Curving his middle finger, the Suffocation Blade sprang out in response, and Feng Xue finally confird that this thing hadn’t been swallowed up due to the completion of the trial. Only then did he feel relieved and began to take a closer look at his surroundings.
At that mont, he found himself in a dim room that resembled a stairwell. The tall door behind him must be the entrance, but ahead, there was an ancient wooden door about three ters high. Beside him was a staircase spiraling upward like DNA, apparently representing the path to higher floors.
Yet for so reason, Feng Xue couldn’t shake the feeling that the room wasn’t quite real, more akin to the login space described in ga novels.
"The previous trial space must also have been sothing akin to an illusion realm, just more realistic," Feng Xue surmised in his heart. He no longer harbored the idea of fighting all ten guards again, instead planning to explore the first level first.
With that thought in mind, he stepped forward, reached for the handle at the entrance, and as the handle turned, a rule erged along with it:
"Within the Tower of Babylon, all acts of violence are forbidden, except within apartnts’ practice rooms and challenge spaces."
"Click."
As the ssage registered and the sound of the unlocking door resounded, the scenery in front of Feng Xue’s eyes suddenly changed. The sowhat dim stairwell darkened completely, but the soft moonlight from the vault of the sky gave him an incredibly surreal sensation.
It was supposed to be the so-called "first level", yet it seed more like a high-end villa neighborhood.
A flagstone path extended ahead, flanked by lush lawns and a variety of precious ornantal plants. Each villa sat within beautifully decorated courtyards, and here and there were functional buildings with effects similar to those in the residential areas.
Compared to the Tower of Babylon’s exterior neighborhoods, this place appeared even more luxurious. Following the path, Feng Xue arrived at a fountain plaza, where the tallest building on the first level—a departnt store about twenty ters high—was located.
Unfortunately, having only the right of passage, Feng Xue wasn’t entitled to enter the departnt store—let alone the store, he didn’t even have the right to use the automatic vending machines by the road.
However, through the identification ability of the Golden Finger, Feng Xue discovered that the drinks sold in the street’s vending machines were all phantasmal objects. Though consumable, their effects were rely "drinkable," "tasty," and "making one feel cheerful," but those were, after all, phantasmal objects.
According to the information imparted by the Tower of Babylon, Feng Xue understood that the so-called right of passage, besides walking on the streets, only allowed him to knock on villa doors and issue a challenge to the hoowners—of course, if invited, he could still visit the hoowner’s residence.
As for the absence of hoowners ... that was not a concern. Gaining the Residence Right also ca with a reversed "Current World Rule" which stated, "When faced with a challenge for the Residence Right, descend into the Tower of Babylon residence"; refusal to descend was considered a forfeit.
Then again, whether the villas or the functional facilities on this level, they were all designed according to standard human size. It left Feng Xue wondering if those giants among the Kaidan and other large creatures would encounter any movent difficulties upon entering.
No sooner had this thought arisen than a strand of information appeared in his mind. Only then did Feng Xue realize that the Tower of Babylon itself was probably a Companion Phantom Object of the Infinite City—
Any creature that entered this tower, be it Infinite, Kaidan, or those from the real world, would be adjusted to a standard human size.
However, this adjustnt applied only within Infinite City, aning that if one were to travel to the real world through Current World Rules or so other ans, one would revert to their original size.
...
After spending so ti touring the first floor, Feng Xue discovered three villas with "Room for Rent" signs hanging at their doorways, which piqued his curiosity. After all, a landlord who had obtained the right of residence within Tower of Babel hardly seed the type to lack funds, let alone offer a price that was only a tenth of that in the outside world. This made him wonder whether these landlords had ulterior motives.
"Could this ulterior motive be related to Old Li’s contract, with its clause ’live in the house for a year’?" Feng Xue pondered but noticed that as his "nocturnal" activities progressed, the number of people on the streets steadily increased, many of whom were eagerly knocking on doors to issue challenges.
Initiating a challenge against the landlord did not require any superfluous communication. Once a challenger issued a challenge, a Challenge Space would unfold; no one knew what happened within, only observing challengers leave with heads hung low, or sotis, only the challenged erging alone.
Unable to engage in combat within the community, Feng Xue removed his filters, studying the landlords’ features one by one. Although challengers were given a preparation period to change equipnt when challenging the guardians, given the scarcity and limitations of Storage equipnt, Feng Xue believed that one could still discern sothing from the configuration of their equipnt.
The only regret was that using the Identification function of Golden Finger on landlords and other challengers also seed to be judged as a "violent" act, so Feng Xue could not visually discern other people’s equipnt and abilities directly. Fortunately, Feng Xue’s [Demon] label ca with an elent of [Greed], allowing him, through intuition, to confirm the most valuable Item on soone else.
Through such judgnts, Feng Xue could roughly determine which equipnt was more likely to be the target’s trump card.
For example, a red-haired lady seed to be wielding a large sword, but Feng Xue’s elent of Greed could tell that her platform boots were actually more valuable, and as for that formidable-looking Great Sword... pah! It wasn’t even worth as much as Fatty Tongue Toffee!
Continuing his scan, Feng Xue’s eyes suddenly lit up. He saw a handso older man dressed in a cowboy outfit, and according to his Greed intuition, Feng Xue was convinced that the revolver on the man’s waist was his most valuable phantom object.
"An Arican quickdraw, huh? Isn’t that convenient?" Feng Xue’s face took on a sowhat twisted smile, which was entirely masked by his Oathkeeper’s Appearance.
Motivated by the thought "first find soone who looks beatable to test the waters," Feng Xue approached the villa, which had a pioneering style of decor, and spoke to the hoowner sitting at the entrance drinking beer, in a silent and icy tone:
"I co, to challenge."
His chilling aura and dangerous attire made Feng Xue appear like a ghost wandering in the midnight, but unknown to anyone, inside, he was fervently praying that the other party would not use the reject authority.
Upon hearing another challenge, the cowboy seed to show a look of accustod indifference, first downing the beer in his glass with a gulp typical of an uncle character from Japanese manga, before finally standing up and sizing up Feng Xue.
Then, Feng Xue’s [Heart of Bright Mirror] blessing sensed a hint of scorn.
"I accept the challenge."
As soon as the cowboy’s words fell, everything in front of Feng Xue started to transform. The night sky was replaced by sunlight, and the cobblestone path beneath his feet, along with the lush vegetation around, were supplanted by desert sands.
At the sa ti, a countdown also began to erge in Feng Xue’s mind —
00:04:57
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