A three legged stool was knocked over on the floor and the rest of the room was mostly just the annihilated corpses of toys. All except for one corner. Even in its rampage the Sucker punch had not touched a certain fireplace in the corner of the room.

  Sail walked over and looked into a fire that seemed to burn endlessly. Thick burning logs cracked and spit as they regenerated over and over in the fire. Looking up above the gentle fire was a mantle displaying a few photos.

  There was a photo of the entire staff of the manor including a stylist and a groundskeeper... there was a family photo around an old woman who wore 2 sets of white pearls on either wrist and then, perched on the edge ...was an old photo of a woman and her daughter.

  The woman had a long flowing gothic black dress with her hands firmly resting on her daughters shoulders. The daughter was sat with a dull grey school uniform with another layer of clothes beneath.

  She had long sleeves and tights hiding almost all her skin.

  In her hands sat a small purple jack-in-a-box with small hanging boxing gloves drooping of its sides.

  By the time Sail had looked up he was greeted with the Ringright family garden in every door.

  A certain pair of wrinkly white fingers dripped to the most with jewellery floated over. They squeezed through the thin bars and then hovered around the garden. They were completely disconnected to the ghostly figure in a cloak within the cage. Sail figured there were invisible threads linking them together.

  The hands seemed to circle around, wriggling and jingling all its rings but overall they didn't really do much.

  "Sorry I skipped you.."

  The hands flexed their many joints in an act of response. Sail wasn't sure exactly what it meant. It would have been easier to understand if it had simply given him the finger.

  "I didn't appreciate you throwing me back in there with the gacha machine...."

  The hands flexed even more in some kind of emotion.

  "That thing.. those balls are certainly freaky... or should I say this old woman.."

  Sail punched the portrait of the old woman with his bloody hand and watched a ghostly aura burst from it. The same final cry as the one from the plastic comb.

  The wrinkled hands clenched.

  Sail similarly punched the photo of all the workers in the manor and felt another burst of ghostly aura. He then look one last look at the photo on the edge of the mantle and with the back of his hand he silently knocked it off.

  The wrinkled hands dug into themselves with their own nails drawing black blood and the cloak in the center of the garden gave an awful screech. All the doors scattered in a frenzy displaying everywhere within the manor.

  As the photo fell, Sail watched a slideshow of every which room possible amidst a mass array of doors.

  *smash*

  [You have completed the 26th floor of Ascension! The Shifting Sucker Punch! Congratulations!!]

  [The tower is extraordinarily pleased with your performance!]

  [Calculating rewards!]

  [Skill: Dash[C] has evolved into Mad Sprint[B]!]

  [Skill: Wretched Vision[B] has had its cooldown reduced!]

  [Skill: Wretched Vision[B] has had its duration increased!]

  [Skill: The sound of silence[B] has had its cooldown reduced!]

  [Skill: The sound of silence[B] has had its duration increased!]

  [Skill: Audio perception[C] has had its cooldown reduced!]

  [Skill: Audio perception[C] has had its duration increased!]

  [Skill: Slider[C] has been acquired!]

  [Well done climber! See you on the 27th floor!]

  Sail and Shilling were both teleported and thrown into the main lobby of the RingRight manor. Both bleeding.

  Sail watched a little 2d animation that played in his head.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  An exaggerated drawing of a creepy mansion flew up alongside a tower.

  It flew past a bunch of worlds giving a slightly higher pitched ding each time it flew past a given floor. The manor slowed and slowed before reaching an empty slot with the number 26.

  The creepy manor then slotted straight into the tower with a satisfying Kachink!

  Once slotted in, the manor pulsed with life and became more like a 3d living diorama. The front was see-through with a bunch of ghosts flying about on a loop. A jester with a hunched back and boxing gloves stood in the centre of the piece with a little repeating idle animation.

  "GASTIN!!"

  Shilling ran up and hugged Sail, to which Sail immediately turned to obsidian. He let it go and let the man hug him briefly.

  "YOU GOT IT?, YOU CLEARED IT!??? What happened in there??"

  "...." said Sail. He was still trying to manage turning of sound of silence.

  "Ah... Ah.. Your voice? Did they steal it...?? along with your memories... you lost your voice...???"

  "no no, its just.. a skill i have, silence"

  "Oh! OK then! Great! Great! we actually did it...You actually did it!"

  Shilling was the most elated he'd ever been in his life. The energy was quite infections.

  Sail himself was feeling something truly strong upon hearing the melodic dings of a Congratulations.

  After all this.. He .. had proved it. Proven to himself.. What he always wanted. All his life. To flourish in a game, in an isekai, in some new world... After being so played with and so lost. Dying twice within 2 minutes and then being thrown out to die here on the 26th floor. His embarrassment and lack of self confidence may have soon crippled him if his performance had continued in such a way.. But this performance...

