The Mad Rat's Lab

Meanwhile, inside All Shall Despair, the Real Deal's dungeon.

"We saw it in the first match's replay, but seeing it in person is completely different," says Ricard, slightly annoyed. "To think they would disregard all basics of dungeon design and create a grotesque dungeon like this one… Mad Rat was right. It's impossible to know what's going on in their crazy heads."

"Hehe. But isn't this what makes it fun?" Poking a vertical water wall with her tentacles, Clara chuckles at Ricard's complaint.

True to Ricard's words, this dungeon is like nothing they've seen before.

According to player common sense, when a team works together to create a dungeon, they should strive to create a coherent and believable dungeon, either by using parts of each team member's dungeon or by utilizing one as the base and adding on top of it. This way, they not only make use of each other's strengths, but also create something interesting that looks good.

But, as Andreu warned them and they had seen on the first match's replay, there's nothing like that in front of them.

The first thing that greets their eyes is a large church-like building in the middle of a grass field. But, raising their sight slightly, a dense jungle grows from the ceiling, going from the ceiling to the wall in a seamless curve, until it finally reaches the ground in the distance. Behind the church, scorched black earth, with flowing lava and poisonous dark smoke, greets their eyes, and right next to them, a large water wall marks the start of a deep-sea space.

Similar scenes repeat further down, from what they've seen in the replay.

With perfect limits between each other, as if cut by a sharp knife, the dungeon 'chunks' clearly have nothing to do with each other. But despite their differences and stark visual contrast, they somehow give the viewers a vision of a chaotic but somehow coherent landscape.

It's the feeling they'd get if someone completed a puzzle, each piece seamlessly fitting with the others, but the resulting picture was nothing like the one on the box.

Furthermore, from what they've seen in the first match's replay, although the four dungeon 'chunks' are clearly defined, the monsters in them aren't. It isn't unusual for a monster to suddenly jump out of one zone into another, surprising them with an ambush. From a giant shark rushing out of the water like a torpedo ending up in the lava and starting to spurt empowered ice beams, empowered by the % of missing HP, to a group of human hunters hiding in the jungle, everything is possible in this dungeon.

Even worse is the fact that two of the opponent's factions are from the Wild Ferals. Any animal they see could be a hidden danger.

Is this deliberate and meticulous planning by a genius mind, or just the whims of child-like adults, pushing their ideas forward with fervor and refusing to let go, ultimately compromising to use whatever they liked and smash it all randomly together?

Nobody will know unless they ask the creators of this messed-up dungeon.

"It's hard to believe him when he acts… well, like that…." Says Ricard, shaking his head as he recalls his friend's in-game 'crazy' behavior. "I hate to say it, but Mad Rat was right. They're fucked up in their minds."

"You shouldn't say such things." Laura admonishes him. "Aren't you afraid they'll retaliate?"

"What are they going to do? Search for my real… Oh, no… You're right. I take it back. They're geniuses. Perfectly sane and normal geniuses."

Clara twists her tentacles in front of Ricard, chuckling at his blunder.

"Hehehe. You won't be able to sleep from now on… You'll never know when they'll come for you!"

"Shouldn't you be the scared one? Aren't you worried they'll track you down just to get to your brother?"

The two start bickering, but Laura quickly intervenes. Although it doesn't feel like it is, because of this dungeon's crazy layout, they're in a very important match.

"Stop. This only plays to our opponent's advantage. Let's focus on the dungeon."

"Fine, but…" Ricard scratches his cheek, "...where should we start?"

The first team that went inside this dungeon ended up winning, but only after countless hardships. Running away randomly and pushing through with large sacrifices, they found the dungeon core by chance just before dying, winning the match against All Shall Despair, the Real Deal.

In short, thanks to the first team, they know where the dungeon core is, but not a safe path to get there.

"Let's stick to the grasslands and jungle for now and avoid the underwater as much as possible." Proposes Laura.

