[FLOOR 1 – THE CRADLE OF WIRES]
The world shifted the moment Jin stepped through the Tower gate.
Not walked—stepped through—as if passing between software layers, from one version of reality to another. One second, he floated in the void of broken Earth. The next, he was dropped into a city made of cables.
Skyscrapers woven from copper and steel.
Streets paved with blackened circuit boards.
The sky hung like a severed powerline, flickering with storm clouds that sparked and roared.
Everything pulsed with artificial life.
This wasn't a world. It was a machine dreaming of being one.
A soft chime echoed in his ears.
[FLOOR 1 OBJECTIVE: Locate the Core Node]
[Time Limit: 6 Hours]
[Hostile Entities Detected: Wireborn / Corrupted Protocols]
[WARNING: As Rootwalker, your signal is traceable.]
"So they know I'm here."
He rolled his neck. Static crackled in the air.
"Let them come."
SYSTEM PING – HOSTILES APPROACHING
From the alleyways, they emerged—Wireborn.
Once human, maybe. Now just twitching husks with cables for veins and cameras for eyes.
Their limbs moved with jerky digital spasms, like puppets on corrupted code.
Three of them. Fast.
Jin moved just as fast—but he didn't run.
[Command Line Access – OPEN]
A screen blinked into his vision, hovering like a heads-up display.
// SYSTEM.GRAVITY.LOCAL
MODIFY: ENEMY_RANGE = 0.1x
He tapped Execute.
The Wireborn charged—
—and suddenly, their legs buckled as gravity around them increased tenfold.
They slammed into the ground, bones crunching, shrieking in digital noise.
"You're built to follow rules."
"I'm built to break them."
One of them tried to crawl, still sparking.
Jin stepped forward and crushed its head beneath his heel.
The system chimed again.
[HOSTILE ENTITIES DELETED – MEMORY COST INCURRED]
[Lost: "First Grade – Teacher's Face"]
He paused.
"Still small ones… Good."
But the cost was creeping.
He checked his internal log:
[Rootwalker Status]
Memory Fragments Remaining: 97%
Skill: Root Access (Beta)
Hack Power: 3.4/s
Hack Limit per Floor: 5 major changes
[Objective]: Locate Core Node / Escape Floor
"Time to move."
The city seemed endless. Neon signs glitched in languages that hadn't existed.
Data ghosts wandered, whispering fragments of old internet slang.
He passed a collapsed café where a digital storm had melted the counter.
Every corner told a story of Earth gone wrong.
Then—
a pulse.
Something was calling.
At the center of the city stood a cathedral—if you could call it that.
Made of spires of glass fiber and stained data panels, it loomed like a virus temple.
At its peak: a Core Node glowing like a heart of pure code.
Beneath it knelt a girl.
She looked human—but not.
Her arms were cuffed to a post of lightning. Her hair flickered between colors, like her code couldn't decide.
When she looked up, her eyes were filled with error messages.
"A Rootwalker… You're real?"
Her voice cracked. Not with emotion—but lag.
"They said you'd come. Before the system wipes us all."
Jin hesitated.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a backup. Of the first human ever uploaded into the Tower."
"They called me Eli. But now… I'm just corrupted data."
The ground shook.
Behind him, the cathedral gate tore open—
And a boss-class signal surged out.
A monstrosity of metal and madness—twelve arms, screaming speakers for a mouth.
A god that had once been a firewall. Now? Just a corrupted system called DOMINUS.001.
"ROOTWALKER DETECTED. ERASE. ERASE. ERASE."
Jin's screen flashed red.
[BOSS ENCOUNTER – DOMINUS.001]
[Threat Level: A+]
[Suggested Party Size: 4+]
"I'll bring 0.1 of a party."
Jin raised his hand.
"Let's overwrite a god."
[TO BE CONTINUED – Chapter 3