Summary: He was just an everyday D-Rank hunter who went through his life with a smile. Never in his life could he imagine that surviving a double dungeon would cause such aftereffects. He would have to get to the bottom of this system and his newly acquired title, Player.

"Speech."

'Think.'

Technique/Skill

[System Message]

Events of the Past

Warning: English isn't my native language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Solo Leveling.

Pairings: Jinwoo x Joohee / Naruto x ?

'Dammit,' thought Naruto, looking at the giant statues that were standing a good 30 meters in a circular formation around him. Only his left arm was left from the injuries he sustained during this dungeon. How could it have ended like this?

Was this a freaking joke? He knew he didn't have anyone, so he volunteered to stay back and make sure everyone else could leave this cursed double dungeon. But it didn't lessen the pain. If he weren't so full of fear, he would most likely lose his mind because of the pain he would feel otherwise.

He knew he wasn't in his right state of mind because of the fear of losing his life. It still didn't make this any better. He thought about all the people that could escape this hellhole, thanks to Naruto's decision to stay back and sacrifice himself on the altar that was in the middle of this giant hall.

'Sorry, Jinwoo… I guess you will have to get money on your own from now on… sorry mom, I guess I will join you sooner than I thought,' thought Naruto.

He thought about his good friend – the weakest hunter of humanity. His name was Sung Jinwoo. Naruto was actually his neighbor. Naruto had known the Sung family since Jinwoo's mother helped Naruto when he had just moved into the apartment on the opposite side of the corridor from the Sung family's apartment.

Since he was also a hunter, just like Jinwoo, they became good friends. But unlike Naruto, who awakened as a D-Rank hunter and could fight for himself in the low rank dungeon, Jinwoo was an E-Rank hunter, the weakest of the bunch. It was like fate wanted to see Jinwoo suffer.

Jinwoo couldn't defend himself properly because he may have, to normal human standards, a fit body and slightly better regenerative abilities, thanks to his awakening as a hunter, but that would be all. It could be called an embarrassment to even call him a hunter since he was really the weakest hunter of all time. There wasn't a time when he wasn't injured after a dungeon raid. He even injured himself against the weakest enemies, like goblins.

Naruto usually went with Jinwoo on dungeon raids and helped him collect something called Essence Stones. They could be sold for a suitable amount of money. Jinwoo didn't raid just out of fun. He had to do this because his mother had an incurable illness that appeared in the world after the gates appeared 10 years ago.

Jinwoo had to pay the medical bills for his mother so the hospital would continue to take care of her. Jinwoo's sister, Sung Jinah, was still in school, leaving him as the sole earner in the family since his father vanished a few years ago in a gate.

If Jinwoo's mother weren't in her current state, then he wouldn't even go into the gates to earn some money. Sadly, he didn't have any particular talent in any field, so he had to work as a hunter, even when he injured himself in the process. But thanks to Naruto, who always stayed by Jinwoo's side in the dungeons, his injuries became less and less. There were even gates when Jinwoo managed to defeat a monster without an injury, thanks to Naruto helping him and letting him have the Essence Stones.

Naruto Uzumaki was a muscular young man of 22 years of age with spiky blond hair, ocean-blue eyes, and six unique whisker marks on his cheeks. He usually liked to wear black pants, boots, a white T-shirt, and an orange hooded jacket over it. He liked to wear simple clothes, even when some said he should wear something better. This was just how Naruto was. He liked to wear simple clothes because they were comfortable. He never really cared about designer clothes or any of that stuff. He was a laid-back, good-natured, always helping, and smiling young man. He was known in the neighborhood where he and Jinwoo lived to help others, especially older people.

'I regret that I couldn't help you cure your mother of her illness, Jinwoo. Sorry about that, buddy. From now on, you must go into gates alone… or no, you have Lee Joohee,' thought Naruto.

He wondered if those two would ever make the first step. It was obvious that both of them had romantic feelings for each other. No other woman would care for the "weakest hunter of mankind" if she wasn't interested in him in the way Joohee was. She always stood near him during the dungeon raids and healed him when he was injured. She was truly a gem under woman.

Naruto himself didn't have anyone in that regard right now. He was dating someone back in Japan when he was 16 years old, but in the end, it didn't work out. But it was okay since both separated on good terms. He even had occasional contact with the woman, who was already married and had a child by now.

