Floor 3: Zombie City?

I looked around and saw no monsters at all on this floor. Strange… this place should be crawling with abyss monsters.

"Where are all the zombies?"

I remembered this floor was called Zombie City. As the name suggested, it was supposed to be a ruined city overrun with hordes of zombies.
But here… there wasn’t a single zombie in sight.

Not only that, but the city, which should have been in ruins, now looked almost completely intact. The streets, the buildings… they were in surprisingly good condition.
And the place wasn’t even pitch-dark anymore. There were faint lights illuminating parts of the city.

"This… is impossible. What happened here? The floor has completely changed…"

A bad feeling rose in my chest, but I kept moving deeper into the city.

The doors to houses and shops were tightly shut.
There’s no way anyone’s living here… right?

After a while, I spotted a few people patrolling the streets. They were dressed like royal guards.
“No way… NPCs?!” I muttered, startled.

They should have been zombies. So why did they still look completely human?

I remembered that every abyss dungeon floor had its own theme and concept. Players always assumed it was just a creative choice by the developer. But I never believed that.

The abyss dungeon was a mystery. It had no lore, no backstory, no official explanation.
It was simply described as the heart of the abyss monsters, with the goal being to conquer the final floor, Floor 10, to finish the game.

I began to think each floor might hold clues or riddles connected to the tenth floor—especially now, in the Nightmare level, where the dungeon might be showing its true form.

At first, I wanted to play along with the story here, but I didn’t have time. So I decided to go straight through by force.

I walked toward the five patrolling guards. They noticed me and immediately prepared to attack.
“HEY, YOU! STAY RIGHT THERE!” the leader shouted.

I stopped and raised my hands. They quickly surrounded me.

“Who are you?! Why are you wandering around in the middle of the night?!”

“I’m just a traveler… I don’t know what’s going on here. Could you tell me?” I lied, trying to dig for information.

The leader raised his sword, pointing it at me.

“What kind of traveler dresses like that? You look suspicious. Where are you from? Don’t tell me… you’re from the Nether! Answer truthfully or I’ll cut off your head!” he said, glaring into my eyes.

Nether? Did he mean Netherbyte City? I honestly had no idea what was going on.

I decided to play along.

"That’s right. I’m from the Nether. So what?"

The moment I said it, he swung his sword at my neck.

I quickly pulled my [CircuitCleaver] from my inventory and blocked his strike.

CLANG!

His sword was knocked away. His subordinates joined in, swarming me.

"Annoying!" I blocked their attacks and countered with a sweeping strike, sending them flying and injuring them.

Then I noticed something strange. They were wounded… but there were no pixelated red particles showing HP loss. Instead, blood spilled from their bodies.
“Blood? This… feels real…” I muttered, horrified.

The guards were bleeding. Truly bleeding.

It felt like I had just injured real humans. My hands trembled. I never thought I’d see real blood again.

It's a different feeling than killing Outlaw Players. It feels like hurting innocent people...

DAMN IT!

I approached them, wanting to offer one of my HP recovery items, though I wasn’t sure it would work.

But they looked terrified.

“Stay away from us, you damned monster! You bring misfortune, calamity! You’ve come to destroy this kingdom, haven’t you?!” the leader shouted desperately.

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand—”

Before I could finish, the injured guards screamed and attacked me again.
“You monster! You terrify the citizens every night!” one of them yelled.

“You bring misfortune… my family..no, all of our families live in fear because of you!”

“We’ve lost our loved ones… and it’s all YOUR FAULT!”

“That’s right! Our lives changed after you arrived! We’ve had to hide every night… but this time is different! We’ll fight back!”

The guards stood again, weapons pointed at me.

Their emotions were real. The anger, the grief… it sent chills through me.
They were alive. Truly alive.

I began to wonder… could this be the true backstory of Zombie City? I had to know.
But I couldn’t bring myself to kill these NPCs. That damned GOD 404… playing with human emotions like this.

Suddenly, the leader blew his whistle loudly.
I didn’t know why, but soon more guards began to gather.

A call for reinforcements. This was bad, there were hundreds of them.

If I couldn’t fight them all, I’d be surrounded. I had no choice but to break through.

I ran forward, determined to reach the heart of this floor and defeat its boss.

The guards chased me on horseback.
Thirty minutes had already passed on this floor. I couldn’t waste more time. I had to finish this quickly.

But escaping wasn’t easy. The guards kept multiplying, blocking every route. I was out of options. The only way through was to cut them down.

Just as I was about to draw my sword again, a figure in a black cloak grabbed my hand.

“Follow me!” 

Startled, I let her/him pull me along to an unknown destination.
Curiosity won over caution, so I followed.

They led me into an empty house accessible only through a hidden passage.

“Phew, we made it. You’re lucky I was there, sir!”

The cloaked figure removed their hood, revealing a woman with long black hair.

“Thanks… but who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Vel… and you?”

“Kyouze,” I replied, trying to check her player status, but nothing appeared. She was definitely an NPC.

“Kyouze, you were being chased by the royal guard… Honestly, I didn’t want to save you. But you look strong. I have a request… Please escort me to the center of the kingdom. You’re the only one I can rely on right now…”

She sounded desperate, gripping my hand tightly.

Then a system window appeared before my eyes, shocking me.

This… was a quest?! Impossible. Floor 3 shouldn’t have quests like the ones from Floor 5 and above.

[Floor 3 Quest: Escort Vel to her destination.]
[Reward: Unlock the path to the Floor 3 Boss.]

Trap or not, I didn’t know.

But one thing was certain… if I wanted to clear this floor, I had to help her.

....

..