The Hero Returns

* * *

Su-hyeun directly headed to the 105th floor.

He was greeted by a ruined and crumbling city where not a single living soul was around. He took a look around for a while only to remember something: he hadn't been away from the Tower this long in a while time.

He inwardly pondered, "Now that I think about it…"

"Why are you so late this time?" The Administrator of the 105th floor, a slender but tall person who looked like a vagabond, stared at Su-hyeun and began frowning deeply.

When Su-hyeun thought about it, didn't he say that he would be back in a day or so? He smiled awkwardly and replied, "I'm sorry about that. Some things happened."

After he left the Tower, he met Luslec and immediately visited a world centered on the false World Tree. That was where he acquired the seed of the World Tree, and the worldwide outbreak of dungeons kept him really, really busy for a while.

On top of that, the Bull Demon King showed up after stopping Fafnir's advance, and he and Su-hyeun traveled to the Land of the Dead Gods afterward.

It wouldn't be strange to spend a few hours trying to explain everything that had happened so far.

"Hmm, is that so?"

Su-hyeun had to wonder if his words would be convincing enough, but then, he realized that the Administrator was staring back at him with somewhat unreadable eyes. His facial expression even indicated that he easily accepted the explanation.

The Administrator muttered, "Well, it looks that way."

"I'm sorry?"

"Just what happened to you? And in such a short time, too."

Such a short time, he said.

Su-hyeun was returning to the world on the 105th floor after several months away, so calling that period of absence "short" felt strange. However, in the eyes of the Administrator, it felt like Su-hyeun had been on a journey that easily lasted decades or maybe several centuries.

"And you became a real deity, too."

"Yes, that somehow happened," Su-hyeun awkwardly scratched his head.

While doing that, he continued to stare at the Administrator, but the latter turned his head away, obviously trying to avoid meeting eyes directly. Nonetheless, all Su-hyeun did was to stare.

The Administrator shielded his face and muttered again, "Looks like I'll have to alert the other Administrators and tell them that they shouldn't look into your eyes."

"That's a bit unfortunate," Su-hyeun licked his lips ruefully and stopped looking at the Administrator's eyes "innocently."

He had been wondering about it, but as it turned out, "it" was doable for real.

[Insight]

* Can see through a target's inner thoughts through their eyes

* Can spy into a target's memories depending on your proficiency

* Can peek into a target's future depending on your proficiency

* Proficiency: 0.01%

"Insight" is one of the Divine Art's skills and the technique of the gods that allowed them to see through someone's true heart and inner thoughts through their eyes.

The Divine Art was basically the evolved form of the Sage Arts, and the effect of the Divine Art was to evolve all the abilities found within the Sage Arts to the next level.

"Insight" was the evolved form of the ability Sage's Eye. It not only went beyond the latter's ability to look far ahead and peer into the truth of the world but also allowed the user to peer into the target's thoughts, memories, and even their potential future.

However, it didn't mean the user would automatically read the minds of everyone as soon as they stared into their eyes. Insight only activated whenever Su-hyeun wanted it to.

His current proficiency was too low, and he couldn't see into a target's memories or the future, but it was still enough to let him peer into their inner thoughts at least.

"I guess I shouldn't abuse it," he thought.

The highest-tier gods like Apollo or Hades read others' memories or thoughts as if it was nothing important.

Even if Apollo didn't get to read Su-hyeun's thoughts, he still spoke as if he managed to glean some things about what lay in store for the latter.

"Right. I should use it only when necessary," he inwardly concluded.

Acquiring new information on the Tower through the Administrator was a failure; the 105th floor's Administrator now knew that Su-hyeun possessed Insight, and soon, all the other Administrators would come to learn this fact as well. Without a doubt, none of them would look into Su-hyeun's eyes now.

"You came here to challenge the next trial, I'm assuming?" asked the Administrator.

"Yes. I'm planning to do so."

"My bad, but we need to talk first."

