When the first light of morning seeped through the dusty window of Haruki's single-room apartment, it wasn't the sun that woke him. It was a faint blue light flickering just behind his eyelids, deep within his mind.
Haruki sat up slowly, cracked his neck, and stared into the empty space. "System," he whispered.
The panel flickered to life as usual, but this time, it was different. In the top right corner, pulsing with a faint golden glow, was a new tab that hadn't been there before: [Quests]
Haruki was wide awake in an instant. He blinked, staring at the tab. "Has this... has this always been here?" he muttered to himself. A sudden realization hit him. High-level hunters like Kenji, those arrogant Warriors and Mages... was this why they were so strong? While the Association only provided them with basic dungeon maps, was this 'System' secretly feeding them hidden quests?
Without hesitation, he tapped the glowing tab.
[DAILY QUEST GENERATED]Objective: Successfully use Weak Tissue Analysis (Passive) 10 times. Reward: To be determined by the System.
Accept Quest? [YES] / [NO]
Haruki took a deep breath. The moment he tapped [YES], his stomach lurched. The walls of his apartment tore away like wet paper, the air around him dropped in temperature, and his lungs filled with the heavy stench of damp earth. When he opened his eyes, he was standing inside a dim, narrow cave. The ground was coated in a thick, sticky mud.
The System had teleported him directly into a dungeon.
Panic flaring, Haruki immediately reached for his waist, right where he usually kept his Assassin's dagger. It was empty. "No way..." he hissed through gritted teeth. "I didn't bring my weapon!"
Cursing his own stupidity, he let out a sharp "Tch!" Entering a dungeon unarmed was nothing short of suicide.
But the moment he made that frustrated sound, it was as if the System heard his despair. A new window popped up right before his eyes.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]Allocating a special weapon suited for the nature of Worm Dungeon 256.
A flash of light materialized in the air, and a cold, metallic object dropped into Haruki's palm. He looked down eagerly, only to freeze in pure disbelief.
It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a dagger or a spear. It was... a tiny, incredibly thin sewing needle. Threaded through its eye was a transparent, almost invisible string that looked like fishing line, dangling loosely from his hand. This thread had a magical texture to it, and Haruki instinctively felt that he could extend it as long as he wanted.
He let out a hollow, sarcastic laugh as he stared at the needle. "What? Just a needle?! I'm in a Worm Dungeon! There's probably a giant monster waiting underground to swallow me whole, and you give me this?!"
Fuming, he took a step forward. A faint 'squelch' sounded from beneath his boot.
[FAILED]
A red notification flashed across his vision. "Failed what?" he muttered, looking down at his foot. Crushed beneath the heel of his boot was a tiny worm, barely five centimeters long.
When Haruki looked around more carefully, the reality of the situation dawned on him. There was no giant monster. Instead, popping up sporadically from the muddy floor of the cave were about fifty to a hundred of these tiny worms.
He took a deep breath and focused his mind. "Weak Tissue Analysis."
The world instantly turned grayscale. The tiny worms emerging from the ground transformed into complex, glowing biological maps in Haruki's eyes. A worm's anatomy was incredibly chaotic; its nerve endings, capillaries, and muscle fibers were in a constant state of motion. The 'Critical Point' where he needed to strike glowed a bright crimson, but it was the size of a pinhead and constantly shifted as the worm moved.
Haruki pinched the needle between his fingers. He tried to stab one of the worms. Miss. The worm wriggled and burrowed back into the soil. He tried again. Failed. He tried slower. The tip of the needle grazed the red dot by a millimeter. Failed.
As the minutes ticked by, cold sweat dripped from Haruki's forehead. This was a terrifying test of focus and surgical precision. He tried exactly 20 times, and every single time, he missed that tiny, chaotically moving red dot.
On his 21st attempt, he didn't blink. He watched the contraction rhythm of the worm, calculated where the red dot would be a second later based on the tension of its muscle fibers, and thrust the needle into that exact spot with the pure speed of an Assassin.
Tick.
The moment the needle pierced the dead center of the red dot, the worm's biological structure collapsed, and the tiny monster turned into a small cloud of ash.
[SUCCESS: 1/10]
Haruki sat down in the mud and let out a deep sigh. "One success... That took almost half an hour."
But he didn't give up. His second attempt took 10 minutes, his third took 5. As the hours passed, his hand grew faster. The needle at the end of the transparent thread now moved like a flawless, deadly extension of his own fingers. Finally, when the tenth worm turned to ash, the comforting blue light of the system illuminated the dim cave.
[QUEST COMPLETED]Rewards:
Special Needle and Transparent Thread (Bound to User)Physical Capacity Enhancement (Strength and Agility increased)
In this universe, no hunter could see their numerical "stat" values on a panel. Haruki didn't read exactly "2 Strength, 3 Agility" as numbers either. But he felt it to his very marrow.
When he stood up, his body felt much lighter. There was no visible change in his muscle mass; he still looked like the same scrawny teenager from yesterday. However, he could feel that the muscle fibers beneath his skin were far denser than before, and his reflexes were as sharp as a viper's.
The moment he slipped the needle into his pocket, space warped once again.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in his 1+0 apartment. Looking out the window, he saw the sky had already turned a blood-red hue; the sun was about to set. He had spent hours in the dungeon.
A violent rumble from his stomach filled the quiet room. He dusted off his muddy clothes and stepped out into the street. His destination was the cheap ramen shop on the corner. He ordered a steaming bowl of ramen, and just as he eagerly dug into his food, the empty stool next to him was pulled back.
The scent of expensive perfume hit his nose, and every muscle in Haruki's body instantly tensed. His reflexes were far sharper than yesterday.
"Enjoy your meal, Haruki."
Haruki slowly turned his head. The person sitting next to him was Liam. The sly Assassin who had thrown him as bait to the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Haruki's right hand instinctively moved toward the needle in his pocket, but he restrained himself. Liam smiled with absolute ease. "Relax. Kenji is in jail. That piece of trash is gone. The Association seized all his bank accounts and assets."
He said it as if he wasn't the one who had thrown Haruki to his death. Liam rested his elbows on the counter and leaned toward Haruki. "Let's get to the point. There's a dungeon quest tomorrow. Under my leadership. The pay is quite good. Wanna come?"
Haruki's first instinct was to refuse. But his rent was overdue, he had run out of basic medical supplies, and he desperately needed Yen for his equipment maintenance. Moreover, he needed to test his newly acquired powers in a real dungeon.
He took a sip of the hot ramen broth and replied with an expressionless face. "Maybe... But I have one condition. I don't want you to stream it."
Liam let out a soft chuckle. "Don't worry, kid," he said, standing up. He left several thousand-Yen bills on the table, more than enough to cover the ramen. "I'm not a show-off idiot like Kenji." Smirking slyly, he disappeared into the dark street.
Haruki looked at his half-eaten meal. He had completely lost his appetite.
When he returned home, he lay on his bed. Staring at the ceiling, he felt the invisible transparent thread between the fingers of his right hand. Tomorrow, he would enter that dungeon with Liam. But this time, he absolutely wouldn't be the 'bait'.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep