=+=

  00:13:59

  The timer on the wall ticked downward like the devil’s breath on her neck.

  Luna sat upright on the bed, her body shaking with adrenaline. Her stomach still hurt. Her limbs ached. And her legs… well, they weren’t there. But she wasn’t letting that stop her.

  “If I can’t walk into hell, then I’ll float through it.”

  She clenched her teeth, then whispered the forbidden key into the empty air:

  Admin ID: Strawberry Princess.

  Password: Love Ice Cream.”

  A soft chime rang out.

  A transparent pink screen bloomed before her eyes—unseen by anyone but her.

  The Admin Menu. Her hidden cheat panel.

  A backdoor meant for debugging, never meant to be used during a live run.

  Luna’s fingers trembled as she swiped through the virtual catalog. Her breath caught when she saw it:

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  [Hover Belt - Type: Mobility Gear]

  A Rare item dropped by Butterfly Man, Botanical Garden Floor.

  Allows partial levitation when affixed to the waist. Players can float 10cm above ground, reducing physical strain.

  Her hand hovered over the “Equip” button—but then—

  [Warning: System Inventory Will Be Notified]

  [Unauthorized Gear Detected]

  [Possible Termination of Avatar - Permanently! ]

  Luna’s blood ran cold.

  She remembered this fail-safe. She’d added it herself. If the system detected stolen gear this early, it would purge her from existence.

  But… there was one way around it. The Developer’s Debugging Challenge Mode.

  Solve the bypass equation—an impossible calculus riddle she once wrote to challenge her own mind.

  She knew it was here, somewhere…

  [Bypass Detected. Enter Challenge Mode?]

  [Yes.]

  [Initializing Equation…]

  A glowing math test filled the screen.

  Symbols. Derivatives. Three-dimensional graphs.

  Insanity.

  Even for her genius teenage mind, this was a nightmare.

  But she had no choice.

  00:12:24….

  She spat on her palm, wiped it on the metal bed, writing and began solving with her fingertip—smearing numbers in sweat and desperation.

  “Okay… that formula is wrong. Reroute the tangent… adjust for variable collapse…”

  00:11:02…

  Her heart pounded in her ears. Her hand slipped. The sweat made it hard to write.

  She could die.

  00:09:47…

  A red mark blinked. One mistake.

  “Dammit! Recalculate! Come on!”

  00:08:20….

  Luna bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.

  Her mind raced. Her vision blurred.

  Then—

  ACCESS GRANTED

  The hover belt materialized on her bed. Light Silver . Sleek. Hers.

  She grabbed it, breathless, and strapped it around her tiny waist.

  A soft hum thrummed through her body.

  Her back lifted off the bed. Just a few centimeter off the ground but it felt like she had wings.

  “I’m not crawling,” she whispered, voice trembling with pride. “Not today.”

  And just in time—

  00:00

  [LEVEL 1 INITIATING]

  [PLAYER 0: BEGIN.]

  The bed vanished.

  The room disappeared.

  And Luna, hovering barely above the floor, dropped into hell , now with a little help !

  =+=