Devil Fruit Powers In The Tower Of God - Chapter 52

The buildings in that city were made of pristine white metal. All of them were as large as skyscrapers, but the one in the middle of the meteoroid was the largest of them all. It connected both the bottom and top of the astral object and acted as the command center of the meteoroid.

The majority of the population living inside the city were researchers. All of the scientists there were focused on researching only a single subject. Guides and Axises.

The reason they were researching that topic in the meteoroid is that all the divine beings had made a pact to forbid studying them. Since Shinsoo only existed on planets with Guardians, divine beings would find it hard to locate the city within the meteoroid, because there was no Shinsoo for them to hone in on. Due to that, they had a safe environment to study those amazing beings.

Currently, all the residents were in a state of panic and were frantically running around. All of them, except for a lone man dressed in a black cloak, that was slowly making his way towards the building in the middle. Despite a large number of people running around him, no one was able to notice the cloaked man.

The man entered the building and made his way towards the office of Eric, the main researcher, and leader of the city. The man in question was staring at a blue screen that was floating in front of him. Eric was tightly clutching onto his white hair, unable to believe what he is seeing. All of the hard work that they have done over the course of hundreds of years was gone. It was all replaced with just a single word “Dick” that was repeated over and over again.

As Eric was trembling while tears were falling from his eyes, the cloaked man entered the room. “Eric, what happened here?”

The white-haired researcher looked up at the man with lifeless eyes. “Sir Phantaminum, I… I… I don’t know. I don’t understand. Everything is gone. Everything we achieved is all gone.”

“Eric, calm yourself and tell me exactly what happened,” Phantaminum stated in an authoritative voice and sent some type of energy towards the researcher, calming him down.

Eric took a few heavy breaths before looking at Phantaminum with tears in his eyes.

“I’m not sure, Sir, but a few years ago, the entire city had fallen asleep. We have no idea why or how it happened. One of us had woken up a few days ago, and he woke up everyone else afterward.” The only reason the residents of the city had survived for a few years without eating or drinking water, was due to the nanobots that all of them had. The nanobots allowed a person to live without taking any sustenance.

Why would scientists waste their time eating and drinking, when they could spend that valuable time researching? That’s why they have created those nanobots, so they don’t have to waste their time on such mundane chores.

“The entire city had fallen asleep?” Phantaminum questioned. This was obviously the work of a divine being, but he wasn’t sure which one. Knowing what the scientists were researching here, he would have expected that the divine being to have destroyed the whole city, not make everyone fall asleep.

“Yes, Sir. All of our research data on Guides and Axises had also been wiped out and replaced with the word Dick. What are we supposed to do, Sir? They would come to wipe us all soon!” Eric stated while crying.

“They would have already destroyed this place if that was their intention,” Phantaminum replied with a sigh. “What’s done is done. Try to recover the data, but don’t despair about it too much. If you can’t recover the data, just focus on something else and do what you do best, research.”

“I-I understand, Sir. I will do my best.” Eric responded with a dejected look, while Phantaminum left his office.

Phantaminum was the child of two divine beings. Unfortunately, both of his parents had been killed by a group of Gods from one of the largest Empires in the Universe. He wanted to enter the Tower and become a God himself, but that path was blocked when all the divine beings made the pact that forbids anyone from entering it.

Phantaminum had the power to enter the Tower and become a God, despite Zahard and the rest that were sent there. However, should he do that, everyone would turn against him ones he ascends.

With the first part of his plan done, he had to trick a child of two divine beings in entering the Tower. However, it couldn’t be just any two divine beings. It had to be ones that had an incredible amount of influence in the entire Universe, and Urek Mazino was the perfect choice. Urek’s father ruled an Empire as large as the one that the Gods that killed his parents came from. He also was one of the strongest Gods in the entire Universe.

However, Urek was smarter than he looked. Despite having the strength to become a God himself, he didn’t do it and was searching for another way out of the Tower. Thankfully, Urek had already missed out on that opportunity and had only one way to exit the Tower.

Besides Phantaminum, there was only one being that knew of the research happening inside the meteorite, and that was Enryu. He was also the only one that knew how to exit the Tower without becoming a divine being.

Phantaminum let out a sigh, knowing that there is at least one more being that knew of the research in the meteoroid. Thankfully, he had the slightest idea of who that might be. Especially when you consider the immature prank of replacing all the research data with the word Dick.

Phantaminum left the meteorite and made his way towards the center of the Universe, where the Tower was located. He had recently heard about how Loki, one of the drifter Gods, had disappeared after angering a couple of his fellow divine beings to an unimaginable degree. That’s why he believed that he would be able to find his answers in the Tower.

