The first antique shop had really interesting goods and items from an older area, but nothing they could use or triggered any side quest or dungeon.

“What if it’s not in any of these places?” Kevin paused, as he remembered how the shovel was in an unconventional location.

“I’m going to the next antique shop. How about we split up, then we can cover for ground? I’ll give you a call if I spot something, and you do the same, alright?” Ashley suggested, and Kevin nodded.

Now alone, he walked to the metalworking shop instead. There was a dirty dude in overalls closing the shop, when he walked in. “Sorry, we’re closed. If you’ve got something that you want made, come back tomorrow.”

“Ah. Can I just look around?” Kevin asked.

The man grunted, and there was nothing. They made mundane tools, and was more of a machining workshop than an old school blacksmith. They made a lot of things, though. There were custom shaped pipes and pump-molds on the work desks.

Then, just right then, another man walked in. He looked about Kevin’s age, and just like Ashley, he had a glowing green thing on his head. A hammer.

“Hi.” Kevin immediately put on his best smile, and approached the man. If it worked anything like Ashley, he should get the prompt. “I’m Kevin. I’d like to talk to you about that glowing hammer on your head.”

He paused, and then shrugged. “Not now. I’m tired, I need a break and a nap. Leave me your number and we’ll text.”

That wasn’t bad, as confrontations went. Kevin did as told and quickly left.

Next was the LARPer store, and then felt his phone buzz. Ashley had visited the other two, and they met outside a busy cafe along the street.

“Nothing.”

“Me neither.”

“So... what’s next?” Already two hours had passed and most of the shops were beginning to close.

“I’m going to call it a day and go home.” Ashley said.

Kevin waved goodbye and watched her walk back to the train station. The sky was dark, and the blue sun has long since receded.

He didn’t know why, but exhaustion suddenly hit him like a truck. So, rather than go anywhere, he decided to just sit on a public bench along market street, and started to scroll through his phone’s notification and news.

Throughout the world, news was abuzz about the blue sun, astronomers particularly, started scrolling through the news. On the forums there were some really, really wild theories of why all of this was happening. Some naturally called this ‘the end times’, some said the government discovered some kind of global AI system, some called this a subtle alien invasion.

The conspiracies were crazy, and honestly, Kevin just felt even more exhausted going through the theories.

He once wondered how Earth would cope, if it suddenly got invaded by aliens, but this kind of ‘slow-death-apocalypse’ was probably the worst kind of Earth, since it allowed the worst parts of mankind to manifest itself.

The fact that, for so many people, these blue screens were mundane and dull that they called the Blue Screens of Dullness instead, so, they didn’t even take it all that seriously.

Why? Why was it different for some, and not for others? He sat at that bench and realised he didn’t have the mental bandwidth for such a heavy topic.

“Fuck. I should’ve gone home instead of wasting my time doomscrolling.” Kevin cursed, and noticed almost all the shops had closed. It was still Saturday, so he still had another day. He stood up, stretched and then, at that moment, thought he saw one of the sewer-caps glowing. “Eh.”

It was incredibly, incredibly faint, if there was a crowd nobody would’ve even noticed it.

He squatted down and saw an old manhole cover, probably fifty years old. The cover itself had ancient symbols on it, an insignia of its maker, in the shape of a spear and a hammer.

He touched it, and wondered how to open it-

[You’ve located a Level 5 (Combat) Sewer Dungeon! This is an optional, special combat dungeon. Completing this quest will allow you to obtain a War-Perk-Point that can be used to purchase combat perks for future events. This dungeon will disappear after 10 people have completed it. Completing this optional dungeon will also grant you a preview of the future events.]

“What the crap.” Kevin cursed. He immediately texted Sam and Ashley whether they wanted to take this dungeon with him.

Ashley : Not interested.

Sam : Seriously? I’ll be there. Let me figure out how the hell to get there at this hour.

Kevin waited about half an hour, and as it turns out, Sam had to take a cab. When he got there, the sky was really dark, and all the shops had closed. Nobody, strangely, actually came and talk to Kevin.

“Dude, how the hell did you find something like this?”

“I guess I’m uh... lucky?” Kevin said.

“Y’know if there’s such a thing, we should totally get more people involved.”

[Maximum Party members for this dungeon is 10.]

“The screens clearly can read your mind.” Kevin responded when the prompt appeared before both of them. “Blue Screen, can we die in the dungeon?”

[Yes.]

“There you go. We should get more people involved.” Sam said.

“Can we exit and try again?” Kevin asked.

[This dungeon has no exit or number of attempt restrictions]

“This dungeon. That clearly means some future dungeons will have such restrictions.”

There was no response.

“I think that confirms it.” Kevin laughed, trying to find some humor in the cold of night. “Alright. Let’s give it a try, and then we’ll see whether we need help as we go along”

Sam nodded. “Fair enough. Let’s roll.”