Then Serena arrived, spear in hand. She found me standing over Owen's crystal cage with crumbs on my shirt. Grace arrived seconds later, breathing hard, and Riley came last, carrying two bags of loot and pretending he had not been hiding behind a perfume counter the whole time.
Serena looked at Owen, then at me. Grace looked at the shattered arcade, then at Riley. Riley pointed at me and said, "He did it."
I told everyone the snack cake did it. Nobody believed me.
Owen was dragged to the central safe zone before dawn. Not by police, because police were busy becoming players like everyone else. Not by a court, because the city did not have time for long speeches and wooden benches. The safe zone crystal had its own punishment for red marked player killers. It locked them in visible cells where they could not use offensive skills, and monster waves ignored them, because even monsters had standards.
People came to stare. I did not. I had better things to do.
The fall of Owen's arcade network changed the city in one night. Not into paradise. That would have been boring and fake. But the boldest player killers suddenly remembered they had hobbies other than robbing F-ranks. Some fled to outer zones. Some tried to pretend they had always been misunderstood. Some asked to join protection teams, which made Grace look like she had swallowed a lemon made of suspicion.
Serena's reputation rose too, but in a different way. People still saw her as a symbol. They saw me as a warning sign with legs.
The difference mattered. When Serena entered a safe zone, people stood straighter. When I entered as an F-rank, everyone checked whether they had accidentally committed crimes in the last hour.
It was peaceful for almost a day.
Then the black tower downtown opened its first public floor.
The tower had been there since the sky cracked, but every gate around it had rejected entry. Now the doors unfolded like metal wings, and a message appeared over the entire city.
Tower floor one available. Recommended rank S. Clear reward, citywide barrier enhancement. Failure penalty, gate overflow.
That got everyone's attention. A stronger barrier meant fewer monsters in residential safe zones. Gate overflow meant the monsters inside the tower would pour into the streets.
Every S-rank in the city gathered near the entrance by sunset. There were not many. Serena stood at the front, spear ready. A few other S-ranks kept distance from each other, each trying to look calm while measuring everyone else. Grace stood behind the line with a B+ rank and the expression of someone who hated not being qualified but hated admitting it more. Riley set up a stall nearby selling reinforced charms at emergency prices, because friendship was important, but so was profit.
I arrived late as an F-rank.
The S-ranks stared. One laughed. Serena sighed like she had expected nothing less. Grace closed her eyes. Riley shouted that refunds were not available if I died.
The tower doors pulsed. Only S-ranks could enter, but my real rank was S. The fake F above my head did not fool the door. It opened for me anyway.
That tiny detail made every watching player lose their mind. The fake F walked through the S-rank gate. The rumor exploded before the door shut behind me.
Inside, the tower was not like the other dungeons. The air felt heavy, as if the building had swallowed a storm. The first floor looked like a ruined city stacked inside a cathedral. Streets floated in the air. Staircases led nowhere. Monster statues lined the walls, each with a rank symbol carved into its chest.
The other S-ranks moved carefully. I moved badly on purpose.
Every monster statue watched my F-rank and decided I was the snack.
The first wave animated all at once. Stone wolves leaped from the walls, ignoring Serena and the others to rush me. The S-ranks shouted warnings. I tripped over nothing, rolled under the first wolf, and let the pack pile up in a narrow street between floating buildings.
Then I revealed S.
Predator reversal detonated. My first swing with the chain blade cracked six stone bodies in half. Serena's spear flashed past my shoulder and pierced three more. For one brief, beautiful second, we fought back to back without planning it. Her style was clean silver lines. Mine was black chaos and emotional damage.
The other S-ranks stopped laughing.
The floor tested more than strength. It tested habits.
A bridge appeared ahead with glowing panels marked by rank. The obvious route required players to step on panels matching their rank. The other S-ranks walked on S panels, which lit safely. I lowered my display to F and stepped on an F panel.
The bridge accepted it.
Everyone froze. My real rank got me through the door. My displayed rank got me through the trap. That meant the tower recognized both in different ways. Not because it cared about me, but because its mechanics were simple and exploitable.
I loved simple and exploitable.
The path split into rank lanes. S lanes had stronger monsters and better rewards. F lanes looked safe but were full of hidden traps meant to punish weak players who tried to sneak in. I could use any lower lane while still having S-rank power.
So I became the worst thing a tower puzzle could meet. Flexible.
I walked the F lane to trigger weak-looking ambushers, revealed S to crush them, then switched to C to open a side chamber meant for mid-rank puzzle teams. Serena watched me with a look that said she was both impressed and deeply annoyed. The other S-ranks followed at a distance, pretending they had not laughed earlier.
One trap dropped us into a maze where monsters copied the highest visible rank nearby. The other S-ranks immediately powered down their skills, trying not to feed the copies.
I displayed F.
Every monster copy appeared as a tiny goblin with a butter knife. The room went silent. I almost felt bad.
Then one goblin tried to stab my shoe. Predator reversal activated at the smallest scale I had ever seen, and my counter kick launched it into the ceiling so hard it left a goblin-shaped hole.
The S-ranks stared. I said nothing, because sometimes silence is funnier.