The city did not sleep anymore.

Kai sat by the apartment window at dawn and watched helicopters cross overhead. Their searchlights swept through the streets below. Every public screen flashed the same red warning: Dungeon Alert.

Guild transports rolled past buildings that had not been quiet since yesterday’s announcement. Everywhere he looked, people stared at their phones like looking away might kill them. He scrolled through the updates on his own phone.

[Remaining Active C-Rank Dungeons in Mythal City: 86.]

Four gone already.

The announcement had come less than twenty-four hours ago, and someone had already cleared four gates. That meant teams were moving fast.

Organized.

Ready before the city had finished panicking.

His phone vibrated.

Sera.

He opened it.

Need a partner. C-rank dungeon in the eastern industrial sector. You in?

Sera only contacted him when she had already made every decision except whether he was coming. That was just how she worked.

He typed back: Sure.

Her response came in three seconds.

Good. But you need to know what changed first.

He waited.

Teams that went in this morning can’t get out. Once you enter, you’re stuck until someone clears the dungeon. Either your team finishes it, another team reaches the core, or you die inside. No other way out.

Kai sat up straight.

C-rank dungeons were not quick runs anymore. They were commitments you could die inside.

Kai immediately thought about the morning teams. They had checked their gear, planned their formations, and walked through the gate the same way they always did. Then the exit stopped working.

Every escape plan they had prepared became worthless.

Some of them were still inside right now. Not because they were slow or unprepared. Because the door had become a trap the moment they stepped through.

His phone buzzed again.

The monsters had changed too. More coordinated than anything in the old D-rank guides. Teams that made it out said the bosses changed mid-fight. One team lost two people to a boss fight that lasted forty minutes.

Kai started typing a response when the apartment lights flickered.

Every screen in the room changed at once. No warning or notification but just a sudden blue light everywhere.

He looked out the window.

A massive translucent blue panel hung in the open air. Close enough to read clearly. He leaned forward and looked down the street in both directions.

The panels stretched as far as he could see. Every building surface showed the same blue glow. The light did not spread from one point. It came from everywhere at once. The whole city turned blue at the same moment.

Blue light filled the alleys.

Reflected off wet pavement.

Reached into the clouds above the city.

He had watched the first announcement on his phone like everyone else. This was different. That announcement had come to him. This one was being shoved in front of the entire city. Making sure nobody could miss it.

He pressed closer to the glass and read the words as they formed.

[Mythal City: C-Rank Advancement Board.]

The street below went completely silent for three seconds.

Then the shouting started everywhere at once.

[Dungeon Cleared.]

[Contribution Rankings.]

[Clear Speed.]

[City Progress.]

"IT’S TRACKING EVERYTHING!"

"WAIT, THAT’S RAZE AT THE TOP!"

"LOOK AT THOSE TIMES!"

The shouting spread block by block. Kai moved to the window and read the board properly.

[Clear Speed Rankings. Mythal City.]

Raze — 1 Hour 12 Minutes.

Victor Hale — 1 Hour 31 Minutes.

Titan Forge Squad 3 — 2 Hours 02 Minutes.

Silver Bloom Raid Team — 2 Hours 19 Minutes.

Black Tide Assault Unit — 2 Hours 33 Minutes.

He stared at the top name.

Seventy-two minutes.

With monsters that were stronger than expected. With exits that trapped people inside. With boss fights that lasted forty minutes on their own. Raze had walked through all of that and finished in seventy-two minutes. Seventy-two minutes made everyone else suddenly look slow.

Kai found his own name further down the list. No clear time. No contribution score. Then he found Victor’s name again: one hour and thirty-one minutes. GaleWing had gone in prepared and had not slowed down once.

The board shifted. A second tab opened beneath the first.

[City Progress Rankings.]

Mythal City — 4 Cleared.

Virelia City — 3 Cleared.

Astran Port — 2 Cleared.

Hollow Reach — 2 Cleared.

Nexum City — 1 Cleared.

[Fastest Single Clear by City.]

Virelia City — 49 Minutes.

Mythal City — 1 Hour 12 Minutes.

Astran Port — 1 Hour 48 Minutes.

Kai read the first line again.

