[You may now enter the Labyrinth.]
[ Quest Type: Extermination ]
[ Requirement: 1 or more Participants ]
[ Objective: Eliminate the Boss – 'Lich of the Fifth Vein' ]
—
The moment the Fifth Floor interface synced across terminals and Rift-linked HUDs, panic rippled across the Astral Community feed like wildfire.
—
@FrostHex: "…Wait. Did anyone else just get that system ping? Fifth Floor's already open??"
@NovaTrace: "Nah that can't be right. Boss floors don't open this fast unless—"
@SludgeEater77: "Unless someone cleared four entire floors. That fast? No way."
@LuminaShard: "But that's not the real shock. Look again—'1 or more participants'? That means anyone can enter."
@FoxGlitch: "We barely stabilized Floor 2 and now a LICH is just… waiting?!"
@NullSpecter: "Someone triggered it. Early. This isn't how the Rift's supposed to behave."
@PatchSync: "I swear, if this is Blank again…"
@VassalAuris: "It is Blank. Check the timeline. He blitzed through Floor 4—solo."
@RiftFanatic: "Insane. Guy clears four floors solo and forces a boss event on all of us. He's rewriting the system rules in real time."
@QuietWren: "If anyone's clearing that Lich, it's him. No one else is even close."
@RotgutRunner: "Don't jinx it. Blank or not, that's suicide."
@SkepticChain: "Right?? Dude's skilled, yeah—but this ain't the same. This is a boss floor. You don't walk into that alone."
@StrikerHelix: "You're all forgetting who we're talking about. Blank didn't just clear floors—he dominated them."
@FoxGlitch: "Yeah? But if he fails here, the backlash could be brutal. Everyone's watching now."
@FrostHex: "Blank doesn't fail. If he walked into that floor… it's because he plans to walk out."
@NovaTrace: "Then either we're about to see history… or a damn funeral."
—
All eyes shifted to the crimson rift now open across the world.
The moment the system prompt faded from my vision, the real world crashed back around me.
I stood at the edge of the Crimson Rift—silent, cloaked in the invisible weight of the Specter Fang Set—and the chaos around me was loud.
Voices cut through the noise like static:
"It's open?! Already?! That's not supposed to happen—"
"A Lich this early? That's gotta be a system bug, right?"
"No, it's real. The Rift confirmed it—boss is live now. Now."
People scrambled to check their UIs. Notifications popped into the air like flares. Some were still clutching starter gear. Others, mid-prep for Floor 2, now frozen in hesitation. No one expected a Fifth Floor boss to show up this fast—let alone with open participation.
-
But not everyone was panicking. A group to my right was already forming up, calm and precise.
"We need frontliners. Two tanks minimum. If it's a Lich, expect AoE and charm effects."
"Got a healer. Need someone with curse resistance. DM if you're confident."
"Pulling up my old Hall of Firsts team. We'll hit the edge node first, get a read."
More voices stacked in:
"We should wait. Let the Vassals handle it."
"Screw that. This is a world quest now. You think Blank's just gonna solo it again?!"
"He probably already entered."
"Then he's dead."
"Or he's about to carry us all."
Tension rippled through the crowd. Some people paced. Some argued. Others stared into the Rift with cold, resolved eyes—preparing to dive in.
-
But he voices didn't stop. If anything, they got sharper, layered with uncertainty.
A small group gathered near a stone outcrop, their voices are low but tense.
"Wait… has anyone confirmed what happens to people who are still on the lower floors?"
"That's what I'm saying. Normally when a floor is cleared, the others get kicked back to the surface, right?"
"Yeah—but this is different. This isn't a clear, it's a boss floor trigger."
"So what, they get stuck below?"
"No clue. That's what's freaking me out. The system didn't give any guidance this time. Just dropped the quest and threw open the gate."
Another voice chimed in, clipped and wary.
"If the Rift changed the rules, there's no guarantee you'll get kicked out safely. What if clearing the boss now locks out the lower floors for good?"
"Or worse… what if failing it collapses the whole Rift instance?"
"It's too early. Something's off."
"Maybe that's the point."
"You going in?"
"Only if someone like Blank does first. If he lives, maybe we all do."
Everyone around me was still talking, confused and nervous about what just happened. The fifth floor had opened the moment I cleared the fourth, but that wasn't supposed to happen.
Normally, when someone clears a floor, everyone still inside it gets kicked out—sent back to their last checkpoint. Then, the next floor gets locked for an hour. That's how the system buys time. Gives people a breather, a chance to catch up.
But that rule doesn't apply to boss floors.
Boss floors are different.
Once the floor before a boss is cleared, the Rift opens the next one instantly. No delay. No countdown. It doesn't care if people are ready or not. It just opens—and waits. But not kindly. It wants overconfident Vassals to rush in blind. That's how it feeds. That's how it kills.
The system shows the quest type and the requirements, yeah. Even shows who's already inside. But the boss itself? No information. Nothing until you're already trapped in with it. By then, you either survive or you die.
I glanced around. Some people were still on the fourth floor, even lower than that, but they'd be fine.
The Rift won't boot them out just because the boss floor appeared. That only happens when a normal floor is cleared. If it's a boss floor? Everyone below can keep going like usual.
And technically… yeah, anyone can enter the boss floor, even if they haven't cleared the one before it. The system lets you. But that's just another trick. Another way to get people killed. You can skip ahead, sure—but you won't survive unless you're built for it.
And no, clearing the boss doesn't let you skip over the previous floors either. Doesn't matter if you're from Floor 2 or 3. You can help kill the boss and even get better rewards—but you'll still need to go back and clear everything else the normal way. But getting better rewards means easier for you to clear the floor.
'These guys should know that's just how the Rift works. No mercy. No shortcuts. Only blood, guts, and brutal logic.'