Boasting

Section Two: Boasting

The World Tower stood 1,000 floors tall and reset once a week. Within the time limit, all Tower Climbers could choose to end their climb and leave the tower. Once the reset time arrived, everyone's "next floor" became the "first floor."

From this, it followed that anyone who wanted to reach the 1,000th floor had to do so within a single week.

That meant breaking through at least one floor every ten minutes. Otherwise, even if they still had strength left, they would be reset for running out of time.

It could be said that time was the greatest obstacle for Tower Climbers. Otherwise, they could spend years resting after every floor—any dog could climb it.

Of course, for now, the 1,000th floor was still far too distant.

Among the publicly known records, humanity had only ever reached the 700th floor. And Tower Climbers who reached the 700th floor were already no longer truly human.

That rising star painstakingly cultivated by the Tiansheng Group with countless resources had snapped the Tiansheng CEO's neck in front of at least thirty people in the company building. Yet he had brazenly remained there, waiting for the World Guard to come for him.

Everyone could see that avenging his father was merely an excuse the Tower Climber had casually fabricated because he did not want to become enemies with the World Guard.

After returning from the 700th floor, what he wanted was to enjoy peace and prosperity, not war... even though he was not worried that humanity's existing weapons could inflict any fatal harm on him.

Besides, it was practically common knowledge that the Tiansheng CEO loved eating fish, but loved killing chefs even more.

By making up such an excuse, he could also craft a background story that would win the sympathy of those who did not know the truth, helping him quickly take control of the Tiansheng Group.

Then he could bring his parents over and let them enjoy a comfortable life.

An excuse was ultimately just an excuse. He needed one, and so did the outside world.

They could not beat him, so how were they supposed to explain themselves? There had to be some understanding solution.

As for the supposedly murdered father coming back from the dead...

Who cared?

Once a case had been settled, there was no need to dwell on it. Maybe the man had multiple fathers?

Who said a person was only allowed one father?

Anything a man who had returned from the 700th floor did could be understood. For example, at this very moment, he stood in the CEO's office on the top floor of the Tiansheng Group building, frantically smearing something over himself and tilting back his head to gulp something down.

"What the hell is happening?!" His face was twisted and his expression crazed. "My power is declining! How is that possible?!"

He pulled out a small bottle glowing with golden light. He hesitated for a moment, but his concern for his body overcame his reluctance.

Gritting his teeth, he swallowed the golden liquid inside in one gulp. Immediately afterward, his body began to glow gold as well.

Yet this miraculous sight did not lessen his worry in the slightest.

Instead, intense despair appeared on his face.

"Even the Invincibility Potion I obtained from the 700th floor is ineffective?" He stared blankly at the small bottle in his hand as a terrifying possibility surfaced in his mind. "There's no way a low-floor item could override a high-floor one. Someone used an item from above the 700th floor."

"Could someone be higher than me?"

"Impossible! Wang Wen is only on the 699th floor! And I cleared the 700th!"

"I'm the strongest in the world!"

"No!!!"

At 7:10 in the morning, Wang Wen opened his eyes in his own bed. After carefully checking his body once over, he hesitantly relaxed his tightly furrowed brows.

The fatal injuries on his body were gone.

The hellish environment around him was gone too.

The last thing he remembered was his teammates desperately placing the team's most precious treasure, [Reincarnation], onto him.

Did we clear the 929th floor?

Wang Wen raised his hand and looked at the skin, tender as a chick's, feeling a trace of bitterness in his heart—this was his younger self.

It seemed everything had ended.

The World Tower's unique supreme treasure, [Reincarnation], had taken effect, turning back time.

There was no 929th floor.

There was no strongest in the world either.

Yeah.

No one could ever find out that he had returned from the 900th floor.

They would say he was boasting.

He sat up from the bed and carefully surveyed the familiar room.

If he remembered correctly, this was the room that had accompanied him through four years at The Academy.

By that calculation, he had returned to roughly twenty years ago.

Ha.

Rubbing the quilt beside him, Wang Wen's gaze dimmed slightly.

Back to the past?

So many scenes remained vivid in his mind. His teammates had died before his eyes one after another. Could all of that truly be erased?

Out of habit, he searched around for a bottle of liquor.

Only after coming up empty-handed did he remember that twenty years ago, he did not drink.

"Ha."

He laughed at himself, then slapped himself hard across the face. Lowering his head, he slowly exhaled. "If I enter the World Tower again, I'm a dog."

Beep beep beep. A small electronic watch beside his pillow began to sound its alarm.

At the same time, noisy sounds mixed with a loud broadcast came from outside the room.

Clearly, someone had gotten up earlier than him. Or rather, he belonged to the group that had gotten up late.

