The transition to the fifteenth floor occurred within a flash of blinding white light. When the sensory distortion faded, the players stood on a narrow stone ledge jutting from a vertical cliff face. The cliff extended downward into a sea of thick, churning fog and upward until it pierced a sky split into two distinct halves. On the left, a harsh, golden sun burned with unnatural intensity. On the right, a pale, freezing moon hung in a dark void.

A massive, weathered vine, as thick as a house, stretched from the ledge and climbed straight toward the sky. Beside the vine stood two children, a boy and a girl, dressed in tattered traditional clothing. They looked at the players with wide, pleading eyes.

Above every player’s head, three glowing red hearts manifested. They floated in the air, pulsing in time with each climber’s heartbeat.

A large system window materialized in the center of the ledge.

「Floor 15: The Tale of the Sun and Moon」

「Main Scenario: Ascend the Heaven-Reaching Rope」

「Objective: Help the siblings reach the heavens before the rope snaps.」

「Clear Condition: The children must reach the summit.」

「Warning: Falling from the vine or cliff results in the loss of one heart. Depletion of all hearts results in permanent death.」

The thirty players present for the trial included survivors from the previous floor and a handful of newcomers who had bypassed the fourteenth floor through different gates. The veterans of the wolf trial moved away from Kang Min immediately. They kept their weapons drawn and their eyes fixed on his hands. They remembered the slaughter of the villagers and the cold efficiency with which he had killed the shepherd boy.

The newcomers, however, looked at Kang Min with skepticism. Among them was a man named Gwon, a high-ranking spearman who led a group of five. He looked at the hearts above Kang Min’s head and then at the vertical climb ahead.

"The children are the priority," Gwon stated, his voice echoing against the cliff. "If we lose the NPCs, we fail the floor. We form a perimeter around the vine. Anyone who interferes with the objective gets dropped."

He glanced at Kang Min, but Kang Min was looking at the rope. He observed the way the fibers of the vine frayed near the anchor points. He knew the narrative of the Sun and Moon. In the original folklore, the siblings prayed for a rope to escape the tiger that ate their mother. The rope sent to them was strong, while the rope sent to the tiger was rotten. In this Tower trial, the roles were reversed for the players.

"The climb is starting," Kang Min said.

The two children began to scale the vine. They moved with unnatural speed, their small hands gripping the mossy surface. The players followed, leaping onto the vine and digging their boots into the crevices.

Ten minutes into the ascent, the temperature began to fluctuate. The heat from the sun side scorched the players’ skin, while the cold from the moon side froze the sweat on their brows. A thick, purple miasma began to leak from the cracks in the cliff face. It carried a metallic scent.

As the players breathed in the miasma, the atmosphere grew tense. The hearts above their heads flickered.

From the fog below, a roar shook the vine. A massive entity began to scale the cliff. It was the Tiger God of Blood. Its body was four stories tall, composed of matted fur soaked in fresh blood and muscles that rippled like shifting tectonic plates. It possessed six yellow eyes that tracked every movement on the vine.

The Tiger God swung a paw, gouging out a massive chunk of the cliff. It began to release tiger-spirits—smaller, translucent versions of itself with wings made of fire and ice.

"Incoming!" Gwon shouted.

A tiger-spirit dived from the sun-side of the sky. It slammed into a player near the back of the group. The player lost his grip and fell into the fog. A second later, one of the hearts above his head vanished. He reappeared on the vine ten meters below his original position, gasping for air.

"They’re respawning us," a mage noted, her face pale. "But we only have three chances."

The tiger-spirits attacked in waves. Kang Min stood on a thick branch of the vine and swung his blade. He cut through three spirits in a single motion, their translucent bodies exploding into sparks. He did not look at the children; his eyes were focused on the Tiger God climbing below them.

The miasma grew thicker as they reached the halfway point. The players began to look at each other with suspicion. The environmental pressure was warping their thoughts.

"Why is he so calm?" a player named Min-ho whispered to Gwon. He pointed at Kang Min. "Look at him. He’s not even breaking a sweat. He probably knows a way to take all the rewards for himself. Just like he did on the eleventh floor. Just like he did with the shepherd."

Gwon gripped his spear. His eyes were bloodshot from the sun’s glare. "He’s a liability. If the tiger catches us, it’s because he’s drawing its attention. He’s the Singularity. The constellations are watching him, and the monsters are following the scent."

"We should kill him now," another player urged. "If we take his hearts, he’s out of the trial. We clear this floor without his interference."

The madness of the miasma took hold. Five players, led by Gwon, stopped their ascent. They circled around Kang Min on a wide section of the vine.

"You’re not going any higher, Kang Min," Gwon said. He thrust his spear forward.

Kang Min stepped to the left. The spearhead whistled past his ear. He didn’t draw his sword to kill. He used the flat of his blade to strike Gwon’s ribs. The force sent Gwon stumbling toward the edge of the vine.

"You’re breathing the miasma," Kang Min said. "Focus on the tiger."

"Shut up!" Gwon roared.

The other four players lunged. At the same moment, three tiger-spirits dived from the moon-side. The scene became chaotic. Players were fighting players while tiger-spirits tore at their armor. A mage was knocked off the vine by a rogue fireball from a panicked teammate. Her heart vanished. She respawned and was immediately pinned by a tiger-spirit, losing her second heart in seconds.

Kang Min moved through the fray. He used the chaotic movements of the other players to shield himself from the tiger-spirits. He watched as the group of twenty-five players dwindled. Some were knocked off by the spirits. Others were pushed off by teammates in fits of miasma-induced rage.

One player, completely lost to the madness, began to hack at the vine itself.

"If I can’t reach the top, no one can!" he screamed.

Kang Min grabbed the man by his collar and threw him toward an incoming tiger-spirit. The two collided and fell into the abyss. The man’s final heart vanished and did not respawn.