I am just an NPC ,but I rewrite the story-Chapter 69: [68] The Sea of Infinite Salt

The golden light of the portal didn’t just fade; it seemed to dry out, turning into a fine, white powder that stung my eyes the moment we crossed the threshold. The transition felt like being rubbed head-to-toe with sandpaper.

"Ugh, I’ve got salt in my teeth," Red coughed, spitting onto a ground that was so white it was physically painful to look at. She squinted, shielding her eyes with her hand. "Ren, remind me why we didn’t pick the Candy-Land floor? Because this is definitely not chocolate."

"Because the Tower picks the path, Red," I said, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. "And right now, the Tower wants us seasoned."

We were standing on a beach of pure, crystalline salt. It wasn’t soft like the silver sand of the Void-Wastes; it was jagged, crunching under our boots like broken glass. Ahead of us, an ocean of liquid white stretched to the horizon, its surface as still as a mirror. There were no waves, no wind, and no sound—just a crushing, dry heat that seemed to suck the moisture right out of my pores.

The sky above was a deep, bruised violet, devoid of suns, yet the ground itself glowed with a pale, reflected light that made everything look two-dimensional.

[Floor 5: The Sea of Infinite Salt.]

[Mission: Don’t lose your flavor.]

[Progress: 0/1000 ’Essence’ units collected.]

"Flavor?" Red asked, wiping sweat from her brow. "Is that literal? Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to taste like a cured ham in about ten minutes if we don’t find some shade."

"It’s the Tower’s way of saying ’dehydration,’" I said, checking my new status icons. A small bar had appeared next to my stamina, labeled [Hydration: 98%]. As I watched, it ticked down to 97%. "The environment is a leech. It’s pulling the water and the ’essence’ out of us. If that bar hits zero, we probably turn into one of those salt statues."

I pointed toward a cluster of jagged pillars a few yards away. On closer inspection, they weren’t pillars. They were people. Six or seven figures, frozen in various states of agony, their features smoothed over by layers of white crust.

"Great," Red muttered, her daggers sliding into her hands. "Statues. I hate statues. They always start moving the second you turn your back. Hey, Cerberus, you sensing anything?"

The four-headed dog let out a low, discordant rumble from all four throats. He was walking gingerly, his paws clearly not enjoying the sharp crystals. He stopped, his heads fanning out. The leftmost head snapped at the air, its teeth clicking.

"He’s thirsty," Mia said, appearing beside us. Wait—Mia?

I spun around. Mia was standing there, holding Cerberus’s smoky fur. She looked perfectly fine, her white hair untouched by the salt.

"Mia? How are you here?" I asked, my heart skipping. "Red used the Room-Breacher on my room. You were in your own instance!"

Mia tilted her head. "I just followed the dog. The walls felt thin."

Red whistled, impressed. "Kid, you’re Level 1 and you’re already breaking the Tower’s geometry? You’re going to be a nightmare when you hit Level 10."

"I’m Level 4 now," Mia corrected softly. A blue screen flickered near her.

[Mia: Level 4]

[Path: Void-Walker (Innate)]

"She leveled up while she was sleeping," I realized. "Opening that Star-Gate must have dumped a massive amount of ’hidden’ XP into her account. The Tower is just catching up."

"Well, glad to have the full-ish team," Red said, though she looked worriedly at the hydration bar. "But we need to move. I can feel my skin getting tight."

"We need ’Essence’ units," I said, looking at the salt statues. "The mission objective. If I know these levels, the only way to get essence is to take it back from the things that stole it."

We started trekking across the salt flats. The silence was absolute, broken only by the rhythmic crunch-crunch-crunch of our footsteps. It was a weirdly intimate sound in such a vast space.

"So, Red," I said, trying to keep my mind off the thirst. "How was your solo run? You hit Level 7 pretty fast. What were the first few floors like for you?"

"Annoying," Red said, kicking a salt-clod. "Floor 1 was a stealth trial in a museum of glass. If you made a sound, these floating ears would scream and alert the guards. Floor 2 was a literal maze of thorns. I spent four hours cutting my way through. Floor 3 was that city. I hated the ticking. It felt like someone was tapping on my skull."

"You see anyone else?"

