Nothing.

  The chat screen stays desperately empty. One second. Ten seconds. A minute.

  “Come on…” I whisper, my voice cracking. “Answer, dammit. Give me a sign. Type a letter. Anything.”

  The silence of the floor is absolute. There is no sound. Just the void pressing against my eardrums. I feel like an astronaut whose tether just snapped, drifting into deep space.

  I shift my gaze to the [Deity Chat] window floating permanently on my left. They’re watching. They must know.

  I can’t write in it because it’s their VIP lounge, not mine. So I lift my head and scream into the void.

  “Hey! Goddess! The one watching from up high! The kid… Chris! Is he alive? Tell me where he is!”

  The answer arrives a few seconds later, cold, written in golden letters that look dull in this darkness.

  [The Goddess of Absolute Purity]: It is useless to scream, mortal. Just like you, all we see here is the void. Absolute black. He is not my Representative, so I do not know his status.

  I read the sentence three times. My blood runs cold. If even the divine spectators are blind, then we’re truly off the map. Chris is alone, somewhere in this black, maybe already being devoured, and nobody knows.

  Panic rises. I pound the invisible floor with my fist. “CHRIS!”

  I have to find another way. Anything.

  Beep.

  A tiny sound. A system notification. But in this tomb-like silence, it sounds like a cathedral bell.

  [Chris]: I’m alive Ben. Alone. I don’t know where I am. I… I’m scared.

  I let out a sob of relief, collapsing onto myself. He’s alive. He has his fingers, he has his head. He’s right there.

  “Chris…” I mutter, stroking the holographic screen as if it were his cheek. “You’re a tough kid. Keep breathing.”

  Beep.

  A second message appears right below it. It’s Kim.

  [Kim]: Ben… I can’t move. My legs won’t respond. I’ve… it’s ridiculous… I have a severe phobia of the dark. I’m having a panic attack. I’m sorry.

  I stare at the screen, incredulous. “No way, you’re kidding?” I blurt out into the dark. “Honestly, I hadn’t noticed a thing since we entered this floor! Good thing you’re telling me, I thought you were just practicing your high notes to scare the monsters!”

  I take a deep breath. The air is still just as stale, but my head is cool. If I panic, all three of us die here, digested by the darkness. I have to get Chris first. He’s closer, and if he starts screaming, he’s going to attract everything living in this room.

  I type frantically.

  [Ben]: Alright, listen to me. Nobody dies today. Kim, breathe. Stay where you are, stay small. Chris, I’m coming for you first.

  [Chris]: How? You can’t see anything!

  I think at high speed. I can’t see anything, but I can hear. The problem is that the monsters might make too much background noise. I need a clear signal. Something that cuts through.

  [Ben]: Chris, you still have your shield and your sword?

  [Chris]: Yes… I’m gripping them tight.

  [Ben]: Okay. We’re going to play a game. I want you to hit your shield with the pommel of your sword. But be careful, not a regular rhythm. If you just hit three times, those shits will imitate you to lure me into a trap. I need a unique signature.

  [Ben]: Play me the ‘Imperial March’. You know the rhythm. Dun dun dun, dun da dun, dun da dun. Don’t stop until I put my hand on your shoulder. If I hear a wrong note, I’ll assume it’s a monster and I’ll strike.

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  [Chris]: But… what if the monsters hear me?

  [Ben]: They already hear you breathing like an asthmatic seal, kid. The metallic sound will guide me. Do it. Now.

  I put away the interface, close my eyes, and strain my ears.

  The oppressive silence of the room. Distant whispers.

  And then…

  Clang, clang, clang… clang-da-clang… clang-da-clang.

  I start moving. I don’t stand up to move because that’s too risky. I get down on all fours, one hand holding the shovel, the other feeling the floor in front of me to avoid holes or traps. I crawl toward the sound.

  Clang, clang-da-clang…

  It’s slow and trembling. I feel Chris’s fear in every strike. “Hang in there, kid… I’m coming.”

  I move ten meters. Twenty meters. The sound gets closer. Suddenly, my hand, instead of hitting cold stone, meets something warm and solid. A boot.

  I move up the leg. The shaking is uncomfortable. “Chris?”

  The noise stops dead. “Uncle… Ben?”

  I reach out and grab his shoulder. He literally collapses against me, hugging me until I can’t breathe, crying silently into my neck. “You’re here… you’re here…”

  I push him back gently but firmly. “Save your tears for later. We aren’t out yet. We have to find Kim now. She’s further away, and she won’t make any noise.”

  “How’re we going to do it?” he sniffs. “She’s way up there…”

  I open the group interface again.

  [Ben]: Package secured. Chris is with me. Kim, it’s your turn. Describe what you feel around you. Solid? Empty? Cold?

  I wait. Chris is stuck to me, shaking like a leaf, his sword still raised into the void. A beep echoes.

  [Kim]: I… I think I’m high up. I’m curled up on something hard. Stone. A platform or a pillar, I don’t know. But I’ve felt around me… it’s the void. Total void. Ben, if I make one wrong move, I fall.

