The van rumbles along the road, as its tires crunch over gravel. I lean my head against the window, watching as trees and buildings blur past. The leather seat cradles my aching body, tempting me to close my eyes and drift off. But I force myself to stay alert, even as exhaustion tugs at my eyelids.

Sara fidgets beside me, her fingers twisting in her lap. "I wonder what headquarters will be like," she whispers, glancing around nervously.

Lily shrugs, her eyes fixed on the road ahead. "Probably just a bunch of boring offices and stuff. But hey, as long as there's food, I'm good."

"And beds," Tim grumbles from the back seat. "I could sleep for a week."

I nod in agreement, stifling a yawn. The adrenaline that kept us going in the dungeon is fading fast, leaving behind bone-deep weariness.

Agent Mills glances at us in the rearview mirror, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners. "We're almost there, kids. Just hang on a little longer."

True to her word, the van soon pulls up to a nondescript office building. As we pile out, stretching stiff limbs, I take in our surroundings. The place looks utterly ordinary - just another government building among many. Hard to believe it's ground zero for dealing with a global crisis.

Mills ushers us inside, past security checkpoints and through winding hallways. Everything is a bland beige, punctuated by the occasional potted plant. Finally, we reach a small conference room.

"Alright," Mills turns to us, clasping her hands together. "What do you guys want to do first - eat or call your parents?"

Sara's eyes light up. "Oh, can we call our parents? Please?" She bounces on her toes, suddenly full of energy.

Lily nods, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Yeah, I should probably let mine know I'm okay."

My stomach growls loudly, reminding me just how long it's been since I've eaten. I open my mouth to vote for food, but Tim beats me to it.

"Screw that, I'm starving," he snaps. "Let's eat first."

I nod in agreement, already imagining sinking my teeth into a juicy burger. Or maybe pizza. Anything beats the meager rations we scrounged up in the dungeon.

Sara's face falls, her shoulders slumping. "But... our parents must be so worried," she says softly.

Lily puts a hand on Sara's arm. "She's right. We should call them first. It'll only take a few minutes, then we can eat."

Tim rolls his eyes. "Fine, whatever. Let's just get it over with."

I bite back a sigh, resigning myself to waiting a bit longer for food. As much as I hate to admit it, Sara and Lily have a point. Our parents deserve to know we're alive, even if I'm not exactly looking forward to talking to mine.

Mills nods, pulling out her phone. "Alright, we'll do the calls first. Who wants to go first?"

Sara's hand shoots up. "Me, please!"

Mills hands her the phone, and Sara eagerly punches in a number. As it rings, she bounces on her toes, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Mom? Dad? It's me!" she squeals as someone picks up. "I'm okay! We made it out!"

Her voice dissolves into happy sobs as she clutches the phone. I look away, feeling like I'm intruding on a private moment. From the corner of my eye, I see Lily smiling softly, while Tim shifts impatiently.

After a few minutes of tearful reassurances, Sara reluctantly hands the phone to Lily. Lily's call is shorter and more subdued, but I catch the hint of a smile on her face as she speaks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. No, really, I'm okay. We all made it out." She pauses, listening. "I know, I'll be careful. Love you too."

As she hangs up, Tim snatches the phone from her hand. He paces as he dials, his free hand clenched at his side.

"Hey, it's me," he says gruffly when someone answers. "Yeah, I'm alive." He pauses, his jaw tightening. "What? No, I didn't - look, can't you just be happy I'm okay?" Another pause. "Whatever. I gotta go."

He thrusts the phone at me, scowling. I take it reluctantly, my stomach churning as I dial the familiar number.

"Hello?" My mother's voice is tense, clipped.

I swallow hard. "Hi, Mom. It's me."

"Kei?" she gasps. "Oh thank goodness. Are you alright? Where are you?"

"I'm fine," I say, keeping my voice carefully neutral. "We're at some kind of FBI headquarters. We just got out of the dungeon."

"The dungeon? What are you talking about?" Her voice rises sharply. "Kei, what's going on?"

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. Of course they don't know. How could they? "It's... complicated. I'll explain everything later, okay? I just wanted to let you know I'm alive."

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"Don't take that tone with me, young man," she snaps. "You disappear for days, and now you're talking nonsense about dungeons? I want answers, now."

My jaw clenches. Even now, even after everything I've been through, she still treats me like a child. "I said I'll explain later," I grit out. "I have to go."

"Kei, don't you dare hang up on me-"

I end the call, my hand shaking slightly as I hand the phone back to Agent Mills. She raises an eyebrow but doesn't comment.

"Alright," she says, pocketing the phone. "Now that that's taken care of, let's get you kids some food. Follow me."

As we trail after her, Sara falls into step beside me. "Are you okay?" she asks softly. "You look... upset."

I shrug, forcing my face into a neutral expression. "I'm fine. Just hungry."

She doesn't look convinced, but thankfully drops the subject as we enter a small cafeteria. The smell of hot food hits me hard, making my mouth water instantly.

"Help yourselves," Mills gestures to the buffet line. "Eat as much as you like."

