Roxy’s expression was bright as she spoke, a soft smile resting naturally on her lips, yet behind that softness there was something restrained and distant, something quieter and heavier that lingered in her eyes in a way that Rain could clearly see but could not quite understand or put into words.

  “My older sister gave me this when I was ten,” she said, lifting the stuffed animal slightly, her fingers holding it with a careful, deliberate gentleness that made it obvious this was not some meaningless object she carried absentmindedly.

  “There was a time when I held it in my arms every night,” Roxy continued, her voice lowering just enough to lose its earlier lightness. “On nights when it rained, when there were thunderstorms, when my family was fighting and the walls felt thinner than they should have.”

  “In stressful situations, I used to hold it even tighter than usual,” she said, and as the words left her mouth her fingers unconsciously tightened around the stuffed animal, as if her body remembered those nights more vividly than she allowed herself to.

  “It sounds stupid, right?” she added with a faint smile that tried to pass as casual. “Getting comfort from something that can’t even move.”

  Rain didn’t answer, but Light instantly spoke out in a more uplifting tone, “It’s not stupid!”

  The words came quickly, almost instinctively, as if he couldn’t stand the idea of her thinking that way.

  Roxy blinked in slight surprise, then a small, genuine smile spread across her face at Light’s response.

  “In the Hub, there’s a saying that being attached to something so worthless is stupid,” she continued, letting out a small laugh that carried no real humor. “Because once someone finds your weakness, they can use it against you.”

  Her grip tightened again.

  “Like the Architect.”

  Rain’s brows furrowed slightly. “What’s the Hub?”

  Roxy froze in a way that was almost imperceptible, yet obvious enough to someone paying attention; her shoulders stiffened, her eyes shifted away from Rain and Light, and she subtly angled her body as though trying to distance herself from the question itself.

  It looked like the reaction of someone who had revealed more than intended.

  After a few seconds that stretched just long enough to feel uncomfortable, she cleared her throat.

  “Ah… the Hub,” she said, her words slower now, measured and carefully chosen. “That’s just where I was born.”

  Rain studied her quietly, sensing that the explanation was too simple and far too neat, especially when paired with the way she avoided his gaze, but he chose not to press further because it was clear that whatever the Hub truly was, it was not an easy topic for her.

  He had never heard of a place called the Hub before.

  Still, the name lingered in his mind in a way that felt deliberate rather than accidental.

  As Rain continued thinking about it, a sudden shift rippled through the air around them, not in the form of wind or sound but as a dense, suffocating pressure that seemed to descend all at once and press against their lungs and crawl slowly along their spines.

  Everyone felt it.

  No one needed to ask who it was.

  It was Ashlore.

  He appeared wearing the same dark, immaculate outfit as before, every detail perfectly in place, his mere presence warping the atmosphere around him as though the air itself adjusted to accommodate him.

  As he stepped closer, every person instinctively rose to their feet, and even those who had been asleep moments earlier jolted awake with widened eyes, as though dragged out of their dreams by the weight of his arrival.

  The mood was nothing like it had been the day before, when the manifestation of their deepest desires had filled the room with confusion, curiosity, and a fragile happiness.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Now there was only tension.

  Fear.

  Ashlore stopped roughly fifteen feet away from them and looked over the group with an expression that revealed nothing.

  “I haven’t explained the rules very clearly,” he said calmly. “Yesterday, there were more pressing matters.”

  He paused, allowing the silence to settle fully before continuing, and when he spoke again his voice was deeper, darker, carrying the unmistakable tone of someone delivering a verdict rather than an explanation.

  “I will call two names. Those two individuals will enter the second floor of the Tower.”

  Several people stiffened visibly.

  “Even if they die inside that floor, it will not matter. The remaining fifty players will proceed to the third floor regardless.”

  The words fell over the crowd like ash.

  “I do not know the difficulty of this floor,” Ashlore continued. “Each floor’s challenge changes randomly. Its level is always unpredictable.”

  Murmurs spread immediately, uneasy whispers slipping between the group as fearful glances were exchanged in silence.

  No one liked the word random.

  No one liked being told their deaths might simply not matter.

  And yet beneath the fear was another thought that seemed to grip everyone at once—the question of whether they would be one of the two names called.

