After coming back from the tenth floor of the dungeon, I was exhausted but satisfied. Lupita had prepared a warm, delicious meal: a meat stew I had explained to her step by step, and she nailed it perfectly. I sat down at the table with Wildstray resting on my right, leaning toward the edge, and took off my helmet.

  Both of them—Lupita and Wildstray—stared at it curiously.“What’s that?” Lupita asked.

  They didn’t recognize it. It was a full-helmet with a visor, intricate details, and materials that clearly didn’t belong to this world. To them it probably looked insanely expensive and exotic. I knew exactly what it was.

  Wildstray doesn’t talk much; he only drops short comments and has very limited memory—just basic concepts and languages. Lupita comes from another world, but even she isn’t familiar with this kind of tech. In the game, player helmets came with a fully customized AI tailored 100% to the user. You could load almost anything into it (except obvious copyright stuff) to help you fight on the battlefield.

  I pulled the items out of my inventory and placed them on the sorting table. Among them was the chip. I inserted it into the helmet… and to my surprise, synchronization began. It was XD—my AI from back home. It actually worked!

  I thought: “This is going to be a game-changer.” XD could stay with me in the dungeon, coordinate with Lupita from the hideout, and help both of us. When I put the helmet on, there she was: in the bottom-left corner of the HUD screen. Several red pop-up errors appeared—missing the official Blitz Divers issued armor. I took it off, promising myself I’d find the full set so everything would function at 100%. I dropped it on my inventory and got ready for the dungeon.

  I started floor eleven. Another maze, but the enemies were simpler this time: skeletons and hobgoblins that, at this level, felt like a step back after the brutal pain of the previous five floors.

  I cleared the area quickly and picked up a few items that went straight into my inventory. I wanted to push through as fast as possible. Right then I felt a level of determination I had never experienced in my entire life. I had never imagined myself as some kind of “hero” or doing anything like this in real life. But finding that helmet gave me a clear goal: track down the issued combat armor for the Blitz Divers.

  I reached the boss chamber on floor eleven. It was different: four undeads wearing really cool armor, pointy hats, and wielding daggers. I decided to strike fast—if I could kill one first, it would be 1v3 instead of 1v4.

  I launched an attack I’d been practicing against skeletons… but he parried it. It was just a fraction of a second, but I was wide open. One of the other three stabbed me in the back. It didn’t hurt in the moment—the adrenaline masked everything. But when the pain started to register, with all my faith and all my strength I screamed:

  “FOR HOLY FREEDOM!

  FOR CHRIST!”

  And I charged without fear. Another one stabbed me while I was rushing forward, but I didn’t care anymore. I wasn’t just David, the normal guy. I was fully in Blitz Marines, Blitz Divers mode. I grabbed one by the neck while the other two kept attacking. I twisted his body… and they ended up stabbing their own teammate. With my bare hand I crushed his neck and ripped his head off.

  The remaining two went berserk and tried to flank me. With the grace of a flamenco dancer I simply stepped aside just enough for them to impale each other. At the top of my lungs I roared:

  “FOR THE IMPERIUM!”

  And with Wildstray I sliced their heads clean off.I immediately downed a health potion—I had tons I hadn’t used until now. The bodies of the three undead fused into one, clearly much stronger. This one was fast and didn’t rely on numbers. It caught me off guard and stabbed me in the back in the blink of an eye. The first hit I tanked, but the second was too much. On the third attempt I placed a gravity trap right behind me. When it lunged to stab again, it slammed face-first into the floor. I finished it with a brutal downward sword strike.

  When it died, it dropped three items. One was a lore book about the boss: an adventurer, a skilled hunter with bows and daggers. His bow was lost in the abyss, along with his mind. Now he roams this floor, slaughtering everything in his path. His consciousness is gone; only survival instinct remains in a body consumed by the madness of the abyss.

  The best part: among the loot were the gloves and boots of the Blitz Diver armor. I had made real progress on my personal mission! The staff is still missing—and maybe I’ll never find it—but if I do or if I don’t, it’ll be the Lord’s will. I don’t need to suffer over material things.

  I went back home. The pain hit me hard once the adrenaline faded. Getting stabbed multiple times hurts like hell—way more than I expected. Potions close the wounds, but they don’t erase the agony. Trust me, bro: if you knew how much this actually hurts, you wouldn’t be so eager to get isekai’d.

  By now I had a routine. I dump everything on the sorting table, go to sleep, level up, gain skills. I’m not some broken overpowered character, but little by little I’m getting stronger and moving toward the end of the dungeon.

  The next three months were more of the same brutal grind: get beaten, loot, kill monsters, repeat. But my rhythm improved. I reached floor twenty-four.

  On floor twenty-four I found something strange: a guild shop where I could sell items for coins. That made me really happy—it felt like real progress in conquering the abyss.

  Floor twenty-five was pitch dark. The boss was a gigantic one-eyed warrior carrying an enormous wooden club. The fight was about to begin, and it was going to be rough.

  This cyclops was tough. Its skin was like rock, at least on the legs. I was running out of energy and ideas when I remembered how I survived the early floors: not by brute force, but by scheming.

  I took cover. When it least expected it, I started freezing the ground around its dominant leg—just enough to make it slip. It crashed to the floor. I sprinted up its chest until I reached the eye and stabbed deep.

  That only made it furious. It started smashing the floor around itself to get better footing. That didn’t work well for me, so I came up with a bigger plan.

  This guy wouldn’t last long in a swamp, I thought. If I could turn the dirt sticky and liquid like quicksand…

  I lured it to a softer section and used my skills to liquefy the ground. Its legs sank. With no mobility, it swung the club wildly—but I rolled right, then left, dodging like I was in some action RPG. I got behind it, climbed its back while stabbing, reached the neck, and slit its throat. It bled out in a massive pool.

  I got a ton of loot that I’ll check back home. I also claimed the twenty-fourth floor so I could set up a proper selling/trading spot nearby.

  My territory is getting huge… but I need people here.

  When I returned home, the smiles of my loved ones washed away all the pain and left me in pure glory.