The area around Yang Kai's corpse descended into chaos.
People backed away in horror, whispers spreading like poison.
"He killed himself…"
"Someone can die here…"
"I thought we were safe…"
Until that moment, no one had truly considered the possibility of death inside this white room. They had assumed—without proof—that since they survived the asteroid, this place was some kind of protected realm.
Even terminal cancer patients who were moments away from dying on Earth stood here perfectly healthy.
So people subconsciously believed this was immunity.
Yang Kai shattered that illusion.
By smashing his own skull against the wall, he proved something no one wanted to test.
They could die here.
Fear spread faster than reason.
Those who stood farther away, who couldn't see the blood or the body, only sensed the disturbance. Confusion passed between them.
"What happened?"
"Why is everyone panicking?"
A middle-aged man sitting with his wife and young daughter noticed the unrest. He gently told his wife to stay put and stood up.
Holding his daughter's small hand for a moment before letting go, he walked toward the commotion.
The closer he got, the stronger the metallic smell became.
Blood.
When he finally saw it, his breath caught in his throat.
A young boy lay on the white floor, the ground beneath him stained dark red. Blood painted the wall behind him. His skull was broken. His body was motionless.
The man's eyes twitched in shock.
His legs trembled.
Someone… died?
But that didn't make sense.
They had all heard that those who were about to die on Earth were perfectly fine here. Even people in late-stage cancer were healthy.
And yet—
This boy was dead.
Not sick.
Not injured by accident.
He chose it.
Within hours, the news spread across the entire white chamber.
Someone had died.
The blue countdown above continued without pause.
00:15:32:21
00:15:32:20
Time moved forward, indifferent.
Gradually, people began moving farther away from the body.
At first, just a few steps.
Then more.
The blood began to stink as it dried. The sharp metallic odor grew heavy in the air.
Parents dragged their children away. Groups relocated. Circles of humanity shifted like a living tide.
Soon, the body was isolated.
Alone again.
Hours passed.
00:05:00:00
Five hours left until Jin's return.
The atmosphere in the room was suffocating.
Some cursed Jin loudly.
"Fuck this tower!"
"Damn that bastard!"
Others sat silently, praying to gods they weren't sure could hear them.
Those who remembered Jin's words understood one thing clearly.
To get out, they had to climb.
To climb, they had to survive.
And to survive—
They might have to kill.
The countdown dropped again.
00:04:00:00
Whispers grew quieter.
00:03:00:00
And then—
Something happened. No one noticed. They were too far. Too afraid.
Too distracted.
Yang Kai's corpse, abandoned in the distant corner, began to glow.
A faint crimson-black energy seeped from his body like smoke. It wrapped around him, pulsing rhythmically.
The white floor beneath him trembled slightly.
His lifeless body slowly rose into the air, hovering inches above the ground.
His closed eyes snapped open.
They were no longer dull.
They were deep—dark—burning faintly with something inhuman.
The crimson-black aura intensified for a brief moment, swirling violently around him like a storm.
Then—
It vanished.
His body dropped back to the floor with a dull thud.
Silence.
For several seconds, nothing moved.
Then Yang Kai's fingers twitched.
He inhaled sharply, as if breaking through water.
His vision blurred.
He pushed himself up slowly, touching his forehead.
There was no wound.
But his head still hurt.
He looked around in confusion, heart pounding.
His voice came out hoarse, low.
"Where the hell am I?"
Yang Kai staggered to his feet.
Or rather—
The soul inside Yang Kai's body staggered to its feet.
His vision swam as he looked around the endless white chamber. Billions of mortals stood in clusters far away, unaware of what had just occurred in this distant corner.
He was about to take a step forward when a violent pain exploded inside his skull.
His knees buckled.
He dropped to the ground.
But he did not scream.
He gritted his teeth, fingers digging into the white floor as veins bulged along his forehead.
What the hell… whose memories are these?
Images flooded his mind without warning.
This is painful… why are these memories forcing their way into my head?
His breathing became uneven.
Then—
A crucial fragment struck him like lightning.
The Tower of Immortality.
His pupils trembled.
T-tower of Immortality… Impossible. It can't be the Tower of Immortality. And whose memories am I getting?
The confusion grew.
Then he looked down.
There were dried bloodstains on his clothes.
In the memories surging through him, he saw a boy smashing his own skull against a wall.
He saw despair.
He saw suicide.
Realization struck.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
This body…
He was inside someone else's body.
A mortal named Yang Kai.
He whispered under his breath, voice hoarse.
"What the hell is going on here? Why am I here? Shouldn't I be on my way to find the Tower of Immortality? Why am I inside a mortal's body?"
