I started to march.
Left, two, three, four. Right, two, three, four.
The ground beneath my boots wasn’t just a street; it was a rhythmic conveyor belt of brass teeth and spinning flywheels. Every "clack" of the gears vibrated through my shins, and every "hiss" of a nearby steam vent threatened to throw off my internal count. I kept my eyes glued to the pavent, watching the teeth of the gears interlock. If I stepped on a junction at the wrong ti, I’d lose a toe—or a whole foot.
"One, two, three, four," I whispered, my voice sounding tiny against the overwhelming roar of the city.
The air was thick with the sll of hot oil and scorched copper. It was a suffocating, industrial heat, different from the dry bake of the Glass Desert. Here, the sweat on my neck felt like grease. I checked the blue icon in the corner of my eye.
[Stamina: 8/10]
[Status: Syncing...]
A few yards ahead, a squad of Sync-Knights turned the corner. They moved with a terrifying, jerky precision. Their brass faces were expressionless, save for a glowing vertical slit where a nose should be. Their wind-up keys turned with a rhythmic crank-crank-crank that matched the beat of the city.
One of them stopped. It tilted its head, its sensor-slit turning a sharp orange.
"Oh, great," I muttered. "He heard counting."
I didn’t stop marching. If I broke the rhythm now, the floor would likely vibrate at a frequency ant to shatter bone. Cian had warned about the area-of-effect blasts in the chat. I needed to stay on the beat to be "invisible" to the sensors, but I needed to be off the beat to fight.
I tapped the chat icon, my thoughts racing.
Ren: I’m in. Found the knights. They’re moving in 4/4 ti, but the tempo is picking up. Anyone else find that mory Core yet?
Red: Found my second one. I’m on Floor 6 now. It’s an underwater level, Ren. A literal flooded city. I’m sitting in an air bubble in a library trying not to drown. The fridge in this room had soggy crackers. I’m gonna riot.
Cian: Ren, stay on the off-beat if you want to dodge! If they attack on the ’one,’ you move on the ’and’! It’s basic syncopation!
Tybalt: I hate you, Cian! I’m still stuck on the ’Staircase of Sizzling Dough’! Every ti I take a step, the floor turns into a hot griddle! I’m parkouring over pancakes!
Kaelen: Level 6. Found a core. It was inside a stone giant’s ear. I had to climb it.
Lysandra: I have reached Level 6. I am in a forest of mirrors. It is... quiet. Too quiet. I found a mory Core near a fountain. Ren, be careful in that city. The knights aren’t the only things there. I saw a participant from a world of ’Pure Alchemy.’ He was trying to dissolve the walls.
I closed the chat. The Sync-Knight was walking toward now, its brass boots hitting the gears with a heavy thud on every first and third beat. It raised a chanical halberd.
Clang. (One)
Whish. (Two)
Clang. (Three)
Whish. (Four)
I didn’t have a shield. I had a rusty knife and the obsidian shard I’d pried off Korg’s axe.
"Okay, big guy," I said, my heart hamring. "Let’s see if I rember my drum lessons."
The knight lunged on the ’one.’ The halberd swept toward my waist in a horizontal arc.
I hopped on the ’two,’ the "and" of the beat giving just enough lift to clear the blade. I landed on a spinning gear that nearly sent sprawling, but I corrected, my Agility 12 doing its best to keep upright.
On the ’three,’ the knight tried to reset. That was my window.
I lunged forward, using the obsidian shard like a chisel. I didn’t aim for the chest; I aid for the wind-up key in its back. I slid past the knight’s side, the sll of hot tal filling my nose.
"Gotcha!"
I jamd the shard into the key’s chanism.
SCREECH.
The knight didn’t explode. It began to spin. Its internal gears had jamd, and the energy from the wind-up key had nowhere to go. It vibrated violently, its brass face turning a bright, angry red.
[Warning: Sync-Knight Overload.]
[AoE Blast in 3... 2... 1...]
"Crap!"
I dived behind a copper dumpster just as the knight detonated.
BOOM.
A wave of concussive sound rolled over , rattling my teeth and sending a shower of brass bolts over my head. The dumpster groaned under the pressure, but it held.
I peeked out. The knight was a pile of scrap. And sitting in the middle of the debris was a small, glowing blue cube.
[mory Core (3/5) Obtained.]
