Mike jolted awake, startled, and wondered what had happened. The last thing he could remember was the rooftop fight and that strange event, the hand, the crack in the sky. Mike sat upright on the edge of the bed, put a hand to his forehead and breathed in and out heavily.
"W... what?"
Suddenly he saw an unread message in his menu. It had arrived a few hours ago, definitely not while he had been awake. When he slid his finger across the window it opened at once and brought up the message. It covered all of Mike's vision:
[Apology quest We have noticed that an admin has changed the story of this game, and that goes far beyond the rules of an ADMIN. Unfortunately we cannot undo it, but WE have something for those who were, well, in the quest -Black Rats. You may enter a 100 floor dungeon, which means leveling up and leveling up almost for free. Place Market of Dasum, midnight]
"Wait... WHAT?"
Mike jumped to his feet and pushed his brown messy hair back, ran to the door and, while he was running, turned off the message. He grabbed the door handle and opened it, but suddenly Mike was thrown back as if something wanted to keep him inside. Mike slammed into his wall, a loud noise rang out and a few cracks appeared in the wall.
"What the, what was that?"
Mike looked at his hand because something did not feel right. He flinched when his hand suddenly turned blue and pixel art like. He shook his hand at once and it went back to normal.
"W... what is happening here, man?"
When Mike looked at his hand twice to make sure that everything really was fine again, he turned his gaze back to the door. Mike got up from the floor and slowly walked toward the door.
Something whispered:
"Behind you..."
Mike spun around in a flash, but there was nothing. He wondered if he was starting to lose it, but he shook his head and told himself that he was not.
"Fine, then I will call her."
Mike wanted to open the menu to contact Ice, but suddenly Mike's menu started to shake.
"W..."
It shattered into a thousand small blue shards.
"Hey, my menu," Mike said in fear and looked around. The shards hit the floor, still trembling, and shattered again, this time into even smaller pieces.
Mike flinched when he heard the sound that was like getting a new message. Wait, he had.
"How do I get a message if my menu..."
Mike was at a loss for words as he started to read:
[Path to admin quest 1 of 3 -Erfülle alle aufgaben um die fähikeit Admin freizuschalten -warte 5 stunden-]
"Really? What a hard task... WAIT, ADMIN?"
Mike stared. Had he got it from Pal or what? He did not understand anything. Even after reading the message three times he still could not believe it.
Admin?
"Admin, I- I can become an admin... only me? And why?"
Mike's thoughts almost exploded, but suddenly a thought shot through his head.
"THE DUNGEON!
Time passed faster than Mike had expected, and he heard the bell for nightfall. It always rang at 23:50, because in Dasum Village it stayed bright until then. Suddenly the sky changed from daytime blue to the darkness of night.
The dungeon would open in a few minutes. Mike managed to get through the door without being hit by any mysterious force this time and ran to the marketplace. It would probably open in the middle of it.
After a few minutes of full sprint, Mike arrived. There were more players than he had expected, around thirty two, but one player immediately caught his eye.
"ICE" Mike shouted and ran to Ice. He jumped into her arms and overwhelmed her with questions.
"Are you okay""Is everything really all right""Do you really want to go into the dungeon"
Ice only grinned back and nodded nervously at each question.
"Yes, everything is fine."
Mike smiled happily and nodded in agreement. They talked for several minutes until a message appeared above the market.
[Timelimitedquest100floordungeoneveryonewillfaceitalone]
Mike jumped up.
"Wait, what Alone?"
But it was too late to think about it, because the portal opened in the middle of the market where the players were standing, and they were immediately teleported.
Mike opened his eyes and was ready to face the dungeon. When he looked around, the area felt strangely familiar, as if he had seen it before.
"This looks like…"
As Mike looked around even more, something behind him caught his attention. A large black castle.
Then Mike realized he had not been teleported to the dungeon. No, he knew this place very well.
The castle…
Behind him were the shadow creatures that did not move. They only watched Mike's movements, and Mike saw behind the castle, when he looked closely, the desert where he had fought with the water man. He was back in this shadow realm.
"Why can I not decide when I can come here?"
No one answered. Mike waited for an answer, but nobody replied. Slowly he realized that no one was going to answer, so he turned around and for the first time walked toward the castle to explore it. He only had to cross the wooden bridge to reach the castle. It looked old but still intact.
Mike carefully set one foot on the bridge. It creaked and moved slightly. When there was a small cracking sound, Mike flinched and automatically ran across the entire bridge. Only when he had made it to the other side did he realize it.
"Oh, it was just a creak."
Mike let out a breath and now looked at the gigantic castle in front of him.
"Gigantic..."
When he got a good look at the castle, he noticed strange shadow creatures flying around it, as if they were guarding something inside. Mike could hardly wait to explore the castle. But when he tried to step through the open gate, a message blocked his way:
(You must first tame the shadows in order to become the shadow king and enter the castle.)
"No, don't you dare take me ri..."
Mike's voice caught, and he vanished. He felt something cold on his cheek. He saw that he was now really in the dungeon.
A small stone room was Level 1. There was nothing in the room except the gray stone walls and, on the ceiling, some writing:
Level 1
A rumbling sound echoed, and with it the first enemies appeared.