"Sure thing. Go ahead," Su-hyeun replied without getting flustered, sounding rather easygoing in the process. His reaction only made the Administrator flustered.

However, Su-hyeun had expected something like this to happen even before he stepped inside the Tower, so he could afford to reply in an unconcerned manner. "Isn't it because of the same reason as before? The current me isn't suited to the difficulty of the 105th floor, which means you will have to adjust the floor again."

After the trial on the 60th floor, where he met the Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong, came to an end, the Administrators held a conference of sorts.

The reason for that had to do with Su-hyeun's growth speed that exceeded the Tower's system. That was how he earned the reward of the Palm Leaf and was directly sent to the 99th floor.

Things should be the same this time as well. No, wait—the difference this time should be even more pronounced than before.

When Su-hyeun just reached the 105th floor, his Magic Level was only around nine, but since then, he had broken through to the demigod realm, only to even exceed that and truly ascend to the godhood.

The adjustment of difficulty right now was far more pressing than back when he went from the 60th floor to the 99th.

"Well, yes. That's correct."

"In that case, don't worry about it and please attend that conference. For now, I'll just keep myself entertained in here."

"There's literally nothing here, so how will you even do that? In any case, fine. I'll be back soon."

Shu-wuwu...

After saying that, the Administrator's figure grew blurry. Soon, he was gone for good. In the past, this process came across as abrupt, yet now it no longer felt that way to Su-hyeun.

"Is it like boring a hole through the dimensional wall to move to a different floor? It kind of looks like there's a special locking mechanism at work here..."

Su-hyeun attempted to create a doorway similar to what the Administrator created but soon gave up.

Each and every "world" within the Tower seemed to be isolated from one another as if sturdy door locks existed in between them. Forcibly breaking through them was a method he could try, but that would obviously take quite a lot of time to do so.

Also, there was simply no way that the Administrators would simply sit back and do nothing.

Not to forget, Su-hyeun's purpose wasn't simply to reach higher floors of this Tower but to clear the trials and earn the associated rewards by doing so. It was meaningless to simply break through the walls and climb up to higher floors.

"Okay, then..." Su-hyeun was now left alone in a world without the Administrator. He smiled faintly and muttered to himself, "He said that there's literally nothing here, so what should I do to keep myself amused, I wonder?"

A world with nothing in it is commonly a world that had been destroyed by some unknown Predator. Finding himself all alone in such a world, he muttered to himself once more, "You see, since there's nothing here, I have a lot of things to do."

* * *

The conference of the Administrators went on for quite a while.

One, two, three, four, and then five days passed by, and before long, the conference reached its 10th day.

There was only one subject of the conference: Kim Su-hyeun, as well as which floor to send him off to.

Currently, inside a pure-white space where not even a single table or chair could be found, the Administrators stood around in a circle and proceeded to cast their final vote.

Eventually...

"In the end, it's the 199th floor."

"Back then, we sent him to the 99th, but to think that it'll be 199th floor this time."

"As I thought, that floor is too high for him. I mean, he only managed to reach the 105th floor, so to elevate the floor by 94 in one go is a bit..."

Several Administrators obviously didn't seem pleased with the result of this conference.

The Administrator of the 105th floor spoke to appease their dissatisfaction, "But the trials he'd encounter up to that floor won't even serve as real trials to him. Any ole Predators won't even act as a stumbling block for him at this stage."

"If he has indeed acquired Insight, as you say, then yes, that may be true."

"Not only that, he has even awakened his unique ability."

"We still don't know what his unique ability does, but depending on its power, we should consider sending him to the 200th floor straight away."

"Aren't we sending him to the 199th since we don't know the extent of his unique ability?"

The conference seemed to be drawing to a close, yet it didn't want to end.

The 105h floor's Administrator, thinking that the meeting would continue forever at this rate, urgently spoke again, "Stop, all of you. We have already made a decision. It's 199th floor. We won't overturn this decision anymore. It's been decided by the majority vote."

