Everything around him was simply dark. Each step was higher than the previous one. Every time he went down one, it felt like he could fall at any moment, yet he continued descending frantically.
Mike — "Ah damn! I missed one!"
He eventually did miss a step and tumbled down the stairs. His body rolled down a dozen steps before violently hitting his head with a loud crash. Boom.
Mike — "Ouch! That hurts like hell!"
Voice? — "That'll teach you to pay attention."
He stood back up with difficulty and brushed off his clothes. Strangely, there wasn't the slightest scratch on his body. He was in perfect condition—one could doubt he'd actually fallen down the stairs. But he didn't even notice those details.
He looked straight ahead. There stood a door, identical in every way to the one he had seen earlier.
Mike — "Another door? Hmm 99!"
Staring at the door, he saw the engraving「99」. But he didn't dare open it. What awaited him behind it? Would something attack him again?
Voice? — "Are you going to go through that door, or stay crouched in front of it like that?"
「Why is he rushing me?」
Mike — "Wait, I want to understand something first. If we're on the 99th floor… that means the previous one was the hundredth? We're starting pretty high… Don't tell me I have 99 left to go down."
A 100-floor building wasn't common, and having to go down all of them on foot even less so. A long descent awaited him.
Voice? — "Yes, seems like it. Strange… Anyway, I think we should start with that door."
「He's getting on my nerves again, I'll go through that door… I don't really have a choice anyway.」
Behind him, the steps had partially vanished and continued disappearing with a metallic clicking sound. They were folding back into themselves. In the end, only the step he was standing on remained.
With no other choice, he opened the door and entered floor 99. Behind him, the door closed on its own and vanished. All that remained was a simple wall, with no door.
Mike — "Great… They really don't want to give me a choice. And this floor looks strangely similar to the previous one. A bit too similar. As if it were an exact copy… The broken walls… The traces of battle! But I definitely went down."
He moved forward to observe the floor's details. He recognized some elements: the debris from the fight, the apartment doors. He tried lifting a stone among the rubble, but it didn't move an inch.
Voice? — "You look like you're struggling. Yet it's supposed to be easy to lift. You need to work out more."
Mike pushed harder, but nothing worked. The stone stayed fixed in place, as if welded to the ground. He looked around, searching for other anomalies.
「The floor is weird.」
The liquid on the ground, previously fluid, now seemed completely immobile.
Mike — "It's solid. Even harder than the floor."
The air seemed frozen, heavy. Even his breathing echoed like a distant sound.
He took a few more steps. His shoes didn't sink. He was literally walking on the liquid, now a hard, impenetrable surface. As if it had been frozen in time. Yet it was covered in footprints.
Two types of soles could be distinguished:
The first, very numerous, each about 25 centimeters to the eye. They were drawn with almost mechanical precision. Thick grooves, like scars in the floor, marked the passing of a heavy, sturdy boot.
The angular sole pattern formed a strange, regular symbol.
The second type was far less numerous but much larger. They weren't leather or metal prints: a carved, angular mark made of fractures and pale shards. At their center, the liquid seemed to have been sucked in, petrified by the simple presence of whoever had been there.
「My footprints and those of the Entity. So this is a copy of the previous floor?」
As the young man had guessed, these footprints were from the previous floor. But something didn't sit right with him.
Mike — "I didn't walk that much… Why are there so many of my footprints?"
Voice? — "I told you, didn't I? One of the others moved around when you fell asleep."
「That again? The others? I guess he's going to tell me to figure it out myself like last time.」
Mike seemed to doubt the voice again. What was it still hiding from him? A secret? Were there really other humans in this building?
Voice? — "Hmm Since we're not as rushed as last time, find a place to sit down. I'll explain. You can eat something while you're at it."
Mike's eyebrows shot up instantly, surprised by the response.
Mike — "Why not…"
He went to a slightly open apartment door. By reflex, he tried pushing it to enter, but it didn't move a bit. Frozen like the rest.
「Even the doors? It's really frozen in time…」
He slid his bag through first and squeezed in with difficulty.
Just like before, the inside was identical to the previous floor. On the ground lay the wrappers that had fallen. He glared at them with disdain, then sat on the dining table. He placed his bag on it, rummaged inside, and took out some small round cakes.
Mike — "I like these cakes, but anyway, shall we get to the point?"
Eating his cakes, he was ready to listen to the voice.
??? — "I told you not to sit on the table. To stop eating cakes as a meal. And your bag, not on the table either! And shoes stay at the entrance."
「Someone just talked to me? A human? A voice? A woman?」
A feminine voice had just spoken to him? In this place where he had seen no one… except the Entity who had tried to kill him. Who wouldn't have been thrilled in his place? Who wouldn't have jumped with joy, ignoring the actual words spoken?
Mike — "Finally!"
Forgetting all fear, Mike spun around abruptly, overwhelmed with joy.
Voice? — "Oh no…"
But his joy was cut short. Behind him stood a black, shadowy silhouette, resembling a ghost. If one had to give her an age, it would've been somewhere in her forties. Her hair was long and devoid of all color, like poorly washed cloth. Her face was indistinct, scribbled with thin, blurry, distorted lines. Her feet seemed to pass through the hardened liquid and rested directly on the original floor.
Feminine silhouette — "Mom told you to behave, didn't she? To stop worrying her?"
「Mom?」
While continuing to speak, she approached him, raising her right hand, about to bring it down on him.
Mike — "My head… What's happening! It feels like my brain's being squeezed!"
At that moment, Mike's heart was overwhelmed by a violent wave of rage, disgust… followed by intense nausea. A crushing headache seized him.
Feminine silhouette — "Sorry!"
In his mind, hundreds of images surged at once.
「That hand… I've seen it raised hundreds of times.」
He shut his eyes, as if waiting for the hit. But nothing came.
He slowly reopened them. In front of him… stood door 99 again.
Mike — "…"