'Troublesome.'
Jin was sitting in a wooden chair. His back was struggling against the tiny back of the chair. He looked sharply at the man sitting behind the desk in front of him.
The man seemed to be in his forties, a few strands of his hair already greying out. Though there were barely any wrinkles on his face, Jin could feel the decades of experience in his voice.
As Jin tapped his finger on the armrest, the man continuously scribbled down something on his documents.
"Pardon me, Mr. Morgan. I believe we've gone through this enough times by now. So, why do you still keep calling me back?"
His voice was polite, yet there was a hint of authority in his tone.
It was just that Morgan was also the type of person who hated his tone.
"Mr. Lian, I also believe that I keep asking you to tell me the truth. As long as you can't do that, we'll have to keep meeting."
Jin let out a tired sigh and turned to the side.
There was a large metallic cabinet attached to the wall, encased inside a pane of glass. Inside, he could see a distinct collection of masterfully crafted armor and weapons. From the visor and cuirass to longswords and spears, Morgan had collected them all.
But they weren't simply his collection.
Any other person would've missed it, but he could see it clearly.
The unnoticeable scratches on the armor, the worn-out handle of the sword—every piece of armament had been used countless times. They also showed how their owner had used them to their fullest potential.
Now, they were simply polished ornaments used to fill up the space in the room.
Morgan noticed him observing the weapons with a distant look.
For a fleeting moment, he remembered when he was young as well, full of untapped potential.
Shaking his head, he placed the pen down. Jin turned back to him.
Both of them simply looked at each other for a while. He was unsure of Morgan's intention, but Jin wasn't one to back down in a tense situation. After all, he was far too old to care about what the other person would feel by his behaviour.
Finally, Morgan gave in.
"Let's do this. If you answer me truthfully, I'll let you pick one piece of equipment."
Jin narrowed his gaze.
"And how am I supposed to trust you to hold your side of the bargain?"
He was expecting the veteran to at least get his sarcastic remarks, but Morgan simply stared at him.
Taking the opportunity, Jin gave him a faint nod and recited the events that had occurred. Morgan picked up the pen and noted things accordingly.
After he exited the abyss of mortality, Jin still couldn't completely come to terms with what had happened.
If he had to start somewhere, it would be this strange world he had transmigrated into.
'It is something even I have never seen before.'
This world was facing something called 'The Surge'. When it first appeared a few decades ago, people thought it was simply another chronic disease. But they soon realised it wasn't as easy as that.
The flora and fauna flourished in the Surge. It not only bloomed, but it also mutated and evolved. The trees grew several times taller than normal, completely blocking the sky.
The animals evolved and grew as well, some turning into titanic, bloodthirsty monsters, while the others split their body into countless parts. There was no pattern to how a plant would react to it, nor was it known which animal could handle the mutation and which couldn't.
A few cases turned into a state-wide lockdown. Which then turned into an apocalyptic situation.
Humanity was about to fall.
It was then that something emerged from the ground. A large tower built of indestructible material, its top hidden behind the clouds.
But its emergence was not what mattered.
A few selected people received the tower's call, urging them to climb its floors. It was unknown what was inside the tower, as well as how it had suddenly appeared.
'I doubt anyone in their right mind would even think it to be real.'
Unfortunately, they didn't have much of a choice. With the Surge already having taken over most of the world, this was their only hope.
So, they entered it. What they encountered could only be explained as 'impossible'.
Once someone entered a floor in the tower, they were teleported to a completely different world. Or rather, that was how they had come to understand it. There were an unknown number of realms connected to the tower. Whenever someone challenged a floor, they were teleported to a different world.
The rules were simple—complete the objective and climb the stairs of ascension.
'This is just cheating… No, calling it 'cheating' would be an understatement. It is something that shouldn't exist at all.'
Once your objective is completed, you'll be brought back to your world. Not only that, but it forced your body to evolve just like the Surge did, pulling you above your current realm of prowess.
It was a tower of blessing.
But it wasn't all that simple.
Lian, the youth whose body Jin had transmigrated into, was also one of the Challengers. He was someone who had also gotten the call of the tower. He entered the tower with hopes and dreams, thinking he would be able to live normally in the end.
'Naive… he was far too naive and greedy. When the product doesn't have a price, the cost is usually your own life. It is just that simple.'
Jin couldn't blame him either. Lian was far too inexperienced after all, while Jin was someone who had already lived a lifetime.
Inside the first floor, Lian and a few other participants were teleported to a similar location. Their objective was simple.
