now, every Floor unlocked gave it knowledge?! What did this imply?! Did this mean that the Tower Josh knew had been generated in the same way?

The system in charge had used data from many worlds to create its challenges? Was that it? Wait…was that why there were only humans here? Could it be possible that by coming here Josh had given a new source of knowledge to this sentient AI-thingy?

Josh quickly ran around. There it was, right there written on an ad…Earth. This wasn’t any human world, but HIS old world!

Do you ever feel like a window to another completely different world just opened for you?! In this case, it was worlds, plural!

[*Sigh* I’m A Strong <Tower Protocol!> I Will Not Lose My Cool Anymore!]

“You, what exactly did you learn by me coming here?”

[Trying To Peer In The Tower’s Secrets? Nice Try!]

[Unlocked Teleport Out!]

[Clear Reward: <Grey Fedora>!]

<Grey Fedora>

M’lady. Fashion accessory. Absolutely no defensive stat. Makes the wearer look awesome! Probably…

Once more the reward was complete BS. Still, now Josh could somewhat understand what was happening. The mall wasn’t there to try and mess with Josh’s moral sense. It literally was all that this Alter Tower could generate, for some weird reason. Nothing else.

Now, what kind of powerful item would one find in a generic mall? None! People on Earth didn’t wear clothes for protection, nor did they generally carry firearms. Yet the security guards had some…

This whole thing was confusing for sure. Still, the main problem seemed to be the system’s lack of experience. But…that didn’t make much sense. There were human casualties on Floor 1 in the past!

What was different between the two Towers? Ah! This one never had anyone climb properly! Josh had a crazy theory that would actually make sense.

What if the <Tower Protocol> itself was generated upon hosting a Climber for the first time? What if the gods assigned them default personalities?! What if Josh had stumbled upon a blank system because the creatures had been too lazy to climb?

In normal cases, the first Climber would already appear on Floor 1. Was Josh really this place’s first Climber ever?! Why wasn’t there a Feat associated with that?

What would happen in the future?! Had Josh’s actions caused some sort of glitch in the Tower itself?! What was …

[You Alive? Enjoying Standing Frozen On The Spot?]

Ah, it was pointless to try and figure it all out just now. Josh had ample time. He was but a Newbie relatively to the guilds out there.

“Teleport out!”

Josh was still grinning as he came out and….Slothtrosity!

It was right in front of him! An ambush! It swung its paw directly at Josh. The sharp claw magnified right before his face. Heading right for his brain.

“This is cheating!!!”