But that wasn't so important right now. The situation he faced was of more concerning matter. Normally, Jinwoo and Joohee would have joined the D-Rank dungeon, but something came up on Joohee's side, and Jinwoo volunteered to help her. The D-Rank dungeon was easy enough and went without any problems until they reached the end, and someone found a hidden passage, clearly indicating the presence of a dungeon inside of a dungeon. This was a very rare case of something called a double dungeon, where a dungeon spawns inside another dungeon.

Naruto was glad that Jinwoo and Joohee didn't participate in this dungeon. It would have been too dangerous for Jinwoo on his E-Rank, and Joohee would have been traumatized for life. She was a very gentle soul. She was actually a B-Rank hunter with healing and support magic, but she never went to high-grade dungeons because her mental strength wasn't strong enough. But Naruto saw it when he first began to raid with Jinwoo and Joohee, she had problems seeing blood. But now, she had no problems seeing a certain amount of blood, open flesh, and other injuries. Her mental strength was building up with every absolved dungeon she took part in. With enough time, she would get the mental strength to go even into high-ranking dungeons. If Joohee had seen the terrors Naruto witnessed in this massive room with the "God, the guardians, and the apostles" as giant stone statues, she would have broken down and would have suffered a huge mental breakdown. She still wasn't strong enough mentally for such terror.

Even Naruto almost had a mental breakdown, and he was someone who had a strong mentality who flinched by almost nothing. But the terror he witnessed that was cast upon him in this hall was just terrifying.

They had to overcome three challenges that were given to them. They somehow managed to complete the first two challenges, where they first needed to bow to the "God" statue, and afterward, they had to run to the "apostle" statues, which didn't have any sort of weapon but an instrument. The thing in the second face was that the "God" statue arose from his throne and began to murder any person in his sight. He didn't use his dangerous eye beam, which obliterated half of their numbers already in part one of the challenge, but he still got a few people with his giant feet.

In the last challenge, they had to face rose an altar in the middle of the giant hall. When all of them were inside the circle that surrounded the altar, multiple blue flames flickered to light. All the "guard" statues began to move toward the middle of the hall, toward all the people. The last challenge actually was quite simple if some of the remaining hunters didn't panic and ran through the opened door to their freedom.

If everyone had stayed in the middle and just looked at the "guard" statues, they would have all survived. But after a short while, only Naruto and two others were left because the others were too afraid. Since Naruto had already lost both of his legs and had no family left in this world, he let the other two people escape as well.

So here he was, surrounded by the "guard" statues who slowly approached him, causing the ground to tremor with every step they took. He had already lost his other arm from a guard who struck him. It was the guard from behind him. He didn't even feel the pain anymore. His entire body was numb. The light from his eyes slowly began to fade. He could only make out how all "guard" statues raised their weapons. Some were spears, others were axes, and others had giant swords.

What Naruto didn't see was how the last blue fire extinguished just before the weapons could hit him. Naruto's world darkened when he thought he could see something pop up before his mind.

[Hidden Quest: Unbreaking Willpower has been completed!

Congratulations on completing the Hidden Quest. You managed to qualify yourself to become a Player.

Do you accept?

Y/N]

[Your heart will stop in 2.6 seconds. The System will force a response since the potential Player can't react in time before he would die.

Do you accept?

Yes.]

Naruto's eyes shot open, and his body shot up into a sitting position, breathing heavily. His eyes were wide open, unfocused, clouded by something… his entire body was shaking, his heart beat so fast like never before, he could feel how his entire body pulsated from the memories that rushed into his head. It took him a few minutes, but he somehow could stabilize his breathing, which almost caused a panic attack.

His unfocused eyes became their focus back, and he slowly but surely realized he was in a hospital bed. 'Wait… my arm!' thought Naruto, realizing his living limp was somehow back at his body and not severed from it. He looked in disbelief at his recovered limp, raising his arm, lowering it, flexing the muscles in his arm he thought he would never see again, opening his hand, and closing it.

'I can't believe it… my arm is really back. How is that possible? I know that double dungeon was no dream,' thought Naruto. He saw two things he shouldn't be able to see and even felt them. He threw the blanket that covered his lower body to the side, and there they were… his two missing legs were also back on his body like they were never severed from it.

'What the fuck happened to me after I lost consciousness? Did those giant statues inside the temple suddenly stop and not kill me? Did an S-Rank hunter come and destroy all those statues and even manage to heal me back to my former state? That could be possible, but not really realistic,' thought Naruto.

