Bruce climbed up to the first floor and opened a door. An announcement was made as soon as he entered.
"Welcome future champions to the Hell Spire"
"You will battle against other contestants in the arena of each floor with the audience watching your match"
"Submit your faction points by scanning your faction token to the device of each floor"
"Once the faction points have been confirmed, you will be teleported into a random arena on the floor"
"If someone is already waiting for you at the arena, you will have 5 minutes before the match starts"
"If no one is waiting for you at the arena, you will have to wait for a contestant to arrive at your arena"
"You may surrender at any time by telling your opponent that you're forfeiting"
"If you lose then you will be demoted to the previous floor and are subjugated to the floor's requirements"
'Tsk, so someone could technically lose all the way from the 49th floor to the 1st floor'
Bruce walked to the device and scanned his faction token.
[Dear contestant, you currently have 0 faction points. The requirement for the 1st floor is 10,000 faction points]
"I would like to convert my profound energy cubes to faction points"
[Dear contestant, the conversion between profound energy cubes and faction points is 1:100]
Bruce gave the device 100 profound energy cubes while bleeding internally. 10% of his net worth just disappeared.
[Dear contestant, you may now enter the arena]
Bruce walked to the arena just to find his opponent waiting for him. Surprisingly, his opponent was a Mid Stage Divine Emperor expert.
"What a brat like you doing here?" The frail man said after evaluating Bruce's prowess.
"Just shut up and fight me" Bruce didn't want to waste his breath on the opponent.
"The Battle Begins!" The announcement was made and the walls surrounding the arena crumbled down.
Millions of people were in the audience seat watching the fight. Bruce was slightly surprised that many people were watching a fight on the first floor.
"Die brat!" The frail man charged at Bruce with claws in his hand. He didn't even summon his domain because he heavily underestimated Bruce.
Too bad for him, his life was over.
Bruce moved right in front of the frail man and punched his fist through his heart.
The man looked at Bruce in horror as he realized what just happened.
"I hope you won't be this stupid in the next life" Bruce glanced at his opponent one last time before taking his death energy and heading toward the second floor.
The audience was as shocked as the man also because the majority of them betted on the Mid Stage Divine Emperor to defeat a Late Stage Divine King. It was such a simple and straightforward conclusion. Those who jokingly betted on Bruce had their eyes wide open because they just scored the biggest jackpot of their lives.
"HOLY SHIT!!!!"
"I LOVE YOU!!!"
"I'll FOREVER BE YOUR FAN"
The people who luckily betted on Bruce screamed out loud as a new dark horse arrived in the Hell Spire.
Bruce ignored his new fans and walked to the device for his reward.
[Congratulations contestant for passing the first floor, you may choose between 200 profound energy cubes or one random medicinal pill]
"Can I get a Worldly Supreme pill if I pick the random option?" Bruce had his hopes up.
[Dear contestant, the random medicinal pill only goes up to Divine Emperor level, and you have a 1% chance of obtaining such pill]
Bruce frowned upon hearing the possibilities in the random option.
"I'll choose the 200 profound energy cubes"
Bruce obtained the profound energy cubes and traded them for faction points. He intended to keep climbing up the Hell Spire until he runs out of resources.
When he reached the 4th floor, no one was in the arena. It took about five days for someone to appear in front of him. Bruce was in such a bad mood due to waiting that long that he obliterated his enemy instantly.
Bruce heavily underestimated the number of people who want to attempt Hell Spire in the Nether Realm. Not only do the contestants need to be powerful and talented, but they would also need to be extremely wealthy.
For most beings in the Nether Realm, having tens of profound energy cubes is already a lifetime of fortune before inevitably dying someone.
Nevertheless, as Bruce climbed Hell Spire, his opponents got more powerful and vicious. He nearly died a couple of times by his opponent due to his carelessness. Bruce's battle senses sharpened tremendously through the battles in hell itself.
3 months later…
Contrary to his expectation of reaching the 19th floor before calling it quits, Bruce only arrived at the 10th floor after 3 months.
His eyes became more deranged than ever as he thought about his journey. Not only did he have to wait for eternity for someone to show up, but he also had to fight endlessly against his opponent with his life on the line.
Thankfully, the strongest opponent that Bruce faced thus far was a High Stage Divine Emperor. Bruce had nearly died under her hands, but he managed to get the upper hand due to his abnormally powerful soul.
"Congratulations contestant, you have reached the 10th floor of Hell Spire"
"Please enter the arena and wait for your opponents"
Bruce sighed and made his way to the center of the arena. As luck would have it, no one was there.
'If I have to wait 3 months for an opponent, I'm going to kill myself!' Bruce angrily sat down and silently cultivated.
Contrary to his expectations, his opponents had already appeared.
Bruce couldn't believe what was in front of him, he almost wanted to forfeit at that moment.
100 puppets with High Stage Divine Emperor cultivations!
Such a force would be enough to cause shockwaves in his world. Yet, they were in front of him as the guardians of the 10th floor.
'This is bull shit, I want a refund you motherfucker!' Bruce cursed the creator of Hell Spire for creating the impossible trial.
Bruce's brain wanted to give up, but his heart said no.
Why would his heart say no? It's because he already submitted 1000 profound energy cubes to attempt this floor. Due to his inherent stingy nature, he almost coughed up all his blood when he turned in the requirement.
Forfeiting was not an option for Bruce because that meant he would have to spend more money to get back to this floor.
Bruce activated Heavenly Stars and Dragon Ascend. The only tactic he could use was to destroy the puppets as fast as possible and hope for the best.
"Battle Start!" The announcement was made.
The walls crumbled once again with Bruce's fan club cheering him on. Some had even put their entire life savings to bet on Bruce. The dark horse has not failed them this far and they would not bet on anyone else but him.
"Stars Annihilation"
Bruce threw his strongest attack at the enemies in hope that the majority of them would perish under the attack. Unfortunately for him, the puppets were much smarter than he expected because they crafted an impenetrable shield to guard against his attack.
After the attack was over, the puppets began to pile on him with killing intents. Thankfully, the puppets did not use any techniques but just raw strength to destroy him.
Bruce had improved his battle techniques tremendously over the past three months. Thus, he was able to dodge most of their attacks and took out some puppets in the meantime. However, his stamina was not permanent, and he could not physically beat down each puppet.
"Soul Seeker!"
Bruce sent out a powerful soul attack to the puppets hoping that they would be stopped. But the puppets kept on attacking, Bruce didn't know that these puppets had no souls, to begin with, and only instinctively fighting him.
The puppets began to land attacks on him endlessly. The end was nowhere in sight and Bruce's fan club began to waiver their faith in him.
Even when he conjured runes to provide assistance in the battle, they were useless.
'This can't be the end'
'I still have 60 more puppets to destroy' Bruce panted heavily as he dodged the puppets' attacks. The sense of doom spread over his entire body. For the second time in the Nether Realm, he will experience defeat.
'Fuck no!'
'I am Bruce Stellae"
"I will never be bested by fucking puppets!"
"You assholes are asking for it" Bruce retracted all of his techniques and looked at the puppets with dead cold eyes.
"World Breaker"