Wolf

We arrive quietly on the two hundred and fifty-second floor, finding it to be very similar to the first floor of the theme. Except that the cracks that are in the walls, ceiling, and stairs are less severe. Everything looks less damaged. More put together.

Safer too.

The tunnels all look the same though, and after entering one, we quickly find ourselves with another crowd watching as we instantly freeze a poor little boar. One sparking with electricity before our unfortunate encounter.

And just seconds later, we open the loot box, get more trash from it, and reappear in the main tower of the floor.

“Does this tower not have anything good anymore?” Sapphire complains while crossing her arms and pouting.

I raise a brow at that and shrug, “Well, most of the stuff we’re getting is considered good by most.” She glances at me with a befuddled look on her face. “Just look at those people we tossed everything to.”

That seems to make her understand. Only for her to say, “Well, the dungeon needs higher standards than that low Tier trash.”

What’s kinda sad is that I actually can’t refute her. Because I’m quite literally calling it trash in my mind, so I’m not really much different from her in that regard.

“Be careful about what you wish for,” I tell her, deciding to go a different, actually logical route about this. And when she tilts her head at me, I add, “If the dungeon started giving out better loot, don’t you think the monsters would get stronger to compensate for that?”

Her eyes widen and she immediately backtracks, “No, no, the current loot is fine. Perfectly fine.” She hurriedly nods her head in a rather adorable manner.

She’s starting to look older and older the further we get in the dungeon, so she doesn’t act like a kid as much anymore. If she ever really did. So it’s nice to see her still acting like one sometimes.

At this point she looks like she’s around fourteen or fifteen years old. Basically a high school girl right now. One that is technically a spider. And is wearing a coat that is still pretty much copying mine.

And, if I’m being honest, seeing a couple of the System Forum threads that were crushing on her, talking about how her figure is developing had me… both uncomfortable and angry.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I wonder if I can find them and freeze those people for maybe a couple years? Probably a sound punishment.

That thought has me nodding my head, to Sapphire’s confusion as she tilts her own again.

“Is something wrong?” she asks, but I just pat her on the head and smile.

Which confuses her further until I answer, “No, nothing’s wrong. Just thinking about making some popsicles.”

Her eyes light up at that, and the fact that she still gets excited about popsicles is definitely a sign that she’s still a child on the inside.

Anyways, I take my hand off her head and begin to walk over to the next tunnel. With, of course, a certain girl who is probably still fantasizing about popsicles following behind me.

She’s always loved popsicles. Not really sure why though.

Although the type she likes aren’t really the type I was thinking about making.

We move through one room after another for a while, defeating the monsters and occasionally even making another lunar winter beast. Because the viewers there kinda beg for it, and it makes me feel bad to just ignore hundreds of thousands of people shouting at me like that when it isn’t exactly a difficult thing for me to do.

Of course, it quickly leads to another outbreak each time, but the people like it, since it’s a free boost in power. Because apparently becoming a lunar winter beast has very few downsides. Especially since there isn’t the pesky chance of death during transformation that other infection species have.

And it’s not like I mind making a lot of allies that can’t harm me at all. Allies that are spreading across the universe like an infe- uh, as an infection. Since it actually is an infection technically.

Over the course of the next several days and the next couple floors, the infection actually becomes bottled for the lesser venoms. Which is kinda creepy.

Meanwhile pretty much every one of the monsters I bit turns into some sort of religious figure. And since they’re all former monsters who can’t talk, it kinda makes for an odd religion from what I’ve seen on the forums.

Sapphire finds it hilarious though.

Over our time on the tower floors, we enter the Conjunction a few times and spend some time there just lazing around and using it as a break. With the other Competitors still using my house as a gathering space for some reason.

We pass through one tower floor after another without much difficulty all the way till we reach the boss floor of the theme. And even the boss isn’t very difficult, likely due to the fact that we cleared every single room in the entire floor theme. Something that apparently determines how powerful the boss is.

So it ends up being nothing more than a rather weak demon. One that freezes rather easily and shatters just as easily.

Which apparently disappoints the viewers who were wanting an interesting battle. But not as much as the simple act of us leaving the floor theme does, since they won’t be able to see us in person anymore.

We don’t exactly enter many viewing rooms anymore after all.

And for the first time in quite a while, time begins to pass without anything too unexpected. No event boss spawns within the Beta Dungeon, no Pandora’s Boxes appearing and forcing us to open them, and no changes to the System or dungeon by The Reaper, who is still fighting with Titania.

So like that, an entire year passes quietly. Or as quietly as is possible within a livestreamed dungeon where we’re being watched as we fight for our lives.

But that quiet is eventually shattered when we reach the two hundred and ninety-first floor, beginning the third Centurion Boss floor theme.