EPISODE 5: THE THRESHOLD ## PART ONE: THE CHECKPOINT ### CHAPTER 1: FLOOR 10 The rest floor after Floor 9 was different from the others. Larger. Grander. Built for significance rather than mere recovery. The ceiling soared overhead, supported by pillars carved with the names of climbers who'd reached this point—thousands upon thousands of names, stretching back fifteen years to when the Tower first appeared. [MAJOR CHECKPOINT REACHED: FLOOR 10][SERVICES AVAILABLE: Full healing, Equipment shop, Information center, Banking, EXIT PORTAL][SOLO CLIMBER MILESTONE ACHIEVED][REWARD AVAILABLE: 200,000 Credits][CLAIM REWARD? Y/N] Two hundred thousand credits. Enough to pay Viktor Marrow and still have enough left over to start fresh. Enough to walk out of the Tower right now, debt-free, with his life ahead of him. Kael stared at the notification for a long time. "You okay?" Vera had already claimed her own reward—a party climber's share of Floor 10 loot, worth about fifty thousand. She was using it to upgrade her equipment in the shop alcove. "Just thinking." "About taking the money and leaving?" "About what that would mean." She came to stand beside him, her new bow—an Epic-quality piece that had cost her entire reward plus some savings—slung across her back. "It would mean you survive. That was the whole point, wasn't it? Enter the Tower, reach...