The Throne Room, City of Gods.

The twelfth Godly Hour had passed.

For Sunny, sitting on his Throne, it felt like he had lived a thousand lifetimes in the span of a single afternoon.

His consciousness, which had been moving across the planets of his universe, snapped back into his physical body.

He rolled his shoulders, his robe shifting silently against his body.

"I understand the problem," Sunny whispered, his voice echoing in the silent hall. "It isn't hunger. It isn't war. It isn't even the demons... not yet."

"The problem is Distance."

He looked at the subspace universe, where he had spent more than a century.

It was a majestic universe of 6 Billion Worlds. From a macro perspective, it looked like a unified empire. A single color. A single banner.

But when he zoomed in, the illusion of unity shattered.

Planetary Isolation.

A specialized Orc Smith on the world of Gorlak might forge the sharpest blades in his world, but he would never meet the Elven Enchanter on Sylvar who could imbue that blade with magic.

Why? Because Gorlak and Sylvar were separated by four hundred light-years.

Even with the magitech spaceships developed by the humans, such a journey would take centuries.

"Thea connects them digitally," Sunny mused. "They can chat. They can trade information. But a chat room is not a civilization."

"A civilization is built on handshakes. On shared meals. On bleeding together in the mud."

Sunny drummed his fingers on the armrest. He could solve this instantly. He was the Emperor. He could snap his fingers and manifest a permanent portal Gate on every single planet, linking them all into a convenient network.

Or he could gift every civilization with SS-Grade Void Ships capable of folding space, turning a century-long trip into a weekend cruise.

"No," Sunny shook his head, rejecting the easy path.

"If I give them portals, they will stop building ships. If I give them Void Engines, they will stop studying physics."

"A bird that is carried everywhere eventually forgets how to fly."

He needed a solution that bridged the gap without killing the spirit of exploration. He needed a catalyst.

Something that would force the races to interact, compete, and evolve, while still leaving the vast emptiness of space as a challenge for their engineers to conquer later.

He thought of Veylara, the World Tree. Eventually, her roots would pierce the void and connect the worlds physically, creating a 'World Bridge.' But Veylara was still young. That process would take millennia.

Sunny didn't have millennia. The Demon Lords were knocking on the door.

He closed his eyes, activating his Divine Intuition, children of wisdom and Divine Comprehension.

His mind, once that of a simple human, was now a quantum supercomputer processing possibilities at the speed of light. He simulated millions of scenarios.

He thought of portals, dreamworld, realm of advancement but everything felt unusable for this.

"I need a physical space," Sunny decided. "A neutral ground. A place where gravity, atmosphere, and mana are standardized. A place where a slime from a water world can fight alongside a dwarf from a lava world."

And then, the image formed in his mind.

It wasn't a world. It was a Spire.

"A Tower," Sunny whispered, a smile touching his lips beneath the mask. "A classic, brutal, magnificent Tower."

The blueprint unfolded in his mind with terrifying clarity.

He wouldn't build a separate tower on every planet. That would be redundant.

He would build One Tower. The True Tower.

It would be a megastructure of incomprehensible size, located at the exact gravitational center of his Subspace Universe.

On every one of the 6 billion worlds, he would manifest a Phantom Gate. A door that stood in the capital city of every civilization.

When a mortal stepped through the gate on their home planet, they would be teleported instantly to the Lobby of the True Tower.

"Integration through adversity," Sunny plotted. "The Tower will have 100 Floors. Each floor will be the size of a universe. Each floor will have a unique ecosystem, unique monsters, and unique resources."

"To climb, they will need diverse skills. An all-warrior party from an Orc world will fail on the Puzzle Floor. An all-mage party from an Elf world will die on the Anti-Magic Floor."

"They will be forced to join," Sunny's eyes gleamed. "They will be forced to mix."

But a playground wasn't enough. A playground bred complacency.

Sunny's expression darkened. He thought of the Nine Lives system. It was his greatest gift to his people, but also his greatest curse. It made them fearless, yes, but it also made them careless.

