The 59th floor of the Sunshine 60 building was no longer an office space; it was a dark, shifting maze of ink and silver. The Divine Dog: Totality didn't move like a normal animal. It didn't have the weight of a living creature. It moved like a smudge of charcoal on a drawing, flickering in and out of the shadows. One second it was ten feet away, and the next, its hot, metallic breath was on my neck.
Megumi stood behind the beast, his fingers locked in the "Totality" sign. I could see the sweat dripping down his face, and though his eyes were white and empty, his teeth were gritted. He was fighting the Puppet Master from the inside, but the silver threads were like ice in his veins, forcing his body to betray his friends.
"I can't hit him!" Nobara screamed. She dodged a swipe from the wolf's claws that turned a leather office chair into confetti. "Ren, if I use Resonance on the Dog, it might snap back and hurt Megumi's soul! They're connected!"
"I know!" I yelled back. I could feel her panic through the [Soul Link]. It felt like a cold spike in my chest. "Toge, can you freeze the shadow? Just for a second!"
Toge stepped forward, but as he tried to open his mouth, he doubled over, coughing. A spray of blood hit the grey carpet. His throat was a mess of purple bruises. He had used his Cursed Speech too many times during the climb. He was at his limit.
"The dog is just the distraction!" Maki shouted. She was a blur of movement, her green sword clashing against the black claws of the wolf. Clang! Clang! Sparks flew into the air. "Look at the ceiling! He's weaving a web! He's not trying to kill us—he's trying to cage us!"
The Jester's Web
I looked up and felt my heart drop. The Puppet Master was giggling, his fingers dancing like he was playing a frantic song on a piano. Above us, hundreds of silver threads were weaving together, forming a giant, sticky web that began to descend from the rafters. It looked like a spider's trap made of moonlight.
"If a single thread touches your skin, you're part of my collection!" the Puppet Master laughed. His voice was high and grating, like metal scraping on glass. "Megumi, stop being so stingy! Show them your birds! Give them a shock!"
Megumi's fingers twisted into a new, painful shape.
"Nue!"
The voice was a strangled whisper, but it was enough. A giant, electrified owl erupted from the shadows behind him. Its wingspan filled the hallway, and its feathers were made of crackling yellow lightning. It flew into the rafters, sending bolts of electricity down at us.
CRACK-BOOM! The floor exploded in sparks. The smell of ozone filled the air. We were trapped—the black wolf was snapping at our heels on the ground, the electric owl was raining death from the air, and the silver web was slowly falling to smother us all.
"Ren, we're going to get caught! I can't move!" Nobara cried, ducking behind a heavy marble pillar as a bolt of lightning shattered the wall next to her head.
The Triple Resonance: A Slow Awakening
"He's right about one thing, Ren," Valthazar whispered. This time, the demon's voice wasn't a roar; it was a slow, oily crawl. "You are being too soft. But you don't need to be a monster to win. You just need to be the conductor of the orchestra. Use the Link. Don't fight the threads. Invite them in."
I looked at Nobara and Toge. They were exhausted, shaking, and covered in soot from the lightning. But when they looked at me, they didn't see a "cuck" or a weakling. They saw their leader.
"Nobara! Toge! Reach for me!" I shouted.
They didn't ask why. They lunged through the darkness, grabbing my hands just as the first silver threads touched my shoulders.
[SYNC RATE: 25%]
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: VOID NETWORK]
I didn't try to push the threads away with my gravity. Instead, I opened the "Void" inside my soul and let the silver threads connect to it. I turned the [Soul Link] into a giant, spiritual magnet.
"Now! Feel the weight!"
As the Puppet Master's threads latched onto our skin, they didn't take control of our brains. Instead, the dark, heavy energy of the Void traveled up the threads. It was like sending a million volts of heavy water back up a fishing line.
The Puppet Master's eyes went wide. His smile vanished. "What? What are you doing?! Why are my strings turning black? My power... it's being pulled away!"
"We aren't your dolls, you little rat," I growled. I could feel my muscles bulging as I pulled on the threads. "You're our anchor! And we're about to pull you down to earth!"
The Breaking Point
The violet energy raced up the silver threads like a fuse on a bomb. One by one, the glowing strings turned into dark, heavy chains. The Puppet Master tried to cut them, tried to vanish, but the threads were part of his own soul. He was stuck. He was pulled off his floating bone chair, dragged toward the floor by the sheer weight of our three combined spirits.
"Nobara, the finishing blow! Use the connection!" I yelled, my voice booming with a power I hadn't felt before.
Nobara didn't reach for a nail or her hammer. She reached for the black, heavy strings that were now vibrating with my gravity. She grabbed a handful of the threads and slammed her palm into them, right where they met the air.
"TRIPLE RESONANCE: SOUL BURST!"
The energy of the three of us—my crushing gravity, Toge's unyielding will, and Nobara's fiery spirit—traveled through the threads like a lightning strike. It hit the Puppet Master directly in his chest.
The explosion wasn't made of fire; it was a silent, violet expansion of force. The Puppet Master was thrown backward, flying through the massive glass window of the 59th floor. His silver threads snapped like dry silk. As he fell into the dark, rainy night of the city below, the milky white glow finally left Megumi's eyes.
The black wolf and the electric owl didn't die; they simply dissolved into harmless, soft shadows that melted into the carpet.
Megumi's knees buckled. I ran forward, my boots skidding on the glass, and caught him before his head hit the floor. He was pale, his skin was cold, and his breathing was shallow, but his eyes were dark and clear again.
"Ren...?" Megumi whispered, his voice cracking. He looked up at me, confused and hurt. "You... you actually came for me."
"We don't leave people behind, Megumi," I said, a small, tired smile finally reaching my face. "Not in this game. Not ever."
[QUEST COMPLETE: OPERATION RESCUE]
[REWARD: 10,000 OP RECEIVED]
[SYSTEM RANK: ASCENDING...]
[NEW TEAM MEMBER: MEGUMI FUSHIGURO]
But the victory was short-lived. A massive, blue hologram suddenly flickered into life in the sky outside the broken window. It was a giant face made of glowing code and shifting light—the face of a man with cold, calculating eyes that looked like they could see through time itself.
"Congratulations, Players," the giant face said. The voice didn't come from a mouth; it came from everywhere, vibrating in our very bones and making the glass on the floor dance. "You have finished the Tutorial. You have proven that bugs can occasionally climb out of the jar. Now... let the real Culling Game begin."
[WARNING: THE ARCHITECT HAS ENTERED THE COLONY]
[ALL SAFE ZONES: DELETED]
I looked at my friends. We were beaten, bleeding, and out of breath. And the real monster had just arrived.