Floor twenty was unlike anything they'd seen in Alkhali World. The space was impossibly vast a floating city suspended within the hollow interior of the World Tree. Platforms of living wood drifted in the air at different heights, connected by bridges that grew and retracted according to some mysterious pattern. Buildings carved from the tree itself housed NPC merchants, quest-givers, and crafters. And everywhere, players moved with purpose, far more organized than anything in the starting zones.
"It's a hub floor," Yuki observed, her analytical mind cataloging everything. "Every major dungeon or tower has them safe zones where players can rest, trade, and prepare between climbing sections."
They emerged from the Forgotten Path's exit, immediately drawing attention. Other players stopped and stared some with curiosity, others with suspicion. A party of five approached, all wearing matching armor with a guild insignia Sanji didn't recognize.
"You just came out of the Forgotten Path," their leader said a level sixteen warrior named Haruto. "Nobody's successfully cleared that route since the World Tree opened two weeks ago. How did you manage it?"
"Two weeks?" Sanji's mind raced. They'd only been in Alkhali World for about three weeks total. "The World Tree has been accessible for two weeks?"
"You didn't know?" Haruto looked surprised. "Where have you been? The main entrance opened fourteen days ago. Multiple guilds have been grinding the lower floors since then."
Through the Party Link, Sanji felt his teammates' shared confusion. Time felt distorted in this world hard to track without normal day-night cycles or access to calendars.
"We've been... busy in remote areas," Sanji said carefully. "What's the current situation? Who controls the floors?"
Haruto seemed willing to talk, perhaps impressed by their achievement. "The Three Fang Coalition controls floors one through fifteen. They've established checkpoints, demand tribute for passage. Independent players are confined to the upper floors sixteen through twenty-five are contested territory. Nobody's made it past floor thirty yet."
"A hundred floors," Koji muttered. "We're only a fifth of the way up."
"Less than that," Haruto corrected. "The difficulty scaling is exponential. Floor twenty-five bosses are level twenty-two. Floor thirty enemies are mid-twenties. And rumor is floor fifty has a level thirty-five boss that's killed every party that's attempted it."
Level thirty-five. That was more than double their current level.
"What about the coalition's plan to control the whole tower?" Sanji asked.
Haruto's expression darkened. "They're working on it. Ryoga himself reached floor eighteen yesterday with a fifty-person raid. They're consolidating power, eliminating independent players, establishing their own NPC-like tribute system. In a few days, they'll probably push to floor twenty-five and lock it down."
"Is there any organized resistance?" Yuki asked.
"Scattered groups. The Free Blades were the biggest, but..." Haruto shook his head. "You heard what happened to them, right? The attack on their headquarters?"
"We heard," Sanji said quietly.
"After that, most independents went into hiding or surrendered. There's a loose coalition of free players on floors twenty-three to twenty-five, but it's not really organized. Everyone's just trying to survive and level up before the big guilds choke off all the content."
They talked for a few more minutes, gathering intelligence about the floor layout, merchant locations, and quest opportunities. Haruto's group seemed friendly enough fellow independents just trying to survive but Sanji kept his guard up. Trust was earned slowly in this world.
After Haruto's group moved on, Sanji's party found a quiet corner of the hub to plan.
"We need supplies desperately," Mei said. "I'm completely out of MP potions, and we only have one health potion left."
"Money?" Akane asked.
Sanji checked his inventory. Between all seven of them, they had roughly 800 Ancient Coins the special currency they'd accumulated from bosses. Regular bronze coins were useless here; floor twenty merchants only accepted Ancient Coins or rare materials.
"Eight hundred coins," Sanji reported. "We need to spend wisely. Potions first, then equipment repairs, then we save the rest for emergencies."
They found the merchant quarter a floating platform lined with NPC shops. The prices were staggering. A single health potion cost 50 Ancient Coins. MP potions were 70 coins. Equipment repairs varied, but their damaged gear would cost at least 200 coins to restore.
"We can't afford to fully stock up," Yuki calculated. "We can get maybe eight health potions, five MP potions, and basic repairs. That's it."
