More experienced than the average citizens, those gathered in the dungeon’s underground facility moved instinctively.

Some stepped backward while others braced themselves.

But instead of receiving some sort of blow, then the ground trembled violently once again.

The suddenness of it caught everyone off guard.

Just then, a blinding light suddenly exploded across the projection, so bright that they had to actively shield their eyes or squeeze them shut entirely.

For several moments, all they could see was white.

Then gradually, the light faded.

One by one, people cautiously lowered their arms or slowly reopened their eyes.

But what greeted them left everyone stunned and utterly speechless.

Standing at the center of the newly formed clearing was an enormous door.

No—

A gate.

It towered over the surrounding area like a monumental structure forged from something far beyond ordinary understanding.

They weren’t even facing it in person, and yet Luca could already tell that the massive construct hummed faintly with dormant power, its mere presence enough to make people instinctively tense.

At least, that had always been the feeling most dungeon gates inspired in either hopeful conquerors or unfortunate victims.

Then, as if finally jolting everyone out of their stupor, another prompt appeared.

[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED...]

[PHASE I OF BRIDGING COMPLETED]

There was momentary silence after that.

A strange and fragile sort of peace.

No one particularly wanted to be the first to speak because no one was entirely certain how they were supposed to react to such an announcement.

But perhaps that was the difference when one was surrounded by actual leaders because it didn’t take long before things began moving again.

And Luca honestly could not help but notice the stark contrast.

Back in Tesseris, even a recluse like him knew how humanity initially reacted to the first appearance of dungeon gates. History, after receiving far too much undeserved grace, would probably go on and on about valiant efforts, sacrifices, and humanity bravely uniting against the unknown.

But the truth?

The truth was that leaders everywhere had elegantly and skillfully passed the responsibility around after realizing how horrifying the danger actually was.

Safe to say, if given the chance to shove the responsibility onto someone else, most people absolutely would have done so.

There was simply no way they would willingly volunteer themselves.

And yet, what Luca was currently witnessing was entirely different.

His in-laws—the monarchs themselves—had immediately declared they would personally inspect the gate.

And they were not the only ones.

The other leaders present, including his very own parents, similarly insisted they would go as well.

No hesitation.

No passing responsibility.

No elegant excuses.

They all insisted on going.

Eventually, the increasingly stubborn declarations reached the point where everyone simply decided to move together after Luca quietly interjected with an unavoidable truth.

"Umm... Excuse me... But as the dungeon owner... I think I have to go," he explained weakly, a respectful hand raised while he was speaking. "Only I can respond to the prompts after all."

"..."

"..."

No one liked hearing that.

Not even Duke Leander, whose worried expression practically screamed that he wanted to physically lock his son away somewhere safe.

Unfortunately, there was absolutely no arguing against such an obvious point.

So in the end—

Together it was.

Honestly, if an outsider witnessed the way they reached that conclusion, they probably would have compared the entire group to those movie characters voluntarily heading down into the basement of a haunted house.

Heck, even the Elders insisted on joining.

Because who exactly wanted to be left behind?

No one.

Exactly.

Still, despite the overwhelming tension, they were at least thankful for one thing.

The gate had not immediately sucked them inside like last time.

Yes, several of them still ended up kneeling onto the floor with jelly-like legs from sheer shock, but alongside the fear was undeniable relief.

Ollie, for one, was currently fighting for his life internally.

Okay, maybe even externally.

This entire situation had him twisting his innards even more than they already were, and the blonde very desperately wanted to use the bathroom.

But there was absolutely no way he was leaving until they confirmed the danger level of that thing.

What if everyone else got sucked in while he was doing his business?

Oh hell no.

Still, much to everyone’s surprise, by the time the wary group finally approached the massive gate—

Someone had already beaten them there.

"!!!"

Right in front of the enormous structure stood one tiny baby system.

And before anyone could even rush over to drag the little thing away from the intimidating gate—

The massive structure suddenly lit up with projections.

Then, one after another, prompts began appearing across its surface.

[CALIBRATING DUNGEON DIFFICULTY LEVEL...]

[ALL LEVELS UNCLEARED]

[PLEASE SELECT SESSION LEVEL]

[LOCKED]

[LOCKED]

[LOCKED]

[LOCKED]

[LOCKED]

[E]

Everyone could only stare blankly at the prompts. The letters were there, but it certainly took a moment before they started making sense.

But honestly, the initial shock was nothing compared to the cold dread that slowly pooled in their stomachs the moment they saw D-64 still hovering in front of the gate.

The little system, completely unaware of the collective emotional collapse happening behind it, innocently continued tinkering with the interface before anyone could react.

More importantly—

Before Luca could even think about selecting the only available option, another prompt appeared.

No.

Not a prompt.

An honest-to-goodness projection of what looked like a table.

One so unbelievably massive and unexpected that people instinctively craned their necks upward while others clamped their hands over their mouths in sheer disbelief.

[SIMULATION HALL OF FAME]

It was a gigantic table.

Definitely a long one.

The list stretched so far upward that it took everyone several moments to even begin understanding what they were looking at.

Then soon enough, it clicked.

The columns marked in the format 00:00:00 were clearly expressed as times.

Meanwhile, the rankings ranging from E all the way to S appeared to correspond to dungeon levels.

But perhaps the most shocking detail of all—

Were the names.

Or rather, what they assumed were names.

The very first column was filled with characters written in an overwhelming variety of languages, symbols, and scripts that most of them could not even begin to identify.

Some looked sharp and angular.

Others resembled flowing calligraphy.

A few honestly looked less like writing and more like incomprehensible squiggles.

Then, near the very bottom, what appeared to be a footnote suddenly materialized.

And the moment people read it—

Their hearts skipped a beat.

[CHALLENGER ID: H-9241964]

[INFORMATION:]

DUNGEON ID: D-29

LEVEL: MUTATED

CLEARING TIME: 00:01:39

CURRENT RANK: 1

[INFORMATION:]

DUNGEON ID: D-64

LEVEL: A 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

CLEARING TIME: –:--:--

CURRENT RANK: N/A

Now, it would be nice to pretend not to understand who that was pertaining to, but when Luca looked around, he could be certain they were all looking at him.

"..."