The Community on Earth, during the events on the hundredth floor.

[Why is the stream on and showing nothing?]

[Uhhh... what’s going on?]

[Wait, is this floor just like super bright or smth?]

[Is Su-Hyeok literally in a “I can’t see anything” situation?]

[Bro they fought in the dark before too 😭]

[Yeah, but wasn’t that like AGES ago? Su-Hyeok is way past that now.]

[Could be an upgraded version of that trial this time.]

[What if it just bugged out 💀]

[A bug?? LMAO when has that ever happened 😂]

[Exactly, since it has NEVER happened, maybe today’s the day.]

[Lolol.]

[Y’all are insane. Some literal GOD-TIER being is doing this, of course it’s wild.]

[Ugh... unbelievers smh 🙄]

[??]

[😂😂😂]

[Unbelievers?? Tf is wrong with you. You wanna die?]

[Bro, look at the way y’all are acting. That is def unbeliever vibes.]

[Who said Su-Hyeok was gonna fail??? Nobody said that??]

[Like... hello? He’s shining so hard that you can’t see him. And you’re over here saying, “Maybe he’s fighting inside the light.” That’s such an unbeliever attitude.]

[???]

[LOOOOOOOOL 💀💀💀💀💀💀]

[This dude is unhinged lmao.]

[Ahahaha.]

[Ahhh, okay, okay. That’s what it is.]

[God Su-Hyeok, I repent 🙏 My faith was weak.]

[Light Su-Hyeok! Light Su-Hyeok! Light Su-Hyeok!!]

[At this point, he’s not Light Su-Hyeok... he just is the light.]

[Actually facts. He’s not Light Su-Hyeok anymore. He’s just... light itself.]

[LIGHT! LIGHT! LIGHT! LIGHT! ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨]

***

“Your official title would be something similar to ‘provisional God.’”

Of course. The tower had created a system—challengers—to select the Primordial God’s successor, which meant this new information fit neatly into everything I had come to understand. Therefore, it made sense that receiving a portion of such overwhelming power would place me outside of the ranking system that normal gods adhered to.

A god was merely an emissary of the Primordial God, a subordinate intended to carry out his will. The nature of the role was fundamentally different from inheriting his seat.

Provisional God.

Even with the descriptor, the title itself didn’t sound unpleasant. However, at the same time, the implication beneath it was undeniably heavy. Inheriting the universe was nothing like serving as Earth’s god. It was an entirely different kind of existence, burdened with an unquestionably massive responsibility. Naturally, duties and expectations would follow, and I wouldn’t be able to run from them.

Although I didn’t know the exact circumstances, the Primordial God had disappeared after losing his worshippers’ faith. If that were true, then even a God could fade if they failed to fulfill their role.

If I don’t want to end up the same way, I will have to stay vigilant.

Still, that was a matter for the distant future—I would face it when the time arrived. For the moment, the road ahead was long and arduous. To drop the “provisional” part of the title, I had to defeat Kalain. Unfortunately for me, his influence rivaled Thunder Axe’s. Bringing down someone like that wouldn’t be a quick endeavor. It would take considerable time and effort.

While I pondered that, another thought piqued my curiosity. As the hundredth floor’s reward, I had received a portion of the Primordial God’s.

Then what did Kalain gain?

It wouldn’t make sense for the tower to have explained everything to him.

How cruel would it have been to lose so many loved ones only to be told that his ideology did not align with the tower’s?

Regardless, if Kalain had conquered the tower, he would have bombarded the tower with countless questions. The tower was famously unkind, and climbing it would weigh down any challenger with an endless string of doubts. Then again, knowing Kalain’s resentment toward the tower and the gods, perhaps he hadn’t asked anything and had instead tried to attack it on sight.

Regardless of whether the tower had revealed anything to him, I couldn’t help but wonder how that affected Kalain’s future path.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“Please ask freely.” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“What was Kalain like?”

“In what regard?” Cho-Yeon tilted her head, understandably puzzled.

The question was too broad. Too many questions were crowding my mind, and my curiosity blurred the boundaries between them.

