The first thing Qanata Qi felt was cold stone beneath his fingers.
Not the soft mattress of his dorm room.
Not the warmth of a blanket.
Stone.
Rough. Damp. Real.
His eyes snapped open.
Above him stretched a ceiling of jagged rock, glowing faintly with veins of blue crystal embedded deep within the cavern walls. The light pulsed gently, like something alive beneath the surface.
He didn't move at first.
His mind refused to process what he was seeing.
This wasn't his room.
This wasn't even possible.
A sharp metallic chime rang inside his head.
Ding.
A translucent screen flickered into existence before his eyes.
Welcome Back, Ranked Player.
User: Qanata_Qi
Core Synchronization: 100%
Respawn Function: Disabled
His heartbeat stopped.
"…No."
His hand rose instinctively to swipe the interface away—and froze.
The arm wasn't his.
Lean. Defined. Wrapped in a dark combat sleeve lined with faint silver patterns that glowed at the edges.
His in-game character model.
Slowly, carefully, he pushed himself upright.
The cavern stretched endlessly in every direction. Towering stone pillars twisted upward like ancient trees. Bioluminescent plants spread across the ground in faint green clusters. In the distance, something growled—low, predatory, territorial.
This was Lower Biome Sector 7.
He had farmed this area for rare mineral drops dozens of times.
But it had never felt like this.
Never smelled like this.
Never breathed like this.
"Qanata."
The voice was calm. Grounded. Familiar.
He turned sharply.
Yokai Yokida stood a few meters away, already on his feet. His long black coat moved slightly in an underground breeze that shouldn't exist. His expression wasn't panic.
It was calculation.
Another translucent interface hovered before him—but unlike Qanata's, Yokai's window was arranged differently. Columns of data. Territory metrics. Rank indicators. Combat efficiency percentages.
"…You see it too, right?" Qanata asked, his voice tighter than he wanted it to be.
"Yes." Yokai's gaze swept the cavern with sharp precision. "This is Dangan."
The word settled heavily between them.
Not a dream.
Not a hallucination.
Dangan Extension.
The game they had played for years.
The world they knew inside and out.
Except this version breathed.
A tremor shook the ground.
Loose stones skittered across the cavern floor.
Another roar echoed—closer this time.
Qanata's system window flickered again.
Environmental Warning: Mid-Tier Dangun Detected
Threat Assessment: Active
Yokai didn't hesitate.
"Inventory check," he said calmly.
Qanata focused. The interface shifted instantly. Weapons. Equipment. Core abilities. All intact.
Max-level build.
Their endgame characters.
Yokai's lips curved faintly—not in joy, but in confirmation.
"So we weren't reset."
Qanata swallowed. "Respawn is disabled."
A brief silence followed.
In the game, death meant a short penalty and a return to base.
Here…
It meant nothingness.
Another vibration tore through the cavern. This time, rocks fell from above.
A shadow moved between the pillars ahead.
Massive.
Quadrupedal.
Spine lined with jagged crystal growths.
The Dangun emerged fully into the glowing light.
Its skin was dark stone fused with muscle. Eyes burned molten orange. Each breath released visible heat into the cold air.
Qanata knew this creature.
Stoneback Ravager.
Mini-boss tier.
But the game version had never made his lungs tighten like this.
The Ravager locked onto them.
It charged.
"Left!" Yokai commanded instantly.
They split without thinking.
The ground exploded where they had been standing.
Stone shattered.
Shockwaves rippled outward.
Qanata rolled, sliding across damp rock, and summoned his weapon. A blade of condensed energy formed in his grip, humming sharply.
The weight felt real.
Too real.
The Ravager turned toward him, faster than it should've been.
"That's not its usual speed," Qanata shouted.
"World adjustments," Yokai replied calmly.
Yokai's hand lifted.
Dark energy spiraled around his arm before compressing into a sharp crescent wave. He released it.
The attack sliced across the Ravager's flank.
The creature roared in fury—but didn't fall.
In the game, that strike would have taken half its health.
Here, only sparks and fragments flew.
"It's stronger," Qanata breathed.
The Ravager lunged again.
Qanata leapt, barely avoiding jaws large enough to crush bone instantly. He slashed downward, striking at the crystal-lined spine.
This time, the blade met resistance.
Real resistance.
His arms trembled from the impact.
Yokai appeared behind the beast in a blur of motion.
"Spine joint. Third segment."
Still strategizing.
Still precise.
Qanata pivoted midair, landing hard and redirecting his energy into a focused thrust.
The blade pierced between crystal plates.
A sharp crack split the cavern.
The Ravager froze.
For half a second, everything went silent.
Then the creature collapsed, shaking the ground as it fell.
Heavy breathing filled the space.
No victory music.
No flashing rewards.
Just the echo of something dying.
Qanata stared at the body.
It didn't dissolve into particles.
It remained.
Blood—dark and thick—spread slowly across stone.
Yokai stepped closer, examining it.
"This isn't a simulation," he said quietly.
A new message flickered in Qanata's window.
World Event Notice:
1,284 Ranked Players Successfully Synchronized
Territory Wars Begin in 72 Hours
Qanata's chest tightened.
"One thousand…?"
Yokai's gaze sharpened.
"The top players."
All of them.
Trapped.
A distant horn echoed through the cavern system.
Not from a monster.
Structured. Intentional.
Civilized.
Qanata looked toward the far tunnel entrance.
Faint light flickered there—different from crystal glow.
Orange.
Torchlight.
Yokai followed his gaze.
"That direction leads toward Magistrate territory," he said.
The ruling authority of Dangan.
The Order of Magistry.
Qanata's system flickered again—but only for a split second.
A line appeared that hadn't been there before.
Hidden Objective Detected.
Access Condition: Pending.
He blinked.
It vanished.
"Did yours change?" he asked quickly.
Yokai glanced at his own window.
"No."
The horn echoed again.
Closer this time.
The cavern no longer felt empty.
It felt occupied.
Alive.
And aware.
Yokai adjusted his coat and began walking toward the torchlit tunnel without hesitation.
"If Territory Wars start in seventy-two hours," he said evenly, "then we move first."
Qanata hesitated only a moment before following.
Behind them, the dead Ravager lay still.
But deep within the cavern walls, something shifted.
Watching.
And somewhere far below the surface—
A massive ancient bell, cracked and half-buried in stone, vibrated softly on its own.
To be Continued...