It was the novel for Return of the Frozen Player. The manhwa breezes right through it without giving it much thought, but it came up in the "Trial of Taste" in the Cave of Trials. The novel goes into a lot more detail and Seo Jun-ho suffers a LOT.
Also, starting with the Trial of Taste, all the trials compile until the very end.

I doubt the cube thing can properly gauge his stats. They say "A" when I we know for sure that his stamina is S+.

I will say, Denji has got a stomach of steel. Even knowing it was... "good for you," would you eat the intestines of another human - who is probably screaming at you?

In the novel of a manhwa, two characters discuss a similar point: if you had to eat either 1) poop-flavored curry OR 2) curry-flavored poop, which one would you pick?
Both of them concluded that they would both rather eat curry-flavored poop.

Here's Denji eating what is effectively poop-flavored poop, without even slowing down.

Thing is, the notion of laws (also the reason to be respectful to others) -> it all exists as it is powerful. It is only as powerful as the force behind it. You, a lone person, cannot hope to stand against the might of the force behind the law.
This is the common sense.

But what if you are more powerful than it? Then the law does not matter to you. In fact, you are now the law.
This shatters the notion of common sense and it is so far removed from reality that most people cannot even imagine it.

In the manhwa, the Ares guild is effectively doing just that -> being above the law. Mr. Main Character is about to smack them with a "well, you're above the law, but I'm above you."
In real life, we got billionaires who do this, but not too blatantly. It's obvious to anyone who is paying attention but they do their best to keep their exploits out of sight of the average person.

Oi blonde, you got temper problems. Even if Mr. Main Character wasn't there, when you eventually make a mistake, you'll lose your temper and lose everything.

"I wonder how his fighting style has changed over time."
Well, when you're literally too powerful such that barely even trying instantly annihilates all enemies, your fighting style will devolved down to the basics that even a kid can do.

Ya know, the more you learn about life in the tower, the more you realize that the mental anguish he must've endured in the tower is even worse than you initially imagine.

12 years. 365 days in a year -> a total of 4380 days.
1350 clears in 12 years -> the average time to clear the tower was a biiiiiiit over 3 days.

If you reasonably consider that it probably took him and the initial party a whole year to finish the first clear, the average drops to just below 3 days.

If you assume that he spent some clears with other groups, especially the first several clears until he was strong enough to solo it, so like... the first 5 clears took... let's say 3 years, since he was stronger and knowledgeable -> which sped things up, the average time per clear keeps dropping.

In short: I wouldn't be surprised if he did like 3 clears in one day.

Hmmm...
https://i.postimg.cc/CMG1QQ31/i.png
Well, I guess I can start on this. The spin-off won't be super long, right?

Yeah... the quality just dropped like a ton of bricks... oh no... How to tell bot to check and see if there is better quality translations out there?

"This Brett Lloyd will be giving Judith another ordeal!"

Judith (my prediction anyway): *destroys a mountain as part of her training*
Brett: "Well, never mind on that ordeal part I guess."

Well, that warning was a courteous "are you sure you wanna do this?" Thing is, under the context, the "this" wasn't "this training" but "become a disciple." Now that they're disciples, there is no more "are you sure" questions.

Hmmm... Isn't this training on-par with the other things Zhou Fan has done to them? Why would any of them be surprised by the premise of "he put us in a position where we'll probably die if we don't do our best to survive" again? He's been doing it since the start as that's how he has always trained you.

The author went from giving her some resemblance of clothes
https://i.postimg.cc/Dw7GdzFf/i.png
to nothing at all. It is just so out of place.

tl;dr: this is a nice short read at just 40 chapters. I'd give it a 4/5.
No, it wasn't axed. It's telling a short story with a purpose and a large amount of emphasis on the struggle that Mr. Main Character suffered through and it accomplishes this. Once it is done, it ends. Neat and tidy.

It elevates the basic premise that a lot of people take for granted: getting killed hurts. A lot! It hurts so much that it would probably leave you in a vegetative state if you had to experience it a few times, and yet we have one Mr. Main Characters after another from SO MANY WORKS that shrug it off like its no big deal when realistically, you'd never be able to shrug it off no matter what.
Example: SSS-Class Revival Hunter
The previous comment (when sorting via "newest") talked about "there's never any sense of him being in any real danger" has completely missed this point -> and it is the most important point, relevant from the moment it starts until the final chapter.

So, what is this about? Well, what the description points out is effectively the entire thing. Seriously, the plot starts and ends with it but it does evolve a bit to keep you interested.
I think the worst detail is the explanation behind an "irregular" detail. Frankly, they should NOT have explained it as it adds some weirdo "destiny" sort of thingy and uhh... if anything is mishandled, it would be this.

Otherwise, the art, the setting, the action, the terror and suffering, etc is all pretty well done. I do recommend it if you're looking for something short to read.

"Alarm" as a name is quite spot on. Thing is, there's something that will be explained next chapter that will make you go "oh duh. Why didn't I think of that?"

I can't upload pictures! I took a screenshot but I can't upload it! Bot, plz fix! T_T;

Look for the panel where he says "Once you leave, I'll be left with weaklings" for context.

Bruh, that sounds like a YOU problem. You're the sect leader and if your sect is nothing but weaklings, then it is ON YOU to do something about it. Dragging Zhou Fan here to do your job is fairly pathetic. Yes, you can argue "that is him doing something about it" but this is like a King dragging another nation's King to fix his country.

You're the leader but your leading abilities... how did you put it? (see the text bubble under the same panel) -> "To be blunt, your strength [leadership] is worth s***."

lol. I mean, they made a show out of it, so they can't exactly complain that people enjoyed the show.

Though, they can be upset if a misleading video was posted online. Video titled "man teaches friend how to present a flower to his wife" would be perfectly fine, but a video titled "man confesses to another man" would not be fine -> and not because both dudes are married and got wives waiting for them, but because LGBTQ+ people lack protections in China (according to a quick google search).

The best free stuff is taken from your enemies, amirite?
hehehehe

So... if she never opened that door, none of this would've happened?