The air in the forest had grown stagnant, the silence heavy with the collective anticipation of millions of souls across the globe.
I stood alone, far from the prying eyes of the RMB and the desperate camera lenses of the media.
My chosen sanctuary was a secluded alcove behind a roaring waterfall deep within the labyrinthine jungle of the 1st Floor.
The thundering water provided a natural veil, masking my presence from both technology and man.
I checked the system notification, the blue light reflecting in my pupils.
“[Time Remaining: 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 12 seconds]”
Across the world, thousands of Rankers were likely standing before the official Gates, weapons drawn, hearts hammering against their ribs.
They were preparing for a war they only partially understood.
I, however, was looking for a needle in a haystack, a glitch in the Tower’s architecture that I had exploited in nearly a third of my previous 104 accounts.
“[Time Remaining: 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds]”
The chime of the Tower’s transition echoed not just in my mind, but through the very fabric of reality.
“[Welcome to the 2nd Floor of the ‘Tower of Trials’!]”
“[2nd Floor: ‘The Frozen Plains’!]”
“[Difficulty Level: C-Rank]”
“[Clear Conditions: Survive the ‘Eternal Blizzard’ and monsters for 120 hours.]”
“[Rewards: +5,000 Coins, + ‘??’ Additional Stat Points, + Random Item Box]”
“[Time Duration: 10 days 24 hours 59 minutes 58 seconds]”
This was the standard path.
If I had stepped through the official Gate, I would have been dropped into a white-out storm alongside hundreds of confused Rankers, struggling against frostbite and C-Rank monsters.
But I didn’t move.
I watched the space directly in front of the waterfall’s mist.
Suddenly, the space fractured.
A jagged, shimmering rift, no larger than a doorway, tore open.
It didn’t pulse with the inviting blue of a standard portal; it hummed with a violent, sub-zero violet light.
This was a “Hidden Gate,” a shortcut that bypassed the standard floor logic and dumped the player directly into the floor’s most dangerous core.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I stepped inside.
The transition was violent.
The humid warmth of the jungle was instantly replaced by a cold so profound it felt like my very marrow was turning to glass.
My [Ice Element] flared instinctively, protecting my internal organs from seizing up.
“[A Special Event has been generated!]”
“[Clear Condition: Escape alive from this region!]”
“[Rewards: ????]”
“[Failure: Death]”
I looked around, blinking through the crystalline haze.
I wasn’t on a plain.
I was inside a cathedral of ice, where the walls were made of frozen mana and the air itself was a weapon.
High above, a huge Magic Crystal throbbed with a rhythmic, pale blue light, casting long, distorted shadows across the frozen forge.
I felt a familiar weight on my finger as Melchior’s voice drifted into my mind.
“You certainly have a knack for finding the most inhospitable corners of existence, Arthur.
This place…
it smells delicious.”
A grin spread across my face, even as my breath hitched in the freezing air.
To the rest of the world, the 2nd Floor was a survival mission.
To me, it was a race to the bottom of the world’s secrets.
This was the kind of thrill that I loved, the high-stakes gamble where the only way out was to conquer the impossible.