First Step

Taking his first step in this World, Kaizen walked up to the giant door and attempted to open it. Weirdly enough, this huge door was opened by him with an ease that made it seem that it had no weight at all. Still, Kaizen didn't have much time to contemplate the matter as soon after opening it, it seemed as if his body had been teleported to a new room.

Looking carefully at his surroundings, Kaizen could see that he was in a cave like room which extended for a long distance where at its end there was a bright bluish light. The walls and floor were brown, and on the walls, there were some torches and some eerily dark red engravings depicting money, weapons, items, humans, and other races. Still, the longer Kaizen looked at them the more attracted he was to the drawings and depictions, it seemed to carry temptation beyond normal.

Taking a few seconds to be able to break free from the drawings' temptation, Kaizen started to sweat a bit. But, refusing to back down after just entered Kaizen took a look behind him where he could only see a darkness that caused him to be filled with anxiousness as he then turned his head back to the front and continued walking towards the light.

As soon as he reached end of the tunnel, Kaizen could see that the cave expanded to form a huge room with a ceiling so high that he could not see it. The walls still had those drawings and torches on them, but, in the middle of the room, he could see a rabbit like person.

This rabbit like person had an elongated face covered with white fur, long white ears, and an extremely long mouth. Overall, a face which was very creepy. He was wearing a purple bodysuit which showed both his shoulders and arms both off which had different proportions compared to any human to a point where you would question the shape of the person's bones. The upper part of his hands both had teal green circular objects with a golden lining around each of them. Also, he seemed to be carrying a golden staff with teal green balls at both of its ends with his right hand.

As soon as he saw him, Kaizen was sure that he was in the Tower of God verse, after all the rabbit like person was clearly Headon the administrator of the tower.

After realizing this, Kaizen slowly approaches the rabbit like person which turned to him when they were about 3 meters away from each other and followed by raising his left finger to his right cheek before saying, "Oh, another one has opened the door by himself…" before stopping for a second and continuing by saying, "Welcome to the tower, young man."

Following that, Headon flipped his staff as he began to introduce himself saying, "My name is Headon, I am the guardian of the first floor of the tower. What is your name?"

And so, being asked such a question, Kaizen stopped approaching him as he answered him by saying, "My name is Kaizen Ziel, and I have entered this place in hopes of improving myself."

"Then, Kaizen, what do you wish to accomplish by doing so?" Asked Headon.

"I want to change myself, my own laziness has once led me to losing many things which are important to me, and so, no matter what I will not stay the same." Answered Kaizen with a resolute look.

"Well, no matter what you want, all the answers are up there, whether you are looking for wealth, immortality, absolute power, magical abilities, or mysteries, hust head up. All the truth, glory, and happiness of the world are all up there. The Tower is such a place." Smiled Headon as he said the last part before continuing to say, "But remember that it is a hard and painful journey to embark on, young man."

"No matter what happens to me, I do not mind dying as long as I can make up for the mistakes of my past." Said Kaizen, his face showing a determined smile as he remembered his father, mother, siblings and friends.

"Excellent, I like your resolve. Then, let's do a test to see if you are qualified to go up the tower." Said Headon as he started to approach Kaizen while explaining, "In this tower, every time you go up a floor, there will be a test to see if you are qualified to go to the next floor. If you pass the test, you can proceed to the next floor. These tests are decided by the administrators and rulers of each floor. Of course, the difficulty will differ according to which floor you are on. And so, here is my test." Said Headon as he stopped walking and waved his hand as bluish-white cube the size of a small room appeared in front of them.

"Well, for this test, all you will have to do is survive for three hours inside that small room. As long as you can do that, you will be able to climb up to the next floor." Said Headon as his smile widened even more than before.

"Sir, just before we start, could I have a pocket? I believe it will be necessary for the latter floors." Said Kaizen with a wry smile.

"Well, it seems that I might have forgotten to do that. Here, take this." Said Headon as handed Kaizen an F-rank pocket and then pointed at the room and said, "Now, go on and complete the task."

And so, as soon as he received the pocket, a small silver colored ball which floats by itself in the presence of shinsu, Kaizen resumed by saying, "Invisible mode" as the pocket became invisible and he started to walk towards the room fueled by his determination.

