Wayne Tucker arrived at Red Hook at exactly nine in the morning.
He wasn't alone. Jason Collins followed half a step behind his right shoulder. Jason had swapped his shredded gear for a fresh blue-and-gold Titan's Shield uniform, but his complexion was grim—dark circles under his eyes told the story of a sleepless night.
Behind Wayne stood four others. They were members of the Brooklyn branch, their uniform numbers polished and lined up like rows of copper buttons. Allen swept his gaze over their stats via the management panel: two D-Rank Warriors, a D-Rank Ranger, and an E-Rank Support. Combined with Jason's B-Rank and Wayne's own D-Rank status, it was a six-man squad.
Allen wasn't in the warehouse.
He was perched on the roof of a derelict apartment building two blocks northeast. Sixth floor. No elevator, and the stairwell railings were half-rusted away. Squatting behind a low wall on the terrace, he projected the management panel in front of his left eye. The external surveillance function—capable of sensing everything within 100 meters of the entrance—streamed the footage from the warehouse door directly to his HUD.
The resolution wasn't high-definition, but it was enough.
Wayne Tucker stood in the gravel lot outside the warehouse, hands on his hips, scanning the area from left to right.
A buzz cut and an old scar running from the corner of his mouth to the side of his neck. He wasn't particularly massive, but his posture screamed"this is my turf"—feet planted wide, shoulders pulled back, chin slightly tilted. This was the standard stance for a D-Rank Awakened in the lower-tier communities.
A crowd had already gathered outside.
The fallout from yesterday's forum post was still spreading. At least five independent parties were waiting nearby—some were returning customers from yesterday, while others were fresh faces drawn in by the screenshots. A dozen independent adventurers stood in small clusters; some whispered about the entry order, while others checked their gear.
Allen spotted Lena Walker in the crowd.
The four members of Grey Crows were standing by a rusted van on the west side of the lot. Gus had his left arm in a sling; yesterday's injuries hadn't quite healed. Two D-Rank teammates leaned against the van doors, one of them chewing on a piece of bread. Lena stood still, arms crossed, staring toward the warehouse.
A fresh bandage was wrapped around her left leg. She was early—a clear sign that yesterday's Crescent Dagger hadn't been enough to satisfy her. She wanted another run.
Wayne stepped into the warehouse.
Thirty seconds later, he walked back out. He was holding something—a metal badge slightly larger than a palm, the emblem of Titan's Shield. Blue background, gold trim, with a shield in the center.
He slammed the badge onto the corrugated iron door. The metallic clang echoed twice across the empty lot.
"Listen up!"
Wayne's voice didn't need an amplifier. The lung capacity and vocal cord strength of a D-Rank Awakened were more than enough to make every syllable reach fifty meters away.
"Titan's Shield has flagged this dungeon as a guild asset. Effective immediately, no one enters without the express permission of Titan's Shield."
The chatter in the lot died instantly.
A dozen independent adventurers looked toward the warehouse. A few hands instinctively moved toward weapon hilts, but no one took a step forward.
Wayne pulled a second, smaller magnetic badge from his pocket. He leaned into the warehouse and slapped it onto the floor next to the diamond-shaped rift.
As he walked back out, he brushed the dust off his hands.
"Any problems?"
The silence lasted about five seconds.
A short, stout man wearing goggles stepped out from the left—Allen recognized him. It was Li Wei, the leader of the party that had entered yesterday and got wiped in the sixth room.
"This dungeon hasn't been registered with the GWA yet. According to regulations, unregistered rifts are public resources—"
"According to regulations?"
Wayne tilted his head. The old scar stretched a few millimeters with the angle of his jaw, turning white in the sunlight.
"Brother, what's your name?"
"...Li Wei. E-Rank Explorer."
"Li Wei," Wayne repeated the name, rolling it over his tongue before spitting it out."E-Rank. Which guild are you from?"
