Chapter Four – "Floor Zero"
Darkness swallowed everything. Only ragged breaths echoed through the suffocating void. Elias could hear his own voice as if it belonged to a stranger—heavy, broken, trapped in another chest. He tried to open his eyes… though he couldn't be sure he succeeded. No light, no pain, no features. Only silence wrapping around him like a cold shroud.
Something was wrong. This place was not the Tower.
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Then another scene unfolded before him, as if he had slid from the void into a dream brimming with clarity. An endless blue sky stretched above, waterfalls descending as though pulsing from the heart of the clouds, and strange birds glided at low heights, leaving behind echoes he had never known. The ground beneath his feet was dewy, green glowing as if the grass itself possessed a breathing soul.
He took a step… then another… and found himself walking aimlessly.
A day passed… then another… and a third. He felt no hunger, no thirst, no sleep. And whenever he tried to sit, he was upright again, as if the earth refused to grant him rest.
Is this paradise? Or has my soul been stolen from my body?
Yet an absent presence haunted him—a silent watcher, observing from afar without revealing itself.
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On the second day, he seated himself by a shallow stream. Its water was so clear it seemed dangerous. Leaning over to see his reflection… it was not him.
His features were blurred, eyes foggy, the edges of his face dissolving whenever he tried to fix them. It was as if the water refused to acknowledge his existence.
This is not me… or perhaps… I am no longer me.
His heart trembled—not from cold, but from a nameless fear gnawing within.
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On the fourth day, he took refuge under a colossal tree. Its trunk could fit ten men, its branches climbing skyward as if desperate to touch the stars. Everything about it seemed harmonious… except for one branch. Black, charred-looking, yet defiantly clinging to its place, defying reason.
Elias lifted his gaze, studying it. This branch… does not belong here.
He approached cautiously, climbed a nearby rock, and reached out to touch it.
The ground trembled. It shuddered beneath him like a waking beast, and the earth cracked to reveal a hidden door, groaning open on rusted hinges. Before he could catch his breath, he fell… again… into a darkness without end.
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He awoke on a battered wooden bed, surrounded by rusty metal walls, the scent of damp iron stinging his nose. Dim light hung from the low ceiling, flickering like a candle about to die.
At his feet stood a man and a woman in deep silence, as if waiting for him since time immemorial.
The woman smiled faintly, her voice barely a whisper:
"Finally… you've awakened."
Elias tried to rise, but his body felt too heavy to obey.
He muttered, wary: "Who… are you?"
---
The man stepped forward. Tall, with a white beard descending to his chest, his eyes mismatched—one pale and lifeless, the other red and glowing like embers. His robe was white, striped with black, as if from a lost era.
His voice carried the weight of centuries:
"My name is Timur… and this is Lily, my wife."
Lily remained behind him, wrapped in a red silk cloak that revealed only her deep blue eyes, crystalline and icy. Her face bore no wrinkles, yet her gaze held an immeasurable age.
Timur fixed his gaze on Elias:
"We know why you are here. And we know the questions weighing on your mind… but time is short."
He paused, then added:
"You are on Floor Zero. Inside a dream. Only half an hour remains."
---
The words struck slowly, like blades.
"What you saw there… that land… is as it was before the Fifth World War. After the fourth, human mutations arose—powers no one understands. We decided to protect the remnants of humanity because we knew catastrophe would follow with the new force."
He lowered his voice, as if the walls themselves could listen:
"We created a secret refuge, beyond the reach of governments, beyond the eyes of artificial intelligence."
Elias whispered with dry lips: "But… why me?"
Timur's gaze pierced him:
"The creatures inside the Tower… are not all as you think. Some have lived among us, hidden. The conspiracy began from within."
He stepped closer:
"Floor Zero is your sanctuary."
Elias gasped, his heart drumming like war drums.
---
Suddenly, everything began to unravel. An alarm sliced through the space around him, and Timur and Lily's faces dissolved into particles of light. Before they vanished entirely, Lily uttered fractured words, torn as if through a storm:
"The computer… is… mine… do… not… trust… the… Tower!"
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Elias jolted, as if surfacing from a long drowning. His eyes widened, breath coming in ragged gasps. The iron walls closed around him again, the scent of metal and rust filling his nostrils.
He muttered, "The Tower… I'm back."
He inspected his body—no wounds, no blood. But I was bleeding… I was there.
He stood hesitantly, feet heavy, until digital sounds began cascading in his ears:
Ding… "You have completed the first floor successfully!"
Ding… "Fifty strength points awarded."
"Two enhancement potions granted…"
"The 'Chosen One' mark has been inscribed upon your soul…"
"The hidden path has been activated…"
Ding… Ding… Levels rising, as if a hidden power was seeping into him against his will.
---
He left the room slowly. The corridors around him were deathly silent, yet a storm raged within.
Who are Timur and Lily?
Is the computer with me… or watching me?
Was it just a dream… or a warning?
What does it mean to be 'the Chosen'? And what is Floor Zero?
He reached for his home's door handle, but before he could touch it, a translucent red barrier appeared—unlike the usual Tower interface, blue and transparent.
Time seemed to stop at this sight.
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