Yuuya was late for school.
Again.
Except this time, it wasn't because he overslept. It was because a door to nowhere opened in front of his house.
It just sat there, floating above the pavement, humming like a giant mosquito. Glitchy edges. Blue sparks. And the words glowing on it:
> [Dungeon – Tier 1: Breachpoint]
Someone else might've screamed. Yuuya just sighed and took a step back. "Nope. Not before breakfast."
The door didn't vanish. If anything, it looked… disappointed.
---
At school, the vibe was different. Every hallway felt like a waiting room before disaster.
"Did you hear?" Haruto whispered. "Another door showed up. Right in the gym. PE class got cancelled. Everyone's acting like it's normal."
Makoto slid into the seat beside them. "Because if we treat it like a game, it's easier to pretend we're not one mistake away from dying."
Haruto laughed nervously. "Kinda dark, bro."
Makoto leaned forward. "Yuuya. You've been weird lately. You're… too calm. Like you know what's coming."
Yuuya didn't answer. He was staring at the floor. At the shadow that didn't quite match his body.
---
The announcement hit during third period.
> "Attention students: Codex has identified an unstable rift near Building B. Do not approach. Repeat: DO NOT APPROACH."
Haruto looked at Yuuya. "So uh… wanna bet people approach it anyway?"
Yuuya stood up.
Makoto blinked. "You serious?"
"I'll be back before lunch."
---
Outside, the rift shimmered like a broken mirror floating in the air. A small group of students stood nearby, pretending not to care.
"Is this like… extra credit?" one muttered.
Someone else tossed a rock into it. The rock disappeared with a ping.
Then a sound answered.
Something low. Wet. And breathing.
Yuuya stepped forward.
The rift pulsed. And then it opened wider.
And something crawled out.
---
It looked like a dog at first. Except it had six legs. And two heads. And no skin.
It drooled data. Its eyes blinked sideways.
Someone screamed.
Yuuya moved without thinking.
> [Danger Detected – No Active Class Assigned] [Would You Like to Engage?]
He didn't answer. He ran.
Not away. Toward it.
The creature lunged. He slid under, grabbed a pipe off the ground, and jabbed upward. It didn't bleed. It flickered.
> [System Response Triggered – Trait Evolving…]
The dog-thing reared up. It didn't roar. It buzzed. Like a corrupted file.
Yuuya stood up slowly.
"I don't have a class," he said. "But I remember everything you did."
He swung again.
CRACK.
The creature shattered like glass code.
---
Everyone was staring.
Even the Codex agent who showed up late.
Yuuya dropped the pipe.
The rift was closing now. Sucking wind, light, sound—everything.
And then a new message appeared:
> [Awakening Confirmed] [Trait: True Learning] [Title Earned: First to Kill] [Warning: You Are Now Being Watched]
---
That night, he went home. He didn't talk much. His mom noticed.
"You okay?" she asked.
Yuuya shrugged. "Just a school thing."
She nodded, went back to cooking.
On the TV, Elon Musk was giving a press conference.
> "No, I will not be entering a dungeon. I have engineers for that."
Then the camera panned to his bodyguard: a 7-foot-tall awakened merc with a giant mechanical arm and glowing tattoos.
> "Anyway," Musk said. "We're working on AI that can't glitch. Unlike the one in Ohio last week."
Yuuya blinked.
The Ohio incident? Yeah. That wasn't a glitch.
It was a test.
---
He opened his window. Looked up at the sky.
Another rift opened high above the city.
This one didn't hum. It laughed.