"Round two starts now."
I gripped a jagged piece of loose stone—my only weapon since I'd broken the last one on a slime's nucleus—and stared into the abyss below.
The roar that echoed up wasn't a biological sound. It sounded like metal grinding against glass, layered with the static hiss of a dead radio channel.
"What is that?" Tybalt whispered, backing away from the edge of the floating platform. "Please tell me it's just the wind. A really angry, solid wind."
"Wind doesn't have a health bar," I said, pointing my finger.
Rising from the darkness was a hand. A massive, grey hand the size of a carriage. It had no skin, no scales, no texture. It was a smooth, polygonal shape, like a mannequin's limb, but hundreds of times larger.
It slammed onto the edge of our platform. The entire island tipped dangerously.
[Zone Boss: The Null-Titan]
[Level: 25]
[Status: Unrendered]
"Level 25?" Kaelen shouted, bracing his feet as the ground tilted. "We're barely Level 12!"
"It's a stat check!" I yelled. "Don't let it grab you! If it hasn't rendered its textures, its collision physics are messed up. Touching it might glitch you through the floor!"
The Titan pulled itself up. It was a faceless giant, a smooth grey humanoid with a glowing red wireframe visible beneath its surface. It opened its mouth—a simple black hole in the mesh—and let out that screeching static noise again.
SCREEEEEEE.
Cian clapped his hands over his ears. "It's broadcasting garbage data! It hurts!"
"Scatter!" Ria commanded. "Kaelen, draw aggro! Tybalt, support! Ren... do something smart!"
She darted to the left, running along the Titan's massive arm. She stabbed her dagger into the grey surface.
Clink.
The dagger bounced off.
"Immune to physical!" Ria shouted, backflipping away as the Titan swatted at her. "It's like hitting a wall!"
"Kaelen!" I yelled. "Try magic! Pure mana!"
Kaelen charged. His sword was glowing with the purple light of the Abyss—power he'd absorbed from the skeletons. He leaped into the air, aiming for the giant's knee.
"Void Slash!"
The dark energy cut into the grey leg. It didn't slice; it dissolved the polygons. A chunk of the Titan's knee vanished into pixels.
The Titan roared, stumbling.
"It works!" Kaelen landed, looking triumphant. "It's weak to—"
Before he could finish, the Titan's knee regenerated. The grey surface simply stretched and snapped back into place like rubber.
"Regeneration," I cursed. "Of course. It's a damage sponge."
The Titan raised both fists and slammed them down.
BOOM.
The shockwave knocked us all off our feet. Tybalt slid dangerously close to the edge.
"Ty!" Cian lunged, grabbing Tybalt's ankle just before he slipped into the void.
"We can't win this!" Cian screamed, hauling Tybalt up. "Its recovery rate is faster than our DPS! We need higher output!"
"Retreat!" I ordered. "Back to the bridge! It's too big to follow us onto the narrow paths!"
We scrambled up and ran. The Titan swiped at us, its hand crashing through a stone pillar as if it wasn't there, sending debris flying.
We sprinted across a narrow floating bridge that connected our platform to a smaller island higher up. The Titan tried to follow, but its massive shoulders smashed against the floating rocks. It roared in frustration, unable to fit.
We collapsed on the upper island, gasping for air.
"Safe," Tybalt wheezed, hugging the ground. "Safe. I love small islands. Small islands are my favorite."
"It's guarding the lower sector," Kaelen said, wiping sweat from his face. "And the exit is definitely down there."
"So we're trapped," Ria said, sheathing her dagger. "We can't kill it. We can't leave. And we have..." She checked an imaginary watch. "...two days before the tournament starts."
"We need better gear," I said, looking at Kaelen's sword.
The steel blade was covered in hairline fractures. The intense mana he was channeling was tearing the mundane metal apart.
"Your sword is going to break in three more hits," I noted.
Kaelen looked at the weapon. "It's standard issue. It wasn't made for Void Mana."
"And my dagger is chipped," Ria added.
"And I'm out of paper," Cian sighed, showing his empty notebook.
We were under-leveled and under-equipped.
I turned my gaze to the pristine mahogany door standing in the middle of our current island. The "Admin Only" door.
"We can't kill the boss with starter gear," I said. "So we need to raid the dev room."
I walked up to the door.
