Yuuya made it to school, but his mind wasn't there.
His body walked. His feet moved. But everything felt fake—like someone replaced the world's textures overnight.
The street looked normal. The cars moved. The sky was bright.
But he knew better.
He'd survived his first dungeon.
A real dungeon.
One no one even knew had appeared.
No alarms. No Guild cleanup crew. Not even news coverage. It came and vanished like a glitch in the sky.
And the worst part?
He couldn't tell anyone.
---
The classroom buzzed with early morning chaos. Students laughed, scrolled through trending feeds, argued about breakfast.
Nothing had changed.
Except everything had.
Yuuya slid into his seat like usual. Second row from the back, near the window. Classic anime protagonist spot, if only he cared.
"You okay?"
Kaito, the class clown and chronic daydreamer, leaned over.
"You look like you fought a shadow demon or something," he joked, grinning.
Yuuya didn't blink. "What if I did?"
Kaito laughed. "Bro, same. Except mine was my dad asking where my report card went."
More laughter. Yuuya smiled faintly.
Behind him, two other students—Riku and Sota—were mid-debate.
"I swear, this whole world's turning into a game," Riku muttered. "First those dungeon leaks in the news, now celebrities with bodyguards trained like Hunters?"
"Like that's new," Sota scoffed. "I bet if this were an actual game, I'd be awakened by now. Probably something cool like Flame King or Lightning God."
"You'd be a Walking Lighter," Riku said. "Too much ego, zero mana."
Kaito jumped in. "Honestly, if this world is becoming fictional, I'm fine with it—as long as I get powers and a girlfriend."
The bell rang.
Yuuya didn't say a word. But his hand, still resting on the desk, twitched.
He still remembered the scream from the Hollow Door.
---
By lunch, things had gone back to normal. Sort of.
He noticed it more now. Little things.
A vending machine glitching. A teacher repeating the same sentence twice, like a broken recording. The mirror in the boy's restroom lagging by half a second.
The system hadn't stopped tracking him.
> [New Message: Rift Signal Detected – Class F – 4.1km Southwest]
> [Estimated Time Until Collapse: 3 Hours 14 Minutes]
Yuuya tapped the message away.
He wasn't going. Not yet.
He needed gear. A weapon that wasn't stolen from the fireplace. Shoes that didn't slip. Something like…
"Welcome to DungeonMart!"
He blinked.
A kid held up his phone with a ridiculous ad playing. An influencer was reviewing a new line of 'starter hunter kits.'
"Comes with a D-rank blade, mana scanner, rift balm, and a low-level danger sensor. All for the price of one social media post!"
Yuuya sighed.
The world was catching on.
Too fast.
And not fast enough.
---
Later that evening, he wandered.
No plan. No map. Just following the faint buzz in his skull.
True Learning didn't shut off. Ever.
> [Passive Scan: Memory Residue Detected – 88 meters East]
He followed it.
The location was a laundromat.
Empty. Flickering light. A dryer still spinning with no clothes inside.
He stepped in.
And the world shimmered.
> [Micro Rift Detected – Classification: Memory Shell]
> [Would you like to enter?]
Yuuya paused.
No poker. No gear. No idea what was inside.
But something inside him whispered:
Learn.
He stepped forward.
---
The Memory Shell was small. No combat.
Just… memories.
A hospital room. A kid crying. A woman singing an old lullaby.
None of it was his.
But the system offered him a gift.
> [Absorb Emotional Memory? Result: Gain temporary stat boost – INT +1, WIS +2]
He accepted.
And felt it.
The pain. The grief. The hope.
And when he opened his eyes—
> [New Skill Learned: Empathic Pulse – Tier F]
He could feel echoes.
Not voices.
Feelings.
Not just in dungeons.
In people.
His teacher—the one who smiled too much—was full of fear.
His classmate—the girl who always read by the window—felt completely empty.
He staggered outside.
The world was noisy now.
But not with sound.
---
That night, back in his room, he sat at his desk.
He opened a notebook.
Started writing.
Not words.
Maps.
Memories.
Patterns.
The rifts were growing. Spreading faster than the news could keep up.
And someone needed to track them.
Yuuya was many things.
Forgettable.
Quiet.
Unawakened.
But now…
He was learning.
And learning was dangerous.