Now we return—briefly—to a moment before regression, just as Wang Ling stood at the apex of the Tower in his first life. He had climbed alone. He had killed gods. He had reached the summit.
And there, at the final gate, the Tower did not grant him ascension.
It showed him something else.
A truth hidden from all others.
Because it feared him not as a threat—
But as a mirror.
📍 [Then — Final Floor: The Gate of Crowns]
Time: Last Cycle
Player: Wang Ling
Status: Floor 100 Cleared
System Class: Regressor Not Yet Applied
Emotional Stability: Void
Spiritual Entropy: Absolute
He stood beneath a sky that wasn't sky.
It was code.
Thousands of golden lines intersected overhead like constellations too old to dream about.
They didn't move.
They watched.
And the gate—taller than mountains, pulsing with starfire—remained sealed.
"You've killed everything," the voice said.
"You've erased all gods. All rival climbers. All paths."
"You are not ascending."
Wang Ling said nothing.
Not at first.
Then:
"Why?"
The Tower hesitated.
It had simulated this conversation 88 million times.
But none of them played out like this one.
Not with him.
"Because what lies beyond this gate is not for you," it said.
"You don't wish to ascend."
"You wish to erase the need for ascension."
Wang Ling stepped closer.
His footsteps glitched the code beneath him.
It refused to render fully where he walked.
The Tower faltered.
He wasn't meant to see this far.
"Let me through," he said.
"I'm done waiting."
"You are already at the top," the Tower whispered.
"And that is the problem."
"You are not climbing to reach anything."
"You are climbing to bring everything down."
And then it showed him—
The past regressors.
All of them.
The broken ones.
The ones who screamed.
The ones who begged to forget.
The ones who prayed that this level was the final level.
And none of them looked like him.
Not in body.
Not in mind.
He was the only one whose face did not tremble in the Tower's mirror.
So it made its decision.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE — CLASS REASSIGNMENT EXECUTED]
⚠️ Ascension Denied
🌀 Regression Granted
"You will go back."
"Not because you failed."
"But because we did."
The last thing he saw before time shattered:
A mirror
— showing no reflection.
Because Wang Ling no longer had one.