[Welcome to Floor 3: The Crucible of Will] [Zone 1: The Burns of Regret]
Heat slammed into him like a physical wall. The ground was volcanic rock, hot enough to burn through his boots. The air itself seemed to ignite his lungs with each breath. And everywhere, lakes of lava that turned the environment into a supernatural furnace.
But worse than the heat was the notification:
[Crucible Effect Active: All pain sensations multiplied by 200%] [Note: Damage values unchanged, only pain increased] [This floor tests your will to continue despite suffering]
Chen Yu took one step and gasped. The ground's heat felt like walking on swords. His health didn't decrease, but his nerves screamed as if he was actually burning.
Then he saw them—the monsters of Floor 3.
[Flame Imp - Level 12] [HP: 200/200] [Special: All attacks inflict Burning (no damage, pure pain)]
Finally, something with a mind to read. Chen Yu reached out with Omniscient Interference:
Burn... make scream... test the will... break the weak... master orders... cause pain not death...
These creatures weren't meant to kill—they were meant to make climbers quit. To make them choose retreat over agony.
Three imps approached, throwing small fireballs. Chen Yu saw the trajectories, could easily dodge, but he was curious. He let one hit him.
[HP: 170/170] (No damage) [Burning applied: Neural overload for 10 seconds]
The pain was indescribable. Every nerve ending convinced it was actually on fire. Chen Yu dropped to one knee, vision blurring, but forced himself to analyze: no actual damage. Just signals. Just his brain being tricked.
Pain is information, he reminded himself. It's telling me about danger that doesn't exist.
He stood, ignoring the burning sensation, and walked toward the imps. They threw more fireballs. He didn't dodge. Each one added another layer of agony, but his HP remained full.
[Willpower check passed] [Trait gained: Pain Tolerance I] [Pain sensations reduced by 10%]
Now 180% pain instead of 200%. Still agonizing, but proof that the floor rewarded endurance.
Chen Yu drew his sword, each movement sending false signals of torn, burning muscles. The imps' thoughts were simple, easy to predict. Three quick strikes, three dead imps.
[No experience granted] [Floor 3 enemies give no XP] [Reward is mental fortitude]
This floor wouldn't make him stronger in levels. It would make him stronger in will.
As he walked deeper into Zone 1, leaving footprints in the semi-molten rock, one thought dominated:
If this is Floor 3, what fresh hell awaits on Floor 4? And Floor 5... broadcast to the world while in agony?
But he kept walking. Because somewhere above, Floor 100 waited.
And godhood would not go to someone who couldn't handle a little pain.
[Zone 1 Complete] [Willpower check passed] [Continuing to Zone 2: The Lake of Liquid Agony]
The lake stretched before him, bubbling not with heat but with supernatural suffering. A sign carved in the rock read:
"Swim across. The pain is not real. The drowning sensation is not real. Your fear is the only real danger."
Chen Yu touched the liquid with one finger and nearly screamed. It felt like acid, like every cell dissolving.
[HP: 170/170]
No damage. Just pain.
He dove in.
The lake was worse than drowning. Every stroke felt like swimming through broken glass, every breath like inhaling flames. Chen Yu's mind screamed at him to stop, to turn back, to do anything but continue.
[HP: 170/170] [Willpower check in progress...] [Mental fortitude declining...]
It's not real. It's not real. It's not—
His body spasmed, muscles locking from phantom agony. He sank beneath the surface, and the pain somehow intensified. His lungs filled with the liquid suffering, and though he could somehow still breathe, each breath was torture.
Give up, his own mind whispered. No one would blame you. You're just thirteen. This is too much.
But then he remembered his mother's empty eyes in those final days. His father marching to certain death. They hadn't been given the choice to quit.
Chen Yu forced his arms to move. One stroke. Another. Another.
[Willpower check passed] [Trait evolved: Pain Tolerance I → Pain Tolerance II] [Pain sensations reduced by 20%]
The edge grew closer. Ten meters. Five. One.
He dragged himself onto the molten shore, retching liquid agony that evaporated before hitting the ground. His entire body shook, but he was smiling.
Pain is just information. And I can choose to ignore information.
[Zone 2 Complete] [Mental Fortitude +5] [Hidden Achievement: Crossed without stopping] [Bonus: Regeneration (Passive) - 1 HP per minute]
The zones blurred together after that, each a unique form of torture:
Zone 3: Needles of frozen flame that pierced without wounding Zone 4: Gravity that crushed without breaking Zone 5: Sounds that ruptured without deafening Zone 10: Fighting while every nerve burned Zone 15: Solving puzzles while being mentally flayed Zone 20: A maze where walls inflicted suffering on contact
By Zone 25, Chen Yu had stopped flinching. The pain was still there—160% now with Pain Tolerance II—but it had become background noise. Like the hunger he'd lived with for years.
[Zone 25: The Mirror of Truth] [Special Trial: Face yourself]
A silver mirror stood in a clearing of black stone. When Chen Yu approached, his reflection moved independently.
"You're not strong," his reflection said, speaking with his voice. "You're just lucky. First to enter, given a broken skill, handed advantages others won't have."
Chen Yu studied his reflection. It was him, but wrong—cleaner, well-fed, wearing expensive equipment.
"You're me if my parents had lived," Chen Yu realized.
"I'm you if you deserved your power," the reflection corrected. "I studied for years. Trained properly. Earned my strength. You? You died by accident and got rewarded for it."
The reflection stepped out of the mirror, drawing an identical sword.
