Shane kept his eyes on his fries.

  “You’re drunk.”

  “I’m not that drunk,” Ryan insisted, though he was leaning a bit to one side. “I’ve been a hunter for a long time. And I’ve seen S-ranks who don’t have that kind of composure during battles. It’s like you’ve done this a thousand times before.”

  More than a thousand, Shane thought. He just shrugged.

  “Beginner’s luck.”

  Ryan stared at him for a moment.

  “Beginner’s luck. Well, here’s to beginner’s luck, then.” He raised his mug to an empty table.

  Whatever conclusion he came to, he seemed to have decided not to pry.

  Good, or else Shane would’ve had to spam a few [Blinks] to get away from the hassle. The guy wasn’t a bad drinking partner, in that sense.

  An hour later, Shane managed to hail a cab and started the wonderful task of shoving Ryan into it.

  “Seriously, Hunter Ashwell, thank you for saving my life…”

  Shane leaned in and shoved Ryan’s head down to get him through the door.

  Or tried to.

  He might as well have been pushing against a boulder. The B-rank didn’t even seem to notice.

  “Private auction… ten days… ‘kay?” he slurred, fumbling for the door handle. “Swear on my life. I’ll find what you’re lookin’ for. It’s a win-win, see? Win-win.”

  Finally, Ryan voluntarily went inside the cab.

  “See you in ten days!”

  “Go to sleep,” Shane said, slamming the door shut.

  “Let’s destroy all the dungeons together!” Ryan yelled, his voice muffled by the glass.

  “I get it. Now sleep.”

  As the taxi pulled away, the guy stuck his head out the window and waved. Shane sighed.

  A wave of dizziness washed over him.

  He was completely drained. And he hadn’t even had a drop of alcohol.

  Anyway, until the next major dungeon appeared, he just needed to grind out some achievements.

  ***

  Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

  His plan to grind out achievements was a mixed bag. He spiked a fever as soon as he got home and spent the next five days stuck in bed.

  [Mana Hypersensitivity]. He figured that was the culprit.

  Apparently, pushing yourself right after coughing up blood, even as an Awakened, had consequences.

  The next five days, though, were all business. He cleared low-rank dungeons on repeat, collected minor rewards, pocketing half the consumables and converting the rest to cash.

  He was sitting on a bench in Central Park, smoking his daily cigarette ration, when a notification pinged.

  [Henloooo everyone!]

  [It’s finally the day u’ve all been waiting forrr!]

  [Em sorry it took so long ;-;]

  [But so many new videos are dropping right now!]

  [I hope ur exciteddd!]

  The System, in that tone it slipped into sometimes, pushed another message that was clearly designed to set people off.

  [But... r u ready for today’s main event?]

  [Which dungeon? Drumroll please...]

  [The big one! The one everyone’s been talking abouttt!]

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  [C-rank dungeon: The Sandbox video is live! Tadaaa!]

  [(Clapping emoji)]

  The dungeon from ten days ago.

  Shane opened the hunter forums. Since it was an in-System hub any Awakened could access, it had the most info. With no other major drama to distract them, the whole place was already a dumpster fire.

  -“get hyped” my ass

  -bout time the truth comes out

  -System needs to read the room. Jesus.

  -whats happening?

  ?C-rank dungeon vid is dropping

  ?oh shit

  -dont even need to watch it to know what happened.

  Just as he expected. The forums were exploding.

  A new post was appearing almost every second. It had been a long time since a sub-A-rank dungeon had stirred up this much attention.

  Guilds typically posted their raid rosters beforehand, so the everyone knew who made it out. And with the death toll being so abnormally high for a C-rank, public opinion of those survivors was already in the gutter.

  As expected, people were back to trashing established hunters.

  -here we go again. guilds will spin it like “rookies are weak so they die.”

  -if i was born with a high rank I’d be untouchable too. could prob even get away w murder

  ?it’s almost like the System’s broken for low-rank folks

  This was why high-rankers had a bad rep.

  High-rank hunters monopolized the best rewards from dungeons, which only made them stronger, creating a cycle the public saw as fundamentally unfair.

  The gap between the rich and poor was bad in the US, and it had bled right into the hunter world.

  At one point, the government had even given high-rankers a get-out-of-jail-free card like this was a Monopoly game.

  It was repealed later, but by then the damage was already done.

