Luke Myers was checking cars for one with the key left in it when he heard the summons. He ignored it at first, intent on getting out of this madness as soon as possible, but its insistence piqued his curiosity.

He'd never meant to get caught up in this video game reality crap in the first place. He'd been minding his own business when some rabid dog bit him, and the next thing he knew there were status screens and shit popping up in his mind without so much as a by-your-leave. Very rude. Not as rude as the stupid dog though. He'd kicked it until it let go, then stomped its skull in. There may have been inarticulate screaming involved, he didn't remember that part very clearly.

So he'd become a level 1 fighter and that was that. He went on with his life, minding his own business, and the status boxes never bothered him again.

What did bother him was a contingent of men-in-black goons dragging him away on his way home from work, who then asked a bunch of absurd questions before chaining him up like some kind of old-fashioned parody of villainy. This was the twenty-first century! You don't lock people in stone cells with big ugly metal chains out of one of those lord of the rings shows!

But they had.

Luke had been forced to miss more than a few important calls, been absent from essential meetings, and not shown up to dinner. All he wanted was to get back to his life and pretend none of this ever happened. Though he secretly suspected he'd need years of therapy to fully get over it.

"Everyone, everyone, gather up, we've got important news before you go!"

Fine. They might have more gear he could grab before they sent everyone on their way. He didn't know why the actually-magical dungeons would give out human-shaped items that would help lead to its own defeat, but people paid for that crap. He could probably make enough from what he'd scavenged here to make up for... well, not all the days spent locked up, but at least it'd cover a portion of his costs. He'd already traded anything bulky at a nice profit to the one guy whose phone hadn't died and could still use venmo. He wouldn't say no to a little more.

Irene Morrison, level 13 Medic, stood at the top of the steps of an only slightly stepped-on building, repeating her call as people slowly gathered from everywhere they'd spread out. A moment after Luke joined the waiting crowd a familiar man in battered armor stepped up to stand beside her.

Levi Morrison, level 19 Tamer. The one person in this whole fiasco that Luke could respect. He'd done the impossible in breaking in, and then done the even more impossible in breaking them all out.

Irene raised her hands for quiet. Once the crowd was settled, she took a step back, leaving Levi fully in the center of focus.

For a moment the tamer stood silently staring out at them. Luke was too far away to make out his expression.

Then Levi began to speak. "You've seen how drastically the world is changing. It's not going to stop. It's going to get worse. If you want to bury your heads in the sand and try to pretend everything's normal, I can't stop you. But don't say you weren't warned. When the dungeons started appearing a few months ago, they instigated changes to the very nature of our world that cannot be reversed. Magic. The system. Mana. Levels. All of it. It's here to stay. And the dungeons aren't the only thing we'll need to prepare for in the coming months."

Luke raised his hand. "How many of these dungeons are there?" he shouted to be heard, his mind started to shift gears. He'd been thinking of this as an isolated incident, but if this was an indicator of the future?

"Thousands of dungeons. Conservative estimates put it at around one every forty miles or so, but some are spaced closer or further apart. I can name the locations of over six hundred dungeons in the US alone, and another few hundred throughout Canada and Mexico."

Six hundred didn't sound so bad, for a whole country. That was, what, twelve per state? "Are you sure it's definitely impossible to undo?" He didn't want to live in a world without working electricity.

But Levi wasn't done talking. "Personal experience has shown that many more exist than just those I am aware of. I'd guess at least double, if not more. Dungeons aren't something we can just lock down and pretend are under control." He waved a hand toward the glowing ominous portal that stood revealed amid the wreckage. The thing stood tall and untouched amid the devastation around it. "They are an invaluable resource that must be treated with due caution."

"Resource? You've got to be kidding," shouted someone else in the crowd. "They're a hazard! Is there any way to destroy it? We should get rid of them before they can eat us all."

"No." Levi's voice was abrupt and dangerously harsh. "Because the dungeons aren't our real enemy. We have two more months to gather our strength and prepare before the real invasion begins. Dungeons won't go out of their way to attack you unless you wander inside or stray too close to their entrances. And they're the only way we have of leveling before it's too late."

"What's that supposed to mean? They need to be destroyed! You expect us to... what, stay away from the dungeons and forget they invaded our homes and businesses and communities and just took over wherever they landed?"

This time Luke found himself frowning at the interruption. He'd already started thinking of ways to utilize dungeon-created goods. If only there were a way to make electronics mana-resistant.