It took him some time, but he finally managed to reach the Tower and enter it. Phantaminum appeared on the 1st Floor only to be met with an unusual sight. The God in question was sitting on a chair while sipping from a cup while Headon was crouched in a corner. The Guardian’s skin was turned into an ugly brown color, and he was silently sobbing.

Loki had sensed his presence and turned towards him with a smile. “Do you want a cookie?”

Meanwhile, Lumen and his group had arrived on the 29th Floor. The Floor consisted of large grasslands surrounded by coniferous forests. All the Regulars on that Floor resided in houses in the countryside.

The Test for the 29th Floor was the Battle of Cannons. It’s a team battle, and it takes place in a desolate area filled with trenches. Each team will have several cannons on their side of the field, that are constantly shooting towards the opposite side. The team that manages to disable the opponent’s cannons is the one that advances onto the next Floor.

Lumen’s group had rented two houses for their stay there, and they had all gathered in one of them.

“So, the next Workshop Battle is in three years?” Lumen asked.

“Yes,” Leesoo confirmed. “We also have to wait on this Floor until we receive an invitation to participate in the Workshop Battle. Should we advance onto the 30th Floor without receiving an invitation, we wouldn’t be eligible to enter the Workshop Battle.” Leesoo explained.

“The invitations for the Workshop Battle on the 30th Floor are usually sent a year before it starts to all the strongest E-Rank Regulars. Considering our strength, we will definitely get one as well.” Information gathering was one of Leesoo’s roles on the team. He and Merrie were the most informed of the group when it came to knowledge regarding the Tests and Floors.

“In that case, for the next three years, we will be focusing on improving ourselves here. We will not only crush the rest of the Regulars, but we will also ruin FUG’s plans for the Workshop Battle, whatever they may be.” Lumen stated.

“All of you could easily fight with even D-Rank Regulars, but we might end up facing FUG Rankers during the Workshop Battle. So, for the next three years, you will all go through hell. Hopefully, you will be able to face a Ranker or at least be able to escape with your life.” Lumen told them his plan.

Knowing their schedule for the next three years, they all did the most important thing for a resident of the Tower. They made their Pockets visible and said. “Contract with the Guardian.”

Before one makes a contract with a Guardian, they are very limited in what they could do. However, it is not impossible to manipulate Shinsoo without a contract. Simple manipulation of amounts below a certain standard is possible without forming one. Also, an innate resistance to Shinsoo, a body strengthening ability that utilizes Shinsoo or other similar skills are natural abilities that one can have and thus do not require contracts.

Once he said that Leesoo was teleported to a vast space where a gigantic humanoid creature resided. The Guardian was so large that he was only able to see a massive head that had only one large eye. The first few times he met those gigantic creatures, he was scared out of his mind, but he had gotten used to it by this point.

The Guardian stared at Leesoo for a moment, before he heard a booming voice in his head. “What do you dėsɨrė?”

“I wish to manipulate the Shinsoo on the 29th Floor,” Leesoo stated confidently, already done the same for the past 27 Floors.

The Guardian stayed quiet for a moment, and shortly, Leesoo heard the booming voice in his head. “Permission granted. You are free to manipulate the Shinsoo on the 29th Floor.” The Guardian allowed him to control Shinsoo without placing any restrictions on him.

If this scene was seen by Regulars or Rankers, they would be left astonished. Normally, if a Regular wishes to form a contract, the contract would have several terms and conditions that they have to follow. They might only be allowed to manipulate Shinsoo during the Test on the Floor, and maybe once or twice outside of it. Members of the 10 Great Families were given contracts with fewer restrictions, but only Rankers were given a contract without any conditions at all.

The residents of the Tower couldn’t even imagine that a Regular was given the same contract that a Ranker gets.

The only reason Leesoo and the rest were allowed this was due to Lumen. The Guardian was able to sense the lingering aura of an Irregular on them and gave them the freedom to manipulate the Shinsoo on his Floor as they wished.

This was one of the reasons why Leesoo had speculated that Lumen was an Irregular before. On the 2nd Floor, they had more than a dozen conditions they had to follow. Should they have broken any of them, it would make the contract null, and they would have lost the right to manipulate Shinsoo on that Floor.

However, after they had teamed up with Lumen, all the Guardians had allowed them to manipulate the Shinsoo on their Floors without any restrictions. Giving them contracts that only Rankers are given.

This was one of the main reasons that they all progressed so much in their Shinsoo control. Another one being the Shinsoo manipulation techniques shown to them by Diana and Yuri.

With all of them having formed a contract, they began their torture under the guise of training.

*Edited by O’Brien.*