The muzzle of her revolver flared again and again, bursts of fire lighting up the chaos.
The subway — once packed with sleepy morning commuters —
had become a nightmare.
"Assistant Manager Ji!!"
"Aaaahhh!!"
A dungeon had erupted right in the middle of a speeding train.
Arrows tore through the air at point-blank range.
Tiny figures — barely fifty centimeters tall — swarmed the cars.
Kobolds.
Fast. Vicious. Unrelenting.
For ordinary office workers, there was no chance to react.
They were too slow.
Too unprepared.
Even young reservists — fresh from their military service — were helpless.
What good was a discharge certificate when you had no gun?
Cutter knives.
Umbrellas.
That was all anyone had.
It wasn't even a fight.
It was a massacre.
"Aaargh!!"
People screamed, fell, were dragged down before they could even think to defend themselves.
The train roared forward, unstoppable.
There was no way to run.
Maybe — maybe — there was still a chance in the rear cars.
But even that tiny hope was slipping away.
This was rush hour.
There was no space to breathe, let alone escape.
"Help!!"
"Get in! Get in, hurry!!"
"Save me—!!"
Terrified commuters tried to shove their way through, panic spreading like wildfire.
Behind them, the monsters closed in —
and ahead of them, nothing but a wall of bodies.
You could hear it —
the dull thud of arrows burying themselves in flesh.
The splash of blood.
The awful, choking sounds of the dying.
"Move!!"
A young man broke free from the crush, sword shaking in his white-knuckled hands.
His face was pale with terror, but his eyes burned.
"A dungeon break... inside a subway?!"
He gritted his teeth.
"There's no choice."
A tutorial quest had popped up earlier.
Three minutes.
That's how long they had before the entire train was dungeonized.
Running wouldn't save them.
Only one answer remained:
"We have to conquer the dungeon."
He knew the strategy.
Everyone who had even casually followed Exodia knew.
Defeat the boss before the dungeon fully activated —
or be trapped forever.
K had said it himself:
"You have to have courage."
And right now, he had a weapon.
He had a sword.
If he could just—
The kobolds began to cackle.
Why were they laughing?
He didn't have time to wonder.
An arrow punched clean through his forehead.
He collapsed backward, dead before he hit the floor.
"Urgh...!"
And scenes like that played out all across New Capital.
Movie theaters.
Parks.
Shopping malls.
Dungeons bloomed like tumors across the city.
Buildings crumbled.
Department stores burned.
Monsters, thick in the smoke, roamed freely.
At six in the morning, the breaks had been contained —
small, localized disasters.
But now...
Now they were spreading.
"Aaargh!!"
"Shit!!"
"Save meeee!!"
Instead of car horns, the roads were filled with screaming.
Desperation.
Blood soaked the streets, glistening under the bright autumn sun.
"...Though we recommend dressing warmly today due to the wide temperature swings. The low for New Capital will drop to three degr—"
CRASH!
The radio's cheerful voice cut off mid-sentence.
The world grew silent.
Silent, except for the crackle of flames.
At that moment, the National Assembly building was burning.
Across the river, at Red-Water Bridge, survivors fired desperately into the approaching monsters.
Congressman Dean staggered forward,
driving his longsword deep into the chest of a snarling Lizardman.
"...Congressman!!"
One of his surviving bodyguards rushed over,
catching him as he stumbled.
Blood soaked Park's once-white shirt,
spreading in a deep, ugly stain.
"Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine," he grunted, pressing a trembling hand against the wound in his side.
"What about the VIP?"
"No word yet. The last transmission said—"
Park waved him off.
Leaning heavily against the bridge railing, he stared at the crumbling skyline of New Capital.
It looked like the world had ended in a single morning.
Dean swallowed hard.
He couldn't tell if it was from the pain or from the bitter, choking despair thickening in the air.
"It's only a matter of time," he muttered.
"Everything was just a sandcastle from the start."
Exodia had spilled into reality.
That brutal world —
a game world built on hopelessness and blood —
It had come here.
"This... is going to be our future."
He shut his eyes for a moment.
And an old thought rose, unbidden:
'But what about them...?'
The Sky Beyond the Sky players.
The Rank 12 users who had conquered Exodia with impossible feats.
If it were them—
Maybe they could survive.
Maybe they could fight back.
But then Park shook his head bitterly.
"This isn't a game anymore."
Fast reflexes meant nothing here.
Even trained bodyguards — experts in multiple martial arts —
had died like insects during the very first tutorial.
Reality was merciless.
There was no room for dreams.
"...Hoo."
He lifted his head slowly,
watching black smoke curl into the endless sky.
Somewhere behind him, someone whispered that the Blue House had fallen too.
"...The worst has come."
Dean clenched his fists against the railing.
Bitter air, heavier than cigarette smoke, burned in his lungs.
Meanwhile.
In the underground parking lot—
Jhin stared at the message floating before his eyes:
[You have defeated the F-rank boss monster 'Corrupted Molly.']
[You have discovered a hidden ending.]
['Corrupted Molly's Tree' has failed to dungeonize.]
A sound like distant fireworks echoed faintly in the still air.
Molly's beheaded body dissolved into dust and vanished.
The parasite roots withered.
The Hammer Goblins crumbled away like ashes.
The bloodstains and wreckage remained —
but the monsters were gone.
Because dungeonization had failed.
This place would never become a dungeon again.
Not unless something truly extraordinary happened.
"Hmm..."
A soft blue light shimmered before him.
Above the spot where Molly had fallen, a portal bloomed — swirling and steady.
Jhin smiled faintly.
"Here it comes."
The Tutorial Quest: trial nexus.
He exhaled slowly, feeling his mind sharpen.
The victory didn't make him relax.
It made him more focused.
'Right.'
Just because he had stopped one disaster...
That didn't mean the nightmare was over.
"It's only the beginning."
The Tutorial Quest was just the opening act.
From now on, he was a real Player.
Forced to survive wave after wave of dungeonizations.
New Capital —
the world —
would become a battlefield.
Exodia was no longer just a game. It was an apocalypse.
An apocalypse on a planetary scale.
In the old Exodia, the Continent had only 20 million people.
Now?
Now, the stage was Earth —
and the population was 7.5 billion.
A chill ran through him.
But Jhin tightened his grip on the longsword.
He wasn't afraid.
After all —
He wasn't just anyone.
He was the Player who had once stood at the top.
He was Kyle.