John walked through the portal.

The third trial had various stages and had been designed by John.

The area was a giant circle.

All of the people that passed the second trial were doing this trial at once.

They were on a giant platform. Over a hundred thousand people were pushed against a barrier that was slowly closing in on them,

John had his disguise on.

He used holographic technology to make himself a giant that could be seen among the hundred thousand humans.

It looked magical.

His voice boomed.

"Welcome to the third trial mortals. All of you have passed the first two trials. Some of you have even become rank 1. Congratulations on taking the first step to godhood. I am looking forward to your progress."

"Look behind you."

Soon the humans looked behind them. They saw a barrier of spikes rushing towards them.

"In front of you is a kilometer of broken glass, needles of unknown origin, and nails. As I'm sure all of you have noticed. You lack shoes."

"This is just the warm-up."

Somebody then spoke:

It was hard to hear them from so far away. But they had recognized 'Destinatus'.

"Wait! Aren't you Destinatus?"

"I am the god of [redacted]."

"Do not get friendly with me mortal. It is taboo to speak the name of a god."

John flicked his fingers shooting out a blade of aura that lead to the person being beheaded.

"Does anybody else want to talk?"

He was met with silence.

Some people were confused. They had talked with John in the second trial. He had helped them... since when did he become part of the administration?

What was going on?

"Well, I won't spoil you all too much. The goal is the same as the second trial. You will be able to leave this layer when you reach rank 2. Good luck!"

John sent a request mentally to open up a portal at his location. It was approved.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

John walked back into chaotic space. He went to his part time job of observing the subjects. He was supposed to find the 'anomaly'.

Ishiroxz was beside him looking at a screen.

"So far it seems to just be normal humans. Are they sure there is an anomaly?"

John spoke:

"Perhaps he died in the last trial?"

John watched the trial with interest.

Ishiroxz spoke:

"Hey look at this guy! He looks like you?"

"Really?"

John looked over at the screen and saw a faker Destinatus.

Ishiroxz was confused.

Why would a mortal dress as a hidden existence? What sort of weird hobbies does Destinatus have? Has he been interacting with mortals?

"I was born around the time of the invasion. I helped some humans out as it was my hobby. They started a sort of religion around me."

"I see..."

"Is that even allowed?"

"Probably not, but what are they going to do to me? We are all hidden existences. Everyone was doing their own thing back then."

"Fair enough. I wish I had a religion based around me... I stayed in the calamity realm during the invasion. I was working on my own universe."

"You have a universe?"

"Yes! I'm rather proud of it. I'm only a few hundred thousand years old and I already have my own place."

"Nice. I hope to one day have a universe as well."

John did in fact create a universe already a long time ago. But he wouldn't bring up that as he was only suppose to be a newborn god.

The way he created it was also different then how a god would go about creating it.

It would be insane for him to have his own universe so early in his life.

So the design of the first stage was a sort of battle royale. The barrier was closing in on everyone. People were scattered around the map. Further in the map was a large part of land without traps. In the middle of the map was a hole that led to the next part of the trial.

If the barrier caught up to you. You would die.

There was also nothing stopping anyone from killing those in front of them to get a better place.

John watched as some people used aura to protect their feet as they ran into the broken shards of glass.

Some people were trampled to death due to inaction. A hundred thousand people were running towards the center of the map.

Those that passed by conceding the last trial were suffering the most.

They lacked aura to protect their feet. They also lacked a shield due to not being rank 1.

Not to mention this mode had become a harder difficulty. They needed to ascend two ranks in this trial to progress.

But they had to no time to complain as the barrier was closing in on them.

John kept an eye out for any 'anomalies'. But him and his team didn't find any humans that seemed abnormal.

Everything checked out.

John wanted to assign himself to the construction of the fourth trial. So that he could get access to rank 3 brands.

But the team was already working and John couldn't pull out a fast one like he had for the third trial.

So John planned to join the fourth trial as a participant.

There was however a problem. He had now had work to do. He also couldn't create an avatar to take his place.

John decided to take a vacation when the fourth trial starts.

The problem was getting it approved. He needed a reason to take leave. He also needed to tell administration what he planned on doing.

John stood up and walked out of the monitoring room.

He then went to the nexus.

"Hello."

"What is the problem this time?"

"I wish to report a leave in advance."

"When will you take this leave?"

John had friends among the people working on the fourth trial. They told him it would be done in around half a century. It obviously wouldn't take that long for the people in the third trial to pass it. This was just the time they would spend in limbo.

John already had a way to infiltrate the fourth trial's limbo.

"I will take it in 40 years from now."

"How long will you be gone?"

"A few centuries..."

"Reason for leave?"

"Health reasons. I'm hoping to resolve my issues by spending time in the calamity realm."

The person looked through John's files. Everything seemed to be in order.

"We will notify you in around a decade whether or not you have been approved."

John returned back to the monitoring room.

The higher ups unfortunately noticed something off about John's situation.

He was in deep shit. But he had no idea.