Silence followed. Sharp. Tense.
Then, the mask broke.
Like paint peeling from rusted metal, the false flesh of Rei's boss began to slough off—wet, slow, wrong. Beneath the apron and human skin, something writhed. Roots pushed up through muscle. Wires split through veins. Black limbs cracked outward like broken branches, dragging twisted lines of Tower code across the air.
The lights overhead shattered one by one.
The convenience store groaned like it couldn't contain the thing inside it anymore.
And then it moved.
[World Decipher: Active]
[Target Status: Hidden Entity – Rooted One (Active)]
[Origin Floor: 18]
[Threat Level: Lethal]
The Rooted One lunged—glitching forward in a broken, jittery stutter, arms stretching unnaturally wide as if the laws of space didn't apply. Its mouth opened in a scream of static and Tower protocol:
"ShiiIVeERR—SysTEm BreACcH kiLL PRiM-A.R.R.R.R—"
Rei didn't flinch.
His body moved before the roar finished. Blade met flesh—not soft, not solid, but some terrible in-between. Steel hissed against corruption, sparks flying where the blade struck malformed code and bone-like roots.
But the Rooted One didn't fall.
It twisted around the counter, shelves exploding behind it. Glass and snack bags soared through the air like confetti. The thing crashed into a freezer, splintering the plastic in a burst of cold mist—and then reformed, limbs crackling back into place.
"Floor 18, huh…" Rei muttered, backing across the tiles, boots scraping glass. His shoulder bled from a near miss, but his eyes were locked forward. "Too early for you to be out here."
The Rooted One replied with another scream—this one closer to a firewall being torn open.
Rei grit his teeth.
[Adaptive Blade: Activated – Elemental Affinity: Fire]
[Bonus Effects Engaged – Target Weakness Detected]
His weapon lit with faint orange glow as World Decipher synced to the corrupted structure of the entity.
The Rooted One lunged again, flickering—one moment across the room, the next directly in Rei's face. Rei ducked low, blade carving upward in a fiery arc. The corrupted limb he struck convulsed and burst into glitching particles, but two more took its place, dragging vines and cable-like tendrils across the floor tiles.
Its sheer size now dwarfed the aisles. What was once a NPC in the Dream Tower was now leaking into reality, overflowing the seams of a convenience store that could no longer contain it.
The ceiling cracked as roots punched through the fluorescent lights. The air thickened, humid with digital static. The temperature dropped, then surged—reality trying to keep up with a creature that didn't belong here.
Rei's blade met another blow, sparks cascading in all directions. He grunted, twisted, and barely avoided a jagged elbow meant to shatter bone. It scraped his ribs instead. Blood bloomed beneath his jacket.
He slammed into the drinks fridge.
[HP - 17] [Analyzing enemy patterns...61% complete]
"Come on," Rei muttered, teeth clenched. "Give me something."
The Rooted One swelled in size, like it was pulling mass from the air itself. Its code began to stutter violently—textures flickering, audio desyncing. Half of it was twitching in fast-forward, the other half buffering.
Rei caught his breath for half a second—and [World Decipher] finally pinged.
[Scanning enemy behavior, structure, instability…]
[Weak Point Detected.]
[Rear Cervical Root – 3% Stability]
[Opportunity Window: 11.2 seconds]
"There you are," he hissed.
He moved.
Rei sprinted low and fast, baiting a vine-strike from the right. It slammed into the counter, blowing apart the scanner and register. He twisted under the follow-up sweep, boots sliding across spilled sauce and broken tile.
The Rooted One shrieked.
A corrupted root lashed across the floor. Rei jumped over it, landed on a slanted snack shelf, and launched himself off it in one clean motion. His blade flared with fire again.
[Adaptive Blade – Elemental Affinity Engaged: Fire] [Bonus Damage +10%]
Steel hit the exposed cervical node.
The Rooted One screamed—not just in sound, but in raw Tower code. The air shook. The lights dimmed completely, and a wash of black static rippled from its spine.
It thrashed, hurling Rei across the room.
He hit the back wall hard, coughing blood.
