The city did not sleep anymore.
Kai sat by the apartnt window at dawn and watched helicopters cross overhead. Their searchlights swept through the streets below. Every public screen flashed the sa red warning: Dungeon Alert.
Guild transports rolled past buildings that had not been quiet since yesterday’s announcent. Everywhere he looked, people stared at their phones like looking away might kill them. He scrolled through the updates on his own phone.
[Remaining Active C-Rank Dungeons in Mythal City: 86.]
Four gone already.
The announcent had co less than twenty-four hours ago, and soone had already cleared four gates. That ant teams were moving fast.
Organized.
Ready before the city had finished panicking.
His phone vibrated.
Sera.
He opened it.
Need a partner. C-rank dungeon in the eastern industrial sector. You in?
Sera only contacted him when she had already made every decision except whether he was coming. That was just how she worked.
He typed back: Sure.
Her response ca in three seconds.
Good. But you need to know what changed first.
He waited.
Teams that went in this morning can’t get out. Once you enter, you’re stuck until soone clears the dungeon. Either your team finishes it, another team reaches the core, or you die inside. No other way out.
Kai sat up straight.
C-rank dungeons were not quick runs anymore. They were commitnts you could die inside.
Kai imdiately thought about the morning teams. They had checked their gear, planned their formations, and walked through the gate the sa way they always did. Then the exit stopped working.
Every escape plan they had prepared beca worthless.
So of them were still inside right now. Not because they were slow or unprepared. Because the door had beco a trap the mont they stepped through.
His phone buzzed again.
The monsters had changed too. More coordinated than anything in the old D-rank guides. Teams that made it out said the bosses changed mid-fight. One team lost two people to a boss fight that lasted forty minutes.
Kai started typing a response when the apartnt lights flickered.
Every screen in the room changed at once. No warning or notification but just a sudden blue light everywhere.
He looked out the window.
A massive translucent blue panel hung in the open air. Close enough to read clearly. He leaned forward and looked down the street in both directions.
The panels stretched as far as he could see. Every building surface showed the sa blue glow. The light did not spread from one point. It ca from everywhere at once. The whole city turned blue at the sa mont.
Blue light filled the alleys.
Reflected off wet pavent.
Reached into the clouds above the city.
He had watched the first announcent on his phone like everyone else. This was different. That announcent had co to him. This one was being shoved in front of the entire city. Making sure nobody could miss it.
He pressed closer to the glass and read the words as they ford.
[Mythal City: C-Rank Advancent Board.]
The street below went completely silent for three seconds.
Then the shouting started everywhere at once.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Contribution Rankings.]
[Clear Speed.]
[City Progress.]
"IT’S TRACKING EVERYTHING!"
"WAIT, THAT’S RAZE AT THE TOP!"
"LOOK AT THOSE TIS!"
The shouting spread block by block. Kai moved to the window and read the board properly.
[Clear Speed Rankings. Mythal City.]
Raze — 1 Hour 12 Minutes.
Victor Hale — 1 Hour 31 Minutes.
Titan Forge Squad 3 — 2 Hours 02 Minutes.
Silver Bloom Raid Team — 2 Hours 19 Minutes.
Black Tide Assault Unit — 2 Hours 33 Minutes.
He stared at the top na.
Seventy-two minutes.
With monsters that were stronger than expected. With exits that trapped people inside. With boss fights that lasted forty minutes on their own. Raze had walked through all of that and finished in seventy-two minutes. Seventy-two minutes made everyone else suddenly look slow.
Kai found his own na further down the list. No clear ti. No contribution score. Then he found Victor’s na again: one hour and thirty-one minutes. GaleWing had gone in prepared and had not slowed down once.
The board shifted. A second tab opened beneath the first.
[City Progress Rankings.]
Mythal City — 4 Cleared.
Virelia City — 3 Cleared.
Astran Port — 2 Cleared.
Hollow Reach — 2 Cleared.
Nexum City — 1 Cleared.
[Fastest Single Clear by City.]
Virelia City — 49 Minutes.
Mythal City — 1 Hour 12 Minutes.
Astran Port — 1 Hour 48 Minutes.
Kai read the first line again.
