Alex's Brooklyn Apartment - 9:30 PM
Back in his apartment, Alex sat cross-legged on his bed with his laptop balanced on his knees, the familiar blue glow of the screen mixing with the occasional flicker of the system interface at the edge of his vision. He'd spent the past hour diving deep into the internet's vast collection of dungeon-related forums, social media posts, and news sites, searching for any mention of today's Hudson River Gateway incident.
The search had started as curiosity but quickly evolved into something closer to paranoia. What if someone saw more than they should have? What if there's video footage I don't know about?
DungeonHub.net was his first stop—the largest community forum for Awakened professionals, dungeon researchers, and enthusiasts. The site's front page was dominated by the usual content: guild recruitment threads, technique analysis videos, marketplace listings for rare monster materials, and endless debates about ranking systems.
Alex navigated to the "Recent Incidents" subforum and searched for "Hudson River Gateway." His heart rate spiked when he found a thread titled: "IRON WOLF GUILD - Unusual Activity Today???"
The original post was frustratingly vague:
@DungeonWatcher87: "Anyone else notice Iron Wolf team coming out of Hudson River looking shaken? Saw them at the exit checkpoint around 3 PM. Marcus Wong had his arm bandaged up, and the whole team seemed... off. Usually they're pretty chatty with other guilds, but today they were practically running to get out of there. DMB agents were asking a lot more questions than usual too."
Alex scrolled through the replies, his stomach knotting with each new comment:
@IceQueenFan: "Probably just a tough run. 2-star dungeons can be unpredictable."
@GuildTracker: "Iron Wolf's been having bad luck lately. Maybe they're pushing too hard trying to get noticed by the bigger guilds."
@Anonymous_Source: "Heard from someone who knows someone in DMB that there was a classification error. Something about the boss monster being way above dungeon rating."
@SkepticalSally: "Classification errors happen all the time. Remember the Crystal Caverns incident last month? Sometimes the system just gets it wrong."
That last comment made Alex's blood run cold. If classification errors were common, how many other people had encountered situations like his? How many others might have awakened strange abilities under life-threatening circumstances?
He opened a new tab and searched for "unusual awakening circumstances," "late-stage ability manifestation," and "F-rank sudden improvement." The results were mostly medical journals discussing the psychological impacts of failed awakening, forum posts from bitter F-ranks complaining about their lot in life, and conspiracy theories about government suppression of awakening research.
Nothing that matched his situation.
Alex tried a different approach, searching for "skill copying abilities" and "technique mimicry." This yielded more interesting results—academic papers on the theoretical possibilities of skill replication, news articles about S-rank Awakened who could learn and adapt enemy techniques, and forum discussions about the legendary "Mirror" class abilities.
One article from the Journal of Awakened Studies caught his attention:
"Observed Instances of Combat Technique Replication Among S-Rank Awakened"Dr. Elena Vasquez, Columbia University
Alex skimmed through the dense academic language until he found the relevant passage:
"Among the 127 documented S-rank individuals worldwide, only 3 have demonstrated reliable technique replication abilities. These subjects show enhanced pattern recognition, accelerated muscle memory acquisition, and what appears to be intuitive understanding of biomechanical efficiency. However, all documented cases require direct physical contact with the original technique user and result in imperfect copies that degrade over time..."
Physical contact. Alex frowned. He hadn't touched Marcus when he learned the Lightning Slash—just observed it from several meters away. And his copy hadn't degraded; if anything, it was getting stronger with practice.
Whatever was happening to him wasn't following the known rules.
A new forum notification popped up in the corner of his screen. Someone had replied to the Hudson River Gateway thread:
@TruthSeeker2029: "Was anyone filming during Iron Wolf's run today? I'd pay good money for footage of whatever happened in there. Something doesn't add up about their story."
Alex's hands froze above the keyboard. Someone was actively looking for evidence of what had happened. His camera had supposedly malfunctioned during the crucial moments—that was their cover story—but what if other guild members had been recording? What if there were security cameras in the dungeon he didn't know about?
He clicked on @TruthSeeker2029's profile, but it was sparse—account created three days ago, no previous posts, no guild affiliation listed. Could be anyone from a curious amateur to a guild spy to a government investigator.
Paranoid much? Alex tried to calm himself. It's probably just some dungeon fanboy looking for exciting footage.
But the system interface disagreed:
[POTENTIAL SECURITY THREAT DETECTED][RECOMMENDATION: MONITOR THIS ACCOUNT][IMPLEMENTING PASSIVE SURVEILLANCE PROTOCOLS]
Wait, what? Alex stared at the translucent text. The system can monitor online accounts?
Before he could process that revelation fully, his phone buzzed with a text from Marcus:
Marcus (Iron Wolf): "Alex, quick question—you didn't save any personal footage from today's run, did you? Sometimes camera operators keep backup files."
Marcus (Iron Wolf): "Not that there's anything wrong with it, just want to know what's out there."
Alex stared at the messages, reading between the lines. Marcus was worried about evidence too. The protective cover story was holding for now, but cracks were starting to show.
He typed back: "No personal footage. Camera malfunctioned during the boss fight, remember? All I have is the standard approach and early combat clips."
Marcus (Iron Wolf): "Good. That's good. See you tomorrow morning. We need to talk about your future."
My future? What did that mean? Alex set his phone aside and returned to his laptop, but his concentration was shot. Every forum post seemed to carry hidden meanings, every news article felt like it might be connected to his situation.
He was about to close the browser when one final search result caught his eye. It was buried on page seven of his "unusual awakening" search, a blog post from someone calling themselves @ObserverOne:
"They're Watching Us Watch Them"Posted 6 months ago
"To anyone else who's experienced the impossible: you're not alone. The system you've encountered—the interface, the analysis, the impossible knowledge—it's not random. It's not a gift. It's a recruitment tool.
They're looking for specific individuals. People who can observe, analyze, and adapt. People who exist between the worlds of ordinary and Awakened. People like us.
I can't say more here. Too dangerous. But if you're reading this and you know what I'm talking about, find me. Search for 'midnight observer protocols' on the deep forums. We need to stick together.
Remember: trust no one with your secret. Not friends, not family, not even other Awakened. What we have... they would kill for it."
The post had no comments, no likes, no shares. When Alex clicked on the username, he found that @ObserverOne's account had been deleted.
Six months ago, Alex realized with growing dread. Someone else has been dealing with this for at least six months.
He quickly searched for "midnight observer protocols" but found nothing. Either the information had been scrubbed, or it was hidden somewhere beyond his reach.
Alex closed his laptop with trembling hands. The comfortable isolation of his apartment suddenly felt vulnerable, exposed. How many others were out there? How long had this been happening? And most importantly—who were "they" that the blogger had warned about?
As if summoned by his paranoia, the system interface materialized with a new message:
[INTERNET ACTIVITY LOGGED][SEARCH PATTERNS ANALYZED][RECOMMENDATION: DISCONTINUE RESEARCH INTO SYSTEM ORIGINS][FOCUS ON SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION]
The casual authority in that message made Alex's skin crawl. The system wasn't just helping him—it was monitoring his behavior, analyzing his choices, and now actively discouraging certain lines of investigation.
What have I gotten myself into?
Alex looked around his small apartment—at his camera equipment, his few possessions, his ordinary life—and wondered how much longer any of it would remain his own. Tomorrow's coffee with Marcus suddenly felt less like a friendly check-in and more like a crossroads.
Whatever came next, Alex was certain of one thing: his life as an anonymous F-rank camera operator was over. The only question was what would replace it.