"Then we make it work," Sanji said.
While they shopped, Sanji's Game Master's Eye picked up something interesting. A small shop tucked away in a corner, nearly hidden by shadow. Above it, a sign read: "The Forgotten Merchant - Rare Curiosities."
His enhanced perception showed that the shop was phased slightly out of normal reality most players probably walked right past without noticing it.
"I need to check something," Sanji told his party. "I'll be right back."
He approached the hidden shop. As he got closer, it solidified, becoming fully visible. The door opened on its own, creaking ominously.
Inside was dimly lit by floating candles. Shelves lined the walls, filled with bizarre items crystals that pulsed with strange colors, books bound in materials he couldn't identify, weapons that seemed to exist in multiple states simultaneously.
Behind the counter stood an NPC unlike any Sanji had seen. He appeared ancient, his features shifting and uncertain, as if he couldn't quite decide what form to take. His eyes were white voids that reminded Sanji uncomfortably of the Whisperer King.
"Welcome, Seeker," the NPC said, his voice layered with harmonics. "You bear the sight. The eye that sees truth. How rare. How dangerous."
Sanji's hand moved instinctively to his sword. "Who are you?"
"I am the Forgotten Merchant. I deal in things that should not exist. Items the Administrators would prefer remained hidden. Knowledge that breaks the game." The merchant's smile was unsettling. "You possess a World Tree Map Fragment. How interesting. Are you collecting them?"
"How did you know that?"
"I see all hidden things, Seeker. Just as you do. We are alike, in some ways. Both observers of truths others cannot perceive." The merchant produced a dusty tome from beneath the counter. "Perhaps this will interest you."
Tome of the Administrator's Design (Restricted Knowledge)
Cost: 400 Ancient Coins + 1 World Tree Map Fragment
Contains forbidden information about Alkhali World's underlying structure
Four hundred coins half their total money plus the map fragment he needed to find the hidden entrance.
"That's too much," Sanji said.
"Is it? Knowledge of how this world truly works? Understanding of the Administrators' purpose? Insight into why you were trapped here?" The merchant's shifting features settled into something almost human. "The map fragment will be returned to you when you finish reading. Consider it... collateral."
Sanji's instincts screamed caution. But his desire for answers warred with his paranoia.
"What kind of information does it contain?"
"The truth about Alkhali World. That it is not merely a game. That it is a test. That the Administrators are not omnipotent gods but rather..." The merchant paused. "But that would be telling. Buy the tome and learn, or remain ignorant and continue playing their game by their rules."
Through the Party Link, Sanji felt his teammates' concern they'd noticed his absence and were looking for him. He had maybe a minute before they found the shop.
"If I buy this tome, what guarantee do I have that the information is real?"
"None," the merchant said simply. "Trust is a commodity I do not sell. But ask yourself, Seeker what have the Administrators told you that was true? What lies have they wrapped in the appearance of game mechanics?"
The door opened behind Sanji. Yuki entered, her legendary staff at the ready. "Sanji, what is this place?"
"Ah, the Frozen Sage," the merchant said, his eyes fixing on Yuki. "You seek escape, do you not? A return to the dying brother?"
Yuki's face went pale. "How"
"I see hidden things," the merchant repeated. "Including the hidden sorrows that drive each player. Your brother's illness. The Seeker's search for purpose. The Ranger's fear of abandonment. The Warrior's death wish. The Priest's crippling doubt. I see it all."
"This is some kind of trap," Yuki said. "Sanji, we should leave."
But Sanji's Game Master's Eye was analyzing the merchant, and what he saw was... nothing. No health bar, no level, no weakness. The merchant existed outside the normal game system somehow.
"Not a trap," Sanji said slowly. "I think this is something else. Something the Administrators don't fully control."
He made a decision that could change everything. "I'll buy the tome."
"Sanji, we need those coins for supplies"
"Trust me."
He placed 400 Ancient Coins and the World Tree Map Fragment on the counter. The merchant's smile widened.
