The Shinjuku dungeon portal flickered like a dying neon sign.

  Purple shifted to black, then red, then back to purple in nauseating cycles.

  Suzume stood alone in front of it.

  The police barrier was fifty meters behind her. She'd slipped past during a shift change, when the officers were too busy complaining about overtime to notice one small woman in tactical gear.

  [No going back now.]

  Her backpack weighed forty kilos with all the supplies. Rope, medical kit, flares, food, water, among other things. Everything her research said she might need. The knife strapped to her thigh felt both reassuring and pathetic.

  She'd bought it at a military surplus store. The clerk had given her a look when she'd asked for "something that could cut through monster hide." Now, standing here, she understood his skepticism.

  [What am I doing?]

  The portal crackled. For a moment, it turned completely black, like a hole punched through reality.

  Suzume's hands trembled as she adjusted her pack straps.

  Six months of preparation. Six months of studying monster patterns, dungeon layouts, trap mechanisms. Six months of telling herself she could do this.

  [Five people are in there. Five people who are going to die if nobody helps them.]

  She took a step forward. Then another.

  The portal's surface felt like cold syrup against her skin. It clung to her, pulled at her, tried to turn her inside out. Her stomach lurched. Her vision went white.

  Then she was through.

  Darkness. Complete, absolute darkness that seemed to press against her eyeballs.

  The smell hit first. Mold and decay, mixed with something metallic. Blood. Fresh blood.

  Suzume's knees buckled. She caught herself against a wall, rough stone scraping her palms. Her breath came in short gasps.

  [I'm inside. I'm actually inside a dungeon.]

  With shaking hands, she pulled out her headlamp and clicked it on. The beam cut through the darkness, revealing a narrow corridor. Stone walls, dirt floor, ceiling low enough that she could touch it if she stretched.

  Standard C-rank architecture. She'd seen it in hundreds of videos.

  [Okay. Breathe. You trained for this.]

  She forced herself to stand straight. The portal's light behind her was already fading, the connection to the outside world growing weaker.

  Time to move.

  Every step echoed. She tried walking on her toes, but the packed dirt still crunched. Her breathing sounded like a windstorm in the silence.

  [No wonder Players stream with music. This is terrifying.]

  Twenty meters in, she found the first signs of battle. Scorch marks on the walls. A splash of green ichor that could only be slime residue. Someone's water bottle, crushed and abandoned.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  She picked it up, checked the label.

  "Property of Jin." One of the trapped Players, according to the news.

  [They came this way.]

  She continued forward, following the trail of destruction. Sword cuts in the stone. Arrow shafts embedded in walls. A piece of cloth caught on a rough edge, torn from someone's gear.

  The corridor branched ahead. Three paths, all identical in the darkness.

  [Think. You studied this.]

  Most C-rank dungeons followed predictable patterns. Main path to the boss, side paths for treasure and extra monsters. But in a destabilized dungeon, those rules might not apply.

  She examined each entrance carefully. The left path showed battle damage. The middle had fresh scratches on the floor, like something heavy had been dragged. The right looked untouched.

  [Players in trouble would take the path of least resistance. Unless they were being chased.]

  A sound echoed from the right path. Clicking. Like fingernails on stone, but too many, too fast.

  Suzume pressed herself against the wall, heart hammering. She clicked off her headlamp.

  The clicking grew closer. Closer.

  A shape moved in the darkness. She couldn't see details, just a shadow passing through shadows. It paused at the intersection, and she heard sniffing.

  [Don't move. Don't breathe. Don't exist.]

  The creature made a chittering sound. Low, almost curious. It took a step toward her hiding spot.

  Suzume's hand found the knife at her thigh. Useless. She knew it was useless. But the weight was comforting.

  The monster sniffed again. Then, inexplicably, it turned and clicked away down the middle path.

  She stayed frozen against the wall for another full minute. Her legs shook so badly she thought she might collapse.

  When she finally dared to breathe again, she chose the left path. Battle damage meant the Players had gone that way and survived, at least initially.

  The corridor opened into a larger chamber. Her headlamp beam couldn't reach the walls. Somewhere in the darkness, water dripped steadily. Plop. Plop. Plop.

  She moved carefully, testing each step. The ground here was uneven, littered with rocks and debris.

  Halfway across, her light caught something. Bodies.

  Her breath caught. Then she realized they weren't human.

  Three wolf-like creatures made of shadow, already dissolving into black mist. The System cleaning up its mess.

  [Shadow Wolves. B-rank monsters in a C-rank dungeon.]

  She gave the corpses a wide berth.

  Past the chamber, the corridor narrowed again. Much narrower. She had to turn sideways in places, her pack scraping against stone.

  [This isn't right. Dungeon corridors don't usually get this tight.]

  The walls seemed to press closer with each step. Her headlamp flickered.

  [No. Not now.]

  She tapped it. The light steadied.

  Another sound ahead. Not clicking this time. Voices? She strained to hear.

  No. Not voices. Growling. Multiple sources.

  She clicked off her lamp again and waited for her eyes to adjust. There, ahead, a faint glow. Bioluminescent moss, maybe.

  She crept forward, one hand on the wall for guidance.

  The narrow passage opened into another chamber. This one was packed.

  At least twenty monsters crowded together, all facing away from her. Different types that should never share space. Shadow wolves, stone golems, things with too many eyes that she couldn't identify.

  They were focused on something. Clawing at a section of the wall.

  [The Players. They must have barricaded themselves in that hall.]

  But how could she get past this many monsters? Even one would kill her instantly.

  She retreated into the narrow passage and dug through her pack. Rope, no. Flares, maybe but too dangerous. Food, water, medical supplies...

  There. A small device wrapped in bubble wrap. A children's toy she'd modified. Wind-up mechanism, speakers cranked to maximum, fresh batteries.

  [Please work.]

  She wound it up, took a breath, and threw.

  The toy landed behind the monster group with a clatter. For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then it started playing. A saccharine idol song about friendship and dreams, played at maximum volume and sounding tinny and distorted.

  Every monster turned toward the sound.

  The toy bounced and spun, its mechanism making it dance across the stone floor. The monsters watched it like cats tracking a laser pointer.

  Then one pounced. The others followed.

  The entire group charged after the toy as it bounced down a side passage, the music echoing off the walls.

  Suzume waited until the last monster disappeared, then ran past the spot where they'd been gathered, past the sealed passage where the Players must be hiding.

  [Can't stop now. They'll be back soon.]

  She kept running, deeper into the dungeon. The music faded behind her, replaced by angry roars as the monsters realized they'd been tricked.

  But she was already gone, following the twisting passages into darkness.

  [I'm still alive. Somehow, I'm still alive.]

  The corridor branched again. She chose randomly, just trying to put distance between herself and those creatures.

  Her headlamp flickered again. She slapped it, and it steadied.

  [Need to find those Players. That's all, Suzu. Just find those players!]