Isaac stood up, but Rona instantly latched onto his leg like a determined barnacle.

  Llyne: If only there's popcorn. This would've been perfect.

  Isaac: Llyne. Why are you just sitting there? Get her off me.

  Llyne: Nah-ah. I'm living for the drama.

  Isaac tried to shake her off, but Rona's grip only tightened.

  Isaac: Fine! I'll tell you guys, so let go, Rona!

  Rona: Promise?

  Isaac: Yes! Now let go!

  Rona released him with a grin, and Isaac slouched back onto his seat, rubbing his temples.

  I gave Rona a quick thumbs up.

  Isaac: It's an embarrassing story. You remember how I told you I was poor in the city?

  We nodded.

  Isaac: On my first day of school, I was bullied. Poor kid with no mom? I was an easy target. It got so bad I stopped going to school.

  Llyne: Being bullied isn't embarrassing. What matters is what you do after.

  Isaac: Haven't finished. That's not the embarrassing part.

  Something even worse than bullying. I clasped both hands over my mouth. Poor Shorty.

  Llyne: Oh. My bad.

  Isaac: During those days I skipped school, I taught myself how to hack. Eventually, I hacked a few accounts and used the money to… buy the school.

  So cool... But it's illegal, isn't it? No, wait. It is!

  Rona: That's awesome!

  Isaac: I owned the building. I owned the desks. But because I forgot to hack the daily attendance logs, the system flagged me as a dropout. I had to sit there, in a school I technically owned, repeating the grade while my former bullies move to the next year. It was... inefficient.

  I stared at him. I wanted to be impressed by the hacking, but... That was your shame? I take back all my words. All!

  Rona: Attendance is so evil.

  Llyne: It's always the attendance holding people back.

  Isaac: What even is the point of it?

  Rona: Maybe you can buy this evil thing called attendance too!

  Llyne: That's called bribery, Rona. Illegal, but smart.

  Isaac: Doesn't matter. We're stuck in a death dungeon now.

  Isaac stood up. Carrying an expression resigning to fate.

  Isaac: Let's go. Second stage. Where doom awaits.

  Rona: When I find attendance, I'll teach it a lesson!

  Llyne: ...I'm surrounded by lunatics.

  We approached the glowing blue screen.

  [Are you ready? OK]

  I pressed the 'OK' button.

  The space around us distorted. Light fracturing, walls shifting, until the dungeon split into three distinct paths.

  [One player per route]

  I rubbed my eyes. The space turned into three paths? What in the devil...?

  Llyne: Which one has the core?

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Isaac: Doesn't matter. We each take a path.

  Rona: Left!

  Isaac: Middle, then.

  Llyne: Right for me. Good luck.

  Wise man once said, right is always right!

  Isaac: Yeah, yeah. Goodbye, all. Hello, doom.

  Llyne: You need therapy, not a dungeon.

  Rona: …

  Llyne: Rona?

  I looked to the left. Rona was gone.

  Llyne: She left me?!

  I pouted.

  Isaac: We've got team chat, at least.

  I grabbed Isaac's collar.

  Llyne: She's not replying!

  Rona: I passed Stage 2. My route was so empty~

  I let go, and Isaac bolted into his path.

  Llyne: You better hope I don't catch you.

  I closed chat and stepped into the right corridor.

  Inside, the stone ceiling didn't just end. It vanished. I looked up and gasped. A twilight sky stretched infinitely above, painted with stars that danced in a slow, hypnotic spiral. It was a cosmic ballet that felt more real than the stone walls I'd left behind. I reached upward, and a single star drifted down like a snowflake, settling in my palm. The moment it touched my skin, it dissolved into a soft yellow powder. Cold, weightless, and smelling faintly of ozone and ancient dust.

  Then something brushed my leg.

  I looked down.

  A single, glowing lily.

  I knelt, touched it, and in an instant, a path of lilies bloomed forward, illuminating the road ahead.

  I know I get lost a lot, but how do I lose myself on a straight path?

  I looked up again, but the stars had shifted. They weren't stars. They were light reflecting off bleached calcium. Thousands of human bones hung from the invisible ceiling, wired together into grotesque, swaying chandeliers that rattled softly in a breeze I couldn't feel. The "stardust" in my hand wasn't magic, it was bone meal.

  This place… it hides death behind beauty.

  Gritting my teeth, I followed the trail of lilies until it dead-ended at a massive iron door, scarred with crimson inscriptions that seemed to pulse like a slow heartbeat.

  Right my foot! Internet advice sucks!

  Ping!

  [You have a new message]

  Isaac: Mine's empty. Yours?

  Llyne: Dreadful. Bones everywhere. Facing a massive iron wall with some creepy blood script.

