Dawei's blade carved through the corridor, a blur of steel and glowing crits. The math was simple:
1 Attribute Point = +5 Attack.40 kills = 1 point.10 floors ≈ 400 kills = 10 points = +50 attack.
He nodded to himself, satisfaction flickering in his eyes. "Yeah, this is definitely a master's route."
But by the time he reached Floor 10, that confidence had begun to crack.
The mobs now had base defense, and without overwhelming damage, each strike started to feel like punching armor. His attacks no longer melted through them. His kill speed dropped. The pressure rose.
Then came the boss—a hulking brute with magic resistance and a layered health bar. The fight stretched on until Dawei was forced to burn his ability slot card, an emergency one-time-use active that doubled his damage for ten seconds.
He barely scraped through.
[System Prompt: You have defeated the Floor 10 Boss.][Reward: Bronze Magic Chest.]
"Huh? A chest?"
He opened it without hesitation.
[You have received: Singing Staff (B-Class)]Weapon: +3 Attack, +20 Mana, +10% Cast SpeedNo usage restriction. Can be taken outside the Infinity Tower.
Dawei stared at the glowing staff.
A caster's tool. Not his style. But…
"Wait, I do have that Wind Strike skill from Candice…"
Still, his current weapon—Dark Edge—was an SS-tier dagger. Giving it up for this staff-on-training-wheels just to activate a skill wasn't worth it. He threw the staff into his inventory for now.
No need to fix what wasn't broken.
Besides, the real issue now was pacing.
[System Prompt: You have cleared Layer One. +10,000 EXP. Transfer to Layer Two? Yes / No]
He hit Yes and dinged to Level 5.
+3 Base Attack Gained.
That made his attacks even sharper. Now, facing Level 10 mobs at the start of Layer Two, he was still ahead of the curve.
He grinned. "Bro's still breathing."
Alice Studio – Internal Monitoring Room
Chen Ke'er adjusted her glasses as she watched the screen, unimpressed.
"Hmph. His clear speed isn't great," she muttered.
Sitting beside her, President Sophie frowned. "Strange… He got stuck earlier than I expected. We cruised through the first 20 floors much faster."
Sophie's account—already Level 14—had taken a different route. With the help of her team, she used an optimized build focused on fast gear redemption. By maximizing early equipment, she'd snowballed through kills quickly and then transitioned into an attribute-based strategy around Floor 30.
Professionally speaking, it was the most stable method.
"Compared to that," Ke'er said, "this guy's gameplay feels clunky. All attack, no balance. He's going to hit a wall."
Sophie didn't respond immediately. Her thoughts wandered. They'd spent millions building routes into Dragon City, gathering intelligence, and shaping ideal builds. Dawei had simply wandered in with a god-tier badge and a mysterious past.
And now? He was barely keeping up.
"I guess… I just didn't want to believe the hype was fake," Sophie muttered.
"Maybe he's streaming on a side monitor," another girl said. "Or maybe he's just lazy."
Iris Liuli smirked. "Let's not panic. Let Dragon War know about him. If he's real, they'll trigger him. If he's not, we'll look like geniuses."
There was silence.
Then laughter.
Sophie tapped her fingers on the desk, then nodded. "Let's feed Dragon War the name. Let them shake him up."
Back in the Tower...
Dawei's blade tore into a Floor 13 miniboss. Blood sprayed. Sparks flew.
-21-23Life Recovery +3Break Defense -40
He looped the same output pattern again and again, finally watching the elite collapse.
The reward?
[Broken Old Sword – Duplicate]Cannot be redeemed for kill points again.
He grunted. "Still better than nothing."
His kill value ticked upward again, and without hesitation, he funneled another 100 points into Attack.
[Attack +5 Gained.]
He grinned.
"One second. Four slashes. No excuses."
It wasn't fancy.
It wasn't flashy.
But it was working.
What Dawei didn't know was that his name was about to show up in the inner circle of Dragon War's intelligence channel. What he also didn't know was that his every step was now being watched—and if his growth stalled, the guilds would write him off.
But if he exploded?
Then even Alice Studio might have to reconsider its most sacred rule.