Origin of the Godkind?

Three minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

With a piercing buzz, the barrier of light vanished instantly.

Just as tense as everyone else, He Zheng stared fixedly at his wristwatch.

He did not care about the earlier clash. Compared to a hell-difficulty death exam, it was not even worth mentioning.

Soon, an invisible pressure erupted overhead, and an icy mechanical voice rang out from everyone's wristwatches at once.

"Exam commencing."

"Question for this round:"

"[Origin of the Godkind]"

"This was once the site of humanity's greatest mistake, yet in this land of despair, life was born as a result."

"First-round exam type: choice"

"Disaster will strike in ten minutes. All examinees must make a choice and survive until the next round."

"Warning: stay away from the danger that appears on basement level one. Contact will result in a 100% fatality rate!"

"Points for this round: 20"

When the announcement ended, He Zheng let out a long breath of relief, then turned to Ye Lin and the others with a sneer.

"Count yourselves lucky. The first round isn't a fight to the death or some ghost or monster. If you ran into something like that, you'd die without even knowing what killed you."

"All right, split up and search upstairs and downstairs. Regroup in one minute. If you find anything, use your wristwatch to tell us! Those things work no matter what!"

"If you don't have any ideas, do as I say!"

Pointing at the enormous metal door upstairs, which had turned blue, He Zheng indicated that he would check it out himself.

"I... we don't have any ideas. You've got the most experience, He Zheng, but I think we should keep our distance from that door on basement level one."

Among the six of them, a scrawny young man tried to ingratiate himself with He Zheng.

Unlike the others, who were somewhat afraid of He Zheng, he had thought it over and decided that sticking with him offered the best chance of survival.

"Kid, what do you think?"

Not bothering with the skinny runt who had sidled up beside him, He Zheng only wanted Ye Lin's opinion.

Ye Lin quickly finished reading the information and looked around.

"Going by those three points-humanity's mistake, the birth of new life, and staying away from basement level one..."

"We're probably in some underground base where someone created a monster. The danger behind the door comes from something artificial. So staying away from downstairs makes sense."

"But..."

Ye Lin frowned and looked at He Zheng.

"If we factor in Origin of the Godkind, could the monster be an artificial 'god'?"

"Are you sure we can beat a 'god'?"

Unable to imagine what an artificial god might be, Ye Lin found the question rather unsettling.

Especially since he had noticed that He Zheng barely reacted. Unless the man was an idiot, he could not possibly be that unconcerned.

At those words, everyone grew tense. They stared at the door hidden in the darkness, a wave of unease washing over them.

It felt as though something might burst out at any moment and tear them to pieces.

Sure enough, after hearing Ye Lin's thoughts, He Zheng remained unconcerned.

"Not bad, kid. Pretty much what I was thinking."

"But you don't need to be scared. This is your first exam. There's no way you'll run into that thing. My guess is that the question just wants us to escape."

"Fuck, I hate these puzzle-solving ones. Guess wrong, and you won't even know what killed you."

After speaking, He Zheng looked at the panicking group and could not help sneering.

That was what he said, but even if all they had to do was escape, few of these rookies would make it out alive.

Ye Lin nodded. There was too little information for him to draw any further conclusions.

But since He Zheng thought it was manageable, he would tentatively assume the challenge was figuring out how to escape.

"All right, I'll go downstairs and take a look."

He Zheng froze when he saw that Ye Lin was heading downstairs.

He had intended to force a few people to go down, only for Ye Lin to volunteer.

Still...

That worked too. It saved him a lot of trouble.

"Fine. Be careful. If..."

"Forget it."

He stopped halfway through, not bothering to give any further instructions.

The kid was no idiot. As long as he did not open the door, he should be fine.

If there were clues down there, it would be stupid not to look.

Soon, the group split into two teams. After some hesitation, four of them followed He Zheng, leaving only a large, dark-skinned man standing where he was.

After a while, seeing that Ye Lin had already gone downstairs, the big, dark-skinned man gritted his teeth and ran after him.

"Hey, Ye Lin! Wait for me! I'm Zhang Tie, and I'm coming with you!"

Zhang Tie was a tall, burly man from the northeast. At a full 1.97 meters, he stood like an iron tower.

Standing before the metal door on basement level one, Ye Lin carefully examined its surface by the faint light behind him.

He waved Zhang Tie aside and asked casually.

"Why did you follow me down here? Aren't you scared?"

The entire door was smooth, without any markings. Cold air seeped through its narrow gaps. An iron chain as thick as a finger was wrapped around it.

"I am, but I still feel better sticking with you."

"Besides, you look so skinny. If something happens, I can carry you and run."

Ye Lin was taken aback. Seeing Zhang Tie ready to sling him over his shoulder and flee at any moment left him feeling rather odd.

The big man looked simple-minded, but he was surprisingly considerate.

Their eyes met, and Zhang Tie rubbed his bald head with a chuckle, looking even more simple-minded.

"Ye Lin, this door sure is huge..."

Unable to make anything of it, Zhang Tie tried pushing the door, only to discover that it seemed capable of opening a crack.

In an instant, an indescribably sweet stench hit him in the face, startling him into backing away.

"Holy shit, what's that smell? Why's it both rank and sweet?"

He nearly threw up.

Ye Lin glanced at him, then sniffed carefully without saying anything.

That smell... seems like the stench of corpses...

Four to seven days after a corpse began decomposing and fermenting, it would produce a strong, rank yet sweet odor. The rankness came from cadaverine, while the sweetness came from esterification reactions following the breakdown of fats and proteins.

With the sweetness this strong, the bodies had probably been dead for around two weeks. That was when fat decomposition was greatest and the sweetness peaked, resembling fruit.

Judging by how strong the smell is, there must be quite a few...

A whole stretch of corpses?

Ye Lin straightened, deep in thought.

People had died behind the door, which meant they had wanted to escape upstairs but something had caught up with them. The bodies had been rotting for so long, which meant that whatever had killed them had left without "dealing with" them.

Unable to see how they had died, Ye Lin frowned slightly.

So, had a "god" been chasing them?

He silently filed that away.

Just as he was about to test the chain's strength, a series of urgent beeps came from his wristwatch.

He Zheng?

"Kid! Run!! Sulfuric acid! There's sulfuric acid here!"

"Get upstairs, now! If you don't come now, it'll be too late!"

The words had barely ended when a bloodcurdling scream rang out over the comms, as though someone were having their skin torn off alive.