James’s sword took the shaman’s head clean off. The body crumpled forward while black mist coiled up from the corpse as his passive triggered, and mana flooded back through his depleted reserves. The skull rolled three meters before stopping against a tree root.

[GOBLIN SHAMAN SLAIN — 85 EXP]

[CALL OF SOULS ACTIVATED — 42 MANA RESTORED]

[MANA: 43/480 → 85/480]

His chest heaved while sweat stung his eyes. His arms felt like wet sand, and his hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Death Chain’s mental drain sat behind his skull like a migraine that had been building for the last twenty minutes, refusing to fade.

Around him the rest of the team was sprawled across the clearing in various states of collapse. The Korean tank sat with his back against a tree, blood running down his face from a cut above his eyebrow. The German archer had fallen onto her side with her bow still in hand, her breathing coming in short gasps. Someone was vomiting in the brush. The Chinese mage lay flat on her back three meters away with her arms spread wide, her eyes closed.

James’s vision blurred at the edges. He blinked hard to clear it. The sky above was grey and flat. The grass beneath him was trampled and blood-soaked, and the silence was broken only by heavy breathing and one person still throwing up.

The System chimed.

[FLOOR 4 — SUBJUGATION COMPLETE — 100/100 ENEMIES ELIMINATED]

White light dissolved the forest. James materialized in the grey void of the Waiting Room as five Challengers appeared around him in white flashes. All of them looked like they’d survived a war. The Korean tank wiped blood from his forehead while the archer checked her quiver to find three arrows left. The mage sat cross-legged on the floor without moving, and the person who’d been vomiting still looked pale. Nobody spoke because they were strangers who’d fought together for forty minutes but would never see each other again.

The System chimed.

[BASE REWARD: 1,200 TOWER CREDITS]

[DISTRIBUTING TO EACH CHALLENGER...]

[TOWER CREDITS: 3,065 → 4,265 TC]

[PARTY EXP POOL: 2,500 EXP] [DIVIDED BY 5 CHALLENGERS: 500 EXP EACH]

[JAMES GANNER — EXP: 731/800 → 1,231/800]

[LEVEL UP! YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 9]

[ALL STATS +1]

James’s status window updated before his eyes. He read through each line before moving to the next.

[NAME: JAMES GANNER]

[CLASS: NECROMANCER (LEGENDARY)]

[LEVEL: 9]

[EXP: 431/1600]

[HP: 464/464]

[MANA: 498/498]

[STRENGTH: 17 → 18]

[AGILITY: 23 → 24]

[INTELLIGENCE: 39 → 40]

[ENDURANCE: 26 → 27]

[LUCK: 17 → 18]

[CONTRACT SLOTS: 3/5 → 4/5] [UNSPENT STAT POINTS: 5]

Fourth contract slot unlocked. He needed fifty INT for the fifth, which meant he was ten points short. Two more levels at minimum if he put everything into Intelligence.

The System chimed again.

[CALCULATING MVP...]

[ANALYZING DAMAGE OUTPUT, KILLS, SURVIVAL CONTRIBUTION...]

James waited while the other four Challengers shifted and looked at each other, though nobody said anything.

[MVP: JAMES GANNER] [CONTRIBUTION: 34% TOTAL DAMAGE | 41 KILLS | 3 PARTY SAVES VIA UNDEAD TANKING] [MVP BONUS: MITHRIL ORE (D-RANK)]

A chunk of metal materialized in James’s hand. He caught it before it could drop. Dull silver, size of his fist, heavier than it looked. He opened his System inventory and stored it.

[MITHRIL ORE (D-RANK)]

[CRAFTING MATERIAL — CAN BE USED TO FORGE WEAPONS/ARMOR]

The Korean tank glanced at James, then nodded once — respect, nothing more. The archer was already checking her phone while the mage hadn’t moved from her spot on the floor.

The System chimed a third time. James’s interface expanded with new windows he hadn’t seen before.

[FLOOR 5 UNLOCKED]

[NEW FEATURES AVAILABLE]

Three tabs appeared in his vision. He read through each one before dismissing them.

[PARTY SYSTEM — NOW AVAILABLE]

[CREATE OR JOIN PERMANENT TEAMS]

[MAXIMUM PARTY SIZE: 5 MEMBERS]

[RANDOM MATCHMAKING RULES:]

1-4 PARTY MEMBERS: SYSTEM FILLS REMAINING SLOTS WITH RANDOM CHALLENGERS

COMPLETE MEMBERS: NO RANDOM TEAMMATES ASSIGNED

[ADD MEMBERS VIA CHALLENGER ID]

[CHALLENGER ID CREATED: NCR-IE-4729]

[SHARE THIS ID TO RECEIVE PARTY INVITATIONS]

[STREAMING FUNCTION — UNLOCKED] [BROADCAST YOUR FLOOR RUNS TO PUBLIC VIEWERS]

Party system made sense. He’d heard about streaming from forum posts, but most countries had passed laws after early deaths traumatized viewers, imposing massive fines if you died on camera. He wasn’t interested.

The Challenger ID was new though. NCR-IE-4729, which was how people could add him to teams now instead of relying on random matchmaking. Floor 5 is where teams mattered. Everything before was practice.

[RETURNING TO EARTH IN: 15 SECONDS]

Nobody spoke. The Korean tank checked his gear while the archer typed on her phone. The mage finally stood up and stretched, and the pale guy avoided eye contact as white light took them.

James materialized in his Northgate apartment. The silence pressed against his ears after the combat noise faded. He walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower without looking at himself in the mirror. Hot water burned when it hit his shoulders. He stood under the spray until the blood washed pink down the drain and his fingers went numb.

He dried off, then pulled on clean clothes and checked his ring inventory. Fourteen out of twenty slots filled with corpses from Floor 2. He’d add the Floor 4 loot when he went to the TRB.

James walked to his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. Sleep came fast.

He woke up six hours later with the afternoon light coming through his window at a sharp angle. His phone sat on the nightstand. He checked the time. Three in the afternoon.

James stood and pulled on his jacket, then left the flat. The TRB was forty minutes by bus, and he had corpses to sell.

The bus was half-empty. He sat near the back with his hood up while Dublin passed by the window in grey blocks and wet streets, because rain had come through while he slept and left everything slick.

The TRB building appeared after thirty minutes. James got off two stops early to walk the rest, because his legs needed the movement after lying down for six hours.