Chapters will be released Monday through Friday, each approximately 2,500 to 5,000 words in length.

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Gideon is an NPC. Not the mysterious kind, or the secretly-overpowered kind. Just a normal guy with a normal life—family, breakfast, and a job guiding new adventurers through Floor 1 of the Dungeon.

He doesn’t fight. He doesn’t level up.

He was never meant to climb.

Until he broke the rules.

A single moment of defiance brings him face-to-face with the Creator of the Dungeon—a being no one was supposed to meet.

Instead of vanishing on the spot, Gideon walks away with a curse: a skill that lets him absorb abilities from mobs and bosses he defeats… and a timer.

If he stops fighting, he—and everything he loves—will be erased.

Now, the tutorial NPC who’s never thrown a punch has no choice but to fight his way up a Dungeon he barely understands.

No class. No training. No plan.

Just desperation, stolen skills, and the kind of stubbornness that doesn’t know when to quit.

He’s not here to save the world.

He’s just trying to survive it.

Turns out, the perfect player wasn’t summoned—it was built into the background.