Tower of Truth, 28th floor.
A flash of lightning, and a mage in black appeared on the street, but no one seemed to notice
him.
“The content of this floor…”
Mike yawned and glanced at the prompt.
The 28th floor was also known as the [Non-Existent Floor].
Here, participants were invisible, like ghosts.
Most NPCs couldn’t see the participants, hear them speak, or interact with them in any way.
Of course, no funny business was allowed on this floor.
Sneaking into the women’s bathhouse, sneaking into the women’s locker room, running naked on the street…
All forbidden.
Conquering the 28th floor involved two steps:
Step 1: Find an NPC who could ‘see’ you.
Step 2: Defeat the monsters and bosses conjured up by the NPC’s imagination.
It was that simple.
For most participants, the difficulty lay in the first step.
The 28th floor had a rare modern city setting, with a population of 3 million people from all walks of life.
Finding an NPC who could ‘see’ you was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Moreover, even if a participant managed to find a suitable NPC and successfully defeated the monsters they conjured up, they would only receive a portion of the Exploration Rate.
To achieve a high Exploration Rate, or even a 100% Exploration Rate conquest, meant that participants had to find more than one NPC!
This was simply too difficult, impossible!
However, what did this have to do with Thor, the owner of the SSS-level talent [Eye of Truth]?
Floating in mid-air, overlooking the entire city, Mike saw several lines of prompts appear before his eyes.
[Nameless, Age: 21, Class: Unemployed…]
[Jeremy, Age: 9, Class: Elementary School Student…]
[Zachary, Age: 68, Class: Chef….]
[Zachary’s Remaining Lifespan: 2 minutes]
Mike: ???
This was getting intense!
Having just arrived on the 28th floor, he had to find Zachary within 2 minutes, make contact with him, and defeat the monsters he conjured up.
With only 2 short minutes, if it were anyone else, it would be over before they even began!
In the entire city, only three people could see Mike.
Only by defeating all the monsters conjured up by these three people could Mike achieve a 100% Exploration Rate.
“Time waits for no one, let’s go!”
Following the prompts given by the Eye of Truth, Mike easily found Zachary.
A kind-looking old man, lying in the ICU, covered in monitoring equipment.
His breathing was already very weak.
The old man’s children gathered outside the ICU, some with red eyes, some frowning, some pacing back and forth anxiously.
When Mike appeared in the ICU, no one noticed his presence except for Zachary.
The moment he saw Mike, a strange light flashed in the old man’s eyes.
He struggled to speak, “You… Are you the Grim Reaper?”
In front of the dying old man, a strange young man in a black robe and holding a staff appeared.
Mike shook his head. “No.”
Zachary smiled.
“That’s right, how could there be such a young Grim Reaper.”
The old man sighed.
“Even if you’re not the Grim Reaper, I’m dying anyway.”
Mike didn’t reply, tacitly agreeing with him.
“Anything you want to say before you die?”
“Yes.”
Zachary nodded. “I don’t want to die.”
Mike spread his hands helplessly, indicating that there was nothing he could do.
“I’m sorry.”
Mike’s healing methods couldn’t work on an elderly person who was dying of natural causes, not even All Things Grow.
“What is there to be sorry for? It’s not like you’re the one who killed me. Stranger, forget it, I’ll just call you Reaper.”
Before, the old man felt like there was a thousand-pound weight on his chest, making it difficult to breathe.
But after this black-robed young man appeared, the weight was lifted, and the old man’s breathing became much smoother, as if life had returned to his body.
The old man knew it was an illusion.
Even this black-robed young man might be a hallucination.
“Reaper, I remember an old legend.”
Zachary spoke again.
“Legend has it that some people can see… cough, cough, special people.”
Mike nodded, agreeing with him.
“That’s right.”
Mike didn’t rush him but waited patiently for him to continue.
Since he had met Zachary, Zachary wouldn’t die until he had defeated the monsters Zachary
conjured up.
In other words, if Zachary chatted with Mike for a while longer, he could extend his life by a
few more seconds.
“I once had a nightmare…”
Zachary suddenly changed the subject.
“I made a pot of chicken soup and put poison in it…”
Zachary told a story that sounded familiar to Mike.
However, after waking up from the dream, Zachary didn’t have any special identity.
He was just a chef, a chef who had been cooking all his life.
Some people were sinners of the times, while others only bore the sins of the times.
The old man sighed. “Food shouldn’t be wasted. Chicken soup is really precious.”
“Reaper.”
Zachary looked at Mike and asked with a smile, “Can you make me a bowl of chicken soup?”
Mike: …
“I don’t know how.”
“I’ll teach you,” Zachary said with a smile.
Mike didn’t hesitate for long and nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
Through Foreskin, he quickly purchased a cock.
Mike looked at Zachary, asking with his eyes what to do next.
The old man lay in bed and instructed seriously, “Let it run around a bit before bleeding it…”
“Scald it with hot water to pluck the feathers. Well, you burned all the feathers, that works
too.”
“Don’t blanch it, you can’t blanch chicken soup!”
“First, stir-fry the chicken with oil…”
|| ||
Under the old man’s guidance, Mike followed the steps and made a pot of chicken soup.
He even felt a small sense of accomplishment.
Cooking wasn’t that hard!
A delicious pot of chicken soup was placed in front of the old man.
“What a wonderful soup.”
The old man sniffed, but he couldn’t smell anything. He felt like his nose no longer belonged
to him.
“Thank you.”
Looking at Reaper, the old man said his last words, “Next time, remember to use a hen for
chicken soup.”
With that, he slowly closed his eyes.
A thermos appeared out of thin air in front of the old man’s bed.
The thermos was filled with hot chicken soup.
The electrocardiogram on the monitor went flat, no longer fluctuating. Outside the ICU, the tense emotions of the family finally relaxed at a certain moment. After
the breakdown, they pulled themselves together. After going through this ordeal, there were new hardships and happiness waiting for them.
From the delivery room next door came the cry of a newborn baby…
Mike stood aside, silently watching the old man’s passing and listening to the birth of a new
life.
The cycle of life and death in the mortal realm.
Thor’s Sea surged uncontrollably, rising and falling beside Mike.
His eyes were deep and unreadable, as if he had come to a realization, and he muttered to
himself,
“Life and death, an endless cycle.”
“All things grow, world destruction…”