"Independent."
"Independent," Wayne said again, as if savoring the first half of a joke."And you're talking to me about 'regulations'?"
He took a step forward. Not much, just one step. But Li Wei's body recoiled half an inch.
"Let me tell you a regulation. Seventy-three percent of the dungeons in New York's five boroughs are held by Titan's Shield, the Ironclad Knights, or Black Snake. GWA registration? The queue starts at three months. By the time you finish the paperwork, every valuable drop in this dungeon will already be in our vault. Do you want to race me with forms or with power?"
Li Wei didn't say a word. He backed away.
Someone in the crowd muttered a curse under their breath, but the volume was so low Wayne couldn't possibly hear it.
"Anyone else?"
No one answered.
Allen watched the scene from the rooftop two blocks away. Wayne Tucker stood before the warehouse, his five teammates spread out behind him like a wall—not particularly tall, but enough to block the path. A dozen independent adventurers stood at the edge of the lot, their postures varying, but not one of them advanced.
Allen's gaze shifted to Lena.
Her right hand was resting on the hilt of her dagger. Her knuckles were white—the veins on the back of her hand bulged. Gus grabbed her sleeve with his uninjured hand.
"Lena."
"I see it."
"He's D-Rank. The blonde behind him is B-Rank. The four of us combined—"
"I can do the math."
She let go of the hilt. Her fingers unfurled one by one, very slowly, each movement carrying a forced, suppressed rigidity.
Wayne turned at the warehouse entrance, his gaze sweeping the crowd before landing on Jason.
"Jason."
"Sir."
"Take the team in. Clear it. I want a full assessment report. Monster types, room count, drop quality—record everything. Starting tomorrow, we're running this twice a day."
Jason's Adam's apple bobbed.
Allen zoomed in on Jason's green marker on the management panel. The facial details weren't sharp, but he could see the jaw muscles tightening. His lips were pressed into a thin line.
Jason had been in this dungeon. He knew what it was like to spend thirty-eight minutes crawling out of just three rooms after being suppressed to F-Rank.
Now, the dungeon had ten rooms. It had Ghost Wolves, Gargoyles, and an Shadow Knight mini-boss he had never even seen.
But Wayne was watching.
"No problem, Captain."
Jason lifted his chin as he spoke—the same posture Allen had seen at the Awakening Hall. Exaggerated confidence. But this time, there were cracks beneath the surface.
The six-man squad walked into the warehouse.
Allen watched six green dots hop into the diamond rift in sequence. Wayne didn't go in; he stayed outside, leaning against the corrugated wall, and pulled out his phone. Likely reporting to the guild headquarters.
Allen switched to the internal dungeon view.
Six green dots landed in the entrance corridor. Jason walked at the front—the vanguard position of a B-Rank Warrior. Two D-Rank Warriors were on his flanks, the D-Rank Ranger was center-rear, and the E-Rank Support brought up the rear.
A standard six-man formation. It was leagues ahead of the makeshift trio Jason had led yesterday.
Allen opened the management panel.
Two options lay before him.
The first: Power Suppression.
He had used this on Jason before. The results were spectacular—a B-Rank forced down to F-Rank, nearly unable to exit the third room.
But he couldn't use it this time.
Allen sat cross-legged on the roof, his finger hovering over the panel for three seconds.
the cooldown for Power Suppression had ended. He could trigger it whenever he wanted. He could crush all six of them down to F-Rank—the D-Rank Warriors would become mere equals to the Skeletons, Jason would relive his nightmare, and the E-Rank Support would be essentially a civilian.
But then they wouldn't get good gear.
If they didn't get good gear, they wouldn't come back.
If they didn't come back, there would be no BP.
Allen needed Titan's Shield to become his long-term clients—not a one-time joke, but a steady source of income. To achieve that, they had to experience the dungeon's true value: moderate difficulty paired with incredible rewards.
Power Suppression: OFF.
