A Maliciously Designed Setup
The final task of successfully conquering the World Tree with a single person had been to reach the top of the World Tree.
If merely passing the trials within this enormous egg-shaped space and reaching the door on the ceiling while surrounded by countless Guardian Knights counted as success, then Luo Zhen had indeed accomplished it—he had accomplished something that was almost impossible.
If word of this got out, it would surely shock every player in ALO, and astonish even the game operators.
In theory, after achieving such a feat, even the game operators should have admitted defeat and given Luo Zhen the reward he deserved.
Unfortunately, just as Luo Zhen had said, this quest had been designed with an almost impossible difficulty. In the end, it had not earned Luo Zhen the reward he deserved. Instead, it had only brought him cruel reality.
Ultimately, the game designer had been even more malicious than anyone could have imagined. He would never allow anyone to reach the top of the World Tree and expose his conspiracy.
Therefore...
"The door... didn't open..."
That was precisely what had happened.
Luo Zhen had genuinely touched the door, yet he had neither managed to make it open nor received any kind of system notification. No matter how hard he tried, he could not open it. The cold door had rejected him completely.
What exactly was going on?
Was he missing an item needed to open the door?
Or had the conditions for opening it not been triggered?
Generally speaking, in games set in a Virtual World, there were only two explanations for being unable to open a door successfully.
But the door before him was different.
The reason it had not opened was even more malicious and cruel.
That was...
"According