  Isaac: Sounds like a boss room. Good luck.

  Llyne: Maybe I'll peek inside.

  Ping!

  [You have a new message]

  What is it now?

  Isaac: Mine was as clean as a whistle.

  I stared at the last message and closed it. A tear rolled down my cheek. I hate my life.

  I pushed the door slightly and peeked in.

  A giant boar came barreling toward me.

  Oh crap.

  I slammed the door shut.

  The collision detonated through the iron like a cannon blast. The door screamed in its hinges. The shockwave punched the breath clean out of my lungs and flung me backward.

  My spine kissed the ground.

  "Ack!"

  No sound came out. My chest locked. Air refused to return.

  Stars burst behind my eyes as if the ceiling had collapsed into my skull.

  Then the pain arrived.

  Rumble. Rumble. Rumble.

  Rona: Llyne?

  The ceiling shook. Bones fell. The dungeon echoed with menace.

  "Oui… Could this get any worse?"

  Wall monsters began pouring in.

  Teeth. Claws. Shadows.

  And worms.

  Thick, pale bodies slithered across the floor, dragging wet lines behind them. They smelled faintly sweet, like rotting fruit left under the sun too long. Being near them made my teeth ache, like my nerves were warning me before my brain could.

  "Oui. Me and my big beautiful mouth."

  I activated Dash.

  I kicked open the iron door. Met the boar.

  It roared.

  "I ain't your opponent, bozo. They are."

  I hurled my scythe into the ceiling.

  "This better work."

  I dashed forward, leapt onto the boar's back, used its bulk as leverage, and launched up to grab my embedded scythe.

  "It worked!" I cheered. "I knew I could count on cartoons!"

  Below me, chaos. The boar fought worms in a brutal, frenzied bloodbath. Each tried to devour the other alive. The boar hurled worms into walls, but they were too slick. Too many.

  Then, movement behind me.

  "Haack!"

  I turned. Worms.

  "I don't plan to die today!"

  Dodged. Swung my chain.

  Splat.

  [Level Up!]

  "Come back again, and I'll turn you into my Ma's favourite. Fried worms!"

  The worms retreated and swarmed the boar instead.

  "Yeah, you heard me! Fried worms! My Ma loves 'em!"

  I borrowed Isaac's Information Gathering skill, and the world snapped into a grid of cold data.

  [Ravonsac Wild Boar]

  LV: 50 | HP: 135,000 (-10) | MP: 120 (-10)

  ATK: 305 (-10) | DEF: 558 (-10)

  STA: 120 (-10) | AGI: 70 (-10) | LUCK: 1

  Skills

  Passive: Hurl

  State: Bleeding | Corrosion

  Worse luck than me. Wait. Ravonsac? That sounds familiar... Meh.

  Then I scanned the worms.

  [Alkin's Precious Worm, Al]

  LV: 10 | HP: 222 | MP: 100

  ATK: 20 | DEF: 15

  STA: 100 | AGI: 70 | LUCK: 15

  Skills

  Passive: Crawl | Co-op

  Active: Bite | Stats Down!

  Who names a deadly worm 'Al'?

  I spotted 'Stats Down!' and tapped it.

  [Decreases target's stats]

  Uh oh.

  I checked my own stats.

  [Llyne]

  LV: 10 | HP: 55 | MP: 20

  ATK: 88 | DEF: 20 (+10)

  STA: 101 | AGI: 75 | LUCK: 3

  A silent sigh of relief.

  Still intact.

  I clung to my scythe, observing the blood-soaked arena below. Worms bit deep. They targeted one area. Tactical.

  "Co-op skill… they're intelligent."

  The worms thinned out. The boar's HP dipped 60%.

  I opened my skills again. Activated Merry Go Lucky!

  "Hope my ludicrous idea works."

  I coated my twin daggers in poison from the scythe.

  [CRITICAL ERROR: Unauthorized Skill Interaction]

  [Warning! The 'Merry Go Lucky!' buff has reacted with the Scythe's latent malice.]

  [Condition Met: You have been marked by the Cursed Dragon.]

  [Penalty: Soul Erosion. Time until expiration: 05:00...]

  The blue screen bled into crimson. It no longer hovered. It shook, a low-frequency hum crawling through my teeth and into my skull. My breath hitched. I hadn't just accidentally buffed myself; I had woken up something that lived at the bottom of the code.

  I looked down at the Ravonsac Boar, then back at the timer.

  "...Eh?"

  A big tonal shift this chapter. Comedy to isolation to full-blown dungeon chaos.

  Llyne’s first real solo battle shows how unpredictable the dungeon can be.

  I’m experimenting with “game-window exposition” to show tension mid-fight. Does it read smoothly, or feel too stat-heavy? Feedback appreciated!