Let them clear it with their real strength. Let them see the quality of the drops. Let them get addicted.
Allen's finger moved away from the suppression button and slid to another function.
[Trap Deployment— Current Available Traps:]
The list was short. F-Rank dungeons had limited options—Spikes, Falling Rocks, Gas (trace amounts), all physical damage types. Allen scanned the list until his eyes stopped on a grayed-out icon at the bottom.
[Fear Mist— Environmental Trap (Mental)]
[Effect: Triggers a release of mental interference gas, forcing all targets within range to experience 30 seconds of extreme fear hallucinations. Hallucination content is generated based on the target's deepest fear memories. Causes no physical damage.]
[Unlock Condition: Dungeon Rating reaches B-.]
[Status: UNLOCKED (Current Rating B-).]
B-.
The data from yesterday's three parties had pushed the rating from C+ to B-. Just enough to unlock this trap.
Allen stared at the words"Fear Mist" for five seconds.
No physical damage. A pure mental assault. A thirty-second hallucination based on the target's own fears.
Everyone was afraid of something. What did a D-Rank veteran fear? An S-Rank outbreak? Seeing teammates die? Or something more personal?
Allen deployed the Fear Mist at the entrance of the tenth room—the Shadow Knight's boss chamber. Anyone stepping into the boss room would first eat thirty seconds of fear and then face the Shadow Knight in their most vulnerable mental state.
Deployment complete. BP cost: 150.
[Current BP Balance: 3000.]
Allen closed the trap panel and switched back to the internal view.
The six green dots had already pushed to the third room.
They were fast.
A B-Rank Warrior fighting F-Rank Skeletons without power suppression—the result was exactly as Allen expected. Jason was one-shotting them with his fists, not even bothering with skills. Pure stat-checking. The skeletons' bone spears probably felt like being poked with toothpicks.
The two D-Rank Warriors were also comfortable. A two-tier gap made the skeletons no threat at all.
Through the management panel, Allen caught the audio from the corridor.
"This is it?"
One of the D-Rank Warriors kicked a pile of skeletal remains. Bone fragments shattered against the wall.
"Jason, you got beaten by this trash?"
Jason walked ahead, not looking back.
"It was different last time."
"How? F-Rank is F-Rank. You're a B-Rank—"
"I said it was different. Last time, there was power suppression."
"Power what?"
Jason stopped and turned to the warrior. His expression was a blur on the panel, but his voice was low—a tone Allen hadn't heard last night.
"In every dungeon you've ever raided, have you ever seen one that can suppress your rank the moment you walk in?"
The D-Rank Warrior blinked.
"No."
"This one can."
The corridor went silent for a second or two. Then the D-Rank Warrior let out a laugh—not a relaxed one, but a reflexive"you've got to be kidding me" chuckle.
"Whatever. It's not suppressed now. Let's move."
They continued.
Fourth room. Fifth room. The skeletons were wiped; the six men were unscathed.
Sixth room—Ghost Wolf territory.
Allen saw Jason pause at the entrance. He hadn't seen the Ghost Wolves before; last time, he had only cleared the three-room version.
Six Ghost Wolves emerged from the shadows. Silver-gray translucent bodies with red eyes, their silhouettes nearly invisible in the dim light. Only the eyes floated.
Jason's reaction was faster than Allen anticipated. He drew his sword before the first wolf could lunge. A B-Rank's speed was a cheat code against F-Rank monsters. He severed a wolf's forelimb with one swing and decapitated another on the backswing.
Six wolves. Forty seconds.
The squad pushed through the seventh room. Gargoyles. Tougher, but the B-Rank's damage output was still overwhelming.
Eighth room. Ninth room.
Allen marked the time-stamp. From the entrance to the end of the ninth room: sixteen minutes total.
Yesterday, the Grey Crows had taken over forty minutes to reach the ninth room, and three of them had fallen. The Titan's Shield squad did it in sixteen minutes with zero injuries.
