The world is divided in six continents as everyone knows and they are divided into a pair of two.
There are the western continents, the eastern continents, and then there are northern continents.
The west is the most developed thanks to the unique history it has, however, when it comes to technological development, the human resource management, as well as their quality of life, the east is comparatively much ahead of the west.
The north on the other hand is comparable to a growing baby with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
There are things that they could do, as well as things that they cannot. Being a continent on the northern side of the planet, the North is mostly covered in ice.
The West faces various seasons however thanks to the increased pollution and growing global warming, the west faces somewhat unpredictable weather.
East, on the other hand, has states with such stable weather that they are called the golden lands of the current world.
Still, the only reason the east isn't ahead of the west is because of the neurodiversity that they have in the western lands.
There are people here who simply know what they are doing and how to lead the world in the right place.
The people here have a deep trust in their leaders. There are some eastern states where they face almost similar rule as a monarchy or dictatorship but in the west, that is not the case.
There is more freedom and that freedom naturally births individuals who strive for growth– not reach perfection but a state better than right now.
Different states act differently to various elements, and when the Towers of Cessation materialised around the world as well, there were states that reacted to it differently.
There were things in these towers that they were never going to expect. There were people who had played the game, however even they did not know about the truth of the current tower.
The only way to know more about the tower was to get in the tower and look by themselves– so they did that.
There were some states that opened the tower to all the players after the tutorials were over.
There were many players and all these players possessed special traits, powers that their own governments could not handle.
While F2P2 was present, the states either denied their influence or the association could not reach them as well as they needed to.
Players were a new resource however many states failed to realise that, taking the tower lightly and falling to something so obvious that many other states ridiculed them soon after.
While the tower's presence was something to be feared, humanity needed to approach it more carefully than any terrorist attack or world problem that they had dealt with.
The Association that was created soon after the appearance of the tower knew very well just how difficult it was going to be for them when the time comes and different monsters start invading their lands.
They knew how with each time they climbed the tower, their world would get more integrated with the system and the tower's elements.
There were things that the public did not know, there were things that the Association did not know the public to know about, so they were keeping many things about the tower, association, and the world around the classified.
The players that were lost inside the tower did not have any open records of them. Many of them did not have any traces of them left either.
In fact, after the appearance of the tower, many of the players or more like people all around the world had vanished without a trace.
People did not know whether they were sucked inside the tower or in some other dimension but they were not there anymore, and not even the association was aware of where they might be right now.
The association was not strong enough to know everything or deal with everything, but they were slowly dealing with things, getting better, and becoming the pillar that humanity needed right now.
And for that, they were picking out the best of the best talents from all around the world, choosing only those with the highest of potential and skills.
All around the world, the association was in search of those who met their difficult criterias for the high rank individuals.
The few of the [Rank-9] that were popping out around the world were first approached by the association.
If they weren't associated with any of the large corporations, they were offered the best of the best privileges that any being in this world could possibly have.
There were instances where the people with a high rank and enough potential were granted authority over the entirety of their states and managing rights of their areas.
There were also places where they were given rights to decide everything related to the tower.
At the end of the day. A2P2 was not only working for the players but the public as well.
The players were the ones that possessed the power to save the public, and as the intermediate between both these mediums, the power to control the public and players fell into the hands of the Association.
Thus, their own Raid team for the 1st floor consisted only of the best of the best, people who were of [Rank-7] and above.
These people, naturally gifted by the heavens, possessed a diverse range of skills that could go against any of the teams assembled by any of the state governments or large corporations.
They were one of the few that were aiming for a Finish of the 1st floor, moving forward without any hesitation.
They were being led by one of the [Rank-9] a master mage possessing the powers of elements.
This mage, hailing from the west's one of the primemnt states, used to be a math professor at one of the most prestigious universities on the continent.
He was pretty famous for his findings and now that the world had changed, his role in this world had changed as well.
No longer a professor, he led the A2P2 raid team along with many of the talented individuals.
They were strong, however, he was not capable enough to guide them from the front.
Being a mage, he was a back-unit, making him not the best personal for the frontline ordering.
The role, instead, was taken over by one of the Players who had gone to some of the highest floors within the games and possessed some of the most unique knowledge about the tower and the system.
He was not that old, not even in his thirties. Yet, he was a capable swordsman of [Rank-8] that they had picked up from a small city.
The story of how he negotiated with the Association executives and secured an 81 page contract so unique that it was published as an example of what the players could obtain from the Association if they knew well and were capable enough.
Most of the other [Rank-8] and the [Rank-9] mage professor did not understand what was so special about him at first, but as they progressed on the floor and he showed off his skills, they understood why he was given such preferential treatment.
They were not jealous of him, the guy was a living personification of an ideal hero.
He possessed skills, humbleness, insight, and leadership skills that were unheard of to any of the people in this raid team.
The way he knew most of the important things about the enemies without the help of those possessing high level appraisal skills put them at an advantage that neither the National teams or the Specialised teams of the corporates possessed.
They were not the only team that was currently challenging the 1st floor of the tower either.
There was another team ahead of them consisting of the allied eastern powers led by not one but two predicted [Rank-9] players unregistered to the association.
They were moving without the permission or cooperation of the association, but they were still not the worst.
The raid team made of rogue criminals from the north were a kind of threat that no player party, official or illegal, wanted to come across.
The A2P2 party, the Eastern alliance, the criminals, and then there were Guilds that were backed by large conglomerates of six continents.
All of these people numbering thousands were currently challenging different parts of the tower.
They were eventually going to end up in the same boss area as the rest of them, so they were also aware of their opponent's movements.
The bigger names were keeping an eye on their opponents while the smaller parties were staying out of conflict, trying to munch on as much as they could.
They did not want to get stuck in the middle of a battle, and they knew they would hate to have their numbers cut down.
There were those who were moving by themselves in this tower, however there were also those who had already died in this tower.
It was still the first floor, and Players were dying left and right.
The traps, the opponents, even the ones of their own kind were a threat that they needed to be wary of.
With Zone they passed, the opponents that they were facing also became an increasingly difficult threat.
-Boooooom!
"Captain!"
"Charge! Left flank!"
Zyon's party was dealing with (Level-30) mobs and they weren't even a few zones in.
"Haaa… haaa…"
It was Hell for the players right now.
But then again…
"Muhahaha!"
"Great stuff~!"
For one certain player who was serving booze to old dwarves, this whole mess was of no concern right now.
He was looking forward to something none of them were seeing, or could see.
The profits were his priority, but unbeknownst to them, there was a Player working for the betterment of the entity of mankind behind the scenes right now…
They weren't going to know who that is even after climbing a few floors, but, there will come a day when they know the truth.
And when they do… he will not simply be a Player, but their Deliverer instead.