That's why he wasn't going to allow them to become a undying freak in this tower, he can give them power to respawn endlessly, but he wouldn't.

"If they die in the Tower, they will respawn outside. Then they will laugh. And try again tomorrow."

"No," Sunny decided coldly. "That will not do. The Tower is not a game. It is a crucible."

He made a decision that would send shivers down the spine of every being in his empire.

Inside the Tower, the Nine Lives would still function. If an adventurer died, they would lose a life and resurrect on the previous floor.

But...

If they burned through all of their remaining lives inside the Tower... they would die.

Permanently.

No respawn. No soul retrieval.

Their existence would end.

"Cruel?" Sunny asked the empty room. "Perhaps. But without the threat of oblivion, there is no true evolution. Fear is the hammer that forges the strongest steel."

"If they want the treasures of the 100th Floor... they must risk their existence."

This risk would prevent boredom. It would stop the immortals from going insane with apathy. It would give them a purpose: To Conquer the Unconquerable.

"Now," Sunny stood up, his robe flowing behind him like a nebula. "I have the blueprint. I have the rules. Now I need the materials."

He looked up at the ceiling of the Throne Room, peering through the subspace into the void of his universe.

"Thea," Sunny commanded.

[Yes, Master?]

"Let's do this together"

[Awaiting orders Master.]

Sunny raised his hands, and his mana flared, causing the entire City of Gods to tremble.

"I want you to manifest land," Sunny ordered. "Not a planet. I want you to manifest a flat land, condense the ambient mana from the multiverse, and forge a structure."

"With base diameter that spreads more than a few hundred light year."

"With height so high that even the demigods wouldn't be able to see the top of it."

[Calculating resource cost... Master, this will require 40% of the mana reserves of the Subspace Universe and a significant portion of Faith to stabilize the laws within the structure.]

"Do it," Sunny said without hesitation. "Resources are meant to be used."

[As you command Master.]

The Center of the Universe.

In the dead center of the Subspace Universe, where the gravitational pull of hundred of millions of stars canceled each other out, there was only emptiness.

But then, space began to scream.

CRACK.

A tear in reality opened, not leading to another dimension, but acting as a funnel for creation.

Massive chunks of rock, soil, and water began to materialize out of nothingness. They didn't form a sphere. They formed a Platform.

A giant disc of stone, soil, grass solidified in the space.

Then, walls of mana rose from the edges of the disc, stretching upwards for thousands of miles.

Then, a second disc formed on top of the first.

Then a third.

A fourth.

It was happening fast. Thea was using the omnipotent processing power of the System and the SS-Grade Manifestation Affinity to manifest everything into existence.

Floor 1 was a lush jungle teeming with basic beasts, designed for those with F to E grade strength.

Floor 10 was a frozen wasteland of ice drakes, designed for those with D-Grade strength.

Floor 50 was a twisted realm of thousand mazes.

Up and up it went, a needle piercing the heart of the cosmos.

As the structure grew, it began to emit a blinding white light. It was so massive, so infused with divine power, that it became a new celestial object.

On the planets in the universe, astronomers looked up in shock as a new "star" appeared in the night sky, a vertical line of light that bisected the constellations.

On the world of Zir, the elves stopped whatever they were doing, their ears twitching at the sudden shift in the universe.

On the dark world of Nyx, the Dark Elves saw a faint, white pillar in the eternal blackness of space, a beacon calling to them.

[System Announcement: Imperial Decree]

The voice of Thea rang out in the minds of every single sentient being across the 6 billion worlds.

[The Emperor has witnessed your isolation.]

[The Emperor has witnessed your stagnation.]

[To bridge the stars, the Tower of Eternity has been forged.]

[100 Floors. Infinite Glory. Real Death.]

[The Gates will open in 24 Hours. Prepare yourselves.]

Back in the Throne Room, Sunny lowered his hands. He felt drained, but satisfied.

"Let them look up," Sunny whispered, staring at the projection of the colossus he had just birthed. "Let them climb. Let them die. And let the survivors become the army that will crush all the Demon."

"The tutorial is over."

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