Gary stood in front of the weirdest portal he had ever seen in his life. Normally, a portal would be completely covered in swirling energy with hazy light coming off of it, and would not allow one to look into what was inside of it.
However, this new dungeon that had formed out of nowhere had a portal that clearly showed what was inside.
He looked at the reading on his device and was confused by the findings as well.
"Why is there absolutely no mana in there at all?" he wondered. His head ached from the lack of sleep as he was forced to look after the dungeon. He wanted to sleep already, but he would have to wait a while since he was going to send some people in to check the inside.
The group of hunters, the one at the head of them all being an A-ranked one, walked inside immediately.
Gary had to wait around 3 or so hours before they completely cleared the dungeon and—
"We found nothing," the leader said from in front of him.
Gary looked confused. "Why are you guys still out here? You should go in," he said.
The hunter looked confused as well. "We did go in," he said. "We spent 5 hours in there searching for any sort of life, but aside from normal bugs and birds and maybe a few animals, we found nothing."
Gary was confused when he heard that. "How did you spend 5 hours in there when it hasn't even been a single second since you entered?" he asked.
"Are you okay?" the hunter asked. "We spent 5 hours in there."
"No, you didn't," Gary said. "Look, it's still 12:35."
"What? That can't be, we really did spend 5 hours inside," the hunter said.
Gary looked around at the rest of the hunters who said the same thing. "Um, can you go in for a few minutes and come back out again?" he asked. "Stay in there as long as you can. Oh, right. Take this tablet with you too."
The hunters looked around for a bit and said, "sure."
Gary watched them go in this time around. When they did go in, they immediately walked back out.
"How long was it now? We stayed there for about 15 minutes," the hunter said as he handed back the table.
Gary looked at the tablet and was surprised. The time was now 12:48. They truly had spent some 15 minutes inside the dungeon.
Then how had time not passed at all?
"I see, you may give your report now," he said.
"Well, nothing much to report, I guess. There is absolutely nothing but flat grounds and trees around. No beast, no boss. There's not even mana if I'm not wrong, but that's just a feeling," the man said.
"I see. Thank you for your service," Gary said.
"Sure."
The hunters walked away. As it still ached, Gary massaged his head a little and looked at the data. 'Is time moving differently?' he wondered. He had to check.
Gary thought for a moment and left his tablet behind before walking in through the dungeon gate. He arrived on the inside and smelled the cool and fresh air, unlike the hot air from the desert heat of Utah.
Despite his headache, he moved around and looked at the landscape. Truly, there was nothing in here that was worth reporting at all. It was just a simple piece of land.
Which was probably why it was worth reporting in the first place. There had yet to be a simple piece of land with no monsters in any dungeon.
"I should return," he thought. But he had to wait a while. He looked around, just to make sure there really was no danger. Once he made sure there was none, he laid down and waited for a while.
As he did, his lack of sleep slowly took over him. Within minutes, he fell asleep in the soft grass beneath him in the caress of the cool breeze that went on around him.
The deep, howling winds in the distance only made his sleep more peaceful.
Gary woke up in a daze many hours later and slowly got up. He looked towards the sky and saw nothing but a pale silver moon hanging in the sky.
He was confused. He looked around, wondering what he was doing in this place. As his mental capabilities returned to him after a long sleep, his heart hastened as panic filled him with dread.
"Oh no, I fell asleep," he thought. He was refreshed, but that didn't stop him from worrying. He quickly walked back through the gate and immediately blocked his eyes at the midday sun.
"What? Why's the sun out?" he thought. He looked at the tablet that was on the table and remembered what he had expected before going into the dungeon.
He slowly took the tablet and proceeded to turn it on, but before he even did so, he realized it was already turned on. Rather, he realized that it hadn't turned off at all.
His eyes moved to look at the time and he noticed the number change from 12:48 to 12:49.
'12:48… wasn't that the time those hunters came out?' he thought. He checked the log and it was indeed the case.
'Then wait, did I spend less than a single minute for all that time inside?' he thought. He had to report it to his superiors.
He quickly got on the phone and explained everything.
"If that is the case then stay there. We will arrive in a day or two, and then we will decide what to do," the superiors said.
Gary nodded and looked back at the dungeon gate. A single minute out here meant hours in there. What could he do if he had so much time on his hands?
He quickly opened his personal smartphone and started downloading books, movies, tv-series and everything else he had wanted to go through for a long time but hadn't had the time to.
Gary Benton enjoyed the time of his life as he spent multiple years inside the dungeon while only ever coming out to charge his smartphone. Sometime later, he even took a charger with him inside the dungeon so he didn't have to come out to waste time.
While he spent his time enjoying his life, he slowly got acclimated to the environment that was this world as a single day passed outside. While there was no Qi inside, his body still slowly changed, becoming one where it could accept Qi if ever given to him.
Now, when he went back outside, he could even cultivate if he knew how to. With how strong Qi could make someone, he would have a definite advantage over the hunters of the earth as well.
Unfortunately for Gary, he would never have the chance at all.
"This is useless," a figure spoke to himself from a place that couldn't be easily reached. "I thought it was interesting that there was another universe out there, but I can see no humans anywhere."
"Without humans, I have no need for something," the being thought to himself. Then, the portal to the other universe started closing. However, a disaster struck just then, and in that disaster, the figure found a chance.
A chance to rise above everyone else.
