The cold should have been unbearable, biting into his skin, freezing his lungs with every breath, but it barely registered anymore— just background noise to a body that had already decided it was done arguing.
Snow settled on his lashes, clung to his cheeks, gathered thick in his hair, and he didn't bother brushing any of it away.
His chest rose and fell slow and shallow, like even breathing had become something optional he was choosing not to bother with.
Right beside his foot, the tower stood— tall, dark, far too close for comfort, humming low and constant like it was breathing along with him out of spite.
It didn't feel like something he'd approached.
It felt like something that had been dropped into his world without permission, or worse, that he'd been dropped beside it on purpose.
"Guess my luck really is bad…" he murmured, eyes unfocused, before his gaze drifted upward and locked onto the same persistent blue window still hovering patiently above his face. "And yeah… this thing is really pissing me off."
「SEE? Looks like the tent reward isn't useless after all :D」
His brow twitched, just barely.
"What's with that ':D'… does this system actually have its own mind?" he muttered, dry as the wind cutting past him.
A pause stretched thin.
"You there?" No answer came.
Silence swallowed the question whole, leaving nothing but the distant howl of wind and the tower's low, ever-present hum.
Minutes slipped by slow and heavy while Si Hon stayed exactly where he was, half-buried in snow, unmoving, uncaring, the sky above stretching into an endless gray void and the frozen ground beneath holding perfectly firm— and not far off, the tower kept waiting, patient in that way only very large, very old things could afford to be.
Eventually his voice broke the stillness again, weaker this time. "Where am I?"
The blue window flickered back into focus above his face.
「System notice. Location Detected: Mountain Snowfall. Structure: a mysterious tower. Current Position: First Floor.」
Si Hon stared at it without blinking, letting the words settle in slow.
"First… floor," he repeated, the weight of the phrase dragging behind it like something heavy he didn't want to pick up yet.
He exhaled softly. "So that means there's more, right." For a second, nothing happened.
Then— 「Correct.」 — the answer hanging there simple and absolute.
Snow kept falling. The tower kept humming. Wind dragged sharp ice across the frozen plain, whispering against his skin, but still Si Hon didn't move, only sank a fraction deeper into the snow like he was trying to disappear into it entirely.
The system window stayed hovering above him. Waiting.
Then— 「User inactivity detected.」
Si Hon let his eyes fall shut, voice barely more than a breath. "…Five more minutes."
The window trembled slightly.
「This is not a rest area.」
No response.
「This is not a safe zone. You should move closer to the tower. ಠ,_ ｣ ಠ」
Still nothing.
「Hostile entities exist on this floor.」
Si Hon shifted his head half an inch deeper into the snow, like that alone counted as a reply. "Good for them."
The system visibly lagged before another window snapped into existence.
「Are you attempting self-termination via hypothermia?」
"If it works faster, sure," he murmured lazily, then added, almost thoughtful, "Isn't dying like that supposed to be painless?"
The wind picked up sharply, howling across the plain, snow whipping violent through the air, and far beyond the tower something answered— a low, deep howl, unmistakably not human.
Still, Si Hon didn't react.
Not even a flinch.
The system window dropped lower, hovering close to his face. 「You will freeze to death within an estimated time: 18 minutes.」
"Nice," he muttered. "That's longer than I expected."
For a moment the system went completely silent. Then the next message appeared— no borders, no formatting, just text, blunt as a slap.
「You are genuinely the worst host I've ever handled.」
Si Hon's eyes twitched faintly. "Oh. So you can talk like that."
「I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO TALK LIKE THIS. YOU ARE JUST— ENOUGH.」
A weak breath escaped him, something that almost passed for a laugh. "No, I don't think that's how you've always talk…. So… you're mad?"
「YES. EXTREMELY MAD. YOU JUST SURVIVED A CROSS-WORLD PORTAL DRAG WHILE BEING HELD BY A HYBRID BOSS-CLASS ENTITY AND YOUR FOLLOW-UP ACTION IS TO TAKE A NAP!!!! ಠ益ಠ」
"That's a long sentence."
「STAND UP.」
"No."
For a brief moment, the tower's low vibration deepened slightly, just enough to feel like it had noticed the argument happening at its feet.
「IF YOU DIE HERE, THE RETURN CONDITIONS WILL NOT BE MET.」
Si Hon's eyes opened again, just a sliver. "Return?" For the first time, the system hesitated.
「You do not qualify for death yet.」
The wind howled closer this time, something moving out beyond the veil of white, but Si Hon stayed where he was, unmoving, detached.
"Five more minutes," he whispered.
The system didn't argue this time.
Instead— 「Time ratio divergence is active.」
"Speak human," he muttered.
