Countdown until level collapse: 2 days 11 hours 04 minutes

Darryl popped back into the dungeon to find everyone standing around a large bonfire roasting marshmallows. Or well, a few people were doing so while others didn’t want to come near the pile of burning clurichaun bodies.

“Boss, you’re back!” A freakishly tall and lanky man said. “What happened, and why didn’t you take me along?”

“Wasn’t up to me, Tall.” Corey said. “Roundtable interview, discussed some things and learned some dire truths.”

“The hell happened with your nose?” A small and slightly obese man asked.

“If you think I look beat up, you should see the other guy.” Corey said, positively preening as he straightened his nose with a sickening crunch before casting his Heal spell to remove all of his bruises. “Or well, you should’ve seen him after I beat his ass. Damn regenerator’s probably looking like his old ugly self by now. But no matter how fast he healed, I beat him up faster and won that fight!”

“I’m pretty sure he said uncle because he had no idea what you were even talking about.” The biker girl, who Darryl could now see was called Bea, said.

“Would’ve won either way.” Corey grumbled.

“Shouldn’t we talk about the more important stuff, though…” Jude said softly.

“Already have. I PM’d the exploring parties about the dead zone, hopefully the knowledge will help us cast out a wider net and find a Stairway in time.” Thomas said.

“Dead zone?” Ben said. “Sounds ominous.”

“The reason no one found a Staircase is because there aren’t any.” Bea said. “Not for a while, at least. We don’t know where inside that dead zone we are and which way is the fastest, but we now know that slowly exploring the areas around known territory isn’t going to do us any favours.”

“Right. So what we should do is go in different directions and keep walking until we see a Stairway. And disregard the rest of all this…” Darryl said, waving at Martin trying to find the right words. “All… this.”

“I disagree.” Bea said. “I’m fine with your group going away, but what we learned only makes the tickets more viable. We’ve seen the camp, how slow it moves. Even with over two days left, many of those people are never going to make it in time. Even if there weren’t vespa popping up everywhere, they’re dead no matter what happens.”

“Ah shit, we’re back to that nonsense?” Elise said.

“We’re in the tutorial area, the challenges we’ve overcome are child’s play compared to what comes next.” Bea bit back. “We’re going to need those tickets to survive. And I don’t mean just us, but you guys too.”

“Don’t think so. We’re not going to kill people just for loot boxes, nor are we going to let you do it!” Carter said. “We’re above that. We’re all above that!”

“Yeah.” Elise said. “That, but without the heroic platitudes. We’re not letting you murder innocent people for your own gains!”

“Stop it, both of you.” Corey grumbled. “Let’s not start bickering before we told everything that matters. Like the rage elemental.”

“Right. So according to this talking ferret, if we don’t fight amongst each other the dungeon might send that rage elemental our way. There’s a good chance that it went in the direction with the nearest Stairway too.” Darryl said. “Then there’s a slight chance that the ferret might tell us which way to go once we fought amongst each other, but I highly doubt it.”

“Yeah, fuck him.” Corey said, spitting to the side. “Don’t trust the shifty bastard at all. Don’t much care for the stuff he wants, either.”

“Right. Gewerre, Gewguerre… Let’s just call him Gew, he wanted us to do some Jersey Shore reactions to the things we did.” Darryl explained to the rest. “Asked us to look at scenes of what we did on the second floor and give exaggerated reactions for him to edit into a recap. And for you guys to do so from memory, or give him some simple broad reactions.”

“On it!” Alexa said, turning to the wall and doing the Home Alone kid’s face of terror. “Wait… Whaaaaaat?!”

“I’m with Corey on that one, I don’t particularly feel inclined to indulge Gew there.” Thomas said.

“Wouldn’t it be good to have some friends on the other side, though?” Ben asked.

“He’s cheap, opportunistic and low-risk, so I highly doubt he’s going to be helping us much. Or that he can afford to, even if he wanted.” Thomas said. “He’s not like the Maestro, that there’s some advantage for him to keep us alive by investing his own money. He doesn't care if we die, as long as we earn back his investment first. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s trying to farm Corey’s fight with the troll for ad revenue as we speak.”

“Oh no she didn-nhtt!” Alexa said to the wall.

“No, you have to put more sass into it. Like this.” Elise said, turning her eyes to the wall and relaxing her muscles for a moment. “Oh NO she did-nt!”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“So, you’re going to try and kill these people after all.” Darryl asked, looking Corey dead in the eye.

“Well…” Corey said, exchanging glances with Bea. She nodded to his unspoken question. “There is a second option, but it’s going to need all of us to pull it off.”

“It won’t involve anyone getting killed?” Darryl asked.

“Best case scenario.” Corey said. “That silver star, it means you managed to beat a Borough Boss. Think you can pull that off a second time?”

Right, Gew did mention something about a Borough Boss being nearby. And the Stairway that would spawn if they killed it.

“And in that moment, I knew what I had to do.” Carter grimly said. The wall didn’t respond.

“I don’t think that’s a very useful quote for what we’ve done thus far.” Ben said. “Not like this one: Phew, that was tough! Surely this couldn’t get any worse.”

Elise deadpanned. “It got worse.”

“Yeah! Alright, now you say the first line and I’ll give the response!” Ben said.

