"We're moving underground."
It sounded like a tactical decision. In reality, it was a retreat into the mud.
We didn't linger at the burning ruins of Building C. The Fire Brigade mages were already arriving on their brooms, spraying arcs of water over the sinkhole. If we stayed, we'd be questioned. If we were questioned, Valen would know exactly where we were.
So we slipped away into the twilight, heading for the service grate behind the kitchen—the same one Ria and I had used after the Bell Tower incident.
"This is dignified," Tybalt muttered, his voice echoing in the damp tunnel as he trudged through ankle-deep water. "I'm a student of the Royal Academy. I'm supposed to be studying magic, not wading through… what is this? Is this soup?"
"Don't think about it, Ty," I said, holding a mana-lantern I'd salvaged from my pocket. "Just keep moving. We need to get past the primary drainage sector."
"My books," Cian whispered. He was walking like a zombie, staring at nothing. "My notes on gravity theory. They were under my pillow. They're gone."
"We'll write new ones," I said gently. "Better ones. But first, we need to survive the week."
We walked in silence for twenty minutes. The air grew stale, thick with the smell of rot and old stone. The familiar brickwork of the academy sewers began to change. The bricks became larger, darker, and… strange.
Some of the bricks were missing, revealing not dirt, but a grey, flat void.
"Ren," Ria said, stopping at a junction. She pointed her dagger at the wall. "Why is the wall… flickering?"
I looked. A section of the stonework was vibrating, shifting between a mossy texture and a smooth, unrendered grey surface.
[Zone Alert: Boundary of the Forgotten.]
[Content Status: Cut/Unfinished.]
[Warning: Physics engine may be unstable.]
"We're here," I said. "This is the entrance."
"Entrance to what?" Kaelen asked, eyeing the glitchy wall with deep suspicion. "This looks like the world is dissolving."
"It's the Dungeon of the Forgotten," I explained, trying to find a way to frame it without saying 'video game beta content'. "When the Academy was built, the Architect designed a lower level for advanced training. But he… abandoned it. It was never finished. The magic down here is raw. Broken."
"And you want us to train in a broken dungeon?" Kaelen asked.
"Broken magic yields higher returns," I lied. "High risk, high reward. The monsters down here grant more mana density upon defeat because they aren't filtered by the Academy's safety wards."
"So, more XP," Cian murmured, his eyes lighting up slightly. "Direct absorption?"
"Exactly, Einstein."
I approached the flickering wall. In the game, you had to perform a specific emote to open it. Here, I guessed intent was the key.
I placed my hand on the grey patch.
"Open," I thought.
The wall didn't slide open. It simply vanished. Pop. One second it was there, the next, a square hole led into darkness.
"Ladies first," Ria said, nudging me.
I stepped through.
The space beyond wasn't a cave. It was a massive, sprawling labyrinth of white stone floating in a black void. There was no ceiling—just an endless expanse of darkness. Floating islands of geometry drifted lazily in the distance.
"Whoa," Tybalt breathed, stepping up beside me. "Where is the floor?"
"Stick to the white stone," I warned. "If you fall off the edge, you fall forever. Or until you starve."
"Noted," Tybalt squeaked, hugging the wall.
"We need to set up a base camp," I said. "Somewhere defensible. Then, we hunt."
We found a large, square platform about a hundred meters in. It had three walls and a roof, looking like a half-finished room.
"Home sweet home," Ria said, dropping her pack. It landed with a hollow thud.
"It's better than the sinkhole," Kaelen admitted. He sat down near the entrance, sword across his knees. He looked exhausted. The fight with the wolf, the building collapse, the stress—it was wearing him down.
"We need food," Tybalt said, his stomach growling loudly in the silence. "We left everything in the dorm."
"I have rations," Ria said, tossing him a packet of dried biscuits. "Emergency stash. It tastes like cardboard, but it keeps you alive."
We sat in a circle, eating the dry biscuits. The mood was grim.
"So," Kaelen said after a while, brushing crumbs off his armor. "Valen. He's Level 99. You're... what, Ren? Level 4?"
"Level 4," I confirmed.
