The Echelon Tower

Chapter 1 - Space of White

...

While something extraordinary was happening outside, Jonathan was being teleported to an unknow destination, oblivious to everything.

A white diagram had appeared and shined its light on Jonathan, who then sensed a strong distortion. Each minute passed like days and his body seemed to have turned into slime while his vision was extremely blurry.

It felt like he had taken some crazy mix of drugs to the point that he wanted to vomit.

Thankfully, everything eventually went back to normal.

After that weird event, he was back in the same white space with the same inability to move, however, one element had changed.

There were now about five thousand people around him. They too stayed immobile, all looking towards the same direction.

From the corner of his eyes, Jonathan recognized a familiar figure.

'Steph!'Although he had wanted to say that no words came out. In fact, his mouth couldn't move at all. It was if his body and mind had been completely disconnected.

If his body could react, he would be sweating bullets. After all the feeling of essentially being a paralyzed cripple was terrifying.

[Attention.]

A monotone, almost robotic voice resounded through the white space.

Suddenly a globe of blinding light appeared. Although Jonathan would have liked to close his eyes, he couldn't do so.

Thankfully, the light soon dimmed down, leaving only a golden globe of light in front of the group of humans.

[Greeting, Earth's humans. My name Is System, and you can address me as such when you are authorized. Do not fear, your body is not truly paralyzed. This is simply a measure of crowd control. When the transition will be complete, you will all regain your former level of control over your body.]

The globe of light paused its speech, as if it was waiting for the people here to nod their heads in agreement.

Everything had happened very fast, leaving Jonathan in somewhat of a daze. However, the bit that he could understand shocked him.

'The phantasm has the ability to block out all communication between the brain and the body? They had previously said that this was only partial to make sure that people would feel if something dangerous had happened in the real word. But it seems as if somebody could be having a heart attack and not know about it.'

This thought made Jonathan doubt the situation a lot. As a person who preferred taking the initiative in everything, refusing to be under any level of rule from another person, this reality pissed him off.

[I imagine many of you have your questions, so I will establish your situation for you. All of you, along the rest of humanity, is being transferred to another world. Even those without the Phantasm are included in this transition through special means, as you will certainly be able to observe soon. The purpose of this transfer is not disclosed as you will discover it yourselves. As for the matter of the Phantasm is but a trick or a scam in your terms. The Phantasm and RealVision are only tools to start the process of the transfer and are in no other way connected to these events. Now, you will be authorized to ask questions. To ask a question, simply think, "System my question is: insert questions here." I will only answer each of you once. Proceed to questioning.]

'A question? And one per person? What the hell is this...' Jonathan was confused by this, so he proceeded to do what he always does in an unforeseen situation. See and analyze.

"Where are we?"

Jonathan heard a man ask out loud not too far from him. The man could easily move his facial features as if he was normally talking, but his body was still frozen in place.

Jonathan recognized this man, who was the science teacher in grade 12 at his school.

[Answering. This a waiting area till the transition is complete.]

"What kind of transitioning is this?" It was now a female voice that spoke out loud. It seems to be boosted by something, making it easily hearable from far.

[Answering. This transitioning is essentially a teleportation, with a few variances added.]

"What are those variances?"

Although the questioned followed up as if it was by a single person, it was truly different people asking questions. In fact, it seemed like "System" was cherry picking questions.

[Answering. 1. All objects that you are touching but no storing with you will be removed. Example: The Phantasm. 2. You are teleported with the group that you are currently with, which is the organization you registered you RealVision account with. For humans who have no registered a RealVision account, they will be placed in groups according to their location at their last moment on Earth. 3. You age will be regressed by 5 years upon your transition, to allow for more proper development.]

"Where are we transitioning to?"

[Answering. Name of the location undisclosable. Level of danger undisclosable. General terrain undisclosable. Technological advances undisclosable ... only 1 information disclosable: Salivation is where the sun shines brightest.]

"What are we supposed to..."

For what seemed to be hours, over 3000 people asked questions. After that, Jonathan could make a general outlook of his situation.

"The Phantasm is a scam that forced all of humanity to teleport to an unknown location. When we arrive there, we will be 5 years younger. We will also appear there along with fellow members of our school, including teachers. We do not know why we are sent there, what we are supposed to do there or what is going to welcome us when we arrive. Our only objective is a place where 'the sun shines brightest... This all sounds like an even bigger scam ... maybe if I..."

"What is all you are saying is lying and that the Phantasm is actually functioning just as normal and we are simply in a virtual world?"

Eh? Jonathan moved his mouth and asked out loud.

He didn't expect that "System" would choose him to talk. He had previously tried to ask a few things but was skipped. Adding to the fact that no questions like "What the f*** is this" popped up, it showed that "System" didn't like questions that refuted what it said.

[A lie? Hahahaha.]

It was the first time "System" had answered by a question. Even more shockingly, it had laughed. Its voice had also changed to be more human like, making Jonathan doubt that it was a machine.

[I'm not supposed to answer to questions like this, but I feel benevolent today. Hear my advice, and make sure it is printed onto your heart, even your soul.]

"System" sounded even more human like. Jonathan was convinced that it wasn't a machine answering him.

[The ones amongst you who believe that this is a joke or a scam will be the first ones to die.]

What Jonathan heard shocked him. Especially the last word in "System's" answer. Die. They could die? Although some questions on danger had popped up, system refused to disclose information on the situation.

But now that they know that people would die, this meant that their situation wasn't good.

"What kind of death will this be? Real death or death in a gaming sense?"

[Transition complete. Best of luck.]

Without answering the person despite allowing him to talk, the globe of light disappeared.

All became once again distorted.