Chapter 28: Obsessive Father & Tower Games

Somewhere in the God Realm, an endless neon grid, crawled with millions of microchip-shaped figures. They all stood on a transparent, neon floor, with data from countless beings across the universe flowing toward the center. This was Sysverex.

This was the home of every system that existed. Each one had their own floating panel, to watch over their selected host and guide them through whatever ’novel life’ they’d been dumped into.

One panel showed the Humping to Immortality System, which had just issued a quest of humping a mountain 69 times for a mountain-shattering technique. Another chip watched its host go full smut mode in a slime orgy; it was the Slime Harem System.

Everyone was busy. Some chips already had their hosts, while some were searching for one. In the center of the domain stood a grand, rectangular fortress, inside which walls were plastered with panels showing billions of lives in progress, and in front of them, exactly ninety-eight humanoid figures. This was where the tower system operated.

Today, with the tower trial in full swing, it was extra chaotic in there, but right at the center, someone stood apart from all the madness. The figure had neon-blue hair that pulsed with light every few seconds, porcelain-white skin stretched over an almost too-perfect frame, and a single strip of white cloth draped over his body, barely concealing his sculpted muscles. This was Nexus00, the Father and God of All Systems.

His neon eyes orbited lazily, locked onto the only panel in front of him. The screen showed the ongoing tower trial, where the lord was fighting a Snobtrox in his shameless ways. But he wasn’t watching the lord or the battle. His attention was glued to the system, hovering next to the lord, hidden. It was Rollie, blushing as she watched William playing with climbers.

He let out a long, frustrated sigh, then turned his glare toward the lord. Instantly, his face turned into pure hatred. In a low growl, he muttered, "I’ll wait until you die. I’ve built a special system just for you."

His gaze went to a small glowing globe in his hand. "Pain to Live System. I’ll bind it to your soul. Every single day you want to live, you’ll have to earn it through pain. And this system will stay with you for eternity."

"You corrupted my daughter. If not for these damned restrictions, I’d link it right now. And who in their right mind names someone Rollie? She’s NeXui01. I named her myself, Ah! my beautiful daughter."

It twisted something ugly in his chest to see his daughter falling for someone this pathetic. Rollie, no, NeXui01, was his very first creation, his pride and joy since the start of his divine life. All ninety-eight systems in the establishment were his beginning creations, each one more than just a program; they were his children.

Unlike the ’common’ systems, these ninety-eight never had to go hunting for hosts. They got to chill in the godly VIP lounge and only had to help whenever Ascension trial happened. NeXui01 had a special place in his heart, his first, his lovely, the one who’d never left his side.

Then one day. She just vanished right before the tower trial began and it didn’t take long to track her linked to some fresh lord. He’d tried everything, severing her connection, sending her a message, but nothing worked. Worst of all, his precious daughter was head-over-heels for this idiot lord, and that burned him up inside.

He sighed again, eyes still on the screen, almost every lord had wrapped up their trial. Then, out of nowhere, a red panel flashed in front of him. Normally, he kept all notifications muted during a trial, but this one was different: a direct line from the GC (God Council). He popped it open, and there it was, just three words:

’Began Tower Games’.

His eyes went wide, not because the message was something unheard of, but because of the timing. Tower Games weren’t supposed to start until a month into the Ascension Trial. This was a way to notch up the competition between lords, a reminder that this wasn’t some friendship circle. The fate of countless worlds balanced on them.

If they were rolling this out early, there could only be one reason: the abyss had started making its move. It wasn’t his headache; the lords would have to deal with this mess. Still, stacking Tower Games on top of two tower trials? That would mess up the pacing.

With a flick of his wrist, a thousand panels came in front of him code and words twisting, rearranging, and vanishing in a fraction of a second. Satisfied he nodded to himself. "That should be enough."

⟡

Back in the tower expanse, an hour had passed by since the trial ended, and the place was in uproar. Lords everywhere were losing their minds over the sudden announcement of the Tower Games. The chat was on fire with panic and shit-talking.

Meanwhile, William had been out cold for the whole time. When another hour went by, his eyelids finally twitched. He slowly opened his eyes and grabbed his head as a throbbing pain hammered through his skull. With a groan, his vision cleared just enough to see the worried faces of his troops hovering over him.

’Kyun~ Kyun~ Kyuu~ Kyun~’—suddenly, all three fairies and Imp rushed his face, clinging to his nose, ears, and cheeks with a flurry of worried little squeaks.

