Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) Jakob Tanner (reading comprehension books TXT) 📖

why the truck had stopped, but when it started to dump out all the tower-zone’s garbage, he remembered the explicit reason the truck was here in the first place.

But why did they need climbers to escort them on a trash delivery?

Max expected the garbage truck to turn around and start heading back towards the gate, but once it was finished dumping all its garbage, it continued forward deeper into the refuse facility.

“Why are they going further?” asked Casey.

“I’m not sure,” said Max. “Let’s find out.”

Perhaps it was wherever they were going next that required the need for official city climbers.

They followed after the truck, making sure to stay a good distance away so they remained out of sight.

The truck turned a corner, then another, weaving through the gigantic mounds of trash.

Eventually, the truck stopped once more. This time in front of a large warehouse with men guarding the entrance.

Not only were the men security guards, they had copper colored badges.

They were climbers!

But what were tower-zone climbers doing all the way out here in the outer-rim?

What the heck was going on?

72

Hiding behind an old rusty washing machine, Max and Casey watched as the climbers escorting the garbage truck swapped places with the climbers who’d been guarding the large warehouse.

“What are we going to do, Max?” whispered Casey beside him.

Max didn’t understand what he was seeing.

People in the tower-zone were never allowed to enter the outer-rim. Those were the rules. That was the law.

And yet, here were climbers actively working a job here in the outer-rim.

What was inside that warehouse?

Whatever it was, it had to connect back to Samuel Archer and whatever devious plans he was cooking up.

“We have to find out what’s in that warehouse,” Max declared.

They waited for the garbage truck to leave before enacting their plan.

They snuck up closer to the entrance. Once there, Casey threw a paper airplane and manipulated the wind so that it flew over the guards and caught their attention.

“What the heck is that?” said the climber guarding the entrance.

The man followed after the paper airplane while Casey and Max slipped in through the door.

The warehouse was empty except for a strange glowing light at the center of it.

As Max took a step forward towards the light, he took in the rest of the warehouse. It was empty. There was nothing suspicious or threatening in here, so why were there climbers guarding it?

It started to dawn on him more as he got closer to the light.

The light looked familiar, like he’d seen something similar before.

“Is that a—”

Casey’s words were cut off.

“What were you about to say?” said Max, too afraid to voice what he was bearing witness too.

He turned around and saw Casey sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

“What the—”

A hand overtook his mouth. The other hand snapped its fingers and Max felt his whole body begin to feel drowsy until he was fast asleep.

73

Max’s eyes twitched open.

He stayed motionless, recalling what had happened before he’d fallen asleep.

He heard a familiar voice saying, “Thank you, Paul, you may go.”

Max had been put to sleep against his will, so he didn’t want to let his captors know he’d awoken. He needed to buy as much time as possible to figure out where he was and to make a plan to escape his captors.

“Don’t worry,” said the familiar voice. “I know you’re awake.”

Max stayed frozen.

“C’mon now, don’t treat me as a fool,” said the voice. “Open your eyes.”

Max opened his eyes and found himself in a large room, surrounded by tall glass windows. The sky outside was an orange dusky sunset. The tower of Zestiris loomed nearby.

Standing across from him was none other than the climber president.

The old man smiled.

“Surprised to see me?” he said.

When Max had woken up, his immediate thought was that he’d been captured by the Archer family. To see the climber president—one of the strongest climbers in the entire tower-zone—was indeed quite the surprise.

“Where are we?” asked Max. “Where’s Casey? What’s going on? What was that in the warehouse?”

The climber president laughed.

“Alright, settle down,” he said. “That’s a lot of questions. Let’s deal with the easy ones first. Where are we? We’re in my office. What’s going on? One of my agents, Paul, got wind of you two trying to sneak out of the tower-zone and followed you. He caught up to you and brought you here. We dropped Casey off at home, so she’ll have questions for you when she wakes up in her own bedroom, confused.”

So that man who put them to sleep worked for the climber president and not the Archer family?

“That man’s trait is that he can put people to sleep?” asked Max.

“Precisely,” said the climber president. “Pretty nifty ability, huh?”

“And about that warehouse?” asked Max, now sitting upright at the side of the bed.

The climber president sighed. “Now, we get to the difficult part. Are you sure you want to know what you saw? Both you and I will be breaking the law by doing so.”

The climber president looked Max directly in the eye with a very serious expression.

The man was not kidding around.

Max took a deep breath. There was so much he didn’t understand about Zestiris, the outer-rim, the tower-zone, and the tower itself. The answers to these questions would only help in his overall goal to find his sister. He couldn’t let himself miss out on an opportunity like this.

“Go on,” said Max. “I want to know everything you’re willing to tell me.”

“You’re just as Sakura had described to me,” smiled the old man. “A keen bean. Well, then. What do you think you saw in that warehouse?”

There was only one thing that the glowing light in that warehouse reminded him of. He had been afraid to say it out loud when he first saw it, but he wouldn’t be afraid any more.

“Was it a...teleporter?”

“Yes,” said the climber president.

“But wouldn’t that mean—”

“Exactly what you think it means,” said the climber president. “The tower-zone, the outer-rim, all of Zestiris exists on a floor in the tower