  -Could be a gang job. Padding raid contribution by throwing rookies under the bus

  ?lmao so the guilds are just gangs now?

  ? Ngl 10 years ago nobody was laughing. It was that bad. Half the time you couldn’t tell if those hunter bastards were heroes or monsters.

  ? yikes, a little much

  ? Talk about generalizations, they’re heroes protecting the country.

  ? and my taxes keep their gear shiny. enjoy that FICA bite on your next check.

  ? Don’t forget the govt covering up their crimes to protect the “hero image.” THAT’S the shit that makes me sick.

  Shane took a drag from his cigarette.

  It was true.

  There was a time when people were killed in dungeons, and it wasn’t by monsters.

  The deaths were covered up as “accidents.” The so-called heroes had murdered the very citizens they were supposed to protect. Non-Awakened and low-rankers, mostly.

  The guys at the center of it were two S-rankers, the very hunters clearing the nation’s most dangerous dungeons.

  When the government found out, they decided burying the truth was better than dealing with the public freaking out. They hired the two killers as the faces of PSA campaigns, wrapping them in a squeaky-clean, family-friendly hero image.

  If not for what happened next, it might have stayed buried forever.

  -Wildest part is we only found out because they turned on each other.

  -classic s-rank drama.

  -And people still ask why folks side-eye the top tier lol

  ?every time a guild calls something an “unfortunate accident” my eye twitches

  Two serial killers, each holding the other’s secret, had tried to silence one another to become the undisputed number one hunter.

  The early System wasn’t as advanced as it is now, but it was like the AI itself got pissed off. Out of nowhere, raw, unedited dungeon recordings started getting uploaded for all to see—including the footage of their fight.

  The whole country had a meltdown.

  In short, the president was removed from office, the two S-rankers died from their mutual injuries, and a ton of new laws governing the Awakened were rushed through Congress.

  As long as Americans remembered those days, high-rankers would always be looked at with suspicion.

  Shane closed the community tab and opened the System window where the video was set to premiere. Unlike the fiery forums, this space was just a series of black thumbnails.

  [C-Rank Dungeon Raid (##/## ? Upstate NY)]

  [At last, the truth is revealed!]

  The comments below the waiting video were flooding in.

  -Bold of you to assume there’s a “truth” we need to find out

  Still, a few sane comments were mixed in with the rage.

  -You guys fall for the same ragebait every time.

  -The System’s cringey announcements are a psyop i swear (skull emoji)

  -I’m backing Hunter Barlowe. Innocent until proven guilty. Wait for the facts to come out.

  Shane exhaled a plume of smoke. For better or for worse, this incident had everyone’s attention.

  I guess it’s a good thing.

  A healthy dose of paranoia about dungeons might improve response times. He couldn’t stop the First Cataclysm alone. A few more of these “anomalies,” and maybe people would start taking shelter drills seriously.

  As the countdown hit zero, the black screen was replaced not by dungeon footage, but by a flat blue background. A small white disc floated in the center, sporting a simple face—two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth—with a pair of tiny wings sprouted from its sides.

  That was new.

  Normally, the edited highlight reel would just start playing. Was the System going to add its own commentary?

  [Hear me, ye heathens, for I speak in the name of the Absolute.]

  What?

  He forgot to pull for a beat, and the cigarette’s tip dulled to a sullen glow.

  [Your day of grace is past.]

  [Henceforth ye shall know the wrath of the true God.]

  [Repentance is now beyond you.]

  The video fizzled with static, but the angel’s final words came through.

  [This is but a foretaste. Heaven’s judgment shall not cease.]

  [In the name of the Absolute, be ye purged and be no more.]

  The Seraphim.

  The puppet masters behind the dungeons who preyed on fear and faith were hijacking the System.

  He recognized them from the game, but this had never happened before. They weren’t supposed to reveal themselves yet.

  The comment section was a blur of question marks.

  The angel avatar, as if it knew exactly how the humans were reacting, let out a creepy little giggle.

  [We shall see the heathens returned aright unto the embrace of the Absolute.]

  With each sentence, the camera slowly zoomed in on the avatar’s blank, smiling face.

  [Believe not that the dungeon’s rank shall remain the same.]

  [Believe not that the dungeon’s exit shall remain open.]

  [Believe not that any sanctuary shall be found.]

  [Above all….]

  The video blurred and then faded to black.

  [Believe not that your fellow man may be trusted.]