"I’ll be back in a minute," Jerry responded hastily, snapping out of his thoughts.

He leapt out of his office cubicle and ran towards the Department Supervisor’s office.

Fortunately, Jerry found him standing outside his office, talking with a coworker.

He halted before them, breathing heavily to recover from his shortness of breath.

Both of them turned to look at him in confusion.

"Do you need something?" The Department Supervisor, a man who appeared to be in his early forties, dressed in a grey short-sleeved shirt and a tie with a pair of black trousers, asked with a raised brow. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"I thought you were supposed to be overseeing a party of newbies today. Or have they already completed their dungeon run?"

"...There’s a problem," Jerry responded after a slight hesitation, glancing at the other coworker standing beside them.

The Department Supervisor frowned. He turned to the other worker and gestured for the office worker to leave, "We’ll continue later."

The coworker nodded and left.

"What is it?" He asked, his tone serious.

Jerry lowered his head, closed his eyes, and replied, "The newbie party assigned to my management failed to conquer the dungeon."

Upon hearing the report, the Department Supervisor narrowed his gaze at Jerry and folded his arms. "According to the report, they were supposed to be clearing Baneroot Forest, a Level One D-ranked Dungeon with a 99 per cent completion rate, almost near 100 per cent. Am I correct?"

Baneroot Forest was a popular dungeon owned by the Crimson Bull Guild that newbies who joined the guild aimed to conquer to gauge their strength. There were numerous training materials and even simulators that replicated what the dungeon battle would look like.

For a party of newbies to die within the dungeon meant they were either careless, overestimated their strength, underestimated the danger of the dungeon, or failed to train.

"Yes. However, something went wrong," Jerry responded, his voice wavering.

"And what would that be?" The Department Supervisor asked.

"They are all dead," Jerry replied. "The Final Boss and its pack launched a surprise attack on them at the beginning phase before eliminating them."

The Department Supervisor’s expression turned sour.

Before he could speak, Jerry opened his system interface, quickly found the last livestream he had watched and played back the recording for the Department Supervisor to watch.

"Please just watch," Jerry pleaded.

The Department Supervisor’s words were caught in his throat as he watched the playback video.

He observed the moment a party of four newbie Hunters, led by a slightly experienced newly awakened Hunter, entered the dungeon and their light conversation before they leapt into battle. From the moment they fought the goblins to the moment they were attacked by the wolves and executed.

Everything happened too fast.

Then, the picture froze as the playback ended.

The Department Supervisor’s face drained of colour as he realised the gravity of what had just transpired.

"Let’s go in," the Department Supervisor said, opening his office door.

Jerry followed him into the office.

The Department Supervisor closed the door behind them.

They stood beside the decorated table and chairs, at the other side of the room.

"Have you informed anyone else about what happened?" the Department Supervisor asked, nervously polishing his glasses with a white cloth.

RINGG... RINGG...

"No..." Jerry was about to respond when his phone rang. He wanted to cut the call, which had interrupted his important meeting.

But, upon seeing the caller’s name, he froze.

Jerry gestured for his Department Supervisor to pause the meeting for a minute and, with trembling hands, picked up the call.

"Hello."

A familiar voice emerged from the other side.

The smartphone fell from Jerry’s hand and landed on the ground.

Jerry’s eyes widened further than before. His body trembled as though he had been doused with a bucket of cold water.

"Evaluator Jerry, what’s going on?" the Department Supervisor asked, his tone growing more nervous as he observed Jerry’s erratic behaviour.

Jerry stared at the Department Supervisor. "Supervisor... that was Draven, the party leader who had led the newbie Hunters into Baneroot Forest," He replied with a tone tinged with doubt and disbelief,

"He’s alive."

---

"Where am I?" Abel asked, looking around. He thought that he would reappear in his hospital bed, but instead, he was in a passageway. And someone was dragging his arm forward.

"Hey, wait a minute! What’s going on?" Abel forced his legs to a stop and asked. He looked at the figure dragging him and saw that it was a man.

He looked at his hand and saw how small it looked compared to the hand holding him.

Hearing his voice, the man turned to look at him.

PAP!

"How dare you challenge me after I told you to shut up?" The man shouted at Abel as he slapped him to the ground.

Abel found himself lying on the floor, clutching the stinging side of his face that had been slapped, uncertainty filling his eyes.

He scrutinised his body and saw that he had become a teenager again. And most of all, he was wearing a school uniform.

"You bastard. I’ll deal with you," the man caught Abel by the collar and pulled him up.

Abel struggled, but was unable to escape the grasp of a grown man.

Soon, they reached the end of the corridor and arrived at the back of a building facility, resembling a corner with towering walls on each side.

The man then threw Abel into the corner.

Abel braced himself for the pain until he came to a stop. He looked up and saw five other boys, the same height and wearing the same uniform as him. They seemed so familiar, but Abel couldn’t remember who they were.

"Beat him for me. You don’t need to worry about being punished. I’ll meet the principal myself if anything comes up," the man said, buttoning his sleeves and cleaning his hands with a handkerchief.

At that moment, Abel realised that his cheeks were stained with dried tears.

///////

Don’t hesitate to vote with your Powerstones and Golden Tickets if you’re enjoying the story.