1100 Going up the Floors
Alex found himself in a new room with people that were either leaving the room or simply standing still as if frozen.
However, upon closer inspection, he saw that they were just looking at something high above them.
Alex didn't immediately check to see what it was but instead looked around at the people that were closest to him.
He was trying to look for the girl, but he had already seen that she had eaten a pill, so he expected her to have a change of face. However, she couldn't have changed her robes so quickly. So, he searched for anyone wearing plain gray robes.
Unfortunately for him, there were simply way too many people wearing such clothes.
'Dammit!' he thought. He activated his demon eyes to see if he could recognize her by the colors around her, but there were too many people, each with similar colors coming out of them.
There was also the possibility that she escaped the moment he entered without him realizing it. That was very frustrating to think about.
Just then, he noticed something else. There was a small string of aura or Qi that was connected to everyone coming from the ceiling. He followed the thread of Qi and looked to the ceiling and saw something floating in the air.
An illusory image of an ingredient floated for everyone to see.
"Pinkfrost Jade pears?" he spoke softly when he saw the fruit that was high in the air.
Suddenly, the image changed to something else, and at the same time, he teleported out of the room to the second floor.
"That's it?" Alex thought and grumbled for a second. He should have stayed and tried to find the girl.
A few people looked towards him, some even glaring when they saw the sword in his hand. He frowned a little and put it into his storage ring.
There were not as many people as he would've expected to be on the 2nd floor. 'I did wait for a day, so they had a bit of a headstart. They must be on the higher floors,' he thought.
He thought of moving along but stopped. 'Is there even a point?' he thought. He sat down on the floor of the 2nd floor and sighed.
'Make an oath to never search for my father… why?' he wondered. He finally had a bit of free time to try and figure out what was happening.
'Not search for my father… is this actually not about me? Or are they trying to mess with me?' he thought. The Faceless assassin had also said something similar to their plan not being about killing him, that was only to happen when their first plan didn't work.
Was their first plan to make him say this oath? But why? What was his father to these people that they were forcing him to stop looking for him?
'It must have something to do with his constitution or talent,' Alex thought. 'They must think he's a unique existence and are keeping him somewhere. That recording must have been from his place of capture.'
Alex was slowly understanding that these people were never trying to kill him for who he was or what he was doing, but rather who his father was. They were trying to stop him from finding his father.
'That's it, isn't it?' he thought. 'That's why those investigators were killed. They didn't want me to find my father.'
There was still a chance that he was wrong and the reason was something else, but for now, that was the reason he was going to work under the assumption of
'Will they kill my father if I push them too hard?' Alex wondered. While it was possible that they wanted something from his father, it was also possible that they would kill him just because they couldn't have him as well.
"The chances are low, but I can't discard the possibility," Alex thought. He took a deep breath and shook his head.
'Now is not the time for this,' he thought. Since he now somewhat understood the motive around which his enemies were working, they were going to wait for him to give his answer.
Since he knew what his answer was, he could also know what the result of this answer would be. "Assassination," he thought. "I'm going to be killed to stop me from looking for my father."
The situation was always dangerous, but it suddenly felt more real somehow. 'I need to get out of this place quickly.' He thought.
Since the deadline was for 2 months, Alex decided to complete the tower before that. If he could be the one that completed the tower, he would not have to worry about having to give any answer or falling victim to the assassination.
'I can do it in less than 2 months, right?' Alex thought and stood up.
There were 45 different floors from what he had heard, and he was going to complete all of them as soon as he could.
Alex stood up and looked at the various doors to the rooms once again. Gate 1 was crumbling, so he had to go for Gate 2 this time around.
Gate 2 was darkened, and so were the others. He had to wait before he went in there.
'Dark gates… that means this is a task that requires a specific number of people, right?' he thought.
Sometimes, the rooms only accepted a certain amount of people per task and the rest had to wait outside before the task inside was completed.
It seemed all the rooms on the 2nd floor were like that. The only reason he was even able to enter the 1st room was that the room was destroyed for the most part.
It took 10 minutes before the 2nd gate was open and Alex managed to sneak in despite the people waiting already.
As soon as he entered, he looked to the top to see what this room was all about.
Choose a Side and pull the rope to your side.
"What?"
He finally looked down and saw that the room was separated into two sides with a rope made up of Qi at the center. There were specific places for everyone to stand at.
He walked up to one of the empty ones and grabbed the rope. "Is this tug of war? Do I pull now?" he thought. But the rope was stiff and rigid. It didn't look like it could be pulled on just yet.
He was also feeling a slight pressure on him that was keeping him from using his Qi excessively.
'So they don't want us to use any external technique,' he thought. 'Fine, I'm just going to pull then.'
He waited for the rest of the people to get into their position and then the room finally started flashing with symbols.
It counted down from 5, but of course, Alex was the only one who knew that. He grabbed it tightly and got ready to pull
4,3,2, and then 1.
As soon as the rigid rope felt slightly softer, he pulled on it with everything he had, along with the 29 different people beside him.
The rope lurched, coming over to his side of the room instantly. He didn't know how much of that was because of him, but it happened nonetheless.
Unlike the last group, they did not have to spend a very long time trying to pull the rope to their side.
Every single person in that room suddenly felt themselves being taken away again.
Alex and the other 29 would be taken to the 3rd floor, while the rest would go to the 1st floor to restart it all over again.
He arrived on the third floor, with about a few hundred people in it. And from the looks of it, they had all been waiting here for quite a while.
There were 5 rooms once more, and only 4 of them had actual gates that had darkened. The final one had nothing but silvery white light coming from the inside.
'Another room with fractured space,' he thought. He hoped that wasn't the case for each of the floors he went up on. If somehow there was a floor that was completely cracked with no way of going up, he wouldn't know what to do.
A few more people popped up, but the gates still remained closed. Alex sat down and waited for the gates to open up.
People flocked to the first gate that opened, so by the time he got a chance to enter any other one of the gates, nearly 2 hours had passed.
When he went in, it turned out that the room was a competition of strength. 50 people had come in, and according to the words floating in the air, only 20 would be moving on.
A puppet stood at the center of the room and everyone was supposed to attack it one by one.
A light fell on someone asking them to attack the puppet. The person attacked and the light moved onto someone else.
Apparently, they weren't going to learn who attacked the hardest until it was all over.
Nearly 30 people later, Alex finally got his chance. He wasted no time and threw a metal punch at the puppet.
The light moved around and a while later everyone was done.
Then, the room dimmed a little for a few seconds, and 20 lights shined on the 20 winners. Alex was one of them.
They all felt the teleportation aura capture them, and then they were teleported.
When the 20 of them reappeared, everyone including Alex was on the 4th floor.
