Vance and Jaxon navigated the winding backstreets until they reached the logistics district. A secondary spire loomed over the industrial blocks, serving entirely as the administrative hub for support classes and transport guilds.
They entered the bustling lobby and crammed into a massive freight elevator alongside dozens of other exhausted workers hauling crates of monster cores.
The heavy steel doors of the freight elevator slid apart, dumping Vance and Jaxon onto the fifty-fifth floor of the Porter Tower. A chaotic sea of shouting contractors, bruised workers, and stacked supply crates filled the massive administrative hub.
The Porter Organization ran the entire logistical network for the Awakened from this central spire, leasing out individual guilds to handle transport and dungeon support contracts.
Vance stepped aside as a hulking man carrying a steel container three times his size stomped past them, his arms glowing with the bright blue mana of a strength-enhancing skill. Porters survived and thrived by developing highly specialized abilities focused entirely on inventory management, stamina, and evasion.
Those who performed well climbed the ranks rapidly, securing safer contracts and better cuts of the loot. Off to the left, a furious Awakener slammed a shattered shield onto a clerk's desk, screaming about damaged shipments and voided transport contracts while the official calmly handed over dispute forms.
"Watch your step," Jaxon warned, guiding Vance through the labyrinth of wooden pallets. "We are short on hands right now because of the new expansion. The agency already operates permanent outposts on the first, fifth, tenth, and fifteenth floors of the main Tower. Any raid party can radio for supply drops from anywhere inside, and the nearest outpost dispatches a team immediately."
Jaxon pointed toward a massive holographic banner flashing above the main registration desk.
It read: URGENT - PART-TIME HAULERS NEEDED FOR 20TH FLOOR OUTPOST CONSTRUCTION.
Vance stared at the glaring digital numbers. His father had just cleared the twentieth floor a few weeks ago, slaughtering the boss and expanding the playable zone. The logistics network immediately scrambled to establish a brand-new agency on the freshly conquered level, requiring a massive influx of disposable bodies to haul heavy construction materials up through the lower zones.
They reached the registration counter. A bored clerk slid a thick digital tablet across the scratched metal surface.
"Standard entry fee is fifty silver coins," the clerk muttered, tapping the screen. "Mandatory mortality insurance is another thirty. Press your thumb on the scanner to sign."
Vance kept his hands at his sides. He did not possess a single copper piece, let alone eighty silver. He looked over at Jaxon. The stocky porter smiled, pulling a heavy leather pouch from his belt and dumping a pile of silver coins onto the counter.
"I will cover my friend's start-up costs," Jaxon announced, projecting his voice to ensure the nearby workers heard the exchange. "Consider it a loan between brothers, Vance. You can pay me back from your wages."
'You are just gonna get a huge sum of insurance money when I die. Cover it with that money instead.' Vance wanted to say it out loud, but it didn't matter.
Vance pressed his thumb against the digital scanner without breaking eye contact with the tablet. Jaxon's father owned the Ironhide Porters. The guild heir could have easily bypassed the administrative fees with a single phone call or a signed voucher.
Paying out of pocket in front of an audience served exactly one purpose, and that was putting a heavy leash on the disgraced son of the Von Frost family. Jaxon wanted Vance utterly indebted to him from day one.
"Grab your standard-issue uniform and the reinforced backpack from the reception bay at the end of the hall," Jaxon instructed, patting Vance heavily on the shoulder. "I need to go track down the rest of our team and brief them on the new assignment. Do not wander off."
Vance watched jaxon leave.
"Didn't he become some kind of big shot in the future? I don't remember well since he was just a side character."
Vance navigated the crowded corridor toward the reception bay and traded his digital voucher for a bundle of heavy fabric and a reinforced canvas rucksack. He ducked into a cramped locker room reeking of sweat and stale potions. Stripping off his ruined civilian clothes, he pulled on the standard-issue Ironhide uniform.
The coarse fabric scratched against his skin, and the thick leather boots pinched his toes, offering minimal protection against the hazards of the Tower. He hoisted the empty pack over his shoulder and pushed the locker room door open.
Voices echoed from the loading dock just outside the corridor. Vance paused behind a stack of wooden pallets, listening to the heated exchange.
"You dragged another stray off the street, Jaxon." A gruff voice echoed over the clatter of equipment. "We run a five-man crew for a reason. Extra bodies attract monsters."
"We are severely understaffed and overloaded with supplies for the vanguard camps," Jaxon countered, his boots scraping against the concrete floor. "We need a sixth man to haul the extra plating. He is just a pack mule for the heavy lifting."
Vance stepped out from behind the crates and walked directly toward the group gathered around a pile of transport containers. Jaxon clapped his hands together and gestured toward the four Awakeners strapping armor over their uniforms.