Forty-nine minutes.
Twenty-three minutes faster than Raze. That should not be possible with the sa conditions that made these dungeons so deadly.
Soone in Virelia City had cleared a C-rank dungeon in under an hour while teams everywhere else were struggling just to survive.
A third section loaded beneath the city rankings.
[Rising Players To Watch.]
Raze — Mythal City.
Victor Hale — Mythal City.
Aric Voss — Virelia City.
Elena Mirel — Astran Port.
The Crimson Twins — Hollow Reach.
The nas he did not recognize held his attention most.
Aric Voss in Virelia City was the one behind that forty-nine-minute clear. Rumor said Aric Voss treated C-rank bosses like entertainnt before tearing it apart. That he always brought a team along because he liked to draw the fight out, smiling the whole ti.
The Crimson Twins in Hollow Reach had two clears listed under one entry. The system usually counts people separately, but not this ti. Either they fought as one unit or the system saw them as sothing else entirely.
Kai reread that line twice.
Elena Mirel in Astran Port had one clear with a ti just behind Raze. No guild, but it seed she had a squad under her.
Kai looked at the board and thought about how far away those cities were. The race was not just happening in Mythal. But in other cities with their own monsters.
The system had turned dungeon progression into a competition with a global leaderboard. And the leaderboard showed him that Mythal was not the only place moving fast.
His phone vibrated.
Thirty minutes. Eastern industrial sector. Don’t be late.
The board outside shifted one more ti. A number updated at the top.
Remaining Active C-Rank Dungeons in Mythal City: 85.
The number had already changed again before people finished reacting to the last one.
Sowhere in the city, soone cheered. He could hear it through the glass and imagine the team walking out of the dungeon to find crowds waiting for them.
Kai stood there for a mont longer.
Eighty-five dungeons left.
Every one of them sealed shut the mont you stepped through. And people were racing through them anyway. For rankings, reputation, and whatever reward ca at the end.
He thought about Raze’s seventy-two minutes and wondered what it took to move that fast through sothing that deadly. Wondered if confidence made you faster or just made you die quicker.
Behind him, he heard movent in the apartnt.
"Heading out?" Mina’s voice ca from the kitchen doorway.
Kai turned.
She stood there with her coffee mug, still in her work uniform from the night shift. Dark circles under her eyes, with her black hair pulled back, but she was smiling slightly.
"Yeah. Sera’s waiting."
Mina walked over and looked at the blue board outside the window. "Do what you want," she said simply. "We’re fine. Bills are covered. Leo’s good. And I trust you won’t fall."
Kai smiled before reaching over and ruffling her hair.
"Hey!" Mina swatted his hand away, scowling. "I already told you it’s annoying."
"You know you’ll have to deal with Leo’s excitent for the next couple of weeks, right?" Kai said. "Once he sees I’m moving up the rankings, he’s not going to shut up about it."
Mina laughed. A real laugh that made her look less tired. "Well, he is our adorable little brother after all. I can handle so excitent."
She punched his arm lightly. "Just don’t make explain to him why you’re not on the leaderboard yet. He checks it every hour."
"I know. He texted about it twice already this morning."
"Three tis," Mina corrected. "You missed one while you were staring at that board."
Kai pulled his pack over his shoulder. Checked his weapon. Felt the cloak settle around his shoulders.
Mina walked him to the door. Stopped him before he opened it.
"Kai."
He looked back.
"I an it. I trust you." Her expression was serious now. "So don’t prove wrong."
"I won’t."
She nodded. Stepped back. "Now go. Sera hates waiting."
Kai pulled the door shut behind him and took the stairs two at a ti.
The blue light was still out there, spread across the underside of the clouds like a bruise that wouldn’t fade. He could see the numbers from the stairwell window. Sobody had already moved up since this morning.
The eastern industrial sector was thirty minutes away on foot. He went through the lobby and out the front door. The streets of Mythal were busy enough that he had to pick his way through, cutting around clusters of people who had stopped to look up at the light.
He ran.
Not because Sera would be angry if he were late. Because every minute he wasted was another minute soone else was climbing the leaderboard.
Kai ran faster.
Sowhere in the city, another dungeon was already ending.
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