"I finally hit rank one!"
I'm an amateur gamer.
Amateur, sure—but I was a top-tier ranker.
That day was a momentous one: I'd successfully enshrined my username at the very top of the rankings.
Me, number one.
I was so pumped I couldn't contain myself.
I immediately opened the community site and posted.
______
Title: All you active pros can STAND AT ATTENTION!!!!!
Author: NeverBoughtAShield
{Screenshot of Rank #1 Achievement}
I shall stand above the heavens.
Pros? GOATs? Former champions?
All of you. At attention.
_____
I shouldn't have done that.
It's not like hitting rank one in solo queue is anything that special.
The inferiority complex I'd been nursing toward the pros just… erupted.
"I should've been the one standing at attention…"
If only the price of my arrogance had been nothing more than some internet hate comments.
I was about to receive a punishment far exceeding the crime.
"What the—where is this."
"Huh?"
"Why does my voice sound like this…"
A pitch-black sealed room.
I woke up in a place like that, and something was conspicuously absent below the waist.
*Please let this be a dream…*
But perhaps I should count myself lucky.
In exchange for losing what I'd lost down there, I'd gained something new up top.
Two mounds.
…I had become a woman.
I ran my hand through hair that fell all the way to my waist.
Silver.
The clothes I was wearing were the complete opposite—all black.
An elaborate outfit, dripping with ornamental detail.
*Looks like some unhinged mentally ill girl…*
Was this what they called gothic lolita fashion?
I had possessed a woman wearing exactly that.
And stranger than anything else… was the bladed thing this woman was holding.
An enormous black scythe.
"Whoa—"
I nearly dropped it in fright.
It was as tall as the woman herself.
Was this getup not cosplay, but proof that she was an actual Death God?
*Where even is this…?*
I looked around.
*Incredibly spacious…*
It was a sealed room with not a single window, yet it was vast.
A hollow.
Space stretched on and on with room to spare.
I had absolutely no idea what this place was for.
A chandelier hung from the ceiling, glowing with blue light, though it only illuminated enough to see by.
I took my time and began exploring the place.
Walking along one wall, I followed it until I found something.
"A door?"
A massive set of double doors with an antique design.
They looked to be about five meters tall.
…Though my sense of scale might be off now that I was shorter.
"Ngh…"
I grabbed the handle and pulled, but it wouldn't open.
All I got was an adorably cute little voice I couldn't believe had come from my own mouth.
*I'm trapped.*
That was my conclusion.
And at that very moment—
A hologram materialized before my eyes.
A familiar interface.
[Demon Army Gallery]
"What is this…?"
No matter how I looked at it, it was that site.
The community site where I'd posted that message.
It had opened to a specific gallery.
Why was a gallery popping up as a hologram in a situation like this?
At the very top was a pinned guide post.
Title: [MUST READ] Newbie Guide
I tapped it with my finger, and the post opened.
______
Title: [MUST READ] Newbie Guide
Author: (Flapping)UnitCommanderPositionRevoked
You have currently possessed the body of a soldier belonging to the Demon Army.
This is the interior of the Demon King's Tower.
The Demon King's Tower consists of a total of one thousand floors.
His Majesty the Demon King has stationed exactly one soldier per floor.
To check which floor you are on, write your first post.
Your floor number will be displayed next to your username.
Your basic mission is to annihilate the intruders and heroes who ascend from the floors below.
______
I was dumbstruck.
I'd become part of the Demon Army?
The Demon King's Tower?
*This has to be a dream…*
The weapon in my hand made it impossible to deny.
How was I supposed to process this?
"What about everyone else…"
I scrolled down and checked the comments on the notice.
[Comments]
Anon(345F): "His Majesty the Demon King" lmaooo
└ Anon(145F): fr that flapping guy's ego is cooked
└ Anon(487F): why's he using honorifics? did he suddenly develop respect or something?
