Chapter 253: A Brief Return To Earth?

A large, pure white, high-tech-looking room opened up before Uhtred’s eyes. He squinted and shielded his eyes instinctively, the glare from the bright room nearly blinding him before his vision adjusted.

"What the fuck is this place?" he muttered.

"Forget about that," King Alexei bellowed, his heavy footsteps heading in Uhtred, Zara, Perfection, and White Raven’s direction as they fully materialized. "What the hell happened to you guys? Don’t tell me you actually tried to fight that damned Heavenly Demon?"

"Tch! We actually did try, but in the end it was futile," Uhtred responded immediately, taking control of the narrative before any of the other three could speak.

They were bound by the System-imposed Oath of Secrecy to not reveal anything that had happened within the sub-scenario.

Of course, they had known that they would have to lie to the others and play it off like they were also ferrying a part of the Heavenly Demon onto the next floor, but they hadn’t expected to be bombarded with questions the moment they arrived.

They hadn’t even had the time to get their stories straight, so Uhtred quickly took charge before anyone else spoke.

The other three tacitly kept silent, understanding Uhtred’s intention.

"I’m surprised you lot came away with your lives." King Alexei stopped in front of Uhtred and crossed his large arms. He eyed Uhtred top to bottom, then did the same for the others. It was obvious he was suspicious, but at least it was clear he had no idea of what had actually occurred.

Uhtred pushed past him, refusing to continue their conversation, acting as if the fact that he had "succumbed" to the Heavenly Demon in the end was something he was utterly frustrated about.

He scanned the rest of the ascender team present — all of whom had watched his exchange with King Alexei curiously. He nodded in greeting to them, then his gaze settled on Diya, who also nodded and smiled lightly.

He began heading toward her. But in the meantime, he asked aloud:

"How come I don’t see Roy? Where the hell’s that rat man?"

"Rat man, you say?" Black Sun Mateo, who was lounging on one of the stark white sofas in the room, scoffed. "Think again, Uhtred."

He nodded toward a corner of the white room, where a short, stout figure seemed preoccupied, tapping away at some small screen.

Uhtred abruptly stopped, a stunned, flabbergasted look on his face.

"Roy...?"

Slowly, a short, green-skinned creature turned around. He possessed large, pointed ears that drooped slightly at the tips, deep-set, ancient eyes, and wore a humble, frayed brown robe that trailed behind him on the pristine white floor.

He leaned heavily on a wooden walking stick, looking like he had stepped straight out of a particular sci-fi blockbuster movie.

"Yoda?!" Uhtred blurted out, his brows shooting toward his hairline. "You fucking took on Yoda’s appearance?!"

Roy paused, leaning both hands onto his crooked stick. He tilted his head, his wide ears twitching faintly as he stared at Uhtred with a look of profound, serene confusion.

"Yoda, speak you of?" Roy asked, his voice gravelly and dramatically sagely as he spoke in an inverted speech pattern. "Known to me, this name is not. A master of the path, am I. Handler Roy, my name remains, hmm?"

Uhtred stared at him, completely deadpan. His expression must have been very openly unimpressed, because after a few seconds of silence, Roy’s ears twitched again, drooping slightly as he was clearly embarrassed.

"Ahem! You know what? Forget it! It’s a hassle to talk like that anyway," he grumbled, his voice instantly returning back to normal.

"No shit," Uhtred scoffed. "No one can replicate Yoda. Not even you, Roy."

Roy gasped dramatically, clutching his tiny, robe-covered heart with both hands as if he had just been struck by a blade. He staggered back, looking mortified.

Uhtred didn’t mind the theatrical display in the slightest, but he didn’t have the patience to indulge the Handler’s antics right now either. He swept a sharp glance over the sleek, sterile room around them.

"Drop the act, Roy. How long until we move up to the next floor?" he asked, stepping around him.

Very quickly, Roy shifted into a serious gear. He cleared his throat and began to address the whole room:

"Well, now that you four have finally decided to show up, we can move ahead, and I can finally be free of the ones who have been pestering me."

He cast a pointed glare toward King Alexei.

The large man simply let out a rough grunt and crossed his arms over his chest. "About time."

Handler Roy harrumphed, tapping his wooden stick firmly against the floor. "In any case... congratulations, my Champions! You have all officially and successfully crossed into the Third Floor of the Illustrious Tower of Wonders!"

A low, collective grumble passed through the ten human ascenders at the praise.

None of them felt like celebrating. As far as the majority were concerned, they had only survived Floor 2 by giving in to the Heavenly Demon and carrying a fragment of his consciousness inside them.

