The torrential rain was pouring down like the world itself was trying to rid itself of something filthy. The drops hit the ground with a sound of condemnation, like each one was a warning that something big was about to happen. Or maybe it was just another day in the hell I found myself in.

  I was running.

  Running from slimes.

  Yeah, you heard that right: slimes. Those gooey little monsters that look like slime but have an infinite amount of patience when they want to finish you off. I was trying to figure out what went wrong in my life that led me to this situation, but... eh, if I cared about that, I'd be lost. I'm good at this — surviving.

  "SHIT, this is gonna kill me!" I thought, watching a particularly fat slime closing in, picking up the pace like a hungry predator.

  Suddenly, the leaves fall, and something shines. A bright blue light, cutting through the space around me. Oh, great. I knew this was gonna happen. Whenever the "prophet hero" dies, there has to be a bright light in the horizon, like destiny’s trying to tell me something. The problem is, I’m not interested in destiny. Never was.

  "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I yelled, running to avoid an impact that wouldn’t come from a slime, but from something much more... interesting.

  I barely noticed, but I was already in the center of an open field, the area with a giant tree and a floating platform in the middle of nowhere. When I saw what was happening, I almost laughed. Almost.

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  The real Chosen One was there. He was ready to get a fortuitous event — which didn’t make sense, considering the last time I saw someone that high level, he was too busy trying not to drown in a swamp. But anyway, apparently, destiny loves jokes.

  And then... the prophet hero slipped.

  I was watching the scene, confused, when suddenly a stupid sound echoed. The guy just... slipped on the blade he grabbed (which, by the way, was an epic sword that I kinda wanted to steal). He was flung forward and hit his head on a nearby stalagmite. No glamour, no fire, nothing. Just a head hitting stone. And he died.

  He died.

  I, on the other hand, was there, watching with a mix of shock and a stifled laugh. The kind of laugh you let out when you see a friend faceplant into a mud cake — it’s funny, but at the same time, you get the feeling of "this isn’t right."

  And then the sky... flickered.

  The system glitched.

  It was like a catastrophic error in a code no one was ready to see. The words "New Chosen One" started to glow in the air before disappearing like they were erased. The system, the one that controlled the Tower and reality, was trying to tell me something.

  I was close. Closer than I should have been.

  I didn’t know I had anything to do with this. Not until I felt a crushing pain spread through my chest. Like an electric current, it coursed through me, and everything around me distorted. Whatever had happened, now I was being pulled into the center of it all.

  The words "You have been chosen" materialized in neon around me.

  I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t understand what was going on. But, without meaning to, I’d already made the dumbest choice of my life.

  With a sly smile, I looked at the hero’s remains and shouted:

  — "Well, looks like I stole your destiny. You owe me one, big guy."

  From that moment on, nothing would be the same. I wasn’t alone in this game.

  The Tower wanted to manipulate reality. I just wanted to survive. But in the end, who was going to manipulate who?