I am just an NPC ,but I rewrite the story-Chapter 80: [79] The Vertical Draft

The sound of the giant pen scratching against the sky wasn’t just a sound; it was a vibration that rattled my ribcage. It felt like someone was dragging a serrated knife across a chalkboard the size of a planet. Then, the floor of our Dimension Hub didn’t just vanish—it gave up. One second I was looking at the worried face of a teenage boy in a "Code is Law" t-shirt, and the next, I was plummeting through a blindingly white abyss.

"Ren! Grab the cheese!" Tybalt’s scream was the last thing I heard before the wind—or whatever this rushing pressure was—ripped the words away.

I reached out blindly, my fingers catching on something rough and cold. It was the "Edge of Reality." The knife was still strapped to my belt, its silver line glowing with a frantic, pulsing heat. I felt a heavy weight slam into my side—Kaelen. He’d managed to grab my collar with one hand while clutching the unconscious Valen with the other.

"Brace for impact!" Kaelen roared, his voice a deep thunder in the white void.

We didn’t hit water, and we didn’t hit stone. We hit paper. Or something that felt exactly like it.

CRUNCH.

I tumbled across a flat, vast expanse that went on for miles. It was white, slightly textured, and felt like high-grade vellum. I skidded for thirty feet before my Agility 18 managed to kick in, allowing me to roll and dig my knife into the "ground" to stop my momentum. The blade sliced through the white surface with a sickening rip, revealing an endless, swirling vortex of black ink beneath the top layer.

"Is everyone... ugh... okay?" I gasped, pushing myself up.

My head was spinning. The Level 30 rank-up had made me sturdier, but my stomach hadn’t caught up with the physics of multiversal falling. I looked around. We were scattered across what looked like a giant, floating scroll. It was suspended in a purple sky, surrounded by thousands of other scrolls, all varying in size.

"I’m alive," Red coughed, standing up a few yards away. She was patting her pockets frantically. "Daggers? Check. Poison? Check. My dignity? Somewhere back in the bakery." She looked over at Tybalt, who was currently curled into a ball, clutching a massive wheel of cheddar cheese as if it were a holy relic. "Tybalt, you really prioritized the cheese over your own life?"

"It’s aged fifty years, Red!" Tybalt squeaked, his voice muffled by the grass-stained vellum. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find good cheddar in a magical tower? If I’m going to die in a sketchbook, I’m doing it with snacks!"

Cian and Theo were nearby, helping Mia to her feet. Cerberus was already on the move, his four heads fanning out to sniff the edges of our "island." Buck, the three-legged dog, was sitting right next to me, wagging his tail as if we’d just gone for a brisk walk in the woods.

"Where are we, Theo?" I asked, walking over to the boy. "The High Architect said he was starting a new draft."

Theo was staring at the sky, his glasses reflecting the shifting purple light. He pulled up a translucent blue screen, but it was flickering with static. "This is Floor 16, Ren. But it’s not a normal instance. It’s a... it’s a sandbox. The Superintendent warned us about this. When the Architect gets involved, the rules of the floors get overwritten."

A chime sounded, but it wasn’t the friendly ping from before. It was a distorted, grinding noise.

[Floor 16: The Great Revision.]

[Objective: Reach the Zenith of Garchvabd.]

[Warning: The High Architect is ’Editing’ the environment.]

"Wait, Garchvabd?" Lysandra asked, joining us. She had her shield out, scanning the horizon. "We already climbed that mountain on Floor 12. Ren, you won the starlight crown there."

"Look ahead, Lysandra," I said, pointing toward the "horizon" of our scroll-island.

The mountain was there. But it wasn’t the obsidian tooth we’d climbed before. This version of Garchvabd was made of stacked books, shattered glass, and segments of neon-lit skyscrapers from Theo’s world. It was a vertical mess of multiple realities, all fused together into a jagged, impossible peak that stretched so high the top was just a smudge of black ink against the sky.

"It’s the Elder Peak," Theo whispered. "The real one. The one from the first draft."

"Ren," Red said, her voice turning serious. She pointed toward a neighboring scroll about a hundred yards away. "We aren’t the only ones here."

I looked. Standing on the other island was a group of people I recognized. It was Jace, her white armor glowing in the purple light, and Garra, the wolf-man from the Gray-Fang tribe. They were surrounded by their respective teams, looking just as confused as we were.

And further out, on a scroll made of black obsidian, was Arthur.

The ’Guest Star.’ The Level 50 winner of the Third Tower. He was standing alone, his black shadow-armor absorbing the light around him. He didn’t look confused. He looked bored. He caught my gaze and gave a slow, mocking salute with his two fingers before turning toward the mountain.

"He’s going for the peak," I said.

"We have to go too," Cian added, pointing to the edge of our scroll. The white paper was starting to curl and turn black. "The Architect is ’deleting’ the floor behind us. If we stay on this island, we’re going to be erased."

