Just like that, I was at level 1 again. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this…Someone, please get me out of here. I have to spend the next 10 years of my life here again. I don’t want this. Satan, if you are listening, please cancel our contract. I don’t want to go through this again. Please have mercy on me. What did I even do to you? Please release me. I don’t care if my soul is lost in space or whatever; just get me out of here. Please help me. Oh! Almighty God, please listen to my pitiful self and have mercy on me. Kill this demon and free me from this situation. I was never much of a religious person, so I don’t really know how to pray. All I can do is pray to you earnestly to free me from this situation. Oh! God, please have pity on me. Please. Please. Please……
* Yeon had finally snapped. For now, he just wanted to run away from that situation, but it was hopeless. No one will ever come to help him. But someone came to whip him for sure while he was slacking off. After getting hit for some time, he came back to reality. He had no choice but to go through this again, hoping that next time he would complete level 2*
My prayer wasn’t answered. It’s not like it was ever answered anyway. I think God just doesn’t care about us. He just created us, and now it’s up to us to survive. After all this useless effort, I started mining again! While mining, I realized I was in a different mine as I didn’t recognize a single person. I guess it was done so that my contract remains a secret from everyone, not that I care about it. And with this, I started talking to different people again, and my time eventually came to an end on level 1.
While I was on level 1, I tried to make a strategy for completing level 2, but nothing worked. No matter how much I think about it, nothing seems to work. It’s simply impossible to climb these many stairs within the given time limit. So, to make up for my lack of intelligence, I thought of asking other people about this. I mean, it’s not like I am breaking any rules here. The task is simply to climb the stairs; it wasn’t mentioned that I am not allowed to talk about it with others. Obviously, I just asked people this hypothetical question under the pretext of getting rid of our boredom.
A lot of people say that it’s easy. “You can just run, and you will eventually reach there in time,” someone said. Some people actually grasped the gravity of the situation and advised them to manage their time well. According to them, it was all about time management. Then there was an old man (a beastman resembling a lion) whose answer piqued my interest. “Don’t look back,” he said. According to him, the most important points were ‘confidence’ and ‘fear’. One has to be confident in his abilities that he will reach the destination on time; basically, one has to get rid of his fear of failing the task. This was not an easy feat to accomplish, as the stakes are very high here.
But I made up my mind that this time I would not look back at all. I will manage my time well and just run till the end to get out of this level. At least that’s how it was supposed to go, so why am I here again on level 1!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. This is insanity. I was sure that I had managed my time well this time, so why am I here again? I did not even look back once. But despite this, I still composed myself. The key is to not lose myself. If I lose it, I will not be able to make any progress. With this, I started mining again. At this point, I am like a professional at mining. Other sinners and guards were surprised at my efficiency in mining. They thought I might have been a miner while I was alive. They have no idea that I got scammed to get here.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Anyway, after going through this again, I prepared myself for level 2. I started running as soon as I was teleported there. I never looked back and managed time well, but I still wasn’t able to do it. I am starting to lose hope now. I don’t think I can ever get past this. At this point, level 1 felt like a resting place for me compared to level 2. But the problem is that this rest is 10 years’ worth of time.
*After approx. 400 years later*
I don’t know how much time has passed since I arrived at level 2. I stopped counting after 21. I feel like I am getting closer and closer to the goal. I am pretty sure that if I hold my ground, I will complete this level. And with this mindset, I started running again. And as I landed on the last step of the stairs, the window popped up; for the first time in all these years, the message displayed changed.
[Congratulations! You have completed the trial of level 2]
[Theme of Level 3 is Battle Royal. Everyone is out there to kill you.]
[You don’t need food/water at this level. But you will need to rest to cure your fatigue accordingly.]
[You can die on this level. You will repeat this level in a different space each time you die]
[Your goal is to survive for 10 days. Each time you die this time resets.]
[You will be given a weapon randomly out of a sword, spear, axe, hammer and so on]
[Each time you kill someone your time for survival decreases by 1 minute.]
[Sinners with the least physical/combat capabilities but significantly negative karma are sent to this level.]
[Although you are here under a contract but since you also don’t have any combat skills it doesn’t really make it unfair for anyone here.]
[A message from Satan: “You are doing great my dear. I hope we meet as late as possible. Good luck!”]
[You will now be sent to level 3]
[Assigning a weapon to Yeon. Hammer has been given.]
[Countdown to the teleportation starts]
[10]
[9]
Woah!! After completing this level, I am not even getting a minute of rest. Instead, this system dropped a bomb of information on me again. As if running wasn’t enough for me, now I am being thrown in a battle royal. This is too much. It seems like difficulty just spiked a lot. But at least I only have to survive 10 days. Compared to 10 years on level 1, this seems a bit easy.
[8]
[7]
Still, there’s a problem. I am allowed to kill, and not only that, I can even make my time of survival go down by killing someone, although it’s 1 minute per kill. But this feels a bit weird. Is this really punishment for sinners? If anything, this feels like a paradise for murderers and psychopaths. And they also get their time reduced. This feels rather unfair for people like me.
[6]
[5]
[4]
I don’t think I can kill a person. But if I don’t, I will have to survive 10 days in a place filled with murderers. Now that I think about this, even these 10 days feel like 10 years of time. Well, whatever. It’s not like thinking about it will help me in any way. I hope I can leave this place as early as possible.
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Welcome to Level 3]