He picked up the electronic watch, turned off the alarm, and reset it to ring forty-five minutes earlier.

He got up and walked to the mirror by the sink. Looking at the faintly swollen handprint on his face in the Mirror, he nodded.

"This body really is weaker at this stage. I should have been able to knock out half my teeth with that slap."

He glanced at the reading on the water meter, brushed his teeth and washed his face with a weak stream of water, got dressed, and went out.

When he opened the door, a skinny boy was standing outside, seemingly about to knock. Seeing the door "open by itself," he froze in surprise. Then he noticed Wang Wen emerging from inside, along with the several swollen red marks that had not yet faded from his face, and froze even harder.

Wang Wen stared at the somewhat foolish-looking boy before him, his heart filled with complicated emotions.

Because it was this silly, foolish boy who had placed the unique supreme treasure, [Reincarnation], onto him.

"Your face, what happened... mmph!"

The boy could not finish his sentence.

Wang Wen suddenly pulled him into a hug and gave his back a firm pat.

"What are you doing?" The boy looked at the Academy students passing by around them, then broke free from the embrace in embarrassment and anger.

Wang Wen did not care. He pursed his lips and let out a long breath through his nose, smiling as he patted the boy's arm. "Come on, let's eat."

The boy followed Wang Wen toward The Academy cafeteria in complete confusion.

The half hour from 7:15 to 7:45 in the morning was breakfast time. Classes began promptly at 8:00.

The two arrived at the cafeteria, where the dishes were plentiful.

There were vegetables, eggs, steamed buns, and even several small fish!

It seemed that as long as one had money, food was not in short supply.

Wang Wen swiped his student card over the machine. When he saw the five hundred-odd Points displayed on the screen, he was briefly lost in thought.

He could not remember how long it had been since he had seen his Points fall below six figures.

Now, seeing this tiny sum of five hundred, he actually found it rather cute.

"What would you like?"

The cafeteria worker serving food at the counter and the boy beside him, craning his neck to look at the dishes, spoke at the same time.

Wang Wen ordered some vegetables and a bowl of thin porridge. After taking a steamed bun, he picked up a fish under the worker's astonished gaze!

He swiped his card to pay. The total came to 76 Points.

The vegetables cost 3 Points, the porridge 2, the steamed bun 1, and one small fish cost 70 Points.

The skinny boy beside him, who had witnessed everything, was so shocked he nearly ate the wall. He chased after Wang Wen and asked, "What's gotten into you? Fish? It's only the beginning of the month, and you're already done living?"

Wang Wen did not answer. Carrying his tray, he looked around and then asked the cafeteria worker, "Do you have any alcohol?"

The worker's whole body jolted.

He glared at Wang Wen as if he were an idiot, then forcefully struck the metal counter several times with his large serving ladle, making loud clangs as he impatiently shouted, "Next!"

Wang Wen smiled and carried his tray away.

He casually found an empty table and sat down, biting into his steamed bun and drinking porridge while surveying the cafeteria.

The boy hurriedly got some food and sat down. He looked up at Wang Wen several times before finally gathering the courage to say, "I know the Department Chair has a bottle of liquor. If you want to drink, I can steal it for you."

Hearing that, Wang Wen shook his head. He broke the small fish in half and placed the half with the tail onto the boy's tray.

"Hey! I don't even like fish!" The boy curled his lips in disgust, then quickly devoured the fish meat in a few bites, sucking on the bones in his mouth as he muttered, "I mean, it's not wrong to eat better in the morning, but fish is just too extravagant. If you want protein, aren't eggs good enough? If not, there's milk over there too. It's cheaper than fish, right?"

The boy was still rambling.

But Wang Wen's attention had been drawn to the conversation at the next table.

It was a young man and woman.

They looked like classmates with a fairly close relationship.

They sat facing each other, chatting as they ate.

The girl said to the boy, "Honey, did you hear? That senior Li from the third year cleared the 100th floor last week!"

"The 100th floor?" The boy was stunned. "Then he's definitely number one in his year!"

The girl put on an admiring expression. "Yes! That's what a real Tower Climber is! I'm so jealous..."

The boy sounded a little sour. "What's there to be jealous of? The 100th floor? When I'm in my third year, I can do it too!"

"You?" The girl snapped out of her fantasy and turned to look at him.

She looked at him for quite a while.

Then she picked up half an egg from her tray and placed it on his, smiling faintly.

"Yeah, I believe you. Keep it up!"

The boy proudly swallowed the egg in one bite.

Wang Wen withdrew his attention, lowered his head, and took a sip of porridge, deeply moved.

"Youth really is wonderful!"

"They dare to boast about anything."