"How about those who fall? Will someone save them?" I asked, curiosity flickering in my eyes.
The young man shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. That's why some of us brought protective artifacts—life-saving ones."
"See that person over there? With that refined appearance, he's definitely carrying a protective artifact."
I understood what he meant. After observing my surroundings, I chose the first chain, where three people dressed in luxurious clothing were standing—clearly indicating they must possess life-saving artifacts.
The young man chose the second chain not far from mine, and we both hurried forward.
With steady steps, I approached the person in front of me. The chain began to sway, causing the young man ahead to panic slightly and glance back.
"Damn it, calm down! Stop shaking the chain!"
I shook my foot again, making the chain beneath him tremble even more violently.
He panicked further, desperately trying to regain his balance.
"Hey, wait—please stop—heyy!"He lost his footing and fell into the abyss. "You bastard!" his voice echoed loudly. Moments later, his body floated upward, wrapped in a translucent bubble.
"Disqualified," a voice echoed. The young man frowned as he was carried to the other side of the chasm.
Next, I approached a girl who was walking leisurely across the chain. Just like before, I shook the chain, intending to force her out.
She turned around and flashed a scornful smile at me. "Do you really think such a trick would work on me? Unfortunately for you, I've trained specifically for situations like this."She chuckled softly. "Got any other tricks? If you do, feel free to show them."
"You asked for it."
I grabbed the chain with both hands and let my body hang freely. I began swinging back and forth, gradually spinning as I dangled.
The girl's expression changed when she realized the chain beneath her feet was no longer just swaying left and right—it was moving up and down as well. Panic crept onto her face, and she soon lost her balance and fell.
"Damn you! Just wait—I'll get you back next time!" her voice echoed through the chasm as her body floated upward, her shawl fluttering around her.
"Disqualified."
I continued forward. The person ahead of me had already crossed the chasm and begun climbing the cliff, forcing me to increase my speed to catch up.
I quickly crossed the chasm and started climbing the cliff. Without looking down, I continued upward. Now only seven people remained ahead of me, and our speeds were almost identical. The higher I climbed, the stronger the wind became.
From above, stones the size of fists began falling toward me. Reacting swiftly, I knocked one aside with my hand.
As time passed, more and more stones rained down. I realized this was no accident—someone was doing this deliberately. After climbing for a while longer, I began to close in on the culprit.
When I was close enough, I grabbed his leg with my left hand.
"Get your filthy hand off my leg, you bastard!"He kicked my face, nearly making me lose my balance.
I pulled hard on his leg, trying to drag him down. He continued kicking wildly at my body, and I struggled to endure each blow.
Letting go with my right hand, I grabbed his leg with both hands instead. Slowly, I used his body as a foothold to push myself upward.
When we were level with each other, he struck me with his elbow. The summit was already in sight, and many others were fighting fiercely, trying to eliminate one another.
I punched his head while he hammered my stomach and chest with his elbows. Due to the difference in strength, my attacks barely affected him, while his blows inflicted serious damage.
Blood began seeping from my abdomen. One of my ribs had broken, tearing into flesh and causing blood to spill freely.
He threw another blow. Unable to withstand the pain any longer, I slipped and fell.
Just as I thought I was going to die, a hand caught my back, giving me the chance to grab onto a nearby rock.
"Yo, need a hand?"The young man with the headband smiled at me.
"Thanks."
"No need to worry. By the way, the next stage is pretty tough to handle alone. How about we team up? I'm confident that if we work together, we can pass this trial."
I looked into his eyes for a moment and sensed no conspiracy. After some thought, I agreed.
"Good. In that case, leave this stage to me."
He grabbed my collar.
Before I could react, he had already flung me upward. But before I reached the summit, my body began falling back down.
I immediately grabbed a plant root beside me and used it to swing myself up onto the cliff top.
I turned back and saw numerous floating platforms heading toward the mountain peak. In the distance, four people were gathered on one of the floating lands, seemingly in discussion.
"Strange… why aren't they moving toward the summit?"
I shifted my gaze to the steep cliff below. Slowly, the young man who had attacked me earlier began climbing up again.
"Now it's your turn to experience a rain of stones."A smile curled across my lips.
I quickly gathered several large rocks nearby and hurled them toward his head.
When I threw the first rock, he dodged to the side. Gradually, I forced him away from the spot where the headband-wearing youth—who had saved me—was climbing. Then I released a barrage of stones all at once.
He couldn't dodge in time. One rock struck his head, sending him tumbling down the cliff.
Moments later, the headband-wearing youth reached the summit.
"I didn't expect you to be this ruthless."
"How does this stage work?" I ignored his comment and focused on the real issue.
He raised his hand and pointed at a pearl. "See that? That's the control mechanism. In this stage, we must answer the questions given by that pearl to move forward."
I stared at the pearl, then shifted my gaze to the floating lands leading toward the mountain peak.
"Can't we just run straight to the summit?"
He shook his head. "No. Each floating land carries immense pressure that can crush your body. We need to solve the pearl's riddles to withstand the pressure of each platform."
I began to understand the method for clearing this stage, but one major problem remained. There was only one path to the summit, meaning we would inevitably encounter the participants ahead. Even if they couldn't solve the riddles themselves, they could simply wait for others to do it for them.
In other words, at this stage, only the strongest would emerge as the winners.
"Do you have a plan to deal with them?" I asked, hoping he had something in mind.
"Of course I do—though I can't guarantee it will succeed one hundred percent."
"Then what's your plan?"
"We just need to defeat them."
I froze upon hearing that. "Isn't that a guaranteed failure? Didn't you say that two of them are at the fifth layer of Body Tempering? Even if we team up, I'm not confident we can beat them."
No—I wasn't even sure we could survive five minutes against one of them.
"Don't worry. If my plan works, I can guarantee one hundred percent that we'll be the winners."