HI Chapter 161

Lin Zhen glanced back at them, then looked out the window at the pure black projection suspended high in the sky.

“Still sixteen people,” he chuckled softly. “Then I succeeded in delaying. Little pet, hurry up and sign.”

Yu Feizhou remained with his back to Lin Zhen, closing his eyes and muttering to himself, “I didn’t see anything.”

Yan Wei: “…”

He walked forward, both amused and exasperated, scanning the scene before him. He quickly understood what Lin Zhen had done.

This was the headquarters of Yue Mang, with a group of Players from Yue Mang and Blackbird still in a standoff outside. These were clearly Yue Mang’s top-tier Players capable of entering the 99th-floor instance. Lin Zhen must have used Lin Qing’s authority to mobilize a large group of Blackbird members, stormed Yue Mang’s headquarters, and captured the son of Yue Mang’s current leader.

The leader of Yue Mang was named Yu Zhengqing, whom Yan Wei was somewhat familiar with. Though they had never met, Yan Wei had heard of him.

When Yan Wei first entered the Tower as a newbie, Yue Mang was already under Yu Zhengqing’s leadership. Compared to Blackbird, which Yan Wei had personally nurtured, Yue Mang was an organization with a long history and deep roots. Tracing back its origins, among the still-living Players, few could even say when Yue Mang had first appeared.

But precisely because of their deep foundation, they were intimately familiar with the experiences of the top-floor instances and knew full well how terrifying they could be.

So even though these people were around when Yan Wei first entered the Tower, he had never met them.

They were all too aware of the “no return” nature of the top floor. The pride and ambition they had when first ascending the Tower had slowly eroded over time, replaced by compromise. When the time came to enter an instance, they always chose floors between 90 and 98. Some died in the instances during their first few attempts, while those who survived became more fearful of reaching the top with each subsequent attempt, becoming more adept at repeatedly descending and ascending the Tower to maintain their state of avoidance.

These people had long been numbed by their repeated ascents and descents between the 90s floors. When Yan Wei first entered the Tower, he was either a rising star they wouldn’t pay attention to, or he had already reached the top tiers, heading straight for the 99th floor without crossing paths with those stuck in the 90s.

They were what Malice referred to as the “forever” ones.

The people Yan Wei least wanted to become.

He knew that Lin Qing and Yu Feizhou were safe, and his expression calmed. He lowered his gaze, one hand in his pocket, the other flicking out a pure black invitation letter to Yu Feizhou. Yan Mingguang also walked over to Lin Zhen, handing him the extra invitation letter he had obtained from this instance.

Lin Zhen was still holding down Yue Mang’s leader’s son, a dagger in one hand and the invitation letter in the other. Blood stained the invitation, seeping into its eerie blackness.

Yan Wei said, “When we chose the invitation letters, we already selected the 99th floor. These two are both 99th-floor invitations. Hold onto them.”

Lin Zhen: “Oh, so all five of us are going in?”

“Yes.”

Yu Zhengqing, seeing that Yan Wei’s group seemed intent on everyone entering, still treated Lin Qing as the one in charge of Blackbird. He looked at Lin Qing and said in a low voice, “Lin, aren’t you going to control your brother? Charging in so brazenly and still not letting go of my son—this is going too far.”

Lin Zhen scoffed, “If I let go, you’d sign immediately. How would my brother and Yan Wei get in?”

“The 99th floor isn’t only opening this one time!”

“Then why don’t you go down and enter?”

“There’s a descent channel this time—”

“Thinking of going in to find the descent channel? Why bother with the top floor then?”

“You—” Yu Zhengqing was cut off several times in a row, nearly losing his temper. But after glancing at the “16” still displayed outside the window, he held back and said, “I’m discussing this with your brother. Why are you interrupting?”

“I’m also a Lin.”

Yu Zhengqing took a deep breath.

Lin Zhen wasn’t done: “It’d be great if you died of anger. Then your cowardly son would be crying for his daddy.”

Of course, Yu Zhengqing wouldn’t die of anger. Having come this far, ordinary taunts wouldn’t faze him.

He coldly looked at Lin Qing: “If we delay any longer, two more people who were hesitant might decide to join, and all our efforts here would be wasted. The Tower only closes the instance channel when more than eighteen people enter, but it doesn’t specify that it must be exactly eighteen. Why don’t we compromise? We’ll all sign at the same time, and everyone can enter. Once we’re inside, we’ll consider this matter settled. With more people in the instance, our chances of success might increase. Since we’re all going to the top floor, if we succeed and leave this place, everything in the Tower will be irrelevant to us. There’s no need to hold grudges.”

Lin Qing looked at Yan Wei, clearly not daring to make the decision alone.

Yan Wei silently smiled.

Could it really be settled so easily?

If human grudges could be forgotten with just a few words, where did the endless desires and malice from the first floor to the 99th come from, constantly feeding the Tower?

He said, “Fine. Count down from three. Lin Zhen will let go of that coward, and we’ll all sign at the same time. Everyone enters the top floor, and everyone’s happy. But…”

Yan Wei kept one hand in his pocket, the other pulling a coin from his coat and slowly rubbing it between his fingers, his gaze drifting off. His calm voice now carried a chilling frost: “Forget about settling grudges. You might want to, but we don’t. Also, I’ll be blunt: although there’s a descent channel this time, it might not be as easy as you think.”

The descent channel was just the Tower’s way of luring people in before he could emerge.

