Without wasting any time, Liam dragged Derek into the tall sky-high tower. "Do you know what this is?"
"No, sir. I didn't have the time to check it yet."
"Ha." Liam chuckled. "You can just call me Liam. No need to be so formal. And this is the PVP tower. Instead of me explaining everything to you, why don't we just dive in?"
"You can then find out for yourself just what sort of a place this is."
"Ok, si- Liam." Derek nodded. As opposed to his body's build and broad structure, the guy looked like he was a very reserved and silent type.
Liam almost couldn't believe that this was the same person who would one day become a dragon-like war god.
As he thought about this, another small doubt sprouted in him.
He had changed the timeline and influenced something major, so would this person still develop as much as his previous self?
Or this time, he wouldn't become that exceptional warrior and instead just remain an ordinary soldier?
There were clear consequences for every one of his actions, so he wouldn't be surprised if this time also things changed completely because of his intervention.
"Well, I guess he would still be a soldier who is loyal to me. So it doesn't matter." Liam muttered in silent contemplation.
He did his part to bring him to his side. The rest was not in his hands, so he let it be for now.
However, despite his words, he couldn't help but hope for the best. He wanted that strong and powerful awe-inspiring General on his side.
It would be a shame if that person never existed.
Liam sighed silently and as he was musing about this, Derek took a look around the place.
The entrance of the tower opened up to a huge hall without any other rooms or corridors.
In the center of this huge hall, there was a big fighting ring, an arena, and surrounding this arena were numerous seats enough to house hundreds of people.
It was almost like an indoor stadium except that there were several of these stadiums one above the other in the structure of a tower!
And in total, there were 1000 floors to this tower!
Derek gulped, looking nervously at the lift near the entrance. It really had a thousand buttons, the entire wall adorned by these buttons, dazzling brightly like multi-colored gems.
It was disorienting to look at it, probably because of the magnitude of the building rather than the flashing lights.
This was probably the gateway to going up and down these floors, but it looked like not everyone could access the lift?
When Derek tried pressing one of the buttons, nothing happened.
Seeing this, Liam pointed to the referee who was sitting at the corner of the arena.
"No. You need to first participate in a match to determine if you are worthy or not of going to the upper floors."
"Go and register yourself with him."
Derek nodded, clenching his fist. This was his first test. He wanted to do his best to show Liam that he was worth his salt.
He did not want to disappoint the first person who had shown kindness to him.
As the two of them walked in, one seemingly relaxed and casual and the other anxious and nervous as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, several people turned to look at them.
There were already many players gathered around, sitting on the seats surrounding the arena.
"New blood!" Someone from the crowd shouted.
"Fuck! Finally, my chance has arrived!" Someone else shouted.
"You are joking, right? Look at that guy's size. He will crush you in a single hit." A third person snickered.
"Hey! I was not talking about him. Look at the second person. He looks like a noob. Doesn't even have a single piece of gear on him."
"I think that guy probably paid this guy to carry him. If we play against him, it will be an easy win. He He."
"Oh, you are right. I am going to go sign up now before I miss this chance."
"Fuck! It was my idea. I will sign up first."
A small commotion arose in the arena as different players hurried over to the referee.
Liam still had his face covered so no one commented much about him. Derek on the other hand quickly became a topic of discussion.
While they all wanted to fight with the former, no one wanted to fight with Derek. He was a big intimidating guy but he wasn't overweight and flabby.
He was muscular with a tight figure. So even at a mere glance, no one dared to underestimate him.
They openly eyed Liam like he was the harmless cat sitting on the tiger. They hurried and queued up, hoping to fight with him instead of the bulldozer next to him.
And seeing all these theatrics, the harmless cat shook his head helplessly.
"Tsk. Tsk. What a hassle! The ground floor is always messy. Don't worry, once we go to the upper floors, it will be much more peaceful." Liam grumbled, to which Derek nodded silently.
The two of them also joined the long queue and eventually signed up with the referee.
"Liam, is there any place where I can… maybe practice?" Derek asked nervously. There were so many people gathered in the arena and he did not have any confidence.
He hoped that he could maybe train somewhere for a little bit since there were several players queued up to fight.
It would definitely take a while for his chance to arrive so he wanted to calm down in the meantime.
But, Liam did not respond to him and only gave him a mysterious smile.
"Huh?"
Before Derek could make sense of this weird smile, the next second, the referee stood up and called out his number loudly.
As opposed to what he was thinking, it looked like they didn't have to wait for long at all.
It was his turn already!