[TUTORIAL FLOOR FIVE: THE IRON CLOCK TOWER]
Objective:
Survive 1 Hour While Bound by Temporal Weight.
Bonus Objective:
Destroy the Core Mechanism at the top of the Tower.
Special Condition:
• All movement speed reduced by 60%.
• Skill casting delay: +3 seconds.
Reward:
Bonus AP, Strength Modifier, Title.
Wang Ling opened his eyes to the groan of iron cogs grinding above.
This floor was mechanical. Not flesh, not blood. Just steel, dust, and time.
Huge metal chains stretched from the floor to a clock suspended in the void. Each player stood at the base of the tower's core—an enormous pendulum swinging over them like a scythe.
Yue staggered beside him.
Her body was sluggish, as if time had thickened into mud. Every blink took longer. Every breath burned.
"It's… heavy," she gasped.
"This is the first real test of endurance," Wang Ling thought.
"Not strength. Not speed. Just how long you can stand while gravity breaks you."
He flexed his fingers.
They moved—slow, but not weak.
[System Update: Time Lock Effect Engaged]
Movement Speed: -60%
Reaction Time: +1.4 sec
Skill Delay: +3 sec
Passive Traits Not Affected.
Titles Still Active.
Wang Ling smiled faintly.
"So the Tower's trying to level the field. Good. I don't need speed to kill."
📜 GLOBAL PLAYER RANKINGS – POST FLOOR 4
1. Wang Ling – 370 Achievement Points
Level: 7
Titles: 7
Stat Crystals: 3 (Unspent)
Trait Synergy: Active
Tutorial Kills: 17
Performance Grade: S+
2. Aimee Hart – 162 AP
3. Haruto Shino – 144 AP
4. Wei Nan – 127 AP
5. Yue Lin – 58 AP (Linked: Wang Ling)
Players Remaining: 67.8 Million
[Begin Timer: 01:00:00]
As the clock ticked, the first enemies descended.
Timebound Executioners — black-armored humanoids dragging massive halberds and wearing cracked clocks over their faces.
Each movement echoed like church bells.
Their strikes were slow. Deliberate.
But so was everyone else now.
Two players near the far wall tried to retreat.
One tripped under the gravity. The other screamed as a halberd bisected him in half — blood spraying in slow motion.
Yue raised her weapon.
She was shaking.
Wang Ling placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't waste your breath. Stay behind me."
The first Executioner reached him.
Its halberd came down — a strike that would cleave through the average player's skull.
Wang Ling moved under it, slowly, like underwater.
He gripped the shaft mid-air.
And with pure, cold strength — ripped it from the creature's hands and slammed it into its own neck.
[Kill Confirmed: Timebound Executioner]
+10 AP
Stat Bonus: +1 Endurance
Passive Bonus: Minor resistance to time-based debuffs (temporary)
He kept moving forward.
Each enemy fell slower than the last.
Not because of the debuff — but because they hesitated.
Something in his aura corroded their certainty.
[Passive Trait Triggered: Monarch's Pressure Lv.2]
Timebound enemies suffer a 10% reaction delay in your presence.
Fear stacks in close range.
"The Tower slows us down," he thought.
"But fear slows them more."
Halfway through, Yue dropped to one knee.
Her breath was ragged.
He didn't look at her.
If she collapsed now, she'd die.
"This is where I would have died, too," he remembered.
"Floor 5. My first death. My first regret."
"But this time…"
He looked up.
The gears above shimmered.
The Core.
"Bonus objective."
He dropped the halberd, flexed his fingers, and sprinted.
Even at 60% movement speed, the Executioners couldn't match him.
They watched him ascend the gear platforms like a storm wrapped in gravity.
He reached the top.
A great glass heart ticked behind crystal gears.
[Bonus Objective Triggered: Destroy the Clock Core]
He drove his fist into the heart of time.
The world pulsed.
A second later, the weight vanished.
[Floor Cleared – Time Reduced by 18 Minutes]
Kills: 9
Boss Objective Cleared
+3 Levels
+2 Free Stat Points
+30 AP
Title Gained: Timebreaker
Your actions reduce skill delay by 15%.
Temporary debuffs decay faster in your presence.
Back at the base, Yue looked up in awe.
She was still breathing.
He returned slowly, without a word.
She stared.
"You broke time," she whispered.
He just walked past her.
"I'll break the sky next."
[Tutorial Floor 6 Begins In: 23:59:59]
Objective: Cross the Path of the Nameless
Rules: No names spoken. No language allowed.
Failure to remain silent = instant failure.
Monsters: Sirens of Thought
Wang Ling sat down beside the bed.
He opened his system.
Unspent Stat Crystals: 3
He poured them into Strength.
[Strength: 11 → 14]
"Tomorrow, I won't even need to speak."