Although Kalain, cloaked in his black robe, normally stood out in the white expanse, he was nowhere to be seen. Did he climb farther while I was finding the sanctuary? Kalain hadn’t been in any condition to ascend on his own. Even with the blinding snowstorm limiting visibility, he couldn’t have slipped out of my sight in such a short amount of time. It defied logic for him to vanish so abruptly. The footprints we had left behind had already been swallowed by the relentless blizzard, buried under a fresh layer of snow. Maybe he collapsed along the way? Kalain had seemed half-conscious throughout much of our climb through the snow. My own memories of the ascent were hazy, disjointed at best. Wait. What if he fell hours ago, and I somehow continued on alone without realizing it? No, that didn’t add up either. I felt confident he had been with me just moments ago. The residual warmth on my shoulder and wrist proved that much. It was as if Kalain had simply disappeared, vanished into thin air like a specter. The sanctuary’s glow enveloped me, restoring my strength and warming me, but my mind churned with confusion. Nothing about this made sense. Did Kalain collapse while I dug out the sanctuary? It seemed the most plausible explanation. Our separation would have intensified the tower’s trial, and maybe Kalain couldn’t withstand it. The fierce blizzard had erased any trace of our path, so if Kalain had fallen, the snow would have buried him completely by now. There isn’t any time to waste. I sprang into action and kicked off the ground. The moment I stepped out of the sanctuary, an overwhelming wave of cold and psychological pressure crashed onto me. On my initial sprint toward the sanctuary, I had been too focused to notice, but I now felt it acutely. Every breath felt like a dagger stabbing into my throat and lungs. The hallucinations, too, grew more vivid, no longer confined to the faces of the dead. Now, phantoms of my closest friends and companions appeared before me. An image of Seo Ho-Su with his chest split open, Doppy bleeding profusely, and even Ha Hee-Jeong’s severed head stared at me. The sight of Ha Hee-Jeong sent a surge of anger through me. With Kalain no longer beside me, I found myself cursing aloud again. I forced myself to calm down, breathing deeply despite the freezing air. This is just an illusion. If I let it distract me, I would be falling into the trial’s trap. Grinding my teeth, I began retracing my steps, tearing through the snow with my hands. Is my chest freezing over? Breathing felt labored, almost impossible. That didn’t matter, though. Kalain had fallen because I had left to discover the sanctuary—his death would be on me. Even though he had acted strangely, I should have taken him with me. Perhaps my brief time in the sanctuary had restored me more than I expected, but my hands ached sharply as they clawed through the snow. I felt myself alternate between a frigid numbness and a burning heat. For about five minutes, I tore through the snow like a madman. Unfortunately, no matter how desperately I searched, Kalain was nowhere to be found. “Arghhhh!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, but my vision began to blur. I hadn’t fully recovered in the sanctuary, and the crushing fatigue from before descended upon me once again. Realizing that I was at my limit, I had no choice but to return to the sanctuary. By the time I reached it, even the sanctuary had been buried under fresh snow. Collapsing onto the snowbank, I used my hands to dig, but my strength was nearly gone. My hands had grown stone-like and numb, refusing to move as I willed them. With no other option, I used my jaw to scrape at the snow, my teeth chattering violently despite my utter determination. Darkness began to creep into the edges of my vision. No. If I lose consciousness now, I am as good as dead. Summoning every ounce of strength I had left, I clawed at the snow one final time. At last, the snow gave way, crumbling to reveal the sanctuary’s radiant light. The shimmering glow filled my vision as the last thread of my consciousness unraveled. [Reach your destination. Time remaining: 2 hours 19 minutes.] Emerging from the void of unconsciousness, I somehow felt both warm and cold, the sensations coexisting in an odd state. Warmth bathed the front of my body, while my back remained chilled to the bone. The weird contrast stirred me awake, and I opened my eyes. The sanctuary’s light glimmered before me, but everything beyond it was steeped in darkness. It felt as though I had somehow ended up in a small, enclosed space. My body felt sluggish, almost immobile. When I attempted to sit up, chunks of snow tumbled off me. Images began to flash in my mind. Ah. I collapsed face down. Judging by the lingering cold against my back, snow had piled on top of me. A chill ran through me. If I had fallen face-up instead, the snow could have suffocated me. I bolted upright, and snow cascaded from my back and legs. The sudden brightness outside forced me to squint as I adjusted to the light. Despite my rest, the blizzard raged on, and the wind clawed at my cheeks. Checking the time, I realized I had been unconscious for nearly three hours. Yet, despite the heavy snowfall, a short dig had already been enough for me to go above ground. With how much snow had fallen, the drifts should have been at least twenty meters high by now. The snow seems to settle at a consistent depth. Turning toward the direction Kalain had disappeared, I scanned the ground. The vast expanse of white stretched out endlessly, devoid of any trace of him. Searching for him again wouldn’t be productive. I had checked thoroughly before falling unconscious. Moreover, if Kalain had fallen and rolled downhill, he wouldn’t have survived being buried under the snow. Searching for his body would only mean throwing away my own life. That didn’t mean I hadn’t grown attached to him, however. A feeling of sympathy welled up inside of me, but I couldn’t sacrifice myself for such slim odds. Reaching the summit was what mattered. Two hours remained. After nearly three hours of rest at the sanctuary, my strength had fully returned. Without the harsh environmental conditions, I could have reached the summit in twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the cold and hallucinations would undoubtedly slow me down. There was no time to waste. Tightening my robe, I pressed forward. I took the first step outside the sanctuary. As soon as I moved, the bone-chilling cold and vivid hallucinations surged back. I clenched my teeth, bracing