When I told Ha Hee-Jeong about what had transpired on the twenty-first floor, she seemed genuinely astonished. She explained that, under normal circumstances, destroying the religious order governing a colonized planet was nigh on impossible. Most likely, it was only feasible because it was a low-class colony.0

Now that I thought about it, there hadn’t been many soldiers inside the factory. Even though there had been a high authority overseeing operations, I had faced well over a million enemies on the sixteenth floor. Comparing the two, Ha Hee-Jeong’s assessment seemed accurate.0

When I asked her more about colonized planets, she sent another message.0

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Twenty-third Floor): As you’ve probably guessed, the Tower of Ordeal recognizes species native to a planet as having sovereignty over that planet.0

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Twenty-third Floor): Yeah.0

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Twenty-third Floor): Earth’s green belt was lifted, and that’s why the Tower of Ordeal manifested there.0

- Kwon Su-Hyeok (Twenty-third Floor): So, it’s like how we develop land that was previously part of a green belt[1]] on Earth.0

It was similar to how the original inhabitants of undeveloped or de-designated green belt zones were granted the opportunity to claim ownership before development began.1

- Ha Hee-Jeong (Twenty-third Floor): Exactly. And factories like the one you destroyed are installed on worlds that have lost their sovereignty—ones that failed...0