[Guild Contract Progress: 60%]
"That’s one," I panted, wiping grease from my forehead.
I stood up, but the ground didn’t stop ticking. In fact, it was getting faster.
Tick-tock-tick-tock.
The tempo had shifted to 2/4 ti. The whole city was accelerating. The copper buildings were sliding closer together, narrowing the street into a tunnel.
"Ren! Behind you!"
The voice didn’t co from the chat. It ca from a balcony above.
I looked up. A woman was crouching on a brass railing, wearing a tattered dress made of what looked like dieval tapestries. She had a wooden staff in her hand, and her eyes were wide with terror.
[Target: Elara]
[Level: 4]
[World: Mystic-Grove (Pure Magic)]
Wait—Elara? No, not the Sentinel from the Weald. Just another girl with the sa na. This Tower was going to make things very confusing.
"Run, you idiot!" she yelled, pointing down the street.
I looked back. Three more Sync-Knights were coming, and they weren’t walking anymore. They were skating on the gears, their feet locked into the rotation, moving at a speed I couldn’t match.
"Up here!" the girl shouted, dropping a rope made of braided silk.
I didn’t argue. I grabbed the rope and started climbing. My Strength 10 felt like a joke as I hauled myself up, my muscles screaming. Below , the knights slamd into the base of the balcony, their halberds sparking against the tal.
I rolled over the railing, collapsing onto the brass floor of the balcony. The girl pulled the rope up and imdiately slamd a heavy tal shutter closed.
"Thanks," I wheezed, lying on my back. "Who are you?"
"Elara. Well, Elara the Third, technically. My world has a lot of Elaras," she said, leaning her staff against the wall. She looked up and down. "You’re from one of those physical worlds, aren’t you? You sll like dirt and bread."
"Eclipse Guild," I said, sitting up. "Ren. And yeah, we run a bakery. Or we did, until the world grew a tower."
Elara sat down opposite , hugging her knees. She looked exhausted. "I’ve been stuck in this room for three hours. Every ti I try to cast a spell, the ticking interrupts my flow. I tried to fire a light-bolt at those things and the city just... ate it."
"It’s the rhythm," I said. "Magic needs a steady channel. This place is a constant interruption. You can’t cast on the beat; you have to cast between the ticks."
Elara blinked. "Between? But the ticks are so fast."
"Think of it like a heart," I said. "There’s a space between the beats. That’s where you put the mana."
I pulled out Jace’s comms-patch. It was still vibrating.
"Look, I’m trying to find my team. We’re on a Guild Contract to find mory Cores. You seen any?"
Elara nodded, pointing to a small, glowing pile of junk in the corner. "I found two. But I can’t leave the room. The mont I open that shutter, the knights co back."
"If you give the cores, I can help you clear the floor," I offered. "We can’t party up, but if I draw them away, you can reach the exit portal."
Elara looked at suspiciously. "Why would you help ? We’re competitors, aren’t we? The fox said only one person gets the wish."
"The fox is a liar," I said. "And honestly? I don’t want a wish. I just want my friends back. Helping you gets closer to Level 10, which lets us group up again. It’s a win-win."
Elara stayed quiet for a mont, then sighed and tossed the two blue cubes.
[mory Core (5/5) Obtained!]
[Guild Contract: The Weaver’s Thread — Complete!]
[Rewards:]
2000 Points
Tower Level 5 Reached!
[System Feature Unlocked: Inventory.]
[System Feature Unlocked: Shop.]
A surge of warmth flooded my body. My muscles tightened, the fatigue vanishing.
[Stats Updated:]
Strength: 15
Agility: 18
Intelligence: 20
Stamina: 15
I stood up, feeling much more like myself. I tapped the air, and a new screen appeared—my inventory. It was empty, save for the rusty knife and the obsidian shard.
"Alright," I said, looking at Elara. "I’ve got the shop now. Let’s see what we can buy to get you out of here."
I opened the shop. It was a scrolling list of items from across the multiverse.
Mana-Potions (500 pts)
Steel Sword (1000 pts)
Gravity-Grenade (1500 pts)
Instant-Muffin (50 pts)
"Instant Muffin?" I muttered. "Tybalt would be insulted."
I scrolled down until I found what I needed.
