After absorbing the mysterious purple cube from the altar, Alex felt the familiar sensation of raw energy pouring through his body, like drinking lightning or being submerged in divine fire, and soon after, he was greeted by the appearance of several glowing panels.
Not just one, not two, but five individual rewards, each one potentially life-changing.
It was a satisfying number, especially considering what he had gone through to reach this point.
The first panel hovered silently in front of him, bathed in a soft glow.
[+2,000,000 to Every Attribute.]
Simple, direct, maybe a bit underwhelming compared to the others, but still useful.
“Not bad,” Alex muttered under his breath.
Even though his stats were already absurdly high, this bonus was still worth it.
After all, a raw boost to every attribute meant pushing nearly every one of his stats closer to the 5 million mark.
That might not mean much in the face of enemies who could warp reality or obliterate cities with a skill, but it could still be the deciding factor in a close fight.
Still, Alex wasn’t naive.
He knew better than anyone that numbers weren’t everything at his level.
When you faced opponents with max-tier skills or overwhelming bloodlines, even a single mistake could end your life instantly.
Strategy, technique, adaptability, those mattered far more now.
But having stronger stats didn’t hurt either.
With that taken care of, he swiped his hand, and the next reward revealed itself.
[The Creators Panel.]
The name alone made Alex’s eyebrows twitch.
This was the one he had been most curious about.
Without hesitation, he tapped the panel, and in an instant, a new interface appeared in front of him.
A panel tinted with five different colors, crimson, gold, void-black, ocean blue, and bright silver, emerged, each color bleeding into the next in a slow swirling motion.
At the center were five squares arranged in a cross, three on top, two below.
Alex studied the squares.
Each one had the silhouette of a humanoid figure etched into it.
But except for one, they were completely obscured, darkened beyond recognition.
He immediately recognized the visible one: Vexum.
Even in this stylized form, he was easy to identify.
The gaping holes in his palms were positioned exactly in front of where his eyes should have been, creating an eerie but strangely elegant symmetry.
A jagged crack ran over the left side of his head, just like the real Vexum, and a faint shimmer of void energy surrounded the square.
Alex stared into the shadowed figure’s eyes, or rather, the empty space where the eyes should have been, but even then, he could still feel it.
That strange gaze.
The sensation that someone was watching him, not from behind or above, but from within the very system itself.
The other squares remained dark, unmoving, and unwilling to reveal themselves.
Clearly, the system, or perhaps the Creators themselves, had no intention of showing their identities until Alex met them face to face.
That was probably tied to the [Chosen Games], the ultimate event that had been looming over his head for what felt like forever.
He remembered the message he had received earlier, the odds of completing the Chosen Games as the sole survivor were less than one in a hundred million.
Even so, he wasn’t giving up.
“No point in hesitating now.”
He tapped on Vexum’s square to see if it would reveal anything else, and to his surprise, it did.
A new panel branched off instantly, flickering like a signal being transmitted across dimensions.
The screen turned black, with white text slowly appearing across its surface.
A few floating GBlasters hovered in the background, softly humming.
[Vexum]
So there was more information after all.
Alex scrolled down to read what had been written.
[Nicknames: The Shattered One, The Man from the Void, The One Who Speaks in Hands…]
He frowned slightly.
The nicknames were odd, cryptic, but somehow fitting.
“The Shattered One” made sense considering the visible damage on his face.
“The One Who Speaks in Hands”, well, that was bizarre, but not surprising.
Vexum’s strange behavior had made an impression.
He kept reading.
[Description: One of the five Creators of “Universal Descent.” The Creators are the ones who gave power to the Gods and initiated the “Descent.”]
[All Creators are equal in strength, but their powers vary drastically. Though separate beings, their voices merge when speaking through the System.]
[Vexum’s domain is the void. He can create from nothingness. The “Palace of Destiny” was crafted by him to test whether a mortal could meet him.]
Alex paused for a second, slowly absorbing that.
So Vexum hadn’t created this place out of necessity, but out of curiosity.
Just to see if someone was insane, or determined, enough to reach the end.
He’d made the Palace of Destiny as a challenge.
And Alex had actually completed it.
It was oddly flattering.
He scrolled further.
[Known Skills: GBlasters, Hands of the Void, Shattered Vision…]
Only three were listed.
Alex was certain Vexum had far more skills than that, but perhaps the system only showed what it deemed necessary, or what he had actually witnessed in person.
He tried tapping one of the other shadowed squares, just in case.
Beep!
[You are not allowed to do that as long as you haven’t met that Creator.]
“Tch.”
Not unexpected, but annoying.
He closed the [Creators Panel], saving the information for later.
Maybe one day he’d fill in the other four.
Now it was time for the third reward.
[Eyes Upgrade.]
This one caught him off guard.
He already possessed the [Cursed Eyes of Truth], which allowed him to see through deception, analyze weaknesses, and spot lies effortlessly.
It was a powerful skill, one of his favorites.
He couldn’t imagine anything more useful in combat or negotiations.
But apparently, something even stronger existed.
He tapped the panel, and this time, it didn’t glow.
Instead, the entire screen darkened.
A suffocating blackness overtook the interface like a curtain of shadow falling over the world.
At the center, a warning message appeared.
[Warning! It will be very painful and may have… unstable effects. Do you wish to proceed?]
[Yes] [No (You can do it later)]
Alex stared at the panel without any expression.
It was rare, extremely rare, for the system itself to give a warning about anything.
And yet, here it was, cautioning him.
Pain was expected.
But “unstable effects?” That was more ominous.
Still, this place had been crafted by Vexum himself.
The rewards were made for the one who completed the trials.
He wasn’t about to throw away the chance to claim something that could make a difference in the upcoming [Chosen Games].
The pain didn’t scare him. He had endured worse.
He tapped [Yes].
Immediately, the dark panel exploded into black mist and swirled toward his eyes like a vortex.
He recoiled slightly but didn’t flinch.
The dark particles merged with his irises, now a swirling mix of crimson and gold, until those colors were consumed by pure black.
And then…
BAM!
Pain exploded through his head.
It wasn’t like a cut or a burn, it felt like someone was slamming a hammer into his skull, again and again, focused entirely on his eyes.
Alex gritted his teeth and dropped to his knees, clutching his head as the pain multiplied.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Each strike was worse than the last, like void lightning tearing apart his nerves.
But he didn’t scream. He endured.
Through it all, he could feel something awakening.
A presence inside the void. Not malevolent, not kind either.
Just… ancient. Watching him. Testing him. Guiding the transformation from afar.
The pain meant something. The agony was a trial. He didn’t fight it.
And after three long, torturous minutes…
Ding!
[Your eyes have been upgraded.]
[You have unlocked the “Void” affinity in them.]
Alex slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times as his vision returned, not in darkness, but in pure clarity.
[Your “Cursed Eyes of Truth” have evolved into the “Eyes of the Cursed Void”, retaining all their previous perks.]
He looked around.
Everything now seemed sharper, more defined.
The world itself looked different.
He could sense things he couldn’t explain.
Layers of reality, threads of existence.
The tiniest cracks in the air where energy shifted.
The faint glow of power lingering behind every object.
He smirked faintly.
“Nice.”
Three rewards down. Two more to go. And the last ones were the one that mattered most.