CHAPTER 286: THE TOWER SECRETS

His cohost muttered, "It’s quite hard to tell the reason why he was restricted, but I think I have an idea why this is the case."

Doodle leaned closer to the camera. "You’re saying the Tower did that on purpose? Why?"

"Two reasons come to mind," the cohost said, adjusting his glasses. "One: Bryce Parker is too strong. The Tower might be classifying him as a destabilizing factor. Two: there might be a hidden rule — like, maybe guild leaders above a certain rank can’t enter directly."

Doodle’s stream chat went crazy.

TOO STRONG LMAO

tower said ’skill issue’ but in reverse

hidden rule??

so only vice guildmasters go in??

Doodle shook his head. "No, no, no — that second theory doesn’t line up."

"How so?" the cohost asked.

Doodle raised a hand and pointed to the floating ranking board next to their feed.

"Look at the live roster," he said. "Crimson Star’s guildmaster, Lilith Valentine, is already inside. So is Golden Dawn. Even a high cardinal whose strength rivals most guild leaders is present for the Holy Church. If there was a ’no leaders allowed’ rule, we’d see way more people blocked."

The cohost hesitated. "...Fair point."

"So saying ’the Tower doesn’t allow guild leaders in’ is wrong." Doodle jabbed his finger at the camera. "That leaves your first theory."

The cohost sighed. "That he’s too strong?"

"Or," Doodle said, "that he’s flagged."

The atmosphere shifted.

The word flagged had weight.

It meant the System saw something wrong with you.

"Flagged in what sense?" the cohost asked slowly.

"Corruption, contamination, anomaly... pick your favorite term," Doodle replied. "The Tower runs its own checks. If it thinks someone will break its balance, it keeps them out. But don’t take my word to heart, chat — this is just a theory. It could be that he’s simply too strong. You never know."

The chat exploded once again.

BRYCE CORRUPTED??

White Flame hiding something.

maybe he used a forbidden artifact

maybe he has a demon contract

maybe it’s BUG stop overthinking

nah Tower doesn’t ’bug’ on big events

Speculation spread from the stream into RealmHub.

---

[THREAD #24 — WHY CAN’T BRYCE ENTER?]

ShadowTank: This is big. You don’t get hard denied by the System for nothing.

DungeonLawyer: Calm down. Could just be a compatibility issue with the Tower. Maybe his class trait clashes with the Blood-type rules.

ArcMage44: All jokes aside, one thing is clear — the Tower is judging people individually.

FrostPriest: Meanwhile, Sir Broken got a PRIVATE GATE and waltzed in.

KillerKoala: Tower likes broken men more than holy men confirmed.

---

Back inside the Tower

The next two floors passed in a blur.

Floor 9 had been a trap-heavy corridor with vampiric constructs and rotating blades. Sophie’s Silver Bell Barrier and Anna’s scouting prevented disasters.

Floor 10 was a small outer courtyard — the first visible section of the vampire castle from within. Gargoyle-like blood statues attacked from the walls, while weaker vampires rained spells from above.

Broken Dawn wiped them out with coordinated turrets, Sophie’s control, and Samantha’s undead forces.

By the time they finished, everyone was sweating lightly.

"Camp here," Gabriel said after sweeping his gaze over his guildmates, who were clearly exhausted — especially the players. They needed rest before they could perform at their best.

If they were drained, even his strength wouldn’t be enough to carry them; they’d become a burden, and that was something he wanted to avoid.

They found a relatively safe corner of the Floor 10 courtyard, shielded by crumbled walls and broken statues. It wasn’t perfectly secure, but it was far better than camping in a hallway.

"Are we stopping long?" Sophie asked, gulping down a low-tier mana regeneration potion. The liquid made a strange but pleasant sound as her throat moved up and down.

"Long enough," Gabriel replied. "After the tenth floor, things become significantly more difficult. I want everyone to go in with full stamina."

Ragnarok dropped down and stretched. "Finally... my legs hurt."

"You’ve done nothing but swing your sword and shout," Anna said dryly.

"Exactly," he said. "That’s tiring too."

Bunny, whose attention was fixed on the forum feed, soon spoke up.

"We made it to Floor 10 in good time. Olympus and Martial Palace are already on 12. The Adventurer Guild’s on 11. We’re top five pace-wise."

"Good." Gabriel nodded. He had told Bunny not to stream for now. She had been slightly confused about how he knew what was happening outside, but probably assumed one of the players had informed him.

"Any news on the outside?" he asked.

"Aside from Bryce being locked out? The forums are smoking. Half the people are cheering, half are panicking."

Bryce Park unable to enter? When he heard that, a frown appeared on Gabriel’s face.

In his past life, none of the top guild leaders had entered the castle. But as he feared, there were changes in this timeline.

This time around, all the guild leaders had shown interest in the Tower. He had heard rumors and was subconsciously watching out for them.

The first thing that came to Gabriel’s mind was —

’Could it be that the Tower has a level restriction mechanism?’

Gabriel decided to observe more before coming to any conclusions. For now, there was something else he wanted to test.

He opened his inventory and brought out one of the bloody orbs he had obtained on Floor 7.

[Memory fragment orb]

[Description : Absorb condensed racial fragments. Grants temporary insight into the tower. Side Effect: User falls into a forced sleep state for 30–60 minutes while body and mind synchronize. ]

"This thing," Gabriel muttered, rolling it in his hand. "If I use it now, I can get more detailed information about the floor’s enemy layouts — maybe even the Tower Boss’s abilities."

Sophie’s eyes widened, along with the others, as they realized that this crystal might just give them an edge over the competition.

"I’ll be unconscious for a while," Gabriel said casually. "Thirty minutes at best, so don’t panic."

Ragnarok stared, eyes wide. "You’re going to pass out in the middle of the Tower?"

"That’s why we’re camping," he said. "Better I do it here than mid-fight."

Furthermore, it was something he needed to do as soon as possible. It would help in the long run — doing it after the event would be pointless.

Cassie looked concerned. "If we get ambushed while you’re out..."

"I’m sure you people can handle it," he said flatly.

That shut everyone up.

Samantha smiled slightly at his phrasing but said nothing.

He wasn’t wrong — they could hold.

He lifted the orb.

"Protect me until I wake up," he said. "If anything feels wrong, pull back to the stairs. Don’t try to be heroes."

"Understood," they replied in unison.

Gabriel crushed the orb.

It dissolved into red light and flowed into his chest.

Then he closed his eyes.

And his consciousness slipped.