For a moment, a heavy silence fell between Adrian and me.

“Um… What? What did you say?”

Adrian looked at me, seemingly flustered. And gradually, I became aware of the foolish thing I had just blurted out.

“Uh, well, um… What I just said…”

Adrian slowly shifted his gaze from my face and avoided my eyes.

I was so shocked by my own blunder that I couldn’t say anything.

Instead, my mind was racing furiously.

What did I just say?

‘What kind of messed up situation is this? Why did I blurt out such an inappropriate thing as if I were some high school drama protagonist speaking without thinking?’

Thoughts of kissing? I’ve never had such thoughts. I just thought people who inconvenience others and constantly share each other’s oral epithelial cells were disgusting!

Above all, I was at a loss for words, feeling like a shameless girl who had flirted with a fellow team member.

How should I fix this? Should I make an excuse that I wasn’t fully awake…

As I was breaking out in a cold sweat with my face pale from embarrassment, Adrian glanced over my shoulder and then nodded as if he understood something.

“You mean Michael and Sandy?”

“Huh?”

“I thought you said that because those two are acting like that next to you. I just noticed them now. They tend to display their affection in various places.”

At Adrian’s words, I glanced over my shoulder to see Michael and Sandy still embracing and saying cheesy things to each other.

Those shameless ones.

Adrian spoke in a gentle tone as if to say not to worry.

“They’re famous for doing that regardless of the place. Were you flustered because of them?”

“Uh? A little…”

“Let’s go, I’ll walk you to your class.”

I found myself following Adrian, who had already turned and was heading towards the classroom. And I let out a sigh of relief.

‘If it had been McQueen, he would have teased me mercilessly about what nonsense I was talking about. I’m glad it was Adrian.’

If there was anything fortunate, it was that I had made that foolish remark in front of Adrian and not Victor. Adrian had pretended not to notice to spare me from embarrassment over the words I had accidentally blurted out.

Perhaps because I was so flustered, despite Adrian and Victor both being popular guys who become troublesome to deal with when encountered at school, I arrived at the classroom alongside Adrian.

I mumbled awkwardly.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to walk me here. You should go in too.”

“Alright. Have a good class, Juno. See you after school.”

For some reason, fortunately, the hallway was empty. I waved goodbye to Adrian, then quickly opened the classroom door and went in.

‘Why do I only show this side of myself to Adrian?’

The last time, I was caught using my skill while sitting on a tree in front of the gym.

I quickly shook my head to push away the embarrassing thoughts.

And I was about to go find my seat and sit down.

I wondered why there was no one in the hallway, but there was a group of students gathered at the front of the classroom, buzzing with chatter.

Did something happen?

I put my bag down on the desk and quietly approached them.

“Wow, this is amazing. Is this an awakened one?”

“Hey, isn’t this CGI? Where’s the source? Isn’t it from YouTube?”

The students chattered excitedly.

I approached from behind the tightly packed group. Looking closely, they were watching some video on a tablet PC together.

It was a news broadcast from today’s date.

[At around 3:30 AM this morning, a D-rank gate opened in the sky over Manhattan, New York. After evacuating civilians from the densely populated area, a dungeon team from Tieson Boarding School, in conjunction with U.S. military units, suppressed it. It took less than an hour from civilian evacuation to entering the gate and suppressing it…]

The anchor in the tablet delivered the breaking news in a calm tone.

A gate that opened in Manhattan, New York in the early morning was suppressed by a high school team in conjunction with U.S. military units. The story was about how the media and Manhattan citizens were impressed by their quick response.

‘Oh, come to think of it, the first high school dungeon team was from a New York school.’

According to Benjamin, they were also an elite team composed of high-ranking awakened ones.

The New York team had already closed gates three times, including this latest news.

“It’s New York again. Isn’t this like the third gate that’s opened there?”

“By the way, this is Tieson, right? That super expensive boarding school.”

The students watching the news together whispered.

My expression as I looked at the news through the bustling crowd was naturally not good.

‘Ah, at this rate, aren’t they going to take all the bonus points? Here, we’ve only had one gate open…’

As I was watching the news with a sullen expression, a video that seemed to have been taken directly by a citizen was broadcast on the news.

In the video, civilians could be seen evacuating quickly due to the gate that had opened in the sky.

Through the shaky view, soldiers in green uniforms could be seen.

And standing in the middle of them was a man in a school uniform.

White shirt and navy blue school jacket. The person filming the video fearlessly zoomed in on the man standing alone among the soldiers.

And then, the man turned to face the camera.

‘Huh?’

Although the video was taken at dawn, his face was clearly visible due to the lights set up around.

Soft black hair falling over a pale face. As the flash light poured onto the man’s face, light green eyes were captured vividly in the video.

The man staring intently this way with an expressionless, almost cold face, despite the bright light.

The moment I confirmed the man’s face, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“…Why is he there?”

And just as I muttered dazedly, a bright blue window appeared in front of me with a ‘ding’.

“Ah…!”

I stepped back in surprise.

It’s the first time a status window has popped up unexpectedly like this since I helped Adrian and Victor.

I stepped back a few steps with a calm face and read the status window message.

