The Mad Rat's Lab

I smash my shield down repeatedly, striking the zombie that refuses to die. "Die already! Stop grabbing my ankle!"

Right then, after repeatedly surviving my attacks, an arrow lodges into the zombie's skull, killing it.

"Hiss…!"

The Skull Collector! Right, he's still stealing kills to get free stats… But this time, I won't get angry at him, because he helped me get rid of this annoying zombie.

I raise my sight and look around just in time to prevent another arrow barrage with Shield.

While the arrows harmlessly bounce off my Shield, I observe my surroundings. We must have stepped on a large zombie field, as the previously empty and desolate sands are now filled with zombies. We're surrounded. Looking further ahead, I see two meteors falling in our general direction. It'll be hard to avoid them while dealing with the zombies… and the skeleton archers… and the Skull Taker…

"Wilsie, we need you to open a path forward. We can't stay here any longer." A-Dawg subtly asks for my intervention.

"Sure, leave it to me!"

Getting out of this zombie field, where we're attacked by arrows, and with two meteors landing soon, guaranteed to fall nearby? I'd love to.

"Don't blame me if you get caught by it!" I warn my teammates. "Open, The, Way!"

At the same time, I raise my shield and drop it with as much force as I can. When the shield's lower ridge hits the ground, it makes a dry impact sound, releasing a yellowish light in a straight line. The light quickly moves forward, pushing all zombies aside.

"Now, run!" I sprint forward as soon as I use the skill. But even when I'm the first to react, knowing exactly when the skill is activated, A-Dawg, Bubbles, and Nononani are too fast. They quickly catch up with me, taking the lead and leaving me behind.

"H-hey, guys! Don't leave me behind!" Why is it always the same? Why is it always me?

We safely escape the zombie encirclement and start running towards the closest rock formation to escape the meteor's effect. The zombies, awakening from their stun, start chasing after us in a disorganized and terrifying mob.

No, not 'us', but 'me', as I'm the closest one. "Waaaaah! I'm going to dieeeeee!"

"Come on, Wilsie. You can do it!"

I don't need your fake sympathy, Nononani! "If you aren't going to help, don't spout bullshit–"

"Don't worry, I'll cover you."

Having reached a safe place where the meteors can't hit her, Bubbles waves her staff, and the ground around me starts freezing. Several ice spikes pop out of the ground, damaging and blocking the zombie's advance.

"Thanks! I love you, Bubbl– U-uaah!"

The frozen ground makes me slip. I should have known it wouldn't be so easy!

Unable to control my movement, I approach my teammates at a faster speed than ever before. The lack of friction is scary. "I-I don't like this! I don't want this extra speed! I was wrong all along, slow and steady is beeeeeeest!"

A-Dawg and the rest move away from my path, not wanting to clash with me. But with them moving away, the rock's wall, previously hidden behind them, catches my attention. There's a part that isn't the same color. Darker, almost black. And wet. When looked at from my current position, the irregular dark rock resembles the head of some kind of demon, horns included, with its mouth wide open.

'Am I going to slip right into the demon's mouth!?' No way! As soon as I come out of the ice field, I'll recover my stability and stop before I smash my head into the rock… for the second time.

My foot leaves the frozen ground, and I struggle to stabilize myself. It's impossible to stop immediately when my speed is so high and my position is unstable. But before I stop, I hear a loud explosion coming from behind, right where the zombie horde is gathered.

"The meteors! I forgot– U-uaaah!" The powerful shockwave hits my back, twisting my body and further increasing my speed. Taking me by surprise, I trip over my own foot and start rolling forward.

As the world spins, I see the dark demon-like rock approaching. "Uaaaah! Stop m–"

Wilsie's voice vanishes, as if she were never there. At the same time, her Champion dives into the rock wall, disappearing from view.

A-Dawg peers into the dark patch of rock, where Wilsie just disappeared. "...Wilsie?" But before he can understand what happened, Bubbles shakes his shoulders.