"Alright, Eclipse," I said, checking my stats one last time. [Ren - Level 30]. "We don’t have a plan for this one. We just climb. Kaelen, you’re on Valen-duty. Tie him to your back if you have to. Mia, keep the gravity steady. Tybalt... bring the cheese."

"Already on it!" Tybalt shouted, shoving the wheel into his oversized pack.

We ran for the edge of the scroll. The gap between us and the base of the "Mountain of Books" was about fifty feet of empty air.

"Mia! Launch us!"

Mia raised her hands, the azure light in her eyes flaring. "Up!"

The gravity around us inverted for a split second. We didn’t just jump; we were catapulted across the void. I felt the rushing air whip past my face, the sensation of weightlessness making my stomach flip. We landed hard on the spine of a massive, leather-bound book that served as the base of the mountain.

"Everyone in one piece?" I asked, checking the group.

"My knees are starting to resent this Guild," Red muttered, but she was already climbing the side of a rusted metal girder that was protruding from a pile of stone tablets.

The climb was unlike anything we’d faced. It wasn’t just a physical struggle; it was a sensory nightmare. One section of the path would be a normal stone staircase, and the next would be a vertical wall of digital code that felt like static against my palms. We wove through ruins of cities I’d never seen—half-formed streets that ended in mid-air, libraries where the books were screaming, and forests where the trees were made of copper wire.

"Ren, look out!" Kaelen barked.

From the shadow of a giant, floating clock-tower, a group of entities emerged. They weren’t robots or husks. They were "Erasers"—featureless humanoids made of the same black ink I’d seen earlier. They didn’t have weapons; they had hands that looked like sponges.

[Target: Narrative Erasers (Level 35)]

"Don’t let them touch you!" Theo screamed, cowering behind Cian. "If they touch your skin, they delete your stats! They’ll drain your levels!"

"Not if I delete them first!" Red yelled, launching a flurry of daggers.

The blades passed through the ink-men with a wet splat, but the Erasers didn’t slow down. The holes in their bodies simply filled back in with more ink.

"Kaelen! The dark mana!" I shouted.

Kaelen stepped forward, his black sword humming. He unleashed a ’Void-Wave,’ the purple energy washing over the Erasers. This time, it worked. The ink-men hissed as the Abyssal mana neutralized their "code," causing them to puddle onto the ground.

"We can’t fight them all!" Lysandra said, parrying an ink-swipe with her shield. "There are hundreds of them coming out of the mountain!"

"Then we keep moving!" I yelled. "Theo, find us a shortcut! You said you could see the comments in the code!"

Theo pulled up his flickering screen, his eyes darting frantically. "There! That glass elevator shaft! It’s a Sector-1 legacy asset! It’s still connected to the mountain’s power grid!"

We scrambled toward a vertical tube of transparent glass that ran up the side of a cluster of stone pillars. It looked fragile, but it was our only shot. We piled inside just as a wave of Erasers slammed against the glass, their ink-hands leaving dark streaks on the surface.

"Close the door!" Tybalt shrieked.

Theo slammed his hand onto a panel. "Accessing... override... come on!"

The glass doors hissed shut. The elevator groaned, and then shot upward with a force that pinned us to the floor.

"Ugh... I think my internal organs just swapped places," Red groaned, clutching her stomach.

The elevator climbed at an insane speed. Through the glass, I watched the "Mountain of Books" blur past. I saw Garra’s team fighting off a giant ink-serpent on a lower ledge. I saw Jace using a jetpack to hop between floating debris. And then, I saw him.

Arthur was standing on a platform made of pure light, rising alongside us. He was looking at me through the glass, a small, knowing smile on his face. He tapped his own notched knife—a weapon identical to mine—and then pointed upward.

He was racing us.

"He’s got a notched knife too," Kaelen noted, his eyes narrowing. "Ren, you never told us where you got that thing."

"I found it in the first room of the Tower, Kaelen," I said, though my heart was hammering. "I think it belongs to... well, to whoever the ’me’ was that came before."

"The ’me’ that lost," the Shadow-Ren’s voice echoed in my head. I ignored it.

The elevator hit the top of the shaft and shuddered to a halt. The doors opened onto a wide, flat plateau made of shimmering white marble. We were above the clouds now. The air was thin, cold, and smelled of ozone.

In the center of the plateau stood the "Crown of the Mountain." It wasn’t a starlight crown this time. It was a massive, golden quill stuck into a stone pedestal.

And standing next to the pedestal was the High Architect.

He was still wearing his white suit, looking perfectly unruffled by the chaos below. He was checking his gold watch as we stepped out of the elevator.

"You’re precisely four minutes behind schedule, Ren," the Architect said. He looked up, his golden eyes fixing on me. "And you brought the Guest Star. How messy."

Arthur stepped onto the plateau from his light-platform, his shadow-armor clanking softly. He ignored us and walked straight toward the golden quill.

"The rule-change is mine, Architect," Arthur said, his voice a deep, vibrating baritone.

"The rule-change belongs to the one who reaches the summit first," the Architect replied calmly. "And since you both arrived within the same temporal window... I suppose we’ll have to have a final audit."

