There was no light.

No sound.

Only the crushing weight of silence—still and suffocating.

When Sefa opened his eyes, he was greeted by a sky he had never seen before—

A sky drowned in grey mist, low enough to make breathing feel heavier.

He was standing in the middle of a forest.

But this wasn't the calm forest of fairy tales.

The trees were enormous—twisted into unnatural shapes, their bark pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.

The ground was soft, not with dew or mud, but with something strangely warm and unsettling beneath.

And the air… it reeked of blood and rusted iron.

Then, the system voice broke the silence:

🌀 System Notification

> 📍 Floor 4 – The Hunt of Silence

🎯 Objective: Survive until sunrise.

⏳ Time Limit: 6 hours 33 minutes

Sefa instinctively looked around.

No map.

No direction.

Only trees, fog, and that choking sky above.

Something deep inside told him—

This floor was unlike any other.

"It's begun..." he whispered.

And then, from deep within the mist—

A scream.

Not human.

Not beast.

Something else entirely.

Sefa's body froze.

The hunt... had begun.

Sefa crouched low to the ground.

Fog surrounded everything—but this fog... it wasn't ordinary.

Even when he moved, it clung to him, as if alive.

> 🧠 "This mist… It doesn't just block my vision. It muffles my hearing too."

There were strange clicking sounds echoing around him.

Not footsteps.

Not animals.

Something... watching him from above, perhaps.

🌀 System Notification

> ⏳ Remaining Time: 5 Hours 54 Minutes

⚠️ Warning: Hunters have been activated.

🔇 Producing sound may trigger fatal response.

Sefa took a deep breath.

He couldn't speak.

Even breathing had to be careful.

But he had to move.

There had to be an edge to this forest.

Or at least somewhere safe to hide.

He leaned against a tree trunk.

Tiptoed forward, counting each step.

Avoiding every leaf…

Then—

Just a few steps to his left, a leaf crunched.

Sefa froze and held his breath.

A silhouette emerged from the fog.

It looked human.

But its knees bent backward.

Its head tilted unnaturally.

Its face… didn't exist.

🧠 "That's not a creature... that's a nightmare."

Sefa didn't move.

But the figure turned—directly toward him.

Even without eyes, it sensed him.

> 💀 Death Threat: High

🎯 Attacks upon sound detection.

The creature crept forward.

One step... two steps...

Just as it reached for Sefa—

Another sound came.

Far away.

Another hunter.

The figure suddenly turned and vanished into the mist.

Sefa exhaled silently.

But he knew.

This was only the beginning.

> 🧠 "I need to hide. Set traps. Stay silent."

"This place... isn't just a floor. It's alive."

🌀 System Notification

🎁 New Skills Acquired:

Silent Step (Passive): Leaves no trace while moving silently.

Adaptive Concealment: Increases invisibility threshold based on surroundings.

⏳ Remaining Time: 5 Hours 42 Minutes

Sefa crawled toward a hollow tree.

He closed his eyes.

To survive, he had to think like a hunter.

Sefa crouched beneath the gnarled trunk of an old tree, its roots twisting above the ground.

The mist wrapped around him like a suffocating wall.

Nothing moved… but he knew.

Something—or someone— was nearby.

Dry leaves and brittle branches littered the ground.

He memorized the placement of every stone beneath his feet.

He moved without making a sound.

🧠 "I'm alone. No system. No map. Every move is mine to make."

He waited.

The fog stirred.

A faint click echoed in the distance.

He stayed still.

Then... silence.

That was his cue.

He crawled out from under the tree.

Carefully, he picked up a few sturdy branches from the ground.

He stripped vines from nearby shrubs and twisted them into makeshift ropes.

Flat stones—sharp-edged—were chosen with care.

He set his first trap:

Two trees, a vine stretched tightly between them, weighted in the center with jagged stones.

Then he moved on.

Under the shadows of the trees, silent and alert.

But in the mist… sometimes he heard echoes of footsteps.

Or maybe… they weren't his.

He halted behind a thick bush.

Ahead was a small clearing.

A faceless silhouette stood between the trees...

Staring at him.

🧠 "It's not just me. They're hunting too."

Sefa pulled back.

He slipped into the hollow of a fallen tree.

Held his breath.

Listened to his heartbeat.

His only thought:

Survive—by outthinking them.

He arranged a triangle of stones on the ground.

Balanced a stick across them.

It wasn't meant to hurt—just to distract.

His true defense... was himself.

Time dragged on, and his body began to strain.

But his mind... only grew sharper.

🕒 Time Remaining: 4 hours 10 minutes

And every second... felt like war.

Sefa moved carefully through the mist, every sound amplifying in his ears. Each step could trigger death. But this silence... it felt too quiet.

Suddenly, a crack echoed just a few meters ahead.

CRRKK!

Tall grass was crushed. Sefa immediately dropped to the ground and held his breath.

From within the fog, a creature emerged—its jawbone half-exposed. It was a distorted form, part human, part rotting muscle. It had no skin. Its nerves twitched in open air. It had no eyes, yet... it felt him.

> "What the hell is that..." Sefa whispered to himself. "No eyes, but it's sensing me somehow..."

The creature froze.

It had no nose, yet moved as if sniffing the air.

Its head jerked violently in Sefa's direction.

Then it sprinted.

Sefa bolted up.

He veered hard to the right, leaping over a fallen tree trunk.

The creature was right behind. It made no breath sounds, but its massive steps pounded the ground. The earth shook.