I mentally refined my question and restated it, “What was Kalain like after the ninetieth floor. After defeating him, I only experienced his emotions and memories up to that point.”

“Ah...”

“More specifically, I’m wondering whether he chose to undertake the challenger trials and whether he managed to save the person he loved. Also, who or what would he have faced on the ninety-fifth floor? Ohh yeah, and what reward did he receive on the hundredth floor?”

“Hmm.” Her expression tightened faintly, the conversation tapering into uncertain silence for a few seconds.

“I received the Primordial God’s power here, but Kalain didn’t.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t speak about another challenger’s trial.”

I accepted her answer without argument. Cho-Yeon was on my side, and she had chosen me. If she refused to share something, she undoubtedly had a reason. The same rule preventing me from inheriting the Primordial God’s full power likely also bound what she could reveal about Kalain.

Perhaps, when everything was over, I would learn more.

“What I can tell you, however, is that Sky of the Nine Heavens didn’t successfully revive the one he loved, and he spent a considerable amount of time here.”

“Did he train?”

Cho-Yeon remained silent. She didn’t confirm it, but her silence spoke volumes—I was right.

Kalain wasn’t a fool. Even if he had spent decades on the ninety-ninth floor like I had, leaving the tower’s protection directly afterward would be no different from an unarmed child stepping into a wild, merciless world. Due to his status as a challenger, that vulnerability would have been even starker.

Even assuming he and I possessed similar strengths after leaving the ninety-ninth floor, that would place us as slightly above-average third-class gods. There was no way we could stand a chance against a first-class or even a second-class god.

Therefore, of course, he had trained with everything he had.

Kalain was sponsored by Thunder Axe, yes, but there is no way he would have relied on his sponsor.

He had loathed the tower and the gods long before the ninetieth floor. He was incapable of forming a close and trusting relationship with any of them. Moreover, just as Kalain’s ideals diverged from the tower’s, they also diverged from Thunder Axe’s. That was unlike me, since I had formed ties with my sponsor through an indirect regression.

After losing his loved ones, Kalain had moved through the world alone. I recalled the emotions I had sensed after the ninety-fifth floor.

That indescribable hatred, suffocating isolation, and depthless loneliness.

His emotions had been far more immense and all-consuming than the despair I had endured on the ninety-ninth floor. Strangely enough, although they appeared like separate matters, I only managed to survive the ninety-ninth floor thanks to witnessing Kalain’s memories and sentiments firsthand.

In the end, Kalain desired to annihilate the tower and every god, so he naturally would have prepared for that meticulously. A place like this, where he could train as long as he wished, would have been the perfect battleground for sharpening himself.

However, one question refused to fade.

Why didn’t he resurrect his lover? Does that mean he didn’t resurrect any of his loved ones?

That was one of the few answers about Kalain that Cho-Yeon had answered. Since she wouldn’t tell me more, prying further would achieve nothing.

Regardless, I didn’t understand.

Back at the last rest area, I had wondered if Kalain had chosen to give up the challenger’s path. That was until I had seen his phantom on the ninety-fifth floor. For him to appear there, he had to have decided to clear the remaining ten floors himself, right?

Based on what I knew, it should have been entirely possible for him to revive those he cherished.

So why didn’t he?

The Kalain I had glimpsed never forgot his loved ones, even if they had left him long before the ninetieth floor. He remembered them constantly, cherished their memories, and anguished over their deaths, turning their faces over in his mind as if afraid his image of them would fade.

The tower would have informed him that the fallen climbers could be resurrected, so he surely would have seen a faint glimmer of hope for the first time in a very long while—an undeniably positive shift.

Then why not save them? Did his heart change?

Judging from everything Thunder Axe and the tower had said, Kalain was still determined to destroy all of this, meaning his overall goal hadn’t changed. Saving them wouldn’t have erased the hatred consuming him, but even with that in mind, I still couldn’t understand it.

Right now, there was no way for me to know.

As I finally pulled myself out of those spiraling thoughts, I noticed Cho-Yeon’s steady gaze. She had been quietly waiting for me this entire time. Because I had been thinking about Kalain, I had unknowingly sunk deeper into contemplation than expected.