myself against the onslaught. Kalain, who had promised to remember me, was gone now. It was my turn to remember him. To do that, however, I had to conquer this trial. He had mistaken me for an assistant, but still promised to avenge me and destroy the tower. Though we had known each other for less than a day, the harsh circumstances had forged a bond between us. Adversity has a way of deepening connections. Even beyond that, though, Kalain had been a good man. I understood his pain and his devotion to his goal. Now, it was my turn to carry his will forward. I would dismantle the Tower of Ordeal and brutally destroy every god. A strange feeling of dissonance disrupted my thoughts. The moment I became aware of it, Kalain’s purpose—his very resolve—began to dissolve, fading from my mind like a forgotten dream. Why did I feel so angry? No matter how close we had grown, destroying the tower and eradicating all the gods wasn’t something I agreed with. Not unless they were unquestionably evil. It felt as if I had been put under some sort of hypnosis. Is the psychological pressure of the fifty-second floor influencing my thoughts to this extent? I had to avoid letting my mind wander. Although, I had heard others state that focusing on not doing something often led to the opposite effect, so who knew how effective that would be. For now, I felt fine. I had things to distract me. The snowflakes brushing against my skin and the biting wind seeping through my robe, for example. [Reach your destination. Time remaining: 1 hour 23 minutes.] Another fifty minutes have passed. Compared to the entirety of my life, it was an incredibly brief moment. Yet, it had been one of the most grueling spans of my life. The trial had only grown harsher with Kalain’s disappearance. Despite that, I had finally reached the summit. Having endured this arduous journey, I felt a flicker of pride for what I had done. I had worried there would be some sort of cliff or insurmountable barrier near the peak, but thankfully, there wasn’t. At the end of the uphill path, only the radiant glow streaming down from the heavens greeted me. I exhaled heavily, as if releasing all the hardships I had endured, and took a step into the column of light. The brilliance engulfed me, making me feel as though my body had become part of the radiant pillar itself. In an instant, all my accumulated fatigue disappeared, and my reserves of stamina were restored. Is this like an upgraded sanctuary? As the thought crossed my mind, a notification appeared. [Congratulations. Climber Kwon Su-Hyeok has conquered the fifty-second floor of the Tower of Ordeal: Penance. Achievement points will now be calculated.] [Time remaining: 1 hour 22 minutes. Sanctuaries discovered: 7. By discovering every sanctuary, Challenger Kwown Su-Hyeok has completed the hidden mission, ‘The Guide.’] So, discovering all seven sanctuaries had completed a hidden mission. I had suspected as much, due to their hidden nature. [As a reward, Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has been granted the authority to create a shadow for the hidden mission, ‘Companionship, the Phantom of the Predecessor.’] Huh? I can create something for a hidden mission as a reward? It caught me off guard. I had never received the right to change a hidden mission as part of a reward before. Also, what is this about companionship and a phantom? Before I could fully grasp the situation, the message updated itself. [Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok may create an illusion to guide future challengers on their path to Penance.] [The illusion will grant a ‘cooperation’ buff to the next challenger, aiding them in their journey.] For a moment, I struggled to wrap my head around the concept. [Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok may imbue the illusion with his will, allowing him to convey a message to the next challenger.] [Through the psychological pressure and hallucinations, his intended message will gradually imprint itself on the subconscious of the next challenger.] [Once the next challenger discovers all seven sanctuaries, the illusion will vanish.] [You may also choose not to create an illusion.] By the time I finished reading the messages, I finally understood the truth. It felt like someone had struck me hard across the back of my head. The Kalain I had interacted with hadn’t been a climber from another tower—well, not one that operated now, at least—he had simply been an illusion of one long gone. Instantly, the emotions I had felt while climbing the mountain with him seemed utterly hollow. I even felt a twinge of betrayal. Even though it had been born from a misunderstanding, his anger on my behalf and his promise of salvation had resonated deeply with me. Of course, Kalain’s experiences and the words he had spoken to me were likely real. That anger couldn’t have been fabricated. If the real Kalain had been here, he likely would have said the exact same things. The purpose behind the illusion felt insidious, however. He had intended to imprint his goal of destroying the tower and the gods into my mind. Is that why he tried to stop me from discovering the sanctuaries? Looking back on my journey, there had been some odd moments. His hesitation when I found the first sanctuary and his strange behavior before the last one made sense now. He had probably tried to stop me from finding the final sanctuary because uncovering all seven would reveal the truth to me. So… is he really that god? All the facts seemed to point to it. Kalain had been a challenger like me, though he was undoubtedly an evil one. My thoughts grew tangled. While I could understand Kalain’s motives, his vengeful past, and his hatred, all of it now felt meaningless. What I had thought to be a bond of friendship was nothing more than an illusion, a message he had left behind to coerce me. Considering that, though, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was oppressing other gods in the present day. There was no clear answer. A new notification appeared. [Please set your phantom’s proficiency level and decide whether to share information about the sanctuaries.] [Proficiency levels are divided into three stages: Master, Skilled, and Novice. The intensity of the environment experienced by the phantom will vary depending on the level chosen.] [If Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok chooses to share information about the sanctuaries, the probability of his intended message being imprinted will decrease.] After a moment of contemplation, I opened my mouth.