“Hi, Mike. Congratulations on clearing Floor 2 and with the Secret Objective, no less.”

  I cut him off. “What the fuck, Jeff? The NPCs are aware inside the floors?”

  “Some are. Some are not,” Jeff replied calmly.

  “That’s sick. Even for you. Or whoever’s controlling this nightmare.”

  “I see you’ve acquired a familiar. Congratulations again.”

  “Are you even listening to me?!”

  “I am.”

  I stared at him. Jeff stood perfectly still, hands folded behind his back, expression unreadable. Not annoyed. Not defensive. Just observing. Complaining wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and I knew it.

  I exhaled slowly. “Yes. I have a familiar. A reward for clearing the Secret Objective. But you already knew that.”

  “It is rare for the System to grant familiars so early in the dungeon,” Jeff said. “It must have deemed you… interesting.”

  “I don’t know if ‘interesting’ is the compliment you think it is.”

  “It was not intended as one.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Are we done here? I’d like to go home.”

  “Before you leave,” Jeff said, “your rewards.”

  Notifications exploded across my vision.

  Congratulations! You have Cleared Floor 2

  Experience Awarded

  Abilities Unlocked

  Congratulations! You have Completed the Secret Objective of Floor 2

  Experience Awarded

  Loot Awarded

  Loot Gained:

  Resonance Breaker Gloves (Rare)

  +5 Endurance

  +5% Blunt Weapon Damage

  +5% Ranged Attack Speed

  Engineered to absorb the backlash of high-impact blunt strikes, reducing strain on the user while amplifying force transfer into the target.

  Enchanted with kinetic acceleration, increasing the speed of thrown weapons and projectile-based magic.

  Abilities Unlocked

  Please choose one from the three below:

  Elemental Sculptor (Uncommon)

  Enhances control over Elemental Bolt.

  You may reshape your projectile mid-cast, altering form, density, and trajectory.

  ? Convert bolts into spears, arcs, bursts, or sustained orbs

  ? Improve precision and battlefield control

  ? Functions only in conjunction with Elemental Bolt

  Combat Slide (Uncommon)

  A momentum-based evasive maneuver.

  ? Rapidly reposition with a low-profile burst of speed

  ? Temporarily increases dodge window

  ? Reduced stamina cost with repeated use

  Vital Assimilation (Rare)

  You may absorb compatible life essence from defeated enemies to restore your own vitality.

  ? Restore HP by converting residual life energy

  ? Healing efficiency scales with enemy tier

  ? Only compatible life signatures may be absorbed without consequences

  ? Overuse may strain the user

  I equipped the gloves immediately. They tightened around my hands like they’d been molded for me. Yeah. These were going to be useful.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  I dismissed everything except the ability choices for later and looked back at Jeff. “Hey. Quick question.”

  “Yes.”

  “What happens to Lexi while I’m not here?”

  “You will find out in a moment.”

  Jeff snapped his fingers.

  I opened my eyes back in my room. The real world. Or my other world, at least. No stone walls. No golems. Just my ceiling and the faint hum of the AC. I looked around.

  No floating book.

  No glowing ink.

  No Lexi.

  “…Huh.”

  “Hi, Mike,” a robotic voice said from beneath my sheets.

  I froze. Slowly, I lifted the blanket.

  A smartphone lay there. Not mine. This one looked brand new: sleek, thinner than anything I’d seen in stores, with a reinforced carbon fiber case. On the back cover was a familiar white humanoid silhouette. No eyes, no nose. Sitting cross-legged with that same polite hotel-receptionist smile.

  No offense to hotel receptionists.

  “…Lexi?” I asked cautiously.

  “Who else would it be, Mike?”

  “Yep. That’s definitely you.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing,” I replied quickly.

  I stood up and immediately noticed something else. “I love the cover.”

  “I was not given the option to choose,” Lexi said.

  “Yeah. Figured.”

  My body felt different. More defined. Shoulders broader, arms fuller, core tighter. Not taller, thankfully; my clothes already fit a little too snug. I walked to the mirror.

  Yeah. Professional athlete territory.

  “I’m not complaining,” I muttered, flexing slightly.

  “Maybe you should,” Lexi said from behind me.

  I spun around. She was floating. As a phone. In the air.

  “Hey! You can’t float around like that. That is not normal in this world. Also, switch to text mode. We have AI now, but people still don’t openly talk to their phones.”

  The phone dropped neatly into my hand. A text appeared on the screen:

  Is this better?

  “Perfect,” I said.

  I got dressed and headed downstairs.

  “About time,” Ellie groaned from the table.

  “Sorry. Haven’t been sleeping great lately.”

  “Leave your big brother alone,” Mom called from the kitchen. “He’s growing. He needs sleep. Look at him, he’s putting on muscle.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck, a little embarrassed. “Yeah. Thanks, Mom.”

  “Don’t worry, sweetie. Now both of you move or you’ll be late.”

  “Yes, Mom,” we said together.

  The drive to Ellie’s school was uneventful. I dropped her off, then headed to mine. I parked, walked to class, and sat down in calculus.

  I tried to pay attention. I really did. But the numbers blurred. If my math was right, in about a month Earth would be inducted into the System. None of this would be the same. Would school still matter? College? Baseball?

  I forced myself to focus, took notes, solved a few problems. Went through the motions of being a normal seventeen-year-old.

  By last period, I was exhausted. At least Ben was there. Ben had been my best friend since middle school. We’d survived high school chaos together, shared dugouts, bad jokes, and worse decisions.

  As we walked toward the parking lot, he nudged me. “Hey, we should hit the batting cages tonight. Get our motors running before season starts next week.”

  I considered it. Not just because he was right, but because I wondered if I could level up here. My Blunt Weapons skill hadn’t moved since the System gave me those five free levels for “previous experience.” What if the batting cages counted?

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Just gotta be home by 9:30.” Not ideal to pass out and fall into the Dream Dungeon in public.

  “Perfect. My mom won’t let me stay out past ten on weeknights anyway.”

  Later, I picked up Ellie and headed home. Mom had a double shift, so she wasn’t back yet. I ordered delivery for us and started getting ready for the cages.

  But first, I needed to choose my new ability.

  I pulled up the menu and stared at the three options again. Elemental Sculptor. Combat Slide. Vital Assimilation.

  Sculptor would make Elemental Bolt cleaner, flashier. Slide would help me stay alive; it would’ve been great against the ink golem. But I’d already shaped my fire bolt into a floating orb to light a hallway without any special skill. I was pretty sure I could learn more tricks with practice. Dodging was similar. Timing, instinct, muscle memory. A skill would help, but it wasn’t something I absolutely needed.

  Healing was different.

  Potions had limits. Pain didn’t.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “I’ll take the one that keeps me standing. Plus it’s the highest rarity. There’s probably a reason for that.”

  Ability Selected: Vital Assimilation (Rare)

  A faint warmth coiled beneath my ribs, then something else: a small hunger. Not physical, not exactly, but there.

  “That’s… normal, right?” I muttered.

  “What is?” Lexi asked.

  “…Nothing.”