The Safehouse flickered.
Not from electricity—but something deeper, like the very code holding it together was groaning under pressure. Elian sat by a broken vending machine-turned-loot chest while Kalith hunched over a projection of the map, her fingers dancing across spectral panels only she could see.
"They're spawning earlier than I expected," she muttered.
Elian leaned forward. "What's spawning?"
Kalith didn't look up. "Dungeon entities. System-formed life. Mostly unstable code packed into hostile form."
"You mean monsters?"
She raised an eyebrow. "If that's what you want to call them."
[New Event Notification: Tier-E Instance Opening Nearby — "Hollow Verge"][Participation Recommended. Bonus EXP for First Clear.]
A map marker blinked on Elian's HUD—a spiraling pit icon just four blocks away. He could almost feel the dungeon's pull, as if it were calling him.
"I don't have gear," he said.
Kalith stood, her cloak fluttering slightly as if caught in invisible wind. "You don't need it. Not yet."
He shot her a dry look. "Pretty sure not dying would help."
She strode toward a metal locker wedged into the wall. After a few taps on her interface, it hissed open, revealing several outdated-looking weapons—a dented blade, an old tech staff, and a compact bow with only two arrows.
Kalith grabbed the staff and tossed the blade to Elian. "Your HUD hasn't stabilized. You're not ready to manifest gear."
He looked at the rusted blade. "This feels like a punishment."
"It's not. It's a test," she said. "The System needs to see what kind of player you are."
Elian's mind reeled at the word. Player.
This wasn't a game. And yet… it was.
The Hollow Verge loomed like an infected wound in the center of the collapsed block. Craters bled static where reality had glitched too hard to recover. From above, it looked like a sinkhole; from up close, it was a gaping stairwell descending into flickering black.
A glowing glyph hovered above the opening:
[Tier-E Dungeon: Hollow Verge][Entry Confirmed: 2 Participants]
As they stepped inside, the world shifted.
Walls smoothed into obsidian-black stone, with red data streams pulsing along the edges. The air was cold—not temperature-wise, but empty, like they'd left behind the real world entirely.
Elian's sword glitched in and out of solidity.
"What happens if we die in here?" he asked.
Kalith answered too quickly. "You don't."
Elian narrowed his eyes. "Don't? Or can't?"
"You don't," she repeated, turning a corner. "If you want to live, you don't."
The first enemy materialized like a corrupted memory—shifting, low-resolution, head twitching at impossible angles.
[Enemy: Fragmented Wailer – Lv. 3]
Elian's HUD blinked:
[You are Lv. 1][Weapon Quality: D-][Survival Odds: 14%]
"Great," he muttered. "Just what I needed—odds."
Kalith extended her staff.
With a quiet hum, lines of white energy flowed from her fingers into the air, then snapped into a spear of pure code. She launched it like a javelin—clean, fast, and final.
[Enemy Deleted]
Elian stared. "You said I needed to fight."
Kalith didn't even turn. "That one didn't drop loot. Next one's yours."
They went deeper.
Corridors changed each time they passed through them—new wall patterns, missing doors, shifting lights. The dungeon wasn't just alive. It was learning.
Elian's interface jittered. At one point, it even spoke:
[Warning: Unverified Command Detected – Admin Echo Traced]
"Is it watching me?" he whispered.
Kalith didn't answer. She was staring at the air, unreadable again.
When the next enemy appeared, it was a swarm—a seething collection of bone-white bugs made of fractured data. Kalith stepped back.
"Now."
Elian raised his blade—and hesitated.
His muscles weren't ready. His timing was off. He wasn't a soldier or a fighter—he was a gamer, a dropout, a nobody.
But something inside him responded anyway. A spark. A thread in his brain pulling taut.
His hand moved.
The blade arced low.
[Critical Hit – Weak Point Exploited]
One bug exploded into shimmering shards. Another followed. Then two more. And when he swung again, his HUD reacted.
[Skill Created: Improvised Cleave – Lv. 1][System Note: Unexpected Skill Tree Branching Detected]
"Kalith…" he said breathlessly. "Did you see that?"
But she was looking at something else now.
Not him.
Behind him.
And then, for the first time, Elian heard fear in her voice.
"Run."
[System Alert: Boss Entity Spawned – ERROR: NOT FOUND IN DUNGEON FILES][Unknown Entity Approaching…]