I had no time to analyze. The roar I heard wasn't normal—it was a distorted digital sound, like a predator's growl merged with a glitching computer server.
The trees around me started dissolving into green code lines, then reshaped into "steel wolves". These beasts weren't in the original chapter 5. The Fixer was right about one thing: the world was unraveling.
[Alert: "Visual Analysis" skill activated.]
[Target: Steel Wolves (Level 5).]
[Vulnerabilities: Digital joints (flashing code areas).]
The first wolf lunged with a blue flame tongue. Using "Lightning Dash", I rolled under it and stabbed its front joint with the black dagger. The wolf disintegrated into floating data and vanished—but I got no XP or coins.
"To the Inverted Tower. Don't look back," the voice whispered again.
I paused. "Who are you?" I shouted into the void.
No response, but the ground shook, splitting the forest to reveal a chessboard-paved path. On the distant horizon stood a bizarre structure: a tower with its base in the clouds and tip buried in the ground. The "Inverted Tower".
I sprinted with all I had. Behind me, the forest vanished like someone closing a game. A dire message appeared:
[Alert: "Main Player" detected.]
[Hunt activated: Dark Hero uses "Absolute Tracking".]
I glanced back. The Dark Hero wasn't running—he floated above ground, each step turning the environment behind him into "nothingness". He moved faster than this world's physics allowed.
"If I kill him, will the nightmare end?" I wondered, heart racing.
I reached the tower base. The door was a giant human face carved in stone, eyes closed. I touched its forehead. The stone eyes opened—not human; they were display screens showing clips of my real life before this world: me sitting at a PC, typing a scathing review of this novel.
"You're the cause," the door said hollowly. "You criticized the hero's weakness. Now you suffer it yourself."
The door rose, revealing a dark passage. But a cold sword touched my neck.
"Journey's end, glitch," the Dark Hero said behind me, his voice trembling. He didn't want to kill me… he wanted help?