└ Anon(752F): nah it's not that, he's just flexing that he made it to unit commander. trying to show off that he personally served under the Demon King.
└ Anon(341F): peak clout-chasing lol
└ Anon(302F): lmaooooooooooooooo
└ Anon(375F): but didn't he say he's never even seen the Demon King's face?
└ Anon(452F): exactly why it's so pathetic lol
…
..
.
______
I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but they were roasting this "Flapping" guy.
Every gallery has its own vibe, and this kind of atmosphere wasn't uncommon.
Seeing this, I realized this situation was no joke.
It felt too real—exactly like the actual community site.
*These people… they're all actually trapped in here?*
Thrown into confusion, I checked the post list on the gallery's front page.
Title: I'm so goddamn bored oh my GOOOOOD
Title: Gallery blackout, is this real???
*…Why is everyone so calm about this.*
It was peaceful.
More precisely, they seemed to have sunk into a deep, bone-deep boredom.
Maybe this wasn't such a dangerous place after all.
I immediately wrote a post.
______
Title: Hello, I'm a newbie, could someone please explain things to me.
Author: Gate Keeper
Just woke up and currently trying to figure out what's going on, total newbie here…
I checked the basic guide, but I have some questions.
How do you get out of here…?
______
Posted.
I was currently in a state of court-ordered politeness following my punishment, so my tone came out formal.
My question was, of course, just the one.
Namely: what was the method of escape?
Neither the guide post nor anything else I'd seen mentioned anything about how to get out.
Why was that?
If everyone was trapped here, posts about escape methods should have been dominating the front page.
I was thinking that when the first comment appeared.
Anon(339F): Uh-huh, sure. Classic floor-5149 veteran doing a newbie cosplay bait.
*Newbie cosplay? I'm actually new though…*
They seemed to think my post was bait.
Like there was no way I could actually be a newbie.
Were newbies really that rare?
I replied.
└ (Author) Gate Keeper: I'm genuinely new, how do I prove it?
└ Anon(339F): What kind of newbie has a fixed username…
Oh.
"Fixed username?"
I have a fixed username?
It was true.
Both the post and the comments showed my username as 'Gate Keeper.'
That was strange.
I hadn't set any username when I wrote the post.
More comments came in immediately after.
Anon(248F): God, did you get dementia? You've been marinating in this gallery forever and now you're pulling this crap?
└ Anon(339F): fr, coming back to reply like some returning veteran is absolutely disgusting behavior
They thought I was a veteran.
Probably because I had a username attached to my name.
So only veterans had usernames?
*What do they want me to do about it…*
I was trying to figure out how to clear up this misunderstanding when a new comment appeared.
Anon(574F): Pretty sure it's you guys who have dementia. Isn't 'Gate Keeper' a username none of us have ever seen before?
A comment taking my side.
└ Anon(248F): ? So she's actually a newbie?
└ Anon(339F): Why would a newbie have a fixed username?
└ Anon(574F): idk lol
└ Anon(451F): It's probably an old gallery member, idiot.
└ Anon(574F): I've been in this gallery for over 40 years?
└ Anon(451F): 40 years stuck here and you're still on floor 500, certified failure lmaooo
For some reason they were fighting among themselves.
Over whether I was a newbie or not.
The mention of forty years gave me chills.
*They've been trapped here that long…?*
I quietly slipped into the thread and asked a question.
└ Gate Keeper(Author): What does having a fixed username mean here?
└ Meowy: it means fixed username meow
└ Gate Keeper(Author): I know that, but…
└ Anon(451F): always find it hard to believe that cat bastard is floor 800 or above.
Someone left a new comment with a proper explanation.
└ Fenrir: Fixed usernames only appear on named monsters above floor 800. Like me and that Meowy over there.
So I'd been born as a named monster?
A named monster.
Just from the sound of it, that seemed like a good thing.
From the atmosphere, it seemed like higher floors came with some kind of advantage.
