Once he clicked 'Yes', he found himself in this city which stood at the intersection of medieval, fantasy, and bits of…sci-fi?
It was hard to say.
He appeared here in what seemed to be a magic circle exploiting the properties of space and initially thought it was a magical city.
But when he stopped on the smooth glowing road, a translucent map popped in front of him and asked him to pick a destination for the ride.
"This is like a personalized high-speed train, eh."
As far as he could sense, the city he seemed to be in had a total surface area almost ten times the Earth. At the edge of this city was a thick barrier that blocked off all his senses.
"Let's see…" Varian rubbed his chin and messed around with the holographic screen.
"Dragon Slayer Corps Headquarters?"
[Cleared 28th Floor on 3rd try.
Survival Rate: 36%!!!]
"Survivalists Faction."
[Cleared 27th floor on 2nd try.
Survival Rate: 43%!!!]
Varian blinked in confusion.
The layout of the city was clear at a glance. The center had just one building and the ten miles around it were empty.
ραΠdαsΝοvεl.cοm Around this city center was the headquarters of various big groups. Since this was a tower, then they must be adventure groups or the like. And these were supposed to be the best of the best.
So why the hell was a building in that prime area showing off these failures?
"No, they're not the problem. My standards are." Varian suppressed a smile and looked back at the summoning circle, his frown deepened.
After him, a couple of others also appeared.
A snake-like creature with six freaking legs, a slime that played octopus, a water elemental that was wetting every dam place, and an undead elf.
They glanced at him once and then picked some adventure group buildings. With a flash of light, they disappeared.
While they looked calm, none of them even spoke a word to each other. There was palpable tension in the air.
Varian remained still like a statue until the bone-winged-humanoid disappeared. Only then did he dare to exhale in relief.
He threw a casual check at the ones that appeared and the results petrified him.
[Rank 5]
[Rank 4]
[Rank 3]
…
…
…
[Rank 6]
"Too strong. Any of these guys could be a pillar of a duchy, some could even be rulers."
And there was something more.
The races of these creatures varied wildly. It's common sense that Undead were rare in Genesis Empire and the life forms were rare in Mors Empire.
But here, he saw them both as well as the elementals.
"Really, where the hell even am I?"
He tried to return to Hortus multiple times. The connection between him and the world was uninterrupted.
Yet, for some reason, he couldn't do it. It's like having a finger on the button and being unable to press it for an inexplicable reason.
Surprisingly, there was no space formation or the like blocking him from teleporting away.
It was a…rule.
An invisible 'order' of things that seemed to permeate every inch of the tower…that new order was preventing him and everyone from leaving through unauthorized means.
It's a masterclass on how well the 'Order' power could be used. And the show of sheer strength of the one behind it.
Even with the help of slivers, Varian could only modify the rules of a small area for a few celestial rankers.
That's why he was horrified when he realized the extent of the power of the being that made this new order.
Changing one single 'rule' for just three rank 4s would drain Varian despite the assistance of slivers.
"…In the worst case, there are at least one million people in this city. But with the amount of life force I'm feeling from the residential areas, maybe over ten million." Varian's face sank.
And there wasn't just one rule in this new order. Might be a dozen. A few dozen. Even a hundred. The consumption wouldn't increase linearly. It'd be exponential.
"This is fucking crazy. If I reach rank 9, I could try. But if I do this, I'd not be able to do anything else." Varian shuddered.
[If rank 9s do this for more than a month, they'll die of exhaustion.]
As untimely as ever, the System spoke up.
Varian's lips twitched as he grasped the implication. 'So this is the work of a Divine ranker?'
[Indeed. In addition to preventing others from leaving, there are also restrictions on attacking others here, directly or indirectly. As in, you can't even poison anyone's food. That action itself is prevented.]
'What if it's an accident?'
[Let's say someone did trip and the sword in their hands was about to pierce another person's neck, the order will kick in and the sword will go blunt. The injury caused by that collision will be healed instantly.]