The rank gap was that brutal.
After clearing the ninth room, the six men stood at the entrance to the corridor leading to the final chamber. The management panel caught the conversation.
"Last room," Jason said. His pace was slower than it had been for the previous nine.
"Anything special?" the Ranger asked.
"Mini-Boss. Shadow Knight. I didn't beat it last time—there were only three rooms then, no boss."
"An F-Rank Mini-Boss?" the cocky D-Rank Warrior laughed again."Jason, did this dungeon give you a complex? An F-Rank Boss against the six of us—"
"You'll see when we get in."
The six green dots entered the tenth room corridor.
Allen reached into his backpack and pulled out a can of soda. Half-priced from the supermarket. He popped the tab with one hand.
Sssss. Carbonated bubbles hissed into the gray Brooklyn air.
On the panel, the six dots crossed the threshold of the tenth room.
Fear Mist: TRIGGERED.
A system notification popped up on Allen's screen:
[Environmental Trap"Fear Mist" Activated. Area of Effect: Entirety of Room 10. Number of targets: 6. Generating hallucinations...]
In the tenth room, the lights didn't flicker, the temperature didn't drop, and there was no visible smoke. But all six men stopped dead in their tracks at the three-second mark.
The audio shifted.
First, there was heavy breathing—not just one person, but all six simultaneously.
Then came the sound of weapons hitting the floor. Clang, clang. People had lost their grip on their hilts.
The fourth second.
A scream.
Not a battle cry, not a roar of pain. It was a sharp, broken sound squeezed from the back of the throat. The panel identified the source: Wayne Tucker.
A D-Rank Awakened. A six-year veteran of the Brooklyn branch.
He had just let out the first scream of his career.
Allen took a sip of his soda. The bubbles stung his tongue—sweet and cold.
On the panel, all six green dots stopped moving. Two were spinning in place—a sign of complete disorientation. One dot fell—the system labeled the challenger as"Prone/Collapsed."
Fear Mist Duration: 30 seconds.
Allen couldn't see the hallucinations; the system only noted they were generated from"private fear memories." But judging by the audio—
Jason was swearing. Dense, fragmented strings of curses punctuated by gasps. His dot was the only one moving, backing up until he hit the wall.
He had been here before. He had experience.
The other five didn't.
The D-Rank Warrior who had mocked Jason now had a heart rate of 187. The E-Rank Support was even worse: 211.
Thirty seconds passed.
The Fear Mist dissipated.
The dots began to move again, but the pattern was different. They were no longer confident or steady. The six dots huddled near the entrance, clustered so tightly they almost overlapped.
The Shadow Knight's red marker waited at the far end of the room.
Allen took another sip.
The audio cleared.
"...what... what was that..." Wayne's voice was hoarse and broken, as if his throat had been clamped shut for a minute.
"The boss is over there," Jason said. He was steadier than Wayne, but only relatively."Shadow Knight. Everyone get ready—"
"Wait," Wayne interrupted. He cursed, his dot trembling as he stood up."Wait. Give me... give me ten seconds."
Allen watched Wayne's green dot. It was vibrating.
Not a physical movement across the floor, but the marker was flickering at a high frequency. The system interpreted this as"target experiencing continuous fine-motor tremors."
A D-Rank veteran was shaking in an F-Rank dungeon.
Allen set the soda can on the wall and typed a note:"Fear Mist Assessment: Exceeded expectations. D-Rank recovery time approx. 15-20s. Lingering psychological impact. B-Rank (Jason) recovery time approx. 8s due to prior experience. Recommendation: Maintain current configuration."
In the dungeon, the Shadow Knight began to move.
Allen switched to the Boss-view. The Shadow Knight's AI was"Proactive"—it attacked automatically sixty seconds after challengers entered the room.
Sixty seconds.
Forty-seven had already passed.
