"WHAT THE FUCK!!!" I screamed.
A sharp gasp answered me.
Before I could react, a blinding white light exploded into my face.
"—Hey!" I hissed, instinctively covering my eyes.
The girl above flicked her phone's flashlight on and off repeatedly, completely unapologetic as she aimed it straight at my eyes.
"How rude," she said flatly. "I was just asking, and you didn't even look at me."
"Stop!" I snapped. "What the hell!"
Because the problem wasn't her.
It was the thing floating right in front of me.
────────────────────────
[WELCOME, REX KNOX.]
[ADULT QUEST SYSTEM — ACTIVATED.]
[FIRST QUEST WILL BE ISSUED SHORTLY.]
[FAILURE CONDITION MEANS: DEATH.]
────────────────────────
My breath hitched.
My heartbeat pounded so loud I could hear it in my ears.
"…This isn't funny," I muttered.
I rubbed my eyes hard, then looked again.
It didn't disappear.
"Cool," the girl said lazily from above. "You done screaming?"
She rolled over, turned off the flashlight, and flopped back onto her mattress like none of this concerned her.
"Weirdo," she whispered. "Do whatever you want."
I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling slowly, forcing my thoughts to line up.
Okay.
Hallucinations don't usually come with UI.
The window flickered.
[FIRST QUEST WILL ARRIVE IN: 05:00:00]
「PLEASE PREPARE」
"…Five hours," I murmured.
My eyes shifted upward.
"Hey," I called quietly. "What time is it?"
No response.
"…Hello?"
Silence.
Then, barely audible— "Ask for forgiveness first, dumbass."
I froze.
"…What?"
She shifted slightly above me, her voice low and annoyed.
"You startled me and didn't even introduce yourself," she said. "Figure it out."
"I said hello though?"
No response.
Great.
I sat down at the bed and leaned back against the mattress, staring at the floating window.
Five hours.
And there's something gonna happen…
"…I'm screwed," I whispered.
And this roommate of mine won't even cooperate, what is this day, I even got a weird dream.
A minute pass, then—
"…I'm sorry," I said flatly. "There. Happy?"
A short pause.
"It's 6 pm," she replied.
"…What?"
"6pm."
My brain shook.
Then—
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I stood up, hitting my head at the bunkbed, "ouch! Fuck!"
I scratch my head. "What about school?! I didn't attend anything!"
She groaned loudly from above.
Then snapped.
"Bro, shut up for one second."
The mattress creaked as she leaned over the edge of the top bunk, glaring down at me like I was the dumbest thing she'd seen all day.
"There's no school today," she said slowly, like she was explaining something basic. "It's just registration."
She rolled her eyes.
"Tomorrow's the actual start."
Silence.
"…Oh."
I let myself sink back into the mattress, the springs groaning softly under my weight.
"…Then why am I this stressed already?" I muttered.
"Because you scream like you're being murdered," she replied lazily from above, rolling over. The bunk creaked as she shifted. "And you startled me awake."
I stared at the metal frame of the bunk bed in front of me. It was solid, Probably warded against idiots punching holes through it with awakening powers.
"Hey," I called out, keeping my voice low this time.
No response.
The room was quiet again. Too quiet. Outside the dorm window, distant city noise hummed. I don't know how I can hear the distant city even though we're in the middle of nowhere, but there were hover buses, neon signs buzzing, the faint echo of something massive moving far away.
Ever since the dungeons started appearing, the city never truly slept anymore.
"…Hey," I tried again.
Still nothing.
I frowned.
"HEY!" I called out louder.
"Woah?! What is it?!" she gasped, suddenly sitting up. Her voice cracked with surprise as she leaned over the edge of the top bunkbed. "What the hell, bro?! Why do you keep yelling?!!"
"I called you," I said, rubbing my temple. "You didn't answer. So I called harder."
She stared down at me like she was deciding whether to throw a pillow, or jump down and strangle me.
"…You know people don't respond faster when you're quiet right?"
I exhaled slowly.
"Sorry," I said, then hesitated. "I just… needed to ask something."
She squinted at me, suspicious now.
"…You better not scream again."
"I won't," I promised.
Probably a lie.
Above me, she sighed and lay back down, but her voice came a moment later— quieter, more alert.
"What?"
I glanced instinctively at the floating window still hovering in my vision, its pink-edged black frame faintly pulsing, like it was alive. Like it was waiting.
"…Never mind," I said after a beat. "Go back to what you were doing."
Then. After a short pause, I spoke again.
"…Never mind. Hey. Do you know I was stuck in sleep paralysis earlier?"
She didn't respond, so I continued.
"There was this girl… looked like a succubus or something. She was standing beside our bunk bed. Then she sat on my waist and whispered that she was going to turn me into a living power generator."
There was a beat of silence.
"A wet dream?" she said flatly. "Damn, bro."
"I swear I'm serious."
"Sure you are."
I sighed and shifted, my eyes drifting around the room.
That's when I noticed it, the other bunk bed. Empty. Completely untouched.
"…Aren't we supposed to have two more roommates?" I asked. "Why's that bed empty?"
