Leo Richter stood at the edge of the Brandenburg Gate, his gaze fixed on the pulsating anomaly above the Reichstag dome. The glistening light of the portal was an ominous beacon in the twilight of the chaos that had gripped Berlin. His team formed around him, a strange mix of confidants and newfound allies he had meticulously selected over the past few hours: there was Sascha Meier, the brawny warrior whose level 1 plate armor peeked out from under his suit; the nimble Lena Gärtner, the ranger whose bow pulsed with a faint green glow; the concerned Dr. Petra Schmidt, the healer, whose hands hovered over a wounded policeman; and the taciturn Omar Ibrahim, the elementalist, whose gaze was fixed on the twitching lightning bolts on the horizon.

"The analysis is clear," Leo said, his voice unusually firm, almost mechanical. "Conventional weapons are useless. The portal above the Reichstag is the source. If we want to contain the threat, we have to reach the source."

"And how do we get in there, Leo?" asked Sascha, his eyes on the insectoid creatures that were now sporadically streaming into the square from the side streets. "It’s a battlefield."

"We’ll fight our way through," Leo replied succinctly. He mentally tapped on his game menu and called up the map. The Reichstag building was surrounded by a first wave of the creatures, but there were weak points in their defenses. "The main entrance is too dangerous. We’ll use the service entrance to the west. From there, we can fight our way inside and then to the roof."

Petra looked at him with wide eyes. "But the people here... we can’t just leave them behind!"

"We can’t save them if we’re overwhelmed ourselves," Leo countered without a second’s hesitation. His priority was the system, getting to the root of the threat. "Anyone who doesn’t play is... irrelevant to this mission. We need to focus."

Omar nodded silently. Lena drew her bow. Sascha raised his improvised sword. Leo’s gaze scanned the surroundings, his scholar abilities analyzing the creatures’ movements, looking for patterns, for weak points.

"Forward," Leo ordered.

The advance was brutal. The first insectoid creatures that rushed towards them were crushed by Sasha with powerful blows, while Lena shot precise arrows into their weakly armored joints. Omar conjured up small but effective fireballs that scorched the slippery bodies of the beasts. Leo himself kept a low profile, his role was that of tactician, analyst. While Sascha pulled another creature to the ground, Leo concentrated his analysis on the wriggling monster. A transparent text field materialized, revealing detailed status values and weak points of the so-called "Vermin". And a new skill flashed up: Archfiend. Leo activated it immediately. A subtle pulse ran through his group, a sense of heightened precision.

They fought their way through the western driveway, past overturned vehicles and panicked civilians crowding into doorways. The smell of ozone and rotting flesh hung heavy in the air. When they reached the inside of the Reichstag building, it was a haunted house, riddled with traces of chaos. Here and there lay destroyed furniture, shattered glass. But the monsters were here too. They scurried out of the shadows, attacking from ambush.

The fight inside was tighter, more claustrophobic. Petra had to intervene several times to stabilize Sascha, who kept getting hit by the creatures. Leo felt a growing sense of frustration. This was inefficient. They needed more information, a better strategy.

Finally, after a fierce battle through corridors and stairwells, they reached the roof. The wind whistled towards them and the portal pulsated above them, larger and more menacing than before. It was a deep black fissure from which the insectoid creatures poured incessantly.

"This is it," Leo whispered, his voice tinged with a mixture of exhaustion and intellectual triumph. "The source."

They stepped closer to the glistening rift, determined to take the next step.

Thousands of kilometers away, in the stuffy alleyways of Jakarta, Luna felt a vague force pulling her towards the portal above the rooftops. She had just fought three of the insectoid beasts, their daggers flashing in the pale light. She knew that the source of these monsters was there. A desperate act of altruism had brought her here, now she would go further. She plunged into the glistening maw.

In a ruined suburban Ohio home, Clara Becker gazed at the portal pulsing above the torn street. Finn and Lily clung to her legs. Clara knelt down. "Lily, Finn, listen to Mommy," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Mom has something very important to do right now. But you can’t go with her." Her eyes fell on Jonas, the young man she had pulled out of the wrecked car. He was still sitting in the living room with a glazed look on his face, a handyman-class player but unable to move. Then she saw a figure at the shattered window - Sarah Jansen, a teenager from the neighborhood who had already classified herself as a thief and was trying to use her new skills to create a hiding place.

"Jonas! Sarah!" cried Clara, her voice sounding desperate. "Please! Stay with the children! Barricade yourselves in with the neighbors! Stick together! I have to finish this."

Sarah hurried to Clara, her eyes full of restless determination. "I’m coming with you, Miss Becker! You can’t fight!"

Clara shook her head. "No. You have to stay here. Protect the children." With one last, desperate look at her loved ones, whom she now had to entrust to others, she pulled herself free and jumped into the pulsating rift, clutching the healer’s staff tightly.

A deafening scream as the world shattered around her. Colors blurred, sounds became a single, swirling chaos. It was as if their bodies and spirits were being chased through an infinite slingshot that distorted space and time. When the vortex finally slowed down, they landed roughly on a damp, moss-covered surface. The air was damp and smelled of earth and decay. Above them arched not the sky or roofs, but a low, damp cave ceiling from which drops fell.

A transparent system pop-up flashed up.

System message: Entered dungeon instance "Vermin-Den Lvl 1". Group formation: Successful. Analysis of group coherence: Deviation detected. Sascha Meier (Warrior), Lena Gärtner (Ranger), Omar Ibrahim (Elementalist), Dr. Petra Schmidt (Healer), Sarah Jansen (Thief) are redirected to separate instances.

The pop-up disappeared. Another pop-up appeared, even clearer and more authoritative.

System message: New group formation for dungeon instance "Vermin-Den Lvl 1": Group: Leopold Richter (scholar), Luna (thief), Clara Becker (healer), Markus Brandt (warrior), Katjenka Novalina (ranger), Walter Steiner (cleric).

The pop-up disappeared. Leo’s eyes darted to the faces around him. His colleagues were gone. Just him. And these strangers. He analyzed them, as he did with every new piece of data. The young woman with the dark eyes and the daggers, obviously a thief like Luna. An exhausted woman with a glowing healing staff, Clara Becker, the healer. The young man, Markus Brandt, clutching his spear - a warrior, if his equipment was right. Katjenka Novalina, standing there with an axe, a ranger perhaps. And the silent, older man, Walter Steiner, clutching a staff, a clergyman?

Their faces were marked by shock and confusion. Luna surveyed her surroundings with the watchful intensity of a predator. Clara Becker still seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, her gaze distant but determined. The three others looked around anxiously. Markus Brandt was obviously panicking. Katjenka Novalina showed a mixture of determination and fear. And Walter Steiner seemed introverted, almost stoic.

The darkness penetrated from all directions, the rumbling of strange noises echoed from the depths of the cave. The dungeon. The game had only just begun.

Next Chapter: The Vermin-Den