The sky split open like someone had taken a knife to reality itself.
Kaito didn't even look up.
He adjusted his backpack strap, sidestepped a screaming woman who nearly knocked him over, and continued his walk home. Around him, downtown had erupted into chaos—cars abandoned in the middle of intersections, people pointing at the massive crimson rift that had torn through the clouds, someone's dropped groceries rolling past his feet.
His phone buzzed. Probably his mom asking if he was okay. He'd text her back when he got home.
A chunk of concrete from a crumbling building crashed onto the sidewalk ten feet ahead. Kaito paused, looked at it, then crossed to the other side of the street. His favorite bookstore's display window had shattered, books scattered across the pavement. He picked up an intact copy of a light novel he'd been meaning to read, tucked it under his arm, and kept walking.
"THE END IS UPON US!" some guy was shouting from a street corner, wearing what looked like a homemade prophet costume. "REPENT! REPENT BEFORE—"
"Yeah, yeah," Kaito muttered, pulling out his earbuds.
The sky was doing something weird now—pillars of light shooting down in the distance, the sound of thunder without any rain. Maybe an alien invasion? Demon apocalypse? Honestly, he'd watch the news later if he remembered. Right now, his feet hurt, he had three chapters left in his current book, and his bed was calling to him.
His apartment building was somehow still standing, though the old lady from 3B was crying on the front steps.
"Young man! Young man, did you see—"
"Yeah, Mrs. Tanaka. Wild stuff. Stay inside, okay?" He gave her a thumbs up and took the stairs two at a time.
His apartment was exactly as he'd left it this morning: unmade bed, stack of books on his nightstand, empty ramen cup on his desk. Perfect. Kaito kicked off his shoes, ignored the emergency broadcast starting to blare from his neighbor's TV through the thin walls, and face-planted onto his bed.
The book he'd grabbed from the street landed beside him. He cracked it open to page one.
Outside, something exploded. Car alarm, probably.
He turned to page two.
His phone buzzed again. He turned it on silent.
Page three was pretty good actually. The protagonist had just discovered they could—
The world lurched.
Kaito's stomach did a flip as everything around him seemed to pixelate, break apart into geometric shapes, and then reassemble somewhere else entirely. When his vision cleared, he was no longer lying on his bed.
He was standing.
In a throne room.
Made entirely of black marble and gold filigree, with floating platforms, a sky full of swirling purple storm clouds visible through massive archways, and—most annoyingly—no bed in sight.
"BEHOLD!" A voice boomed through the chamber, deep and resonating with power that made the floor vibrate. "MORTAL! YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!"
Kaito blinked.
Sitting on an obsidian throne about fifty feet ahead was what could only be described as a demon lord straight out of a video game—massive curved horns, blood-red skin, glowing yellow eyes, the works. The demon was grinning, clearly very pleased with itself.
"You have been selected," the demon continued, spreading its clawed hands dramatically, "to become a DUNGEON MASTER! Ruler of the Tower of Eternal Suffering! Through your cruelty and cunning, you shall—"
"Can I go home?" Kaito asked flatly.
The demon lord blinked. "What?"
"Home. Can I go back? I was reading."
A pause. The demon lord's grin faltered slightly. "You... you don't understand. The apocalypse has begun! The towers have risen across your world! Only the strong shall survive, and you have been granted the power to—"
"Not interested." Kaito turned around, looking for a door.
"YOU CAN'T REFUSE!" The demon lord stood up, its voice shaking the pillars. "You have been CHOSEN! You are now bound to the Tower! You cannot escape! You cannot die outside of—"
Kaito spotted an archway that opened to open sky. Without hesitation, he walked toward it.
"What are you—don't you dare—"
He stepped off the edge.
The wind rushed past him as he fell, the palace rapidly shrinking above him. Clouds zipped by. Below, he could see a landscape of twisted spires and dark forests stretching endlessly.
This should kill him pretty quickly. Then maybe he could respawn back home, or just be done with the whole thing. Either way, problem solved.
He hit the ground.
Or rather, he should have hit the ground.
Instead, there was a sensation like passing through jelly, and suddenly he was standing back in the throne room, completely unharmed, in the exact same spot he'd been before.
The demon lord was laughing. Actually laughing, doubled over on its throne, wheezing.
"BWAHAHAHA! Oh, that's—that's perfect! You just—you actually just—" It wiped a tear from one glowing eye. "You can't die, you idiot! Not outside the Tower's boundaries! That's the POINT! You're IMMORTAL out there! You're BOUND HERE!"
Kaito stared at the demon.
The demon grinned back.
"So," it said, still chuckling, "shall we discuss your duties as Dungeon Master? You have adventurers to torment, traps to design, monsters to command—"
Kaito turned and walked toward a different archway.
"Oh, come ON—"
He jumped again.
Same result. Back in the throne room, unharmed.
The demon lord had stopped laughing. "You're going to do that all day, aren't you."
"Maybe." Kaito spotted what looked like a bedroom through a side corridor. "Is there a bed in this place?"
"A—a BED? You're supposed to be designing DEATH TRAPS!"
"After my nap." Kaito started walking toward the corridor. "And some reading time. Do you have books here, or is this going to be a problem?"
The demon lord opened its mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"I'm starting to regret this summoning," it muttered.
"Same," Kaito said, and shut the door behind him.
Through the door, he heard the demon lord shout: "YOUR TOWER OPENS TO CHALLENGERS IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS! YOU BETTER BE READY!"
Kaito found the bed—unnecessarily large, draped in dark silk—and collapsed onto it. He still had that book from the street in his back pocket, miraculously intact.
Apocalypse, demon lords, immortality, dungeon management.
What a pain.
He opened to page four and started reading.
Outside, in the throne room, the demon lord put its face in its hands and wondered if it was too late to summon a different Dungeon Master.