"I came to fulfil my promise to you, Ricky!"

John’s voice cut through the eerie silence of the grassy plain like a lightning strike. He moved his eyes around, taking in the distant twenty-eight enemies surrounding his friend.

His gaze didn’t linger on the fodder; it swept across the half-finished defences and the bloody, panting figure of Ricky. "I’m here to let you get rid of your opponents and pave the road to claim that Paragon throne."

John stood on the very periphery of the dungeon, his silhouette framed by the cracks he had torn into the fabric of this reality. To Ricky’s brothers, he looked like the incarnation of a god of war. He had just committed the absolutely impossible feat, cracking open an Instant Dungeon from the outside.

The feat had sent a violent backlash through the soul-link, leaving the mastermind, the one Ricky called the big brother, collapsed and convulsing in the distance.

An hour ago, John had spotted Ricky on his map. The moment he located his whereabouts, John had begun his dash. As he ran, he zoomed in, watching the chaotic progression of his friend’s plight.

He had watched the frantic chase, nearly twenty youths, all bearing those unmistakable, sharp features, relentlessly pursuing Ricky through the city’s lower zones. John didn’t need to think hard to understand what was happening.

These were Ricky’s brothers, the other Kraken PARIES. He saw the grand scheme of Mark unfolding in real time; the machine must have contacted the nearby scions, whispered into their greedy ears, and coalesced a force specifically designed to prune Ricky from the family tree.

Unluckily for both of them, the city was a sprawling labyrinth. Ricky had been cornered on the exact opposite side of his rescue. John had pushed his body to its absolute limit, travelling for almost forty minutes straight, ignoring the burning in his lungs and legs. And then, the unexpected happened.

"He... He vanished!!"

John had skidded to a halt, staring at his map. Ricky’s green dot had simply blinked out of existence. Even the red dots representing the brothers had vanished from the map, leaving the alleyway on the display looking empty and abandoned.

John was shocked at first, his mind racing through possibilities of teleportation or massive stealth ability. Then, his curiosity began to take over. ’Ricky once told me his brothers have different variations of his abilities, all stemming from their father, the Paragon.’

He thought back to the one unique ability he had experienced months ago: the creation of a Bug Dungeon. John hadn’t possessed his map back then to confirm, but his gut feeling told him this was a similar phenomenon.

Realising this didn’t fill John with dread; it made him more pumped up to crash the party. In the Bug Dungeon created by a single PARIE, he had created the Evolution Potion. A dungeon created by more than twenty PARIES would be a treasure trove.

Armed with that excitement, he resumed his sprint. Luckily, the point of disappearance was less than ten minutes away from his current position.

When John arrived, he found the dead-end alley he had seen on his map. He approached the monolithic wall that blocked the short street, his hands tracing the cold, grey surface.

"If it’s a dungeon," John muttered, "then it should be somewhere in here... Bingo!"

The moment his hand touched the right spot on the wall, a notification flared in his vision.

-

[Ding! You have discovered an Instant Dungeon!]

[Ding! Warning: The Dungeon is created by an entity far stronger than you!]

[Ding! You’ll need to pay 10k Mental Points to Handshake with the Instant Dungeon!]

-

John stared at the cost and inwardly sighed. ’Ten thousand? That’s more than five times my entire reserve. If someone among Ricky’s brothers is strong enough to trigger a cost like this just to open the door, then the situation inside isn’t just bad, it’s a slaughterhouse.’

He didn’t hesitate. He knew Ricky had weapons from the pocket trial, but he knew even those had their limitations, especially after the demotion all weapons suffered. If the enemy had brought a monster to the fight, Ricky would struggle hard against it.

John reached into his inventory, pulling out a mountain of machine scraps he had stored for such times. He touched the wall, his hand bloodied by a small cut he inflicted using his sword, initiating the Handshake process.

This was the first time he had performed this against Instant Dungeon, and it was the highest single cost he had ever paid.

He was anxious that a hidden trap would be triggered thanks to the far stronger enemy who made this dungeon. John never expected that this was a gadget created by someone who wasn’t even here.

When the system asked him to maintain his posture for a full ten minutes to stabilise the handshake, he knew the hack was working, and there wasn’t any surprise at the corner.

During those ten minutes, the building wall began to groan. Cracks formed not only in the brick, but in the air itself. John felt the ground tremble, a thudding that reminded him of the way yellow monsters emerged from their dens in the pocket trial world. This time, however, he was the monster breaking in.

"Here we go!"

The moment the ten minutes passed, the wall didn’t break; it dissolved. A black, swirling vortex of spatial energy sucked him inside. Just like the Bug Dungeon, his body was pulled by an irresistible force, but instead of the damp smell of stone and goblins, his feet touched soft, vibrant grass.

John looked around. The dungeon was massive, a rolling plain of green hills that felt more like a dream than a prison. It was spacious and beautiful, which only made the violent scene in the centre look more grotesque.

"Kill him!" one of the brothers screamed, snapping out of his shock.

"Half with me! The other half get rid of Ricky!" another commanded, his eyes darting between the wounded Ricky and the terrifying new arrival.

"Zockair is still alive!" a third shouted, pointing toward the mastermind on the hill who was still struggling against the backlash. "Let’s buy him some time to heal! If he recovers, we win!"