It felt less like a glorious victory and more like a desperate, dirty compromise.

Roy, sensing the gloomy atmosphere, waved his small green hand dismissively.

"Oh, wipe those bitter looks off your faces! You have no idea how well you actually performed. Out of the billions upon billions of champion teams participating in this Tower trial cycle, you are among the seventy-eight percent to survive the Second Floor... the remaining twenty-two percent perished!"

Uhtred’s eyes narrowed.

Twenty-two percent?

That number took him by surprise. From his perspective, the scenario they had faced wasn’t extremely dangerous. Of course, there had been several times that his life had been at stake, but at the end of the day, the only person who actually ended his life had done so as a result of what the scenario demanded.

If the other scenarios were also somewhat similar, then he didn’t see how a whole twenty-two percent of ascenders had perished. These were the top talents of every world in their universe, after all.

It was a grim reminder that the Tower did not play fair, and that other races had likely been thrown into far more apocalyptic scenarios.

"Now then," Roy continued, leaning onto his stick. "Because you have cleared the Second Floor — which serves as your very first true scenario trial — the System grants you a reprieve. The Tower trial is a grueling climb, but it is not something that forces you to charge blindly straight ahead in one go without pause."

He paused, scanning the group.

"Of course, forging ahead immediately has its perks. First-clear titles for Floor 3 are still wide open, and the gifts and donations for being in the lead are massive. So for those who want to push forward, the path is open..."

Roy smiled, his long ears twitching.

"...But the choice is now officially yours. If you want to take some time off, you can."

A visible wave of relief washed over the room.

For Uhtred, the news was a massive breath of fresh air. And looking around, he wasn’t the only one. Zara, White Raven, and even the stoic, unreadable figure of Perfection seemed to absorb the information with quiet satisfaction.

Even among the other six who hadn’t reached the sub-scenario, the idea of a break was immensely attractive. Diya let out a soft, relaxed sigh, while Hassan Al-Malik’s tense posture visibly loosened.

"By ’taking some time off,’ what do you mean exactly?" Uhtred asked, seeking clarity. "Do you mean resting here in this waiting room? Or do you mean—"

"—I mean you can leave the Tower," Roy cut him off smoothly. "You may return to Earth for exactly two weeks... at most."

The announcement hit the room like a thunderclap.

Even King Alexei, who had looked thoroughly bored and uninterested in leaving, raised an eyebrow in genuine surprise.

Uhtred only took a few seconds to deliberate. Of course, if he left now, he would be losing out on potential first-clear titles.

As someone who currently dominated everyone else in terms of titles back on Earth, a part of him still felt reluctant to give up on the titles he might get in the Third Floor.

But at the same time, he was aware that the System hadn’t rewarded him with a major title for a while now. If there had been first-clear titles up for grabs on the Second Floor, he had already lost out on them; some other mighty talents had definitely cleared the Second Floor before anyone else.

He wasn’t about to kill himself racing them for the Third Floor. His true goal was the higher floors, Floor 5 and above. If twenty-two percent of ascenders had already perished on Floor 2 — a percentage that was separate from the billions that had already died on Floor 1 — then playing the long game was the smarter choice.

Besides, there was another reason to take a breather now...

"I’m leaving," Uhtred said immediately.

"Me too," Zara chimed in smoothly from the side, stepping up beside him.

"Count me in as well," White Raven added in her calm, crisp tone.

Now that they knew the deeper reality of the Tower, there was no reason to rush recklessly into Floor 3. They needed time to process the deep history they had learned from the sub-scenario and plan how they would navigate the trials ahead.

There was a tacit, unspoken understanding between Uhtred, Zara, White Raven, and Perfection.

They had to maintain the lie that they were just tired and wanted to take a break, acting no different from the rest of the squad.

But in reality, the four of them knew they were now set apart from the others. Moving forward, they needed to ensure that they — the four who had accessed the sub-scenario — continued to survive and climb together, drastically increasing the odds of at least one human reaching the highest floors.

Uhtred nodded, pleased that they had all come to the same silent understanding...

...Or maybe not all of them.

He suddenly frowned, noticing something.

Perfection hadn’t spoken. He stood clad in his pure white attire, his posture regal, unmoving, and utterly stoic behind his featureless mask.

While Uhtred, Zara, and White Raven prepared to step out of the Tower and return to Earth, Perfection made his stance clear without uttering a single word.

He was not taking a break. He intended to keep climbing immediately.