"A few," she said, her expression darkening. "There was this guy on Floor 4—the mountain one. He looked like a normal knight, but his armor was made of living bone. He tried to take my daggers. Said they were ’relics of a dead world.’"

"What happened?"

"I tripped him into a ravine," she said simply. "I don’t think he had a Room-Breacher. He was too busy screaming about ’honor’ to check the shop."

I smiled. "Classic Red."

"What about you, Ren? You met Gondar’s sister?"

"Jace. Yeah. She’s... intense. Her world is all tech and scanners. She gave me a comms-patch. It doesn’t work here, though. Must be the salt-interference."

We reached the first ’statue.’ It was a tall, lean creature with long ears—an elf from a world that wasn’t Aethelgard. His skin was completely white, and his eyes were hollow pits filled with salt.

[Target: Salt-Husk (Level 8)]

As we got within five feet, the husk’s head snapped toward us. It let out a dry, rattling hiss, like wind through dead leaves.

"Here we go," Red said, darting forward.

The husk moved with a jerky, unnatural speed. It swung a crystalline arm at Red, the impact creating a spray of white dust. Red slid under the strike, her daggers flashing. She sliced across the husk’s chest, but instead of blood, a stream of glowing blue mist poured out.

"The Essence!" I yelled. "Catch it!"

I lunged forward with my rusty knife. I didn’t have a vessel, but the System reacted. As I stabbed the husk in the neck, a notification popped up.

[Essence Collected: +15 units.]

The husk crumbled into a pile of salt.

"Okay, so we have to farm about seventy of these guys," I said, checking the math. "Red, you take the ones on the left. Cerberus, guard Mia. I’ll pull the aggro."

"You? Pulling aggro with Agility 18?" Red laughed. "Good luck, speed-racer."

The next hour was a blur of white dust and dry throats. The husks weren’t particularly strong, but they were relentless. Every time we killed one, three more would emerge from the salt dunes. They didn’t have souls, just a driving hunger for the moisture in our bodies.

My hydration hit [60%]. My movements were getting sluggish.

"Ren, I’m... I’m really thirsty," Tybalt’s voice crackled in the chat.

I stopped to check the screen.

Tybalt: Guys, Floor 2 is a desert for me too. But it’s a desert of flour. I’m inhaling dust. I can’t breathe.

Lysandra: I have reached Floor 7. It is a world of endless rain. I would trade a level just for a dry towel.

Cian: Ren! Analysis of the ’Essence.’ It’s not just water. It’s ’Narrative Cohesion.’ The salt is trying to turn you into a background character! If you lose your flavor, you lose your role in the story!

Ren: Stay focused, Ty! Buy a water canteen from the shop!

Tybalt: I only have 100 points! The canteen is 300! I spent my points on a ’Self-Heating Oven’! 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Red: TYBALT. WHY.

Tybalt: I THOUGHT I COULD BAKE MY WAY OUT!

I closed the chat, shaking my head. "We need to finish this floor and see if we can pool points. Red, how many essence units you got?"

"Four hundred," she panted, her hair matted with white dust. "But there’s a big one coming. Look at the water."

The "Sea" of salt wasn’t still anymore. In the distance, a massive bulge was rising from the liquid white surface. It looked like a whale made of crystal. It breached the surface, letting out a sound that felt like two tectonic plates grinding together.

[Floor Boss: The Salt-Leviathan (Level 12)]

"Level 12?" I gasped. "We’re barely Level 5 and 7! This isn’t fair!"

"The Tower doesn’t care about fair, Ren!" Red shouted, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind a dune.

The Leviathan didn’t swim; it slithered across the salt flats toward us. Its body was a mile long, covered in jagged protrusions that looked like houses. Every time it moved, it left a trail of absolute desolation behind it.

"We can’t kill that," Red whispered.

"We don’t have to," I said, my mind racing through the mission parameters. "Collect 1000 units. We only need five hundred more. The Leviathan... it’s made of Essence, isn’t it?"

"Probably, but how do we get it? Poke it with a toothpick?"

I looked at my inventory. The obsidian shard from Korg’s axe. The rusty knife. And Jace’s comms-patch.

I opened the shop. I had 1500 points left from the previous floor.