[Trial Boss: Self-Doubt] [Level: 14] [HP: 170/170] [Note: Mirrors all your stats and skills]
Chen Yu reached out with Omniscient Interference and found... himself. Every thought mirrored. Every trajectory identical. When he moved left, Self-Doubt moved right. When he struck high, it struck low. Perfect synchronization.
How do you fight yourself?
They clashed for minutes, neither gaining advantage. Every strategy Chen Yu conceived, Self-Doubt knew instantly. Every feint was expected. Every attack countered.
"You'll never win," Self-Doubt said between strikes. "I'm everything you are, but without the doubt. Without the weakness. Without the fear that you don't deserve this."
And that's when Chen Yu understood.
"You're right," he said, lowering his sword. "I don't deserve this power."
Self-Doubt paused, confused.
"My parents deserved to live. Those kids in the pipes deserved food. The forgotten deserve to be remembered." Chen Yu dropped his sword entirely. "I don't deserve any of this. But I have it. And that means I have responsibility."
He walked toward Self-Doubt, who raised his sword to strike.
"So hit me," Chen Yu said. "Prove that I'm weak. But it won't change anything. I'll keep climbing. Not because I deserve to, but because if I don't, someone worse will."
Self-Doubt's sword trembled, then passed harmlessly through Chen Yu's chest.
[Trial Complete: Accepted your truth] [Reward: Skill - Unshakeable Will] [Passive: Immune to fear, doubt, and despair effects] [Hidden Piece Fragment discovered: 1/3]
Fragment? Chen Yu picked up a small crystal that had appeared where Self-Doubt vanished.
[Fragment of Humility (1/3)] [Collect all fragments on this floor to unlock hidden piece]
So Floor 3's hidden piece required multiple parts. He pressed on, the pain now feeling almost natural.
Zones 26-49 were combinations of previous tortures, but Chen Yu had transcended them. Pain was just sensation. Sensation was just information. Information could be processed and filed away.
[Zone 50: The Burned Oracle]
Unlike Floor 2's archive, this was simpler—words burned into the air itself:
"You endure well, First Climber. But endurance without purpose is mere stubbornness. Tell me: Why do you suffer?"
"To prevent worse suffering," Chen Yu answered without hesitation.
"Whose? Yours?"
"Everyone's."
"Arrogant. You think you can save everyone?"
"No. But I can try to stop the worst outcomes."
"And if your suffering saves no one? If you reach the top only to find godhood is a lie?"
Chen Yu thought about it. "Then at least I didn't quit. That has to count for something."
The burning words rearranged:
"Second fragment earned. The humble know their limits but try anyway."
[Fragment of Humility (2/3)] [Zone 50 Complete] [Time remaining: 21 days, 2 hours]
The next 40 zones escalated the torture, but Chen Yu noticed something—he was starting to heal faster than the pain could accumulate. His Regeneration had evolved through constant damage:
[Regeneration → Rapid Regeneration] [5 HP per minute] [Pain Tolerance II → Pain Tolerance III] [Pain reduced by 30%]
By Zone 90, he was essentially immune. The floor had trained him to ignore suffering, and now its tests were meaningless.
[Zone 91: Emergency Escalation] [The floor notices your immunity] [Pain amplification increased to 500%]
The sudden spike dropped Chen Yu to his knees. But only for a moment. He'd endured 200% for hours. 500% was just a number.
He stood and kept walking.
[Zone 100: The Throne of Ashes] [Final Trial: The Ultimate Question]
A throne made of burned bones sat in a field of ash. On it lounged a figure that constantly burned and regenerated—eternal agony made manifest.
[The Burned King - Floor Guardian] [Level: ???] [HP: ∞/∞] [Status: Unkillable]
"You cannot fight me," the King said, voice like crackling flames. "I am pain itself. I exist to ask one question."
"Ask," Chen Yu said.
"Would you take my place? Burn forever so others don't have to? No glory. No recognition. Just eternal suffering while others climb past, forgetting you exist."
Chen Yu could read the King's mind now—this wasn't a trick. The offer was real. One person could take the throne and remove the pain amplification from Floor 3 forever. But they'd be stuck here, burning, unable to die or leave.
"How long have you been here?" Chen Yu asked.
"Three hundred years. I was from the Second Cycle. I took the throne so my daughter could climb without suffering. She reached Floor 37 before dying."
"And you're still here."
"The throne requires an occupant. Someone must suffer. Will it be you?"
Chen Yu thought about everyone who would come after. The children, the desperate, the weak who might quit from the pain. He could save them all from this specific suffering.
But then he couldn't stop someone evil from reaching Floor 100.
"No," Chen Yu said. "I'm sorry, but I have something more important to do."
The Burned King smiled—a horrible expression on his constantly melting face. "Good. Those who would take this throne make poor gods. Too willing to sacrifice themselves. Gods must be willing to let others suffer for the greater good."
He tossed something to Chen Yu.
[Fragment of Humility (3/3)] [Hidden Piece Unlocked: Crown of Thorns]
[Crown of Thorns (Unique)] [Effect: Can take another's pain onto yourself] [Duration: 1 minute] [Cooldown: 24 hours] [Note: Some burdens shouldn't be shared]
"The exit is behind my throne," the King said. "Floor 4 awaits. And child? Thank you for not taking my burden. It's mine to bear."
Chen Yu bowed to the burning figure and walked past. As he approached the portal to Floor 4, he looked back once. The King sat there, flesh constantly burning and healing, alone for centuries.
Some sacrifices are too great, Chen Yu thought. And some are necessary.