The Architect looked at me, then at Arthur.

"Ren, you carry the fragments of the ’New World.’ Arthur, you carry the weight of the ’Old.’ Only one of you can define the next Chapter."

"Ren!" Red whispered, stepping up to my side. "Tell me you’ve got a plan. That guy is Level 50. I’m Level 28. The math doesn’t work!"

"The math never worked, Red," I said, drawing my knife. The silver line was blinding now, the vibration making my whole arm ache. "Theo, can you jam his armor?"

"It’s not tech-based, Ren," Theo said, his voice shaking. "It’s... it’s pure Narrative. I can’t hack a story."

"Then we fight him like a story," I said.

Arthur drew his own notched knife. It wasn’t a claymore or a spear. It was a small, rusted piece of scrap, just like mine. But when he held it, the air around him began to warp.

"You think you’re special, Ren?" Arthur asked, stepping toward me. "You think because you saved a few NPCs and a dog, you’re the hero? I’ve cleared this Tower three times. I’ve made three wishes. And every time, I ended up right back at the bottom. The Tower doesn’t want you to win. It wants you to stay."

"Then why are you still climbing?" I asked.

"Because this time," Arthur said, his eyes glowing with a dark, desperate fire, "I’m going to wish the Architect out of the script. I’m going to take the pen."

He lunged.

The fight was a blur of silver and shadow. Arthur was faster than Zero, stronger than Malakor, and he knew every move I was going to make before I even thought of it. Our knives clashed with a sound that felt like the world splitting open.

CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.

I was being pushed back. My Level 30 stats were barely enough to keep me from being decapitated. I felt the sharp sting of shadow-mana as Arthur’s blade grazed my arm, draining my stamina.

"Ren! The cheese!"

I blinked. Tybalt?

Tybalt was standing twenty feet away, holding the massive wheel of cheddar. "It’s high-density protein, Ren! Eat the cheese!"

He hurled the fifty-pound wheel across the plateau.

It was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever seen in the middle of a world-ending duel. The cheese wheel soared through the air, spinning like a disc.

Arthur paused for a split second, his logical brain trying to process why a baker was throwing dairy at him.

That was the window.

I didn’t eat the cheese. I used it.

"Mia! Pull!"

Mia raised her hands. The cheese wheel didn’t just fly; it accelerated, caught in a massive gravitational pull. It struck Arthur in the chest with the force of a speeding carriage.

THUD.

Arthur went flying backward, his shadow-armor cracking under the sheer absurdity of the impact. He tumbled across the marble, his knife skidding away.

I didn’t waste a second. I sprinted for the golden quill.

"NO!" the Architect roared, his calm mask finally slipping.

I reached the pedestal. I grabbed the golden quill with both hands.

[Notice: Participant Ren has claimed the Sovereignty of Garchvabd!]

[Reward: One Rule Change.]

The world went silent. Arthur lay on the ground, staring at me with a look of pure, unadulterated shock. The Architect stood frozen, his hand outstretched.

"Ren," the Architect whispered, his voice trembling with rage. "You cannot do this. You don’t know the consequences."

"I know one thing," I said, looking at my team. Red was grinning. Tybalt was panting. Kaelen was holding the line. Mia was glowing.

I looked at the golden quill and spoke.

"Rule 102: The Open Door. From this floor onward, all participants from all worlds may share their resources and information without narrative penalty. The rankings are now collective. We climb as one."

The golden quill vanished into a shower of sparks that spread across the entire sky.

[System Notification: New Rule Added.]

[Processing...]

[Confirmed. The ’Great Merge’ has begun.]

The purple sky shattered. The scrolls dissolved. The "Mountain of Books" began to melt.

"You fool," the Architect said, his body starting to flicker. "You’ve invited the Void in. You haven’t saved them. You’ve just given the End a bigger map."

He vanished.

We were back in the Dimension Hub. But it was huge now. The walls had disappeared, and our hub was now connected to a vast, open plaza that stretched as far as I could see. Thousands of participants were standing there, looking at each other in silence.

I saw Garra. I saw Jace. I saw the Bone-Reapers. I saw the mages.

We were no longer solo. We were an army.

But in the center of the plaza, a new timer appeared. It was red. And it was counting down from ten.

[Emergency Status: The Tower is Unstable.]

[Arrival of the ’Void-Eater’ in: 00:00:10]

"Ren," Red said, her voice shaking as she looked at the black hole opening in the sky above the plaza. "What did you do?"

"I changed the rules, Red," I said, gripping my knife. "I guess the Tower didn’t like the new draft."

A massive, black tentacle descended from the hole, crushing a stone pillar.

"Tybalt," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me you have more cheese."

"Ren, I think we’re going to need more than cheese this time."

The new arc had begun.

[Arc 5: The Tower of Wishes - The Great Merge.]

[Objective: Survive the Erasure.]

The grind was no longer a climb. It was a war for existence.

"Everyone! Form up!" I roared. "Eclipse! To the front!"

The first battle of the unified worlds was about to begin.