At this moment, within the Tower World.
Lin Zhen gazed at the completely darkened projection, yawned, and said, “Finally finished this instance. I have no interest in whether they can clear it or not. My brother insisted I come watch and learn, and even made me write a report. It’s so annoying—am I a middle school student listening to a lecture? It’s so boring.”
Yu Feizhou exclaimed in surprise, “Do you? I’ve seen you staring intently the whole time.”
Lin Zhen replied, “…Can you not talk so much?”
Yu Feizhou smiled at him, “That seems a bit difficult; it grew out before I was born.”
Lin Zhen: “…”
He waved his hand, deciding not to argue with Yu Feizhou, and said, “They should be finishing the calculations soon, right? Let’s head back to the Blackbird and wait for them—”
Lin Zhen paused mid-sentence.
A voice suddenly echoed from the central Endless Stone Tablet, not loud, but it swept through the entire Tower World like a ghost.
[——Attention, players. All players who have not entered the instance, please pay attention.]
The previously clear sky suddenly darkened. It was noon in the Tower World, yet the daylight dimmed instantly. Dark clouds surged in from the horizon, obscuring the sun hanging above.
Both Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou were taken aback.
All players in the Tower World turned their gazes toward the center.
This ethereal voice was identical to the prompt sound they had heard countless times before. However, the Tower World was usually self-contained; prompt sounds only existed within instances and rarely appeared in this temporary resting place.
Lin Zhen looked up at the pitch-black stone tablet piercing through the dark clouds and murmured, “I have a bad feeling about this…”
In the next moment, the prompt sound continued.
[The content for the next round of the ninety-ninth floor instance has been selected. This top-level instance provides a descent passage; players entering can seek it out themselves.]
[It has been detected that the number of players choosing the ninety-ninth floor invitation letter has exceeded the required number for the instance. Players holding the ninety-ninth floor invitation letter, please sign your names to enter the instance. The passage is time-limited; once the number of signatories exceeds eighteen, the top-level instance will immediately begin. Once the instance starts, all existing ninety-ninth floor invitation letters will become void, and players will need to obtain new invitation letters.]
[Players holding the ninety-ninth floor invitation letter, please take note! Players wishing to enter the instance should sign their names as soon as possible. Once the number of signatories exceeds eighteen, the top-level instance will immediately begin. The invitation letters will become void once the instance starts.]
[Will become void immediately…]
The ethereal prompt sounded like an ancient bell tolling in the clouds, echoing across the vast expanse of the world.
In the next moment, the Endless Stone Tablet at the center seemed to tremble, and from the sky, massive projections slowly emerged from all sides of the tablet. Each side displayed a large, identical black rectangular projection.
The area of the projections was enormous, blocking out the sky and sun when viewed up close.
Whether standing at the foot of the Endless Stone Tablet or at the far edges of the Tower World, one could see one of the projections with a slight upward glance.
The high-level players who had spent a long time here gradually recognized what it was.
—The projection of the ninety-ninth floor instance.
All instances in the Tower World that exceeded difficulty would enter the Gambling Tower District after the Gambling Tower opened, allowing players resting in the Tower World to watch. The higher the instance, the more viewing permissions were required. By the eighty-ninth floor, players needed permission from those inside the instance to see the privileged perspective.
Only one instance was an exception, but this exception rarely occurred.
That was the ninety-ninth floor instance.
The ninety-ninth floor instance rarely opened, and each time it did, it provided a real-time projection for the entire Tower World, without opening bets, only offering the projection screen. Top-level players entering the instance could choose to close their perspective or leave it open for other players to watch and gain experience.
This was not a gift from the Tower, but rather its cruelty.
Before the last top-level instance opened, the Tower World had not seen anyone willing to gamble on such an opportunity for a long time. Most high-level players were shuttling between the ninetieth and eighty-ninth floors, trying to prolong their time before heading to the top.
The time when the Blackbird opened was exactly like this one, with projections rising from all sides, and several well-known super high-level players opened the full viewing perspective. That time, the mysterious leader of the Blackbird also entered the projection. However, not long after, those super high-level players who had opened the projection died, and the projection plunged back into darkness for a long time.
One day, the projections disappeared, and those high-level players never came out again.
Some said the leader of the Blackbird died inside like everyone else, while others believed he couldn’t have died so easily and might have found a descent passage that shouldn’t exist and was just recuperating.
Regardless, after that time, the top-level instance fell silent again, with no one daring to open it.
This time, however, it was the Tower urging the opening in disguise.
The projections hung in the air, waiting for someone with intent to initiate.
Yu Feizhou looked at the massive pitch-black projection, his brow slightly furrowed, while Lin Zhen raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “Playing this big?”
“This is troublesome; Yan Wei and the others are still calculating. This is intentional,” Yu Feizhou said. Before Yan Wei entered, Yan Mingguang had briefly mentioned these connections to them. They had been watching the eighty-ninth floor instance and were somewhat aware of the malice surrounding Yan Wei.
“This is bad, this can’t be my bad feeling, right?”
“It’s not just bad; it’s very bad! Although I’ve never been to the top-level instance, I know the basic rules about them. Top-level instances generally don’t have descent passages because the top level represents a one-time gamble; either you come out alive or die inside. Many years ago, when top-level instances were opened, all players who entered died inside, unable to find a descent passage. This time, the Tower clearly told those holding top-level invitation letters—there is a descent passage, there is a way out.”
With that, even Lin Zhen, who usually didn’t care about these twists and turns, understood.
This time, with a descent passage available, wouldn’t those super high-level players who had been waiting for a long time and dared not enter want to give it a try?
