The light dimmed. Then collapsed.
SeTa blinked as his vision adjusted. The broken girl—the one who'd screamed—was gone. No corpse. No trace. Not even blood.
Just silence.
> [Challenge 5/5 Complete]
Floor 0 Concluded.
Stat Point +2
Unique Reward Unlocked: ???
New Passive Ability: [Thread of Dominion] – Allows user to sense "Submission Threads" from weakened or mentally broken entities.
> You are being evaluated...
> Ranking Climbers by Challenge Completion Efficiency…
Calculating impact of irregularities…
Adjusting for system anomalies...
SeTa tensed.
More code scrolled across his vision. Endless strings of logic, warping and folding, until one final line clicked into place:
> Rank Achieved: #3 [Universal]
Unique Skill Awarded: [Inception EX] – Reality is not a wall. It is a draft. Rewrite once per challenge using logical override or paradox trigger.
He inhaled. Shakily.
"#3...?" he muttered.
He hadn't even tried to win.
He just wanted to survive.
But the system wasn't built for those who played fair. It rewarded thinking, breaking, bending. And SeTa had done all three.
A chime echoed through the void.
> Would you like to exit Floor 0?
Y/N
"…Yes."
---
Light erupted around him like a collapsing star.
He landed hard—on metal. Cold, angular metal. Like a forgotten altar.
SeTa opened his eyes to a new sky: midnight blue with streaks of binary cloud and fractured moons. A platform hovered in the air, surrounded by distant staircases spiraling into other floating ruins.
> [Welcome to Floor 1 – Fragment Spire]
Wind screamed overhead. Far below, a chasm of white static buzzed like television snow.
Then:
> Notice: Passive Activated – [Thread of Dominion]
His eyes flared. Threads—thin, silver lines—appeared in the air. Dozens. Hundreds. Drifting like spiderwebs.
One, in particular, was taut. Leading off the platform's edge. Pulsing with faint violet light.
"Still alive?" SeTa murmured.
Not the girl. But the echo of her.
His instinct said: follow it.
He dismissed the message log and stepped forward, just as the sky above glitched—flickering with overlapping system messages.
He wasn't alone.
The Tower was watching now.
And it was...curious.