The Brooklyn sky was still gray at dusk.
The outline of the Red Hook District was blurred in the fog, appearing as a gray, undulating line.
Allen pushed open the iron door to the ground floor of the warehouse.
The rusty hinges scraped with a dull thud.
He went downstairs. P2 floor. Pillar number 17.
He sat on the concrete floor.
The fabric of his jeans clung to the cool ground.
The management panel unfolded directly in his field of vision.
[Test Mode - Activated] The interface switched to the configuration menu.
Target area: Rooms 51 to 65. Underground sewer area.
Environmental parameters adjusted.
Light source: 0%.
Water depth: 15 cm.
Water temperature: 8 degrees Celsius.
System damage warning pop-up: Off.
Upgrading from D-rank to C-rank requires 45,000 experience points.
The experience curve of regular training is too flat.
His body can't be pushed to its limit in the safe zone.
He needs to be beaten to the brink of death.
His fingers swiped across the panel.
Loading confirmed.
Environment changes.
The parking lot's load-bearing pillars disappear.
The dry concrete beneath his feet transforms into a waterlogged brick path.
Water submerges his new white shoelaces.
Eight degrees Celsius water seeps through the mesh into his socks, clinging to the skin of his feet.
Complete darkness.
His vision is completely stripped away.
Allen draws his short sword from his waistband.
The faint sound of the blade scraping against the scabbard bounces through the enclosed waterway.
Water slowly ripples around his ankles.
Ten meters away.
The water breaks open.
Without warning.
The sound of water breaking is heard.
The fabric of his jeans tears on the outside of his left thigh.
Three rows of barbed teeth pierce the subcutaneous tissue.
Deep-sea lizard. C- grade.
1.2 meters long. Scales have a water-deflecting layer.
Left leg muscles tense.
The short sword thrusts downwards in a reverse grip.
The sword tip pierced the hard scales, then slid away.
The lizard's jaws tightened.
[Stone Skin] passive triggered.
Gray rock-like textures emerged beneath the skin, jamming the teeth.
Using this 0.5-second pause, Allen kicked his right leg hard underwater.
His body leaned back.
His left leg was forcefully pulled from the lizard's jaws.
Leaving behind three five-centimeter-long blood grooves.
No damage numbers appeared.
Pain surged into his cerebral cortex.
He didn't stop.
The short sword, propelled by inertia, slashed upwards.
Slicing into the soft part of the lizard's open jaws.
Warm liquid sprayed onto the back of his hand.
Kill.
The experience bar pushed forward by an imperceptible sliver.
The first one.
A series of splashing sounds echoed from the depths of the passage.
Twelve hours later.
Test mode reset point.
Allen stood on the dry platform at the waterway entrance.
The black hoodie was soaked through, clinging to his body.
His body was unharmed.
His nervous system recorded every injury he had sustained in the past twelve hours.
Seventeen bites.
Eleven large bruises.
A penetrating claw mark running from his left shoulder to his right ribcage.
Four deaths.
The first death was from his back.
His shadow perception's penetration in water decreased by forty percent.
A smaller mutant lizard bypassed his sensory network and bit off his carotid artery.
The second death was from exhaustion.
He had fought continuously for three hours in ankle-deep water.
Lactic acid buildup overwhelmed his D-grade muscle endurance.
He collapsed in the water, his lungs filled with dirty water.
The third death was from a coordinated attack.
Three lizards locked onto his legs and sword-wielding hand.
The fourth death was from a zone boss.
Abyssal Anglerfish.
C-grade.
The glowing organ on his forehead flickered in the complete darkness.
He took three steps toward the light source.
A cloud of highly concentrated corrosive acid greeted him.
Skin, eyes, and respiratory tract dissolved within two seconds.
Four resets.
Four times he reopened his eyes from the platform at the entrance.
His experience bar reached 15%.
Not fast enough. Allen brought up the management panel, preparing for a fifth loading.
A red envelope icon popped up at the top of the system interface.
