‘I guess this one can’t be cheesed as easily…but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible.’

Zhang Dong sat in the shadows while looking at a large monster on a huge circular platform. After passing through the level with large numbers of monsters he arrived at this location. This one seemed to be similar to the second stopgap but not quite. Instead of a large open area, it was a smaller closed one with an enemy waiting for him. This enemy was just waiting for him while nothing was happening.

‘Scan complete.’

‘There we go, let me see…’

He did not try to attack the monster just yet. This would obviously set something in motion that perhaps he could not stop later. It was better to sit back in shadow form while letting Bob analyze the situation. To no surprise, this location turned out to be something like a boss gauntlet.

This was the first floor of a tower-like structure. It was around a hundred meters in diameter with thick walls that could not be easily destroyed. What Bob counted were fifty floors with a new enemy waiting for him. The one that was standing here was relatively weak but this didn’t mean that the other ones would be the same.

‘So, I reckon that after I kill this one, I’ll be forced to the higher floor, rinse and repeat.’

After looking at the data before him it was easy to come to a conclusion about this place. It was more a test of stamina than actual power. He would need to face beasts that probably became stronger with each level. The breaks between the fights would probably be quite short and he had no place to run.

‘Are there any cracks to slip through or will I need to just do this the traditional way.’

Conserving his energy was an important tactic. If he continued to fight these beasts then he would not be at his best when facing off against the main enemy. He needed to plan for the future and not be stuck here fighting the lackeys one by one. Luckily he was not the average system holder and there were ways to hack into these trials with the help of his Ai. The predecessor that lent it out to him was truly a lifesaver.

‘So there is something like this here…’

The walls were made from a similar material to the one where he found those strange cubes. It lacked the ability to block out his map but was similarly resistant to any impacts and spirit energy. With some help, he spotted a side entrance that would normally not be accessible to anyone. Perhaps the person that made this thing used it to travel through the levels. Only by waiting here and letting Bob analyze everything was he even able to discover it.

‘Hack it Bob.’

After spotting the area in the wall he waited another fifteen minutes for his Ai to open the path forward. After triggering the mechanism the black rocky walls opened up to reveal something that looked like a modern-day elevator. When looking inside he could see the same number of levels represented as buttons on the side. They went all the way from one to fifty with one level being even above this.

‘This should take me all the way to the next spot.’

This was a strange side entrance so he still needed to remain vigilant. When inside of it he gave Bob the order to look for anything detrimental to his health.

‘No protective systems spotted.’

‘Hm? I guess this makes some sense. Whoever made this probably didn’t expect anyone to find this elevator. No reason to bother with defensive measures.’

People with immense power tended to undervalue anyone that was below them. The immortal that created this tower with many nascent-level monsters in it probably didn’t expect anyone to be able to get in here. There wasn’t even a system to scan for a spirit signature of the owner, they clearly didn’t expect Zhang Dong to have something like an Ai to open it and guide him in.

Thus after stepping in he pressed the last button that would take him to the fifty-first level. With some more luck, it would take him to another area through which he could easily travel through. Usually after finding one of these secret areas, traversing through the others was easier.

‘This place looks similar, could that guy have been here too?’

After traveling through all of the fifty levels he arrived at the top one. After the doors opened up he was ready to defend himself against some ancient golems that were left behind as a defensive mechanism. Instead, he found a room with many monitors, it looked like something a person could find in a casino just without anyone actually working there.

‘This design looks like something from earth… Could someone from there be the one behind all of this or…’

When moving forward into this strange monitoring room he began thinking. Usually, there were no coincidences in this world. This place looked similar to the one back where it all started. These monitors were very similar to the ones that his predecessor used along with the machines here. There was a difference though, they weren’t as destroyed by time.

‘Could he have found one of these locations and based his technology on them? That wouldn’t be strange, that’s probably how he was able to figure things out and was able to crack my system…’

This theory had some merit to it, or at least that’s what Zhang Dong was thinking. If this location existed then perhaps other ones were out there as well. He usually didn’t sit tight foir half an hour while letting Bob scan everything. It was normal that he didn’t locate any other of these locations.

‘This is good… Bob, take as much data as you can from here.’

‘Affirmative.’

If he could have his Ai get the pattern down of these spots it would help him against the overseer. Ways of combating those beings could very well be at one of these locations. This one didn’t seem to have much to it as it was just something used for monitoring and getting around the locations. He could even see all the fifty levels and beasts waiting for him there.

‘There is some sort of time lock on these levels… that’s how these creatures have managed to survive for this long…’

This reminded him of his encounter with the Azure Empress. For a moment she managed to halt time and grab the item that was left behind by Wang Long. This was also a type of Dao that allowed people to affect time. It seemed that whoever was behind this all had some type of understanding in it and perhaps this sample here could help him find a countermeasure in the future.

‘This will probably take a while…’

Normally he would have to give Bob some time to analyze the strange frozen zone. At the moment he didn’t really have any time for that. His people were waiting outside for him to get through these blockades. Instead, it would have been better to get something that he could analyze later.

‘Luckily whoever made this place, liked gaming rigs…’

Everything that was here looked like a replica gaming PC from his time. It had purple lights going through the water-cooled fluid part. Even now as the whole thing was working the PC case underneath was glowing through the transparent screen. No dust seemed to have built up either so he could see everything vividly.

‘I don’t recall the GPU model, it looks quite large…’

Zhang Dong could recall the two main GPU companies from his old world but none of them seemed to have a model like this one. From the outside, it looked very similar but wasn’t quite there. Perhaps whoever made this place decided to customize it to their own liking or they came from a different earth than he did.

‘For all I know, the earth I came from could be a recreation too…’

He didn’t really want to think about the godly being working in the background but the closer he got to defeating all Emperors the closer he felt the last confrontation was approaching. His current white seed was slowly opening up and he could feel himself growing stronger by the day. After absorbing the Dao of the Cerulean Empress he could see himself progressing even further and perhaps breaking through to the next level.

‘Bob, what will happen if I take this with me…’

‘Unable to come to a conclusion, need more data.’

‘So you fail me now…Hm…’

He stared at the RGB lights that started turning on and illuminating this dark room. On one end was the entrance he came through and on the other another door through which he would arrive in the next area. If he took this PC there would possibly be an adverse reaction.

‘I’ll just take the whole room with me…’

After nodding at himself he moved over to the exit door. After opening it he could see the next area through it. The door was seemingly hovering in the air above a large castle-like structure. There was also the inside of the bubbly barrier that he could see from here. If he jumped through the door it would probably close behind him along with this room and the PC in it. Thus he needed to grab everything he needed while the door was still open.

Soon he pulled the replica of the medallion out while quickly working on the walls of the room. Forcing everything out and placing it into the medallion wasn’t easy and he needed to do it in one fell swoop. As he was working the whole tower part of the trial area began to collapse and along with it came all the monsters that were trapped inside.

‘Well, sorry about that guys…’

All of the room along with all the constructs in it made their way into his medallion. Just as he expected the moment they were in there the door started to vanish. Luckily he was already prepared to step through it with most of the room making its way into his possession.

At almost the same time he started hearing a strange rumbling. In the distance, a large sinkhole had formed and started to collapse. From within he could hear the roars of strange beasts that were quickly drowned out by the sounds of destruction. The whole thing was collapsing onto itself, it was as if a black hole had formed inside to swallow all of it in one quick gulp.

‘I really hope no one heard that…’

He was floating right up in the air with light shining from all sides. There were no shadowy spots that he could disappear to. His position had become exposed and he was not alone here, from the distance he could feel something coming and it was not a weak opponent.