"... defeat you!" Layn heard when his consciousness returned to the world of the living. He pried his eyes open, only for them to be instantly blinded by an outburst of light.

"DIE!" a man in the front shouted, taking a wide overhead swing with his axe. A fragile-looking woman in delicate robes was his opponent. Yet, despite her gentle disposition, there was no sign of fear or anxiety in her eyes.

"Futile," the woman spoke softly, swatting her hand away. Under the immense force of this attack, the weighty head of the man's axe broke apart, splitting into thousands of tiny metal shards.

"I really thought you would know better after what I have shown you." She shook her head with clear disappointment. "How did you get so far if you are so set on ignoring the reality before your eyes?" The strange woman mocked her opponent.

'What the hell is going on?' Tom thought, desperately attempting to free himself from the rubble without drawing the attention of either of the two ahead.

'F-FUCK!' Tom barely stopped himself from shouting as soon as he attempted to move. He looked down, only to see his avatar in an insanely battered state.

'It seems like I took the brunt of the fall,' Tom thought, moving his eyes over Claudia's still inactive avatar. 'Well, as if it matters right now,' Tom looked towards the fight. It was happening roughly ten meters away.

Or rather, one-sided humiliation. The man was already deprived of his weapon. For a moment, he just stood in place, looking at the naked handle of his long axe. Then, the determination returned to his eyes, as he plunged forward with a stick for a weapon.

'This is our chance,' Tom thought, cutting off the reception of pain. It was usually a great tool for the players to check whether there was something wrong with their avatars. 'But now, it's just a noise,' Tom thought, tuning the functionality off.

'Aaaah...' The wave of relief spread through his entire sense of self. But there was no time to rejoice. 'It looks like we feel quite a few floors down,' Tom thought grimly before securing his hold over Claudia's avatar.

And then, bit by bit, he started to drag the two of them towards the corridor. 'The further away from this monster, the better,' Tom thought grimly, sending worried looks towards that seemingly fragile woman.

"I wouldn't advise leaving this room." A simple statement. There was no hidden threat in it. It was the fact that it was directed at Tom that was horrifying.

"Because that would make your job harder?" Tom asked, no longer capable of exerting any strength.

His avatar fell at least forty meters. To top it off, he shouldered most of the impact, stemming from the weight of Claudia's avatar as well. With his avatar in such a tattered state, Tom no longer boasted any real fighting power.

And the woman in front of him...

'I doubt I could deal with her, even at my peak.' Tom had no other choice but to admit.

The man who he saw fighting with the woman before was already lying dead. His head crushed into bits. Even if the player himself would just wake up in his capsule, all the efforts of grooming his avatar were now wasted.

"Hah!" The woman laughed. "that's quite arrogant of you to believe it would make any difference to me." Her smile was kind and easygoing, as if she was unwilling to acknowledge what kind of situation they were in.

Because from every hint offered by heaven and earth, this woman wasn't a woman at all.

"I didn't know dungeon monsters were capable of speaking," Tom said, attempting to stall for time. There was no such thing as overwhelming power. The situation was desperate, for sure, but that didn't mean there wasn't any way out!

For now, it only meant Tom was unable to see it.

"Do I look like a monster to you?" the woman giggled. "Well, considering what I just did to one of yours, I can see where you are coming from," she said before shrugging her arms with a carefree look on her face.

"You can talk, which means you are an intelligent being," Tom said, trying to curry some sympathy with the monster. Maybe that was the hidden way to deal with this uncommon event? "As such, you should know that we are not here willingly..." Tom suggested before looking down at the avatar in his hands. "Just look at it! My friend isn't even connected!"

Tom shook Claudia's avatar, only to notice her eyes opening up.

"What's going on?" she asked in a muffled voice as she fought off the drowsiness of the recent connection.

"Don't say a word," Tom's expression soured when the girl struck down his attempts at pleading to this monster.

"Well, I can't really let you walk away." The woman lowered her head as if she was trying to hide her face. "And no matter how sorry I am for that, it's just how things are."

She raised her head. Tom only needed a single look to notice the fresh determination that flashed in the woman's eyes.

"As such, I'm sorry, kids," the woman said before conjuring a ball of light in her hand. Exactly the same kind of light as the disaster that drilled the hole in the dungeon's floor.

"RUN!" Tom shouted, ramping his haste to its limits. 'Speed is a function of time and distance, so if I bring the time close to zero, the speed will rise to infinity.' Tom repeated the simple physical principle in his thoughts, using all his remaining strength to throw Claudia's avatar...

Upwards.

Not towards the entrance of the corridor just a few meters away. Even if the haughty attitude of this woman from earlier was nothing but a bluff, it didn't change the fact that they were quite deep in the dungeon.

"You little....!" the woman shouted, surprised by Tom's sudden determination. She rushed forward, attempting to stop Claudia's avatar from leaving, but it was too late.

Tom's arm snapped. The full might of his haste spell was too much for his avatar to handle. 'I wouldn't be surprised if she wouldn't survive that throw either,' Tom thought nostalgically, ignoring the approaching woman.

In a direct clash, he was like an ant to her. The young man could tell that just from the domineering aura that surrounded this wannabe female. The next moment, her light-engulfed hand soared forward, tightening around Tom's avatar's neck.

"That was quite brave of you," she commended Tom's behavior. "But you should be aware of how futile it was," the woman said as she looked upwards.

The hole in the dungeon's roof was already mending itself. In a few more moments, all the hints pointing at what happened here would be gone.

"I believe in her," Tom said, looking straight into the eyes of the female. 'Since I already lost this avatar, maybe I will be able to sell the info on this monster?' Tom's thoughts went awry, attempting to find anything positive about his current situation.

"She landed on..." the woman stopped talking for a moment before her lips curved in a charming smile. "She landed on seventy-third floor. Do you really believe she will be able to return? All on her own?"

If not for the situation, the smile of this monster woman would be charming. Yet Tom smiled as well. 'Now that I no longer have any hopes of escaping, it's strangely easy to accept my situation,' he thought.

"Well, it's a word against word. I just hope you won't interfere any further." Tom smiled at the woman who was currently strangling his avatar. "Don't spit on my hopes, okay?"

For a moment, the woman looked at Tom with a strange look on her face. Then she smiled kindly and nodded her head. "Sure. I will leave her alone."

Then her hand tightened even further, snapping Tom's avatar's neck.

"Strange..." Tom's vision blanked out, but he could still hear the woman's voice.

"Huh? Could it be?!" she suddenly became agitated.

"Well, let me leave you with a parting gift, then." Out of nowhere, the woman suddenly announced. Sadly, Tom could only imagine what kind of expression she made while saying that.

"Try to find me with your real self," she suddenly added, albeit even her voice was quickly turning too silent for Tom to hear. "That's how you will find the answers that will appear once you wake up."

The voice of the woman faded away.

And so did Tom's consciousness.

*Connection broken*

The oily letters appeared in front of Tom's eyes before fading away. Then his senses returned as the top of his capsule appeared in front of his eyes.

"So I've lost, huh?" Tom talked to himself more due to the momentum than anything else. Then, he fainted once again, as the memories once locked in his brain suddenly came flooding back.

***

End of the prologue :3