"And you think three days in a unfinished basement is going to close that gap?"
"No," I said, taking a swig of water. "We can't close the gap in raw power. Valen has end-game stats. He can nuke a city. But every game has a cap. He can't get stronger. We can."
I looked at them.
"Valen is arrogant. He thinks he's playing alone. He thinks we're just NPCs—non-player characters. Background noise."
"I hate that word," Ria muttered. "NPC."
"Me too," I said. "That's why we're going to exploit the one thing he can't control. Team mechanics."
I stood up. "Cian, bring your notebook. I need you to map the glitches. Ria, scout the perimeter—but don't engage anything. Kaelen, Tybalt... you're with me. We're going to pull a mob."
"Pull a mob?" Tybalt asked. "Is that slang for running away?"
"No," I smiled grimly. "It's slang for picking a fight."
We ventured deeper into the white-stone maze. The air was cold and odorless.
"Movement," Kaelen whispered, raising a hand.
Ahead of us, on a floating bridge, stood a creature.
It looked like a skeleton, but... wrong. It was twice the size of a normal human. It was holding a massive axe. But it wasn't moving. It was standing perfectly still, arms held out to the sides in a T-shape.
[Target: Beta Skeleton Warrior]
[Level: 15]
[Status: Glitched (Animation Loop Missing)]
"It's T-posing," I whispered.
"It's what?" Kaelen asked.
"It's stuck in its default stance. It can't see us unless we enter its aggression radius."
"It looks... unfinished," Tybalt noted. "One of its legs is missing."
"That's our advantage," I said. "Listen carefully. This thing hits hard. One swing will break Kaelen's shield. But because it's broken, it has a pattern. It will swing, pause for three seconds, spin, and then reset."
"Three seconds," Kaelen repeated. "That's a lifetime."
"Exactly. Tybalt, I need you to cast Earth Bind on its invisible leg."
"The missing one?"
"Yes. The hitbox is still there even if the texture isn't."
"Okay," Tybalt breathed. "Hit the ghost leg. Got it."
"Kaelen, you tank the first hit. Deflect, don't block. Then back off. I'll target the neck vertebrae."
"Ready," Kaelen said. His dark mana flared.
I picked up a loose stone from the floor.
"Pulling!" I yelled, throwing the stone.
Clack. The stone hit the skeleton's ribcage.
The monster shuddered. Its empty eye sockets flashed red. With a mechanical creak, it snapped out of its T-pose and charged.
It was fast. Faster than a normal skeleton. It moved in a jerky, sliding motion, hovering slightly above the ground.
"Kaelen!" I shouted.
Kaelen stepped forward, shield raised.
The skeleton swung the axe. It was a massive, overhead chop.
CLANG!
Kaelen grunted, his boots sliding back on the stone. Sparks flew.
"Now!" Kaelen yelled.
He shoved the axe aside.
The skeleton froze. One. Two. Three.
"Tybalt!"
"Earth Bind!" Tybalt screamed.
Stone shackles erupted from the floor, wrapping around the empty air where the skeleton's left leg should be. The monster jerked, anchored to the spot.
"It worked!" Tybalt cheered.
"Spin attack incoming!" I warned.
The skeleton began to rotate like a top. But because its leg was stuck, it couldn't move forward. It just spun in place, the axe whirring like a fan blade.
"Ren, the neck!" Kaelen shouted, backing away from the death-spin.
I didn't have a weapon. But I had the Source Code Fragment integrated into me.
I focused on my palm. The quill tattoo glowed.
[Narrative Overlay: Active]
[Target Object: Loose Stone]
[Edit: Property -> High Velocity]
I picked up another rock. I poured mana into it—not my mana, but the system's mana. The rock glowed blue.
I threw it.
It flew straighter and faster than my arm could have thrown it. It was like a bullet.
CRACK.
It smashed into the cervical vertebrae of the spinning skeleton.
The monster stopped spinning instantly. Its health bar—visible only to me—dropped to zero.
It didn't fall. It just... disassembled. The bones fell apart, turning into white dust before they hit the ground.
A swirling orb of pure, concentrated mana floated where the chest used to be.