[Object: The Backdoor]
[Access Level: Admin Only]
"Ren," Kaelen warned. "Last time you opened a weird door, an army of fanatics tried to kill us."
"This is different," I said, pulling Arthur Penhaligon's ID card from my pocket. "This is personal."
I swiped the card through the brass mail slot.
Beep.
The door clicked. The handle turned on its own.
"Get ready," I whispered. "If there's a monster inside, we close it fast."
I kicked the door open.
We all tensed, weapons raised.
But nothing jumped out. Instead, warm, golden light spilled onto the cold white stone. The smell of... old leather and pipe tobacco wafted out.
I stepped inside.
It wasn't a room. It was a pocket dimension styled like a cozy Victorian study. Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with glowing tomes. There was a fireplace crackling with eternal flame, a plush rug, and a large oak desk.
And on the walls, mounted like trophies, were weapons.
"By the Six Gods," Kaelen breathed, stepping past me.
He walked up to a greatsword hanging above the fireplace. It was black metal, etched with silver runes that pulsed slowly.
[Weapon: The Prototype (Claymore)]
[Stats: Uncalibrated]
[Effect: Mana Conductivity 100%]
"It's beautiful," Kaelen whispered. He reached out and took it. It was heavy, but in his hands, it looked weightless.
Ria had already found a display case. inside were twin daggers made of glass—or something that looked like glass but felt like diamond.
"Phase Blades," she read the plaque. "Ignores armor. Ren, I think I'm in love."
Cian was at the desk, vibrating with excitement. He held up a stack of parchment. "Infinite Scroll! It rewrites itself after you cast the spell! I never have to buy paper again!"
Tybalt found a cloak. "It makes me invisible if I crouch! I can be a bush! A permanent bush!"
I watched them loot the room. It felt good. For the first time in weeks, we weren't scraping by. We were gearing up.
I walked to the desk. There was a single book lying open in the center.
It wasn't a spellbook. It was a logbook.
Entry 404:
The 'Null-Titan' keeps spawning in the tutorial zone. I tried to delete it, but the code is tangled with the Foundation Layer. If I delete the Titan, the Academy floats away. So I locked it down here. Note to self: Do not let students find the basement key.
I smiled wryly. "Sorry, Arthur. Too late."
I flipped the page.
Entry 412:
I hid the Second Fragment in the Titan's chest core. It seemed safe. No one can kill a glitched mob with regen like that. Unless they figure out the rhythm.
My eyes widened.
"Guys," I called out. "I know how to kill the boss."
They all turned, looking like kids on Christmas morning with their new toys.
"It has the Second Source Code Fragment inside it," I explained. "And it has a rhythm. The regen isn't passive; it's a scripted event. It triggers every ten seconds."
"So?" Kaelen asked, swinging his new black sword. It made a terrifying whoosh sound.
"So," I said. "We have a ten-second window to deal damage that exceeds its total health pool. We don't chip away at it. We one-shot it."
"One-shot a Level 25 boss?" Ria twirled her Phase Blades. "With these, maybe. But we need an opening."
"We need a nuke," I corrected. "Kaelen, can you channel all your mana into one strike? I mean all of it. To the point where you pass out?"
Kaelen looked at the black blade. "With this sword? I think I can channel enough to cut the island in half."
"Good. Cian, I need you to calculate the exact moment the regen cycle ends. Tybalt, you're on distraction duty. You need to be the bait."
Tybalt's smile faded. "I liked the invisible cloak better when I wasn't bait."
"You'll be invisible bait," I assured him. "It'll be confused."
I looked at the group. They looked different. The mismatched gear was gone. They looked like a party ready for the raid.
"We have 48 hours," I said. "We spend 24 hours attuning to the new weapons. Then, we kill the Titan, grab the Fragment, and get back to the surface just in time to crash Valen's tournament."
"I like this plan," Ria said, stabbing the air.
The next 24 hours were a blur of training.
The "Backdoor" room became our dojo. Kaelen practiced with The Prototype, learning to control the massive mana flow it allowed. The first time he swung it fully, he accidentally vaporized a bookshelf.
"Oops," he said, looking guilty.
"It's fine," I said, watching the bookshelf respawn a few seconds later. "The room resets."
Ria practiced with her Phase Blades. She realized they could cut through stone walls without resistance. She spent hours carving intricate insults to Valen into the floor.
