1072 Hope For The Future

Ten minutes later, 50,000 were expelled.

"Disqualified."

The third floor lit up and expelled 15,000.

"Disqualified."

The fourth floor lit up and expelled 4,000.

"Disqualified."

The fifth floor lit up and expelled the remaining 1,000.

Queen Of Shadows' voice rang slowly. "Temporarily qualified."

"Next batch."

Rey entered the tower and found himself in the middle of a seemingly endless desert.

As he tried to take a step forward, a huge pressure fell on his shoulders and nearly pushed him to his knees.

"F-Fuck!"

A deep voice rang in the air. "First Trial: Expedition. Reach the gate."

Rey raised his head and looked around.

There were hundreds of fellow participants in sight and they were all moving toward a glowing gate.

From a location that none of the participants could see, Varian watched the participants with anticipation.

"If you're expecting another Varian to pop up, then you'll be disappointed." Seated in a swing out of darkness, Sia rolled her eyes at him.

"I agree. Still, I like this idea." Sarah tapped her chin with a nostalgic look. "We took the trial here after those alien teams and clearing it made Varian the Lord of this world."

Varian nodded.

He modeled the tower's nine floors after the nine trials they took in Hortus. For the entrance test, the difficulty was modified to reach their level.

In the original, the first trial was supposed to impose the pressure of a peak level 9 on the trial takers.

But these graduates only had to face the pressure of peak level 2 and reach the gate.

"Hm?"

Varian arched an eyebrow and locked his gaze on a young girl. With shoulder-length sky-blue hair and blue eyes, she stood out from the crowd. Upon closer inspection, she's a year younger than others and was only at the peak of level 1.

The entrance had no restriction upon entry. But except for a couple of dozen reckless guys, level 1 graduates didn't even bother to apply.

The young girl was unable to walk in the face of the crushing pressure. So, she crawled.

Like a wild beast dragging its wounded body back to its nest, she crawled on the hot sand, sweating and panting as her body screamed at her to stop. She crawled despite the scratches and bruises from the stones and rocks.

The strong ones reached the gate in less than a minute. Most took their time but eventually did it.

The remaining 15,000 thousand were all sprawled on the ground and staring at the colorless sky numbly. They had given up.

A silvery light enveloped their bodies and escorted them out.

As the bodies kept disappearing, the young girl continued to crawl. By the time she approached the gate, she couldn't even remain on her knees and collapsed.

Her legs were bloodied and limp from the pressure they faced. They could no longer help her.

"J-Just a bit…" She bit her bleeding lip and raised her weak arms. Her bloodied palms pushed against the ground and moved her forward.

"J-Just a bit…"

As she inched closer and closer, she didn't notice the blood leaking out of her new wounds. She didn't feel the pain of a sharp rock digging into her flesh.

The tip of her fingers touched the shining vortex and enveloped her in a soft light.

"I did it!" She squealed in delight and fainted.

The soft light healed all her wounds and restored her to her peak condition before sending her to the second trial.

With that, the first floor was completely cleared.

"What a tenacious little girl." Varian rubbed his chin and muttered. "A survivor of Neptune tragedy, her parents and elder brother sacrificed their lives to save her. Interesting."

"Dear Emperor, it's wrong to take an interest in another female." A cold voice rang in his ear before it was softly bit.

Varian rolled his eyes at Sarah. "Queen of Radiants, your jealousy is clouding you from distinguishing between romantic interest and teacher's interest. That girl is barely 17. She's so young she's like a next generation, like a friend's daughter."

"You've only turned 19."

"Age is just a number."

"And jail is just a room."

"Your bubbling jealousy," Varian rolled his sleeves and grabbed Sarah by the waist.

"W-What are you doing in broad daylight?" Sarah panicked and flailed her arms.

"Since you're so jealous, I'll show you how much I love you," Varian smirked and bent down to capture her lips.

"S-Sia! Save me! This guy won't leave without doing it for at least a day! I'll die!"

Sia supported her chin with her hand and replied nonchalantly. "Death by snu snu. It's a good death, Sarah. I can monopolize him then."

"You traitor! You're always selling me out!" Sarah cried out in grievance and yanked Sia with a light string.

"Wah!" Sia too ended up in Varian's arms and stared at Sarah in disbelief. "You!"

"If I go down, I'm taking you with me." Sarah scoffed.

"…"

Realizing that their infighting won't help, the two turned to Varian with puppy eyes and pleaded in a soft voice. "N-Not now, please. We still have work…if you start now, we have to take leave tomorrow. And the next day too."

Varian wanted to say it was just going to be a quickie but shut his mouth. Who was he kidding? It'd definitely go on for the entire day.

Shaking his head in amusement, he teleported the three of them to another location in the first floor.

Here, the pressure was high enough to crush peak level 5s. Only level 6s could endure it.

Instead of high school graduates, the ones participating here were all college graduates. They were supposed to be enrolled in the military but Varian gave them the option to participate here and grow strong.

"There are some good seeds," Varian muttered and the three teleported once again.

This time, they appeared at the intersection of three areas: Level 7, Level 8, and Level 9. All the participants were geniuses of their realm and were eager to improve themselves.

"They should grow up fast…." Varian stared at the sky beyond the tower and hoped.