He jumped when out of nowhere, something akin to a blue window screen appeared before him, hovering in the air like Naruto was in some kind of game. He looked at the screen of this weird thing, tilting his head, touching it, and even moving his body forward. This screen always held the same distance from his head. If Naruto tilted his head slightly forward, then the screen would move slightly backward, and same with the reverse would be the case as well.

'If this isn't a touchscreen,' thought Naruto, trying to touch the screen, but nothing happened. The window simply flickered like a TV would if you touch the screen.

[Notification!

You have unread Messages!]

That was all that stood there. Nothing more, nothing less. Naruto guessed he would somehow have to open those messages. Normally, in a game, you simply clicked on the unread messages, and they would open up. But it wasn't the case in this specific situation. He didn't have much more time to think about it because he heard the sliding door open from the hospital room he was in. He saw the blanket that lay beside his bed. He panicked a little, grabbing the blanket he threw away to see his legs, covering himself somehow before someone walked into the room.

Two men in black suits were walking into the room, one wearing sunglasses. It was the embodiment of an "agent" if there was such a thing as that.

"Mister Uzumaki, I see you are awake," said the most likely supervisor of the two. He took a card out of his black blazer and held it toward Naruto. Naruto looked at the business card, took it, and read the information on it.

"The surveillance team?" asked Naruto, looking up. "What does the surveillance team want with a D-Rank hunter like me?"

"Before that, let us call the doctor to check if really everything is alright," said Woo Jinchul, the Chief Inspector of the Korean Hunters Association. The information was on the business card Naruto had just received.

Jinchul was a handsome young man with slick orange hair, having only a single strand poking out and black eyes. As a high-ranking official in the Korean Hunters Association, he was typically seen wearing a black suit with his sunglasses.

"Understood," said the man behind Jinchul. The man behind Jinchul was another inspector of the Korean Hunters Association. His name was Kang Taeshik. Taeshik was a lanky-looking man who appeared to be in his mid to late 20s. He has spiky purple hair and matching purple eyes with a stoic look to them. As an employee of the Korean Hunters Association, he wore a formal business attire that consisted of a black suit and tie with a belt where he held his daggers and knives.

Taeshik walked out of the room to inform the hospital to get a doctor to check up on Naruto. Naruto saw how Taeshik closed the sliding door to his hospital room, and afterward at Jinchul.

"Mister Woo, does this have something to do with the double dungeon that we encountered?" asked Naruto.

Jinchul took his sunglasses off and placed them in the chest pocket of his blazer, looking into Naruto's blue eyes. "Indeed. There are many mysteries that surround this incident, and we would like to ask you some questions after it's confirmed that you are okay and don't have any side effects from such an experience or hidden injuries we can't see right now," said Jinchul.

Naruto only nodded because the sliding door opened again. Taeshik and a doctor walked inside the room. After the doctor checked Naruto and was sure everything was fine with him, besides him being exhausted, even after he had slept for two entire days, he walked out of the room. He left Naruto alone with the two inspectors of the surveillance team alone.

"Could I ask a question regarding the survivors of the raid? There should have been at least five people who made it out of there without counting me," said Naruto. "Is Mr. Song all right?"

Jinchul and Taeshik were now sitting on two chairs beside the hospital bed Naruto sat on. "Yes, and it was all thanks to your sacrifice, Mister Uzumaki. They told us all the same story about how you volunteered to stay back and let the others escape after the door opened. It was truly an honorable action that only heroes would do," said Jinchul.

Naruto sighed in relief. "I am glad," said Naruto.

Jinchul stood up and walked to the window, looking outside. "But there are still some things that are suspicious about this entire incident," said Jinchul. "When the strike team of the White Tiger Guild arrived at the scene, the temple and the statues that all survivors described were gone. Alone, the altar that was described and matched the description was left with you lying on it, unconscious."

"What? No way! How can such a giant structure and those terrifying statues vanish? We even had a B-Rank fighter type with us, and he died on the spot when he tried to leave the room before we really understood the danger of the situation. I was sure only A or S Rank hunters could stand up to those statues," said Naruto in disbelief. How was that possible?

"This is something we try to figure out," said Jinchul. "The dungeon vanished, and there is no way to investigate it," said Jinchul. He looked outside and continued his explanation. "But since we could retrieve the corpses of the hunters who died, and everything matched up so far, and there were no inconsistencies between the reports, your group isn't suspected to be behind this entire incident," said Jinchul.

