Chapter 1

Before this moment, I had always hated life and felt everything was a dead end.

You have unlocked and gained the Personalized Instant Infinite Dungeon. (Piid for short.)

These words flashed before my mind after I ate the obsidian tennis sized ball. And after that moment my life was changed forever.

To give some context: I had recently graduated from Jastal Preperatory school and my father immediately declined when my mother said to send me to school. Instead he ordered me to go work. Not that I wanted to go to school anyways, but I sure as hell didn't want to work neither. But I had no choice. A few months had passed working at the warehouse, and I was fed up and ready to quit. I told myself I would rather be homeless than endure this boring, long work.

I was holding a small wooden crate the moment I said, "Screw this!" Then I dropped the crate. That's when the obsidian tennis ball dropped out of it.

Hello young man, please pick me up. I heard a snakey voice say inside my head.

My first thought was: Devil.

I picked up the ball.

You are tired of the life that has been forced upon you. I could hear your emotions. This was meant to be. Eat me, and your life shall change forever. Now, a logical person would probably not have eaten this very suspicious ball, but I have to justify my emotional state at the time. I had pretty much given up on life at that point. I did not want to die, but I also did not want to suffer.

I took one bite out of the ball. It tasted very sweet, like eating pure sugar. But the substance of the ball was a kind of rubbery, black slime.

I took another big bite and was done with it. That's when the words flashed before my mind.

"Piid? Huh? What's that?" I said and expected an answer. But no answer came.

I didn't want to talk to the boss or any of my coworkers, so I just headed straight to the personnel room, grabbed my things, and got out of there. My boss wasn't around, not that I cared what that asshole was doing or what he had to say. Though all the older workers were hollaring at me.

"Yeah fuck off, I'mma go over and screw your wives! Yeah what?! You want some, come on then, pussy!" I said as I was walking off.

When I got out to Main Street, I suddenly stopped and got a cold sweat down my neck and my chest tightened for a minute.

"Oh no, what am I gonna do!" I thought to myself.

I'll explain more about my situation. I was currently a Level 5 20 year old with just one lame skill called Flash. The skill would emit a blinding light from my finger tip for a second, though it would take half of my mana from a single use.

I could have chosen to become an adventurer, but that was risky business. First off, I was weak. And secondly, adventuring has a very steep learning curve.

The thing is, everyone can technically get stronger and level up and gain new skills, but to gain levels, you have to kill monsters. So unless you are strong enough to defeat weaker monsters, you can't get stronger. Also, to find those weak monsters is a hazzle. You could go to a dungeon where on the first floors the monsters are usually weak, like wolves and goblins. But then you would need a bunch of permissions etc and paperwork which is impossible to get unless you are rich. So the other option would be going to the forest to try to find weak monsters. But the thing is, you could easily run into a stronger monster, or a bunch of weak ones, and then that's it, end of the day.

You could join a party of adventurers, but again, unless they are really strong, you are in danger. And they don't want you unless you are strong enough.

In other words, I was screwed.

"Wait, what was that it said about Piid? Personalized Instant Infinite Dungeon?"

I kept walking and thinking. I was automatically walking home but then I stopped. I couldn't go home now and then have my mother ask me why I wasn't at work.

So I went to the park and just sat on a bench. The park was littered with couples flirting, which annoyed me. I tried to find an isolated bench but there were none so I just had to sit amidst the loneliness.

"What should I do what should I do? How do I enter this damn dungeon thing. Wait, I don't have any weapons? Well, not that it matters. I don't even care anymore. Is there like a key word or phrase?"

"Piid!" I said a little too loud and got stares. But nothing happened. I then said in a low whisper, "Open Piid?"

After one blink, I was no longer in the park. I was in this weird white room. In front of me was a screen.

Welcome to Piid! Please wait a minute while you are being analyzed.

"Ehm, okay, sure. But what is this place? This is really weird."

Again, I got no response.

Analysis complete. Generating your first Personalized Instant Infinite Dungeon! Please wait a minute.

"Ehm, okay."

The screen then showed a loading sign.

Another blink, and the world had changed again.

"Whoa!"

I was in a forest environment. Ten metres in front of me stood an unarmed goblin inside a sand circle. The sky was a clear blue.

"Ehm, so, I guess I go and slay that goblin?"

I got no response.

I stepped into the ring. It was good the goblin was unarmed, since I had no weapons as well. Then I started thinking, "If I had a sword, would the enemy then change? Is that what it means by personalized?"

As soon as I stepped into the ring, the goblin rushed me.

"Wait!" I said.

The goblin punched me in the stomach then jumped back. Luckily my abdominal muscles had become very hard from working in the warehouse, so the punch didn't damage me.

"Wait, can I die in here? No, right?"

The goblin jumped again, but this time its scratched me with its disgusting nails in my right arm and I started bleeding a lot.

"Oh shit!"

