The harsh, fluorescent lights of the makeshift command center hummed, casting a sterile glow over Lina's perfectly manicured hands as she tapped impatiently on a holographic display. Rain lashed against the corrugated metal roof of the abandoned warehouse, a ceaseless drumbeat that seemed to mock the tense silence within. Located on the desolate outskirts of Arigyo Town, two hours' drive from the sprawling metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, this rundown facility served as a discrete staging ground for operations the Japanese Ranker Association would rather not officially acknowledge.
Ricardo, a mountainous man whose dragon tattoo seemed to writhe in the flickering light, shifted his weight, making the cheap plastic chair groan in protest. His broad shoulders almost touched the walls of the cramped room. He watched Lina with an unreadable expression, a faint sheen of sweat on his bald scalp despite the cool ambient temperature. Two other, lesser-ranked operatives, nondescript figures in dark suits, stood stiffly by the reinforced door, their faces pale and drawn. The air was thick with unspoken questions and thinly veiled apprehension.
"Any word yet?" Ricardo finally rumbled, his voice low, a surprisingly calm counterpoint to the storm outside.
Lina didn't look up from her display. Her fingers continued their rhythmic tapping, a faint, almost imperceptible tremor running through them. "Nothing. Not a peep from any of their communication crystals since they entered that second portal." Her tone was clipped, betraying a flicker of the impatience that usually simmered just beneath her composed exterior. "Typical. We send in disposable assets, and they disappear. Though I admit, this particular dungeon is proving… resilient."
"You still think the squad got to the core?" Ricardo asked, a hint of skepticism in his voice. "They're suckerfish. Powerless. How could any of them possibly navigate two portals, let alone face down what was undoubtedly guarding that second one?"
Lina finally stopped tapping, her piercing blue eyes lifting to meet Ricardo's. There was no emotion in them, just cold, analytical thought. "Their lack of inherent ability is precisely why they were chosen for this specific portal. Our analysis, after the failures, indicated this particular dimensional anomaly had a unique energetic signature. It didn't outright reject enhanced individuals, no. But it debilitated them. Their mana flow would become chaotic, their physical enhancements would wither, their very powers would turn into a crushing liability." She leaned back slightly, a gesture that for anyone else might have suggested relaxation, but for Lina, it merely indicated a brief pause in her calculated movements. "The client was very specific about the need for non-enhanced individuals. They swore the success rate would be higher for such… pristine specimens."
"Client, client," Ricardo scoffed, though quietly. "The whispers say this 'client' has been throwing credits into this black hole for months. Lost three full Ranker squads – top-tier Rankers, mind you – before they swallowed their pride and went for the… alternative method." His eyes drifted to the reinforced steel gate that sealed off the portal's entrance, a monstrous slab of metal and arcane runes that pulsed with a faint, almost imperceptible energy. It had been opened just hours ago to swallow the latest batch of hapless individuals.
"And those Rankers were enhanced," Lina interjected, her voice sharp, a faint edge of vindication in her tone. "Proving the client's analysis correct. This dungeon isn't about brute force. It's about… compatibility. Or rather, the lack of incompatibility. Their own power was their undoing. The energies within that portal twisted their abilities, drained them, cursed them. They didn't just 'fail to clear,' Ricardo. They were systematically broken by their own strengths. Veteran Ranker squads stopped taking the commission because their people were returning as husks, if they returned at all. The last Ranker team we sent in, a B-rank squad, all enhanced individuals, they barely made it out. Their leader spoke of his mana literally turning into poison in his veins. The non-enhanced, having no mana to corrupt, no enhancements to twist, are simply immune to that particular debilitating effect." She paused, a flicker of something almost akin to satisfaction in her eyes. "They were simply immune to that specific threat profile."
A fleeting image of the terrified, average faces of the recruits flashed through Ricardo's mind. Skinny kids, desperate adults, all laughing nervously, trying to believe in the fake job offer. He'd never wished ill on any of them, but deep down, a part of him had always known this was a one-way trip. The odds were abysmal. A dungeon that chewed up veteran Rankers by turning their own power against them was going to devour a group of powerless civilians by sheer environmental and creature-based danger. But at least they wouldn't suffer the specific, agonizing breakdown that the Rankers had endured.
"So, you think the squad, or at least an individual from the squad, will return with the stone?" Ricardo pressed, knowing the answer even as he asked. The atmosphere in the room tightened, the other two operatives subtly shifting their weight, their gazes fixed on the gate.
Lina finally sighed, a soft, almost inaudible sound that nonetheless carried the weight of her conviction. "Most probably not." Her voice was flat, devoid of regret. "The survival rate for this type of deep penetration, especially into an uncharted portal linked to such an… aggressive signature, is infinitesimally low. Our projections, even with the client's 'compatibility' theory, placed the chances of successful extraction at under one percent."
A cold dread settled in the pit of Ricardo's stomach. Under one percent. They had sent those people to their certain doom. He knew it was part of the job, the grim reality of the Ranker world where lives were traded for resources and power, but this felt particularly cruel. To give them false hope, a fake job offer, only to toss them into a meat grinder.
"Then why bother?" Ricardo asked, his voice low, almost a whisper. "Why waste the resources, the time, the… acquisitions?" He almost said 'lives,' but caught himself.
Lina finally looked at him fully, her blue eyes colder than the Siberian winds. "Because the client wants it. Desperately. And when a client of this magnitude, with their… unique influence, wants something, we deliver. Regardless of the cost. The dragon crystal is supposedly a key component in a new mana amplification technology, something that could revolutionize the entire Ranker industry. If even one in a thousand attempts succeeds, it's worth it." Her gaze drifted to the gate, a faint, almost imperceptible shift in her usually unreadable expression. "We're just managing the risk versus reward."