He looked at Naruto again. "But there is a possibility that you could have survived this dungeon," said Jinchul. Naruto looked confused at Jinchul, not really understanding what he meant.

"Hunter Uzumaki, is it possible that you went through a second awakening?" asked Jinchul.

'A second awakening?!' thought Naruto.

Once a hunter had awoken, his powers were set. There was no possible further improvement when it came to the mana or abilities they got when they awoke. But there were very rare incidences where hunters went through a second awakening when they were in a life-or-death situation, boosting their abilities to A-Rank or even S-Rank.

'No. That definitely didn't happen. I am sure this has something to do with this screen that popped up at the end just before I was hit from those monstrosities,' thought Naruto. He glanced at the window that still hovered before him in the air and hadn't changed so far.

"I am sorry, but I am certain this didn't happen. All these statues surrounded me while I was at the altar. I only remember how they all raised their weapons and were about to hit me," said Naruto. He hesitated when he glanced at the screen again. 'Should I tell them about this?' thought Naruto. He wasn't sure. He had never heard of anything like that. This had to be something that had never happened before since the gates appeared 10 years ago.

But before he could continue, Taeshik placed something down beside the bed on another chair. "Even if you are certain. I would like to ask you to hold your hand over this mana meter machine. This would give us clarity on whether you really went through a second awakening or not," said Jinchul.

Naruto only nodded and held his hand over the purple crystal that was on the top of the mana meter machine. Taeshik was holding a tablet that was connected to it and looking at the number that changed by the second. After a minute, Naruto heard a strange sound from the machine. Jinchul looked at the screen of the tablet Taeshik held.

"It seems we were wrong," said Jinchul. "Your mana value hasn't changed."

Naruto took his hand from the machine and said, "Well… it would have been a pleasant surprise if I really went through a second awakening like that."

Jinchul nodded and sighed. "We apologize for the inconvenience. We will leave you to recover fully," said Jinchul.

Naruto opened his eyes and even lifted his finger, but stopped himself. He wanted to ask if the two couldn't see the window that hovered before Naruto in the air. 'It seems like only me could see this window,' thought Naruto. 'I should probably look into this first before I report this to the association.'

"Thank you. I wish you a good day," said Naruto.

When both members of the surveillance team left, he looked at the screen. 'If touch or thoughts don't control this screen…' Naruto opened his eyes and said, "Open."

The screen changed, and two new messages were displayed.

[You have become a Player.

Daily Quest: Strength training has arrived.]

'Daily quest?' thought Naruto.

"Open first message," said Naruto out of instinct.

The screen changed again. Naruto saw multiple screens popping up before him—everyone with another message.

[This system is designed to assist the development of the Player.]

[Failure to comply with the system may result in a penalty.]

[Rewards have arrived.]

"This is so confusing. What the fuck is this?" asked Naruto. Another screen popped up beside Naruto. He glanced at it, reading the message.

[Daily Quest: Strength Training has arrived.]

"Uhm… confirm?" said Naruto, unsure if this would open up this daily quest.

The message vanished, and another appeared. This one was larger than the rest.

[Daily Quest: Strength Training.

GOAL:

Push-ups: 0/100

Sit-ups: 0/100

Squats: 0/100

Running: 0/10km

WARNING: Failure to complete the daily quest will result in an appropriate penalty.]

Naruto didn't know why, but he had a hunch that this wasn't just for show. He looked at the clock and saw that it was 3:15 p.m., so he technically had enough time to do all this. Since he was a D-Rank Fighter Hunter, he had enhanced stamina and strength. So it should be possible even when he was exhausted to complete all this training today if he would take it slow.

'Alright… I don't know what this so-called System is yet, but I shouldn't provoke this penalty. If this system is behind my survival, it has power beyond my imagination right now. I should simply follow the instructions. I don't want to know what this penalty would be if the system can even regrow my arms and legs. Something even an S-Rank healing hunter can't do,' thought Naruto.

He slowly stood up and saw the timer on the bottom of the daily quest. It was almost three-quarters full, meaning this was most likely the time of the day until it was midnight. He looked around and found some clothes someone had brought him. He could only guess it was Jinwoo or Joohee. He would need those for the run. The sit-ups and the other two exercises could be done in his room.

He went down and did a normal push-up. He looked at the screen that popped up when he thought about it. The number of push-ups went up by one. 'So this really accurately tracks my training. Then this isn't a problem,' thought Naruto.

He would have to wait and see what this so-called System was all about.