“Sorry.”

“No, there’s no need to apologize. This space exists solely for you, Su-Hyeok.” She waved her hand lightly and offered me a reassuring smile. “Are you feeling all right now?”

“Yeah. I don’t think I have any more questions at the moment.”

“Then, may I begin transferring His power?”

I nodded. There was no reason to hesitate. Receiving the power didn’t seem to require any special preparation on my part.

Or does it?

“Wait, will I need to do anything?”

“No. The power will simply be passed on to you. Nothing else is required.”

“All right, then I’m ready.”

“Understood. I’ll begin.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the Primordial God’s power slammed into me without so much as a single warning.

Shhhhk—

A white brilliance flooded my vision in an instant. Enveloped within that overwhelming radiance, a rising sense of exultation washed over me. The sensation was nearly impossible to articulate. Pleasure and elevation swept through me, and within that indescribable rush, I felt myself ascend, seemingly stepping onto a higher plane.

My mind expanded.

Blanketed by the bright light, I saw myself from a distant, third-person vantage. The walls of the world seemed to peel away, and my thinking accelerated sharply—I was unmistakably undergoing a transformation.

At the same time, it felt completely different.

With my expanded perception, I could sense everything with striking clarity. Even without focusing on myself, I understood how my body was changing. Bones started thickening and reinforcing themselves, muscles bound together with newfound strength, and even my skin grew more resilient.

My eyes, my nose, my ears. Every part of me changed.

However, my external features remained the same. It was difficult to explain, but the power was remaking the very makeup of my cells.

Of course, the powers within me transformed as well. My mana reservoir expanded, perhaps to support a much greater output, and my mana circuits hardened to a degree the word solid could no longer describe. I had never been dissatisfied with my physical body while climbing the tower, but if someone asked me to return to my previous state now, it would feel pathetically lacking.

Is this the most significant change?

I hadn’t tested it yet, but I felt certain that even if I unleashed Thunderbird at full capacity, I wouldn’t suffer any backlash. More than that, I could clearly amplify Thunderbird to levels I hadn’t even considered before.

Mana and divinity surged in tandem. An immense volume of causality wrapped around me like a mantle. I wasn’t sure how long my metamorphosis lasted. Eventually, as the transformation reached its end, I opened my eyes. Exhilaration still coursed through me.

I felt charged, almost overflowing with vitality. Not only that, but I was restless, eager to move—as if this newfound energy was urging me to test my strength immediately.

Along with that excitement, a small worry crept in.

If I want to leave, I probably need to adjust to this power first.

This wasn’t a minor advancement. I had jumped from the level of a third-class god straight to that of a first-class one.

One analogy that I could think of was if a car kept its chassis and exterior, but every internal component was replaced, from the frame to the engine to the wheels. I had countless things to adapt to, starting with the way I controlled my strength.

I wanted to leave the Tower of Ordeal and meet with people, but I needed time.

Or do I?

It would probably take longer than I initially expected.

Shall I just leave and adjust outside?

That carried obvious risks. Even if Thunder Axe, Master of the Five Carriage Wheels, and the Tower of Ordeal were on my side, countless gods weren’t.

Maybe I am overthinking it.

If the tower and Thunder Axe were supporting me, perhaps leaving immediately wouldn’t be as dangerous as I feared.

Still, what is my best option?

Lost in thought, I glanced toward Cho-Yeon. Something about the atmosphere felt off. She hadn’t moved, but her expression was undeniably troubled.

I frowned.

Her eyes were wide, startled, as if caught between confusion and alarm.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

With how extreme her expression was, I couldn’t ignore it. I wondered if something had gone wrong during the power transfer. That shouldn’t be the case, however, as I felt perfectly normal.

Cho-Yeon hurriedly asked, “I’m sorry. Please, just a moment.”

“Okay.”

She was staring right at me, but I could tell her focus was elsewhere, directed far beyond this space.

Did something occur in the outside world?

Given the circumstances, a knot of worry formed in my chest despite myself. I waited in tense silence for Cho-Yeon to speak.