"This is bad! Wilsie is gone! She doesn't appear on the minimap!" Shouts Bubbles.

"Calm down," Nononani stops her, "I didn't notice it before, but look at this. Don't you find this part of the rock, the part where Wilsie hit, is different from the rest? There must be some secret behind her disappearance…"

The three players check the unusual spot on the rock for clues until the surviving zombie wave reaches their position, when they decide to stop wasting time and move on.

"If this was what we were looking for, a portal communicating to another zone. But it must have closed by now…" concludes A-Dawg. "There must be another one somewhere. We must find it quickly, Wilsie can't do this on her own!"

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"Uaaaah! Stop meeeeee– Ugh!" I stop when I hit something hard, probably a wall. "Not, like, this, again…!"

After recovering from the dizziness, I push my face away from the rock wall and stand up. I hold onto the wall to help stabilize and look around. Right behind me, I find a familiar silhouette: a flat demon-shaped silhouette on the wall, except that this time, it's emitting a faint blue light. As I observe it, the light splits into motes which quickly fade away, returning to its dark, as if it were wet, appearance.

"No, no, no, no! You can't close now!" I slam the rock with my fists. "My teammates are on the other side!"

I can't accept this… what am I going to do, alone? What if something scary appears? I won't be able to hide behind Nononani or A-Dawg… It's a disaster!

Refusing to accept it, I look everywhere for a lever, a button, a keyword… anything to reactivate the portal. When nothing works, I start clawing at the rock. There must be a way out, I just need to find it!

I spend an indeterminate amount of time clawing at the rock, swapping between my fists and shield, until a sudden scream makes me jump.

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

"W-what was that!?" When I look around, scared of finding a monster, I remember I've been teleported somewhere else. "Right… Where am I?"

This is a small cave. The walls are made out of the same rock as those found on the donut-shaped island. Other than the closed portal, there's a single exit: an extremely intricate obsidian archway. The light comes from a torch on the wall, to the right of the archway, glowing in mysterious purple light.

"Creepy…" It's scary, too scary! I'm sure a phantom will come out and attack me anytime now.

On the other side of the archway, exquisite marbled walls form an empty passage that splits a few meters in. With smooth obsidian tiles, the floor would look like a black hole, if not for the golden lines forming intricate patterns on the walls, ceiling, and floor. More purple torches lit the path. But what catches my attention isn't the walls or the creepy, royalty vibe. It's the black tumors growing everywhere, writhing as if they were alive.

I hold the urge to run away, pushing myself to accept that I'm trapped here and this passage is the only way forward. I gulp, stepping into the passage.

"Calm down, Wilsie. This is nothing. This is just a game, just a game… a game…"

Nothing happens after the first step, so I take another step forward. Nothing. Another one… nothing.

"...maybe this isn't scary at all?" I slowly pick up my pace. "The outside was scarier than this…"

Distracted, I turn the corner and find myself in front of a pink wall. The pink wall approaches me, making a wet sound on contact. I freeze.

*Slurp* The pink wall was a giant tongue!

A demon with an enormous head, his mouth splitting his head in two, laughs in front of me. The demon grins, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He's wearing ill-fitting security guard clothes.

"Uhehehe! Found ya! Want to play a game?"

The demon starts talking, but as soon as I snap out of the initial surprise, I sprint away at maximum speed, even faster than when the meteor was falling on top of me. "Uaaah! Save meeeeee!"

"Dear guest! Running in the corridors is forbidden! Please stop right now…"

The demon's voice fades away. Af if I'd listen to a monster like him!

Following the initial encounter, I randomly start running through a web of interconnected passages, sometimes climbing up or down stairs. On both sides of most passages, there are empty doorframes, and rooms of all sizes on the other side of them.

At first, I think of hiding inside one of them, but quickly change my mind. The scenes inside are too bizarre and scary!

