Chapter 191: Tower Malfunction

[Congratulations! You have successfully solo cleared the Second Floor]

[You have eradicated the unholy colony of the winter plague]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[You have received 1,744,000,000,000,000 Evolution Points]

[You have received 872,000,000,000,000 Evolution Points from the Book of Kaelen]

[You have received (4360) loot bundles]

[Quality or Quantity?]

"One quadrillion, seven hundred and forty-four trillion Evolution Points??" Kaelen’s eyes bulged on seeing the numbers.

That was close to 2 quadrillion made in less than an hour, and the Book of Kaelen had given eight hundred and seventy-two trillion. Almost one quadrillion, making the total haul a staggering 2.616 quadrillion Evolution Points.

If he added the 480 trillion from the eight people he’d just killed, that would make the numbers border on nearly three quadrillion.

Kaelen inhaled a cold breath.

As the series of notifications flashed across his vision, the familiar angel’s gate reappeared.

He swept his gaze across the desolate snowy plain before turning all the slain beasts into shadow summons, then recalling all of them into his shadow.

There was nothing left for him to do here, and the remaining Easter eggs and treasure chests had all been collected by his shadow summons as they cleared out the beasts.

He didn’t regret switching to the Nameless Shadow God ability now and was filled with satisfaction as he made his way to the angel’s gate, which opened upon his arrival and closed behind his back.

[Your livestream has been ended]

[Your inbox feature has been unlocked]

[You have received (2368) message requests]

[You have (3) unread messages from your friend list]

Kaelen was surprised at seeing the number of message requests in under an hour. He couldn’t tell what all those people wanted from him, as it was too good to be true that 2,000+ people would be trying to recruit him already.

He didn’t interact with any of the notifications but instead navigated to the media page, where only one video existed under the lobby #315 official account.

It had a staggering number of views, likes, and even comments. Kaelen didn’t check to see what the audience were talking about him while he was fighting for his life and clicked the video instead, curious to see how it was done.

The first thing that exploded on his face was a series of live comments that flashed across the video as he ascended the elevator.

He moved his fingers across the holographic screen and realized he had been broadcast from all possible angles, and it was left for the viewers to adjust the feed however they wanted.

It didn’t end there, but after Kaelen had stepped out of the elevator and onto the winter storm floor, he could swipe across the screen, zoom in and zoom out to inspect the entire floor and spectate the opponent team on the other end of the floor to give the audience an excellent visual.

As much as Kaelen hated to admit it, he was impressed.

The elevator shook once, and the angel’s gate slid open with a loud screech that alerted everyone to his entrance into the lobby.

The Herald was floating just outside the gate, and Kaelen could see the other candidate step out to steal a glance at him. ℯ

"You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, huh." That was the first thing the Herald said to him. "But I hope you understand you got lucky this one time, and the next floor might sweep you off your feet with all you’ve got."

"It’s good to see you too." Kaelen replied absent-mindedly as he kept walking with his eyes fixed on his livestream.

He wasn’t watching himself. He was watching the opponent team and observing what they were doing while he was running around on a horse.

The team was strong and capable. They had a sense of camaraderie that was impossible for a new party like his to have in a first battle.

It slipped his mind to ask the leader, but he was certain the Red Team had experience in the tower, which could’ve only been gained by fighting side by side across multiple floors.

"I’m being serious," the Herald interrupted his train of thought, making him pause to look at them.

"There was a malfunction when you entered the tower." They added with a serious tone.

Kaelen was silent for a moment. "What?" He blurted out in confusion.

"The floor you cleared just now was not the intended second floor. An unprecedented malfunction sent you to an alternate dungeon realm, which is why both all conversations between the opponent team members and those between you were muted."

Kaelen’s mind went blank because the Herald wasn’t lying. Kaelen had been watching the livestream in almost complete silence, with the only sound coming from the speakers being the howling wind of the snowstorm. Not a single word could be heard, and it was impossible to read their lips because they weren’t speaking a language most would understand without the system’s language assist. The same went for Kaelen, because only those who were natives of Earth or perhaps Akkad could read his lips and learn what he conversed about with the leader.

This made Kaelen frown.

A malfunction in a Tower that had seen more days than the entirety of the candidates?

Would that same malfunction have happened if Lysandra’s team had gone in as planned the next morning, or was this a targeted attack on him specifically?

Kaelen had no idea who the dungeon masters were, but as far as he could tell, the Royal Family had taken over the management duties.

Kaelen didn’t have any beef with these people who were said to have been neutral until the grand tournament. If they had something against Emir, it was understandable that they’d be against him too, but that wasn’t a reason to be petty enough to try to endanger him inside a dungeon floor.

There had to be more to it. Then again, it could’ve just been a malfunction like the Herald claimed, though Kaelen found it hard to believe such an ancient structure would choose to malfunction at a time like this when the tower masters were actively controlling it from the backrooms.

"I know what you’re thinking," the Herald interrupted his train of thought once more. "But I doubt this was intentional. The situation was realized early, and if you had used your Waystone or survived until the end even if you had lost, you would’ve been transported back safely without any consequences. As much as I hate to admit it, if someone tried to pull such a trick on you and the Royal Family allowed it, then I doubt the tower walls would be able to stop history from repeating itself. You should be lucky to have someone like that in your life."

"What makes you think she’d care what happens to me inside there?" Kaelen asked dismissively.

"I have no idea what kind of relationship you have with that woman, and I shouldn’t be telling you this. But while you were fighting for your life, she logged out of her Herald avatar and only returned after you killed your opponents. When questioned about how and why she did it, she simply said that she got thirsty and went off to drink water. We all know that’s not an excuse. That was a warning and a threat to let the Royal Family know she wasn’t bound by the Tower rules and could start it all over again in a snap."