"Whoa," Cian said, running up from behind us (he had snuck along). "That's... that's not normal mana residue. That's pure Aether."
"XP," I said, grabbing the orb.
It felt warm. I looked at Kaelen.
"Touch it," I said.
Kaelen hesitated, then reached out. His fingers brushed the orb.
The light flowed into him. His veins glowed purple for a second. He gasped, arching his back.
"Kaelen!" Tybalt yelled.
Kaelen fell to one knee, panting. He looked at his hands. The fatigue from the last two days vanished. His aura grew denser, sharper.
"I feel..." Kaelen whispered. "Stronger. Significantly stronger."
[Party Member: Kaelen leveled up.]
[Level 10 -> 11]
"It works," I said, a grin spreading across my face. "One down. About a thousand to go."
We spent the next ten hours in the void.
It was grueling. It was repetitive. It was dangerous.
We fought Slimes that multiplied every time you hit them (solution: fire magic to boil them).
We fought Floating Swords that tracked movement (solution: Tybalt made stone decoys).
We fought a massive Stone Golem that had no head (solution: trip it off the edge of the map).
We fell into a rhythm.
Pull. Tank. Crowd Control. DPS. Loot.
We rested in shifts.
During one break, I sat on the edge of our platform, legs dangling over the infinite darkness.
Ria sat down next to me. She looked tired, but her eyes were sharp.
"You know," she said, cleaning her dagger. "This place... it feels lonely. Like someone built it and then just walked away."
"Yeah," I said, thinking of the skeleton in the bunker. The Architect. Arthur. "Maybe they realized it was too dangerous."
"Or maybe they just ran out of time," Ria said quietly. She looked at me. "Ren, back at the tower... when Valen blew up the dorm. You looked... hateful."
"He destroyed our home, Ria."
"I know. But it was personal. Like you knew him."
I looked at the darkness. "I know his type. He thinks people are disposable. He thinks if he breaks things, it doesn't matter because he can just restart."
"And you?" Ria asked. "Do you think we matter?"
I looked at her. At Tybalt sleeping on his backpack. At Cian scribbling furiously in a new notebook made of stone tablets. At Kaelen practicing his forms with renewed vigor.
"Yeah," I said. "I think you matter more than anything."
Ria smiled. A real, soft smile. "Good answer, Grey-coat."
She stood up. "Break's over. Kaelen found something weird in the next sector."
"Weird how?"
"Weird like... a door. A finished door."
I stood up, dusting off my pants. "Show me."
We walked to the edge of the explored zone.
There, standing in the middle of a floating island, was a pristine, mahogany door. It had a brass handle and a mail slot. It stood freely, attached to nothing. No walls. Just a doorframe in the void.
[Object: The Backdoor]
[Access Level: Admin Only]
"Admin Only," I whispered.
"Can we open it?" Kaelen asked.
"If we do," I said, "we might alert Valen. Or worse... the Editor."
"But," Cian pointed out, "it might lead to the Library. Or the armory. We need weapons for the tournament, Ren. My glue is gone."
I looked at the door. I pulled out the ID card from my pocket.
Arthur Penhaligon.
If this was Arthur's training ground, maybe this was his office.
"We don't open it yet," I decided. "We grind until we hit the level cap for this zone. Then... we knock."
"Grind first, loot later," Kaelen nodded. "I like that plan."
"Ren!" Tybalt shouted from behind us. "Big problem!"
We turned.
Tybalt was pointing at the path we came from. The glitchy wall—our exit—was gone.
It had been replaced by a solid, seamless wall of white stone.
" The exit closed," Tybalt whimpered.
[System Alert: Zone Locked.]
[Event: The Beta Test has begun.]
[Clear Condition: Defeat the Zone Boss.]
I cursed under my breath.
"Looks like we're not leaving until we beat the game," I said.
"Zone Boss?" Ria asked, gripping her dagger. "What kind of boss lives in the trash bin of the universe?"
A roar echoed from the deep darkness below us. It sounded like static screaming.
"The kind that wasn't supposed to exist," I said. "Weapons up. Round two starts now."