Lin Zhen’s delay had completely thwarted Malice’s plans. Yan Wei would be entering with these people, and the difficulty and danger of the instance would only increase. Even with a descent channel, it might not be found.

But Yu Zhengqing simply said, “As long as you agree, let’s count down and sign.”

He thought Yan Wei was just trying to scare them. Everyone knew the top floor was dangerous—why else had they been stuck between the 90s floors for so many years? But now, with a way out of the top-floor instance, the temptation was too great to ignore the risks.

Yu Zhengqing gave Yan Wei a once-over.

He was young, but his stats seemed impressive. Yu Zhengqing hadn’t met him before but had heard his name a few times.

He was Blackbird’s rising star, having gone from the first floor to the top floor in just a year. And he had some… history with Yue Mang.

In short, he was a young man who hadn’t experienced the dangers of the 90s floors, fearless like a newborn calf. Having someone like him in the instance wouldn’t be bad—after all, the top-floor instance needed some fools to die.

“It seems we’ve reached an agreement,” Lin Zhen said, letting go and tossing the dagger into the pool of blood on the floor. “Then sign. If you try any tricks, like signing early and going in, I can always take your son into the 89th floor for some fun.”

Even though Lin Zhen had let go, the coward was still lying there, pale and in pain, too scared to move.

Yu Zhengqing knew that once they entered, Yue Mang’s other members would come to take care of his son, so he wasn’t worried. He and the other Yue Mang members took out their invitation letters and bit their fingers.

Yan Wei and the others exchanged glances.

He said softly, “You don’t have to go.”

He had already been to the top floor once. Even though this time, with Malice’s interference, the opportunity to enter had come so suddenly and without preparation, for him, it was just another step toward his goal.

He wasn’t afraid of death. He was someone destined to face the impossible—last time to save everyone, this time to save himself. But Lin Qing and the others were different. They could choose to live in cowardice for a long time or to face the final challenge after constant preparation.

These people didn’t have to walk with him toward a destination with no end in sight.

Yan Mingguang simply cut his finger and placed it on the invitation letter, ready to sign at any moment.

Yu Feizhou smiled: “You’ve already gotten the invitation letters for us. How could we not go?”

Lin Zhen: “If it weren’t dangerous, I wouldn’t want to go.”

Lin Qing nodded at Yan Wei.

Yan Wei chuckled: “Alright.”

“I’ll count,” Lin Zhen said lazily. “Don’t let me finish counting and find that no one from Yue Mang is inside. Three—two—”

“One.”

At the same moment, the Yue Mang members pressed their fingers down.

Yan Mingguang signed his name with a flourish. Lin Qing’s expression remained unchanged from start to finish. Yu Feizhou signed with a smile, while Lin Zhen’s signature was wild and unrestrained.

Yan Wei carefully and solemnly wrote his name on the 99th-floor invitation letter, which offered no hints whatsoever. It was the first time he had written his name so forcefully, though he had done so countless times before.

The blood made the black invitation letter resemble a dark, bottomless gate to hell, with no light in sight.

With each stroke, names of those who were no longer alive flashed through Yan Wei’s mind. There were the passersby from his first ascent, the friends who had fallen at the final step and never got another chance, the enemies he would never see again, and the new acquaintances he had met during his second journey…

“Yan Wei.”

Yan Wei suddenly heard Yan Mingguang’s cold voice.

He looked up to see the man’s finger resting on the invitation letter, his pure black eyes fixed on him.

“Do you want to leave?”

Yan Wei was momentarily stunned: “I want to take everyone with me.”

Wasn’t that the goal they had always been striving for?

In that instant, Yan Mingguang simply said, “Alright.”

With the final stroke of his name, Yan Wei’s finger lifted.

The world spun around him.

The gloomy sky suddenly rippled, and a wind came from nowhere, stirring the previously calm air. In the blink of an eye, while Blackbird and Yue Mang Players were still in a standoff outside, the tense group had vanished into the ripples, leaving only the pool of blood on the floor, a few severed hands, and the young man with the severed finger slumped over the table.

Around the endless black stele, the floating black projection also rippled slightly. The next moment, the blood-red “16” flickered and changed to “17.”

Below, many Players who had come to watch from start to finish had gathered. The usually bustling Gambling Tower District was now eerily empty. Across the Tower World, everyone looked up at the center, waiting for the instance to begin.

“Just one more…”

“It probably won’t be easy, right? There are so few top-tier Players. It’s been stuck at 16 for so long, and only one more has moved. It might take several days to reach 18.”

“But there’s a descent channel this time. Wait a bit longer—it should be soon—”

The discussion abruptly stopped.

The number didn’t stop rolling. Just after it reached “17,” it flickered again and changed to “18.”

In the silence, the instance didn’t begin, but the numbers continued to roll. 19, 20, 21…

Finally, it stopped at “25.”

Everyone gasped.

In all the countless days of the Tower World, how many Players capable of entering the top floor were still alive? This number… it seemed like they had all entered, far surpassing the scale of the last top-floor instance led by Blackbird’s leader.

The Tower’s ethereal voice echoed from all directions, reaching every Player’s ears.

[Detected that the number of people signing the top-floor instance invitation letters has exceeded eighteen. The instance channel is now closed. All unused top-floor invitation letters are voided. Players in need must re-enter the 89th floor to obtain new invitation letters.]

The black stele pierced the sky, dark clouds pressing down. Birds swooped down from above, and a cool wind blew from the distance, carrying a rustling sound.

[The top-floor instance… has begun.]