CHAPTER 296: PROGRESS

In the Outside World...

Because Bunny wasn’t broadcasting, it was quite hard for the viewers to know what was actually happening. As such, they were left in the dark, which made them even more anxious.

"Still no news from Bunny," Doodle announced loudly from the desk. "It appears that he’s purposely not streaming for some personal reasons."

The camera panned to the massive Blood Tower hologram behind him. Little colored dots crawled up the floor list.

Broken Dawn’s marker was still on Floor 9 — upper zone. It had been there for quite some time already.

His cohost tapped something on his panel. "We can confirm his party is still active, though," he said. "The trackers show movement and combat pulses. So they’re alive. Just... quiet."

Doodle leaned forward, eyes bright. "C’mon, you can’t just cut your stream right when you hit mid floors. People were literally watching Bunny sleep yesterday and still spamming donos."

The cohost chuckled. "You watched that?"

"I study trends," Doodle said seriously, then shrugged. "Anyway, here’s what we know. Olympus is pushing into Floor 12’s upper corridor. Martial Palace is stuck on Floor 11. Holy Church is working through Floor 10. Crimson Star is finishing up Floor 8, moving very cleanly. And Broken Dawn..."

He pointed at the lingering dot.

"...has been sitting on Floor 9’s upper area, but the energy graphs from that zone went crazy earlier. Three high-level tags vanished, and the Tower’s local mana structure fluctuated. Now we’re getting a more stable line again, which means—"

"Which means they survived whatever that was," the cohost finished. "Or died and ran back, but there’s no respawn flag for them. No recorded wipe."

"Exactly." Doodle snapped his fingers. "So either they used some secret strategy and turned off the stream to hide it... or something happened that wasn’t supposed to be seen."

He zoomed in slightly on the map.

The Broken Dawn dot finally started moving again.

"Ah," the cohost said. "Look. They’re heading deeper into Floor 9 now. Probably toward the boss of the floor."

...

Inside the Blood Tower.

Bunny sat with her back against a cracked pillar, breathing a little harder than she’d like.

The mid-boss hall below them was still rumbling faintly from earlier fights and system resets, but for now, Broken Dawn sat on the balcony area as if it were just another casual rest stop.

Gabriel had already moved to the front edge, watching the arena with that calm, unreadable expression again.

Bunny flicked her interface open.

[LIVE STREAM: OFF]

[RECORD MODE: ON]

A tiny red dot pulsed at the corner of her vision.

’Man... viewers are going to roast me when this uploads,’ she thought bitterly. ’They’re definitely cooking conspiracy theories already.’

She still remembered Gabriel’s words before the fight with Andrew and his group.

At the time Gabriel had ordered her to turn off all streams, Bunny had wanted to argue. Streaming was her thing. Her entire reason for becoming a player in Realm of Ascendency was to be seen, to create content, to grow a brand.

But then she saw those three walk in — Andrew, Garth, Yumi — and felt her skin crawl.

She obeyed.

Now, replaying everything in her head, she knew she’d made the right choice.

If that fight had been broadcast live, the forums, the devs, and whoever those Deleter people reported to would all be dissecting every single frame.

’And leader stomped a guy’s skull like it was a rotten melon,’ Bunny thought. ’Yeah. Maybe not the best thing to show the whole world raw.’

"Hey."

She looked up.

Ragnarok99 squatted in front of her, holding out a potion.

"Drink," he said. "You didn’t participate much, but I figured you’d be weak by now."

"Thank you," she replied gratefully.

He glanced at her face and asked in a silent tone. "You’re still recording, right?"

"Yeah," Bunny said. "Even though I didn’t get live footage, I have a few raw clips."

"Good." Ragnarok nodded with a satisfied grin. "That Deleter fight? We’re absolutely releasing that later—after he approves it, of course. That’s premium content."

Bunny imagined the title already:

[Broken Heaven vs Dev Police – Deleters Get Deleted?!]

[Full Fight Breakdown – Blood Tower Floor 10]

She finally pushed herself up and walked to a balcony edge.

Down below, the mid-boss of this floor had already been defeated.

It had been a giant armored vampire knight wielding a halberd and surrounded by a blood mist aura, backed by a swarm of lesser minions and some annoying bat casters.

Compared to Andrew and Garth, it had felt almost normal.

They wiped it in under ten minutes.

...

