A text popped into his vision.

  [The Family Recipe]

  Condition: Consume a well-made meal until completely full.

  Effect: Natural HP & Stamina regeneration is temporarily increased by 10%.

  Duration: 6 Hours

  Shane stared at the notification. A ten percent boost to regeneration just from eating? It wasn’t a massive jump, but the day-long recovery he’d just endured would’ve been a couple of hours shorter with this active.

  With a full belly, a place to live, and a healthy wallet, his thoughts turned to his next immediate problem: work.

  He had to go to work in the morning, which meant he needed to log out soon.

  To do that, he just needed to get a weapon and finish the tutorial.

  Should he just buy any weapon off of a crafter and log out for now? Or continue playing?

  Shane glanced at his new buff. Knowing how in-game time flowed faster than real life, he could stay a while longer.

  [Fireball] was a useful skill, but it was mana-intensive and clumsy for close-quarters fighting. He’d learned that the hard way against the Gloom Viper, where he’d been forced to rely on dodging and raw power, and nearly burning off his arm to win.

  Never again could he afford to be so vulnerable. He needed a weapon. A special one, at that.

  Shane’s brain went through a list of dungeons he could access during this part of the game. That’s when he found the best option.

  There was a hidden high-rank dungeon with a unique weapon inside... for those who knew where to look.

  It was time for a little treasure hunting.

  ***

  Later that afternoon, Shane stood inside a lodge back in the town near Breakneck Ridge.

  “You the guy lookin’ for a guide?”

  A man got up from a chair and shook Shane’s hand without waiting for an introduction. The guide seemed like the type that couldn’t sit still, and reminded him of a restless husky.

  “Man, you’re making me feel short,” the guide said. “I’m usually the high point of these tours.”

  He paused, but when Shane gave no reaction, he continued.

  “You a hunter? Most folks don’t make for the mountains anymore. Monsters scared ’em off. Oh, I’m Bryan, by the way.”

  Not bothering to reply, Shane just nodded.

  Bryan gave an awkward smile.

  “Okay, so... not a big talker. Got it. You just focus on the walkin’ and I’ll handle the talkin’. That makes us walkie-talkies!”

  Bryan patted Shane’s shoulder, looking way too proud.

  Shane’s eye twitched. Clenching his hand to stop himself from killing the NPC, he reminded himself why he had hired a guide in the first place. Obviously, he would’ve preferred to go alone.

  [Bad Navigator (EX)]

  Direct navigation to your intended destination will be blocked. This quirk is always activated unless you are accompanied by another person or have the route fully memorized.

  ...If It weren’t for this Quirk.

  Still, there were some things to look forward to in this hike.

  While traveling back to town, Shane had overheard whispers of an F-rank dungeon that had cracked open before it could be found.

  Monsters had apparently poured into the surrounding area, which was exactly where he needed to pass to get to his destination.

  No doubt the government hunters or some guild would clear them out soon, but Shane hoped to take advantage of the situation before they could. If it worked out, he could score an achievement while looking for his true destination: the event dungeon.

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

  Pulling himself back to the present, Shane glanced at the NPC before him.

  The level of detail in this game was insane. His friend had clearly poured a hell of a lot of time and thought into this project.

  Compared to the old game’s AI he was used to, the modded versions felt almost sapient.

  If he hadn’t known better, he would’ve believed the sensory feedback alone was proof enough that this wasn’t a simulation.

  Putting a hand over his unburnt face, Shane sighed. He shook his head and tried to focus. It was time to work. Even though his memories were far from perfect, he knew the dungeon ahead was still the best place to start.

  Breakneck Ridge Dungeon.

  The place was an event dungeon that had opened on Breakneck Ridge, a mountain ninety minutes north of New York City, hence the very original nickname.

  If he remembered correctly, this dungeon was particularly infamous for its [Hallucination Curse] traps. He could still hear his friend’s voice excitedly reading the summer event announcement in a mock movie trailer voice, practically begging him to join in.

  “Cool down with skin-crawling horror. Limited-time event now live!”

  The hallucinations had felt real—too real for some, and had even left some players with PTSD.

  Regular gamers had been angry about the poor rewards. They’d complained it was another crappy event to recruit new players, and that old fans were being shunned to bring in more money.

  Well, that’s what his friend had said, at least.

  Until then, Shane had been tuning out most of her attempts to sell him on the game, cleaning his gun whenever she brought it up.

  Contrary to what the haters wanted, Breakneck Ridge Dungeon’s popularity exploded.

  It all started when a player found a bug to gain a blade, supposedly a non-lootable piece of set dressing for lore, through a duplication glitch.

  Because the weapon grew stronger with its wielder, it was basically end-game material. The same player used that bugged sword to shatter the game’s fastest speedrun record, and suddenly, everyone wanted in on the action.

