It was the middle of the night, and Melmat decided it was high time he took some time for himself, get away from the neophytes and initiates. Relax a little bit, head into Vegas and have a good time.

“THE END IS NIGH!” he screamed from atop his pile of pallets, broken and stacked high. It looked like he would fall any moment, slip and be impaled on jagged wood that pointed up like punji spears. Melmat was in his work robes, hooded, brown and made from rough canvas material. He had done some movie style makeup; pieces of latex that transformed him into an ancient edifice of a man, with a long beard. His hands looked wrinkled and liver-spotted and he had this wild, haunted and crazy look in his eyes that could only be achieved by the mentally abnormal.

“YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE, THAT YOU HAD KILLED GOD AND BURIED HIM BENETH SILICONE AND WIRE!”

Melmat had a modest sized gathering, a few of them sticking around after he'd hypnotized a group of partiers from over a hundred feet away and gotten them to perform tricks for ten minutes straight. Melmat could tell they thought all of this was a really strange street performance, and that they were having trouble understanding why he would bark like a wild dog and curse at anyone who dared to try and give him money. 'I think he's possessed,' someone whispered, and someone else whispered back 'I hope so, this'll get even better!'

“BUT I TELL YOU, GOD. . .” he screamed “ALREADY LIVES IN THE FINEST OF WIRE AND FILLAMENT, IN YOUR BRAINS. IN MINE. LOOK TO THE HEAVENS FOR A SIGN, FOOLS AND SINNERS, LOOK AND SEE FOR YOU WILL RECIEVE ONE!”

While in Tibet, Melmat had received the secret of levitation from spiritual masters, and as he stood there and began to rise off of the pile of wood, he had the distinct feeling that they would be ashamed their teachings were being used for such a vulgar display; he hoped Lisa would get back soon, he was starting to get really turned on. People started to gasp and scream in delight, and he rose higher and higher, a full three feet off of his precarious perch.

“FOR I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, A CHANGE IS COMING! HEAR MY PROPHECY, CARVE MY WORDS UPON A BLOCK OF ICE AND GAZE UPON THEM AS IT MELTS!” He was totally free-styling it at this point, just tickled knowing this wasn't going to have any long reaching consequences “THE DUNGEON COMES, AND WITH IT THE NEW ERA HAS BEGUN! THE STAR OF HOPE RISES! A NEW PRIESTHOOD HAS BEEN BORN, AND THEY SHALL SHATTER THE WORLD WITH A HAMMER OF IRON!”

People started screaming, which wasn't really the reaction Melmat was hoping for. He'd had his head thrown back, arms outstretched, eyes closed. He peeked an eye open, and saw a glowing blue window floating in front of his face. It had but one thing written on it.

THE DUNGEON HAS APPEARED

Blood running cold, and almost afraid to look, Melmat brought his head forward and looked at the crowd. For as many people were walking around Las Vegas on a friday night, there were an equal number of blue windows that had appeared. His phone, his 'do not ever call this number unless it is an absolute emergency', phone, started ringing, and from the ringtone he knew it was Lisa all the way up in the Pacific northwest. With a thought, he dismissed the manifestitation. Slowly, while people were distracted, he brought himself down gently upon the tops of the broken pallets and started to tiptoe away. One of his audience was shaking their head from side to side, trying to shake the window off apparently, and it tracked their movements, moving staying fixed relative to their face. The window suddenly vanished, apparently the woman had figured out how to get rid of it. First, she looked around and saw that yes, indeed, everyone was seeing the same thing she had just seen.

Then her eyes sought out Melmat, and he started to run away. She was still in a daze, and began to sort of sleepwalk in his direction. He very rapidly started losing the latex, he ripped the beard right off of his face, the wig came next and then all the little bits and pieces that transformed him into a different person.

“Shit,” he said, and got in his car, making a direct beeline towards the town of Hope. Of course it was going to happen on the day he took off.

--

“Hey kids,” Melchsee said, approaching the campsite and sitting right next to Ben. She was dressed in a hooded white robe, her too large eyes and the opal in her forehead shimmered in the firelight. In Ben's experience, it always shimmered; regardless of the light or setting. “Hear about what's happening back home-”

Blue status windows appeared in front of all of them.

THE DUNGEON HAS APPEARED

“-lizards,” she continued, then trailed off to read the window. “Finally,” she said, then began rapidly opening a cascade of windows, reading through information and occasionally inputting something. The group looked at one another, then at Ben.

“So,” he began.

“Give me a moment,” she said, frowning “I'm learning the new system here,” she glanced up and saw everyone was staring at her “Done! Didn't you hear me? Giant lizards are on their way to attack Hope.” As soon as the words left her mouth, the five of them recieved a quest notification.

The end of Hope!

Dungeon spawn from another plane of existance have invaded and are headed for the town of Hope. End the threat! Accept this quest and you will recieve tools to assist you.

Reward: The thrill of victory and a town full of living people (no ownership rights are granted over the town full of living people.)

Issued by the Dungeon Lord Melchsee

She vanished.

--

In a secret cave, in a secret mountain range near Tibet, the defacto rulers of the earth sat in deep meditation. They did that alot, rarely moving or doing much of anything. They were definately in charge though, when they wanted something to happen, it happened. There were eight of them, sitting in an octagon formation, and all of them at once got the notification.

THE DUNGEON HAS APPEARED

“Looks like Melmat's work,” one of them muttered.

“Another parlor trick,” another of them said.

“He's already done this one, with these stupid windows,” a third scoffed.

“Utterly foolish,” they all said in unison, and willed the windows to go away. They did not go away.

“Strong magic,” a fourth one said.

“I sense nothing in my mind,” a fifth spoke, troubled.

“Another parlor trick,” the second one repeated.

“Utterly foolish,” they all said again, with a little less conviction this time. A man, their attendant who brought them each a cup of water once a week, all they needed at their level of spiritual attainment, entered the cave. He was not breathless, nor was he frazzled; at least, to a regular person he would seem completely calm. To the eight masters of the earth, however, he was practically in hysterics. In front of him was another status window, with the same message that everyone in the world was seeing at that very moment. There was a long pause, where none of them said anything. They were a smart, smart group of men, and they were able to connect the dots faster than anyone else.

“Tell me, boy,” the sixth man said to the sixty year old attendant “is this. . .global?” The attendant was strongly discouraged from speaking in their presence, and simply nodded.

“That lunatic,” the seventh muttered.

“That arrogant madman,” the eight spoke, the first words he had vocalized in over ninety years, the second longest stretch of silence he'd ever achieved; the longest was ninety-six.

“That fool has doomed us all,” they said together, “Prepare our messenger to the Sun, the time has come to make the earth new, once again.”

The attendant left, trembling in fear and he was right to tremble.

The world had just been sentenced to sterilization by fire.

–

'And then he fucking levitated and started talking about the dungeon,' an anonymous poster said in one of the tens of thousands of anonymous discussions happening all over the internet, but primarily on EndChan 'and right as he did, the fucking message appeared, globally. Coincidence? I think not!'

Demands for proof were rampant, and the poster admitted that he hadn't gotten footage. He did provide the date, time and location of the incident; more than enough for the collective hyperfocus of the internet to seek proof for themselves. It was only fifteen minutes later when a South African hacker who identified himself as FloppieSlotter69 provided several videos, all from different angles, from a variety of security camera footage; hacked cell phones and a satellite still.

That's when the crazy really got started, and people started heading to Vegas.