Not two minutes after I unlock the door to my shop do two separate trucks pull up. I recognize one of them as Cassidy's, while I don't know the other one. That one's a plain box truck and a pair of men in their early thirties step out of it, both dressed in shorts and sleeveless shirts while carrying with them an aura of "I'll whup your rear-end if you try anything".

Cassidy and one of the men each has a small box with them as they approach, and I doubt it's to return jars. It's doubtful Cassidy would even have any of mine in the first place considering most of her customers are selling or buying reagents, not potions.

"I arrived first," Cassidy says as she enters my shop. "Please ignore those two."

"Cassidy," one of the men rolls his eyes. "I'm sure there's enough to go around."

They know each other but aren't here together. It seems they know what the other is here for, though.

"Well, you can have the leftovers after I'm done," Cassidy tells him. "Evan, as a long-time friend of yours, please let me shop first before the agents."

"Agents?" I look at the men. "What would the bureau want from my shop?"

This is the first time I've ever had agents come to my shop directly. The rare times they buy potions from me, they usually send a proxy to perform the purchases. With both Cassidy and the agents having those boxes, it's probably not potions they want to buy.

"Reagents," Cassidy answers before the agents can start. "Since you haven't stopped by my shop this week but have uploaded a few images to your gallery, I assumed you were waiting until tomorrow. There are a few things in high demand right now and I was hoping you might have some of them stored up."

That confirms my suspicions about what's in the boxes both groups have. They're assessment devices and terminals to let them scan reagents and determine the value of them, then pay me for them.

"A high enough demand you came to visit me in person?" I ask. "Tomorrow is too long to wait?"

"It hasn't been publicized yet," Cassidy tells me. "But-"

"Cassidy, please don't," one of the agent says with a tone that says he's only making a token effort as he knows she'll ignore him.

"Only three Dungeons spawned in the city last night," she tells me. "Three. That same timespan normally has at least a hundred."

"Only three?" I ask.

"Only three," she confirms.

"Other cities are reporting the same thing," one of the men tells me. "There was a sudden, massive drop in Dungeon spawns in the evening, then they stopped entirely during the night. That's why known sources of materials are being approached to ask what they have. While you aren't registered, we're aware that you Awakened sometime in the last two weeks and are using that to boost your supplies to keep running. We were hoping you'd be willing to work with us and let us know what you have. There are some materials more crucial to the running of the city than others and while we can obtain some from outside, it's not as efficient as Dungeons."

They're willing to approach an unknown in the hope of there being something I have to use without knowing for sure what I have. This makes me suspect there's more going on.

"What else?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"This seems too quick a reaction for it to be just a decrease in Dungeon spawns," I say. "What else is happening?"

The two men give each other a look while Cassidy frowns, clearly having not thought about it.

"Have you checked your Daily Quests yet?" The man who spoke already asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "In addition to the standard two, I have a Quest for harvesting some materials that work for making healing items, a Quest for producing health potions, and a Quest for crafting scrolls that cast [Flamethrower]. One of those is… not like the others."

"Your Quests are there?" The other man asks.

"What does that mean?" Cassidy asks him.

"Er…"

"Something's going on with Quests?" I ask.

"Awakened are reporting that their Daily Dungeon Quests are missing," he answers. "And their Weekly Dungeon Quests as well, for those who haven't done them. Rank, Level, and Class doesn't seem to matter – everyone is lacking them."

Something's happened to put a stop to Dungeon appearances, but it hasn't affected me. Is it only me, or is it that there just aren't people who are reporting that they still have the Dungeon Quests? That would make more sense to me if it's not yet widely known that Dungeons have ceased to spawn.

"Yours aren't missing?" The first man asks.

"No," I answer as I move to the register and start tapping a few things. "Both Dungeon Quests are still there. You're aware that my shop is not registered to sell parts, right?"

"This isn't you selling them," Cassidy tells me. "But those authorized to do so approaching a supplier. It's legal this way."

I pull a pair of tablets out from under the counter and check to see if they'll turn on and pull up the lists I want them to. These haven't been used in awhile, but it looks like they're still functional.

"One for each of you," I say. "Discuss among yourselves what on the list you're looking for. That's the entire inventory of materials I've harvested from my Daily and Weekly Dungeons which I'm willing to sell."

"You have it in your register?" Cassidy asks as she takes one of the tablets.

"I find it easier to keep track of my inventory of reagents if I store them in the shop's inventory system," I tell her. "Let me know what you're interested in."

"Okay!" She says as the agents take the other tablet and start going through the list.

While they do that, I pull out my phone and shoot off a text to four different people.

[Evan]: Are you busy?

There's an almost immediate response from all four of them.

[Nick]: Nope!

[Adam]: Not at the moment.

