Although the town rang with gunshots, the top of the white tower was silent, even if it was far from empty. Miseng and Goseng sat beneath the window, and Wangnan had his back against the door. He had heard a sound that might've been a footstep (or the wind, or Miseng tapping her phone, or Goseng shifting to peek over the windowsill). But if it was a footstep… Wangnan fingered his shinsu bomb and forced himself to stay calm. It wouldn't do if Chang or Quaetro heard them and decided to investigate.

Of course, maybe Chang and Quaetro weren't in the tower. Maybe the chatting bot that Miseng used was wrong.

Nevertheless, while Wangnan was the master of optimism, he was also a firm believer in the first rule of the Tower: the strong always come to pick on the weak. What he wouldn't do for Viole, that Khun bastard, or even the flamethrower. This was seriously going to be the last time he went anywhere without them. Goseng might threaten him, but Wangnan wasn't a babysitter.

Thud.

He broke into a cold sweat; that had definitely been a footstep. Frantically waving his arms, he caught Goseng's attention. CHANG, he mouthed, pointing at the door. QUAETRO. She seemed to understand, nodding once in silent reply, her eyes wide. Wangnan mimed fake tears back, doing his best to ignore the chills running down his spine.

When he'd first met Chang and Quaetro on the 29th floor, in a convenience store of all places, they hadn't left a good impression. Wangnan already spent his days around a crazy flamethrower; meeting another even crazier one when he just wanted cup noodles and sleep was just soul-crushing. What had started out as a typical after-practice snack run became a flaming mess: he had been assaulted by Quaetro, who kept saying he looked like a chick. A chick. Wangnan's eye twitched at the memory. Of course, it had to be a chick and not, say, a vicious Platypus Bear. Long story short, Viole had rescued him, they'd escaped, and Chang had promised to kill them.

Fun. I can't wait… Wangnan wiped the sweat from his brow. I really, really wish Viole was here again.

KNOCK. KNOCK. Wangnan tensed, then gulped. Hard.

"Hello, Wangnan," a familiar voice cooed, and Wangnan almost yelped. "How nice of you to wait for us."

Shit. Emily was right. Chang and Quaetro are here. Augh, what can we do? He glanced at the window, then stifled a groan. They couldn't go out the door for obvious reasons, but they also couldn't climb out the window because of the shootings. In a hasty crab scuttle, he crossed the room to Goseng and Miseng. "Ok," he whispered as lightly as a tendril of shinsu, as tenderly as overcooked ramen. He was always more poetic in the face of death. "Plan B. What the hell is our Plan B?"

"Language, Wangnan," Goseng said almost immediately, probably out of habit as she turned to peer out the window. "And I thought you said you had a plan."

"You trusted me?" Wangnan hissed.

Goseng opened her mouth (no doubt to apologize), but Miseng interrupted. "Emily says that we can go out the window."

Silence. Then—

"THE WINDOW?!" Wangnan and Goseng whisper-shouted. Miseng shrank back, mumbling something incomprehensible, and then the thick wooden door shuddered. Someone was kicking it, hard. The three of them exchange horrified looks.

Then the door went up in flames, burning down in mere seconds. "CHICK!" Amidst a cloud of smoke, a short figure hopped into the room. "Where are youuuuu?"

"Alright!" Wangnan shouted, jumping to his feet. "The window it is!" Grabbing Miseng and Goseng's arms, he tugged them both over the windowsill. As they all fell — they were going to be smashed like overripe tomatoes when they finally hit the ground — Wangnan tried to throw a shinsu bomb at Chang.

Of course, Goseng chose that moment to wrest out of his grip and shout, "YOU IDIOT!"

His shinsu bomb missed Chang, hitting the white tower instead and blowing a gaping hole in its side. He turned. "WHY DID YOU—"

THUD.

All three of them hit Goseng's lighthouses — hard. Still, it was preferable to the cobblestone street just a few meters from their noses. "Oof." Wangnan rolled off the lighthouse and rubbed his stomach. "Dang." Glancing back up at the white tower, he couldn't see Chang or Quaetro. Maybe (hopefully) they were taking the stairs. Getting to his feet, he complained, "Goseng, couldn't you be more gentle?"

"Says the person who shoved us out the window," Goseng muttered as she stood, too. "Whatever. We need to hide!" As though to punctuate her point, a gunshot rang out. "Over there!" she shouted, grabbing Miseng's hand and pointing into a dark alley.