  He looked at the man in front of him and couldn't help but smile. In the brief time he met Shilling he had managed to grow fond. It was the hastened friendship of overcoming a trial together.

  Sail had no friends in his last world or the one before that.

  He thought back on the moment where he was going to run away after Shilling was first hit by the Sucker punch. This man didn't mean anything to him, he hardly knew him, he was going to leave him. He was a second away from doing it. A second away from letting him die. And yet..

  Shilling clenched his fist with his working hand and shook it while closing his eyes and looking up. He couldn't really bask in the feeling well with all the coughing he was doing but he certainly looked happy.

  Looking at the state of him, maybe he was going to just die after all..

  "SHILL??"

  A voice appeared from the door of the lobby. A very tall man with a tightly zipped red jacket and long pair of black jeans ran up and with no hesitation.

  Sail looked on behind this man as 8 or so more figures all teleported into the lobby out of thin air.

  "You passed the floor??? How did you even live? What the hell happened in there?"

  "Match... Yeah.. yeah we cleared it. Me and Gastin"

  "Who? You?" Match pointed straight into Sail's face "Your Gastin?" Mr Match's face was more intrigue and excitement than confusion as he looked back to Shilling.

  "WELL DONE, WELL DONE!" He shuck Shilling around by his shoulders "Tell my everything. Everything!" "I knew we should have built the plan around your bell!!"

  From the side of mr Match, a woman in a long thin black dress gently walked over and tilted her head slightly. Her hair was a deep purple, seperated into two thin twintails that reached down to her ankles. She had frilled cuffs and beautiful deep eyes.

  Sail was a little taken into such eyes and watched as the pupil within them suddenly split apart. The sphere span out into 4 rectangle bars. The bars then each began flying around her eyes incredibly fast.

  "...."

  "......double s?..."

  "..."

  Sail suddenly felt quite naked under such eyes.

  "WHAT?? WHAT'S DOUBLE S???"

  "..."

  "........Gastione's skill.... Ever .... noir...." the woman gently selected her words.

  "..."

  Everyone came to look at Sail as silence fell

  "..yeah, well its a skill... i have"

  "WHAAAT??" Mr match leaned his head down close and stared into Sail's eyes completely dead pan.

  "..."

  A giant grin stretched across his face as he couldn't contain himself and changed his shaking target to Sail. "WOOOAAAHHH. THATS GREAT!! Your the first since Wander!!!"

  "GASTIONE!! ALRIGHT!! TO THE KONBINI!! NOW!!" Mr match stretched his finger up and vanished into thin air.

  "..."

  "what?"

  The rest of the group around also vanished. Only the woman in the dress stayed, just staring at Sail.

  Sail was completely under the instinct to run from such eyes. They were certainly processing something.

  "Gastin forgot everything.."

  "oh..."

  the woman squinted.

  "match... meant...healing... the 12th floor..."

  The woman gently responded and continued staring.

  "So..."

  "You can teleport anywhere while in the tower. Its in your mental system."

  Sail scrolled through his own mind.

  Even the tower itself had to be scrolled down to mentally "click" a destination. Sail still had not mastered mental scrolling. He wanted to get out of the beautiful womans gaze. He also felt that attempting to get out of it was going to be a lost cause.

  "Can you.. not look at me like that"

  "im....sorry....your...skills..." She did not stop looking.

  "Gastin... Double S? Did your skill rank up.. That much?? Really?"

  "yes"

  Sail teleported to the 12th floor.

  Soon behind was Shilling and the purple haired woman. Both kept staring at him.

  Even to Sail, the characters across all the signs and buildings of the 12th floor were obvious. They were flooded with kanji, hiragana and katakana. There were perhaps 10000 glowing neon signs. He had appeared on a crossing in the middle of the road.

  "..."

  The 12th floor was known as the '頑張れ店員さん！' or 'Good luck Convenience store worker!'

  On at least 6 or so buildings were the characters for karaoke カラオケ. As how any good shot of a Japanese city would look.

  'It so shamelessly just, just Japan. Is this really an alternate world?'

  "you.....forgot......your.... memory?"

  The woman to his side gently poked such a question at quite a slow rate. He could hardly look her in the eye, maybe even without them spinning about.

  "yes..I think it was the power of a ghoul"

  "...a......ghoul........"

  "You can read my skills?"

  "I...can...read....your...system...yes"

  "That's quite intrusive don't you think? Your not going to ask first?"

  "....no...." She gently tucked her head back

  "Well alright then"

  Mr match came back out from Sawlons and ducked his 7 and a half foot frame as the automatic doors opened. Many people were crowded about watching him, some asked for pictures for which he politely declined. He was holding a bag with various cup noodles, plastic boxes of fried chiken and onigiri.

  The residents here were half looking as though they lived here and the other half were most certainly 外人.. from other worlds. Sail bore witness to all sorts of entities.

  A piece of magical healing fried chicken was placed into his hands.