[Wyatt]: Need security for the shop?

Wyatt seemed to instinctively know what I wanted to ask, which suggests he's already aware of what's going on and the response to it from the bureau.

The fourth response is Ryan sending me a selfie of him still in bed, his hair still a little bit messy and a sleepy look in his eyes. I guess he was still in bed after a late night last night, though I'm glad all four responded. I send the same text to all four in response.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Evan]: Are you up for coming to my shop and helping out? I need some help with something, including watching a door.

All four agree to come help me out and after letting them know it's for as soon as they can get here, they all state they'll be here as soon as they can. Cassidy and the agents are still looking through the lists and discussing with each other what they want from them so I probably won't need to delay them until my friends arrive.

Adam shows up first, giving Cassidy and the agents a curious look.

"Hey, Adam," I say as he walks up to the counter.

"Hey, Evan," he says, then glances at the others. "That's an unusual sight."

"Yeah," I say. "Seems they're going to different materials suppliers and seeing what they have that they're willing to part with. I told them to decide who's getting what. There's a fair bit in my storage and I want some people I trust to help carry it out and watch the door."

"I'm your man for that!" He thumps his chest with a fist.

"I've got some others on the way," I tell him. "Needed at least two – one to help carry, one to watch the door – so I asked four."

"Who're the others?" He asks.

"Ryan, Nick, and Wyatt."

"Wyatt Reckart?" He asks. "Or another one?"

"Reckart."

He stares at me for a few moments.

"What?"

"Okay," he says. "Let me ask – how do you know him?"

Wyatt's not a problematic person or I wouldn't have asked for his help. We've been friends for awhile, so I'm not sure why Adam seems surprised.

"Met him a few years ago," I answer. "I was a scavenger for one of his first Dungeons and he asked if I wanted to hang out after. We hung out a few times, then started dating. We meshed pretty well so went exclusive – couldn't date anyone else – and stayed that way until September of '22, when we decided to just switch to being friends-with-benefits."

Just as I finish saying that, Wyatt enters the shop. He stands 5'10" with a lean, toned frame, ocean-blue hair, and orange eyes. Wyatt's wearing grey-and-orange sneakers, a pair of khaki shorts with an orange button-up with short sleeves, the top button left undone. A fang necklace hangs around his neck, a golden rune painted onto the fang.

"Hey, Evs!" Wyatt says. "Is it security help like I guessed?"

"What led to you two breaking up as boyfriends and going to being friends with bennies?" Adam asks Wyatt, who raises an eyebrow. "I want to know something, I'll explain in a moment since he seems… oblivious."

This has my curiosity piqued, especially since he seems to want to know about our relationship.

"Oh," Wyatt says. "As odd as it might sound, I felt inferior to him despite being a Rank 5 Awakened and him being just an ordinary person. Being friends and having sex with him was one thing, but a committed relationship was… weird. Then again, we were barely eighteen when we broke up so there's also that. We've still got the benefits side of things, though. What's up?"

Adam walks over and whispers into his ear, and Wyatt's eyes widen for a moment.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Seriously," Adam says. "Nick and Ryan are here. You can confirm for yourself."

Nick and Ryan enter the shop, and Ryan's dressed in his training clothes today. This one is a tight-fitting, blue sleeveless shirt, light khaki shorts, and athletic shoes. All four of them whisper among themselves for a few minutes, leaving me completely out of the loop of whatever is that Adam's noticed.

It's probably not important, so I decide to ignore it and close the shop for now. I can't deal with customers with other stuff going on and I'm sure it's going to take some time. The sales for this will exceed what I normally make in a week, too, so I'll have plenty to spend on personal stuff and as savings for the shop just from it. I can handle turning not being available for a customer or two.

The guys come over to the counter and we chat a little, the four of them telling me about some of their recent runs and missions. Adam asks me about the mythical worm from the picture, causing Nick to want to ask as well. Wyatt already asked me via text and I told Ryan in-person, so those two are the ones who haven't heard yet.

"We've come to an agreement," Cassidy comes over to the counter as I finish telling them about Mrow. "Am I hearing right that you encountered a mythical-class beast in a Special Quest Dungeon?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Its official name is a lifeseed worm, though the records we have call them 'mythical fertility worms'. I have [Animal Communication] and got that much from it while it was in there. How are the resources being divided?"

Cassidy and the agents go through the lists and tell me what they're obtaining from them, then I take everyone to the back and into the basement, where most of the stuff is stored. Cassidy and one of the agents begin scanning the goods with their devices, and my friends carry everything upstairs, with Adam watching the back door as things are taken out to the trucks.

That takes almost an hour and a half and once they finish scanning and moving everything, it's time for them to pay.

