From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Chapter 632 Frozen Tundra

Ty glanced to his side, seeing Yagrid with his arms crossed, and Alexander a few spots down, both standing with a mix of impatience and determination. The unease in the air was thick. His mind wandered, thoughts flickering to his conversation with Waddle, the revelation about Jade. He swallowed hard.@@@@

Suddenly, the ground in front of them began to rumble, and Ty blinked, snapping his attention back to the present moment. He watched as the floor itself shifted, giving way to a rising platform. A stage began to emerge, lifting higher, inch by inch, until it finally locked into place. Upon it stood General Omina, flanked by a few others dressed in suits—officials, he presumed, though he didn't recognize their faces.

Ty raised an eyebrow, his lips curling slightly in a bemused smile. "Did they just come out of the ground or something?" he thought to himself, stifling a chuckle. It was like some weird magic show—except, you know, with actual lives at stake.

General Omina took a step forward, her eyes scanning over the crowd before settling into a firm expression. She raised a microphone, her voice ringing out clearly over the gathered contestants. "Before we get started, I want to congratulate each and every one of you for making it this far. You've fought, you've endured, and you have remained in the competition despite the challenges thrown your way."

Her gaze was piercing, his words heavy. Ty could see the exhaustion in the faces of those around him. But there was also something else—determination, defiance. They had all come here with their own reasons, their own burdens.

The world went dark for a moment, his senses overwhelmed by the disorienting drop. He landed on his knee with a muted thud, the air crisp and biting against his skin. Ty blinked, his eyes adjusting as he looked around—a frozen tundra stretched in all directions, white and unyielding. He was in a room, a massive one, with walls he could barely make out, nearly a mile in each direction. The cold gnawed at him immediately, the frost settling on his skin, the air raw in his throat.

The quiet was broken by a sudden flicker, and Ty's stomach twisted with a mix of annoyance and disgust. A face appeared on a giant screen, hovering in the middle of the tundra—a face he recognized. It was smug, the sneering kind of arrogance that Ty would have loved to burn away with his flames.

"Hello again, Demon," came the voice—grating and all too familiar. "At first, I was sad to see you survived the first stage. But," 2nd Lt Heissman paused, drawing out each word as if savoring them, "I was given a chance to draw up Stage Two—the escape dungeons. And I requested specifically to get you, to make sure your death would be... memorable."

Ty's hands clenched involuntarily, memories flashing of his time in that cell. He could still smell the stench of that place, still remember the twisted look on Heissman's face. Ty didn't say a word, keeping his expression blank as his eyes flickered around, noticing drones buzzing above—no doubt showcasing all of this to the world.

"Some escape room," Ty muttered to himself, his breath fogging in the cold. He looked at the tundra, the seemingly endless expanse of white, and considered it. "A frozen wasteland? I could just melt this to nothing." The idea had a certain appeal—to turn this place into nothing but steam.

Before he could act on it, Heissman's voice crackled again, his image looming on the screen. "You will have thirty minutes to escape from here. There are keys scattered throughout—but only one of them opens the true exit. Should you fail, you will be put to death by the King himself." The man sneered, his tone dripping with mockery. "If you weren't a filthy criminal, you'd just be disqualified. Sent back home with a nice little parade, a pat on the back for lasting this long. But no, not for you. How pathetic, also, and one last thing, if you were to melt everything, the ground beneath you will melt and two layers is a pool of acid that will melt almost anything including the keys.