"It's coming!" Jason's sword hissed out of its sheath."Formation! Warriors to the front, Ranger find distance, Support—"
"I know!" Wayne shouted. He had regained some of his strength. He scrambled up.
The Shadow Knight charged at the 58-second mark.
Six men against an F-Rank Mini-Boss. The outcome was never in doubt.
The Shadow Knight used Shadow Step three times. First behind Jason—blocked, as he had learned that lesson. Second behind the Ranger—intercepted by the two D-Rank Warriors. Third in front of the Support—Wayne swung sideways and severed the Knight's sword arm.
The Shadow Knight dissolved into black smoke.
Total clear time: 22 minutes. Sixteen for the first nine rooms, six for the tenth (including recovery and the fight).
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Party: Titan's Shield Brooklyn Branch (6 members)]
[Rating: A-]
[Rewards Issuing...]
[BP Earned:+2800]
[Current BP Balance: 5650]
Allen tapped the drop details.
Six people, six drops. With the +8 quality modifier—
[Storm Bracers (E-Rank)— Stamina +14, Passive:"Wind Ward"— 10% chance to repel enemies on hit.]
[Stone-Cracker Hammer (E-Minus Rank)— Strength +16, Crit Rate +3%.]
[Dark-Weave Leggings (E-Rank)— Agility +11, Stealth +15%.]
[...]
Six items, all E or E-Minus Rank. From an F-Rank dungeon.
Through the audio, Allen heard the rustle of metal—they were checking the gear. Then came a flurry of hushed whispers, too low for the mic to catch clearly. But one sentence was recorded perfectly.
It was Wayne Tucker. His voice was still raspy, but it held something Allen knew well.
Greed.
"Tomorrow. We're coming back tomorrow."
Allen brought the can to his lips and drained the last drop.
He set the empty can on the wall. The clouds over Brooklyn were low and gray. In the distance, he heard the faint groan of the warehouse door.
The six men emerged.
The external surveillance showed Wayne standing by the warehouse, head down, hands on his knees.
Fifteen seconds later, he stood up. He looked at the Titan's Shield badge on the door—the blue and gold glinting in the sun.
He didn't take it down.
At the edge of the lot, the independent adventurers were still there. Li Wei was huddling at the back. Lena Walker was leaning against the van. Everyone was watching.
Wayne walked to the center of the lot and headed toward a black SUV. Before getting in, he looked back at the crowd.
"You all heard me. As of tomorrow, this place belongs to Titan's Shield. If anyone wants to be brave—"
He slapped the car door.
"You've been warned."
The SUV roared to life and drove off. Jason and the others followed in a second car, their taillights disappearing at the intersection.
The lot fell silent.
Gus patted Lena's shoulder with his good hand.
"Let's go. We'll find another rift. There are a few E-Ranks left in Brooklyn—"
"An E-Rank drop isn't half of what's in this F-Rank."
Lena's reply was curt. She stared at the blue and gold badge for two seconds, then turned away.
Gus sighed and followed her.
Allen watched the markers leave the area. Ten minutes later, the lot was empty, save for the badge on the door and the thin sliver of blue light peeking through the crack.
Allen stood up and brushed the dust from his pants.
5650 BP. Fear Mist confirmed. Titan's Shield would be back—Wayne's"tomorrow" was firmer than any contract.
The independents were blocked. No short-term BP from them. But if Titan's Shield ran this once or twice a day, contributing 3,000 BP per run... he could hit 20,000 BP within the week.
Enough.
But not enough to be satisfied.
He needed the volume of independent adventurers. More challengers meant faster BP and more diverse combat data. He needed his dungeon tested by every rank and class to evolve.
Titan's Shield had blocked the front door.
Allen pulled out his phone and added a note to yesterday's entry.
"Day 2. Titan's Shield thinks they've seized my dungeon."
He tucked the phone away and headed for the abandoned parking garage next door.