“The Tower is enticing and urging those hesitant super high-level players to enter. If the little pets are still calculating, by the time they come out, if there are already more than eighteen players with top-level invitation letters who have signed their names, the instance will have already started, and their invitation letters will be void, meaning their trip was for nothing. Oh, what a treatment…”
Lin Zhen revealed an envious expression, “Using the descent passage to attract players, and at the cost of opening the top-level instance, just to make their invitation letters void and then enter the eighty-ninth floor instance again? How fun would it be if I had that treatment!”
Yu Feizhou said, “The projection is moving.”
Above the four projections, a line of blood-red characters appeared: Ninety-ninth Floor.
Below the blood-red characters hung a number, also written in blood, which had just been zero when Yu Feizhou saw it, but in the blink of an eye had changed to “2”.
“Two people… They are counting the number of players signing,” Yu Feizhou’s expression changed, “No, at this rate, we won’t wait for Yan Wei and the others to come out.”
Lin Zhen took out his usual longbow, smiled, and pulled the bowstring, saying, “There can’t be many players who can go to the top level, right? At most, a little over twenty.”
“Hmm?” Yu Feizhou was a bit confused, not understanding Lin Zhen’s meaning.
“What are you looking at me for? Which organization has the most high-level players in the Tower World right now—oh right, it’s Morning Star and Yue Mang, right? Just in time, Yue Mang has a grudge against us. Don’t just stand there; grab your gear and bring people. Let’s go to the Yue Mang headquarters; their high-level players must be huddled together discussing things right now.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Not let them in. If they gather enough people to open the instance, their invitation letters will be void. My idea is simple: just don’t let them gather enough people.”
While Yan Wei was calculating, the prompt sound from the Tower dragged on for quite a while.
This time, for some reason, the last calculation had the prompt sound reluctantly dragging on for a bit, but this time, the prompt sound not only delayed appearing but also the calculations were slow and sluggish.
Delaying time couldn’t prevent him from successfully clearing the instance; didn’t the Tower know this malice?
Yan Wei felt something was off.
This slow pace was too meaningless.
Once the calculations were finished, he received the invitation letter that belonged to him and immediately chose the ninety-ninth floor on the invitation letter.
The world spun before his eyes, and in a moment, Yan Wei blinked again, finding himself in a spacious apartment living room, with the endless overcast sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows and the strikingly pure black projection beneath the dark clouds.
“Ninety-ninth floor, current number of people: 16.”
At the same time, as a player who had just returned to the Tower World, he also received the prompt sound about the opening of the top-level instance.
Yan Wei suddenly stood up from the sofa.
In that instant, he immediately understood what was happening.
“…No way? Hey,” he sneered, “Even if the invitation letters become void, I have to go through the eighty-ninth floor again to get a new invitation letter. You think you can kill me on the eighty-ninth floor? Something you couldn’t do before, you think you can do it again?”
The distant sky was eerily silent, and it was unclear if that thing heard him.
However, the Black Ring in Yan Wei’s hand trembled, constantly receiving communication requests.
With a flick of his fingertip, Yan Wei accepted the request.
He said, “We brought out new invitation letters. We’ll deliver them to you right away. As long as there aren’t eighteen people yet, we can all sign at the same time and enter together. Where are you?”
“Great! You guys made it out?” Yu Feizhou’s tone was quite excited, with a hint of hurried breath, “Lin Zhen and I are currently at—”
A piercing scream suddenly echoed in the background.
The number on the projection remained stuck at “16.”
Yan Wei: “?”
Yu Feizhou: “We’re at Yue Mang; things are a bit complicated. You…”
Before he could finish, Yan Wei hung up the communication.
In the Tower World, players could quickly reach their destination by bus, so Yan Wei, Yan Mingguang, and Lin Qing arrived at the scene almost simultaneously.
The blood-red number on the projection remained stuck at “16,” unmoving. At the top of the Yue Mang headquarters, a casually dressed young man was currently pinned to the table by Lin Zhen, his limbs limp and his face pale.
Lin Zhen, with his bow on his back, pressed one hand on the young man’s shoulder and held a long, sharp dagger in the other, casually leaning over the table, saying, “Don’t sign! Whatever you do, don’t sign. If you do, I’ll kill him, and we’ll die together.”
He was used to being reckless in the Tower World, and no one dared to take his words lightly.
Moreover, his dagger was already stained with blood.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Zhen caught sight of a high-level player from Yue Mang quietly taking out an invitation letter from a position slightly behind. He chuckled softly, and the dagger went straight down.
A fingertip rolled onto the ground, colliding with two other severed fingers, blood still dripping down, forming a pool of bright red soaking the severed digits.
“Ahhhhh—Dad! Dad!!” the young man screamed, “There will be other chances! I don’t want to die!!”
The leader of Yue Mang was a middle-aged man in his thirties, nearing forty, holding a pure black invitation letter for the ninety-ninth floor, yet he hadn’t signed his name until now. Hearing the young man’s cries of pain, he shot a glare at the high-level player behind him, signaling him to put away the invitation letter first.
The young man continued to scream in pain.
Lin Zhen couldn’t bear to watch any longer: “Are you a coward? This injury isn’t fatal, is it? Besides, if you die, I’ll be the one getting the short end of the stick for covering for you. I’ll be the one at a loss.”
When Yan Wei, Yan Mingguang, and Lin Qing arrived, Yu Feizhou was facing away from Lin Zhen, turned away from all the super high-level players from Yue Mang behind him, and his gaze met Yan Wei’s.
Yan Wei: “…Why are you facing away from Lin Zhen?”
Yu Feizhou replied seriously, “That way, I can’t see what he’s doing.”
“?”
“I think this kind of thing isn’t very honorable, but Lin Zhen insists on doing it this way. If I turn around and don’t see it, Lin Zhen won’t be doing anything bad.”
Lin Qing: “That makes sense.”