"Listen up, everyone," Jaxon announced, pointing at the team members one by one. "This is Vance. He will be carrying the overflow. Vance, meet Brunt, Silas, and Corin." Jaxon pointed to three heavily scarred men adjusting their carrying harnesses.
He then gestured to a young woman fastening a series of glowing blue beacons to her belt. "And this is Kira. She is the absolute core of this unit. She possesses instant spatial transport between pre-marked waypoints, guaranteeing our exit strategy when things go bad."
Kira glanced at Vance, her eyes narrowing as she took in his pale features and completely unawakened presence. She turned back to her equipment without offering a greeting.
Brunt shoved a massive, iron-reinforced supply crate toward Vance. The container scraped loudly against the concrete before slamming into Vance's boots.
Vance grabbed the thick leather handles and hauled the crate upward. His knees buckled slightly under the immense weight of the dense building materials inside. His shoulder joints burned as he forced himself to stand straight, adjusting the straps to keep the load from pulling him backward onto the floor.
'This body is weak as fuck.' Vance said to himself.
Jaxon picked up a small, perfectly cubic box sealed with glowing red runes. He tucked the lightweight package securely under his arm, carrying absolutely nothing else.
"An S-rank vanguard commissioned this delivery for the newly opened twenty-first floor," Jaxon explained, tapping the glowing runes on the box. "The rest of you are hauling the barricade supplies to the twentieth-floor outpost. Let's move."
The six of them marched through the logistics hub toward the primary transit terminal. Massive archways of carved obsidian lined the sprawling chamber, each swirling with a vortex of violet energy linking directly to specific layers of the Tower.
Jaxon led the team toward the massive gate designated for the twentieth floor. Vance tightened his grip on the heavy straps, gritted his teeth against the burning pain in his spine, and stepped through the swirling violet rift behind the rest of the crew.
The portal spit them out into a howling blizzard. Vance sank knee-deep into a massive snowdrift, the freezing wind instantly biting at his exposed face.
Every single floor of the Tower operated as an entirely independent world possessing its own unique climate, ecosystem, and native inhabitants. The twentieth floor consisted of endless frozen tundras and towering glaciers.
The massive, headless carcass of an Ice Serpent Hydra still loomed in the distant frozen lake, serving as a gruesome monument to his father's destructive power.
Vance grunted under the weight of his cargo and trudged toward the half-constructed outpost. He dropped the reinforced crate onto a cleared patch of permafrost and rolled his shoulders to work out the burning ache in his joints.
"Leave the barricades here for the builders," Jaxon ordered, pulling his fur-lined collar up over his ears. "The rest of you stay at the camp and help them secure the perimeter. I need to deliver this sealed box to the vanguard on the twenty-first floor. Vance, you are coming with me."
Vance kept his gaze locked on the snow, instantly recognizing the trap. The logistics network operated in full teams to maximize survival rates and ensure the safety of the cargo. Isolating an unawakened rookie on an unexplored, highly dangerous floor practically guaranteed an unfortunate accident away from prying eyes.
"I can barely stand," Vance said, leaning heavily against the wooden crate and pressing a hand to his temple. "This is my first time crossing a dimensional gate. My vision is spinning in circles. You should take Brunt or Silas for a vanguard delivery."
Silas adjusted the heavy iron shield strapped to his back and stepped forward. "We sign the transport manifest as a unit, Jaxon. If you cross into an active combat zone alone and get ambushed, we lose our entire cut of the commission. We all go."
Jaxon clenched his jaw. His fingers dug into the edges of the sealed cubic box until his knuckles turned completely white. "Fine. But we move fast."
Vance pushed himself off the crate, pretending to blink away his lingering dizziness. "I can manage if we stick together."
They marched past the construction zone and stepped onto the swirling violet transit pad linking to the next tier. The blinding blizzard vanished instantly, replaced by the blazing heat of a midday sun.
Vance stepped off the platform and stared out over a sprawling, vibrant kingdom in a far away distance. Massive stone walls encircled a bustling city filled with towering spires and winding cobblestone streets.
Knights clad in shining steel plating patrolled the lively marketplaces, navigating past wooden merchant stalls and horse-drawn carriages. Elven rangers and cloaked mages roamed through the crowds, trading pelts and potions beneath the shadow of a colossal royal castle built into the mountainside.
The entire environment looked exactly like the fantasy role-playing games he used to stream, completely detached from the futuristic metropolis of the real world outside the Tower.
Brunt dropped his heavy canvas pack onto the grass and pointed a thick finger at the sprawling fantasy metropolis shimmering on the horizon.