🧠 "If I run straight, it'll catch me. Need a narrow path—tight space!"

He dashed into a stone corridor. The walls closed in, barely leaving space for his shoulders.

Behind him, the creature's shriek echoed:

> "GGGRRUUAAAHHH!"

Sefa turned the corner and spotted a pit.

It was one of the traps he'd made earlier, camouflaged with stones and branches.

He leapt over it and kicked the supporting branch mid-air.

> SNAP!

A second later, the creature lunged—

> THUUDD!

It crashed straight into the pit. Spikes and stones impaled its body.

But silence didn't follow.

The creature was still alive. It was trying to climb out.

Sefa didn't flinch.

He sprinted to the next trap—

A vine laced with toxic thorns, connected to a counterweight.

He pulled the cord.

Whsshh!

The creature flew straight into the sharpened vines.

> "Bye-bye."

A brief silence.

Then—nothing.

Sefa dropped to one knee, panting heavily.

> "This... this is a whole different level."

🕒 Time Remaining: 2 hours 52 minutes

Injured, but still standing.

And the worst part…

That was only one of them.

The fog had thickened. Visibility dropped to barely a meter. Sefa moved forward, controlling even his breath. He placed his feet carefully to muffle every step, avoiding even the slightest brush with branches.

But the air... was suffocating.

Something was approaching.

> "This silence... it's familiar. Like the moment before a storm."

Suddenly, a faint cracking sound.

Sefa dropped to the ground instantly, narrowing his eyes.

Three separate movements.

And this time, the creatures didn't look like the last one.

The first silhouette to emerge... was humanoid. But it had no face.

The second walked with its feet twisted backward.

The third... dragged itself across the ground with elongated arms, clawing at the dirt.

Sefa quickly formed a plan in his mind:

> "They're approaching one by one. No coordination. If I time it right..."

Silence shattered in an instant.

The first creature let out a sharp shriek and charged straight at Sefa.

Remaining calm, Sefa hurled a sharp stone with his left hand.

The stone embedded in the creature's neck.

It staggered, losing its momentum.

But the other two were now attacking.

Sefa retreated behind a tree, using its trunk for cover.

The crawling creature was closing in fast.

> "Only one chance."

Behind the tree, hidden in the dirt, was a sharp bamboo shard — part of a trap he had set earlier.

As the creature lunged...

CRACK!

Sefa drove the shard straight into its skull.

Only one remained.

And it was the strangest of all.

This one didn't attack.

Instead, it suddenly... stopped.

It tilted its head from side to side.

It had no nose. But moved as if sniffing the air.

Its gaze locked onto Sefa.

🧠 "It can't see. But it feels something. Heat? Scent? Maybe... fear?"

Sefa refused to break eye contact.

The creature began to shift.

He quickly threw a rock to the side.

The creature turned its attention away.

That was the moment.

Sefa lunged forward.

He kicked the creature's knees out from under it.

As it fell, he pinned it and delivered a crushing blow with both hands.

Silence again.

All three creatures were still.

🕒 Time: 3 hours 41 minutes

> "They're becoming more complex. Numbers are increasing. Intelligence too."

At least, for now, he was alone.

Or so he thought...

As the system remained silent, somewhere deep in the mist...

another shadow stirred.

> "I'm being followed..."

Sefa's steps grew more cautious. Every time he turned his head, it felt like someone was walking beside him. The shadows were darker, the wind eerily quiet. Something among the trees… was listening to his breath.

> "It's watching me. But why isn't it attacking?"

A nearby bush rustled softly.

Sefa placed his hand on the ground.

He felt the soil.

Fresh tracks… small, but fast.

This was unlike anything he'd seen before.

> "A hunter. It's waiting."

Sefa understood.

Whatever it was, it was waiting for him to make a mistake.

He immediately began setting up traps around him. Rope, stone, sharpened sticks.

His eyes never strayed from the forest.

That presence… was dangerously close.

🌀 No System Notification.

Nothing.

As if even the system didn't recognize this shadow.

> "Could this creature be… outside the system?"

Suddenly, a piercing scream!

But it wasn't from around him.

It echoed inside his mind.

Sefa dropped to his knees, clutching his head.

> "This isn't an illusion. It's a mental attack."

His vision began to fade.

But he didn't give in.

He steadied his focus.

And then… he saw a pair of eyes.

In the trees, within the darkness, a pair of eyes stared directly at him.

The eyes didn't glow.

They absorbed light.

They weren't alive—but they were aware.

> "This thing... maybe a boss?"

Despite the static buzzing in his skull, Sefa threw a smoke bomb to the ground.

POOF!

Thick smoke filled the air.

He immediately bolted in the opposite direction.

But the shadow moved too.

The chase had begun

He ran without looking back.

Branches slashed his face, but he didn't stop.

His feet slipped in mud, but he kept going.

The shadows were hunting him.

Suddenly, he reached a ledge.

A steep cliff.

> "A dead end…"

The creature was closing in.

Sefa made a choice.

He wasn't going back.

He jumped.

The drop below… was pitch black.

But just as he fell, a faint system chime echoed:

> [Secret Zone Discovered: "The Lost Temple"]

[Objective: ??]

Sefa crashed hard into the ground.

His ankle twisted painfully.

But he was alive.

Those eyes were no longer watching him.

> "I escaped… for now."

One thing was clear:

Floor 4 was not just about survival…

It was about uncovering the unknown.