"Evan," Cassidy says. "It looks like the total value for what I'm buying from you – including the markup due to the current problems with Dungeons – totals up to $1,172,812.16. For obvious reasons, I can only do a deposit right now."

She only has a card terminal, not a case of cash. While she was expecting to spend a lot, she didn't want to bring too much cash with her.

For my safety, not hers.

Between the eight of us here, that's only a large amount of money to me. Her shop has a rather high turnover of inventory so they deal with a large amount of money all the time. The bureau is the bureau, they handle expensive and rare items all the time and so earn and pay quite a lot all the time. The other four are experienced Rank 5s who can earn more than that from a single Dungeon run.

Admittedly, all of them probably also spend a large amount of money all the time as well, so they probably wouldn't keep the full million they'd be paid from their loot. Their gear is expensive and needs replacing often.

I'm not going to be keeping all of what I'm earning here since I've already decided to purchase the additional storage bracelets. Even with me technically doing less, there's still a high cost for me to run Dungeons.

"Understandable," I pull out my card to insert.

After she confirms the transfer and gives me a receipt, it's the agents' turn. They're purchasing a lot more stuff than Cassidy did, including some higher-value items and ores.

"That comes out to be $2,214,137.61," the agent handling the transaction says. "Same as with Cassidy, we can only perform the payment by deposit right now."

"That's fine," I insert my card into the reader.

"Thank you for the assistance," the agent tells me. "We're hoping things return to normal soon, though we'll be sending teams to handle hunts outside of the city as well. If you come across anything valuable that we can use during this period, please let us know and we'll make sure you're well-compensated."

"Will do," I say. "Have a good day."

The agents and Cassidy leave, and my friends all look at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing," they all answer at once.

"Will you guys be fine?" I ask. "With the reduced or possibly null Dungeon spawns?"

"We've all got plenty of money," Nick says. "And they'll be contacting us for jobs plenty often, anyway."

"We do get EXP from killing monsters outside of Dungeons," Wyatt adds. "And Daily and Weekly Quests are still live, it's just the Dungeons that are gone."

"What's going on?" Ryan asks, apparently having not gotten the news yet or been told during this, nor having checked his Quests.

The first and third parts of that are understandable, since he'd probably barely woken up when I texted him, then traveled straight here. I'm surprised no one mentioned it to him while they were carrying boxes out. He must have been wanting to know what's going on and I'd thought he'd ask the others while we worked.

"Dungeon spawns had a sudden drop again yesterday evening," Adam tells him. "Between ten and eleven last night, only three appeared in the city. And no new ones have spawned since, in or out of the city."

"And Dungeons in the Daily and Weekly Quests are missing," Wyatt says.

Mine are still there, and I'm wondering if it has to do with having access to a Mythic Forest or being a rather new Rank 5. It's entirely possible that those of us who are newer Awakened or lower in Level still have access to them for now.

I'm not going to mention that mine are still around, though. Mentioning it to Cassidy and the agents may not have been smart since there's no telling if I'm an exception or not. I trust them not to say anything and I trust these four as well, but the fewer who know, the better.

Just in case.

"That's…" Ryan trails off. "Huh. They're gone. Is the System shutting down?"

"No one knows," Adam says. "But this is something the various government agencies will be able to keep from spreading around. Too many Awakened in the world, and the internet means that even if one country can silence it, they'd only manage to do so with a complete lockdown on all forms of communication."

"Probably best to make preparations," Wyatt says, then looks at me. "You especially, since you've only just started doing runs and stuff. People will probably start hoarding stuff soon so you'll want to get some supplies for yourself stocked up before rationing begins to counter that."

"I doubt things will come to rationing," I say. "The Dungeon drought probably won't last too much longer, and our food supply should be safe for at least a few weeks. I'll make sure to keep safe, though."

"Alright," he says. "Well, I'm going to get going now. See you 'round, Evan!"

Adam and Nick bid farewell and leave as well, leaving Ryan and me alone.

"I'd still like to make my usual order," he tells me as I open my shop back up. "Since there's always a chance it's just a temporary stop and things will be back to normal by Monday."

"We can hope," I say. "Let me grab that for you."

After I ring up Ryan's order and he pays for it, he shifts his weight for a few moments.

"Is it okay to give you a kiss while you're working?"

"It is."

"Okay," he leans over the counter for a kiss. "See you later, Evan."

"See you," I return the kiss.

Ryan leaves and I pull out a book to read. Today will be either quiet or busy, depending on hunters' reactions to the knowledge that Dungeons are suddenly no longer available. I'm not sure why my Daily and Weekly Dungeons are still around when others' aren't, but I do suspect the drop is only temporary.

Not that it's my business. As long as it doesn't affect my hobbies and interests, I don't much care what others do or deal with.