She rolled over on the top bunk, peering down at me from the edge, her hair spilling over the side.
"We probably got lucky," she said with a yawn. "No one else registered as A-Class this year."
Cool… so I somehow accidentally became A-Class even though I didn't even have mana.
I forgot to say but at VAHARD, A-Class wasn't just a label. It meant priority resources, private facilities, and a dorm big enough to make normal apartments look like storage closets. Usually, only prodigies, nobles, or walking disasters with absurd mana got assigned here.
And somehow… I slipped through.
"That's nice then," I said lazily. "Means we've got this huge dorm all to ourselves."
"Pervert," she muttered.
"What?!" I shot back. "What did I even do?!"
"Nothing," she said softly—way too quickly.
I turned back toward the window.
Outside, the campus was quiet. Too quiet. VAHARD was built on the edge of the city, where dungeon incursions were rare but not impossible. Tall trees surrounded the dorm complex like a natural barrier, and faint magical lamps lined the pathways below, glowing dimly through the leaves.
Inside, the room was dark.
The only real light came from a thin strip of purple LED mana-light embedded into the ceiling, standard issue for magic dorms. It wasn't bright enough to illuminate the room fully, but it was enough to see silhouettes. Enough to see expressions.
That's when I noticed it again.
Floating in the air, right in front of me.
A black window, outlined in soft pink light.
「4:32:21.00 UNTIL QUEST INITIATION」
The glow reflected faintly on the wall, like it actually existed in the room instead of just in my head.
"Shit…" I muttered. "It's 6pm. That means this thing's gonna start around ten or eleven tonight."
"What are you muttering about?" she asked.
"Nothing."
Suddenly—
She hopped down from the top bunk and landed beside my bed.
That startled me bad.
Up close, the purple ceiling light caught her features better, soft shadows, muted colors, close enough that I could clearly see her expression.
"Hey," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "About earlier… sorry. Wanna introduce ourselves properly?"
As she spoke, she brushed her hair behind her ear, the movement casual, almost careful.
In the dim light, it felt less like a dorm room…
It feels more like… a hotel room…
I cleared my throat, "Sure," I replied.
Now that I was actually looking at her up close…
She was pretty cute.
She wore an oversized white T-shirt that slipped off one shoulder, paired with loose shorts that looked more comfortable than modest. Her long brown hair framed her face perfectly, and her purple tinted eyes caught the light just enough to make them stand out.
(Tap this comment for illustration.)
And for some reason— one I absolutely refused to think too hard about, is… yea I know what's the color of her panties too.
I cleared my throat, suddenly aware of how quiet the room felt.
"I'm Rex Knox," I said. Then, not gonna lie, everyone's gonna know it anyways. "…Might as well say it now."
She glanced at me lazily, clearly half interested.
"I got assigned to A-Class because they thought I was the one who broke the orb," I continued. "The whole one-in-a-thousand potential guy."
She stared at me for a second.
Then snorted.
"Cool joke."
"I swear," I said flatly.
She giggled clearly unconvinced, then slid down to sit beside me in my bed like the topic barely mattered.
"Yeah, sure," she said. "Anyways, I'm Luna Ebonveil."
I looked at her.
"Woah, Ebonveil? So you're a nob—"
She leaned forward and pressed a finger gently against my lips.
"Shhh," she whispered, amused. "Let me finish my introduction."
My eyebrows twitched, then carefully moved her finger away and wiped my lips with the back of my hand.
"…Hey," she said, feigning offense. "That's kind of rude."
"Yea, it's disgusting," I replied.
She smirked, clearly shocked, and something else.
"Anyway," she continued, "I'm the second daughter of House Ebonveil."
She straightened a little. "Ahem. I use two elements. Wind and lightning. Lightning's the primary magic of the Ebonveil family."
That explained a lot.
She reached out and took my hand, giving it a firm shake.
"Nice to meet you, Rex."
"…Sure," I said. "Nice to meet you too."
The timer flickered.
For a split second, the numbers glitched, then snapped into place.
「4:00:00.00」
"…Huh," I muttered.
"Hey," Luna called out casually.
I turned my head just in time to feel her fingers slide lightly through the back of my hair, slow and teasing.
"So," she said, voice soft, "got anything planned to kill the boredom?"
I slapped her hand sofly.
"…No," I said. "I'm just gonna sleep it out."
"Tch. Meanie," she replied.
I let out a breath and rolled onto my side.
"Yeah. Good night, bro."
She laughed softly.
"Good night to you too, bro."
A moment later, I heard the faint creak of the ladder as she climbed back up to the top bunk, the one directly above me. one second I accidentally saw a glimpse of her panties again. Then the mattress shifted slightly as she fully got up and settled in.
The room fell quiet again.
Only the soft purple LED light lining the ceiling remained on, dim enough to paint the walls in shadows, bright enough that the room didn't feel completely dark. Just enough to remind me I wasn't alone.
I pulled my phone out, set an alarm for four hours, and
placed it beside the bed.
***
"TRTRRNNRNRNRNGGG!!! WAKE UP B####"