He stood in the bright illumination of the teleporter and thought to himself.

Ascend to the next floor.

* * *

Ten minutes after Max had passed through the final checkpoint, a group of five men materialized at the endless forest’s departure teleporter.

They had arrived from many floors higher up in the tower.

The five of them all wore red bomber jackets and aviator sunglasses.

One of the defense climbers stationed in front of the teleporter pretended he didn’t recognize the five men, but they could all tell he knew who they were.

The Reckless Brothers.

They were five mercenary rogue climbers originally from Zestiris who’d been wanted by the authorities for years.

The men ignored the two defense climbers upon their arrival.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a floor so close to the bottom,” said one of them. “Ain’t that right, big bro?”

“Correct,” said the oldest of the five men and the clear leader of the group.

The man’s name was Eli.

“This should be a piece of cake then,” said Eli’s younger brother.

“Just remember what we’re here to do,” said Eli. “The boss said to remove the kid by any means necessary.”

A few of them chuckled.

“In the confines of this floor,” said one of them. “That should be easy.”

Then one of the brothers turned to the defense climbers. “What about these two? They might alert others.”

“Agreed,” said Eli. “Do as you wish.”

The two defense climbers were dead within seconds. One died in flames while another was ripped in half by a large pointed stone jutting out of the ground.

“First stop is the arrival teleporter,” said Eli. “Let’s roll.”

They found another pair of defense climbers at the arrival teleporter.

“All done for the day?” greeted one of the defense climbers. He had a big nose this kid. His partner had freckles.

Eli took in their metal pin badges. Copper with a big fat E etched into it. They were E-rankers, probably newly graduated defense climbers. Weaklings as far as Eli was concerned.

“Did a red-headed kid come through here just now?” asked Eli. “You see which way he went?”

Big Nose gulped. “It’s against protocol to answer that. Do you have any reason for needing to know which way he went?”

“Yeah,” said Eli. “He’s in trouble. We’ve been sent to help him.”

“Do you have an authorized letter of some kind,” said Freckles.

Eli smiled and looked to his brothers.

“Do you know who we are?”

Both Freckles and Big Nose shook their heads.

“Maybe you don’t know us by our faces,” said Eli. “But you probably know us by name. Does the name The Reckless Brothers mean anything to you?”

Both Big Nose and Freckles instantly went pale.

The Reckless Brothers were infamous.

They were wanted across multiple floors by different powerful groups.