The Way of the Lone Walker

The temperature inside the tower gradually dropped.

The deeper Ryan went, the heavier the dampness became and the colder the air grew, as though the heart of the entire stone tower was slowly drawing away the surrounding warmth. Ryan walked along a rarely traveled path, his footsteps light and his breathing even. Every step landed on the seams between the floor tiles, leaving behind no unnecessary sound.

The stone walls beside him gradually darkened from their former pale gray. More moss clung to their surfaces, along with sticky damp stains. Fine, vine-like strands even poked out from the cracks. He stopped and lightly scraped the wall with his fingertip. What stained his finger was not merely muddy water, but also a nearly rotten, fishy stench.

"...No one's been through here for a long time." He silently reached that conclusion.

In the original story, the protagonists were entering the prisoner gambling phase at this moment, launching into a brilliant battle of time and trust. But Ryan had to go farther—to the fringes untouched even by the plot, to regions the examiners might not have noticed.

A faint click reached his ears.

He stopped abruptly and slipped sideways into a recess in the corner of the wall. The sound had come from very far away, almost blending into the stone walls. It was a brief, hurried rasp, like metal rubbing against metal. Ryan held his breath, leaned slightly forward, and focused on locating its source.

—It wasn't the sound of a candidate.

It sounded more like machinery operating within the tower.

"An automatically operating part of the tower?" His eyes flashed.

This was a comprehensive test. The Association was not merely watching the candidates fight, cooperate, and reason. It was also testing whether anyone could uncover the secrets behind the mechanisms.

He