Chapter 125: Tower Of Games
Suddenly, [Dream] received a system message.
And it was not from the Dream System that she had created. But from the System that governed everything.
[Dream] was puzzled. How?
Shouldn’t anything related to the System go through her unique System Module first?
Did I break a rule?
But the Dream System she had created followed all the rules laid out by the System. As far as she knew, none had been broken.
Since it was weird, she checked it immediately.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have reached Level 50.]
"I see," [Dream] muttered. "But why did this come directly from the main System?"
After Night went berserk, his main body had expanded for hundreds of kilometres which killed everything in the surrounding area, and the resulting EXP was more than enough to push him straight to Level 50.
She checked inside Night’s Soul Space.
She found that System Girl was perfectly fine, and nothing had happened to her. She was currently with the other summons, surrounding the sleeping Night.
After [Dream] brought Night out of his trauma, she had immediately put him to sleep so that she could take over his body and escape the battlefield.
She didn’t want to intervene like this unnecessary as she didn’t have much divine source left. But the fight had taken a toll on everyone especially with the death of Sara and Blade so her hands were forced.
But then, she suddenly felt a gaze land directly upon her.
She froze. No, it was time itself that froze. For a moment, nothing moved.
Fortunately, her consciousness and her eyes could still move; it seemed her Mystic Eye was not as simple as it seemed.
She looked at the surroundings. She saw the trees, the birds, and the air. Everything had stopped as if someone had pressed the pause button on the entire world.
Ahead of her, Alze-beus was frozen as well. But [Zethe-thoth] was not.
[Zethe-thoth] looked at [Dream] as if many things had suddenly become clear to him. He said, "So... you are a Player."
[Dream]’s eyes were filled with confusion. It felt like she had heard that term somewhere before.
[Zethe-thoth] noticed her confusion and chuckled. "I see. So you are one of those who burn their past after they cross over. Didn’t we rogue Players already confirm that erasing your past memories is a surefire way to get caught unknowingly?"
[Zethe-thoth] seemed to be able to move perfectly fine.
He had also become surprisingly talkative, and his eyes carried deep, complex emotions, which was utterly bizarre since the party in question was a Void God. "Or are you an older Player? But I doubt you are older than me. Or were you just so confident after escaping that it went straight to your head?"
[Dream]’s confusion increased, but a profound unsettling feeling took over her. It was as if whatever was going to happen next must be avoided at all costs.
But the unseen gaze locked her firmly in place. It was like she was a mere mortal standing completely naked before a true God.
She tried to force herself to move, looking at her pitiful struggle [Zethe-thoth] chuckled in amusement. "It seems though the mind forgot, the soul remembers."
He continued, his tone laced with genuine pity. "If you had said you were a Player earlier, I could have done something to help. But now...?"
[Zethe-thoth] looked up, as if he could see the invisible gaze looming above her. "I am afraid it’s far too late. If I interfere now, it will catch me as well... and it is much too soon for me to be caught." He shook his head again.
The gaze became piercing as it scanned Night’s physical body and soul.
[Ding!]
[Anomaly Detected]
[Scanning]
[ERROR]
[Host is Not a Player]
[...]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[...]
[...]
Suddenly, the gaze became incredibly intense, as if unwilling to give up.
[System Deep Scanning Initiated]
[...]
[...]
[...]
The gaze pierced straight into Night’s Soul Space. It bypassed all internal defenses and found the location where [Dream]’s soul fragments were hiding...
[Dream] suddenly felt like the invisible gaze smirked at her. She wondered how a simple gaze could be so expressive.
[Player Detected]
[Player ID: 179047AJKOJH09]
[Status: Dead]
[Condition: Soul Bound to a Modified System]
[Player Retrieval Program Initiated]
[...]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
The gaze suddenly paused, as if it was not expecting what happened next.
[Player Retrieval Failed...]
For some unknown reason, [Dream] felt relieved from the very depths of her heart.
But the gaze seemed unwilling to give up. It was like a rabid police dog that knew exactly who the criminal was, but couldn’t pursue the case because the concrete evidence was lacking.
So it no longer focused on her. Instead, it moved its gaze onto Night, who was sleeping peacefully in the Soul Space, her current, unwilling, and entirely unrelated partner in crime.
As soon as the gaze scanned Night properly, it paused in surprise. But then it was immediately filled with glee, as if it had finally caught the criminal by the balls.
[Dream] was instantly filled with dread...
[Ding!]
[Further Progress has been halted...]
[Higher Plane Level System Intervention]
[Supreme Grade Talent Detected]
[Target’s Talent is Higher than the Native Cosmos]
[Suitable Candidate Found]
[Upgrading Access...]
[Status: Player Granted]
[Ding! Congratulations on earning the recognition of The Tower Of Games.]
[Grace Period Granted: 10 Years]
[For the next 10 Years, the Player can enter the Tower Of Games at any time.]
