Streetlights - working streetlights! - greeted Levi as he exited the dungeon, lighting the park in a warm and comfortable glow.

He stared out in wonder at the cozy, relaxed, peaceful scene. How long had it been since he’d seen real streetlights, not the pale mana ones that barely did the job?

For a long moment he simply stood and watched the flow of city life, letting the peace of the area flow over him. The distant hum of cars. The soft murmur of voices. No horns signalling the inevitable approach of death.

No one in pain. No overwhelming scent of fear.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen this many people together without being driven by grim determination and desperation. And from where he stood, in the shadow of an overhanging shade tree, no one noticed him. No one screamed and pointed. He must look a mess, his clothes ragged and holes burned through, stained with blood both human and ogre, carrying a gremlin corpse.

Music rang out in a brief cadence, startling him with a flood of nostalgia. He looked around for the source, then a vibration at his side reminded him.

Right. His phone, in his pocket.

Phones still worked. How long had it been?

He pulled it out, like a relic of a past life. There were a few dungeon-inflicted dents on the case but it had otherwise survived relatively unscathed. The screen lit up at once.

Levi didn’t remember his password but found his fingers knew the pattern anyway, tapping across the screen like he’d never stopped.

7 missed calls.

Levi stared at the list. People whose names he didn’t even remember. One had tried three times. Gordon McKaine. Gordon... Gordon... it sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it.

The music rang again, a green icon bouncing at the bottom of the screen. Right on cue. Gordon McKaine.

He wasn’t ready for this.

He had no idea what to say, how to react. Who were these people?

And who had Levi been ten years ago? It felt like an eternity. Remembering things like going to work every day seemed like a distant dream. A few moments stood out, but apart from that, he remembered almost nothing. Unimportant events long since overwritten with battle strategies and suppressed trauma.

Part of him wanted to run.

He could search for a new dungeon, dive into combat, push himself to level faster and faster. Ignore the outside world and do nothing but grind until he could face the Demon Lords. Charge into battle with an army of summons at his back.

But he still had to live in the world, for the remaining months before it collapsed. The woman and policeman this morning had been only the start. If he kept acting like the world had already ended, he’d get locked up as a crazy person.

He accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Levi, buddy, where are you?” He couldn’t place Gordon’s voice, but it spoke with casual familiarity. He felt like he should know the guy, but the pieces weren't clicking.

“I’m... at the park.”

“The park? Why? Aren’t you coming? You said you were right behind me, then you disappear for hours, and now you’re at the park?”

“I… something came up. I need to go home.”

Something in his tone must have sounded off, because the man went from irritable to concerned in a blink. “Oh no, what happened? Do you need a ride to the airport?”

Airport? Why would he need an airport?

“Uhhh…”

“Really, what happened? Are you okay? You don’t sound okay.”

Didn’t he? How was he supposed to remember how he talked ten years ago! “Sorry. I just… have to go.”

“I’ll come get you. Which park, the one by the hotel?”

“Uhhh…” Levi looked around, but all the buildings just looked like buildings to him. He didn’t recognize the city, nothing about it felt familiar enough to place it. He’d been through so many cities, so many battlefields, if this one had any distinguishing features he couldn't see them from here.

“Don’t hang up. I’m on my way.” Gordon’s voice quieted as he leaned away. “Levi’s got a family emergency, I’m gonna go get him. Don’t wait up for me, I don’t know how long we’ll be.”

Murmurs of other voices, indistinct, concerned.

“If it’s the park I’m thinking of, I’ll be there in five minutes," Gordon said, to Levi again. "We’ll be fine. You can tell me, or not, it’s no problem.”

Levi desperately wanted to ask who he was, this familiar stranger who was going out of his way, but blurting out ‘by the way, I’ve forgotten why we know each other’ when someone seemed this intimately familiar with you would feel unbearably awkward.

His goal was to not get locked up as a crazy person. That would be a huge inconvenience. Too much lost time. Even if he refused to go along with it and fought his way free, that would mean hurting fellow humans for no better reason than a disagreement about his mental state.

He paced, fidgeting. Should he leave Skarm’s body hidden somewhere and come back for it? He looked like… well, like he’d been through a battle, and carrying around a dead dungeon minion would both increase his credibility if he decided to spill the truth, and also make him look even more insane if he tried to come up with a reasonable excuse for it all.

Engaging with the world in his current state felt like a mistake. He shouldn't have answered the phone, should have sent... whoever this 'Gordon McKaine' was away.

Airport? Where was he?

He barely remembered this day the first time around, it had been weird getting a stat system popping up in his head, weird fighting a monster in a park, but until 10/24 it had seemed like an advertising fad or something.

After 10/24, it became deadly serious.

"What day is it?" Levi asked, suddenly.

"July 7," said Gordon's voice on the phone.

July. August, september, october. He had three months.

That was better than he'd expected, but still not enough. Even if he did nothing but grind dungeons nonstop, there simply weren't any places to get high level experience yet. Dungeons leveled the more people entered them, and they leveled faster than humans did, but right now hardly anyone knew about them. While in ten years it would be difficult to find any dungeon below level 120, right now it would be rare to find one above level 1.

If he could spread word, get people to start leveling now, then there'd be a chance. With a strong enough united defence, they could deal with the initial invasion decisively enough to stop things before they got out of hand.

The demons were punctual and predictable in their invading. A thousand portals opened across the world, all within hours of each other, and stayed open for about 18 hours. After that they closed, leaving the existing demons to rampage across the globe at their leisure, until reopening roughly a month later. (The demons didn't follow the earth calendar precisely, but it tended to fall within a week of the same date.)

Only the first wave of each year included a Demon Lord, that is, the October wave. The others were Elites or other minor leaders with their armies, but not the same ultimate existential threat as the Lords.

"You still there?"

"Yeah. I should warn you, I'm... I'm not..." he shook his head, unable to articulate the changes in any way that would make sense. "Something happened and I... I don't think I'll ever be the same, so, just... don't be too surprised by what you see. I'll be fine, but I have to get home to my--"

His voice caught and he couldn't finish. It had been so long since he'd seen them, heard their voices. Peter. Irene. Even now, thinking about them, he felt for the photograph in his breast pocket... but of course it wasn't there, he needed no memorial to their memory yet.

"I'm on my way."

Who was this Gordon? He'd known a handful of people willing to go out of their way, above and beyond, through the years, but most had been fellow warriors. He'd made and lost so many friends, it was hard to place one from so long ago.

“You!”

Levi spun to face the speaker.

The same woman who’d been screaming at him earlier, this time minus the policeman and with her arms full of bags of groceries, stood staring at him with a look of shock and disgust across her face.