└ Fenrir: But are you actually a newbie? An 800-floor start is something I've genuinely never seen before, so I can't believe it either. Every named username got theirs by climbing up from around floor 700 to 800.
└ Gate Keeper(Author): I'm genuinely new.
└ Gate Keeper(Author): But what's the advantage of being on a higher floor?
When I asked that, the comment section went dead quiet, as if a sudden awkward silence had fallen.
The unmistakable energy of a conversation killer.
A comment appeared.
└ Anon(574F): Beat everyone up to floor 1000, become the top dog, and you escape.
└ Anon(451F): She's not a newbie and she's letting herself get baited into this.
Climb to floor 1000 and escape.
Useful information.
But at the same time, a question nagged at me.
*Why wasn't that in the guide?*
Why had the most important piece of information been left out?
└ Gate Keeper(Author): I'd think the escape method would be the first thing a newbie wants to know—why isn't it in the guide?
└ Anon(574F): It was, but they took it down a while back. Too many people were dying trying to climb.
That's not how you run things—not even the military would pull something like that. Shouldn't they at least tell people?
└ Anon(574F): They pulled it to stop people from blindly charging upward without any info. The idea is to talk it through with people in the gallery first before making a move.
So there was a deeper reason behind it.
└ Fenrir: You challenge the person on the floor above you to a duel and move up that way. It's dangerous.
So the Demon Army fought each other, and whoever was stronger moved up a floor.
I had a rough idea now.
It was similar to the floor-swap battle system from a certain manga.
Another question came to mind.
└ Gate Keeper(Author): So do gallery members kill each other??? That doesn't seem right.
└ Fenrir: No worries there. Everyone here is in the same tower but also in different towers. Think of it like parallel universes.
Parallel universes.
Something even more surreal had just been thrown into the mix.
Either way, it meant these people weren't fighting each other.
Well, if they were, the atmosphere here would've been a lot more grim.
└ Anon(339F): Wait, is it confirmed that nobody knows that username? She was born above floor 800?
└ Fenrir: It's pretty wild, I'm half-skeptical myself.
└ Anon(248F): Can you even start above floor 800? Has that ever happened?
└ Fenrir: Never.
└ Anon(248F): That's insanely unfair, some of us started at floor 190 and had to grind all the way here.
└ Anon(543F): God, I'm so jealous.
└ Anon(451F): I mean, I wouldn't bother being jealous though?
Anon(327F): If this is Gate Keeper sitting there grinning at all the bait she's reeled in, big upvote.
Most of them still didn't seem to believe I was actually a newbie.
Then the anon who'd been on my side from the very beginning singled me out.
Anon(574F): Come post as anon. Go ahead and verify floor 800.
└ Anon(174F): You're a genius.
Now that I thought about it, the anon usernames all had floor numbers displayed next to them.
Since I had a fixed username, mine wasn't showing.
Following what the comment said, I deleted my username and made a new post.
Title: Just now, I'm the newbie.
Author: __
I hit backspace on the username field and…
Posted.
__________
Title: Just now, I'm the newbie.
Author: Anon(1F)
Can you see the floor number now?
_________
Oh.
Something was off.
The number was abnormally small.
Not floor 800 or above—
*Floor 1?*
I was startled and typed the first comment myself.
Anon(Author)(1F): It says 1, what does that mean?
I refreshed.
And then—
The comment section exploded.
└ Fenrir: ?
└ Anon(413F): ????????????????
└ Anon(341F): Oh she's actually a newbie? Never seen floor 1 before.
└ Anon(339F): WHAT THE ACTUAL F—FLOOR 1?
└ Anon(221F): Legendary event occurring.
└ Anon(274F): Never even seen double digits and now floor 1 lmaooooooo
└ Fenrir: Absolute legend
└ Anon(248F): My mind is blown!
└ Anon(221F): ??????????
└ Balrog: How does that even make sense?
└ Anon(451F): Guess she really is a newbie lmaooooo
└ Anon(413F): gggggggggggggggggg