Miseng, still typing on her phone, stumbled a little. Then she tugged at Goseng's sleeve. "No, don't! Run that way!"

Goseng nodded, then began speeding straight down the road.

"What?" Wangnan screeched, legs pumping as he caught up to Goseng. At least Khun's grueling training had finally made him a good runner. "What are we doing? Someone could shoot us any moment!"

"But Miseng saved us a couple minutes ago!" Goseng shouted back, still running and dragging Miseng behind her. "We'd be idiots to stop trusting her now!"

"Aughh!" He sprinted up next to her, then growled, "If I get shot, I'm going to haunt you."

She snorted. "Deal. At least then, I won't have to deal with your laundry."

"Hey—" He was about to deliver a crushing response when Miseng shouted, "That's it! Go into the third house on the left!"

"That's a factory or something, not a house," Wangnan grumbled, slowing to a jog. Then he glanced behind them and almost fell over. At the bottom of the tower, Chang and Quaetro were loping after them, and even though they weren't sweating or breathing hard, they were still gaining. "SHIT!" he shouted. "HURRY UP, SLOW POKES!"

"Wha—" Goseng almost lectured him again, but then she took a look back, too. "A-Ah! Miseng! Don't look back! Just keep running!"

The factory looked so far away… yet somehow Wangnan managed to find the motivation to start a breakneck sprint. Goseng and Miseng followed suit, and they managed to put some distance between themselves and Chang and Quaetro, but that was only the beginning. Miseng shouted out frantic directions, leading them left, right, forwards, but always down. At a certain point, even though Wangnan's sense of direction was reasonably good, he couldn't have found his way back out.

When Miseng finally stopped calling directions, they stood in front of a blank metal slab in the wall. 'Stood' was generous. He was hardly standing, and Wangnan's lungs felt like they were about to jump out of his throat and demand better working conditions. Goseng and Miseng were already slumped against the wall, panting.

Damn it.

Wangnan forced himself to straighten and approach the door. As tired as he was, the future king of the Tower should care for his people. After trying to shove the heavy metal door open, he forced his breathing under control and prepared to throw a shinsu bomb. In theory, it would break down the door.

It didn't. In fact, it didn't leave a scratch.

Wangnan groaned. Screw what Emily said, they were just going to have to run a little further. He hobbled over to Miseng and Goseng (who were still slumped against the wall) and grimaced. Since they were all still recovering, they might not make it to a safe place in time… but there was no guarantee that where they were standing now was actually safe.

After glancing over his shoulder, he heaved a sigh of relief. Chang and Quatro weren't in sight… yet. Still, every second they waited was another second for Viole, Khun, or even flame-thrower to show up. He took out his pocket, hastily sent their new location to the team chat, then sat, keeping watch on the corridor.

Behind him, he heard the door grind open.

"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice ventured. "Are you Miss Emily's visitors?"

Wangnan whirled around to find an orange-haired guy with big goggles over his eyes. "Hey— uh— nicetomeetyoukeepthedooropenokay?" With lightning fast speed, he grabbed Miseng and dragged her past the new guy and into the room beyond.

"Can't… you be a little more… gentle?" Goseng muttered as she staggered after them, wincing as Miseng was tugged through the doorway.

"Shut up," he muttered back, keeping a wary eye on this orange-hair guy. For all Wangnan knew, this guy could be a Regular about to shoot them, but at the same time, that didn't really matter. As long as this guy wasn't Chang or Quaetro, it was an improvement. As he was carefully laying Miseng on the ground, he caught a flash of movement through the open door and had to bite back a scream. "SHUT THE DOOR!" he hissed at the orange-hair guy. Chang and Quaetro were just turning the corner. If they didn't notice them, then maybe… just maybe, Wangnan's team could hide.

Orange Hair rubbed the back of his head and started pushing the door closed. "Alright, sheesh."

Once the door thudded shut, Wangnan heaved a sigh of relief. This might not be the best situation either (since for all he knew, this new guy was planning to murder them all), but it was a pretty darn good improvement. The room was plain: it looked more like a storage closet than an apartment, with four very grey walls, a single skylight, and a pink light in each corner of the room. Definitely a serial killer's room. Wangnan cleared his throat. "Yo," he said, taking a seat on the floor. "Pretty nice place you got here. The door is very… sturdy." As he said it, he cringed. Of course the door was the best conversational topic he could come up with. He was so busy not banging his head against the wall that he almost missed what Orange Hair said. "Ah, sorry, what?"

