After Lisa went through the gray door, she found herself suddenly appearing in the middle of a verdant rainforest.
The forest floor was damp with dense undergrowth. The trees were so tall that they appeared to pierce through the clouds. A faint mist lingered in the air, bringing with it the scent of earth after a heavy rainfall.
Everything appeared to be normal, except there weren't any sounds of animals or insects around. It was difficult to believe that such a lush forest wouldn't have any lifeforms in it.
Realizing this, Lisa's expression turned grim.
As she looked around, anxiety slowly gripping her heart, her gaze suddenly landed on an old, decrepit structure in the distance.
In the heart of this seemingly uncharted rainforest, lay an ancient temple.
Its walls had been deeply touched by the ravages of time. A mysterious aura surrounded this building, attracting anyone who laid their eyes on it.
Lisa squinted her eyes and muttered incredulously, "What is that?"
Involuntarily, she found herself slowly walking toward that temple. After all, in this rainforest she found herself in, where the silence was eerie and deafening, the temple appeared like a sanctuary to her.
As she got closer to the temple, she could see four towering stone pillars covered in vines, standing like silent guardians around the ancient structure.
The blonde youth couldn't help but become mesmerized by this scene.
But suddenly, her ears perked up and she instantly became alert. In this deathly silent forest, she heard the abrupt sound of rumbling coming from near her.
The next moment, a dozen figures tore through the damp forest floor and arose. They were two meters tall and had humanoid shapes. Their bodies were made entirely of wood.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})One look at them and Lisa instantly understood what she was facing.
"Golems!"
The dozen wooden golems slowly surrounded her, however, they didn't attack her. Not yet. It seemed as if they were trying to prevent her from approaching the temple.
Lisa was certain that the reward that was waiting for her was somewhere inside the temple. Moreover, in order to get there, she would first have to defeat these golems.
The next moment, a simple-looking timber staff appeared in her hands and she got ready for battle.
Then without wasting another moment, she charged at the golem directly in front of her. The moment Lisa entered their attack zone, the golems who had been stationary all this while finally engaged in battle.
…
"Gaaahhh!" The moment Adam walked through the gray gate, he was immediately pressed to the ground.
There were no enemies, however. The gravity was simply abnormally high!
"Damn it!" He found it extremely hard to even move his head around.
With great difficulty, he pushed himself off the ground and was finally able to sit back up. But despite that, he had to put his hands on the ground to support himself from slamming back down again.
He looked around to see that he was currently at the edge of a high cliff. In front of him was a decrepit-looking suspension bridge. Its planks were made of wood that seemed to be on their last breath.
Moreover, the bridge was suspended with ropes on either side of the crossing. Just looking at the state of the bridge made Adam want to turn around and leave the place.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})However, he didn't.
Because just across the bridge, on the other side, was a bronze pedestal atop which an old-looking book was placed. Adam couldn't really make out what exactly the book was, but he knew that this was his reward.
Now the only question was, how would he get to the other side?
The suspension bridge looked like it couldn't be trusted at all. It seemed that it would break apart any moment now. Plus, the increased gravity in this place made it countless times more difficult to get to the other side.
Adam gritted his teeth and screamed, "Are you kidding me?! It's like you want me to fall to my death! How can this even—"
But suddenly, he stopped speaking when the scene in front of him abruptly changed. To be more precise, it was his vision that changed.
Realizing this, the youth was dumbstruck. "What in the world?!"
…
In the depths of his soul, Valerian, who was napping on one of the three round leaves of the white lotus, suddenly opened his eyes to find that the lotus was pulsating ever so slightly.
"Myu?" The young dragon was puzzled. But the next moment it yawned and then went back to sleep.
The white lotus slowly began to rotate in Adam's spirit sea, allowing him to see through the false reality that he found himself in.
…
"It was an illusion?" Adam grunted in discomfort.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})The suspension bridge, the clouds and the blue sky, the cliffs, everything dissipated into nothingness. Everything except the bronze pedestal and the book on top of it. Instead, he found himself in a large, dimly lit hall.
However, the increased gravity in this place was still present!
"What the hell is this damn place!" The youth struggled to get the words out. The gravity was really doing a number on him.
He took deep breaths to calm down. He got into a comfortable position once again. No matter what position he took, a few minutes later his body would start hurting because of the gravity. So he had to change positions every few minutes.
Adam looked at the bronze pedestal in the distance and then at the spacious hall around him. He couldn't help but break out into a chuckle.
"Hehehe… so that Magus who created this wanted to awe the participants, is that it? That's why he went so far as to incorporate an illusion formation."
In hindsight, that indeed seemed reasonable.
After all, if the Magus who created this secret plane had the power to teleport everyone who entered the House of Cards to different locations far away from each other, wouldn't that mean the Magus was simply too powerful?
Alternatively, having illusion formations in every room of the pyramid would also serve the same purpose.
But that didn't matter. After all, all that truly mattered was the reward in every room.
Adam deeply gazed at the ancient-looking book sitting on the pedestal. "So this is what I desire the most? A book?"
He looked around and continued, "Then there's this gravity increase… How is all of this related—ugh!"
Once again, his joints started to ache and he was forced to change his sitting posture. The next moment, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at the book again.
"So I just have to reach that pedestal and grab that book, huh?" He gritted his teeth and slowly tried to get to his feet.
"Fine! Challenge accep—Ackkk!" However, he was viciously pressed back on the ground. "Damn it!"