We don't need to be told twice. We descend on the food like ravenous wolves, piling our plates high with burgers, fries, pizza, and anything else we can get our hands on.

As we settle at a table to eat, Mills pulls up a chair. "So," she says, her tone casual. "While you guys eat, mind if I ask you a few more questions about your experience?"

Tim scowls around a mouthful of burger. "Seriously? Can't we just eat in peace?"

Lily elbows him sharply. "Don't be rude," she hisses. Then, to Mills: "What do you want to know?"

Mills pulls out a small notebook. "Well, for starters, can you tell me more about these 'creatures' you encountered? What did they look like? How did they behave?"

I swallow a mouthful of fries, considering. "They were these... greenish, rotting zombies," I say slowly, my hand tightening around my fork. "Their skin looked all leathery and stretched tight over their bones. And their eyes..." I trail off, blinking rapidly as the image flashes in my mind.

Sara nods, her eyes wide. "They were terrifying," she whispers. "And tough. We barely managed to fight them off."

"There's something else I have to tell you," I add, leaning forward. "There was this... thing called the system we encountered there. It gave us status screens, like in a video game. We could see our health, our stats, even level up by defeating monsters."

Mills' eyebrows shoot up. "Status screens? Can you elaborate?"

I nod, choosing my words carefully. "When we fought those zombies, we gained experience points. As we leveled up, we could put points to different attributes - strength, agility, that sort of thing. It made us stronger, faster. That's how we were able to take on tougher enemies."

"Fascinating," Mills murmurs, scribbling furiously. She hesitates for a moment, then leans in closer. "You know, I experienced something similar myself. I was part of a team investigating a location, when suddenly, we all saw this transparent blue screen with messages on it, and then the place we were at turned into a dungeon."

My eyes widen at this revelation. "So it's not just us?"

Mills shakes her head. "No, but it's not widespread either. From what we've gathered, only people who were near the locations that were transformed into dungeons saw the system's message. At first, we didn't know what to make of it. Then, later, one of our team members, an avid gamer, decided to test something out. He said 'Status,' and sure enough, his status screen appeared. We all tried it after that."

"How many people know about this?" Sara asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Not many," Mills replies. "There aren't that many dungeons that have appeared so far, and we've managed to keep things mostly under wraps. The general public has no idea. We're trying to understand what's happening before word gets out and causes panic."

I sit back, processing this information. It's nice to know that others have experienced parts of what we went through, but the implications are staggering. "So what does this mean for us?" I ask, voicing the question that's been nagging at me.

Mills sighs. "That's what we're trying to figure out. Your experience inside the dungeon is invaluable to our understanding of this phenomenon. Which brings me to another question. You said there was a 'boss' creature?"

Lily nods. "Yeah, at the end. It was huge, like something out of a nightmare. We thought we were done for."

"But Kei figured out how to beat it," Tim adds grudgingly. "Used some kind of crazy strategy or something."

Mills' eyebrows shoot up. "Strategy? What do you mean?"

I exchange glances with the others.

"I... baited it," I say slowly, choosing my words carefully. "Led it to a safe zone in the restroom. There was this invisible barrier..."

"Yeah," Sara chimes in, her eyes wide. "Kei told us that he threw javelins at it from the inside, but that thing was smart. It caught them and even threw them right back!"

Tim snorts. "Nearly got yourself skewered, didn't you?"

I nod, remembering the heart-stopping moment when those javelins came flying back at me. "We both took some hits. Then it pretended to run away."

"And you fell for it," Lily adds, shaking her head.

"Yeah," I admit, rubbing the back of my neck. "Chased after it, right into its trap. It almost had me, but then I remembered I had some unallocated stat points from my last level up. In that split second, I dumped all 5 points into strength. It was just a gamble, but it paid off. With that small boost, I managed to drive a javelin right through its eye."

Mills' pen flies across the page. "Incredible. So you can allocate these stat points in real-time, even in the middle of combat?"

"Yeah," I confirm. "It's instant. As soon as I made the decision, I felt the change. It was like... like my muscles suddenly expanded, became denser. It caught the boss off guard too, I think. It wasn't expecting me to suddenly hit that hard."

"Wow," Mills murmurs. "And this 'safe zone' you mentioned earlier - what was that exactly?"

I lean forward, realizing I hadn't fully explained this yet. "The safe zones are these special areas within the dungeon. They're like... protected spaces. Monsters can't enter them at all."

Mills' eyebrows rise. "That sounds incredibly useful. Could anyone use them?"

I shake my head. "Not exactly. You need to be at least level 10 to access them. And each safe zone can only fit up to 10 people at a time."

"Interesting," Mills muses, jotting down notes. "So they're limited in use. What about the dungeon's layout? What can you tell me about that?"

As the others launch into a more detailed explanation of the dungeon's layout, I slowly tune out, focusing on my food. Part of me wonders if we should be more careful about what we reveal. But then again, if anyone can help us make sense of what happened, it's probably the FBI.

Still, as I watch Mills scribbling away, hanging on our every word, I can't shake a nagging feeling of unease. What will they do with this information? And what does it mean for us, now that we're out of the dungeon?