“I don’t know.” Thomas said, back at the serious conversation. “From what we’ve seen in the recap, the lethality of those Borough Bosses is all over the place. Not to mention, the Neighbourhood bosses got stronger and the same probably applies to the Borough Bosses.”

“We would be prepared this time, and bringing more than just six of us.” Darryl said. “It might be doable, but I don’t know if we grinded enough levels and items to make up for the increase of difficulty. Things got real close with the Woolf and we barely levelled since.”

“Whether we can handle it or not, odds are better if everyone is three levels higher with better gear.” Bea said.

“Boom chaka laka!” Alexa said.

“I think that reference has already been claimed, by whomever said it first and made it something that we all know. Even if no one knows where it comes from.” Rudy said.

“Pffst! It’s an Earth reference, it’s not like any of our viewers will ever know.” Alexa said, before twisting her face in an overacted smug pout. “I mean, it’s not like anyone will ever know.”

“It’s not as if anyone’s going to find out.” Ben said, pulling off his cheeky smile a bit better.

“It’s not like anyone’s going to find out.” Alexa said, throwing a fat wink at the wall.

“No, we’re not going to do that.” Darryl said. “That you guys believe this stuff, doesn’t mean we’ll give in if you keep at it.”

“Hold on there, buddy.” Corey said. “I don’t… Nobody here believes in Martin’s cause. Maybe not even himself, after that pitiful display from before. The guy is a sociopath and a joke. But the dungeon handing out great rewards is real, and we’ve got ourselves a unique opportunity to claim them without the skulls.”

Martin didn’t even react to his comment, despite standing right there with them. The old man seemed out of it, and had been slow to react for the entire roundtable interview too.

“Listen, I get you. You’ve been told that killing is bad and being virtuous in the face of danger is good.” Bea pressed. “But there are shades of grey, and not just in the way some people try to justify for their selfish desires. If we don’t kill these people, we’ll die. Maybe not now, but we will. You will. And these people are already dead, they’re just clinging on to the help and pity of others to live a little bit longer. Killing them isn’t murder, it’s euthanasia.”

“Yes, if someone has any will to fight and cling on to life enough to pull through, they’re no longer in that camp.” Corey said. “But some people are just unable to change their mindset like that, and others are simply catatonic over what they lost. They don’t want to live anymore.”

“How would you know that?” Darryl bit back.

“Because I’ve talked with some of these people.” Corey said, strangely calm and mature for his appearance. “Some of them want to die, even if they don’t have the guts to realise it or cling to their Christian belief that suicide is a sin. And some don’t even have the will or energy to kill themselves.”

Darryl didn’t say anything, letting the silence either discredit Corey or urge him to keep talking.

“Bazinga!” Remy shouted in the background.

“How’re you doin’?” Ben tried to seduce the wall.

“Dyn-o-mite!” Elise said, pumping her fist.

“Now this is a story all about how, my life got twisted upside down…” Alexa began, as Tall gave her a beat.

Corey sighed wearily. “There was this woman in our camp, Kate, who came because she wanted to help. To do something to take her mind off her mourning, to be too busy feeling like she was doing something useful to linger on happened.”

That stirred something in Martin, and the old man’s eyes stopped being glazed over.

“She did some bandaging and stood ready with healing scrolls during battle, but that was just ten minutes of work followed by hours or silence that allowed for contemplating. It didn’t do anything but force her to wake from her stupor every once in a while and make things worse.” Corey said. “The poor mother lost all three of her sons and her husband all at once, and then found herself in a dungeon where she was supposed to fight for her life. Where she was expected to want to keep living.”

“What are you talking about? Kate was rap- taken by you guys.” Martin said.

“No one laid a finger on her, just like no one touched the three other girls. Some of them wanted to, but I was having none of that shit.” Corey said grimly. “Kate was already borderline suicidal when she came to us. Not suicide-suicidal, but it was clear that she was just waiting for the timer to run out and end her mourning.”

“No, that can’t be…” Martin said. “Kate, she’s…”

“A mother.” Bea said. “Never been one myself, but I’ve seen how my sister changed when she had her kid. How she never recovered even years after he OD’d. I don’t want to imagine what losing all your kids at once would be like. Not to mention, mourning all the family and friends that could console you at the same time, and even losing your house, job and all mementos you had of your family. Can’t even give them a proper funeral.”

“But she still has-” Martin said, before realising something. “I never truly consoled her, did I? I tried to avenge her, but… I never even realised that-”

“I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged.” Small said in a smooth baritone worthy of ASMR. “Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.”

The rest gave him a round of applause, which Small humbly took with flushed cheeks.

“I have to find her.” Martin muttered, ignoring the rest of them as he turned around and walked away from the conversation. “I have to find her and- and…”

“The camp. I have to go to the camp…” Martin murmured as he walked past the group. “I have to…”

“Hold up!” Remy said. “We can’t let you go there! We’re not letting you kill any more people for your tickets!”

“No, that’s not- That’s no longer important. I just…” Martin said, looking past Remy as if he couldn’t even see the man.

“He’s right, we can’t let you go there. Not after what you’ve done.” Ben said, and Elise nodded while taking out her bat to underline how she meant it.

“You can’t keep me from seeing her.” Martin said, brandishing his knife. “You won’t stop me from making things right!”

And just like that, the casual air in the tunnel disappeared as everyone drew their weapons and readied themselves for combat.