Forty-nine minutes.

Twenty-three minutes faster than Raze. That should not be possible with the same conditions that made these dungeons so deadly.

Someone in Virelia City had cleared a C-rank dungeon in under an hour while teams everywhere else were struggling just to survive.

A third section loaded beneath the city rankings.

[Rising Players To Watch.]

Raze — Mythal City.

Victor Hale — Mythal City.

Aric Voss — Virelia City.

Elena Mirel — Astran Port.

The Crimson Twins — Hollow Reach.

The names he did not recognize held his attention most.

Aric Voss in Virelia City was the one behind that forty-nine-minute clear. Rumor said Aric Voss treated C-rank bosses like entertainment before tearing it apart. That he always brought a team along because he liked to draw the fight out, smiling the whole time.

The Crimson Twins in Hollow Reach had two clears listed under one entry. The system usually counts people separately, but not this time. Either they fought as one unit or the system saw them as something else entirely.

Kai reread that line twice.

Elena Mirel in Astran Port had one clear with a time just behind Raze. No guild, but it seemed she had a squad under her.

Kai looked at the board and thought about how far away those cities were. The race was not just happening in Mythal. But in other cities with their own monsters.

The system had turned dungeon progression into a competition with a global leaderboard. And the leaderboard showed him that Mythal was not the only place moving fast.

His phone vibrated.

Thirty minutes. Eastern industrial sector. Don’t be late.

The board outside shifted one more time. A number updated at the top.

Remaining Active C-Rank Dungeons in Mythal City: 85.

The number had already changed again before people finished reacting to the last one.

Somewhere in the city, someone cheered. He could hear it through the glass and imagine the team walking out of the dungeon to find crowds waiting for them.

Kai stood there for a moment longer.

Eighty-five dungeons left.

Every one of them sealed shut the moment you stepped through. And people were racing through them anyway. For rankings, reputation, and whatever reward came at the end.

He thought about Raze’s seventy-two minutes and wondered what it took to move that fast through something that deadly. Wondered if confidence made you faster or just made you die quicker.

Behind him, he heard movement in the apartment.

"Heading out?" Mina’s voice came from the kitchen doorway.

Kai turned.

She stood there with her coffee mug, still in her work uniform from the night shift. Dark circles under her eyes, with her black hair pulled back, but she was smiling slightly.

"Yeah. Sera’s waiting."

Mina walked over and looked at the blue board outside the window. "Do what you want," she said simply. "We’re fine. Bills are covered. Leo’s good. And I trust you won’t fall."

Kai smiled before reaching over and ruffling her hair.

"Hey!" Mina swatted his hand away, scowling. "I already told you it’s annoying."

"You know you’ll have to deal with Leo’s excitement for the next couple of weeks, right?" Kai said. "Once he sees I’m moving up the rankings, he’s not going to shut up about it."

Mina laughed. A real laugh that made her look less tired. "Well, he is our adorable little brother after all. I can handle some excitement."

She punched his arm lightly. "Just don’t make me explain to him why you’re not on the leaderboard yet. He checks it every hour."

"I know. He texted me about it twice already this morning."

"Three times," Mina corrected. "You missed one while you were staring at that board."

Kai pulled his pack over his shoulder. Checked his weapon. Felt the cloak settle around his shoulders.

Mina walked him to the door. Stopped him before he opened it.

"Kai."

He looked back.

"I mean it. I trust you." Her expression was serious now. "So don’t prove me wrong."

"I won’t."

She nodded. Stepped back. "Now go. Sera hates waiting."

Kai pulled the door shut behind him and took the stairs two at a time.

The blue light was still out there, spread across the underside of the clouds like a bruise that wouldn’t fade. He could see the numbers from the stairwell window. Somebody had already moved up since this morning.

The eastern industrial sector was thirty minutes away on foot. He went through the lobby and out the front door. The streets of Mythal were busy enough that he had to pick his way through, cutting around clusters of people who had stopped to look up at the light.

He ran.

Not because Sera would be angry if he were late. Because every minute he wasted was another minute someone else was climbing the leaderboard.

Kai ran faster.

Somewhere in the city, another dungeon was already ending.