The message had burned itself into Rei's vision.
> [Hidden Scenario Active – The Rot Beneath Bastion]
[Objective: Locate and eliminate the 'Rooted One' before corruption spreads beyond Floor 1.]
[Time Remaining: 51:01:26 ]
The countdown ticked down in the corner of his eye like a slow, constant drumbeat.
And for 2 days, Rei did not sleep.
He walked the streets of Floor 1—of Bastion—with blade in hand and [World Decipher] constantly running, eyes peeled for signs of the hidden entity. The Rooted One. The corruption.
He found fragments. Shadows. Broken whispers that flickered like corrupted code bleeding into the world.
A child NPC trapped in a loop, repeating the same six words: "Have you seen my father today?" over and over until her voice cracked. A shopkeeper smiling too widely, refusing every transaction with, "That item is not meant for you." Doors that led to nowhere, staircases that twisted into themselves.
Rootlings—small, malformed creatures, half-data, half-flesh—crawled out from alleyways like rats. Rei dispatched them easily. One slice, two at most. They weren't a threat, but they were a trail.
[Corruption Spread: 31%]
He followed every lead. Investigated every warped structure. He questioned NPCs that weren't supposed to answer, reached into corners that hadn't existed during the dream, deciphered logs, scraped data from glitched quest windows.
Nothing led to the Rooted One.
Everywhere he looked, the Tower was bleeding—but the heart of the rot wasn't there.
And it was driving him insane.
"I can see everything in this Tower," Rei muttered, standing above a smoking Rootling corpse. "So why the hell can't I see you?"
The city twisted around him. Buildings began to shimmer wrong. Shadows crawled faster, longer, out of sync with the sun. Some NPCs just stood still, staring into the void like they'd forgotten how to exist.
[Corruption Spread: 65%]
Other Players still had no idea what was happening. To them, the Tower was just being glitchy. The ones who noticed the corruption assumed it was a feature. A puzzle. Maybe a delayed event.
A streamer livestreamed herself dancing with a flickering NPC, laughing with her followers about "Bastion's bug party."
Rei passed her on the street. Her shadow didn't match her body. The NPC she danced with had no eyes.
[Corruption Spread: 83%]
[Time Remaining: 14:02:19 ]
It only got worse.
More Rootlings. More looping dialogue. Entire chunks of the city began to deform, buildings stretching like chewing gum, textures turning inside out. A plaza he'd passed a dozen times was now a crater of jagged, cracked tile and empty-eyed NPCs singing hymns in reverse.
Rei's eyes twitched. His blade stayed ready, but his patience wore thin.
"You're not here," he muttered to the empty air. "You're not here, are you?"
He stopped in the middle of a warped fountain. Glitched water sprayed upward, freezing midair in a sculpture of distortion.
"I've swept every zone. Every sub-instance. Every alley, rooftop, system layer…"
The answer hit him like a knife to the gut.
"If it were in the Tower, I would've found it."
His fists clenched. [World Decipher] flared automatically, scanning every anomaly again—but it brought nothing new.
"Either the Tower's lying…" he whispered.
His voice trailed off.
"…or the Rooted One was never here."
-----
The corruption hit 100% with one second left on the countdown.
[Time Remaining: 00:00:01…]
[Corruption Level: 100% – Safezone Status: FAILED]
Then Bastion broke.
It didn't explode. It didn't collapse. It screamed.
The entire First Floor howled as though every line of code tore itself apart at once.
NPCs shrieked like animals as their forms contorted—skin bubbling into bark, eyes bleeding static, limbs distending. Buildings cracked. Quest boards shattered into fire and data fragments.
And then the monsters came.
They didn't spawn with animation. They ripped into existence—torn textures of wolf-things and blade-kin, wrapped in pixel shrapnel and glitch scars. No fanfare. Just blood.
Players screamed.
>[@S-RankSamLive]: "Guys something's wrong the blacksmith just bit my arm—WHAT THE FU—"
Blood sprayed across the screen before the feed cut out.
Another streamer's body was flung into the sky, spinning like a ragdoll before crashing through a warped roof.
Rei didn't move.
He stood dead center in the chaos, watching it all fall apart.
He wasn't surprised.
He'd seen it coming.
-----
TV news that night screamed as loud as the Tower.
> [BREAKING NEWS]: "Massacre on Floor 1 – Over 8,000 players dead in 30 minutes!"
>[Government Response]: "The Tower's mechanics have changed. We are advising all Players to pause entry until further notice."
> [LIVE Footage]: "We're seeing scenes of horror from inside the Tower. These zones were thought to be Safe…"
> [EXPERT PANEL]: "If the Safezone wasn't safe, are ANY floors safe?"
His mother stood frozen at the doorway. Tae Ri sat curled on the couch, her hands over her mouth.
Rei sat in the kitchen, silent, eyes locked on the phone in his hand.
The forums were no better.
> [@NewsGamePulse]: "We thought it was a Safezone. It was a trap."
>[@DreamersForum]: "Where is Shiver. Does he know?"
>[Comment]: "We're all gonna die if Floor 1's like this."
>[@PlayersAssemble]: "It wasn't a floor. It was a test. And we failed."
Rei didn't reply.
He scrolled.
And then his phone buzzed.
A text.
From his boss.
"Hope the Tower's treating you alright. Stay safe, Rei."
He stared at the message for a long time.
The words themselves weren't strange.
But…
"…You've never texted me before."
-----
He left the house without a word.
Walked the same route he always did, down the cracked sidewalk, under the flickering streetlamp, past the old man who always sold fish balls near the train station.
Only this time, Rei didn't stop.
He reached the convenience store.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
The store lights were on, but too bright—washed out like an overexposed photo. The radio in the background played the same 5-second jingle on loop. The door chime rang twice, even though he only opened it once.
Rei stepped inside.
His boss stood behind the counter, smiling like always. That same bland, tired smile. Shirt tucked in. Apron clean.
"Welcome back, Rei."
Rei's hand moved slowly to the hilt on his back.
"Slow shift?" he asked.
The boss tilted his head. "Just the usual. Not many customers today."
"No surprise." Rei stepped closer. "Monsters are kind of a mood killer."
The smile didn't change.
Rei looked down at the counter.
The receipt printer blinked in an unnatural pattern.
The fridge lights were flickering red and green.
The security camera turned to follow him—twice.
[World Decipher: Activated ]
The Tower's interface screamed in his mind.
[Target Identified: Hidden Entity – Rooted One (ACTIVE)]
Rei's breath left his lungs slowly. He wasn't surprised. Not really.
"You were never in the Tower…" he said softly.
His boss's smile widened, just slightly. Too wide. Not human.
"…You were out here the whole time."
The lights in the store dimmed.
Something pulsed beneath the boss's skin. Roots. Vines. Wires? No, something in between. Something old and twisted, wearing flesh like a borrowed suit.
Rei stepped into a fighting stance.
"You made one mistake."
The Rooted One twitched.
Rei's blade left the sheath in a whisper.
"You left the Tower."