The Tower changed the moment they stepped through the Floor 70 gate.
The platform that loaded wasn't terrain—it was a dev void. Smooth obsidian flooring stretched in a perfect circle, surrounded by floating fragments of incomplete architecture. Walls hovered without foundations. Floors had no depth.
Lucis took point, eyes scanning. "This isn't mapped."
Mira crouched low, checking the air. "Not even flagged as a combat zone. Feels like a loading error."
Cain moved with slow precision, sword drawn. His HUD flickered once, then stabilized.
Arin muttered, "I don't like this. We shouldn't be here."
Cain grinned. "Then why are you?"
The others didn't laugh.
A single bridge extended forward—eight meters of transparent code lattice. At the end sat a terminal, pulsing with glitch-light.
[Unregistered Zone: Phantom Bridge Detected]
"System pinged something," Cain said.
"Interactable?" Lucis asked.
"Possibly."
"Or a trap," Mira added. "Could be a mimic protocol. They show up in Alpha floors sometimes."
Cain shrugged. "Only one way to find out."
He stepped onto the bridge.
Nothing collapsed.
No enemies spawned.
The others followed cautiously.
Cain approached the terminal. Lines of code danced across the surface—his HUD tried to read them, then failed. A warning flashed and vanished too quickly to catch.
"Definitely not standard," Arin muttered.
Cain reached out. The screen pulsed as his hand neared, but he stopped short.
"Not today," he said, pulling his hand back. "Let's scout the floor first."
Lucis nodded. "I'll mark this as unstable terrain. We move together."
They turned back.
As they left the bridge, Cain glanced over his shoulder.
The terminal continued to pulse.
[Root Access Deferred.]
---
They found a stairwell at the far end of the void.
Normal combat music resumed as the system caught up.
[Entering Zone: Floor 70 – Outer Shell]
Stone corridors stretched ahead, etched with faint runes and glowing veins of mana. The Tower had texture again. Gravity felt heavier here.
Cain led without hesitation.
His HUD pinged an enemy cluster up ahead.
"Time to wake up," he said, resting his sword over his shoulder.