"Cian!" I typed into the chat. "Fast! What reacts violently with concentrated sodium?"

Cian: Elemental moisture! Or High-Frequency Mana! Why?

Ren: Boss fight.

Cian: Use a ’Phase-Compressor’! It’s in the shop under ’Tools.’ It forces matter into a singular state. If you hit a salt-entity with it, it’ll turn back into pure water for a split second!

I found it. [Phase-Compressor: 1200 points.]

I hit purchase. A heavy, metallic tube appeared in my hands. It looked like a futuristic bazooka.

"Red! I need you to bait it!"

"You want me to bait a crystal whale?!"

"You’re Level 7! You’re the fastest thing here! Just lead it past that salt pillar!"

Red groaned, but she didn’t hesitate. She stood up and whistled—a sharp, piercing sound. "Hey, Fishy! Over here!"

The Leviathan’s "head"—a flat, faceless slab of crystal—turned toward her. It roared, a spray of salt-shards flying from its mouth. Red bolted, her feet barely touching the ground as she blurred across the flats.

The Leviathan chased her, its massive body crushing everything in its path.

I scrambled up the salt pillar, my fingers bleeding from the sharp edges. My Agility was screaming, but I reached the top just as Red led the beast beneath me.

"NOW!" Red screamed.

I didn’t aim for the head. I aimed for the "blowhole"—a pulsating blue crack on the Leviathan’s back where the Essence was being circulated.

I pulled the trigger on the Phase-Compressor.

VROOOOM.

A beam of shimmering violet energy struck the crack.

For a heartbeat, the world went silent. Then, the sound of a thousand waterfalls erupted. The crystal around the crack didn’t break—it melted.

A geyser of pure, life-giving water shot fifty feet into the air. It rained down on the salt flats, turning the jagged crystals into soft, wet slush.

[Essence Collected: +600 units.]

[Mission Requirement Met!]

The Leviathan let out a mournful, liquid groan and began to dissolve, its massive form turning back into a harmless lake of salt-water.

My hydration bar slammed back to [100%]. I felt a rush of energy, my Level 5 stats jumping.

[Tower Level 6 Reached!]

I slid down the pillar, landing in the slush. Red was standing nearby, drenched and looking incredibly annoyed, but her eyes were bright.

"Water," she breathed, cupping her hands to catch the falling rain. "Real, actual water."

Mia walked over, Cerberus following. The dog’s four heads were all lapping at the pools in the salt.

"The Tower is happy now," Mia said. "We gave the salt its taste back."

I checked the chat.

Ren: We’re clear. Floor 5 done. I’m Level 6.

Kaelen: Level 8. Just cleared a fortress of shadows.

Lysandra: Level 8. The rain has stopped. I am in a city of marble.

Red: We need to find them, Ren. This solo stuff is getting old.

"I agree," I said, looking at the golden portal appearing in the center of the new lake.

But as we walked toward the portal, the air changed again. The violet sky flickered, and for a second, I saw a different horizon. A world of red sand and giant, rusted Mechs—like the first floor, but active.

A figure was standing in the portal. It wasn’t the Fox.

It was a man in a sleek, silver suit. He held a long, glowing spear. He looked at us—at Ren, Red, and the four-headed dog—with a look of pure, cold calculation.

[Target: Zero]

[Level: 15]

[World: Sector-1 (Prime-Tech)]

"So," the man said, his voice echoing in the salt-flats. "You’re the ones causing the glitches. The ’Eclipse’ variable."

"We’re just trying to get home," I said, stepping in front of Mia.

"There is no home," Zero said, raising his spear. "There is only the Wish. And you are in my way."

He didn’t attack. He stepped backward into the portal and disappeared.

[Notice: You have encountered a ’Rival’ Participant.]

[Warning: Floor 10 will be a ’Clash Floor.’]

"Well," Red said, looking at the empty portal. "I guess we have a rival."

"Level 15," I whispered. "He’s ten levels ahead of me."

"Then we better start grinding," Red said, giving me a shove toward the light. "No more breaks, Ren. We hit Level 10 by tomorrow, or that guy is going to wish us out of existence."

We stepped into the portal together.

The fifth floor was gone. The sixth was waiting. And the Tower was starting to show its teeth.