The subway car rattled through the tunnel like a steel coffin on rails, packed with the usual mix of early morning commuters. Office workers clutching coffee cups like lifelines, construction crews heading to rebuild whatever got destroyed in last week's dungeon break, and the occasional Awakened who thought public transportation was beneath them but couldn't afford the Guild shuttles.
Alex found a spot near the window and pulled out his phone, earbuds already queued up to his usual morning routine. The GuildTube algorithm knew him too well by now – his feed was nothing but dungeon raid highlights and analysis videos.
Today's top trending video: "Phoenix Guild DESTROYS 4-Star Necropolis - Sera Vale's New Fire Technique Will SHOCK You!"
12.4 million views. 847K likes.
Alex scrolled past it. He'd seen enough of Sera Vale's perfect technique and perfect hair and perfect everything to last a lifetime. Instead, he clicked on a smaller channel: "Iron Wolf Weekly - Behind the Scenes with B-Rank Warriors."
67K views. 3.2K likes.
The video opened with Marcus Wong's familiar grin, his slightly crooked teeth and genuine enthusiasm a stark contrast to the polished media training of the S-rank celebrities.
"Hey everyone, Marcus here! Today we're tackling the Hudson River Gateway again. I know, I know – 'Marcus, it's just a 2-star dungeon, why do you keep going back?'" Marcus chuckled, adjusting his worn leather armor. "But here's the thing about consistent training..."
Alex found himself nodding along. Marcus got it. Not everyone could leap straight to the big leagues. Some people had to grind their way up, one small victory at a time.
The comments section was typically chaotic:
@SwordMaster2029: "Bro just join a bigger guild already lol"
@AwakenerPride: "B-rank grinding 2-star dungeons 🤡🤡🤡"
@NYC_Native: "Marcus is actually solid tho. Saw him solo a Cave Troll last month"
@CasualGamer91: "Why does he always bring that camera guy? Just use guild footage"
Alex's thumb hovered over that last comment. He'd seen variations of it hundreds of times. Why do they need a human cameraman when drones exist? Why hire some F-rank nobody when guild tech is better?
The answer was simple: Marcus Wong was one of the few Awakened who understood that good footage wasn't just about capturing the action. It was about capturing the story.
And Alex... well, Alex had gotten very good at finding the story in the details others missed.
His phone buzzed with a notification:
BREAKING: Hudson River Gateway showing unusual monster activity. Environmental conditions deteriorating. Iron Wolf Guild proceeding with scheduled raid.
Alex frowned, screenshotting the alert. "Unusual activity" was code for "something's wrong but we're not sure what." In the early days after the Great Awakening, guilds used to cancel raids for stuff like that. But five years in, with dungeon industry profits hitting record highs, "unusual" just meant "charge extra hazard pay."
The subway lurched to a stop. Next stop: Hudson Terminal.
Alex pocketed his phone and shouldered his equipment bag. Around him, the morning crowd shuffled toward the doors with the practiced efficiency of people who'd done this dance a thousand times.
As he stepped onto the platform, Alex's mind was already running through his pre-raid checklist. Camera batteries: check. Backup memory cards: check. Emergency beacon in case everything went sideways: check.
He paused at the bottom of the subway stairs, looking up toward street level where the morning sun was trying to burn through New York's perpetual haze. Somewhere up there, Marcus Wong was probably doing his own equipment check, running through sword forms and psyching himself up for another day of proving that B-rank didn't mean second-rate.
And somewhere even further up there, in the gleaming towers of Manhattan, S-rank Awakened were probably deciding which 6-star dungeon to tackle between their morning lattes and stock portfolio reviews.
Alex climbed the stairs, his equipment bag heavy on his shoulders. Just another day in the big city. Just another day of watching other people live the dream.
But as he emerged into the gray morning light, that nagging feeling from the news alert stayed with him.
Unusual monster activity.
In Alex's experience, "unusual" was rarely a good thing.
To be continued...