"If we have to hike all the way to those castle walls, our contract fee jumps by thirty percent." Brunt wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "That is an extra day of travel and a massive risk for an escort team our size."
Vance stared at the distant stone spires and bustling medieval streets. A mundane life inside those walls suddenly seemed like the perfect escape. He could abandon the Awakener madness entirely, find a job sweeping floors in a tavern, and live out his days completely detached from the apocalyptic storyline. The city offered a perfect haven for a minor NPC to disappear.
"The vanguard is not waiting in the kingdom," Jaxon replied, adjusting his grip on the sealed cubic box. "They set up a temporary camp in a nearby settlement. We just need to cut through the mountain cave network ahead to reach the drop point."
Silas pulled a bulky brass device from his belt. The scanner tracked ambient monster signatures, ensuring logistics teams could navigate around hostile spawn zones. The needle hovered near the bottom of the dial as they marched away from the grassy plains and entered the yawning mouth of the stone cavern.
Shadows swallowed the team as they pushed deeper into the mountain.
Then, the brass device in Silas's hand suddenly shrieked. A piercing alarm echoed off the cavern walls, and the glass face cracked entirely as the needle pinned itself past the maximum limit.
Black smoke erupted from the cavern floor. The shadows twisted violently, spiraling upward to form a towering silhouette. A woman stepped out of the darkness. Two curved horns rose from her forehead, framing a flawlessly sculpted face and glowing violet eyes. Dark leather and crimson silk clung tightly to an incredibly voluptuous figure, leaving her midriff and long legs completely exposed. Massive leathery wings folded behind her back.
A glowing red banner materialized above her head, displaying her title for the entire cavern to see.
[Asmodeus, Demon Princess, 36th Floor Boss]
Vance froze in place. The narrative engine refused to let him escape. He changed his entire approach, yet the game literally ripped a boss from fifteen floors higher and dropped her directly into a tutorial cave just to guarantee his execution.
"Kira, get us out of here right now!" Jaxon screamed, stumbling backward.
Kira slammed her hands together. A blinding blue teleportation circle flared to life beneath her boots. Jaxon, Brunt, and Silas scrambled into the glowing ring. Vance lunged forward, throwing his weight toward the safety of the spell.
Jaxon planted his boot squarely in Vance's chest and shoved him backward. Vance hit the cavern floor hard, sliding across the loose gravel.
"The maximum capacity for emergency transit is exactly five people," Jaxon said, his eyes wide with panic as the spell reached its zenith. "I will inform the vanguard and send a strike team back for you."
The blue light flashed, and the five porters vanished entirely.
Vance scrambled backward until his shoulders hit the cavern wall.
Asmodeus turned her glowing violet eyes toward him. She raised a slender hand and flicked her wrist. An invisible force slammed into the stone right where Vance's head had been a fraction of a second prior.
He threw himself sideways, dodging a telekinetic blast that shattered the cavern wall into dust and shrapnel.
The demon princess frowned. She stared at her open palms with genuine confusion. Her wings twitched as she tried to gather the black smoke again, her fingers curling into tight fists. The dark energy sputtered and faded around her wrists.
The dimensional suppression of the twenty-first floor was actively rejecting a thirty-sixth-floor entity, throttling her immense power down to a fraction of its true potential.
A brilliant golden light suddenly flooded Vance's vision. A robotic voice echoed directly inside his skull.
DING!
[ Congratulations! You have turned 18! ]
"What...?" Vance gasped, clutching his bruised chest. "So I am going to die on my birthday? Is death my birthday gift?"
[ Synchronizing your systems. ]
"System..s?" Vance repeated, his eyes darting frantically around the cavern.
DING!
[ Pick up system activated! ]
- You can pick up talents, attributes, skills, and items from each and every opponent you kill in battle!
DING!
[ Gluttony System activated! ]
- You can level up by killing any life forms.
DING!
[ Lust system has been activated. ]
- Make women lust for you and fall in love with you. With every successful orgasm or Quest completion, you will get 1 lust point, which can be used to do anything. You can buy an attribute. Unlock a skill. Change your class. Buy a weapon. And level up!
[Scanning your surroundings!]
[Perfect match found!]
[Seduce the Demon Princess.]
[Reward- 1 lust point. 1 SSS rank weapon ]
[Failure/penalty- Death.]
Vance stared at the glowing blue text hovering in his field of vision. This completely shattered the established lore of Project Hero. Nobody in the game's history possessed multiple systems, and absolutely nothing mentioned a mechanic revolving around seduction.
He looked up at the stunning, yet terrifying demon boss preparing to launch another telekinetic strike.
"Is this a taunt of my death?" Vance yelled at the floating screens. "How am I supposed to seduce a monster who is actively trying to rip my head off?"