*A month has passed by since Yeon entered level 1*

Urghh!! I am tired. Physical labour is no joke; I don’t know how people make a living doing this work on earth. It’s only been a month, and I feel like running from here. But as soon as I show any suspicious activity, I will be in an even more dangerous situation. A month has gone by since I entered level 1, and I have acquired some more information about this level and the people here. Apparently, we are allowed to have conversations with other people here as long as our work is not slowed down. So, I talked a lot with another man (a human) named John who was working near me, and he told me a lot of things, starting with what kind of sins he committed and how unfair his life was. It was more of a one-sided conversation as I was mostly just listening to him.

He was an orphan on earth and on top of that he was homeless since birth; so, he resorted to thievery so as to survive and died in a car accident while running away from cops. Since all he ever did was stealing therefore, he got negative karma. Although he did it to survive but it still counts as negative karma though the amount is less then other crimes such as exploiting weak people, murder etc. And therefore, he ended up in level 1. After dying, he heard a voice saying, “Judging karma” and then was teleported here on level 1. Listening to him, I realised my case was really rare, as I entered the actual hell first before coming here. Not that it makes me feel any good, if anything it infuriates me to think that Satan actually manipulated my innocent self to satisfy his own sadistic desires. Well, whatever, since the contract has been made, let’s just try to survive till end.

Every person here takes part in conversation with others near them to keep things interesting and to not lose their sanity. Well, it makes sense, as one might actually go mentally insane doing only physical labour for so much time. So, apart from him, I also got to converse with a lot more people, and most of them had similar sins as John. The interesting thing I got to know was that after they all complete their sentence here on level 1, they are given the duty of guards of this level for the same number of years before getting reincarnated. This explains why the guards also had different appearances. At the start, I thought only werewolves were guards, but I saw a lot more different people with whips in their hands. Although I don’t think I will be given this duty, I was notified of it by the system of hell at the start.

I never talked about my situation to anyone so as to not stand out among these similar people. I just made up a pathetic story to satisfy others curiosity. I was also afraid they might make fun of me for falling victim to Satan’s scheme, and I don’t think I can handle their laughs for 10 years. So, I just hid my situation from everyone. I also tried calling out Gaya during my rest time out of curiosity, but that obviously didn’t work. I guess Gaya will really not be available at any level.

And time eventually went by just doing labour and talking with random people I encountered. During this time, to escape from this hell, I tried to kill myself a lot of times, but as the system of hell explained, the concept of death really doesn’t exist on this level. I tried choking myself, using the pickaxe to harm myself, and dipping my face in the water to drown myself, but nothing worked. I only felt the pain, but no matter how much time passed, I was not able to kill myself. After some time, I gave up on that idea. And so the 10 years passed. I never thought I would be this happy to go to level 2 of hell. I just wanted to escape this hellish, monotonous life at all costs.

[Congratulations! You have survived the level 1 for the given 10 years of time]

[Level 2 is different for every person. You will be alone in the space where you will be teleported]

[Sending Yeon to level 2 now]

Like that, I arrived at level 2. This place is wide, empty, and bright. As far as I can see, there’s nothing. It’s like I was sent to the middle of nowhere. It’s just that there are a lot of long, steep stairs in front of me. I guess surviving here has something to do with these stairs.

[You are correct]

[Welcome to level 2]

[Since you are under contract, your level 2 is more of a trial than a punishment]

[Your task is to climb these 86,400 stairs in a single day. So that will be 1 stair per second. The gravity is the same here as it was in your world]

[You have been given a body that will only feel tiredness and emotions such as joy, sadness, fear, etc.; apart from that, you will not feel hunger, thirst, etc.]

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[You can rest in between as many times as you want to recover stamina, but you have to reach the goal in a single day]

[The concept of death is present on this level. In case you die during the task, you have to do it again from the start, and the timer will reset as well. Although there are no threats or traps on the stairs that can hurt you]

[If you reach the top of the stairs even one second later than the required time, you will be sent to level 1 again for 10 years and have to repeat all over]

[If found that you have given up or you are just stalling, you will be given a warning, and a countdown of 10 seconds will start. If you don’t start running before the countdown ends, you will be sent to level 1]

[That’s all from me. Good luck surviving. Your time will start in 10 seconds]

[10]

[9]

This again. This system gives so much information so fast that a person doesn’t get the time to react to it.