His sword clattered to the floor.
[HP: 34%] [Fracture Warning – Left Shoulder]
"Shit," Rei breathed, vision spinning. His hand shook as he reached for the sword. The Rooted One glitched violently as if stuck between dimensions, its form splitting and resyncing.
And yet…
It was weakening.
World Decipher hadn't lied.
"Alright," Rei coughed, standing slowly. "One more time."
The Rooted One charged—limbs glitching, shelves exploding behind it like the collapse of a corrupted world.
Rei's lungs burned. vision swimming as he dove beneath the reaching limbs. ribs screaming with pain.
[HP: 34%]
[Left Shoulder Fractured]
[Stamina: 12%]
[Core Stability: 0.7% – Opportunity Window: 4.8 seconds]
"Not enough time," he hissed. "Too far."
The Rooted One reared back, code screeching like static played in reverse.
Then—
[Adaptive Blade: Overclock Mode – Engaged]
[Override Safety: Yes/No?]
[Yes] Selected.
[Warning: Blade Durability Falling]
Flames erupted along the blade's edge. Not fire. Purpose.
Rei surged forward.
The Rooted One lunged at the same time, its limbs breaking into jagged angles, closing the space in a second.
One strike.
That's all he had left.
Rei slid beneath its reach, pain flashing through his ribs, and drove the blade upward—right into the Rooted One's exposed cervical node.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[Core Instability: 0.2% → 0.0%]
[Target: Neutralized]
The Rooted One wailed—screeching code, a noise like a corrupted save file, tearing static through the store.
Its limbs convulsed. It tried to regenerate. Its body trembled like a dying signal.
Rei didn't let it.
He twisted the blade, dragging it sideways, and cut through the node clean.
The Rooted One exploded.
Not in flames—but in corrupted fragments. Vines blackened and withered. The glitching limbs collapsed into pixels. The entire corrupted form shattered like glass mid-render.
For a moment, the GS Mart was silent.
No noise.
Just Rei, kneeling, blade braced on the floor.
Blood dripped from his chin.
His breath came hard and slow.
Then the message came.
[Hidden Scenario Cleared: "The Rot Beneath Bastion"]
[Achievement Unlocked - First Floor Liberator: The corrupted Safezone has been cleansed]
[Calculating EXP gained...]
A pause.
Then:
[Would you like to register your name to this Floor Completion?]
Rei didn't answer
He simply stood there–bloodied, silent, unreadable.
The system flickered again.
[No Input received.]
[Analyzing historical clear data…]
[Match found]
[Player Name Registered: Shiver]
And across the world, the Tower roared.
-----
[Global Notification]
[Player "Shiver" has cleared Floor 1.]
[Floor Progression Unlocked. All Players may proceed in 47:59:51.]
-----
Across every major city, Players stared in disbelief.
Their interfaces blinked. The gates to Floor 2 unlocked. Questboards updated.
The name "Shiver" burned into their vision.
Online chaos exploded.
> [@DreamerHive]: "Did that say Shiver?? THE Shiver??"
>[@TowerMemes]: "Bro. He's real. The GOAT is BACK."
>[u/FloorTankBro]: "We're saved. If Shiver's playing again, we actually got a shot."
> [@DreamersForum]: "It's him. HE'S BACK."
> [Clip] - "Guys, I swear… that name—I fought beside him in the Tower of Dreams. That's HIM."
Panic stopped.
Confusion turned to shock.
And in one high-rise conference room of a powerful guild, a woman gripped her glass hard enough to crack it.
"Shiver... so you finally stepped forward."
------
Rei stepped out of the ruined GS Mart, blood drying on his jacket, the blade still in his hand.
And a new message flashed:
[Title ll Effect Unlocked – Tower's Blessing]
2x Exp gain
2x Stat points per level
2x Skill damage
2x Gold, loot quality, and crafting success
[Reason: You have slain a Floor 18 entity while on Floor 1.]
He stared at the message, unreadable.
Then smiled faintly.
"Took you long enough to notice."
Wind blew across the street, scattering ash and paper.
The name "Shiver" had returned.