What Lies Beyond Door One

Moving quietly, Lin Feng approached the Tower. The chaotic crowds and military cordons from the day before had begun to thin, replaced by organized checkpoints and government monitors. Amidst the shifting tension outside, Lin Feng found his opening — a narrow alley between two barricades, left momentarily unguarded.

Without hesitation, he slipped through. A few more turns, and the main square of the Tower loomed ahead, shrouded in a cold, heavy atmosphere.

The colossal Tower rose high into the clouds, an endless shadow against the dark night sky.

Without wasting a second, Lin Feng crossed the dark archway that marked the entrance.

Inside, the air was thick and still.

He stepped into the familiar corridor — the long, echoing hallway where the minotaur had once stood. The oppressive weight he remembered was strangely absent.

The creature was gone.

Lin Feng moved carefully, each step deliberate, ears straining for the slightest sound. His fingers gripped the baseball bat tightly, ready for anything. But the corridor remained empty, eerily silent.

Only one thing stood ahead: an ancient, massive door at the far end.

Lin Feng swallowed hard, forcing his breath to steady. Every instinct told him that crossing this threshold would not be the same as before.

He moved forward. Step by step. Until only the door remained before him.

Before him stood the most imposing door Lin Feng had ever seen. Ancient and colossal, it towered over everything around it, carved directly into the dark stone wall of the Tower's entrance chamber. The door itself looked as though it had been forged from a single, seamless slab of blackened metal, weathered by untold centuries yet utterly unbroken.

Its surface was etched with faint, almost indecipherable patterns — spirals, runes, and lines that seemed to shift and shimmer as one's eyes moved across them. The edges were reinforced with thick iron bands, each as wide as a man's arm, bolted deep into the stone frame.

No visible handle. No hinges. No seam through which it might open — just this immovable wall of ancient craftsmanship.

At its very center, dominating everything, was a single, massive number:

1

Perfectly chiseled into the surface. The number glowed faintly with a cold, silvery light, as if marking the threshold of the first great trial.

The air in front of the door was heavy, as though it resisted the approach of the unworthy. A pressure that seemed to seep into the bones. Lin Feng could feel it in his chest, in his pulse — this was no ordinary door. It was a gate. A guardian.

And beyond it, the true beginning awaited.

Lin Feng stood still for a moment, staring up at the ancient door.

It looked impossibly heavy — a solid wall of blackened metal and stone. He tightened his grip on the baseball bat, took a breath, and slowly reached out with his free hand.

This is going to take all my strength, he thought.

Fingers brushing against the cold surface, he pressed his palm flat against it — and blinked in surprise.

The moment his hand made contact, something shifted. The immense weight he had expected… wasn't there. Instead, it felt as if the door itself had recognized his presence. The heavy resistance seemed to fade, as though the door were offering no real opposition.

Cautiously, Lin Feng pushed. The massive door, which should have taken several men to move, swung open with unexpected ease — slow, smooth, almost effortless.

A low rumble echoed through the corridor as the passage beyond revealed itself.

Heart pounding, Lin Feng stepped forward.

Lin Feng stepped through the doorway — and what he saw left him speechless.

Gone were the cold stone walls and dim corridors of the Tower. Before him stretched a vast, living world: an endless, dense rainforest that seemed to pulse with life.

The ground beneath his feet was soft and uneven, covered in a thick layer of damp, decaying leaves and tangled roots that twisted and coiled like sleeping serpents. Patches of dark, rich soil peeked through, glistening with moisture. Every step released the earthy scent of moss, wood, and wet earth — a heavy aroma that clung to the air.

Towering above him rose colossal trees, their trunks wide as ancient pillars, bark rough and gnarled, coated with patches of moss and creeping vines. Some trees soared so high their canopies vanished into the misty heights, where shafts of pale, bluish light filtered weakly through layers of dense foliage.

Thick lianas hung from the branches like ropes, swaying gently in the unseen breeze. Ferns of all sizes blanketed the lower levels, their fronds outstretched like delicate fans. Bright orchids and strange, alien-looking flowers clung to trunks and vines, splashes of color in the sea of green.

The air was hot and humid, thick with moisture. Droplets of water dripped steadily from leaves overhead, creating a soft, rhythmic patter that filled the silence. Insects buzzed faintly in the distance, their sounds blending into an unseen symphony.

Everywhere Lin Feng looked, life teemed: darting movements in the underbrush, sudden rustles in the leaves high above, shadows flickering at the edges of his vision. Yet no obvious path lay ahead — only dense, tangled vegetation in all directions.

It felt ancient, untouched — as if he had stepped into a primordial world that had existed long before humanity.

For a moment, Lin Feng simply sto

od there, awestruck, his baseball bat hanging loosely at his side. His mind struggled to process the impossible scene before him.

What… is this place?

It was neither day nor night. The sky above was hidden beneath the dense canopy of trees, and the dim, bluish light that filtered down through the leaves gave the forest an otherworldly glow — a world caught between light and shadow.

Standing there, Lin Feng felt small. The towering trees, the endless vines, the thick undergrowth — everything about this place was vast, ancient, overwhelming.

But he wasn't about to turn back. Gritting his teeth, he made his decision. I'll face whatever danger lies ahead.

Baseball bat in hand, he took his first steps forward. He hadn't gone more than ten meters when he began to hear it — faint noises coming from all around. The sound of something running, or perhaps the whisper of wind brushing against the leaves. The forest was alive with hidden movement.

Lin Feng stopped. His heart pounded. Eyes darting left and right, every muscle tense, he scanned the trees and shadows.

For several long seconds, he hesitated — should he press on, or retreat?

He forced down the uncertainty. No. Keep going.

Steeling his resolve, he moved forward again. And then —

A sudden flash of light burst before him.

Without thinking, driven by pure instinct, Lin Feng swung the baseball bat in a sharp arc.

CRACK!

The bat struck something — something both hard and soft at once — and whatever it was slammed into a nearby tree with a loud, wet thud.

Breathing hard, Lin Feng's eyes locked onto the thing he had just struck.

It was a snake.

It was a snake — but unlike any snake Lin Feng had ever seen.

Roughly 60 centimeters long (about two feet), its body lay twisted at the base of the tree. Its scales shimmered with strange, unnatural colors — hues no ordinary serpent should possess.

Pale violet streaked with veins of bright teal and deep crimson, shifting slightly in the dim forest light as though the colors themselves were alive. The patterns on its body didn't resemble the camouflage of any known species — more like something crafted, almost unnatural.

Its head was broad and flat, with glassy, lidless eyes that seemed to glow faintly even in death.

Lin Feng stared at it, heart still racing. What… kind of place is this?