This time around, Sir Broken had allowed them to loot the treasure rooms, and they’d found a few valuable items.

Now those items were laid out neatly on the stone floor.

A blood-red ring.

A dark cloak that seemed to blend into the shadows.

A halberd none of them wanted to use — who had time to relearn weapon skills mid-event?

And a passive skill orb that increased physical resistance against blood-type damage.

"Ring for Sophie," Gabriel decided after glancing at the stats. "Cloak for Cassie. Passive orb goes to Ragnarok."

Ragnarok brightened. "Finally, something good for me."

Cassie was slightly caught off guard, not expecting to be given a treasure so casually.

Gabriel spoke again. "Because of your support skill, it would be better if you were harder to target during fights. That cloak will make it difficult for enemies to focus on you."

That made sense.

Cassie, though reluctant, realized painfully that he wasn’t exactly looking out for her — just optimizing the guild’s overall performance.

She quietly slipped the cloak on.

The effect was instant.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. If he didn’t focus directly on her, she almost vanished from his peripheral vision — like a patch of shadow that the human eye simply slid off.

Anna’s lips curved in a small, satisfied smile. "Good."

Sophie slid the ring onto her middle finger. Blood-red lines pulsed once, then faded, boosting her resistance and slightly raising her HP.

Although most didn’t get any loot, no one argued. They were used to his fast distribution by now. He didn’t hoard items; he gave whatever best fit the build — unless he had some future plan only he understood.

"Bunny, what’s the current Tower position?" Haven asked without even looking at her.

Naturally, Gabriel had access to the forums too, but it would seem suspicious if he suddenly knew what was happening outside. He didn’t want anyone to know he could view their comments — not even his guild members.

"Okay," Bunny said, pulling up the ground chat.

Blood Tower – Global Rankings (Top 10)]

1. Olympus – Floor 12

2. Martial Palace – Floor 11

3. Holy Church – Floor 10

4. Broken Dawn – Floor 9

5. Crimson Star – Floor 8

6. White Flame – Floor 7

7. Skyrend Legion – Floor 6

8. Freeblade Alliance – Floor 5

9. ChaosKnight – Floor 4

10. Heaven’s Edge – Floor 3

"Top four already." Ragnarok whistled. "Not bad for a ’small guild’, huh?"

Cassie frowned. "Crimson Star is catching up faster than I expected. They’re almost done with Floor 9."

"Although the Holy Church is ahead of us floor-wise, their clear rate is slow," Samantha added. "They could leap forward at any time."

"ChaosKnight’s still stuck on 4," Bunny said quietly, amusement in her tone.

Gabriel looked at the ranking for a while, eyes flashing. "We’re not as far behind as I thought... if I hadn’t used that Memory Fragment Orb, we might’ve already caught up to Olympus."

Still he didn’t regret as now he had very valuable Information and knew what to expect at the top.

Bunny hesitated, then blurted, "Leader."

Gabriel glanced at her. "Hm?"

"Can I turn the stream back on after we clear the Floor 10 boss?" she asked. "Not now," she added quickly, raising her hands. "I get it — Deleter stuff, secret dev nonsense, all that. But the event’ll feel weird if Broken Dawn stays dark the whole way."

Everyone looked at him.

He didn’t answer immediately.

He weighed it.

"It’s fine to stream normal boss fights," he said at last. "As long as we cut the feed whenever something like that happens again."

"Of course," Bunny said quickly, breaking into a relieved smile. "I’ll do just that!"

They left that floor and passed through a heavy archway leading to the next.

Vampire statues lined the corridor. Some were broken. Some had dried blood beneath them.

Gabriel dashed ahead of the group.

Trash mobs appeared — they were cut down instantly.

Another elite knight spawned from a wall coffin but was slain by Gabriel in one strike.

And so they advanced further through the floors.

---

Outside World – Broadcast & Crimson Star

Back on Doodle’s screen, the rankings updated again with a small chime.

"Ah, update!" he said, tapping the panel. "We have a new result — Broken Dawn is now on Floor 11! That gives them enough point to jump into seventh place overall."

The cohost nodded. "Very fast. Especially when you consider they’re doing this with a single main party and not multiple spread squads like the bigger guilds."

Doodle grinned. "You can see their clear time is only slightly slower than Olympus. Which, again, for a so-called ’dark horse’ guild, is insane."

Suddenly, something happened that immediately caught the commentators’ attention.