I couldn't sleep.
Not really.
Even though my body screamed for rest, even though every joint and muscle ached from the raid, and the residual hum of adrenaline had long since faded... I just couldn't close my eyes.
Every time I did, that message would return, not on the interface, not in the system logs, but inside my head. Like an echo that wasn't supposed to exist.
[System Anomaly: Storage Capacity Unlocked Beyond F-Rank Norms]
Again and again, that line blinked across my vision like a heartbeat. A warning? A glitch? Or maybe… a message?
I knew how systems worked. Every awakened player did. They were rigid and absolute, the foundation of our world since the Cataclysm reshaped Earth into a dungeonverse. Everything followed the rules. Strict. Structured. No deviations.
But mine? Mine had already broken two
One: My inventory space was impossibly large for an F-rank. It had swallowed half the loot from a D-Class dungeon like it was nothing.
Two: That message. That anonymous message.
[Message Received – Private Channel]
Sender: Unknown
Message: "You're not supposed to exist."
It flashed for only a second before vanishing.
I blinked. Blinked again. But it wasn't archived; it wasn't saved. It didn't leave behind a trace, not even a ghost in the interface.
I shot upright in bed, a cold sweat running down my spine. My breath came in short gasps, like I'd been drowning in silence. Was it real?
I clenched my fists, trying to steady my heartbeat. I wasn't new to rejection or suspicion. But this… this was different.
No one sends messages like that accidentally.
And yet, I was the only one who received it.
Morning
I was up before the sun.
Not that I had slept. I spent the night combing every inch of my system interface for any residual traces of the anomaly. Logs. Code slips. Anything. But it was like the message had never existed, except for the way it branded itself into my thoughts.
Still, I forced myself up, splashed cold water on my face, and suited up.
My new apartment, courtesy of Mina, was modest but neat. It had soft lighting, a clean bed, and a small desk with a view of the city's outer perimeter walls. Better than what I was used to. I hadn't even had time to unpack, and already I was being thrown back into the fire.
When I arrived at the Twilight Drake Guild Hall, the mood shifted immediately.
The moment I stepped into the briefing room, I felt it, that silent pressure. The tension. The disdain in the air.
Mina wasn't there.
Without her, every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me with the same unreadable expression. Some are curious. Most annoyed. A few outright hostile.
Whispers drifted behind me, just out of earshot but clear enough in tone.
"That's the F-rank janitor, right?"
"What's he doing here again?"
"Didn't Mina just drag him along last time?"
I ignored them and took a seat at the far edge of the room, avoiding eye contact. I wasn't here to make friends. I was here because I had something to prove, both to them and to myself.
But today's absence of Mina was more than uncomfortable; it was dangerous.
Without her, I had no shield.
No buffer.
No safety net.
A familiar guild officer stepped up to the front of the room, his voice sharp.
"We've got another dungeon raid. Nothing too serious," he said, flipping a few holographic tabs in the air. "C-Class. Castle variant. Shouldn't take more than two hours. Minimal resistance expected."
I didn't believe him. Something about it felt… off.
Raids never went "as expected."
Especially not when it came to dungeons. They were living, mutating anomalies, each one with its own logic, ecosystem, and horrors. Predictability was a luxury few could afford.
Still, no one objected.
The briefing was short. Sparse on details. And then the room shifted.
Our systems pulsed. The teleportation countdown began:
[All Guild Members – Twilight Drake]
Initiating Teleportation in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
My stomach twisted as the blue light wrapped around me and reality fractured.
[Within the Dungeon Gate]
We landed on black stone ground just outside the dungeon's sealed entrance.
I stumbled slightly as the magic faded, but I caught myself.
The sky above was artificial, an orange-red hue, painted like fire behind charred clouds. All around us, sharp spires of obsidian towered, twisted in unnatural geometry. This wasn't like the D-Class forest dungeon from yesterday.
It felt wrong.
Too quiet.
Too… expectant.
I raised my hand to scan the area. My system's analysis module triggered, lines of code rushing past my eyes in a fluid stream.
[Dungeon Analysis Initiated...]
Classification: C-Class
Dungeon Type: Castle Variant
Estimated Monster Cores: 43
Primary Terrain: Interior Labyrinth
--Processing…
--Processing…
ERROR: Anomaly Detected
[System Error ???]
I froze.
What?
[System Error ???]
Three question marks.
Even the system didn't understand what it was reading.
I tapped to repeat the analysis. Nothing changed.
I looked up and realized the rest of the team had already entered the gate.
Panic pricked the back of my neck. I glanced behind me. No way out.
I swallowed hard.
I was alone.
Inside the Dungeon
The inside of the dungeon was massive.
We were in a long corridor, worn stone beneath our boots, old candelabras burning with blue flame lining the walls. Gothic arches stretched above like a cathedral twisted into something darker.
Our team moved ahead in formation. Argon, the C-Rank Tanker, led the way with his thick tower shield raised. Behind him were mage players, and then me, lingering in the back, carrying a satchel filled with crystal cores from the last raid.
No one spoke to me.
No one acknowledged my presence.
And yet, my system kept pinging, small pulses every few seconds.
Analyzing… Error… Unknown signature detected…
The deeper we went, the louder it got in my head.
A vibration beneath my skin. Like someone tuning a string that ran from the back of my skull to the center of my chest.
Was this… resonance?
Was my system reacting to something inside this dungeon?
I clenched my teeth, fingers tightening on my collector's tool. Something was here, something my system recognized but couldn't identify. And if I was right, it was the reason behind the anomaly.
But I couldn't speak up. Not without evidence. Not without sounding insane.
So I walked. And waited. And watched.
Elsewhere
A cloaked figure sat in the shadows of a high tower, eyes fixed on a spherical screen, watching Haruki Enrai move inside the dungeon.
The screen flickered with static, then stabilized. A system feed pulsed in unreadable script.
"Hmph," the figure murmured. "So the hidden potential activated this early… I underestimated the system's instinct to protect itself."
He touched the edge of the screen, which shimmered like water.
"Haruki Enrai... You were never meant to awaken. Your father's greed cursed your lineage, and I made sure your power stayed buried. But somehow, your soul slipped through the cracks."
His tone darkened.
"I will oppose the systems. I will burn the foundations of their design. And I will erase you if I must… anomaly."
The screen dimmed.