Midnight in Ōlari smells like rain and forge smoke. I meet Oren at his stall. He examines the salvage I collected and nods. "Good enough," he says. He takes the iron and sets to hammering.
While I wait, a rumble shakes the ground, faint at first, then harder. People shout and the distant sound of alarms begins. From above, a dull glow leaks through the clouds, too steady for lightning.
A cry goes up from the eastern quarter. Someone screams "A fissure opened in the lower levels." The plaza alarm bells clatter, and runners go by in a frenzy.
Oren grips my shoulder. "If the fissure breaches into the city, coins and lives both will be lost. Familias will mobilize. So will the monsters below."
My guide trembles and its light grows cold. "System alert," it says. "Unstable anomaly detected. Recommended extraction or investigation."
I remember the recruiter's folded note and the midnight meeting. I remember the plaza trial. I remember the summons that had made me a curiosity. Choices age into urgency.
Oren hands me a small, well-balanced dagger. "This will not make you a hero," he says, "but it will let you survive long enough to make a better choice."
Outside, torchlight reveals a crowd gathered at the fissure boundary. From the darkness, something crawls, not like a beast, more like a piece of the dungeon come alive, and it reaches out toward the city.
I look at the people around me. Soldiers tighten their grips. Familias form lines. My summoned guide burns bright as if scared.
I step forward. The system pulses in my head with a single line.
[SYSTEM MISSION UPDATE]: Fissure Anomaly. Participants may join emergency operation. Rewards: grace token ×1, salvage ×3. High risk, priority level high.
I can sell my guide, vanish into a safer Familia, or step into the fissure and try to help. The plaza watches, and in such moments choices are visible to everyone.
Cliffhanger: I take the dagger and step toward the fissure, and a sound like grinding metal fills the air, as if something enormous is waking below.