External notification. GWA official channel.
He opened it.
[Collaborative Exploration Application Notification] Applicant: Black Serpent Guild (Registration Number: NY-A-004) Target: NYC-BK-0513 (Brooklyn Ruins) Number of Applicants: 12 (Elite Team)
[GWA Compliance Review Department Note: This application complies with the "Awakened Guild Joint Exploration Regulations." The operator must respond within 72 hours: Accept/Reject.]
[Note: If you choose to reject, you must provide substantial evidence involving S-level or higher confidentiality or serious security risks. Failure to respond within the deadline will be considered as acceptance by default.] Seventy-two hours.
Victor Stone's second move.
Security checks were blocked by legitimate registration.
The other party changed their guise to cooperative exploration.
Twelve elites.
Spies like SilentBlade_7 had already figured out the route.
These twelve people weren't coming in to farm gear.
They were coming to destroy the base.
Refuse?
He didn't have S-level or higher classified evidence to submit to the GWA.
If the GWA ruled to enforce it, Black Serpent's people would come with official backing and break down the door directly.
Accept.
Let them in.
Allen closed the red envelope.
The seventy-two-hour countdown was flashing in the upper right corner of the panel.
His upgrade countdown was also seventy-two hours.
The timelines overlapped.
The Black Serpent exploration team would enter in seventy-two hours.
He had to reach C-level before then to unlock the dungeon network.
The starting point to turn eighty rooms into eight hundred rooms.
He pressed [Load].
The water was ankle-deep again.
Complete darkness.
The thirty-seventh kill.
Allen stood in knee-deep water.
The water depth increased. Resistance increased.
A row of fresh teeth marks appeared on his left forearm.
Shadow perception spread out.
A radius of fifteen meters.
Extremely inefficient. Water molecules absorbed most of the shadow energy fluctuations.
He closed his eyes.
Vision was useless in complete darkness.
Opening his eyes would only force his brain to process useless noise.
Hearing.
Touch.
Water rippled around his legs.
The water in front of him crashed against the wall and bounced.
A subtle eddy appeared in the water to his left.
An object was displacing water.
A very high frequency.
Small in size, but very fast.
Allen didn't move.
Wait.
The eddy vibrations traveled through the water to the skin of his calves.
The vibration frequency was converted into distance parameters in his brain.
Five meters.
Three meters.
One meter.
The short sword is held horizontally to the left.
The blade flips.
The water breaks open.
The lizard's jaws collide with the blade.
The short sword cuts in, piercing the brainstem.
No struggle. Fortieth kill.
Allen stands still.
Water ripples spread across his skin.
Right rear. Two.
Straight in front. One.
Different frequencies.
The one in front has a more muffled frequency. Larger in size.
He takes a step to the left.
Avoiding the path of the charge in front.
The short sword is thrown to the right rear.
Water splashes up.
Hit.
The management panel pops up blue text in the darkness.
[Skill Evolution: Shadow Sense F-rank → E-rank.]
[New Sub-effect: Water Perception - Basic.]
[Effect Description: Constructs a three-dimensional fluid model within a ten-meter radius through the resonance of skin touch and water ripples.] Allen drew his spare D-grade standard long dagger.
Water perception activated.
Darkness was no longer a blind spot.
Water became a second skin.
Experience bar progression tripled.
Thirty hours later.
Test mode reset point.
Experience gains in the waterway area began to decrease.
Level suppression activated.
C-grade monsters no longer provided sufficient stimulation.
Area switch.
Rooms 66-79.
Tower area.
Inside the concrete ruins of the tower.
Space folding activated.
The tower, actually occupying 500 square meters, unfolded internally into a cylindrical atrium with a diameter of 2,000 meters.
No complete floors.
Only broken platforms extending from the walls.
Platforms spaced 10 to 50 meters apart.
Allen stood on the lowest platform.
Looking up.
Above were endless suspended platforms and swirling shadows.
Twilight Raiders.
C-grade.
