The gates to the Chamber of the First Warden stood imposing at the summit of the Floor 1 central spire. Dozens of players gathered before it, but the most conspicuous was a group clad in white robes embroidered with gold.
[Guild: Iron Order]
They were one of the major guilds dominating the first day. Standing at their front was a man with a massive shield named Magnus, Level 18. He was barking instructions with a voice intentionally raised to impress the surrounding players.
"Listen up, everyone! The Floor 1 Boss, Grave-Warden Valerius, is a Great Wall. But for the Iron Order, he's just a pebble!" Magnus laughed boastfully. His eyes then shifted toward Kanna and me as we arrived. "Oi, you two! Don't just stand there. If you're coming in, stay in the back row and don't get in the way of the professionals."
Kanna started to retort, but I held her shoulder. "Leave it," I whispered flatly. "Let them clear the path."
"But Faker, he's insulting us!" Kanna whispered back, annoyed.
"In this game, Kanna, the loudest ones are usually the first to turn into light polygons. Just watch."
The giant doors groaned open with a rumble that vibrated through the tower floor. We all entered a vast arena—an ancient hall filled with crimson lotuses that somehow thrived on the stone floor. In the center of the room, a slender knight in rusted silver armor stood motionless. He gripped a thin longsword, a giant katana of unreasonable length.
[Boss: Valerius, The Rotting Blade]
"Charge!" Magnus roared.
The Iron Order ranks surged forward. As the Tanker, Magnus attempted to block Valerius's opening strike with his Great Shield. However, the moment the boss moved, the atmosphere shifted.
Valerius did not attack with heavy bludgeons. He moved as if he were dancing.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
In seconds, Valerius glided into the air and descended with a sequence of lightning-fast circular slashes. A technique I knew all too well from the Alpha: the Waterfowl Dance.
"What is this?!" Magnus screamed in panic as his shield cracked under just one flurry of attacks. The HP bars of the Iron Order members plummeted. They tried to use healing potions, but every time Valerius's blade connected, the boss regained a portion of his own health.
"He has Life-steal?!" Kanna shrieked. "He heals every time his attack hits an opponent?"
"It's the Scarlet Rot curse mechanic," I answered calmly, my eyes never leaving Valerius's footwork. "One touch, and you give him an extra life. That guild is finished."
Sure enough, within five minutes, the Iron Order ranks were in shambles. Magnus was sent flying into a corner, his HP in the red zone. The "professionals" were now screaming in terror as Valerius prepared an area-of-effect attack that would wipe out everyone in the room.
"Get away from there!" I roared.
I lunged forward, past a slumped Magnus. "Move, amateur. Let me show you how to handle this dancer."
I didn't use a shield. I wasn't even wearing heavy armor. I simply held my longsword with one hand.
Valerius spotted me. He performed an instant dash, slashing his blade at speeds exceeding the limit of human sight. But I already knew. I had fought the Alpha version of this monster hundreds of times until every pixel of his movement was etched into my brain.
Ting!
I executed a perfect Parry. Not by blocking, but by clashing the tip of my sword against the side of his blade on the 12th frame of his attack.
Valerius staggered. Before he could recover, I dashed backward, weaving through a flurry of consecutive slashes that created a sword-storm around me. I moved like a shadow—shifting only a millimeter away from every strike.
"He... he hasn't been hit a single time?" Magnus muttered in disbelief.
"Now, Kanna! Frame-Clip from the left side!" I commanded.
Kanna, who had been poised, shot inside. She performed the feint attack I had taught her yesterday. Valerius tried to pivot his body to slash Kanna, but I was already in front of him, delivering a Heavy Thrust directly into his knee joint, which was exposed as he turned.
But, at the exact moment Kanna's blade was about to graze the boss's greaves, something impossible happened.
Instead of staggering, Valerius's body suddenly shuddered violently. His graphics glitched for a second, leaving behind a dense, black afterimage.
KRETEK!
"Huh—?" Kanna froze.
Valerius didn't pivot his body like he did in the Beta version. Instead of a 360-degree rotation, he performed a forced animation cancel—a technique that should only be possible for a player like me—and slammed the hilt of his sword into Kanna's chest.
"Kanna, dodge!" I roared.
BRAKK!
Kanna was sent flying, her HP bar plummeting drastically. I was stunned. This wasn't in the data logs. Valerius shouldn't be able to cancel his own attacks.
Suddenly, the red aura enveloping the hall turned pitch black. Valerius raised his sword toward the ceiling, and every crimson lotus on the floor bloomed simultaneously, emitting a toxic vapor that began to drain the HP of anyone touching it.
