Jas placed his hand on Derek’s head.
Derek went still beneath him, his swollen face frozen in terror.
Jas said one word.
"Corpse Explosion."
Nothing happened.
For one terrifying second, Derek waited for death.
Then the System notification appeared.
[INVALID TARGET] [TARGET IS NOT A CORPSE]
Jas stared at the ssage.
The words hit him harder than any punch Ronan had landed. Derek was alive. His mother was alive. He’d almost tried to detonate his own cousin while sitting on top of him.
The warehouse around him was full of dead awakeners, broken containers, smoke, blood, and destroyed wolves. Bodies scattered across the floor. Fire still burning in the corners. The sll of death and scorched tal thick in the air.
For the first ti since entering Dock 7, the rage cracked and sothing else slipped in.
Horror.
Derek saw the hesitation. His voice ca out broken and desperate.
"Jas. Jas, please. You were right to be angry, but I didn’t—I didn’t kidnap her. I swear on God, I didn’t kidnap Auntie."
Jas slowly removed his hand from Derek’s head.
Derek kept talking, the words spilling out faster now.
"We’re family. We’re blood. I’ll pay for the house. I’ll fix everything. Nobody has to know what happened here. We can make this right. Please."
Jas said nothing.
The silence scared Derek more than the violence had.
Derek kept begging for another minute, but Jas’s lack of response made fear turn into sothing else.
Anger.
Derek looked around at the bodies scattered across the warehouse floor. He saw Ronan’s corpse. He saw the destroyed wolves. He saw the blown entrance and the scorch marks from Corpse Explosion.
Then he looked back at Jas and his voice changed.
"You killed everyone," Derek said. His voice shook, but the threat ca out clearly. "The police will know. The TRB will know. I’ll tell them everything. The whole country will hear how the Floor 5 record breaker butchered awakeners on Earth."
Jas’s expression went cold.
Derek kept going, his confidence growing with each word.
"You think you’re untouchable because you cleared one floor? You’re finished. I have lawyers. I have family connections. I have money. Everyone will know what you did. You’ll never see the inside of a Tower again. They’ll lock you up for murder."
The words confird what Jas already knew.
Derek had money, lawyers, family connections, and hatred. If he walked out of this warehouse alive, he would never stay silent. He would destroy Jas with everything he had.
Jas slowly stood up.
He looked at the corpses scattered around them and activated Summon Undead Skeleton.
Bones ripped free from three nearby bodies. The sound of snapping ribs and tearing flesh echoed through the warehouse. Green light burned in empty eye sockets as three skeleton warriors rose, their movents jerky but purposeful.
Derek’s threats died in his throat.
Jas looked down at him and gave one order.
"Kill him."
The skeletons moved forward.
"Ahhhhh—AHHHHH—!"
The sound cut off.
Jas stood in the middle of the warehouse and breathed hard.
There was no victory. No relief. Just a problem.
Bodies everywhere. Blood pooling on the concrete. His destroyed wolves. Ronan’s corpse. Derek’s corpse. Scorch marks on the walls. Broken tal and shattered containers. Signs of illegal Challenger combat all over the scene.
Sirens were still distant, but they could co closer any mont.
Jas used the three skeletons to drag corpses into clusters around support beams, fuel drums, and stacked containers. The skeletons worked without complaint, their bone hands gripping bodies and pulling them into position.
When enough corpses were clustered, Jas started using Corpse Explosion.
Not randomly. Carefully.
One corpse detonated near the first support beam.
BOOM.
The beam cracked and buckled. tal scread—SCREEEECH—as the structure began to shift and groan under its own weight.
Another explosion near the fuel drums.
WHOOOOM.
Fire erupted and spread across spilled oil, flas racing along the floor and climbing up container stacks. Heat washed over Jas’s face.
Another near stacked containers.
CRASH. BANG. CRASH.
The containers toppled and slamd into each other, creating a domino effect that knocked down half the interior wall with a thunderous roar.
The warehouse started collapsing in sections. Concrete cracked with sharp SNAP sounds. Support beams twisted and fell with deafening crashes.
Jas dismissed the skeletons and moved toward a side exit. Behind him, tal groaned and concrete cracked. Fire spread faster now, consuming everything it touched.
He didn’t look back.
He ran into the night and the warehouse erupted behind him. Flas rose over Dock 7, lighting up the industrial district with orange light.
Jas moved through back streets and alleys, staying away from main roads.
His armor was damaged and blood-stained. His face was bruised from Ronan’s fight. His body hurt everywhere.