"Yes." Levi's voice echoed, clipped and commanding. "That's exactly what I want. IF you're unwilling to fight and level and join in the defence of the planet, if you want to stay out of it, then yes. Keep far away from the dungeons. But even then, I can't guarantee your safety."

Muttering and shifting, but no one interrupted as the tamer continued to speak.

"In two months, Earth will be subjected to a wave of portals, hundreds of them, all across the world, which will open for one day. Every portal leads to a world of fire and death, and each portal can deliver between twenty and a hundred thousand invaders. This attack will make the dungeons look tame, everything we've been through this past week pale in comparison. It is that for which we must be prepared if Earth is to survive."

Levi paused for a moment, and Luke wished he'd been closer. What was that expression on his face? He couldn't quite make it out from this distance.

"One portal will contain the Demon Lord who rules the invasion. Early intelligence places that portal in Canada. The other portals will contain a few hundred Elites, a few thousand Warriors, and many thousands of Imps and Hellhounds. Each hellhound is roughly the same strength level as the monsters in this dungeon," he gestured again toward the sinister portal, "and the strength level goes up proportionally from there."

This time no one interrupted, the gathered watchers completely silent.

"A single imp would require a group of level 30-40 to bring down with no casualties, Warriors 50-65, Elites 70 and above, and the Demon Lords themselves... have never been brought down without at least a hundred Awakened above level 70, or with less than 75% casualty rate. All of us here might survive a handful of hellhounds. A single imp would be enough to burn us all, myself included, if we were foolish enough to stand and fight. Anything beyond that, we'd be lucky to escape with our lives, let alone put up any sort of resistance."

Luke pushed his way carefully through the gathered people, moving closer to the front, listening as the story unfolded.The whole thing sounded absurd.

"But... two months isn't long enough to reach level 70, is it?" someone in the crowd called out hesitantly. "I've only gone up three levels and that took a week."

"That's correct. As it stands, no matter what any of us does, the higher rank demons will absolutely annihilate vast swaths of the population of the world before any of us is ready to stand up against them. Our goal right now is to level, and survive. As long as we can do those two things, we will eventually be able to drive the invaders off our world and send them back where they came from. If any of you is willing to join us, I will do my utmost to see you prepared to survive."

"I don't see why we can't nuke the demon lord and be done with it? You're talkin' like we need to go toe to toe with it with metal armor and pointy sticks."

"It's been tried. Civilians, low-level Awakened, and hellhounds were the only casualties. Anything above imp-tier just kept walking."

Luke paused. Something in the man's words felt off to him. He frowned and slowly raised his hand. "What do you mean, it's been tried? Did another invasion already happen? How did no one notice that one?"

This time he saw it. Levi Morrison froze, face going stiff. Irene leaned up to whisper in his ear, patting his shoulder encouragingly. It was still a quiet moment of muttering and uncertainty before he finally spoke again:

"I'm a time traveler. I watched it happen in the future, and I've come back to warn you all. If we don't do anything and let the events run their course, the planet will be gradually devastated until in ten years less than ten thousand survivors remain alive. Every year, another Demon Lord arrives in another wave of portals, with more reinforcements. They will push us back despite our best efforts, until nothing living remains."

Someone in the crowd let out a high laugh. "You had me worried for a minute there. Hah, time traveler. Hehe, sure you are."

As he moved steadily closer to the front, Luke overheard some people mutter in clear concern, while others seemed relieved and dismissive. He wasn't interested in the reactions of the crowd. He was interested in the reactions of the so-called time traveler.

The expression on the face of Levi Morrison, level 19 Tamer, was not that of a charlatan playing to a crowd. His face was tense and grim, eyes flicking uneasily as if he'd rather be anywhere but in front of so many people.

Luke's heartbeat sped up unbidden as the pieces fell into place.

This wasn't a lie. It was either insanity or truth, and from where he was standing it looked an awful lot like truth.

Levi Morrison had known where to find them, when no one else had even tried. He'd slipped past higher level enemies who outnumbered him, broken into the most dangerous dungeon Luke had ever seen, and single-handedly cleared out every single monster in the place, killing all but one of their captors in the process.

It wasn't a reasonable sequence of events. No ordinary person could have done that.

But if he was from the future? Everything made sense.

Luke Myers raised his hand one final time, standing straight despite the muttering of the crowd, and stepped forward. "I believe you. How can I help?"