Since their team consists of two melee and a support character, the reduced vision inside the jungle, as well as the tight, enclosed spaces inside the human constructions, will work to their advantage. On the contrary, the open lava fields will make them an easy target for ranged attacks, and even worse is the undersea, with nowhere to hide and reduced movement speed.

"Okay! Let's goooooo!" Clara raises her arms in the air in agreement. "I'll take the lead today, hehehe! It's my time to shine!"

Before she can take a step forward, Ricard rushes in front of her and blocks her with his arm extended.

"What are you saying? It's my job to take the front."

Clara acts surprised. "Eeeeh…!? But I'm the one who knows my brother's tactics the best! If the other team wants to copy his tactics, aren't I the best suited for the job?"

"So what? I'm the tank and should take the lead."

She twists her tentacles in front of Ricard's face once more, irritating him. She puts on a horror-ghost story voice and laughs creepily.

"But aren't you scared of finding incomprehensible and absurd monsters that will drain your stats and your sanity alike? Hidden traps that do nothing other than put you on edge, triple and quadruple-layered traps… You saw what happened to the first team that stepped inside… Hehehe…!"

Ricard opens his eyes wide before awkwardly looking away. "Fine… Do whatever you want."

"Yeeey!"

"Hiyaaah!"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Making a weird shout, Clara slams a creature to the ground. Completely covered in tentacles, the poor monster struggles to get free. The green-skinned demon starts to bite Clara's tentacles, but she has already used her skill to detach the tentacles from her body, rendering all struggling ineffective.

"Hehe! One less to go!" She says as new tentacles start to grow out of her empty arm.

Laura, standing behind her while comparing a rough-sketched map with the game's minimap and her surroundings, congratulates her.

"Good job, Lemon. Now we just need to find a way around this large deep-sea zone that's blocking our way…"

Clara tilts her head, acting cute.

"If the dungeon core is straight ahead, there's no reason to go around this, is there? I'll be more fun this way!"

"As I've explained a few times already, it's our worst terrain. We should avoid if possible…"

"Hey!" Ricard interrupts their conversation. "Don't you think it's weird?"

The two pause and send Ricard a curious glance. What the hell is he talking about? It's been more than ten minutes since they started this dungeon exploration, and there's nothing that wasn't 'weird'. Did he just realize it now?

"Don't look at me like that!" He waves his hands to explain himself. "I'm not talking about the dungeon itself, I'm talking about the monsters. Can't you see their behavior is slightly different from the replay? It's as if… as if they're more stupid than before?"

Laura starts thinking.

She has felt it too, but she has been blaming it on the fact that they came prepared. After knowing how the dungeon works and having quite a few of the monsters in action, it makes sense that they aren't as dangerous.

"I don't know, it's hard to explain. It's as if… as if there's no real intention behind their attacks? It's as if they just move by instinct instead of doing their best to coordinate their assault to destroy us."

"Now that you say it…"

Laura nods her head. The monster's actions indeed seem less intentional than before.

Clara has detected a few ambushes ahead of time, preventing the monsters from doing whatever they pleased with them, but not even she is infallible, and a few monsters have slipped through the gaps.

Still, they haven't felt the sense of danger that the first team felt all the time.

None of the players present is conceited enough to believe they're superior to the other team by a large margin. The skill difference between the two teams participating in this tournament shouldn't be too large. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gotten enough points to get into the real event, competing for the spot with so many other teams.

If the first team struggled, they should be struggling at a similar level as they did.

"Ah!" Clara exclaims, "Doesn't my brother always say that they're obsessed with him? If they thought he would stay to defend our dungeon, wouldn't they all go to meet him in person?"

Laura raises an eyebrow. "You mean there's no one defending…?"

"Exactly! Hehehe!"

"They're truly crazy…" Ricard shakes his head. "No sane player would leave the defense to their mobs unless they don't have any other option. Going all-in on the offense is a sure-fire way to lose. But if Lemon's right and they left the defense unattended, then we'll have a free win. There's no way we can lose this as long as Mad Rat delays them long enough."

