Following Prince Vedan, Axir passed through the tight security in the palace, moved through the underground passage, and arrived in a large underground cavern.
In this cavern was a mysterious dried tree with a trunk that expanded into a strange portal.
"I'm adjusting the portal so that once you enter, you will directly arrive in the deepest area of the ancient ground."
Prince Vedan took out a medallion and did something with it before putting it into a slot on the trunk.
The portal flickered a bit, and then Prince Vedan took back the medallion.
"Alright, you may enter now. Good luck. I am expecting a good result, haha."
"Of course, as am I." Axir chuckled as he walked toward the portal and entered without hesitation.
The moment Axir stepped through the portal, pain struck.
Not his body.
His mind.
A sun filled his vision instantly. It was impossibly close, vast beyond comprehension, its surface layered with shifting patterns that refused to stay still. Looking at it for even a moment sent needles of agony straight into his skull.
Axir staggered and dropped to one knee.
His body felt fine. His breathing was steady. His vitality remained unchanged.
But inside his head, it felt as if something was tightening a vice around his consciousness.
The land around him revealed itself in fragments. A scorched world of cracked golden stone and fossilized infernos. Vast ruins half-buried in radiant ash. Pillars melted into the ground as if they had once tried to flee and failed. Everything radiated meaning, not heat.
The pain intensified.
It was sharp, invasive, and deliberate. Every thought he tried to form felt like it was being scraped raw before it could finish. His memories surfaced without permission, examined, compressed, and discarded in pieces.
Axir clenched his teeth and forced himself upright.
"So this is the ancient ground…"
The moment he acknowledged it, the pressure doubled.
A scream built in his head, not from fear, but from overload. Knowledge poured into him violently. Suns devouring worlds. Worlds feed greater stars. Civilizations burning themselves willingly to sustain something higher. Purpose refined through annihilation.
His vision blurred. His thoughts stuttered.
Pain tore through his consciousness like lightning, making him gasp and clutch his head. His body did not weaken, but his sense of self began to shake, cracks forming in places he did not know existed.
He sat down abruptly, cross-legged, gripping the Mysterious Deck tightly.
Endure. Perceive. Remain unbroken.
The pain did not fade.
It became precise.
Every insight arrived with punishment. Every realization carved itself into his mind like molten metal poured into a mold. His consciousness screamed under the weight, instincts begging him to retreat, to shut down, to let go.
Let yourself dissolve.
Let yourself become fuel.
That suggestion was not spoken, yet it was unmistakable.
Embrace the ultimate truth.
Embrace the immorality by accepting the immolation of your self.
Axir's breath turned ragged. His jaw trembled. Blood seeped from the corner of his eye, not from injury, but from sheer mental strain.
The trial was shattering him, wanting to kill him. If he died here, he would lose the chance to manifest the deck.
The sun's presence pressed closer, not physically, but existentially. It was testing whether he would abandon identity to escape pain. Whether he would surrender meaning to survive.
"No…"
"No."
"NO!"
Axir straightened his spine despite the agony.
'I have to endure. I can't fucking become the strongest if I can't endure. I must break my record of staying in the ancient ground because my will is stronger now.'
'If I can't even do that, I'll kill myself.'
Axir's eyes opened and looked at this world with sheer stubbornness and resolve. 'Bring it on.'
The pain spiked violently, as if offended.
His consciousness shook, thoughts shattering and reforming under unbearable pressure. Yet something held. A core of will refused to yield. Each wave of torment passed through him, leaving scars of understanding instead of collapse.
Patterns emerged within the suffering.
He grasped them amid pain.
Golden light bled into his awareness, not soothing, not kind. It burned truths into his perception, branding his mind with concepts too heavy to ever forget.
The Mysterious Deck pulsed in his grasp, his refusal to yield and resolve to take the insights burning through it.
Axir remained seated beneath the impossible sun, his body untouched, his mind screaming, his consciousness bent to the edge of ruin.
But it did not fracture.
In the ancient ground, amid endless ruin and radiance, Axir began to shine the brightest.
…
Time passed.
Selena, Aunt Kira, and others sent messages to Axir, but got no reply, so they continued to complete quests and level up.
More level 10 players also appeared as new entries came into the level leaderboard.
There were tons of newbie villages and millions of people playing, so other newbie villages still had one Elite Dungeon and four normal ones.
Although no others had found the elite dungeon beneath the lake in other newbie village instances, the normal dungeons were found since they were not hidden.
And while many people were playing the game, the world leaders had a meeting an hour ago and made some major decisions.
The main one was the establishment of the Player World Union.
This was a new organization jointly created by all countries of the world to share information about Infinite Break Online.
Due to the scale and absurdity of this phenomenon, world trade was rapidly changing. Many deals were breaking, new deals were being established, and major changes were happening every minute.
One thing was clear: Earth was forever changed today, and the trajectory of the world was going to shift even more drastically due to the fact that all people aged sixteen or above could now become superhumans, wield magical powers, weapons, and exotic items.
The upcoming impact was immense, so major countries like the USA, China, India, Japan, Germany, and others were doing their best to build infrastructure and foundations for the coming changes.
Store and bank robberies were already occurring as low-level players used the basic decks they received to wreak havoc, but this was suppressed quickly as military drones, police, and soldiers were mobilized in cities, creating a deterrent force to suppress emerging chaos.
The day was long, but it passed quickly.
It had been over eleven hours since Infinite Break Online descended.
It was then that Axir finally emerged from the portal, having finished his first deck manifestation after regression.