Chapter 75 Breakthrough (2) (1/2)
[The tenth floor’s trial will now begin.]
[Description: You are in the Realm of Void, an outside world, isolated from those of the living and the dead, where the laws of time and space do not exist.
But a living being such as you does not belong here. Escape from the Realm of Void by any means possible.]
“So, among the Beginner Zone, this floor is where the second largest number of players end up dropping out. I can see why.’
It was said that the difficulty of the tenth floor’s trial was harder than those of all first nine floors combined.
A trial where players who may have been on a roll until now could suddenly meet a wall.
Conversely, a trial where players who had barely managed to clear the previous floors, might suddenly find it easy.
As such, the trial of the tenth floor was very unpredictable. What was tested on this floor was one simple thing.
‘Willpower.’
Consecutively setting new records all the way up till the ninth floor, we—my teammates and I—felt like we were on top of the world.
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
We thought we could clear the tenth floor’s trial just as easily as the other floors.
But this goddamn Tower, it knows how to shatter people’s hopes too damn well….
…They took everyone away from me.
Without a family, a friend or a teammate, I was left alone in that world of nothingness.
And I was required to escape that place without a single clue of how to.
But of all things, the most difficult aspect of the trial was the lack of stimulus.
Man is a social animal.
No matter how mentally strong one might be, if they were left in this kind of place, I am 100% sure they would go mad within a few days.
For that reason, even knowing this, players who entered the tenth floor often failed to pass the trial.
Mental strength and physical strength are two different things.
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
Solitude can devastate any physically healthy person’s mind. The more confident they are in themselves, the most adverse effect it has on them.
And that was exactly why his brother and his team, Arthia, reached a deadlock during their winning streak.
Being forced to play alone in a trial where they couldn’t even tell whether there was progress or not. Such feeling of apprehension slowly took over their heads and made them go out of their minds.
His brother mentioned that he also had a hard time because of this.
However,
‘It won’t work on me.’
Years of experience on the battlefield had made Yeon-woo dull to such negative emotions.
Rather, he had trained himself in order to be able to keep his rationality under much harder conditions.
‘There must be a door somewhere around here.’
But it wasn’t just one door.
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
‘A total of 10 doors, all different in colors and shapes.’
Yeon-woo closed his eyes. He activated Sense Strengthening and tried to pick up any abnormality.
Dozens of eyes slit open from the lines drawn on his armor.
Then suddenly, Yeon-woo opened his eyes and swung Magic Bayonet to his side.
*Puck*
The bayonet made a hitting sound as it stopped mid-air.
He pulled the bayonet downward and sliced what seemed to be an empty space.
As the space sliced open, it revealed a red door.
‘Found it.’
* * *
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
The tenth floor’s trial was somewhat like a labyrinth. A labyrinth full of doors that connected to other blank spaces
Finding doors in this world full of nothingness was a difficult task, but the most troublesome part came after finding one. Because each space contained more than just one door.
In each space, there was a total of ten doors, each one of them different in color and shape.
And when players faced these doors, doubts would sprout in their minds.
Why do all doors have different colors?
Did I open the wrong door?
Should I have settled with one color?
Is there any order to it?
Could there by any hidden trick with these doors?
‘This place, it digs deep into the psyche of players.’
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
There is a Chinese term, Heart Devil.
It means that doubts, even small ones, can grow in one person’s mind. Eating away at them from the inside, and in the end, making them go insane.
Most players fell prey to their doubts and ended up dropping out of the trial.
He heard that many of the dropouts ended up suffering from mental disorders. Some even committed suicide while they were trying to figure out the answer to the doors and to the trial.
But sadly enough, the answer to the trial was very simple.
‘Just go enough times through any of the doors.’
There was no hidden trick nor problem to the color or the shape of the doors. The doors were just doors, all leading to the next section of the labyrinth.
Whatever door the players may select, if they kept opening them, they would eventually make it outside.
The only things required were mental strength and faith in one’s choices. Only the players who could overcome their self-doubt were allowed to pass the trial.
And of course, there were players who entered the tenth floor with this information at hand. But the problem was that coming up with a plan was one thing, and putting it into practice was another. Even if they knew the answer to the doors, the players going through the trial couldn’t act as they originally planned.
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
Some spaces had doors at places where they were easy to find, but some didn’t.
Wandering around the vast expanse of nothingness while trying to find those doors, players easily forgot about their plans, advice or whatever they got from the outside.
But that was a problem for other players. Yeon-woo didn’t have to worry about it at all. All he had to do was to scan through the area based on his strengthened senses, move straight toward any door he detected, and go through the door to enter another area.
But at some point, Yeon-woo’s steps began to slow down.
He even started to turn back after finding a door and go for another one.
‘Not this one.’
‘Not this one either.’
‘And this one… no.’
Yeon-woo didn’t give a second glance at the doors he found useless.
In fact, what Yeon-woo was after was not the exit of the tenth floor.
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
‘There are hidden pieces lying somewhere beyond these doors.’
Hermes’ Key was the hardest hidden piece to complete among all the other ones in Beginner Zone. In fact, it was harder than completing all the other keys combined.
And that was exactly the reason why only a handful of players succeeded in opening Olympus’ Treasury.
To complete Hermes’ Key, he had to collect 100 shattered pieces of the key that were scattered through each trial.
And if he opened the door that leads to the exit before he could find all the pieces, it would end the trial, making it impossible to complete the Hermes’ Key.
In other words, he had to go through the labyrinth while being careful not to finish it by mistake.
What a ridiculous task.
However, Yeon-woo was confident in himself. He trusted his senses and looked for the unique mana that the hidden pieces possessed.
But above all,
‘Find them.’
This content is taken from lightnovel_world.com
He had Gyges’ Eyes with him.
At Yeon-woo’s command, the dozens of eyes engraved on his armor started rolling in all different directions, searching for the pieces.
And thanks to them, he was able to feel what lied beyond the doors.
The reason why Yeon-woo had wasted a whole month in the Outer District.
Without this artifact, he wouldn’t be able to complete Hermes’ Key.
‘Well, to be precise, I could probably make it.’
If he groped his way through the labyrinth with his strengthened senses, he would be able to find all 100 pieces.