EPISODE 9: THE DEEP ## PART ONE: STRANGE FLOORS ### CHAPTER 1: THE CHANGE Beyond Floor 30, the Tower changed. It wasn't just the difficulty—though the enemies were certainly stronger, the challenges more complex. It was the nature of reality itself. The floors became stranger, operating on rules that barely resembled the lower Tower. Floor 31 existed in perpetual twilight, where shadows had weight and light was a commodity. Floor 32 was populated by enemies who could see the future, requiring Kael to think four moves ahead of climbers who were already thinking three moves ahead. Floor 33 asked philosophical questions that, if answered wrong, caused physical damage. By Floor 35, Kael had stopped expecting anything normal. [FLOOR 35: THE TEMPORAL ARCHIVE][RULES: Time operates non-linearly. Cause and effect may be reversed.][OBJECTIVE: Find and retrieve the Archive Key][ENEMIES: Temporal Echoes (Level 28-35), Time Wraiths (Level 32-40)][HAZARD: Interacting with time anomalies may cause paradox damage] "What does non-linear time even mean?" Vera asked, studying the floor information. "It means time doesn't flow in a straight line here." Kael's Reality Reading was already straining against the floor's fundamental structure. "Past, present, and future can... mix. Events from tomorrow might have already happened from the perspective of yesterday." "That hurts my head." "Mine too. Stay close—I'll try to navigate...