"But then this would mean Mad Rat has to deal with the four of them on his own…" Laura's voice sounds slightly worried. "I can imagine his mood after the match ends…"

"Hang in there, brother! We'll save you from your nightmare! Hehehe!"

Clara pumps her fist (tentacles), saying that. Then, she happily takes a step towards the water wall dividing the two zones.

Laura grabs her shoulder and pulls her back. "Didn't I tell you to avoid the underwater areas?"

"Ah, right…! You did, hehehe…"

"Prey acquired. Now, let's mate!"

With just those words, the cat-girl (temporary name) sprints forward and pounces, her predatory eyes locked onto me.

How the fuck can she move so fast when walking on all fours!? Last time I tried, it was very hard… No, Andreu, stop thinking about weird stuff! There are more pressing matters!

Snapping out of it just in time, I instinctively press the big red button right next to me.

I hear a 'click' sound, and the escape mechanism activates. The chair springs up, throwing me into the air at a precise and carefully calculated angle.

Sigh… I'll never understand why players disregard springtraps, saying they're useless because they deal no damage. How wrong they are! They're extremely versatile! What's more, some of the best traps I've seen, or at least some of the most annoying, used them!

Anyway, I'm digressing. Let's return to the match.

The springtrap sends me flying, perfectly aimed at a nearby elevated platform. There, a door awaits me so I can make my escape.

But reacting to my sudden movement, with feline-like reflexes, the cat-girl jumps into the air, trying to stop me from running away. Her aim and timing are perfect, and she would have rammed into me if not for…

*Bonk!* The cat-girl's movement comes to a halt after hitting something. It's an invisible wall I've set up for situations like this one.

"Hahaha! You thought it'd be that easy?" I laugh, landing on the elevated platform. "Better luck next time! See you later! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

With those words, I open the door and quickly slip in.

I don't even have the will to look back and see her reaction. I just lean against the wall and sigh, relieved.

"Haaa… that was too close…"

If it weren't for my escape mechanism, she'd have surely gotten a hold of me. Who knows what would have happened next? Just imagining it sends several shivers down my spine.

What the fuck is going on with today's madmen!? Aren't they crazier than usual!?

…I didn't think that was possible. But here we are.

First, there's one that acts like a normal person. He's way more dangerous than the usual Mad Cultist because he actually seems to know how to use the thing that's above his neck, or at least that's what it looks like. Then there's the wereshark, who, even when acting like the usual cultist, is more skilled and stronger than his actions suggest.

And finally, no less than the other two, are the two women who are trying to fuck me. Literally, I mean.

I never thought I'd have to say this, but…

This isn't a game for all audiences! Stop trying to do indecent things! Especially those that go against my sanity!

"Haaah…" I grab my throbbing head. This headache won't go away for a long time. "I'm done with this. I'm sooooooo done with all their bullshit!"

This is it. It's time to take out the big guns. It's time to take out my secret weapon.

I was hoping to keep my secret weapon a secret for as long as possible, because the less information about it our opponents learn, the easier it'll be to defeat them in the future. But at this rate, it won't matter if we keep it a secret or not. At this rate, I'll lose my sanity first.

That, or my head will explode. Whatever happens isn't great for me, regardless.

I'm sure Ricard and Laura will understand my decision. As for Clara… I'm sure she'll support whatever I do, as ridiculous as it might be.

"Fufufu… Hahaha…! I'll make you regret making a fool out of me!"

My steps lead me deeper into the dungeon. I don't have any plan to keep the invaders busy with meager traps or mental tactics anymore. My clones can do whatever they please. They can commit suicide for all I care.

The only thing that matters from now on is this: to make them regret ever coming to my dungeon. To crush them under my feet and laugh at their deaths.

"Legendary revenge, here I come! Fufufu! Haha– Cough, cough, cough…!"