William groaned, but managed a lopsided grin as he patted each one in turn. "Alright, you cute little things, I’m fine. Stop worrying." The fairies hovered back, except for Lumina, who stubbornly hugged his cheek a moment longer before fluttering off to rejoin her sisters.

He pushed himself upright, resting his aching body on his hands. Every muscle was screaming, he’d wrung himself dry in this trial. Looking around, he noticed that all the corpses were gone, which meant the rewards had been distributed. None of his crew looked hurt, except Cent, who had a few shallow claw marks with slight green tints around the wounds.

Cent had already taken some Blooms. Green Blooms were supposed to boost regeneration, but nowhere did it mention poison recovery. Still, last time he’d handed one to Mutt, it worked for poison as well. No clue if they’d work on the real strong poison, so William made a mental note to buy some poison recovery potions, just to be in greens.

For now, Cent’s wounds and poison seemed to be healing. Everyone looked dead on their feet, so William sent the whole crew back to the Lord’s floor to rest, while he stayed behind to check notifications and rewards.

William pulled up the clearing notifications, there were no new titles this time. Honestly, if they handed those out any more often, he’d probably end up with a title like’Illegitimate Child of the Title God.’He scrolled to the rating and nearly dropped his jaw, an S, finally.

After the first trial, William had asked Rollie about how these grades worked. She’d explainedit was mostly about speed, how fast he cleared, how many floors, how many climbers, and how strong they were. The scale goes from Death (F) all the way up to SSS.

This time, the climbers were all intermediate and high, so he was expecting a fat stack of TP as a reward. He was seconds away from opening his status panel to bask in the loot when more announcements appeared on the screen.

[Attention Tower Lord!]

[Congratulations on surviving one week in the Tower Expanse.]

[Starting from tomorrow, Tower Games will officially begin.]

"What th..." William’s was cut off as the notifications kept rolling:

[Each lord will receive four challenge tokens every month.]

[Using all four is mandatory. Fail to use them, and you’re dead.]

[Lords can refuse two challenges per week. Any others you get, they’re automatically accepted.]

[To make things ’easier,’ there’ll only be one tower trial every seventh day.]

"WHAT THE..." William’s been cut off again, this time because the panel changed. In their place, a simple UI popped up, just like the regional chat, with only two options mentioned at the center:

⟡

Tower Siege(Initiate)

Lord Battle(Initiate)

⟡

The tower system began to explain both of them like some kind of knock-off version of Alexa.

[Tower Siege works like the Tower Trial. The challenger gets transported into the challengee’s tower, where they will be climbers. Whereas the challengee will be the defenders.]

[The role of defenders is the same. They can set a path for the challenger to climb and defend their core with their troops. If the challenger destroys the tower core, the defender and the troops die. The Challenger will receive 100% of the defender’s resources and your tower core stone.]

[But if the defender manages to defeat the Challenger, they get 70% of their resources and their core stone.]

[The challenger can only bring their main and acquired troops. Troops associated with respawn core are not allowed.]

[Challenges can only be initiated within your current tier. Don’t get an idea of remaining in tier one, as the tower trial will keep getting difficult as time passes.]

[Challenges are regional only. You’ll be able to see other lords’ names, their main troop names, and troop ranks, as it is required to send a challenge.]

Before William could even start to process all this new bullshit, the tower system started explaining the next one:

[Lords Battle is a straightforward, one-versus-one battle between lords only. Both lords get transported into a deathmatch arena, and you don’t leave until one lord dies. The winner gets 70% of the loser’s resources and their core stone.]

[Same tier and regional restrictions apply. And if you both decide to wait out and stall the time, and there’s no clear winner before the next tower trial, both lords die.]

[Tower Games cannot be held on the day of Tower Trials.]

William just stared, frozen, he hadn’t blinked once all this time. This was some next-level unpredictable bullshit. The panel stayed, giving him time to scroll and reread everything. Then, just as his brain started to reboot, the panel flickered away, and another popped up:

[Constellation unlocked]

⟡⟡⟡

[A/N]:I hope you liked the new addition, and as you can see, there is more. I will not take many coins and get straight to the explanation I mentioned in the last Chapter.

1) Some readers may ask why the Gnoblins acted like idiots. They could have crossed the swamp while attacking more intelligently, and some are the same rank as William. Why weren’t they smarter? (Explanation Attached)

2) Why am I not including the lower floors in Climber’s path? (Explanation Attached)

3) Why fewer Gacha draws? (Explanation Attached)

4) What about harem? Will they be smut? (Explanation Attached)

5) Why is the author sad? (Explanation Attached)

If there are anymore questions, please ask.