Third Trial [1]
=== Leaderboards: ===
1. Dante - 98 Contribution Points
2. Trenton Rix - 95 Contribution Points
3. Bianca Dale - 91 Contribution Points
…
8. Alvin Smith- 12 Contribution Points
9. Ronald Peirce - 10 Contribution Points
================
Biting my lips, I glared at the leaderboard that was floating in the air with a furious expression on my face. I was ranked 6th out of the nine contestants that were remaining, even though I had probably killed the most monsters out of all the people present. I hatefully gazed at the brilliant figure hovering just above the ginormous leaderboard.
Kaia seemed to notice my glare, but he just feigned ignorance to my dissatisfaction. He had a seemingly mocking aura exuding from his presence. I furrowed my brows and wondered what I had done to make the angel act this way. I quickly shook those thoughts away as Kaia once again broadcasted his loud voice across the void.
"For this last trial, you all will be teleported to a room with 3 doors. Each of the doors will have a challenge varying in difficulty from waiting behind them. The [Easy] difficulty will only allow 5 people to pass through that door. The [Medium] difficulty will allow 3 people. Finally, the [Hard] difficulty will only allow 1 person through. Choose wisely."
Shortly after hearing those words, me and the other contestants were teleported to a white void where three doors stood before us. On the very right of us was a green door. In the middle was an orange door, and on the very left was a red door.
Without hesitation, Alvin and his five followers quickly took up the capacity limit for the green door. Glancing at each other nervously, nobody dared to speak up. Although we had gotten accustomed to each other during the second trial, it didn't make us friends or anything like that.
I really detested the awkward ambiance that was surrounding our group, so I was the first to speak up, "Let me take the red door. You guys can take the orange one."
I didn't do this for the sake of being nice or generous. I had my own reasons and my instincts told me that it was the right decision to choose the red door. I had always relied on my instincts and this time was no exception.
Nodding their heads in appreciation, Trenton, Dante, and Bianca slowly walked over to the orange door. They took one last look towards me and soon disappeared beyond the door.
Taking a deep breath, I also decided to make my way to the [Hard] difficulty challenge. Feeling the cold handle of the door, I calmly opened the door and faded away into the darkness.
After walking for quite a while, I realized that I was most likely trapped in some kind of illusion.
I slowly took out my watch and tried to activate it, but to my surprise, it failed. I was sort of in shock, considering that the watch worked perfectly in the previous two trials. I shook my head and tucked the watch back away into my waistband.
Aimlessly walking towards a single direction, I failed to find any clues regarding the third trial. Though, just when I was about to sit down and recuperate my mind, the silhouette of a book suddenly started to float in front of me. With its pages turning rapidly, I carefully looked at the contents within the book.
I came to a realization that the object in front of me was the book I had obtained during the first trial. Back when I had just got it, I couldn't understand anything that was within the book, but now, I felt like the weird symbols within it were slowly starting to morph into legible sentences.
Squinting my eyes, I watched the bright, golden aura around the book slowly start to dim down as time progressed. However, as soon as the golden light died out, the book seemed like it had a mind of its own. It was dashing left and right in an erratic manner, and it soon came flying straight towards me. Its speed was so fast that it made me flinch as it was a few centimeters away from my face. Though, to my surprise, the book did not come in contact with my face.
Exhaling a sigh of relief, I then got up to look for the book. But after minutes of searching, I still couldn't find it within the darkness.
Suddenly, a faint tingling sensation appeared on my forehead and a bright light flashed across my vision. What followed suit was a deafening silence.
…
Opening my eyes, I found myself in front of a mysterious palace in the middle of the void. It wasn't particularly luxurious or large. The walls of the palace were made of rock and the structure was extremely similar to a palace back in my old world.
Entering this familiar infrastructure, a feeling of nostalgia started to flush through my body. This feeling suddenly made a question arise within my thoughts: How long has it been since I've left my previous world behind?
I didn't know how long it had been. The time I spent here felt extremely short but was it? Decades or centuries could've passed in the mere days I've spent in the "afterlife". Could this even be called the afterlife?
Shaking these thoughts away temporarily, I focused myself back onto the corridor before me. It was dimly lit with torches and old weaponry could be seen dangling from the walls on the side. As I walked down the corridor, I quickly found myself standing in front of a wooden door. It wasn't locked or anything, so I simply entered the room without precaution.
Beyond the door was a massive library that looked extremely worn out. The shelves mostly empty, the tables covered with dust, the walls painted with cobwebs, it was not a sight to marvel at.
Picking up the first book I saw on a nearby shelf, I quickly scanned through the entire thing. It was some weird fantasy book regarding the downfall of some random country. It seemed to be set on a timeline somewhere in the future, where technology became extremely sophisticated.
Uninterested, I threw the book back onto the shelf and proceeded to open the book right next to it. Scanning through it, I realized that it was a continuation of the book before. Furrowing my brows in confusion, I continued to read all of the books that were inside the library.
"Ugh! They're the same book!" I cried out in agony.
I had wasted precious time on reading useless books. I pulled out my watch to see if it had started working again, and fortunately, it had. Although dissatisfied, I couldn't leave empty-handed, so I tossed all of the books from the library into my inventory. Upon further examination, I also found my old book back in my inventory. Excitedly, I pulled it out of thin air and flipped open the first page. As expected, I was able to read the first few pages of the book, but after that, the words soon became a jumbled mess. However, instead of being angry, I was satisfied with knowing what was contained within the book.
Closing up the book with a bright smile on my face, I then made my way to the exit. Walking through the corridor back to the main entrance was an arduous task as everything was dull and boring along the way. After seemingly endless hours of walking, I had finally made it to the front door of the palace. Pushing the doors open and stepping outside, I found myself back in the same, boring void. However, the palace behind me disappeared into thin air and what replaced it was a dark-purple colored building. It had a crooked shape to it as the entire structure of the building was poorly planned out. Though, it was massive. It was indeed much larger than the palace that was in its place beforehand. It also emanated a dark and eerie feeling to it, almost like it was the demon king himself.
Staring at the tower behind me, I suddenly felt a small vibration in the space between my waistbands. I pulled my watch out and a white screen then materialized out of thin air.
– Would you like to start the [Hard] difficulty trial now? (You will have 10 hours to complete the 20-floor tower.) [Yes] / [No]
Relieved that I had finally found the trial, I immediately pressed on the [Yes] button and I was soon transported into a dim and endless corridor similar to the one in the palace. Looking down at my watch and noticing the time slowly start to descend, I quickly dashed forward into the darkness.