[WARNING: SYSTEM EVOLUTION DETECTED]
[Boss Skill: Malignant Bloom - Phase 2.5]
"Phase 2.5?" My heart hammered against my ribs. "In the Beta, he only had two phases. Dammit, they added a new variable!"
Valerius bowed his head, and then, in a flash, he vanished. Not a high-speed dash, but a total disappearance. My instincts screamed. I leaped backward just as his thin blade erupted from the ground, followed by an explosion of sharp polygons resembling the wings of a rotting butterfly.
Srett!
My cloak sleeve tore. Digital blood began to flow. For the first time since this game was released, my HP decreased.
"Faker! He's too fast!" Kanna tried to stand, but the poison in the air made her cough.
I gritted my teeth. Cold sweat began to bead on my forehead in the real world. I dropped my relaxed posture. I gripped my longsword with both hands—the Vanguard Stance, a position I only used when facing an opponent stronger than myself.
"Fine, if you want to play dirty by changing the rules..." my voice dropped low, thick with threat. "Let's see who's better at manipulating this world."
Valerius lunged again, this time performing a chain attack similar to the Waterfowl Dance, but at double the speed. Every slash left a black line in the air that exploded one second later.
I stopped breathing. My focus reached a peak known as Neuro-Acceleration. In my eyes, the world began to transform into rows of slow-moving binary code.
Ting-Ting-Ting-Ting!
I parried every single strike at point-blank range. I was no longer looking for a safe opening; I intentionally stepped into his sword-storm. Every time he attacked, I countered with a Counter-Glitch—clashing my weapon against the same impact point repeatedly to create an overload on the boss's collision sensors.
STUTTER!
Valerius's movements began to hitch. The system was confused, receiving too much impact data within a single second.
"Kanna! Don't use your sword! Use that explosive potion you found in the valley yesterday! Throw it at his feet when I give the signal!" I shouted, still straining against the increasing pressure of Valerius's maddened blade.
"But that's a Rare potion, Faker! Weren't we going to sell it?"
"Forget the coins! If we die here, everything is gone!"
Kanna nodded in understanding. She took her stance. I saw Valerius winding up for his ultimate move—a straight thrust that would release all his Scarlet Rot energy.
This was it.
As Valerius surged forward at the speed of sound, I didn't dodge. I performed the most dangerous Frame-Clip: [Double-Negative Frame]. I canceled both the defensive and offensive animations simultaneously, making my body appear translucent.
Valerius's sword passed right through my afterimage.
"NOW!"
Kanna hurled the potion. BOOM! A fire explosion slammed into Valerius's legs just as he was in End-Lag (the recovery delay after a massive attack).
The silver knight's body was launched into the air, his balance completely shattered. I jumped, chasing him into the sky. I spun my body, concentrating all my remaining stamina into a single point at the tip of my blade.
[Technique: Zero-Point Strike]
I drove my sword directly into his core heart, which glowed red in the center of his chest.
CRACK-SHATTER!
The entire hall shook violently. A blinding white light swallowed everything. The sound of snapping metal filled my ears before everything finally went silent.
[ CONGRATULATION ]
[BOSS DEFEATED: FLOOR 1 CLEARED]
[New Record: 08:42]
I landed with trembling knees. My HP bar sat at a mere 15%. My breath came in gasps, and I could feel the heart rate sensor on my neck throbbing.
"Hah... hah... insane," I muttered, wiping virtual sweat from my face.
Kanna ran toward me, falling to her knees by my side, her face pale yet triumphant. "We... we didn't die, right?"
I looked toward the members of the Iron Order. Magnus and his group were still frozen in the corner, their faces wearing expressions that went far beyond mere amazement. They had just witnessed something that shouldn't exist at this level. A high-level battle that transcended the system's limitations.
"Faker..." Kanna turned to me, her eyes sparkling under the moonlight filtering through the shattered tower roof. "Just now... it didn't feel like you were playing a game. It felt like you were at war with the game itself."
I only gave a thin, cynical smile filled with satisfaction. "That's because this game just tried to betray me, Kanna. And I don't like being betrayed."
I stood up, ignoring the loot drop notifications flooding my screen. I looked toward the gate to Floor 2 that had just opened. There, a deeper darkness awaited.
If Floor 1 could already evolve to fight me, then the subsequent floors would be a true hell. And for some reason, the thought of it made my blood boil with an excitement I hadn't felt in a very long time.