Suzume's apartment door clicked shut behind her. She managed three steps before her legs gave out.
"Ow ow ow..."
Everything hurt.
Her muscles screamed from hauling Jin around. Her head pounded. Even her hair hurt, which didn't make sense but there it was.
She crawled to her futon and flopped face-first into it.
[Status Window]
The blue interface floated above her prone form.
[5 Attribute Points Available]
Right, she'd awakened and had level-up rewards now. She should probably allocate those before passing out.
[Let's see... 3 Strength is embarrassing, but I'm not trying to be a warrior. Intelligence affects my MP pool and skill effectiveness, so that's priority one.]
She dumped 3 points into Intelligence, bringing it from 15 to 18. Her MP jumped from 45 to 70.
[The other 2... Endurance? No, I need to dodge, not tank hits. Dexterity it is.]
Dexterity went from 8 to 10.
[Skill Point Available: 1]
[Available Skills:]
[Toolkit - Spawns basic dungeon rescue equipment. Quality improves with skill level.]
[Quick Recovery - Reduces skill cooldowns by 10%]
[Mana Efficiency - Reduces MP costs by 10%]
Suzume squinted at the options. Quick Recovery and Mana Efficiency were boring but practical. Toolkit though...
[What counts as "rescue equipment"?]
She selected it.
[Skill Unlocked: Toolkit]
[Current Level: 1]
[Spawns basic rescue gear. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
"Let's test it."
[Skill Activated: Toolkit]
A small backpack materialized beside her. Inside: rope (standard, not magical like Rescue Line), pitons, a basic first aid kit, glow sticks, and... a concussion grenade?
"Huh. That's aggressive for a support class.]
She examined the grenade. Non-lethal, designed to disorient. The kind of thing you'd use to escape, not fight.
The items felt solid, real. When she tugged the rope, it held firm. The first aid supplies were basic but functional.
[Well, well. This could save money on equipment. And if it levels up...]
Her eyelids drooped. Tomorrow's problems could wait.
That night, Suzume dreamed of golden threads and stone golems.
---
"Welcome home, Master! Nya~! ?"
Suzume's face hurt from smiling. The maid outfit's skirt barely covered her butt, and the cat ears kept sliding off her head.
But 850 yen an hour was 850 yen an hour.
"Would Master like today's special parfait? It's made with lots of love, nya~!"
The businessman barely looked up from his phone.
"Just coffee."
"One magical coffee coming right up! I'll put extra love magic in it, nya~!"
[Kill me.]
She retreated to the counter where her manager today, a woman in her forties, gave her an approving nod.
"You're looking brighter today, Suzu-chan. Good news?"
"Just got more sleep, Manager."
"Well, keep it up! The customers like energetic girls."
[If only you knew I spent yesterday crawling through a death trap.]
She prepared the coffee, adding the mandatory heart design in the foam. As she carried it back, she caught fragments of conversation from the corner booth.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"—heard three Players got rescued from that Shinjuku dungeon."
"No way. Once it destabilizes, you're done."
"I'm serious! My cousin works at the hospital. Three Players showed up yesterday, saying some girl saved them."
Suzume's eyes widened. Her hands trembled slightly. She set the coffee down carefully.
"Your magical coffee, Master! Nya~! Please enjoy!"
"Some girl?" The first customer scoffed, barely paying her attention. "What, like a Player?"
"That's the weird part. They said she wasn't famous or anything. Just some plain-looking girl with a backpack."
[Plain-looking!? I mean... they're not wrong but... Geez.]
"Probably lying to cover their asses. No way some nobody rescued them from a destabilized dungeon."
"That's what I thought, but all three told the same story. Even the ward nurse heard them talking about it."
Suzume retreated again, mind racing.
[They're already talking about it. But they don't know actually who I am. Good. The last thing I need is—]
"Suzu-chan! Table four needs their check, nya~!"
"Yes, Manager! Nya~!"
---
Back in her apartment, Suzume sat cross-legged on the floor, laptop open to MeTube. A half-eaten convenience store bento sat forgotten beside her.
On screen, a veteran Player demonstrated advanced movement techniques.
"—the key to dodging isn't just reflexes. It's reading the monster's tell before it attacks. See how this footage shows the Stonefang Bear lifting its right paw? That means—"
Suzume's hands worked automatically, tying and retying rope knots. Bowline. Clove hitch. Figure-eight. Each repetition felt slightly smoother.
[Skill Progress: Dexterity Training]
[Current Progress: ||||||||-- 84%]
The progress bar had appeared an hour ago. Apparently, the System rewarded dedicated practice now that she was awakened.
"—never underestimate utility skills. I've seen support Players save raids with a well-timed Speed Boost or Barrier—"
Her phone buzzed. Unknown number.
She ignored it. Probably spam.
The video ended. She queued up another:
"Top 10 Dungeon Layouts You NEED to Know!"