His limbs possessed adhesive structures, allowing him to move effortlessly across vertical walls.
[Rule Addendum: Gravity Anomaly] Current Gravity: 1.0x.
Allen slightly bent his knees and leaped upwards.
His D-level explosive power allowed him to easily traverse a vertical distance of fifteen meters.
He was in mid-air.
Highest point.
Gravity parameters changed.
0.5x.
Downward acceleration halved.
He remained airborne for an additional 1.2 seconds.
1.2 seconds.
To the Twilight Raiders, he was a stationary target.
Two dark figures ricocheted off the wall.
Claws sliced through the fabric of his hoodie at the abdomen.
Allen twisted his waist in mid-air, parrying one claw with his long dagger.
The other claw pierced his left thigh.
Landed.
Feet touched the platform.
Gravity parameters changed again.
2.0x.
Weight and equipment weight doubled.
Impact force amplified twofold.
A cracking sound came from his knee.
The wound on his left thigh widened under the double gravity.
Bleeding increased.
He knelt on the platform.
A third raider swooped down from above.
Fifth death.
Reset.
Sixth death.
Reset.
The gravity switching pattern wasn't random.
It was set by him.
It switched every forty-five seconds.
0.5x lasted ten seconds.
2.0x lasted ten seconds.
1.0x lasted twenty-five seconds.
The numbers in his mind were clear.
Muscle memory couldn't adapt to the seamless switching in such a short time.
Excessive force under 0.5x gravity distorted his movements.
Insufficient force under 2.0x gravity sluggish his movements.
Seventh loading.
Allen stood on the platform.
He didn't jump.
He counted down in his mind.
Forty-three. Forty-four. Forty-five.
Gravity 0.5x. Internal organ weightlessness.
Jump. Using only half the strength.
The body traces a gentle arc in the air, landing towards the target platform.
Mid-air.
The raider pounces.
The long dagger swings.
At 0.5x gravity, the weapon becomes lighter, the swing faster.
The reaction force pushes him away.
At the moment of impact, the left hand grabs the raider's forelimb.
Using the momentum to stabilize himself.
Ten seconds end.
Gravity 2.0x.
The body plummets.
Release the left hand, both feet slamming onto the platform.
Knees slightly bent, dissipating the double impact.
The long dagger plunges downwards, embedding itself in the back of another ambush monster.
Thirtieth hour.
Experience bar reaches 89%.
Countdown in the upper right corner: Forty-two hours until the Black Serpent Exploration Team enters.
Allen stands at the edge of room seventy-eight.
Beneath his feet was a protruding steel bar, barely wide enough for two feet to stand on.
Gravity 0.5x.
Three Twilight Raiders lunged at him simultaneously.
He didn't dodge.
The long dagger twirled half a circle between his fingers, then he reversed his grip.
The gravity shift countdown reached its final second.
Ten.
Gravity 2.0x.
The raiders' attack trajectory plummeted instantly under double gravity.
Missing their target.
Allen's body plummeted.
During the fall.
The tip of the long dagger sliced through the first monster's carotid artery.
His left knee shattered the skull of the second monster.
His toes touched the back of the third monster, using the momentum to leap towards the entrance to Room 79.
The experience bar jumped to 94%.
Red countdown: 41 hours and 59 minutes.
He landed on the stone slab at the entrance.
In the darkness ahead, a pure black door slowly opened.
Room 80.
The Abyss Watcher.
On the black mirror inside the door, dark red pupils lit up.
[Rule Addendum: Time Flow Modification (0.5x) in effect] The air thickened.
Allen raised his right arm.
His movements slowed to half.
His dark red pupils left two afterimages on the black mirror.
The greatsword was drawn.
The blade sliced through the viscous air, sweeping horizontally.
Ten centimeters from his face.
The wind from the sword pressed against his nose.
The countdown on the panel jumped.
Forty-one hours and fifty-eight minutes.
The black reflection of the blade shone on the left mirror lens.
The scratch overlapped with the blade.