[8]

[7]

So, you are telling me I have to climb these 86,400 long, steep stairs in a single day. Is that even possible, even if a person didn’t rest for a second? We have a pretty long staircase here. I don’t think I can climb this at the speed of 1 stair/sec without rest.

[6]

[5]

[4]

Although it said that I might die on this level, this task doesn’t have anything that can kill me. So, I don’t think I have to worry about that.

[3]

[2]

I guess it’s time to test my stamina. No matter what happens, I don’t want to go to level 1 again. Let’s just give it my all on the first try. Though I might die of heart failure, but that’s still better than going to level 1 again.

[1]

And I started running to the top with everything I had in me. Well, even when I was alive, I wasn’t much of an athletic person. But I didn’t think I would get out of breath on just the 17th stair. I thought I could at least go up to 30 in one go, but I guess that was a pipe dream, huh? After taking some seconds to regain my stamina a bit, I started running again. And just like that, I ran and ran and ran……Even after running so much, it feels like the top is unattainable. To see how much, I had gone up by, I looked down for a sec by turning my neck. And that was a mistake. When a person doesn’t have safety gear attached to him, he should not look down from a very high height. If someone does that, he might lose his balance, and then gravity will do its work.

The same happened to me. As soon as I looked down, a chill went through my spine, and my mind went blank for a second due to the height I was at. And when I came to realize my situation, I was already falling down the stairs. Now it hit me, Ah! So, this is why I could die at this level. Of course, it was by falling down the stairs. My bones were breaking one by one as I fell down those long, hard, steep stairs. And somewhere in between, I died. I experienced death again, even though I was already dead. Although it seemed hard to accomplish the task given, at the beginning, I actually thought this level was easier compared to level 1. I was soon proved wrong.

The system mentioned that there are no traps on the stairs. Of course, there aren’t. This situation itself is a trap. I have to climb a large number of stairs, which I can’t count, and I can’t even look back as I will lose my balance or lose a lot of time if I do it carefully. And there is no way for me to know how much time has passed since I started running. This space is only bright, but it doesn’t have sun or anything. I have no way to keep track of time. If I take even a second more, I will be thrown to level 1. I was reminded of my traumatic time at level 1 again just thinking about it. This f#ck!ng $ucks.

[Your actions are suspicious. You seem to have given up]

[Countdown will start. 10]

[9]

I hate this. I hate this. I hate this…. Why do I have to go through all this physical and mental torture? I don’t even have any negative karma. What did I do so wrong to deserve this? Satan, you son of b!tch why did you do this to me? I will kill him when I see him again. I don’t care what it takes, but I will kill him.

[8]

[7]

[6]

* Seeing an almost impossible task on his hands, Yeon lost his sanity for a brief moment but soon realised that he had no other way around this. So, he composed himself again and started running up*

I just have to not look behind and keep on running up. Let’s just do this. I will do this no matter what, and if I am not sure of my run, I will jump down just before the topmost stair to do this again. It’s not like that is against the rules, as it wasn’t mentioned by the f#ck!ng system of Satan. It’s still better to restart level 2 than to end up on level 1.

With these thoughts in my mind, I ran and ran and ran…. After this, for the first time, I was one stair away from the top, but I think I took more time than 24 hours, so I jumped down and died. And just like that, I died 12 more times before getting my desired run. I am sure this time I will get it done before 24 hours. I took rest for a total of 4 hours, I think. I don’t have anything to confirm, but this is the best run so far. I am confident this will be done before a day, or so I thought. And I was so wrong.

[You have exceeded the time limit to complete the given task]

[Therefore, you will now be teleported to level 1]

[Survive level 1 for 10 years. Good Luck]