He found a dark alley and stripped off the most obvious pieces of gear, storing them in his ring. The worst of the blood ca off his hands and face using water from a broken pipe. He changed into spare clothes from his storage—clean jeans and a hoodie that hid the bruising.
He kept expecting soone to shout behind him. He kept expecting police lights.
Eventually he reached a quieter road and flagged down a taxi. The driver looked at him suspiciously—late night, disheveled appearance, nervous energy—but took his money without asking questions.
The entire ride ho was tense and silent. Jas watched reflections in the window and tried not to think about what he’d left behind at Dock 7.
Jas got ho and locked the door behind him.
The silence of the house felt wrong after Dock 7. He stood in the entryway for a mont, listening.
Nothing. No enemies. No screams. No Derek.
Then he looked down at his hands.
There was still blood under his nails.
His breathing changed.
He went straight to the bathroom and turned the shower on as hot as it would go. He scrubbed his hands first, then his arms, then his face. The water burned but he didn’t care. He scrubbed harder than necessary, watching pink water run down the drain.
He rembered Derek’s voice threatening to expose him. Ronan’s final look of approval. The skeletons rising from corpses. The System saying INVALID TARGET.
He didn’t cry, but his hands shook as he washed.
After the shower, he changed clothes and hid the damaged gear in the back of his closet. He cleaned what he could and forced himself to arrange the room like nothing had happened.
The Tower had clean endings. Missions completed, EXP gained, rewards distributed.
Earth didn’t work that way.
The TV in the living room was still on.
Jas walked past it and froze when he saw the red breaking news banner.
News anchors were reporting a massive explosion at Dock 7 in the Warehouse District. The screen showed aerial footage of flas and collapsed structures. Ergency services were on scene, but the fire was too intense for imdiate entry.
"Early reports suggest illegal Challenger activity," the anchor said. "Multiple casualties are feared, though authorities have not confird exact numbers. Police are investigating possible gang-related violence involving awakeners."
They didn’t na Jas. They didn’t ntion Derek yet. The report said the warehouse was known to be abandoned and occasionally used for illicit activities.
Jas stood still, watching flas on the screen from the place he’d just left.
He listened for any ntion of witnesses, caras, survivors, or a suspect.
Nothing confird.
He exhaled slowly, but he couldn’t relax. The absence of evidence wasn’t safety. It was only ti.
He turned the TV off.
The silence afterward was worse.
Twenty-four hours passed.
Jas barely slept. Every ti he closed his eyes, he saw the warehouse. The Dock 7 news was still circulating on every channel, but no public suspect had been nad.
Then the Tower update finally completed.
Every Challenger received the announcent at the sa ti. The System notification filled Jas’s vision.
[TOWER FLOOR CALIBRATION COMPLETE] [TOWER RECONSTRUCTION: 300 FLOORS → 150 FLOORS]
[COUNTRY-SPECIFIC TOWER INSTANCES NOW ACTIVE] - Each country maintains separate Tower instance - National matchmaking for party formation
[NATIONAL RANKINGS UNLOCKED] - Challengers ranked by highest floor cleared - Clear speed tracked - Survival record maintained
[FLOOR CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM] - STANDARD FLOORS: Side missions supporting the main Tower narrative - STORY FLOORS: Main narrative floors containing destroyed worlds that must be saved
Jas dismissed the notifications and leaned back in his chair.
The Tower was moving forward. New systems, new structure, new rankings.
While he was still ntally stuck in Dock 7.
Three days later, the TRB released the first public briefing for Floor 6.
Jas sat alone in his room and opened the article on his phone. The headline read: "FLOOR 6 BRIEFING: What Challengers Need to Know."
The article explained that Floor 6 was classified as a Standard Floor, not a Story Floor. Mission type was listed as Subjugation. Recomnded party size was five challengers. Threat level was rated as moderate.
Enemy types included goblins, harpies, and wolves.
The TRB emphasized that national matchmaking was now active and encouraged challengers to form registered parties for consistent team composition.
Jas scrolled through the rest of the article and closed it.
His phone buzzed with ssages from the team group chat. Finn asking if everyone was ready. Kael confirming his schedule. Aria saying she’d finished her preparation. Elliot sending equipnt updates.
They were preparing to enter Floor 6 together as an official party.
Jas looked at the word "Subjugation" on the screen.
The Tower called it a mission.
Earth called it murder.
The difference felt thinner than it should.
He closed the briefing and started preparing to et the team, knowing that whatever happened on Floor 6, he was already carrying blood on his hands that no shower could wash away.
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