[~Possessor of a High Teen Drama~] [System: The ‘Possessor’ can view dungeon information in advance for their area of activity.]

‘Dungeon information? Suddenly?’

As soon as I scanned the status window message with my eyes, the screen automatically turned to the next page.

The next window showed even more densely packed text.

[‘Possessor’s’ area of activity: Connecticut State.

A D-rank dungeon will open in Connecticut State. The ‘Possessor’ can clear the D-rank dungeon with their party.] [Time remaining until the D-rank dungeon gate opens in Connecticut State,

D−7 days.] [This is the timeline separator]

It hadn’t even been a few months since ‘dungeons’ and ‘status windows’ had invaded this drama world where the high teen setting was the main focus.

The United States had poured capital into responding to this sudden change, and was trying to navigate this transition period well by joining hands with defense contractors and the military.

But everything was just human response. Dungeons were an unknown realm untouched by human hands.

At least for now.

They were trying to prepare for what might happen in the United States with dungeon by-products and dungeon data collected from other countries, but according to Benjamin, it was still uncertain ‘which state, what rank of gate, and when it would open’.

Except for the ‘dungeon rank measuring device’, all inventions were experimental works urgently needing beta testing.

But the status window kindly informed me of ‘what rank of gate would open when, limited to Connecticut state’.

It was information that even the government and U.S. military command, who were pouring astronomical amounts of money, didn’t know.

‘Is this all part of the possessor’s privileges?’

It even kindly tells me that a dungeon will open in a week. I don’t know whether to be relieved that I don’t have to worry about waiting with bated breath, or what.

“A D-rank dungeon in a week, huh.”

I checked the status window message that had just appeared again.

This one was also set to page [1/2].

When I turned to page 2, more detailed information appeared.

[SYSTEM: In 7 days, a gate will open in the sky above ‘Central Connecticut State University’ in New Britain, Connecticut.

Dungeon rank: D-rank.

Dungeon rewards: D-rank melee weapons and magic stones.

Upon clearing the D-rank dungeon, rewards will be given.]

“D-rank. Not bad for the first dungeon we’re entering, I guess.”

During a quiet lunch time.

After having a sandwich for lunch in the cafeteria, I lay down on a hillside overlooking the American football field.

It’s a place you can reach by climbing a little bit up the mountain from where Victor had parked his car this morning, where you can spend time in a forest without a single person around.

Ah, of course, there’s no need to worry about the grass.

Due to the characteristics of American high teen dramas where only beautiful things appear, even if you lie down on the grass, there are no tsutsugamushi mites or grass insects. So don’t worry about my health.

I lay down at a slight angle in a moderately shaded spot, looking down at the field, and then closed the status window I had open in front of me.

To be honest, I’m not worried about the D-rank dungeon.

Although we lack practical experience, there are two high-ranking awakened ones including myself, and Benjamin and Teacher Gina are also going to enter with us.

Of course, I don’t plan to enter with too much arrogance, so when I get home, I just need to read through the data on the D-rank dungeons that Tieson Boarding School had already cleared.

‘Come to think of it, Tieson…’

I immediately took out my phone and connected to the internet.

When I searched for Tieson Boarding School in New York, articles about the ‘High School Dungeon Team’ poured out.

Of course, they would naturally be in the spotlight as the first high school team to officially start activities.

I quickly scanned through the articles with my eyes.

After passing by a few uninformative articles, I noticed that people were actively talking about the incident on SNS.

It was mostly chatter about the breaking news article from today.

I read a mention from someone who claimed to know ‘Mr. A’ who had reportedly played an active role in suppressing the Manhattan gate today.

−I’m from the same school. After the gate first opened, they even divided the dormitories into non-awakened and awakened, and he’s known to have the highest rank.

−An ability-based school. LOL.

−It’s not ability-based, it’s because of the dungeon team. Strictly speaking, it’s efficiency-based.

−Don’t you know what rank he is?

−I just know he’s the highest, even the military is said to be wary of him.

−Other schools consider C-rank as high rank. Does that mean he’s at least B-rank?

−If the military is wary of him, B-rank wouldn’t be enough. I’m B-rank myself.

−Can you prove it?

−Want me to show you my abilities in person?

On SNS, people were desperate to guess the rank of Mr. A, whose face had briefly appeared in today’s breaking news.

It seemed rumors had already spread that Mr. A was of a rank high enough to be on par with soldiers.

In the next mention, an eyewitness account appeared from someone who was in Manhattan at dawn and had to evacuate.

A photo and a 2-minute video were also uploaded.

I slowly scrolled down to check the photo posted by the uploader.

And the scrolling that had been going down smoothly came to a stop.

I saw a man in school uniform standing tall among the soldiers.

When I zoomed in on the photo with two fingers spread, the man’s face became even clearer.

The focus was blurry, but I let out a low sigh at the beauty that came through despite the low quality.

I thought I had seen wrong when I saw it on the tablet in class earlier, but…

“Ugh, it is him.”

I muttered, furrowing my brow slightly.

“Allen.”

Pale face with black hair, and mysterious green eyes reminiscent of jade.

He was Allen Jade, Juno’s childhood friend who used to live next door.