Cian was huddled in the corner with his Infinite Scroll, muttering incantations. He was trying to adapt his gravity magic to the scroll's unique properties.
And me?
I sat at the desk, reading Arthur's logbook.
I learned a lot. I learned that the Academy was built on top of a "Mana Well" to stabilize the simulation. I learned that the "Demon King" was originally supposed to be a tutorial boss that got out of hand.
And I learned about Valen.
Entry 50:
The 'Rival' character is acting strange. The AI is adapting too fast. It's asking questions about the sky. I think I made him too smart. I should patch him.
"He didn't patch him," I whispered. "He evolved."
"Ren," Kaelen said.
I looked up. Kaelen was standing in front of the desk. He wasn't practicing anymore. He looked serious.
"We're ready," he said.
I checked the time on the grandfather clock in the corner. We had twelve hours until the tournament began.
"Okay," I said, closing the logbook. "Let's go giant slaying."
We returned to the lower platform. The Null-Titan was waiting, pacing back and forth in its glitchy, jerky loop.
"Positions," I whispered.
Tybalt activated his cloak. He vanished.
"I'm a bush," his voice whispered from thin air. "I'm a spooky ghost bush."
"Go," I signaled.
Tybalt ran—well, shuffled invisibly—toward the Titan's feet. He threw a rock.
The Titan roared, looking down. It couldn't see anything, but it sensed the impact. It stomped, trying to crush the invisible annoyance.
"Cian, now!"
Cian unfurled his Infinite Scroll. "Gravity Well: Maximum Output!"
A sphere of heavy black gravity appeared above the Titan's head. It didn't crush the Titan; it pulled it up.
The massive grey giant was lifted a few feet off the ground, its legs flailing. It was disoriented. The "Glitch" physics didn't know how to handle being airborne.
"Regen cycle in 3... 2... 1... Now!" Cian screamed. "Shields down!"
For a split second, the red wireframe beneath the Titan's grey skin stopped glowing.
"Kaelen!" I yelled.
Kaelen was already in the air. He had jumped from the upper bridge. He was falling toward the Titan like a meteor.
He held the black greatsword with both hands. The blade was screaming, wreathed in so much dark mana it looked like a tear in reality.
"ABYSSAL GUILLOTINE!"
He struck the Titan's neck.
There was no sound of impact. Just a flash of white light.
The light expanded, swallowing the platform.
When my vision cleared, Kaelen was standing on the ground, breathing hard. The Titan was gone.
Completely gone.
Floating in the air where its chest used to be was a glowing blue crystal shard.
[Source Code Fragment (2/5)]
"We did it," Ria cheered, appearing from the shadows. "One hit! That was insane!"
I walked over and grabbed the crystal.
[Integrate?]
"Not yet," I whispered, pocketing it. "Valen can sense it."
Suddenly, the white void began to shake. The floating islands started to crumble.
[Zone Alert: Boss Defeated.]
[Zone Collapsing in 60 Seconds.]
"The room is deleting itself!" Cian yelled. "The exit! Where's the exit?"
A portal opened where the Titan had stood. It wasn't the glitchy hole we came in through. It was a swirling blue vortex.
"That's the way out!" I shouted. "Go! Go!"
We sprinted for the portal as the floor fell away behind us. Tybalt dove in first. Then Cian. Then Ria.
Kaelen grabbed my arm. "Ren! Come on!"
We jumped together.
We landed on hard stone.
Sunlight blinded me. Real sunlight.
I blinked, coughing. We were... inside?
I looked around. We were standing in the middle of a massive arena. Thousands of people were cheering.
Wait.
I looked up.
We weren't just in an arena. We were in the Arena. The Grand Colosseum of the Academy.
And standing opposite us, looking very surprised, was a team of five students in pristine armor.
And sitting in the Royal Box, looking down with a bored expression that instantly turned to shock, was Valen.
A magical announcer's voice boomed over the crowd.
"And making a surprise entrance from... the floor? It's Squad 7!"
I looked at Kaelen. He was holding his massive black sword. Ria had her glass daggers. We looked like we had just crawled out of hell.
"Did we just crash the tournament?" Tybalt asked, pulling off his invisible cloak.
"Yeah," I said, locking eyes with Valen. "We skipped the qualifiers."
Valen stood up slowly. He smiled. A genuine, terrifying smile.
"Well," Valen's voice echoed. "Let the games begin."