  Shane’s goal was this very sword.

  If he secured it and stopped the Cataclysm, his chances of finishing the game skyrocketed.

  Shane looked at Bryan, who still looked giddy with excitement, a stark contrast to how Shane himself felt in the moment.

  “Ready when you are, boss.” Bryan slung his pack over one shoulder. “It’s a nice day for a hike. Shouldn’t be too many goblins out ’til we get closer to the ridge. I’m not a fan of ’em. They’re always... gobblin’ up everythin’. Get it? Okay, let’s hit the trail.”

  Shane closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  The biggest problem with his entire plan was that the Breakneck Ridge Dungeon event was already over.

  Luckily, he knew a trick to open it back up.

  And after the third dad joke, he was almost looking forward to sacrificing the NPC to reopen his would-be treasure trove.

  Shane thought back to when he first learned the trick.

  It felt like a lifetime ago, fumbling through his first-ever game in his life. He’d been scrolling through the official community forums, looking for ideas on builds, when someone posted a strange comment.

  ***

  –brd is back lol some sweaty nolifer reopened it

  ?Brd?

  ?breakneck ridge dungeon

  ?How?

  The commenter, probably some basement dweller desperate for attention, spammed the threads with “inside info” he couldn’t prove, repeating the claim that his relative worked at the dev studio.

  –lol aight since you asked. you can drag any rando npc to the old mountain and youll know when the portal swallows em. some dude actually pulled that shit and got the sword. shot up the rankings before the devs banned his ass

  ?Who was it grandpa?

  ?the guy pretendin he was a whale iykyk well i’m bored now do what u want with the info

  After that, he kept dropping troll posts thread after thread. There were always weirdos online, but it had been a while since Shane had seen someone ragebaiting this hard, completely derailing threads when he just wanted to look up builds.

  –...so for your main rotation, you always want to open with Sundering Strike before you pop Bloodfury.

  ?lol imagine still grinding mobs. just get the brd sword. devs are asleep

  ?So who got banned?

  ?Bet its zephyrus

  ?(Deleted by user)

  ?he’s not online. he fits the description. what more proof do you need? a fucking dev note?

  ?It’s not just him. Check out the new rank 20 and 57. They’re all rogue classes. Probably all in discord laughing at us.

  Amid the chaos, a new person posted.

  –It was 1nspector. He reopened the dungeon.

  The name dropped like a bomb.

  Ranking top 10 in the last online tournament, 1nspector was a popular streamer famous for his analytical breakdowns, and his fans were known for dogpiling anyone who trashed him. The moment the streamer’s name came up, the troll went quiet.

  But the thread blew up.

  ?wut

  ?Whoa that streamer?

  ?Yep

  ?how do you know?

  That’s when he dropped the second bomb.

  ?Because I’m the sweaty no-lifer

  Everyone awake scrambled into the thread as 1nspector exposed himself. Seeing the phrase “sweaty no-lifer” being mentioned, the troll also reappeared to reply.

  ?no i meant sweaty in a good way man

  ?I didn’t ask. Never been banned, as you can see. Did get paid for reporting an important bug, though. Guess I should’ve streamed the whole thing.

  The tides turned almost instantly as 1nspector’s fans swarmed in.

  The troll, realizing he’d picked a fight with a community legend, got defensive, but it was too late. Within minutes, the word [DELETED] replaced the troll’s posts, and after one last angry reply, his posts stopped appearing altogether.

  By the next morning, dozens of new threads had buried the entire argument as if it never happened.

  Most people moved on to guessing the location of the dungeon.

  Shane had thought they were all wasting their time. He’d been complaining about the drama to his friend, who was, at that very moment, lying flat on his bed and breaking at least three different wing regulations.

  Girls weren’t allowed in the men’s wing, but that had never stopped her.

  “They probably nuked it for good. There’s no way the devs would leave an exploit like that after all this.”

  His friend snorted out a laugh, and a few crumbs of his last bag of potato chips scattered on his sheets.

  “Please.” She licked the yellow dust off her fingers and swung her legs over the edge, sitting upright. “You’re giving them way too much credit. Nobody does more than their paycheck requires them. That’s the secret to life.”

  She walked up to him and held the chip up like a sacrament.

  “Normal people, anyway. Shane on you, you’re hopeless in that department. Good thing you’ve got me to show you the ropes.”

  She pressed the greasy chip to his frowning lips before he could turn his head away. He let out a sigh and relented, parting his mouth just enough for her to pop it in.

  Stale and way too salty. Shane had never liked these.

  Crumpling the now-empty chip bag into a ball, she tossed it behind her into the small trash bin without even looking.

  “I already found where they moved it.”

  She hopped back onto the bed and crossed her legs like she'd just taken a throne.

  “Want me to show you?”