**Chapter 13: The Null Space**
Zayne didn't fall. He floated.
The world behind the mirror wasn't a room. It was an abyss of raw data and mechanical entropy.
Above him, colossal gears made of grinding obsidian turned slowly in the void. Below him, rivers of blue mana—the source code of the Tower—flowed like electric veins. There was no air here, only a static charge that made his skin crawl.
[Warning: You have exited the Playable Area.]
[Warning: Environmental Damage: 1% HP/sec.]
[Warning: System Watchdogs alerted.]
"100 seconds," Zayne calculated.
He grabbed a floating cable—a thick bundle of mana conduits—and looked up.
He could see the "floors" of the Tower from the outside. They looked like floating islands stacked on top of each other, encased in translucent bubbles.
Floor 4 (The Wave Defense) was directly above him.
Floor 5 (The Jungle).
Floor 6 (The Dead City).
"Too slow to climb," Zayne hissed through his teeth.
He looked for the central elevator shaft—the pillar of light that transported players who cleared a floor legally.
There. A beam of pure white light shooting up through the center of the chaos.
Zayne activated *Void Energy*. He coated his boots in violet light.
He kicked off the cable, launching himself through the null space toward the beam.
*SCREEE!*
A sound like a dial-up modem screaming in agony tore through the silence.
From the darkness, shapes emerged. They were red, wireframe wolves—glitch entities.
[Enemy: System Watchdog (Type: Debugger)]
[Level: 25]
[Damage: Deletes Data.]
Three of them intercepted his trajectory. They didn't bite; they tried to phase through him to erase his code.
"You can't delete zero," Zayne said cold logic.
He twisted his body in mid-air.
*Dimensional Cut.*
He slashed not at the wolves, but at the space *between* them.
The rift opened, sucking in the local static. The vacuum pulled the wireframe wolves together into a tight cluster.
Zayne extended his left hand.
"Void Pocket: Open."
He didn't absorb them. He reversed the flow. He ejected the massive *Hydra Corpse* he had stored earlier.
*SPLAT.*
Tons of toxic hydra meat materialized instantly in the vacuum. The sheer mass of the physical object colliding with the digital entities caused a physics crash.
The Watchdogs smashed into the Hydra meat, their wireframes tangling with the organic matter.
[System Error: Collision Detection Failed.]
[Deleting corrupted entities...]
The System deleted the Hydra meat *and* the Watchdogs entangled in it to save memory.
[Experience Gained: 15,000.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
"Efficient," Zayne muttered. He had traded dead weight for levels.
He hit the central beam of light.
It was solid, like a wall of glass.
Zayne drove his *Fang of the Alpha* into the beam, using it as an ice pick. He began to climb.
He pulled himself up past Floor 4... Floor 5... Floor 6...
His HP was dropping.
[HP: 60/160]
[HP: 55/160]
The erosion of the Null Space was accelerating. His skin was starting to pixelate, turning grey.
"Faster."
He ignored the pain. He ignored the vertigo of hanging over an infinite drop.
He reached the level of Floor 9.
Above him loomed the massive, dark underbelly of **Floor 10**.
Floor 10 was the Gatekeeper Floor. The first true wall. It was a massive fortress floating in the sky.
Zayne didn't aim for the entrance. He aimed for a small, flickering vent on the underside of the fortress foundation.
"That's the exhaust port for the Boss's mana regen," Zayne recalled.
He reached the vent. It was barred with adamantite grates.
[HP: 20/160]
"Dimensional Cut."
He burned his last reserve of Void Energy. The violet blade sliced through the adamantite like butter.
Zayne pulled himself through the hole just as his vision began to blur from digital corruption.
He fell onto a cold stone floor.
[You have re-entered the Playable Area.]
[Environmental Damage halted.]
[HP Recovery active.]
Zayne lay on his back, gasping. The pixelation on his skin faded, returning to normal flesh.
He sat up and looked around.
He wasn't in the Boss Room.
He was in a small, dusty chamber filled with shelves. Old swords, cracked shields, and dusty potions lined the walls. In the corner, a skeleton sat in a chair, holding a sign.
[Hidden Room: The Reject Pile.]
[You are the first player to discover this location.]
Zayne laughed, a dry, raspy sound.
"The Grave of Failed Prototypes."
This was where the System stored items that were too buggy or unbalanced to be released in the main game.
Zayne stood up, dusting off his *Night-Walker* armor. He walked over to the skeleton and plucked a dusty, unassuming amulet from its neck.
[Item: Amulet of the False King (Glitch Item)]
[Rank: ???]
[Effect: Hides the user's Level and Status from the System for 1 minute. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
[Side Effect: While active, user cannot gain XP.]
"Perfect for sneaking past a God," Zayne grinned.
He pocketed the amulet.
He walked to the heavy wooden door at the end of the room. He could feel the pressure on the other side.
The Floor 10 Boss. **The Dullahan General.**
Zayne pushed the door open.
He didn't step into a boss arena. He stepped onto a balcony overlooking it.
Below him, in a massive coliseum, the Dullahan—a headless knight riding a nightmare horse—stood frozen in the center. It was in "Sleep Mode," waiting for a player to enter the front gate to trigger its AI.
Zayne was behind it. Above it.
And the Boss had no head to see him with.
Zayne drew his sword.
"Wakey wakey."