The headache slowly subsided.
The memories settled.
But the truth remained absurd.
He was inside the Tower.
Inside a mortal body.
Inside his own creation.
Fragments of the past rose clearly now.
---
"I, Xuan Yuan, will never lose to someone like you!"
A young boy stood proudly on a grand stage, smiling arrogantly as he stepped down, leaving behind the opponent he had just defeated.
That boy was him.
Xuan Yuan.
A genius beyond comparison.
He had never lost in his entire life.
Not once.
Years passed. Centuries passed. Millennia passed.
He cultivated relentlessly, ascending realm after realm.
Floating cross-legged in the void of space, crimson-black qi swirling violently around him, he had felt it.
Just a little more… I can do this.
With a terrifying roar that shook the stars, he broke through.
He reached a level no one had ever heard of.
He named it himself.
Immortal Level.
After that, existence became dull.
He traveled across space, hunting primordial beasts older than civilizations. He crushed them effortlessly.
He searched for rivals.
There were none.
Boredom became his only enemy.
So he created one.
A tower.
A structure with countless floors, each containing trials he personally designed. Each floor harder than the last.
He named it the Tower of Immortality.
Inside the Tower, one did not need to cultivate traditionally. No meditation for thousands of years. No gathering of qi for decades.
Clear a floor.
Gain strength.
The Tower rewarded growth directly.
But the body remained the bottleneck.
If a climber's body had limitations, their power would plateau. They would hit a wall.
Even learning techniques could only push them one or two floors higher.
After that—
Nothing.
Xuan Yuan had never intended to lose control.
The Tower of Immortality was supposed to be nothing more than a tool — a grand arena he crafted out of boredom. He wanted mortals to climb it, to struggle, to bleed, to grow stronger.
He would wait.
He could wait thousands of years.
Let them sharpen themselves.
Let them claw their way upward.
And when one of them finally reached the peak—
He would fight them.
That was the plan.
But one day, the Tower awakened.
It developed consciousness.
It tore itself free from his control.
It slipped from his grasp like a living thing and vanished into the endless void.
Xuan Yuan had been furious.
For the first time in millennia, anger burned through him.
He left everything behind and began searching across space for the runaway Tower.
And now—
He was inside it.
Inside a mortal's body.
---
The flood of memories receded.
Yang Kai — or rather Xuan Yuan within Yang Kai — slowly straightened his back and looked up.
00:00:09:45
00:00:09:44
Only ten minutes remained.
His expression hardened.
So the Tower dragged four billion mortals here…
He glanced toward the distant masses.
Old people who could barely stand.
Crippled men leaning on strangers.
Children clinging to their mothers.
What kind of selection was this?
This Tower was no longer following his original design.
He began walking toward the nearest group.
His steps were steady, though this mortal body felt painfully weak.
As he approached, someone noticed him.
A woman wrinkled her nose.
"Do you smell that?"
Another man turned.
Then several heads snapped in his direction.
They saw him clearly now.
A young man walking toward them.
Clothes stained dark red.
Hair matted with dried blood.
Face pale.
Their expressions froze.
Then chaos erupted.
"Ahhhhh! A ghost!"
"The dead body is walking!"
"Save us! There's a ghost!"
Parents grabbed their children tightly. Some men stepped forward despite their trembling legs, trying to shield their families.
To them, Yang Kai looked like a corpse risen from hell.
Xuan Yuan blinked, then gave an awkward smile. He lifted his right hand and scratched the back of his head.
"Huh? Why are you scared of me? I'm not dead."
His tone was casual, almost confused.
They stared at him in horror.
Several people made cross signs frantically.
"Lying!"
"He's definitely dead!"
"He came back to kill us!"
"Look at his fucking face!"
In their eyes, he was a devil wearing human skin.
Xuan Yuan stepped forward.
"Hey, hey. I'm really not dead. I just want to ask something—"
The entire group stepped backward in perfect unison.
"Nope."
"You're lying."
"Not believing."
For a brief second, Xuan Yuan felt something unfamiliar.
Embarrassment.
Then—
Beep.
A sharp, mechanical sound echoed across the entire white chamber.
Everyone froze.
All eyes lifted upward.
00:00:00:00
The countdown reached zero.
The blue screen flickered.
And beside it—
Jin appeared.
Suspended in the air, hands clasped behind his back, that same smooth, devilish smile on his face.
Billions of people stared at him.
Jin's eyes swept across the chamber, briefly pausing — just for a fraction of a second — on Yang Kai.
Then he spoke.
"Hello again."
His voice carried effortlessly to every corner.
"Now… your first test will begin."