When it jumped again, I kicked it. It was a very awkward kick, but it did the job and stopped the goblin.

I wasn't sure if I could be killed in Piid, but I wasn't gonna find out.

"So I have to slay you, huh?"

This was actually the first fight I had ever been in. I had of course been in a few scraps as a kid, but this was an actual life or death, try to kill the other one before he kills you fight.

The goblin was pausing for the moment, staring me down. I stared him down too.

The goblin was hideous. I started analyzing him. He was shorter than me and smaller. His main way of attack was using his hands and claws. He hadn't used his legs yet but I couldn't count that out. Though it did seem like his arms and legs were the same length, and I could tell that he would be mainly using his arms.

The goblin leaped at me again, and I kicked it again. I had the advantage of being bigger and having longer limbs. If I just maintained that advantage, I could win. As long as I didn't let him get close, and especially didn't let him claw out any weak spots like my neck.

Actually, I could tell from his gaze he kept looking at my neck. I think when he cut my now very bleeding left arm, he was aiming for the side of my neck to cut my aorta.

He truly was a monster.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" This time I took the initiative. I screamed and then stormed him. He was immediately shocked and took a step back. But I catched up to him.

I kicked him in the face, also using the momentum of storming him behind the kick.

The kick wasn't perfect, but it was frontal and had momentum.

I hit him in the forehead and he went down into the sand.

I then jumped onto its chest and grabbed its hands.

I could now see its face up close and it looked ugly as hell. Just a disgusting face and green skin.

It then spit on me. Right into my eyes.

"Eew you bastard!" I yelled and headbutted it instinctivly.

I hadn't meant to, but I landed a critical hit. I broke its nose and it seemed I knocked it unconscious for a moment.

"Ehm, how do I kill it?" The rage was coming off and I started thinking, "Do I even wanna kill another being?" Whenever my father asked me as a child to slaughter a chicken from the backyard, I would start crying and not want to do it. I could see the disappointment in his face vividly.

While I was caught up in thinking, I saw the goblin open its eyes. Then I could see in its face it realized it was in a mortal situation.

Tohugh I held its hands, it started struggling, trying to bite my hands, spit in my face, and started kicking me with its legs.

I felt pain in my back. I looked and saw it had stabbed with its disgusting toenails.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

I let go of its hands and started strangling me. The look on its face was disgusting. Its eyes started turning red and it clawed at my hands. So much blood was coming out of my arms now. Also it tried to get my face, but I evaded. In the pain, I squezed harder, then I heard: Snap!

The goblin was dead. It was so disgusting. I got up from it. I had killed it in rage, but the rage had now subsided and I felt horrible. Though it tried to kill me, so I felt justified. That battle was too close and physical.

Congratulations. You have defeated one D Rank Monster.

The floating screen appeared in front of me again.

I blinked and I was back in the park again.

"Oh my god, what happened!" A young couple in love walking by me said. I looked down and saw my arms were covered in cuts and blood.

"Oh, ah, ehm, what should I do?"

I felt a stinging pain.

"Please heal him!" the woman said to the man. They were probably young nobility. The man looked at me and hmph'ed.

"Okay, you're lucky, brat."

He pointed his hands at me and some light started emitting.

The blood in my cuts started coagulating and the bleeding stopped. And the really big cuts reduced in size.

"I disinfected and stopped the bleeding, but I won't waste more mana on you."

The couple then walked off.

"Thanks for healing me," I said. I was a little pissed he didn't heal me fully. But I got lucky anyways.

"Oh man, how the hell do I explain this too?"

I then started thinking about what happened. I wondered if I had gone up in a level maybe. I felt different. It was weird, now having combat experience. Also, I had so many questions about how Piid worked. And why it didn't talk to me like that voice when I ate the black ball.

"God, I'm so tired."

That fight had exhausted me. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

"Hey! Get up and leave!"

A rude guard woke me up. The sun was now setting.

"Oh shit," I said. I got up and started walking home. I had no idea what I was gonna say, but I just felt weird and wanted to be in my house with my family.

When I opened the door, I met my mother.

"Where have you been sweetie? I was worried sick— Oh my god what happened!" she went over to me and started grabbing my arms and examining the wounds.

"Oh, I got attacked by a goblin. Don't worry though, I won. Though was a crazy fight."

She looked at me in shock and started crying.

"NO, please don't cry mom, what's wrong?"

"You idiot! Please don't become an adventurer! I'll die if you die," she said.

"Mom, please don't worry. I'm not gonna become an adventurer, I was just attacked by a goblin, that's all."

"But how? Were you outside the city gates? There's no goblins inside the city."

"Listen, I was really hungry but I wanted to save money, so I went outside to look for some fruit trees, that's all. I didn't go far from the walls, I promise. Don't worry, I won't do it again."

It hurt me seeing my mother like this. I had to be more careful next time.

"Don't worry, okay? anyway I'll eat quickly then sleep. I'm really tired."

And so, the day ended.