The ELECTRICAL tunnel came first. Riri spotted the fuse box before the rats did, kicked it hard into the nearest cluster, and watched six of them drop when the thing exploded in a shower of sparks and acrid smoke. She was already moving before the bodies hit the ground.
The STORAGE passage was slower. A shelf of corroded cleaning supplies gave way when one of the Level 4s slammed into it during a chase, and the chemical runoff did the rest. She finished the survivors while they were still convulsing.
A maintenance shaft after that. The floor gave way beneath a rat cluster. She heard them hit the water below and didn't look down.
[Objective Progress: Clear all enemies (52/87)]
Riri crouched in a dry alcove, catching her breath. Her hands were steady but her forearms ached from the grip work. She pulled a ration bar from inventory and ate without tasting it, eyes on the tunnel ahead.
[Riri Lee - Level 3 | HP: 130/130 | Stamina: 87/120 | Combat Power: 1,187]
Thirty-five enemies left. She hadn't seen a single rat in the last stretch of tunnel. They were consolidating somewhere ahead. The faded signage on the wall said CENTRAL HUB with an arrow pointing down the main passage.
She finished the ration bar, stood, and tested her grip on the dagger. The bone handle was warm from prolonged contact. Blood, black and red and something iridescent, stained the blade from hilt to tip.
The CENTRAL HUB was a massive circular chamber where all the station's tunnels converged. Thirty feet across, ceiling lost in shadow, tracks radiating outward like spokes on a wheel. And in the center, surrounded by the remaining rat swarm, was the Station Master.
[Station Master - Corrupted Conductor - Level 7 - BOSS | HP: 500/500]
It had been human once. Maybe. Now it stood seven feet tall, spine bent at wrong angles, limbs too long and jointed in too many places. Its uniform hung in tatters, revealing gray flesh mottled with black veins. The face was worst: stretched skin, hollow eye sockets, jaw unhinged and lined with teeth that looked borrowed from the rats. It held a rusted signal baton in one elongated hand. Thirty-four rats clustered around it, all watching the tunnel entrance where Riri stood.
Waiting.
[Warning: Boss encounter detected! Recommend retreat and party formation!]
Riri dismissed the notification and scanned the chamber. Circular layout, multiple exits, ceiling supports crisscrossing overhead. No obvious environmental hazards. Too open, too clean despite the decay. She'd have to earn this one.
The Station Master's head tilted.
Its jaw creaked open. "Ticket," it rasped. Voice like grinding metal. "Show. Your. Ticket."
Riri stepped into the chamber. The rats surged forward.
The first three lunged simultaneously. She sidestepped, blade flashing twice, and two corpses hit the ground before the third registered she'd moved. Four more came from the left. She rolled under their charge and came up slashing. The Rat Fang Dagger carved through the Level 4's flank.
[Critical Hit! Bleed effect applied!][Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Rat - Level 3] x2[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Rat - Level 4]
Six dead in ten seconds. Twenty-eight remaining. The Station Master raised its baton.
"All aboard," it whispered.
The baton pulsed with sickly green light. Every remaining rat's HP bar doubled.
[Station Master used Commander's Blessing! All allied units gain +100% HP for 60 seconds!]
Riri's jaw tightened. The Level 5 rats now sat at 150 HP each. Level 4s at 120. Even the Level 3s were sitting at 90. Her stamina bar blinked.
[Stamina: 62/120]
Sixty seconds. Twenty-eight buffed rats and a Boss with 500 HP. She looked up.
Old iron beams crisscrossed the ceiling, corroded and sagging under their own weight, held together by rust and inertia. Her gaze tracked the nearest support pillar up to the beam it anchored. Single corroded bolt at the joint.
Riri sprinted for the pillar. Rats converged from all sides. She leaped, caught the lip, hauled herself up. The rats swarmed below, clawing at the base, unable to follow. She looked up at the bolt, reversed her grip on the dagger, and drove the blade into the corroded metal with everything she had.
The bolt sheared.
The beam groaned, a sound like the world reconsidering its structural decisions, and collapsed. It took three more beams with it in a chain reaction that shook the entire chamber. Tons of rusted iron crashed down onto the floor. Dust exploded upward in choking clouds. When it settled, notifications flooded her vision.
[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Rat - Level 3] x12[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Rat - Level 4] x9[Enemy Defeated: Corrupted Rat - Level 5] x7[Station Master HP: 203/500]
All twenty-eight rats dead. The Boss was pinned beneath a beam, not critically injured but pinned. Riri dropped from the pillar, landed in a crouch beside the Station Master. Its head turned toward her, jaw working soundlessly.
She drove the dagger into its eye socket.
[Critical Hit!][Station Master HP: 87/500]
It thrashed, nearly dislodging her. She twisted the blade, felt something vital rupture.
[Station Master HP: 31/500]
She yanked the dagger free, repositioned, drove it through the creature's temple.
[Enemy Defeated: Station Master - Corrupted Conductor - Level 7 - BOSS][+200 EXP]
[Dungeon Clear! Corrupted Transit - Rank E][Clear Time: 2 hours, 47 minutes][Rank: S (Solo Clear + Speed Bonus)]
[Credits Earned: 847] → [Credits Earned: 2,541 (Triple Reward Active)][Item Drop: Station Master's Baton (Rare)][Item Drop: Skill Scroll - Shadow Step (Rare)][Achievement Unlocked: First Blood | Solo Warrior | Speed Demon]
The Station Master dissolved into mist. Two items remained on the ground: a signal baton crackling with residual energy, and a scroll sealed with wax. Riri picked them up. Her stamina bar read 23/120. Her hands shook fractionally when she straightened.
A portal materialized at the chamber's center, swirling gold light.
[Congratulations! Would you like to review your performance statistics?]
"Later."
She walked through.
The subway station materialized around her, real-world daylight filtering down the stairs. The three Players from earlier were still at the entrance. The woman with the crossbow looked up as Riri emerged, blinking.
"You're alive."
Riri kept walking. Hood up, dagger at her thigh, black blood dried into the fabric of her tactical pants.
Behind her: "What the hell was her clear time?"
The sound of a leaderboard pulling up. Then silence.
Then: "Two hours and forty-seven minutes. S-Rank. Solo."
More silence.
She didn't look back.