  I swallow hard. Isolated on an invisible perch in complete darkness.

  [Ben]: Okay. Don’t move an inch. Just breathe. We’re going to find you.

  [Ben]: Kim. I want you to fire into the air.

  [Kim]: To hit what?

  [Ben]: Nothing. Just to make noise. Fire one shot every three seconds. Be a rhythmic sound beacon for us. We’ll follow the audio trail right to you.

  [Kim]: Okay. I’m doing it. Get here fast.

  I close the interface and grab Chris’s shoulder. “Open your ears, kid. At the next gunshot, we move.”

  BANG!

  The gunshot cracks in the shadows. It’s far off, high up, and to our left. The sound bounces off invisible walls.

  “That way!” I whisper. “Go!”

  We lunge into the dark, my shovel feeling the ground in front of us to avoid holes.

  One, two, three…

  BANG!

  Louder this time. We’re getting closer. “Again!” Chris cries out, a bit of hope in his voice.

  One, two, three…

  BANG!

  The noise is right above our heads, deafening.

  “Stop!” I shout, pulling up short.

  We stop, out of breath. The sound did not come from a distant ceiling. It came from right there.

  I raise my hand to feel the void in front of me, expecting the platform to be out of reach… and my knuckles knock against stone.

  I freeze.

  I feel the obstacle. It’s a stone block. I trace the edge upward. It stops at my chest. It’s just a low wall, or a pedestal for an empty statue. I slide my hand across the top.

  I touch a leather boot.

  “AAAH! DON’T TOUCH ME!” Kim screams, pulling her foot back violently.

  Her voice hits me full force. She isn’t up high. She’s right here.

  I stay silent for a moment, my hand resting on the edge of the low wall. “Kim?” I say calmly.

  “Ben?!” Her voice trembles, confused. “Why can I hear you so loudly? Did you… did you climb up?”

  I lean nonchalantly on the stone ledge, as if I were waiting for a beer at a bar counter. “No, Kim. Come back to earth. I’ve got both feet planted in the dust. You’re just standing on a slightly high step.”

  “That’s impossible!” she panics, her voice high-pitched. “I felt the ascent! I’m on the edge of a precipice! If I move an inch, I’ll be a splat on the floor!”

  “Listen to my voice. I’m twenty inches from your kneecaps. If you were on the edge of a cliff, I would be shouting from below with a megaphone. Right now, I’m close enough to tie your shoelaces.”

  I hear her panicked breathing, stalling like a flooded engine. The sound of leather squeaking on stone is unbearable. She moves inch by inch, terrified, convinced she’s about to base jump without a parachute.

  She steps down.

  She’s standing on solid ground, right next to me.

  There’s a long, awkward silence in the dark.

  “… Oh.”

  “There you go,” I say, patting her shoulder. “Welcome back to reality. You were perched on a fancy flower pot stand, princess. The deadly abyss was just the floor tiles.”

  Kim stays crouched on the floor for a few seconds, long enough to swallow her pride. She stands up, smooths her clothes, and picks up her rifle. “We never speak of this,” she says in a flat voice.

  “Speak of what? The fact that the great Kim_Headshot almost had a heart attack because of a low wall? Don’t worry, it’s already archived in the Blackmail Files.”

  Chris, still clinging to my left arm, sniffs and adds in a weak voice. “Don’t worry Kim. I won’t talk about it either. Anyway… I screamed because a leaf touched my leg. We’re even.”

  Now that the trio is reunited, I look for a landmark in the darkness to find the exit. Chris frowns, suddenly noticing the ambient calm.

  “This is weird… How come there’s no more noise? No more monsters? No more breathing? It stopped the second you found us.”

  I scratch my beard, thinking about the twisted mechanics of this floor. “I don’t think these monsters are here to hurt us physically. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it long ago, especially when you were on the ground and vulnerable. I think this floor is designed to break us psychologically.”

  I point to the void around us. “You and Kim were snatched and tormented because you were the most afraid. Your heart rates were spiking, you were screaming. But when I ran to get you, kid, I didn’t hit a single obstacle. Nothing blocked my path.”

  “You mean that…?”

  “I mean this dungeon is a funhouse mirror. The more afraid we are, the more the floor activates and manifests things. It’s a game engine powered by stress. If you calm your pulse, the script stops.”

  Kim grips her rifle tight. “That’s easy to say, Ben. But my brain won’t listen to me.”

  “I know it’s hard,” I say, grabbing Kim’s arm to tuck it under mine on the other side of Chris. “But to beat this floor, there’s only one way: walk without being afraid. No matter what touches you, no matter what you hear… just walk. Don’t shake. Don’t scream.”

  I pull them a little closer to me. “Act like nothing is happening. Tell yourselves it’s me. Tell yourselves it’s Uncle Ben playing tricks on you for a laugh. If you feel a hand, it’s me. If you hear a laugh, it’s me. Okay?”

  They nod, not very convinced but resigned. “Let’s go. Plug your ears if it helps. I’ll be your eyes.”