More knot practice. Her fingers moved faster now, muscle memory building.
[Current Progress: |||||||||-- 91%]
The phone buzzed again. Same number.
[Persistent spam.]
She blocked it and went back to the video.
"—the standard circular chamber appears in 73% of C-rank dungeons. Always check the ceiling first because—"
Suzume nodded to herself.
[Ceiling. Got it.]
---
{Yuki}
Yuki Tanaka loved her job.
Not the official one at Tokyo News Network where she covered fluff pieces about new restaurants and seasonal festivals. No, she loved her real job: finding the stories nobody wanted told.
"You sure this is the right timestamp?" Her cameraman, Kenji, hunched over the security monitor.
"Positive. My source at the traffic department said the Shinjuku portal went critical at 2:47 PM."
The grainy footage showed the dungeon entrance from across the street. Portal shimmering that unstable purple-red that meant bad news.
"There!" Yuki pointed. "2:51 PM."
A figure approached the portal.
Female, average height, black hair, wearing what looked like military surplus gear, almost. The resolution was terrible, but Yuki could make out a backpack and... was that a gas mask hanging from her belt?
"She's going in." Kenji whistled. "Into a destabilized dungeon. That's suicide."
"Keep watching."
They fast-forwarded. 3:15 PM. 3:30 PM. 3:42 PM.
"Holy shit."
Four figures stumbled out of a different location entirely. The alternate exit in that small park twenty blocks away. Three Players in damaged gear, and one woman in tactical equipment.
That was the same person. Had to be.
"THERE! Get me a better angle on her face."
"Already trying. The park cameras are even worse than the street ones."
Black hair, glasses, young face. The image was too pixelated for facial recognition, but Yuki memorized every detail she could make out.
"W-Whoa... She really did it." Kenji leaned back. "Some random girl rescued three Players from a destabilized dungeon."
"Not random." Yuki saved the footage to her encrypted drive. "Look at her gear. This was planned. She went in there specifically to save them."
"But why? And how? Is there any registered awakened that walks around like that?"
"All excellent questions." Yuki grinned. "Time to talk to our survivors."
---
Harajuku General Hospital smelled like disinfectant and despair, as hospitals usually did. Yuki had changed into her "concerned reporter" outfit: modest blouse, minimal makeup, press badge tucked away.
Room 307. Jin Watanabe, according to her sources.
She knocked gently.
"Come in."
The warrior looked better than expected. Bandaged, IV drip, but alert. His eyes narrowed when he saw her.
"I'm not giving interviews."
"I'm not here for a story about the dungeon." Yuki sat without invitation. "I want to know about the girl who saved you."
Jin's expression shifted.
Yuki smiled.
[There we go.]
"Black hair, glasses, tactical gear. Went into a destabilized dungeon alone and brought three Players out alive, yourself included." Yuki smiled. "That's worth talking about, don't you think?"
Jin scratched his head, shrugging and looking away.
"I dunno. She just... saved us. Said she didn't do it for fame or money. Just wanted us to be safe."
Yuki's reporter instincts screamed. There was a story here. A big one.
"She saved your lives and just... left?"
"After making sure we were okay, yeah." A small smile crossed Jin's face. "Told us to try not to get in trouble next time. Like we were kids who'd scraped our knees."
"Can you at least tell me her name?"
"Don't know it."
"Was she a Player? What class?"
"No... Well," Jin shifted his gaze up at the ceiling, lying down fully. "She wasn't."
"What do you mean?"
Jin paused, as if the story was hard to believe despite having witnessed it himself.
"She went in unawakened. And, uh, she awakened halfway through saving us."
"What?"
Yuki was stunned.
Most people who awakened usually did so around their 16th birthday. Late awakenings were rare, and despite the plethora of theories people had as to how and why people awakened late, there was no actual known, hard answer.
"Don't ask me for specifics, cause I don't have any. What she did was save us and then leave." Jin closed his eyes. "That's all that matters. Now please leave me alone. I need rest."
---
Yuki left, but her mind was already working. Security footage of an impossible rescue. A mystery girl who'd gone into a dungeon unawakened and came out a Player.
She could feel it.
This wasn't just a story.
This was the story.
[I'm going to find you,] Yuki thought, studying the grainy image on her phone. [Someone who does something this incredible doesn't just disappear. You'll surface again. And when you do...]
She smiled.
[I'll be waiting.]
---
In her apartment, Suzume sneezed.
"Ugh. Hope I'm not getting sick."
[Skill Progress: Dexterity Training]
[Complete! Dexterity permanently increased by 0.1!]
"Finally!"
She checked her status. Dexterity: 10.1. Not much, but progress was progress.
Her phone buzzed. Different unknown number.
[How many spam calls can one person get? Get a job, bum!]
She blocked it and went back to her knots.
Tomorrow, she'd check the forums for more destabilization reports. Tonight, she had three more MeTube guides to watch and a whole spool of rope to practice with.