[If the Player does not enter the Tower Of Games within the given time frame, the Player will be forcibly summoned, and a severe penalty will be added.]
[Evolution Path Upgraded]
[To progress further, you need to complete the Rank Up quest.]
[Quest Generating...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[Ding! Quest Generated]
[1. Have 5 Summons - Progress (1/5)]
[2. Clear the Tutorial.]
Then the gaze finally receded, satisfied with the outcome.
Time started flowing normally again.
[Zethe-thoth] looked at [Dream] as if he were staring at a dead person.
He was suddenly no longer interested in her or even Night.
In fact, for a fleeting moment, he was even considering leaving this Cosmos altogether. Though the Dead God’s corpse was valuable, this place suddenly felt like it stank of that cursed place known as the Tower of Games.
It suddenly made him feel like throwing up.
But Alze-beus knew none of this.
"Now you have nowhere to run," Alze-beus gloated, looking at [Dream], who looked like she had just been given a death sentence by a jury.
[Zethe-thoth] looked at Alze-beus with dark amusement, thinking, You have no idea how right you are.
[Zethe-thoth] looked back at [Dream], intrigued. "Your hiding method seems to have worked, but it still ended up getting you anyway by using your host."
[Zethe-thoth] had already figured out her entire situation, showing just how unfathomable he truly was.
[Dream] didn’t understand why she was feeling so many turbulent emotions. This was the first time she had even heard that a place like the ’Tower Of Games’ existed.
It was then she remembered she had, in fact, seen the name before.
She had seen it in the status notification when Night received his Natural Calamity Physique. But at that time, she had unknowingly ignored it.
[Dream] looked over and asked [Zethe-thoth], "Why do I feel like it is better to die than go to that place?"
"It is not a bad place, but it is certainly not a good place either," [Zethe-thoth] replied. "It is just that place has a way of breaking even the very best of us."
[Zethe-thoth] sighed. He was definitely not expecting his day to end like this. He turned away. "Well, it was nice meeting a fellow rogue Player, even though the meeting was short..." he mocked, starting to leave as if he were afraid he would be next.
Alze-beus watched this but didn’t try to stop him. If [Zethe-thoth] was leaving, it was infinitely better for him.
Focused on his goal, Alze-beus charged directly at [Dream].
[Dream], who was already feeling terrible, got pissed when she saw the stupid Devil didn’t know how to read the room. Even a supposedly mindless Void God like [Zethe-thoth] had better manners.
Alze-beus teleported right up to [Dream] and threw a massive punch. His colossal fist generated fierce flames and cyclones of wind as it reached her.
[Dream] raised her hand and casually stopped the giant fist with her open palm. All the raw kinetic force from the attack was transferred to her surroundings.
The mountain directly behind [Dream] literally shattered like a fragile egg, throwing massive boulders everywhere.
Alze-beus didn’t expect his full power attack to be blocked so effortlessly. He quickly realized that against an opponent like this, his size was not an advantage, but a fatal disadvantage.
[Dream] sensed the Devil wanted to back away, so she immediately clutched his fist.
Honestly, right now, she was not in the best mood. The earlier situation with Night, and now this bullshit with the System, had pushed her so much that she was no longer thinking rationally.
Alze-beus wanted to reduce his size, but suddenly he realized his fist wouldn’t move. He tried to pull back, but it felt as if an iron grip was clutching his entire hand.
[Dream] planted her foot firmly on the ground. Using the leftover kinetic force from Alze-beus’s own punch, she violently lifted him into the air and slammed him directly into the ground.
Baamm! Baamm! Bammm!
She kept using the kinetic force generated from the impact to lift him again, slamming him violently onto the opposite side.
Alze-beus felt every single bone in his body break. Though the attack felt simple, he felt it carried an extremely profound technique that amplified the damage he took upon each slam. And with each subsequent slam, the damage was being amplified exponentially.
And the amplification was not just one or two times; it was hundreds or thousands of times the initial damage.
He felt dread because he realized if he was slammed a couple more times, not just his physical body, but his very Soul would be crushed.
[Dream] felt the Devil trying to detonate his own physical body just to escape her grip. Raising an eyebrow, she twisted mid slam and hurled the Devil at a nearby mountain.
The giant Devil flew like a discarded baseball and crashed violently into the mountain.
All the eyes and mouths on his body were bleeding. The Devil looked less like a living body and more like a mangled lump of flesh.
Though Alze-beus’s body was broken beyond recognition, he was relieved to escape the clutches of that madwoman.
From afar, [Zethe-thoth] watched this brutal display, shook his head, and muttered to himself. "She must have been a very high level Player. Her combat mastery is insane."
"Still, it is not enough to survive in there, especially since it will not be her playing, but the boy... Now, all she can do is sit back and watch as he suffers against the other monsters."