Mack touched the door and like before it seemed nothing happened but turning his head back he saw a room that was thin but long. So long that he could not see the end of it.

The room was like a giant tunnel, fifty meters side to side and twenty meters to the top, and the length of it Mack could not estimate, he could not see the end of it. It was very similar to those train tunnels from Earth.

Mack wondered where this Tower of Chaos could be because this monumental building must use a lot of space and be quite eye catching.

Looking in front of him Mack saw there was another metallic sign. .

“Make haste or be slow, but be sure to achieve the goal. At each step a new test.”

“I guess I need to go to the end of this tunnel. But this last phrase is intriguing. Is this some riddle?”

Mack was not sure what to think and proceeded to walk forward. But just as he took the first step, he felt something strange.

He could not pinpoint what it was and took another step. Then he felt, It was like his body suddenly became heavier.

Then he walked for a few steps and was sure.

“The gravity of this place is increasing at each step I take. I see. This place must have some kind of gravity field generator like in the movies.”

Until now, the effect was not big. Mack took barely ten steps. He could feel the effect but was not strong enough for him to suffer from it. But he was sure, one or two kilometers and he would not be able to handle it anymore. He would probably be crawling to be able to move.

“What to do…. Now I know why the sign says make haste or be slow…. If I try to get used to the gravity I will suffer less sudden impact but will also take much more time.”

Then, remembering all the tests until now, Mack was sure. This was not a test to see if he could or not adapt to the increasing gravity. He felt like he needed to go as fast as he could.

Having decided on what to do. Mack raised his head, took a deep breath as if he was preparing mentally for the next suffering round.

Then, from his lips, the mantra-like phrases that he memorized from the book hummed. He needed any bit of help he could have. And for unknown reasons, humming those phases helped him to be more mentally strong.

In the middle of this long, empty, and dark tunnel, this same man started to run. His long hair moving with the motion. His hands still holding each one a pistol and from his lips an eerie mantra-like music could be heard.

He was alone in this place. He did not need to show off to anyone, didn’t need the approval of others, didn’t need to save a girl or to rescue his family. He ran because he wanted. He ran only to himself. He ran to defy his own limits.

And with each step this man took, the air seemed to become more dense. At each step, his muscles did a bit more of force to contain his own weight. But he didn’t stop running.

Only death itself would make this man stop.

In this long dark and empty tunnel, the noise of each step reverberated, making eco along with the eerie humming sound of the mantra.

Each step his stride become larger and with each step Mack could feel the burden increasing.

This was the hell for anyone lazy. This was the second gate of Hel floor in Tower of Chaos, The Gate of Sloth.

If someone was not determined enough they would simply stop, don’t taking any step further. Humans are beings that adapt very easily to their surrounding circumstances. But here. If someone was not determined, they would be like a frog boiled in water. Slowly increasing the temperature until the frog stopped breathing. The only difference here is it was the gravity instead of the temperature.

Running along the tunnel, Mack focused only on his breathing and the mantra.

His Muscles, after running for over a thousand steps, got sore. He felt like carrying two times his own weight already.

For any regular human, running with this weight, they would barely be able to walk, let alone run.

But when Mack passed the mark of two kilometers running, the entire feeling of increased gravity stopped. He almost fell on the floor because of the weight difference changing instantly. It was like trying to walk using the same force to jump.

~Pap~

Mack felt on the floor, tired. His forehead covered with cold sweat, his breathing rough and his heart beating fast.

He threw the guns aside and just lay on the floor.

After a few seconds of resting, he seated and took a look at the floor where the gravity had returned to normal. Then he saw a thin line draw on the floor that stretched from side to side of the tunnel. He moved his head to the direction he was running to and a few centimeters in that direction he saw another line draw on the floor.

Mack suspected this was like a safe spot to rest. Only if one reached here they would see that there was no gravity. The line on the floor was so thin that was impossible to see it from a few meters.

This ancestor of his was indeed cruel. No one would suspect that were safe spots. If you took step by step and walked slowly you would suffer the gravity increased for a far long time. But if you blindly run, you would eventually reach here, and in far better conditions. Truly a cruel joke.

To confirm his hypothesis, Mack walked to the line and took one step outside, and as expected the gravity increased. He then pulled his feet back, and the gravity effect was gone.

“I guess this will be like a sprint and a marathon at the same time.” Said Mack, looking to the horizon and not seeing the end of the tunnel.

“I hope the food I got from Cube can last until the end of this tunnel.”