In one, I find a skeleton taking a shower. He screams in panic when he sees me, as if I were the bad guy. When I approach another room, a writhing mass of tentacles comes out, trying to pull me inside. Luckily, I avoid them in time. In another, I see a man practicing his crossbow accuracy on his lover's body… and she enjoys every hit! I also see a man swimming in a pile of dead bodies, a laboratory with a man shouting 'It's alive! It's alive!' as it pulls a lever while reanimating the nearby corpses, a creepy eye so large it fills the whole doorframe, and a group of demons playing poker, using human limbs as chips.

But those are just the least scary.

In a spectacle room, a mage was pulling the audience's heads, still fresh and dripping blood, from his hat… And the audience applauded every time! Even the dead ones!

And what about the banquet hall? The customers were literally offering themselves for the others to eat! I even saw a slime-like monster eating a demon whole, while said demon was using a skeleton's spine as if it were a toothpick.

Is this a horror 5-star hotel!? I'd rather die than stay a night here! The rooms don't even have doors, so you can't stay in your room to avoid trouble!

A few of the monsters I find jump into action after spotting me. They chase after me, and I scramble as I can to try to leave them behind. I can't fight so many! What's worse, several phantoms are chasing me too, warning the other monsters of my current position.

How is this fair? They can move through walls and floors!

And the worst of it all: a mass of writhing flesh and limbs incessantly engulfing anything on its path, including its allies, and growing in size as it advances. It blocks the whole passage and, like a flood, there's nothing that can stop it.

"I'm so going to dieeeeee! Aaaaaah!"

In my panic, I trip over my foot and hit the wall in front. A large word appears in front of me. "...Exit?"

Exit, as in, the real exit!? Sure enough, along this passage and again at the corner, I see two more 'Exit' signs, an arrow pointing in that direction. In my frenzy, I didn't notice them until now!

I don't care if it's a trap. This is the first and only clue I've got, so I'll follow it.

It takes a while, but after some time of following the signs, I reach a new room. On top of the empty doorframe, it says: 'Mirror Room'.

"Mirror room? It can't be scarier than the hotel..." I decisively stride inside.

I quickly find myself surrounded by floor-to-ceiling mirrors. They're angled in such a way that most of them show the same, repeated an infinite number of times. In the mirrors, a short and bearded wood-like humanoid raises his hand, emitting purple light and releasing a barrage of purple arrows.

"Magic Missiles!" I immediately recognize the skill, activating Shield.

The protective film appears around me, and I wait for impact as the arrows fly at me from all sides. I wait… until the protective film disappears, leaving me stunned. Shortly after, the Magic Missiles appear, hitting me.

What just happened…? Ah, the reflections tricked me!

Right then, the humanoid in the mirrors releases a new Magic Missile barrage, leaving me dumbfounded.

I have to predict the timing based on the reflections? How am I supposed to do it!?

"No way! I can't do this alone!" I don't even know where the real monster is. I can only see his reflection!

I run out of the Mirror Room, unable to fight that monster. That monster wasn't scary, just tricky and strong! It's so unfair that I have to go back to this crazy hotel… why was the exit blocked by that monster!?

"Sigh…" I glance at the 'Exit' sign. "This was my only clue…"

Defeated, I let my body drop, sliding down the wall. But right then, in a faraway corner, I see sudden movement. I anxiously turn my head, preparing to run away, but what I find isn't what I expected.

There, I see a familiar figure waving his hand at me.

"A-Dawg! You're here!"

He turns around and dives into an empty room. I chase after him and hide beside him, right next to the empty doorframe.

"Thank god you found me. I was going to throw away the match and dis-con-nect…"

I lose my voice when A-Dawg's face splits into two, a large pink object coming out of the gap.

"Uhehe! I got you again." *Slurp*

"Aaaaaaaah…!" My vision becomes dark as I lose consciousness.