The silver crystal pulsed softly in Ryuji Kuroda's hand.
He stood in the center of the hidden dungeon chamber, surrounded by cracked stone pillars and the remains of the goblin champion he had just beaten into unconscious—well, permanent unconsciousness.
Dust drifted lazily through the air.
Somewhere deep in the dungeon tunnels, water dripped steadily against stone.
The system interface hovered faintly in front of him.
---
Artifact Detected
Scanning…
---
Ryuji tilted the crystal slightly, watching the strange silver glow swirl inside it.
"…You're a weird little thing."
The light pulsed again.
Almost like it had heard him.
He squinted.
"…Okay that was creepy."
The scan bar on the system window slowly filled.
---
Scanning… 17%
---
Ryuji shrugged and leaned against the stone chest behind him.
"Well."
"Nothing to do but wait."
He glanced down at the goblin champion corpse nearby.
"…You really picked the wrong guy to fight."
The champion remained very dead.
Ryuji stretched his arms.
The dungeon felt quieter now.
Almost peaceful.
Which was suspicious.
Because peaceful dungeons usually meant something terrible was about to happen.
He checked his status screen again out of habit.
---
Level: 7
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 20
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 20
Skills:
Street Brawler Lv.1
Bone Breaker Lv.1
Title:
Goblin Breaker
---
Ryuji grinned.
"Man."
"Two skills already."
He clenched his fist.
"Street Brawler plus Bone Breaker…"
"Someone's skeleton is gonna hate me."
The scan bar moved slightly.
---
Scanning… 24%
---
Ryuji sighed.
"This is gonna take a while."
He looked around the chamber again.
Stone pillars.
Broken goblin bones.
Ancient carvings on the walls.
"Dungeon architecture really loves creepy."
Then suddenly—
A loud CRACK echoed through the air.
A pink flash exploded behind him.
Ryuji spun around instantly.
"WHAT THE—"
A glowing portal burst open in midair.
Sparkles exploded everywhere.
Literally everywhere.
Glitter rained down like someone had detonated a unicorn.
And out of the portal tumbled a very familiar figure.
"OW—!"
THUD.
A pink-haired goddess faceplanted directly into the dungeon floor.
Silence followed.
Ryuji blinked.
"…Oh."
The goddess groaned.
"Ugh… stupid dimensional turbulence…"
She pushed herself up slowly, rubbing her forehead.
Pink hair.
Sparkly wings.
A white dress that somehow looked both divine and ridiculous at the same time.
Ryuji scratched his head.
"…Hey."
Lumi froze.
Slowly…
Very slowly…
She turned her head.
Their eyes met.
The dungeon went silent again.
Then—
Her face turned red.
Veins popped on her forehead.
And she screamed.
"YOU!"
Ryuji waved.
"Sup."
Lumi shot to her feet.
"YOU BROKE THE SYSTEM!"
Ryuji blinked.
"…Excuse me?"
She pointed dramatically at him.
"YOU BROKE IT!"
He looked around.
"…Looks fine to me."
"NO IT DOESN'T!"
Her wings flared out angrily.
"Do you have any idea how many cosmic regulations you violated?!"
Ryuji crossed his arms.
"Lady."
"I woke up in a forest and punched snakes."
"How exactly did I break reality?"
Lumi started pacing in midair.
"You weren't supposed to get THAT system!"
Ryuji tilted his head.
"…The gamer one?"
"YES!"
She pointed accusingly.
"That system type is forbidden!"
Ryuji blinked.
"…Wait."
"Forbidden?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because it's not native to this world!"
Ryuji scratched his chin.
"Huh."
"That explains a lot actually."
Lumi floated closer and began inspecting him like an angry scientist.
"Let me see your status."
Ryuji raised an eyebrow.
"…Buy me dinner first."
She ignored him.
A glowing screen appeared in front of her.
Her eyes widened.
"OH COME ON!"
Ryuji leaned back.
"What?"
"You already have TWO skills?!"
"Yeah."
"You're LEVEL SEVEN?!"
"Yep."
She grabbed her hair.
"IT'S BEEN ONE DAY!"
Ryuji shrugged.
"Busy day."
Lumi floated in circles.
"This is bad!"
"This is very bad!"
"This is catastrophically bad!"
Ryuji leaned casually against a pillar.
"You say that a lot."
She pointed at him again.
"Because you're a walking cosmic paperwork disaster!"
He chuckled.
"Relax."
"It's just leveling."
"JUST LEVELING?!"
She zoomed closer.
"You're running a SYSTEM designed for completely different world mechanics!"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning you're basically cheating!"
Ryuji grinned.
"…Nice."
Lumi groaned loudly.
"You're not supposed to be happy about that!"
Ryuji shrugged.
"I grew up playing RPGs."
"Getting cheat codes is kind of the dream."
She glared at him.
"You're unbelievable."
He gave her a thumbs up.
"Thanks."
---
Lumi crossed her arms and began floating back and forth nervously.
"You don't understand."
"The Gamer Protocol is a restricted system."
"Why?"
"Because it rewrites progression laws."
Ryuji blinked.
"…Translation?"
"It means you can grow stronger faster than this world's rules allow."
Ryuji smiled slowly.
"Oh."
"Oh that's definitely cheating."
"Yes!"
"And you gave it to me?"
"…Technically."
"Nice."
Lumi groaned again.
"You're impossible."
---
She suddenly froze.
Her eyes drifted to Ryuji's hand.
The glowing silver crystal.
"…Wait."
"What's that?"
Ryuji held it up.
"Loot."
Her eyes widened.
"…Where did you get that?"
"Dungeon chest."
She floated closer.
Very slowly.
Then her jaw dropped.
"Oh no."
"Oh no no no."
Ryuji raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"That's not normal loot."
"Yeah the system said that too."
She stared at the crystal.
"That's an artifact."
"Cool."
"No!"
"Yes?"
She grabbed his shoulders.
"Those things contain fragments of ancient divine code!"
"…Come again?"
"System fragments!"
Ryuji blinked.
"Wait."
"You mean like… god tech?"
"…Basically."
He looked at the crystal again.
"…Huh."
"That explains the weird glow."
Lumi started pacing again.
"This is worse."
"How is this worse?"
"You're running an illegal system AND collecting divine artifacts!"
Ryuji grinned.
"Man."
"My luck stat really is high."
Lumi groaned.
"You're attracting attention!"
"What kind of attention?"
"The kind that gods notice."
Ryuji blinked.
"…Plural?"
"Yes!"
"The higher gods monitor anomalies!"
"And I'm an anomaly?"
"You're a giant one!"
He scratched his chin.
"Well."
"That sounds like their problem."
---
The crystal suddenly glowed brighter.
Both of them looked down.
The scan bar on the system window moved rapidly.
---
Scanning… 91%
---
Lumi squinted at it.
"…Wait."
"You activated system analysis?"
Ryuji shrugged.
"It started automatically."
Her eyes widened.
"Oh no."
"What?"
"You're not supposed to scan divine artifacts with a gamer system!"
"Why not?"
"Because it might—"
The crystal flashed brightly.
The system window changed.
---
Analysis Complete
New System Function Detected
---
Lumi froze.
"…Oh."
Ryuji grinned.
"Oh hell yeah."
The system continued.
---
New Function Unlocked
Skill Evolution
---
Lumi facepalmed.
"…You've got to be kidding me."