'To save the inhabitants of a dying forest, how noble. That's what they all must have thought.'
They somehow managed to find the tribe they were supposed to save.
That was when everything started going downhill.
The challengers requested that the tribe's people relocate to a safer place. They accepted at first, even inviting the challengers into their settlements. Fed them, washed them, gave them a place to sleep.
It was all going smoothly.
Until they woke up in the middle of the jungle, everyone was tied up to the trees, their senses dulled. The tribe's people had drugged them. Until they got their bearings back, it was too late.
In the eyes of the tribe, they were not saviors, but sacrifices. They fattened them up overnight and threw them to what they considered to be the guardian of the forest.
The overgrown ape Jin had slain in the prayer hall claimed their lives. One after another, everyone became its victims. Lian was the only one to escape its onslaught. But by the time he had entered the mausoleum, his life was already at its end.
As pitiful as it was, no one raised a voice against the tower. Because, despite the countless lives it took every year, the lives it sustained were far more.
With the return of the first people who had challenged the tower, humanity started to get back up.
A long-reaching barrier appeared around the tower, stopping the Surge from entering the domain it had erected. As they climbed further, the barrier only got stronger and wider.
A few settlements turned into a small town, which then turned into a large city. The city was so large that its interior had been divided into districts.
That city was now called Acropolis.
Right now, humanity was at a stalemate against the Surge. They needed challengers more than ever. Even if the tower was ruthless, as long as it helped humanity stand against the Surge, no one was going to question its ways and difficulty.
Which was why Jin was being interviewed right now.
'I'd prefer it if they weren't as aggressive, though.'
Apparently, two groups of participants had entered the trial on the first floor. One was filled with young masters of the esteemed clans and guilds, while the other was made up of people from the lower districts and those who had never even held a sword before.
The other group had managed to survive with a few casualties. But Jin's entire group had been slaughtered.
Knowing how the trials inside the Tower were designed and people's tendencies to misinterpret the objective, the so-called government had to know how Jin had been the only one to survive.
Either he was far more capable than anyone expected, or he was a coward who had used his comrades as a meat shield and run away.
It was only normal that people expected him to fall in the second category.
Still, he decided to tell them everything, only leaving his transmigration out of the story.
'Well, I can't blame them either. How could you expect someone on the brink of death to defeat a beast, summon a deity, and then get burnt alive in the matter of a few minutes, and still be alive? I shouldn't have told them the truth in the first place.'
Nevertheless, he went over the events once again. Only this time, he completely left out the mausoleum.
Morgan finally stopped writing.
"So, you didn't actually fight an ape-like beast, nor did you use it as a sacrifice to call on a deity. You simply got rid of your clothes covered in blood and hid in a cave, which explains why you were naked when you returned. Is that right, or am I missing something?"
The naked incident made him grimace faintly.
"Yes, that should be correct. I apologize for wasting your time all this time. I should have admitted it when you called me the first time."
His tone was much softer than what Morgan was used to, making him even more suspicious.
He simply looked for Jin for a few moments. He was sure that Jin was still hiding something from him.
Morgan half-believed his previous statement. Even if Lian didn't seem like the type of person to hold their own against a beast far stronger than him on paper, he knew anything was possible inside the tower.
Not to mention, how Jin carried himself was nothing like that of a coward. He had tried every method to intimidate him, but it felt like Jin was completely oblivious. It was his first time encountering someone like him, someone who couldn't even read the room.
Removing his glasses, he massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Alright, I'll take that as your final statement. You don't need to visit my office anymore. You're free to leave."
Opening his eyes, he saw that Jin was still sitting in front of him, pointing at the cabinet of armament.
He gave out an exhausted sigh.
"I'll get them delivered to your address."
Smiling subtly, Jin exited the room.
He walked slowly through the corridor, examining the various people passing by him. Their strange clothes baffled him, as did their culture and other things. Everything here was completely different from his past world. Lian's memories helped him keep himself together, giving him the knowledge needed to understand this world.
He looked at the never-ending tower far away in the very center of the city.
It was ironic. If Lian hadn't reached out for him in his last moments, Jin was unsure what would have happened to him. It was certainly a miracle that he was still alive and breathing.
Now that he was in Lian's body, both his past and present belonged to Jin. Which also meant that Lian's burden was his to bear.
He had lost the pendant Lian had in his hands, but he still remembered who it had belonged to.
'It is time to fulfil my duties as Lian.'
He was going back home.