The dungeon suddenly fell silent. The remaining Dino Spiders had completely stopped attacking. Not a single screech could be heard anymore. Every monster had retreated into the darkness.

And that was somehow even more terrifying. Then that feminine voice echoed once again.

"You dare invade my domain?"

The voice sounded beautiful. Yet horrifying. Like something ancient trying to imitate humanity.

The entire dungeon trembled.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The walls shook violently. Dust poured from the ceiling. Stone pillars cracked.

Mayra nearly lost her footing. "What was that?!"

Ethius grabbed a nearby wall. "How are we supposed to know?!"

Julias tightened his grip on his sword. "Everyone stay alert!"

The shaking became stronger.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Nobody looked around nervously. "Guys!! Why is everything shaking?! And why did the Dino Spiders leave?!"

Ethius immediately answered. "Because whatever made that voice probably scares them!"

"That does not make me feel better!" Nobody shouted while being terrified.

The dungeon continued trembling. Cracks began spreading across the stone floor.

Thin at first. Then wider. Then wider still.

Nobody didn’t notice. His attention remained focused on the darkness ahead.

The others were looking toward the distant corridor. Trying to find the source of the voice.

Nobody took another step.

CRACK.

A fracture appeared directly beneath him. Still..he didn’t notice.

Mayra did. Her eyes widened. "NOBODY!"

"What?"

The ground exploded.

BOOOOOOOM!

Stone shattered beneath his feet. Nobody suddenly felt the floor disappear. "...Huh?" His eyes widened. "Oh." The realization hit him. "Oh no."

The ground collapsed. A massive pit opened below. Nobody immediately began falling. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!! I WANNA FALL IN LOVE! NOT FALL IN DUNGEON!!" His body dropped toward the darkness.

Then...

GRAB! A hand caught his wrist.

The fall stopped. Nobody looked upward.

It was Julias. The goblin warrior was lying flat on the edge of the broken ground. His arm fully extended. His hand gripping Nobody’s wrist with all his strength. "I got you!"

Nobody nearly cried. "JULIAS!"

The warrior grinned. "Not letting you die."

Nobody dangled above a seemingly endless abyss. Darkness stretched below him. No bottom could be seen. His legs kicked helplessly. "Okay! Good! Very heroic! NOW PULL ME UP!"

Julias immediately tried. His muscles tensed. The warrior pulled with everything he had. Nobody slowly began rising.

Ethius rushed forward and Mayra followed. Both attempted to help.

The shaking intensified.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire dungeon lurched sideways. More cracks appeared. Stone exploded around them. The ceiling began collapsing.

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!

Ethius nearly lost his balance. "DAMMIT!"

Mayra grabbed Julias’ shoulder. "Hold on!"

Julias growled. His arm shook violently. The warrior was still exhausted from fighting the Gorilla King earlier.

The potions had healed him. But they couldn’t completely erase fatigue. Still..he refused to let go.

Nobody could see the strain in Julias’ eyes. The veins in his arm and the trembling muscles. The determination.

"Come on..." Julias pulled harder.

Nobody rose another few inches.

The dungeon shook again.

BOOOOOOOM!

A large chunk of stone crashed nearby.

CRASH!

The impact nearly threw everyone off balance. Mayra screamed and Ethius stumbled.

Julias slipped slightly. Nobody’s heart sank seeing that. The warrior’s grip weakened. Just a little but enough.

Nobody felt it. "Julias!"

The goblin clenched his teeth. "I’m trying!"

More dust rained from above. The entire dungeon seemed on the verge of collapse.

Then the voice returned.

"More insects..."

Everyone froze. The voice echoed throughout the dungeon.

"How annoying."

Nobody looked around. His fear increased instantly. He couldn’t see the owner.

Only hear her. Which somehow made everything worse. The shaking became unbearable.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive fracture spread beneath Julias. The stone supporting him broke apart.

CRACK!

Julias’ body shifted. His grip slipped.

Nobody immediately felt himself dropping lower. "No!"

Ethius grabbed Julias. Mayra grabbed Ethius. The entire group was now connected. Trying desperately to keep Nobody from falling.

For a brief moment..it worked. Nobody actually began rising again. Hope returned.

Maybe they could save him.

Maybe....

CRAAAAAAACK!

The floor finally gave up. The edge beneath Julias collapsed. The sudden movement shocked everyone.

And in that single moment....Nobody’s hand slipped. His fingers slid free.

Julias’ eyes widened. "No!"

Nobody’s heart stopped.

For a brief second...their hands touched. Then separated.

Nobody stared upward.

At Julias, at Ethius, at Mayra. All three looked horrified.

Then gravity took him. The darkness swallowed him whole. "JULIAAAAAASSSS!!"

"NOOOOOOBODYYYYY!!" The voices became distant. Smaller and fainter.

The dungeon ceiling disappeared above him. The light vanished. Only darkness remained.

Nobody continued falling.

And falling.

And falling.

As Nobody continued falling through the darkness, the wind roared past his body.

FWOOOOOOOSH!

The dungeon ceiling had long disappeared from sight.

Nobody flailed his arms wildly. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I DON’T WANNA DIE LIKE THIS!"

The system suddenly appeared before him.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[SYSTEM SUGGESTION]

Recommended Action:

Activate Zigzag Teleportation

Reason:

Fall Impact Survival Probability Increase: 73%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody blinked. Then blinked again.

Then screamed even louder.

"WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[USER DID NOT ASK]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"YOU SON OF A BI**!"

The wind continued howling around him. The darkness below seemed endless.

Nobody immediately opened his skill menu. His hands trembled.

"Activate!"

"Activate Zigzag Teleportation!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[SKILL ACTIVATED]

Zigzag Teleportation

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FLASH!

Suddenly his falling position changed. Nobody teleported several meters sideways.

FLASH!

Then upward.

FLASH!

Then diagonally.

FLASH!

Then behind where he had been a moment earlier.

Nobody’s eyes spun. "OH COME ON! I’m FALLING IN PREMIUM QUALITY NOW!"

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

Each random teleport interrupted his fall slightly. The speed decreased.

Not by much. But enough.

The system appeared again.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Impact Velocity Reduced]

Current Survival Probability:

91%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody immediately pointed at the screen. "NOW THAT’S A NUMBER I LIKE!"

Another teleport triggered.

FLASH!

Nobody appeared upside down. "WHY AM I UPSIDE DOWN?!"

FLASH!

Right side up again.

FLASH!

Sideways.

FLASH!

Upside down once more. " IS THIS SKILL MADE BY A PSYCHOPATH?!"

Despite the chaos, he could feel his speed decreasing. The teleports kept disrupting the fall.

Each flash stole momentum. Each jump bought him another second. Far below, faint lights began appearing within the darkness.

Nobody narrowed his eyes. "...Wait. There’s something down there."

The system window flickered.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

[NOTICE]

Unknown Area Detected

Scanning...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody swallowed. Still falling and still teleporting.

FLASH!

THUD!

Nobody finally crashed onto solid ground. "OOOFFF!" He rolled across rough stone before coming to a stop. For several seconds, he simply lay there.

Alive and Breathing. Not dead. "...I love the ground."

The system appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Fall Survival Successful]

ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody gave a thumbs up too.

Then..a feminine voice echoed through the darkness. "Interesting..."

Nobody immediately froze. The voice sounded calm yet horrifying.

Like someone observing a rare specimen.

"You survived that fall."

The darkness ahead shifted slightly. Nobody slowly sat up. His crowbars appeared in blue pixelated particles. "...And who exactly are you?"

The voice chuckled softly.

"My."

"You are certainly more entertaining than the others."