But just as he reached near one meter of it, he suddenly felt a chill gust which seemed to make his whole-body tremble with fear and anxiousness. At this moment, Kaizen stopped walking, and started to think if he really should approach it. After all, he could still change himself without climbing the tower. But then, he remembered that the outer tower and middle towers are filled with dangers, which included the various rankers and shineuh (monsters), all of which could probably kill him easily. Also, with his current power he will barely be able to survive himself, much less help others and atone for his past.

Remembering his family and his previous laziness which led to the death of his father, Kaizen stopped hesitating as he screamed, "No matter what, I will do my best to change, become better, help others, and surpass myself. I won't die in such a useless way ever again." And so, even as the coldness made his body tremble and as much as his instincts were telling him that he was heading to his death,he charged in into the room running as fast as he can and jumped into it.

As happy as he was at being able to force himself to continue and not succumbing to his inner laziness, this happiness only lasted for a moment, more specifically the moment he was still in the air just before his body entered the room. Because, when he entered, he felt a big pressure, which made him feel a pain so big that the pain of being stabbed and dying was nothing compared to this pain.

And so, just as he entered it, he started to scream loudly. But, even this pain was nothing but the start, as a moment later the coldness invaded his body, and in but a few seconds, part of his body started to freeze and his blood slowed down to a point where he would have become unconscious were it not for the pain that made him want to suicide then and there regardless of his will, determination and ambitions.

Ten minutes passed where kaizen's voice had already become hoarse from screaming his neck, arms, legs, head, and internal organs were all feeling an inhumane amount of pain. Yet, neither was he able to lose consciousness nor was he able to die. And so, instinctively, Kaizen activated his adapting body skill, in hopes that he could decrease the amount of pain he was feeling even if by a tiny bit.

With the activation of his skill, the amount of pain increased immensely, but, as he started to feel that his body was feeling slightly less cold than before, he tried his best to endure this pain. And, as the minutes started to pass, his pain only increased, no relief of it seemed to be coming, and neither his body nor his mind was able to become numb to it nor was he able to become resistant to this pressure.

When thirty minutes had passed after he activated his skill, his body was becoming more resistant to the cold, to the point where his blood started to move a bit faster, and so, the pressure on his body, together with the pain which only increased, and the return of his blood flow, made his orifices, namely his mouth, nose, eyes and ears all start to bleed. And to make matters worse, the blood which was released started to freeze on the top of his body freezing most of his face, a matter which made even respiring much harder.

In such conditions, surviving long enough to pass the exam seemed impossible, as even if the pressure didn't kill him, the lack of oxygen along with the cold environment probably would do so. Yet, it was at this hopeless time that he remembered his previous life again, and so, in such a moment of desperation, a will to survive much greater than before was ignited in him. This led to him unconsciously activating his stubborn will skill, which was able to make it so that he could barely survive these conditions.

By the time two hours had passed, his body had become resistant enough to the cold to the point that even the blood on top of his face had melted. And so, with the only the increasing amounts of pain to deal with, Kaizen started to believe that he might pass this test. But it was at this moment that things changed. The air became hotter and drier, and Kaizen started to feel as if he was in an oven which was becoming hotter at an incredible pace.

After two minutes that the changes had started, Kaizen already felt like he was going to die of dehydration due to how hot it had become, perhaps, his skill being active being the only reason he has yet to die. This has led to many parts of his skin to crack due to tissues being weakened due to the rapid change of temperatures. This with the addition of his pain made it so that the pain he was feeling right now was much worse than before.

But even will all these changes, something had fundamentally changed within Kaizen while he was enduring the previous coldness. His will to live itself had become much stronger, and so, while still trying to let his skill make him resistant to this heat while understanding that if he can't buy some time for the skill to become effective, he unconsciously started to gather the shinsu around him, and so, even without realizing it himself, he was able to use this baang to reinforce his falling body.

And so, with what could only be described as a miracle, Kaizen managed to barely survive for enough time for his skill to act, and thus he survived.

As the time was reaching its limit, Headon could not help laugh to himself seeing that the trial which he gave Kaizen which was supposed to break his will actually made him stronger.

"It seems that he will be able to survive it this time. So, for actually being able to survive this challenge I shall for this one time only heal his body before transporting him to the second floor." Said Headon as Kaizen managed to survive the three hours before falling unconscious for some seconds.