Lucas stepped onto the damp stone floor, his boots making subtle scraping sounds that echoed off the narrow walls. Moss clung to the surfaces, and the air was heavy with the stench of mold and death. Through the mist ahead, a figure emerged—half-human, half-insect, with twitching mandibles and slick, chitinous armor.
[LV. 32 – Crawling Guardian]
HP: 5400
Special Traits: Poison Spit, Wall Cling, Adaptive Armor
Lucas grinned. "Finally, something I can test things on."
He raised a hand, digital streams of data flowing across his irises. His Scan Mode flickered to life.
[Weak Point Detected: Soft underbelly exposed during leap attack]
[Status: Resistant to slashing; Weak to flame and sonic damage]
Perfect.
Lucas reached into his inventory and pulled two items:
Sonic Grenade v.1 – a prototype he crafted back in the safe zone.
Low-Grade Fire Rune – unstable, but enough to burn.
The guardian hissed and leapt at him, claws extended. Lucas pivoted and hurled the sonic grenade against the wall to the right.
BZZZHHHH!
A piercing screech filled the corridor. The monster screeched and crashed to the floor, stunned. Lucas wasted no time—he slammed the fire rune under its exposed belly.
-1212 HP (Critical!)
-983 HP (Burning Effect)
The creature writhed in agony. Its armor cracked, sizzling in the heat. But Lucas wasn't done.
He drew another rune in the air, pressing it into the ground with precision.
[Temporary Spell Slot Unlocked: Firebind Trap]
Effect: Immobilizes and inflicts burn damage over time.
Flames surged from the floor, wrapping around the guardian's limbs.
"Too slow."
Lucas plunged his dagger into the back of its neck. Once. Twice. A third time. Until—
[Crawling Guardian Defeated!]
+3200 EXP
+1 Rare Drop: Adaptive Shell Fragment
But just as Lucas turned to catch his breath, his minimap blinked.
The dungeon began to twist. Corridors reshaped. Walls moved. New stone doors emerged from nowhere.
[Dungeon Shift: Activated]
Warning: You are now in Phase II – The Hunting Game Begins]
Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Now it's getting interesting."
Footsteps echoed. Not one. Not two. Dozens. All around him.
He cracked his knuckles.
"Come on, then."
The footsteps intensified.
They weren't ordinary. They were uneven—some dragging, some sharp, and others thudding like beasts on all fours. The air turned colder, and the lights embedded into the dungeon walls dimmed into a bloody hue. Lucas glanced around as his system interface flashed a red border.
[New Environmental Effect Unlocked: Bloodshade Fog]
Visibility: -60%
Evasion Rate: +10% for stealth-type enemies
Sensory Interference: Mild hallucinations possible
"Of course it's fog," Lucas muttered, flipping a setting on his HUD to thermal mode. His eyes glowed faint red as the world shifted into heat signatures—orange glows scuttling along the ceiling and walls.
Ten… no, fifteen targets.And one… colder than the rest.
Something else was watching.
Lucas ducked behind a collapsed pillar and activated Stealth Mode. His figure flickered, bending light around his body. He tapped his inventory again and pulled out another item—Phantom Bell, a temporary decoy used to redirect monsters.
He tossed it silently into the far corner of the corridor.
DING… DING… DING…
The sound rang, ghostly and unnatural. Within seconds, three creatures pounced toward it—spindly, semi-humanoid shadows with glowing blue eyes.
[New Enemy Identified: Nightcrawlers]
LV: 26
HP: 3100
Traits: Group AI, Shadow Travel, Weak to Light-based Damage
"Perfect," Lucas whispered. He crafted an attack plan in seconds.
But as he prepared to engage, another system prompt appeared, this time unlike the others.
[UNIDENTIFIED PRESENCE APPROACHING…]
[Class: ??? | Level: ??? | Aggression: Dormant]
The torches nearby went out.
In that moment, all was silent—until a deep, rumbling growl slithered from the far end of the corridor. Lucas froze. His heartbeat slowed, not from fear, but anticipation.
From the shadows emerged a creature at least eight feet tall, its frame cloaked in obsidian-like armor, with a helmet shaped like a skull and glowing crimson eyes. It carried a massive cleaver, carved with digital runes pulsing in rhythm with its steps.
[DUNGEON KEEPER - BLOODMAW KNIGHT]
Classification: Elite Field Boss
Status: Dormant
Condition: Will engage if attacked or if proximity threshold is breached
Lucas narrowed his eyes. "That… wasn't in the patch notes."
His mind raced. Fighting the Crawling Guardian was already a test—but this? He had no potions left, two spell slots on cooldown, and a fractured fire rune with 30% stability.
But that's what made it exciting.
He drew a breath, slow and steady, the kind you take before doing something reckless.
"Do I fight… or do I test if this thing has AI limits?"
Just then, a message popped in from the system—not a prompt, but a personalized transmission.
[Message from System Admin: 'You weren't supposed to be here yet.']
Lucas grinned. "Then maybe you shouldn't have left the door open."
He stepped forward, cleaver-sized shadow looming before him.
The real game had already begun. Now? He was about to break it.
Lucas didn't back down.
Instead, he lowered his stance and activated Hyper Focus, a rare passive that slowed his perception of time by compressing all data flow within his HUD.
The Bloodmaw Knight hadn't moved yet, but the ambient hum around him grew heavier—like pressure building before a detonation. Sparks of digital distortion danced at the edges of Lucas's vision.
Then he noticed something strange.
The dungeon wasn't just shifting. It was rewriting itself.
Small lines of code glitched in and out of existence near the cracks in the walls. The floor beneath the Knight's feet flickered, as if struggling to render. Lucas squinted and opened a hidden debug window only available to players with system-level clearance—which he had no business having.
But he did.
Because Lucas wasn't supposed to be here. Not just in terms of level—but in terms of access.
"Someone's trying to erase this section," he muttered.
He leaned against the pillar, silently tapping into the glitched wall. Lines of corrupted code streamed across his interface.
[Code Fragment Retrieved: 'Red_Protocol://Memory_Vault_7']
[Warning: Attempting to access this fragment may lead to system instability.]
Lucas smiled.
Instability is just another word for fun.
Before he could delve further, the Bloodmaw Knight twitched. Not a full movement—just a flex of its gauntlet. It wasn't attacking. Not yet. But its eyes locked onto Lucas, recognizing him as an anomaly.
Then something even more unexpected happened.
[New Notification: Admin-Level Player Detected Nearby]
[Alias: ??? | Alignment: Unknown | Status: Hunting Players]
Lucas's pupils dilated. There was someone else here—someone with privileges that could rival the developers themselves. And they weren't friendly.
"I guess I've stirred up the hornet's nest now."
He immediately activated a cloaking sequence and dove into a side corridor just as a second presence entered the dungeon space. It was humanoid, yes—but wrapped in glitching textures and unfinished data. A walking void.
It turned its head sharply toward Lucas's last known location.
And smiled.
"You're not supposed to exist," it said.
Even its voice was layered—like dozens of corrupted voices overlapping each other.
Lucas gritted his teeth, racing through the corridor now shifting into a labyrinth. Dead ends opened into battle arenas. Traps armed themselves automatically. The system was fighting against him now.
But he wasn't the same Lucas who logged in by accident days ago.
He was adapting. Fast.
"If they want to delete me… they'll have to catch me first."