"He said he doesn't own this place," Goseng said, never taking her eyes off Orange Hair.

"Oh," the guy said, stepping towards them with his hands up, "Don't worry about me! I'm not a Regular, just a Traveller."

"A traveller?" Wangnan perked up and smiled, showing his fangs. "Wow, travelling is really rare unless you're a Regular. Were you born on this floor or something?"

The traveller laughed with a touch of nervousness. "Well… not really. I'm just here to save someone important to me."

Goseng pushed her glasses up. "Oh… good luck with that." Then she glanced at the door and bit her lip. "By the way, thanks for taking us in… but those people are really powerful. They'll find us soon, so, I guess what I'm trying to say is… are you okay getting caught up in all this?"

Wangnan elbowed her. "Why are you questioning it?" he growled.

"Wangnan," she said with a sigh, "If he isn't a Regular, we shouldn't drag him into our fight."

"But…" Miseng mumbled, sitting up to look at Goseng, "we need to rest." Pulling out her phone, she held it out to them. "See, Emily's telling us to stay here!"

"Well, Emily's not wrong." The traveller guy crouched down in front of them and grinned. "Don't worry about them finding you." Jerking his thumb at the pink lights, he said, "Those are shinsu jammers, so they won't be able to sense you guys. And even if they do, Emily told me to help you, so I will." He gave them a cheerful thumbs-up.

With a small gasp, Miseng looked up. "E-Emily? You speak to her too?" After tapping her phone a few times, she shoved it in the traveller's face. "This Emily?"

The traveller looked down at the phone, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Well, of course!" he said, "Emily tells me everything I need to know. You see—"

"Am I missing something?" Wangnan interrupted, half-raising his hand and squinting at the traveller guy. "I've never heard of this Emily chatting bot before, and suddenly I learn that it—"

"—she," the traveller corrected. "She's a she. Not an it."

"Ooookay?" Wangnan cocked his head, taking a closer look at this traveller guy now. Was the chatting bot a human being? Or was this guy bonkers? Either way, he thought with a shrug, it doesn't matter. He smiled, then said, "You're right, Emily is a 'she'. But how does she work?"

The traveller looked at him, then said with an entirely straight face, "Emily's an intelligent being, and the Workshop is forcing her to deliver messages as a chat bot." After adjusting his goggles, he added (completely seriously), "I'm going to save her."

Miseng's jaw dropped. "Really?"

"Suuuure." Wangnan glanced at Goseng, then raised an eyebrow.

Goseng squinted back at him, then shrugged.

"Well, I think that Mr. Traveller's right," Miseng interjected. "Emily knows everything! She told me Mr. Traveller's name, and she's so smart that she can even ask questions back!"

Traveller smiled at her, then held up his own phone in response. "She says, 'Hello Miseng, Goseng, and Wangnan. Can you help us?'" He grinned, then walked over and shook Goseng's hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Goseng!"

"Ah," Goseng said, a slight quaver to her voice, "Look, Mr. Traveller, just because Ms. Emily knows our names doesn't mean—"

Wangnan leapt over and covered her mouth with his hand, drowning out her muffled protests with a laugh. "Uh, wow, Emily's so smart! But, uh, we don't… we probably won't be able to help." He frowned, then leaned closer to the Traveller and whispered, "We're sorta weak."

Traveller cocked his head, then started rifling through his equipment bag. "Ms. Emily said this might happen. It's a good thing I always keep some spares…"

"Spares?"

"Of course." The traveller abruptly pulled a phone from his bag and tossed it to Wangnan. "Here, it's one of the latest models."

Wangnan fumbled for a second and nearly dropped it. Coordination +100, he thought ruefully. "So this can communicate—"

KNOCK. KNOCK.

The room fell silent, and Wangnan didn't know whether he should feel relieved or terrified. On one hand, it could be Viole and Khun… and on the other hand, Viole and Khun probably would've texted first. When Wangnan's pocket chirped, his stomach dropped. It was a text from Viole, and it read: I'll be there in three minutes.

Wangnan swallowed hard, then looked back at the door.

KNOCK. KNOCK. From the other side, a voice asked, "Did you miss me, little chick!?"