Clockwork Jamr (1800 pts)
I hit purchase. A small, brass device that looked like a tangled clock spring appeared in my hand.
"Here’s the plan," I said, handing the jamr to Elara. "This creates a five-second silence zone. When I open that shutter, I’m going to jump down and bait the knights. You throw this at the street. The mont it hits, the rhythm stops. That’s your window to cast. Hit the exit portal at the end of the block. Got it?"
Elara gripped the jamr. "Why are you being so nice, Ren?"
"I’m not being nice," I said, opening the shutter. "I’m being efficient. See you on the next floor."
I jumped.
The wind whistled past my ears as I dropped twenty feet. I landed on the gears in a perfect crouch, timing my impact with a heavy tick.
The Sync-Knights turned instantly. Their sensor-slits flared purple.
"Hey, scrap-heaps!" I yelled. "Over here!"
I didn’t wait for them to charge. I bolted down the street, my Agility 18 making the gears feel like a treadmill I was actually winning against. The knights skated after , their halberds clashing.
Tick-tock-tick-tock!
The rhythm was a frantic 2/4 now. I was running on the "and" of every beat, dodging halberd strikes by milliters.
"Now, Elara!" I scread.
From the balcony, I saw the brass jamr fly through the air. It hit the gears in the center of the squad.
THWIP.
A sphere of absolute silence expanded. The "clacking" of the gears stopped. The knights frozen mid-skate, their internal chanisms clicking uselessly.
A bolt of pure, white light shot from the balcony, slamming into the exit portal at the end of the street and stabilizing it. Elara leaped from the railing, her staff glowing, and sprinted for the light.
She reached the portal and looked back at . She gave a small, hesitant wave, then vanished.
[Notice: Participant Elara has cleared Floor 4.]
[Reputation 50]
"Good for her," I panted, coming to a stop as the silence wore off and the city started roaring again.
I looked at the knights. They were rebooting. I didn’t feel like fighting them again. I turned and ran for the portal myself.
The transition hit, and the copper city dissolved into white.
I was back in the Dinsion Room.
But it wasn’t empty.
Sitting on my cot, eating a sandwich from my fridge, was Red.
I froze. "Red? How are you in my room? We’re solo until Level 10!"
Red looked up, her mouth full of ham. She swallowed and pointed to her Level icon.
[Red: Level 7]
"I found a skill in the shop," she said, grinning. "It’s called ’Room-Breacher.’ Only costs three thousand points. I figured if I was going to be stuck in a tower, I might as well have soone to talk to who doesn’t use a chat box."
She tossed a bottle of water. "Nice work in the city, by the way. I saw the notification. You saved a ’Pure Magic’ girl? You’re such a sap, Ren."
"She was stuck," I said, catching the water. I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. "How’s the dog?"
"Still in his heads phase," Red said, gesturing to the corner.
Cerberus was there, his four heads all trying to sniff the sa spot on the floor. He saw and gave a four-toned bark that shook the fridge.
"He missed you," Red said.
I looked at the room, then at Red. For the first ti since we entered the tower, the weight of the "solo queue" felt lighter.
"We need to find the others," I said. "If you can breach rooms, we can build a hub."
"That’s the plan," Red said, standing up. "But first, we need to talk about the fridge. Ren, there’s a world out there called ’Candy-Land’ and their fridge has actual chocolate. We are hitting that floor next."
I laughed. "Whatever you say, Red."
I opened the chat.
Ren: Red found . We’re in the sa room.
Kaelen: How?
Red: Magic and theft. Mostly theft.
Ren: We’re forming a hub. Kaelen, Lysandra, keep grinding. We’re coming to get you.
I closed the chat and looked at the golden portal.
[Next Mission: The Sea of Infinite Salt.]
[Objective: Don’t lose your flavor.]
"Salt?" I muttered. "Tybalt’s going to love this one."
"Let’s go," Red said, her daggers gleaming. "I’m tired of white walls."
We stepped through the portal together.
The transition hit, but this ti, I wasn’t alone.
The fourth floor was gone. The fifth was waiting. And sowhere at the top, the wishes were still calling.
"Hey, Ren," Red asked as we landed on a beach of pure, white salt.
"Yeah?"
"You think the Architect is still watching?"
I looked at the purple sky.
"I think he’s the one who stocked the fridge, Red. Let’s not keep him waiting."
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