'The fuck. Are we still humans or characters in a video game? This is too much.' Varian was in awe of the divine rankers.
This wasn't even their combat power but they're already so far away.
'To control ten million people with a set of artificial laws, these guys have the right to call themselves divine.'
[You're severely underestimating a Divine Ranker, Host.]
'What?'
[This floor isn't really counted in the tower. It's a safe area. If the entire tower counts as a mansion, this floor is a closet. No, not even a closet, but a drawer.]
'…You're not making sense. This city is already ten times the size of Earth.'
[This is the zeroth floor. The tower has…a hundred floors. Even the smallest floor has thousands of star systems.]
'Ah. Ahahaha.' Varian's expression froze.
Even as a celestial ranker, these things went beyond his comprehension. So, he was bothered about the thing he could comprehend.
"Since this is the work of an Order divine ranker, then this is Nexus empire." Varian frowned.
The space crack was messier than he imagined.
[Yes. Nexus Empire. You've traveled from one end of the Milkyway to another. Back to the ancestral land of Ares and Devas.] The System's voice was laced with heavy sarcasm and gloating.
Varian couldn't help but wonder why.
'Did this tower exist back then? What even is it?'
The System seemed to choose its words and was about to reply when Varian felt his senses freeze.
The world was the same. So was the aura. The passerby on the street were all acting normally. So were the newbies popping up in the summoning circle.
But from a sense that Varian didn't even know he had, he felt like the world just blinked. As if it just froze for a moment and then started running again. It's like someone pressed a pause button for a moment and then lets things run smoothly.
'I-It feels like that time.'
When he met the phantoms of those Primordial Gods in Hortus, he had a similar feeling.
He was a mere mortal back then. Not even a Sovereign. He's a rank 2 celestial now, strong enough to kill rank 3s and even fight weak rank 4s with his artifact.
Yet, he still had the same feeling.
'The feeling of an ant greeting an elephant, no, a fucking sun.'
[It was the divine ranker in the tower.] The System said and continued. [This tower is old. Like the slivers, it's also born from the Primordial Gods.]
'Is it as valuable as you are?'
[No. In this godless world, slivers are the closest to godhood. The tower belongs to the next echelon. The System doesn't know much about the tower.]
Varian exhaled deeply and nodded.
'Alright, I'll try to just get out of here.'
Even though Oob could handle a lot of dangers, Varian was still worried about home.
"If I want to climb the tower the fastest, then…" Varian checked the floating map.
All the newbies appearing in the summoning circle seemed acquainted and quickly went off to their adventure group buildings.
He knew no one here.
"They should have a guide somewhere."
Varian ignored the hotels, parks, brothels, and adventure buildings and picked the building at the center of the city—Harmony Services.
All the buildings were carved out of colorful stones, some very bright, others too dark. There were round castles, spiraling towers, and plenty of oddly shaped buildings—shapes that reminded him of crumbled papers and doodles.
But Harmony Services was a weird building even among these weirdos.
It had no doors, no windows, not even a damn opening. It wasn't even an office. It was just a thin black metal pole that couldn't be thicker than Varian's little finger.
It was debatable if it could even be called a building.
But people were touching it and disappearing. Then, they were appearing in the empty ten-mile area around the city center.
To Varian's horror, he could sense that there was no hidden space in that metal pole.
It's something else.
Lining up, Varian touched the metal pole with a cautious attitude.
The world around him spun and in a blink, he found himself turning into a small black dot and merging into the metal pole.
'Fuck!'
He could still see, hear and talk, but his other senses were cut off.
There was a beam of light in the middle of the pole that he couldn't find from outside but was very clear once he turned into a black dot.
Once he touched the light beam, the expected guide didn't appear nor did any information regarding the tower.
Instead, it was the nasty screen that popped up.
[You're going to the 1st floor now. Unless you manage to reach the 15th floor, you cannot return. Do you still choose to go?
Yes/Yes?]
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