"Right, that's true."

"I have no objections."

"Good. Well, then."

The conference finally came to an end there. That meeting, which had lasted 10 days, took quite a toll on both the mind and body of the participants. The 105th floor's Administrator turned around and opened the doorway back home.

He then returned to the world of the 105th floor under his management, but then...

"What is all this?"

He saw a blue sky and also green moss among several buildings.

"What is all this?!" The Administrator panicked. The level of panic he felt right now was easily one of the worst in his entire life.

No, wait! When he thought about it some more, he had to wonder when was the last time he panicked this badly. The scene before him was that shocking to his senses.

"The world...it's been revived?!" he inwardly marveled.

The Administrator's head turned to the side. A flower was budding there. It was a small flower that hadn't even bloomed yet, but it was no doubt alive, with moisture within it.

"You're finally back?"

The Administrator turned his head again when he heard that voice.

Su-hyeun was standing over there, busy wiping some sweat off his forehead. He definitely looked exhausted, but even then, the Administrator still ended up stumbling back several steps without even realizing it.

He even forgot to avoid Su-hyeun's Insight because he was too shocked by the truly incredible feat Su-hyeun had managed to achieve in this place.

"Uhm, I didn't do this to shock you, but...Ah, the 199th floor, huh? That's a lot higher than I expected."

The Administrator urgently snapped his head away when Su-hyeun said that. He remembered that he couldn't afford to let his mind be read through Insight. However, that line of thinking didn't occupy his head for long, and he looked around again to take in the gravity of the current situation.

He soon realized that his own analysis had been incorrect. "Right. We should've decided to send him straight to the 200th floor..."

Some Administrators opined that the 199th floor was too much, and it was this Administrator of the 105th floor who vociferously opposed that opinion, saying that the 199th floor was indeed most suitable.

But now that he took in this sight, he had to wonder if the 199th floor had been too low all along.

* * *

The world on the 199th floor came with a devastated and blackened terrain. The sand on the ground, the skies, and even the rays of light were all black in hue. It was like staring at a world tainted by black ink.

"I never imagined that someone would actually come this far," said the Administrator of the 199th floor, a man who had a somewhat sleepy expression. He yawned grandly and continued to rub his eyes.

It seemed that he was abruptly roused from his slumber.

Su-hyeun asked, "Are you still sleepy?"

"That's right. I've been asleep for around 500 years, so how can I not feel drowsy even now?"

"But the conference lasted for 10 days. Didn't you attend it as well?"

"Try sleeping for 500 years and then wake up, see what happens. You won't wake up fully even after 10 days."

The Administrator yawned again after replying. He then began nodding off again. He most likely acted the same way during the conference.

The Administrators really came in all shapes and sizes, it seemed. Even then, this would be Su-hyeun's first time encountering one who dozed off like this.

"Why don't we quickly start the trial instead?"

"Ah, that's right."

"There's no hint, is there?"

"Nope, no hint. But I do have a message for you." While saying that, the Administrator didn't avoid Su-hyeun's eyes and stared straight back.

Su-hyeun could only wryly chuckle, "Are you serious?"

"It's too annoying otherwise. The other idiots said I shouldn't look into your eyes, but let's be real here, this is way more convenient, right?"

"Well, if you want to call the ability to fill your head with only the things you want to say a talent, then it sure is a talent, alright."

"You only ascended to full godhood recently, so obviously you wouldn't be proficient with Insight yet. You think I wouldn't know that when I've been serving my god for how many years now?"

"As expected, you were all Apostles, then?"

"What's this?" The light within the Administrator's sleepy and annoyed eyes suddenly transformed, a sharp gleam burning within those half-closed eyes as he stared at Su-hyeun. "Could it be that you can see it?"

"Yes, I can," Su-hyeun replied while staring at the space behind the Administrator, or more correctly, at the something behind him.

Su-hyeun was staring at the unknown "power" that made the Administrator move.

"Who is it? The god you guys are serving?"