There was a strangled gasp from his right, and when Wangnan looked over he found Goseng glancing nervously between himself, Miseng, and the door. Even Traveller, despite his general air of unconcern, seemed shaken.

From the other side, someone else spoke. "I didn't expect you to jump out the window, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Without Viole, you can't do much." Chang tapped the door, and Wangnan could hear the smile in his voice. "By the way, nice shinsu jammers. We'll be taking them."

Wangnan forced his trembling hands to freeze. Maybe they're bluffing. Maybe they're still looking for us… and if we stay silent, they'll go away. He gritted his teeth, then took a deep breath. Picture a rock. You are a rock. Silent as a rock… rock and roll? He crushed the thought. Don't take this rock meditation for granit—

"Quaetro, melt the door. I don't think Viole is coming."

Even through the door, Wangnan could hear Quaetro cracking his knuckles. "Alrighty, one fried chicky comin' right up!"

A white-hot line began tracing up the steel door, and Wangnan groaned. Why is this guy so obsessed with fried chicken? He glanced at the ceiling— I could probably chuck Miseng through the vent— Maybe Goseng too— I don't want to get barbecued again— He glanced at them, sizing up his teammates, then he caught sight of the puckered scar on Miseng's arm. In one long stride, he grabbed Miseng and was about to throw her into the vent when his new phone vibrated.

Almost automatically, his eyes flicked to the phone, scanning the message. Then his mouth dropped open. The little icon with a girl's face, Emily, was on the screen, and she was absolutely insane. He'd have to be crazy… but maybe he was.

As their enemies slowly carved a person-sized hole in the door, Wangnan pushed his teammates and the Traveller into the corner. Goseng protested half-heartedly, but Wangnan ignored her and marched up to the door. While he wasn't enough to stop these monsters, he had to try. They'd made it this far thanks to Emily, and if they were here to climb the Tower, they might as well reach for the top.

When the door broke open, Wangnan took a deep breath and read his line one last time. Then he looked up; Chang stepped through the hole, a confident half-smirk plastered on his face and a wickedly sharp needle slung over his shoulder. Behind him, Quaetro was… giggling and chirping as flames licked his hands. "Any last words, little chick?" He cackled. "Anyone you want to call before you burn?"

"Well…" Wangnan's mouth was suddenly dry. Squeezing his eyes shut tight, he shouted, his hand over his heart, "CHANG! UH, PAUL SENDS HIS REGARDS!" He didn't dare look. Whoever the hell this Paul person was, it didn't really matter. They were all Regulars, so even if they got on his bad side, Viole could take them out, right?

And at the very least, they could pass this test, right?

He cracked open an eye to see Chang stop in his tracks, a ghost of a hopeful smile crossing his face. "Quaetro," he ordered. "Stop."

Amazingly, Quaetro did.

Behind him, he heard Goseng whisper, "Who's Paul?"

If he'd known, Wangnan would've answered. Instead, he settled for a mysterious smile. Surprisingly, Emily's plan was going pretty well, and Wangnan felt kinda confident— At least until Chang leapt forward and pressed a gun to his forehead. "Alright, blonde kid. Prove you're with Paul. Who am I meeting on Archimedes?"

Quaetro pranced into the room, the flames in his hands exploding as he sang, "Li-ttle li-ttle le-murs. Stay aw-ay from the for-est fi-res!" Miseng almost screamed, but Goseng dragged her further into the corner.

"W-What? C'mon, Chang." Wangnan chuckled nervously, then half-shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Look, I won't tell anyone your uh, your secret, alright? I'm already travelling with the Slayer Candida—"

"So you don't know." The gun dug deeper into his skull as Chang started laughing. "And you thought I couldn't sense the shinsu bomb in your pocket?" He jerked his head at Quaetro. "Light 'em up. This blonde kid's a phony."

Shit. It looked like Emily wasn't all-powerful after all. As his eyes focused on the gun, a quick half-thought flitted through his mind— I was fine before— Then he shook his head. What am I thinking? I need to focus. Crouching slightly, he mentally ran through the steps of his suicide attack: first, throw a shinsu bomb to blind the room, then punch Chang in the stomach, then run away.

As he screwed his eyes shut and fumbled with the bomb in his pocket, he heard a familiar voice.

"What are you doing to my friends?"

Wangnan stilled, then grinned. Hell yes. The artillery has arrived.