  Even Rain felt it, as the memory of the first floor resurfaced in his mind, bringing back the sharp edge of anxiety he had barely survived before, and the realization that if the second floor was even slightly more difficult, he couldn’t imagine how much worse it could become.

  Ashlore had mentioned earlier that it was unusual for only two people to be sent to the second floor, that normally far more were chosen, and that detail alone gnawed at Rain’s thoughts because if the floor was designed for larger groups then how could only two people possibly eliminate every creature that might be waiting there, yet at the same time Ashlore had also said that each floor’s difficulty changed randomly and was always unpredictable, which forced Rain to consider the possibility that perhaps the challenge would shift to match the number of participants, because surely a floor meant for twenty could not be identical to one meant for two.

  The reasoning did little to calm him.

  Around him, subtle tremors began to appear in the crowd as Ashlore’s commanding voice echoed once more through the suffocating silence.

  “I shall call out the two who will go to the second floor.”

  The atmosphere tightened instantly, and Rain felt his muscles lock without consciously meaning to, while he slowly scanned the people around him and saw the same tension mirrored in their rigid stances and shallow breathing.

  Roxy clutched her stuffed animal tightly against her chest, her fingers curling into the fur, while Light stared down at the ground with his fingers crossed tightly together, silently praying that his name would not be the one spoken.

  Ashlore’s voice cut through the stillness, slow and deliberate, as though he were savoring the weight of every second.

  “The people I have chosen…”

  He paused long enough for the tension to sharpen.

  “Were the leaders…”

  Another pause.

  ‘The leaders?’

  “In kills.”

  The words struck Rain like a physical blow, and for a brief second his legs nearly gave out beneath him because he already knew the outcome before it was spoken; no one on the first floor had come remotely close to the number of kills he had accumulated.

  “May Rain and Stella step forward.”

  Confusion rippled through the crowd immediately as heads turned in every direction, people whispering to one another while searching for the two names that had just been announced, and Rain felt his heart pound violently as he forced himself to move forward, each step feeling heavier than it should have.

  Murmurs followed him as people tried to identify who he was, their eyes narrowing, their voices low but sharp, and the sensation of being watched from every angle twisted his stomach painfully as memories from his past resurfaced.

  Maybe becoming a vampire hadn’t erased that part of his insecurity after all.

  Behind him, he heard another set of footsteps, steady and unhurried, and when he reached Ashlore he found himself standing only a few feet away from the thing whose mere presence made the air feel distorted and oppressive.

  Rain positioned himself on Ashlore’s right while the blonde-haired girl—Stella—stood calmly on the left, her posture straight and composed in a way that only intensified the murmurs spreading through the remaining players, though those whispers quickly died down as if remembering Ashlore’s presence.

  Without warning, Ashlore snapped his fingers, and a massive blue portal erupted into existence before them, its swirling light vivid and surreal, shimmering with such intensity that it made every fantasy depiction of teleportation Rain had ever seen seem dull and lifeless by comparison.

  Before he could fully process the sight, Ashlore spoke again in the same unwavering tone.

  “Enter the portal, and you will arrive at the second floor of the Tower.”

  Hearing it stated so plainly made the situation feel even worse.

  Only seconds passed before Stella moved, stepping forward without hesitation and walking directly into the portal as though she were simply crossing a doorway rather than entering an unknown and potentially fatal floor.

  ‘How did she do that so easily?’ Rain thought, watching her disappear into the blue light. ‘Not just confidently… but like she isn’t scared at all.’

  A sharp feeling tightened in his chest, something between wounded pride and reluctant admiration, because how could she appear so fearless when he—someone who had become a vampire, someone stronger than most of the people behind him—felt his pulse hammering so violently?

  Perhaps it was ego.

  Perhaps it was jealousy.

  Or perhaps he simply refused to be the one who hesitated.

  Without glancing back at the crowd and without acknowledging the stares of everyone still trailing behind him, Rain stepped forward and entered the portal, allowing the blue light to swallow him whole.

  Darkness enveloped him instantly, thick and disorienting, and as his vision slowly adjusted he instinctively opened his status screen, where a notification flickered into existence before his eyes.

  You have entered the second floor of the Tower: The Ashen Mountain.