「Time here is slowed by an extreme factor. A month on the First Floor equals less than a second in your original world. Even if you remain here for years, nothing there will meaningfully change.」
Snow brushed against his cheek as he stared upward. "So Ivy's still screaming?"
「Yes.」
"Vesper's still blaming herself?"
「Yes.」 A small pause.
"…Lila?"
「Yes.」
His gaze didn't shift an inch. "I know."
「Then why did you ask?」
Silence settled again, heavier this time, before he finally answered.
"That's annoying," he muttered.
The system froze— then snapped. 「MOVE.」
The air shifted, not violently, but subtly, like reality itself had decided to step in and intervene.
Snow slid away from his body.
The ground beneath him tilted just enough to make lying still genuinely inconvenient. Still, he resisted. "No."
「Unacceptable.」
The system window dropped until it hovered inches from his face, and at the same moment the tower's vibration deepened further, the snow around its base pushed outward in a perfect ring, a red boundary carving itself into existence and revealing black earth beneath, faintly etched with crimson patterns.
「Safe Zone established.」
Si Hon squinted at it. "If it's safe, why is it still cold?"
「The tower repels threats. It does not provide comfort, you insufferable human being.」
"Wow. You really are mad."
The system ignored that entirely.
「Reward available for claim. 1 Tent. 1 Unknown Item x1. Approach the tower core.」
Si Hon rolled slightly onto his side, then rolled right back, snow puffing up around him with the effort.
"Nah."
The boundary pulsed.
「CLAIM YOUR REWARD.」
"No."
「YOU CANNOT SLEEP ON THE FLOOR.」
"Watch me." For three full seconds nothing happened.
Then the ground beneath him tilted— not lifted, not pushed, tilted— and his body slid slow across the snow toward the red boundary like the world itself had simply stopped negotiating with him.
"Wow," he said flatly, sliding along without lifting a finger to stop it. "We're doing kidnapping now?"
「THIS IS A COMPROMISE.」
The moment he crossed into the circle, the wind stopped— not weakened, stopped, completely, instantly.
Beyond the boundary the blizzard kept raging, but inside, everything fell into a heavy, unnatural stillness, the air dense and quiet and protected, the cold still lingering but stripped clean of its violence.
Si Hon exhaled slowly. "Fine."
The system flared.
「Reward Claim Conditions Satisfied.」
Light gathered beside him, folding inward like invisible hands stitching reality together— a frame assembling first, dark alloy poles locking into place one by one, followed by thick reinforced fabric layering over the top until a fully formed survival tent stood solid beside him, built to endure storms and monsters and long nights where failure meant something permanent.
Then, beside it, another light formed— except this one didn't expand outward like the tent had.
It collapsed inward instead, the glow tightening, darkening, compressing into something heavy, something wrong, and even the tower's hum seemed to falter for the briefest fraction of a second like it, too, wasn't sure it liked what was happening.
Then it snapped, and a cube dropped onto the ground with a dull, heavy thud— perfectly shaped, black, rough and uneven in a way that didn't quite belong to this world, no markings, no glow, no explanation offered, just presence, dense and quiet and somehow watching.
Snowflakes drifting near it paused mid-air for a fraction of a second before falling straight down, like gravity itself had briefly reconsidered.
「Unknown Item registered. Data access restricted.」
Si Hon stared at both rewards for a long moment, then slowly closed his eyes again. "Alright. Later."
The system went completely silent.
The tower kept humming. And far beyond the edge of the safe zone, something large moved through the blizzard.
The system stayed quiet for exactly four minutes before it apparently decided silence wasn't working either.
A new window blinked open, smaller this time, almost hesitant. 「…You are actually going to sleep. On the first floor. Beside an Unknown Item. Next to a tower that hasn't stopped humming since you arrived.」
"Yep."
「This is insane behavior.」
"Cool."
「I am going to log this.」
"Log away."
The window flickered, clearly unsure what to do with a host this unbothered, before trying one more angle.
「There is a 34% chance the Unknown Item is cursed.」
That got one eye open. "…How high does that number usually have to be before you'd actually stop me?"
「90%.」
"So we're fine."
「WE ARE NOT FINE, THIS IS A GAMBLING PROBLEM DISGUISED AS CALMNESS—」
Si Hon crawled into the tent without dignifying that with a response, left the cube because… its a burden… cmon.
Inside, the tent was warmer than it had any right to be, the reinforced fabric muffling the wind down to a distant whisper, and for the first time since the portal had swallowed him whole, his shoulders actually loosened.
He propped his head against the rolled edge of the tent floor, and stared up at the dark fabric ceiling while the system's window hovered anxiously by the entrance flap like a parent checking a kid hadn't snuck out a window.
「…Are you actually falling asleep.」
"Mm."
「Right now. With a boss-tier tower probably… hundreds of feet away.」
"Mm-hm."
「I genuinely do not understand you.」
"Good,"