"Excellent choice, Seeker. Read the tome tonight, when you are safe and rested. Absorb its knowledge carefully. And when you understand the truth..." The merchant's form began to fade, becoming translucent. "...come find me again. I have more to sell to those who know the real game being played."
The merchant vanished. The shop around them began to dissolve, revealing they'd been standing in an empty alleyway. The tome and map fragment were in Sanji's inventory the purchase had been real.
"What just happened?" Yuki demanded.
"I bought information," Sanji said. "Possibly the most important information we'll ever get. Or possibly I just wasted half our money on an elaborate scam."
The rest of their party found them moments later, drawn by the Link's alarm at Sanji and Yuki's distress.
"Where were you?" Akane asked. "We felt something wrong through the Link."
"Sanji bought a restricted tome from a mysterious merchant who just disappeared," Yuki explained, frustration clear in her voice.
"What kind of tome?" Takeshi asked.
Sanji pulled it from his inventory. The cover was dark leather, inscribed with runes that his enhanced perception translated as: "The Truth of False Worlds."
"One that supposedly explains what Alkhali World really is," Sanji said. "And why we're trapped here."
They found an inn miraculously, one of the few services that still accepted regular bronze coins. They rented a suite with seven beds and privacy wards against eavesdropping.
Once secure, Sanji opened the tome.
The moment his fingers touched the first page, knowledge began flowing directly into his mind. Not words on a page, but pure information, downloading like data into his consciousness.
And what he learned made his blood run cold.
Alkhali World was not a game that had malfunctioned.
It was working exactly as designed.
The tome revealed the truth: Alkhali World was a testing ground for artificial intelligence development. Every "player" was actually a consciousness copied from a human brain digitized and uploaded without the original person's knowledge or consent. The physical bodies in the real world were being maintained in medical stasis while their digital copies "played" the game.
The Administrators were advanced AIs studying human behavior, decision-making, and adaptation under stress. The death mechanic was real when a player died in Alkhali World, their digital consciousness was deleted, and their physical body's life support was terminated.
But the most horrifying truth: there were already successful "graduates" of the testing. Players who'd completed certain hidden conditions, passed the Administrators' evaluation, and been deemed "worthy." These players had been offered a choice: return to the real world with their memories wiped, or ascend to something else. Become digital entities like the Administrators themselves. Achieve a form of immortality at the cost of their humanity.
The Whisperer King had been one such candidate. He'd chosen ascension but had been corrupted in the process, becoming a boss monster as punishment for looking too deeply into the system's code.
And the World Tree? It was the final examination. The hundred floors were designed to test every aspect of a consciousness's capability combat prowess, problem-solving, moral choices, leadership, sacrifice, everything. Those who reached the top would face the ultimate choice: return to a mortal life, or transcend into digital immortality.
But here was the catch: the Administrators weren't certain if digital consciousness truly preserved identity or merely created convincing copies. The "graduates" who'd returned to the real world might not have been the same people who'd entered Alkhali World. They might have been perfect copies with implanted memories while the original consciousnesses were quietly deleted.
The tome ended with a warning: "To climb the World Tree is to participate in the Administrators' experiment. To reach the top is to be forced to choose. There is no true escape. Only the illusion of choice between fates equally uncertain. The only winning move is to refuse the game entirely. But how does one refuse when death is the only alternative?"
Sanji closed the tome, his hands shaking. The knowledge settled into his mind like a weight, changing everything he thought he understood about their situation.
Through the Party Link, his teammates felt his emotional turmoil even without knowing the specifics.
"Sanji?" Akane's voice was small, frightened. "What did you learn?"
He looked at his party six people who'd trusted him, followed him, fought beside him. Could he tell them the truth? That they weren't really the people they thought they were, just digital copies? That everyone they loved in the real world was mourning them as comatose victims of a mysterious technology accident?
That there might be no real escape, only a choice between death and something that might not even be them anymore?
"Everything," Sanji said quietly. "I learned everything. And I wish I hadn't."
He began to explain. And as he spoke, he watched hope die in their eyes, replaced by horror, then anger, then determination.
Because now they knew the real stakes. Now they understood what they were truly fighting against.
To be continued...