Market street on a Sunday morning was packed, and frankly filled with the scent of vegetables and fruits. The regular vendors seemed undisturbed by the blue screens, though he did pick up some chatter about the blue screens. Most of them were frankly mundane, like just showing up for work, or just selling something, or baking stuff.

Ashley: Sorry, I’m meeting some friends today. Won’t be going over to Market Street today, but if you are free tomorrow, we could go check it out again?

Kevin saw the text, and waited for a while to think about how to reply.

Kevin: Alright. I’ll be here today, but if I don’t find it, we’ll meet again tomorrow.

Maybe Sam wanted to join the mission too.

Sam: Eh sorry man! My mom asked me to help her with some stupid shit so I can’t be there.

Ah well. He shifted his attention back to the crowds, and then noticed, there was another person with a yellow clock on his head. But that person turned, spotted Kevin, and approached him instead.

“Hey.”

Kevin gulped. Did he have something on his head too? “Oh, hi.”

“I’m Jack, and you have a yellow clock on your head. Do you know why?”

“You too, actually.”

“What? Seriously?” Jack paused, and Kevin paid a closer look to the man. Jack’s a relatively skinny man in his early twenties, with short, well kept hair and he was dressed in T shirts, shorts and running shoes. Kevin was dressed in the same way.

They both looked at each other for a moment, as if waiting for something.

“Okay. Are you here to look for the Ancient Shield?” Jack said. “Or are you on another quest chain?”

“Uh... how’d you get that quest chain?”

“I saw a dude with a clock on his head, I went up to him, and I talked to him.” Jack answered. “Did you do the same?”

“I met a girl instead. But yes, I’m here for the ancient shield too.”

“Darn, why couldn’t my quest NPCs be girls.”

“They’re not NPCs.” Kevin was quite appalled that this dude had immediately reduced them to NPCs.

“Okay, fair. But it’s clear there is a difference. Some of us get the ‘real’ quests’ and the rest of them get the inferior mundane quests.” Jack answered, and Kevin was immediately uncomfortable how Jack had grouped him into the ‘real-quest’ group. “So, you wanna look for it together?”

Kevin trusted his feelings, and shook his head. “I think we can look for it separately. Give me your number and I’ll text you if I find it.”

Jack shrugged. “Fair. I’ll do the same.” They exchanged numbers and parted ways.

Market street was a long stretch of road, with wide pedestrian walkways. On Sundays, the roads themselves were closed to cars and buses, and the entire area was converted to a walkable area. It was apparently a gimmick copied from some European city, but it was really popular with the locals.

It also had a lot of small offshoots, or alleys, known as the Market Alleys. Due to decades of gentrification, the cafes, fancy bars and restaurants took up most of the shops.

“Maybe one of the cafes or shops has a shield as decor.” Kevin figured that fancy cafes all tried to have a gimmick or something unique or ‘instagrammable’ about their interior.

He intended to hop from cafe to cafe, but then most cafes had a person manning the front that stopped non-customers from entering.

“Sorry, please wait in line.” It was really annoying that most of them had a long queue, too.

Kevin ended up asking the man in front, interviewing customers, and he peeked through their windows to spot whether there was a shield inside.

“Look, son. If you’re not buying or eating anything, stop bothering us?”

“I’m looking for a shield. Just let me know if you don’t have it.” Kevin said frankly.

“I don’t know.” Kevin was amazed by how little most employees knew about what decorations their respective cafes had. It’s a job, not a passion, and most of them didn’t pay attention to these things.

Fifteen cafes and a long string of rejections later, he was exhausted and sat on a chair. Then his phone rang. “Jack here. I spotted the shield. You wanna come? I’m at the Municipal Library.”

Library. Kevin facepalmed that he missed the library. “Alright. Coming.”

The library itself was situated in a small corner building, one of those artsy local council projects that wanted to build libraries in the hip parts of town. The shield wasn't actually a shield. It was actually an old totem with a shield on it, a relic from a much, much older time that found a new home in the library as a ‘display’ item.

“How’d you figure it out?” Kevin was baffled. Who would’ve thought of such a thing.

“I remembered there was this old thing here, so I came here.” Jack said as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. “Apparently it’s a dungeon.”

“Of course it’s a dungeon, but the dungeon part is optional.”

[You’ve located the Totem of the Ancient Shield! Accordingly, you’ve earned the Generic Skill : Skip Weekly Mission! Your Weekly Bomb Mission’s completion date has been extended by one week! You’ve also unlocked the right to attempt the Totem of the Ancient Shield]

He noticed the wings of the cockroach-bomb on his leg opened up, revealing a clock underneath those wings. The time on the clock started to move, the number increased to a larger number.

[The Totem of the Ancient Shield is also a Permanent Randomised Dungeon. Permanent Randomised Dungeons can be attempted by anyone, and award one perk point per system year. The difficulty of the permanent dungeon scales to the average of all perk points of all party members.]

[Calculating... Do you wish to add Jack as your party member?]

“You wanna do this separately or together?” Kevin asked. The fact that it awarded a perk point meant he had to do it.

“Hmmm...” Jack thought about it. “I think I’ll take this one alone.”

“Alright.”

The dungeon itself was really more of a shooting range... in reverse. There were little holes on the other side, and then an orange wall behind them that had a big ‘TARGET’ splattered all over it.

[Stop the balls from the holes from hitting the orange wall behind you with the shield. The more balls you block, the higher your score! Score 10 points to earn one perk point. Score 50 Points to earn a special summonable shield. The Summonable shield can be used for 10 Dungeons!]

Then, a ball shot out, and... it moved quite slowly. At the speed of a helium balloon, floating across the room.

Kevin just stared, momentarily not sure what to do. After a while, he walked up to the ball, and just touched it with his shield.

[Ball blocked! One point!]

“Fucking hell.”

He blocked two more balls, at that same speed. The balls moved so slowly it was a freaking mockery. They moved at the speed of a slow moving balloon, drifting in the wind. How was this even a challenge?

[Ball blocked! You have three points!]

“System, what level is this game?” Another ball appeared, so Kevin waltzed over and gently tapped it with his shield. The ball just dropped.

[Ball blocked! You have four points! This dungeon has been calibrated for Level 3.]

“Do I get additional rewards if I ask to challenge a higher level? This is baby-level shit.” Kevin watched as two more balls appeared, moving just as slowly over the sky. It wasn’t even a sport.

[Two more points! You have six points! Please wait while we consult management on their opinion.]

Kevin rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”

[Management rejected your proposal. Choosable difficulty levels would add too much complexity to the system]

“Fine.” Kevin shrugged, and blocked those balls. It was frankly the most boring game he ever had, worse than trying to play with babies. At least babies still had their silly facial expressions. This was like trying to play catch with a tortoise that’s absolutely disinterested.

[Ten points!]

[Twenty points!]

[You achieved fifty points!]

[You’ve received the expiring skill - Weightless Steel Shield Level 5! You can use this shield for your next 10 dungeons!]

[One perk point awarded]