A heavy silence descended upon the command center, punctuated only by the relentless drumming of the rain and the low hum of the machines. The air grew thick with unspoken morbid predictions. They were waiting for nothing, for an impossible outcome. The individuals they sent were likely just statistics in a long line of failed attempts.
Then, it happened.
Without warning, without a sound, the monstrous, rune-etched gate before them began to tremble. A low, guttural groan, not from metal or stone, but from something far deeper, far more ancient, reverberated through the entire warehouse. The faint, almost imperceptible energy that pulsed from the runes on the gate flared, intensifying rapidly, casting a blinding white light that momentarily forced everyone to shield their eyes.
[WARNING: PORTAL GATE CLOSURE DETECTED.][AUTOMATED SYSTEM ENGAGEMENT: GATE SEALING PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
The notification, displayed on a small, secondary monitor above Lina's holographic console, flashed in stark red. Lina's head snapped up, her expression finally breaking its composure, a flicker of genuine shock widening her eyes. Ricardo, who had instinctively raised a massive arm to shield his face, lowered it slowly, his eyes fixed on the gate. The two junior operatives gaped, utterly dumbfounded.
The light intensified further, consuming the entire gate, then with a sound like a world collapsing in on itself, a deep, resonant thrum vibrated through the very foundations of the warehouse. The air crackled with raw energy, smelling of ozone and burnt earth. The metal supports groaned, straining against an unseen force.
Then, as suddenly as it had erupted, the blinding light imploded, pulling inwards, compressing, until it vanished entirely. The gate, moments ago a blinding beacon, now stood perfectly, eerily dark. The runes that had pulsed with energy were now dull, lifeless. The ominous low hum from deep within the gate, a constant presence since its activation, had utterly ceased.
It was closed. The portal was sealed.
A collective intake of breath could be heard in the room. The gate hadn't just shut; it had sealed itself, powered down, the connection to the dungeon severed. This only happened when the dungeon itself was… completed. Or defeated.
But no one had returned through this primary exit.
Ricardo's jaw dropped, a rare display of astonishment on his usually stoic face. "It… it closed? The dungeon was… cleared?" His voice was a raw whisper. "But… where are they? Where's the stone?"
Lina's face was a mask of disbelief, her perfect composure finally shattered. Her eyes, usually cold and calculating, darted frantically between the now inert gate and the system monitor. The screen confirmed it: [PORTAL CONNECTION SEVERED. STATUS: DUNGEON NEUTRALIZED.]
"Impossible," Lina breathed, her voice barely audible. "If the dungeon was cleared, they should have been ejected. Immediately. Or at least, their communication crystals should be broadcasting. There's no signal from within. Nothing."
The other two operatives began to whisper frantically, their faces paling further. The sheer improbability of it, the colossal anomaly. An active, Ranker-eating dungeon, neutralized, with no visible survivors, no recovered artifact through the expected exit.
"Unless…" Ricardo started, his brow furrowed in deep thought. "Unless there was an unforeseen egress point? Some… unscheduled dimensional displacement. A rogue exit."
Lina's eyes snapped to the main holographic display, her fingers flying across the virtual console. She pulled up the arcane energy signature readings, cross-referencing them with known planar displacement patterns, desperate to find an answer. The readings were chaotic, distorted by the sudden, unprecedented closure. This wasn't a standard dungeon clear. This was something else entirely.
A new reading flickered on her screen, a faint, almost imperceptible surge of residual portal energy, far from their current location. It was a faint ripple, a ghost of a dimensional shift, but it was there. The signal didn't contain identifying markers, but its unique energy signature matched the output of the specific portal they had opened. That meant whatever was ejected had come from their operation.
"There!" Lina barked, her voice regaining a fraction of its usual authority, though laced with a frantic edge. Her fingers punched in commands, bringing up a detailed holographic map of Neo-Tokyo. "A displaced energy signature. Weak, but distinct. Planar egress confirmed, but… highly unstable. It's a random street in Sector 7."
The map zoomed in, highlighting a single, flickering dot on a grimy, forgotten side street in a less-developed sector of Neo-Tokyo. It was two hours away by high-speed transport from their current isolated location in Arigyo Town.
"It's Neo-Tokyo," Lina stated, her voice taut, an edge of dawning comprehension in her eyes. "A random street. Not an established exit. An individual from the squad was ejected. And that means… the crystal is out there. In Neo-Tokyo."
Ricardo looked at the holographic map, then back at the inert gate, then at Lina's unnervingly intense expression. An unenhanced individual, from their last desperate batch of recruits, was not only alive but had somehow, against all odds, defeated a Boss-Class dungeon and been shunted into Neo-Tokyo. The implications were staggering. And terrifying.
"Get the team ready," Lina commanded, her voice now dangerously low, a predatory glint returning to her eyes. "Prepare a discreet retrieval unit. I want eyes on that location immediately. Two hours. I want that crystal secured. If our anomaly survivor is alive, they're an unknown variable. And if they have the crystal, they're dangerous. Very dangerous." She tapped a final command, and the holographic display showed a team roster being assembled, their profiles flashing into view. "And ensure no Rankers are sent on this retrieval. Their current state, whatever it might be after clearing that anomaly, could still be problematic for enhanced individuals to engage with directly. Send only those who operate outside conventional mana parameters."
The other operatives snapped to attention, the silence of their initial shock replaced by the urgency of a new, unforeseen mission. The game had just changed. A powerless background character had just become a wild card, a variable of immense and unpredictable power, loose in the heart of Neo-Tokyo. And Lina, for the first time in a long time, felt a prickle of something akin to genuine anticipation. And a hint of fear. The hunt was on.