The next day, Gen awoke to a familiar Ding~!
"Deliveries, huh…"
Jasper and the mess of iguanas were sleeping in a pile as usual. She didn't know when they had gotten home last night, but as her summons, they had access to her room, and evidently, the home renovation hadn't disoriented them much.
Dislodging herself from the pile, she got dressed quickly from the pile of new clothes she'd bought with Morna. Her home was starting to look more like a proper house, but it was still lacking furniture. Only the simple foam mattress was present in her barren room.
Adding even more shopping to her to-do list, she was again thankful that she'd won so many emmys in the event. Francine had a job, so they'd probably be fine as well, but for the other new generated like Rusty or Tonata, they'd be stuck in their pitiful basic rooms for some time unless they got lucky in an event.
As she finished dressing, she idly brushed a hand along the place the mechanical dog had bitten her and found it fully healed. Not only that, but all the aches and strains in her body from the fear-induced exercise had been washed away.
Feeling thankful, she looked up at the ceiling where she imagined her voyeuristic viewers were watching her from.
"Thanks."
Based on their previous behavior, she had half expected a healing pool to be some sort of trap, but it genuinely seemed like a non-violent and helpful addition to her life.
Ruining her mood, LEO's voice echoed in her mind.
Tut tut, Gen! You mustn't be late on your first day, or I'll dock your pay!
A spectral glowing arrow appeared in her vision, pointing to wherever she presumably was supposed to go.
Scowling at the arrow, she considered ditching work altogether. She wasn't sure how much she could reasonably expect to make, but it was likely a paltry sum compared to her zombie event winnings, and she was already getting annoyed.
Stepping out into the club's dormitory room and seeing Morna beaming in exercise gear, she immediately changed her mind.
"Ready for another run, Gen!?"
Gen shuddered as she remembered the mechanical hounds and shook her head as she looked away.
"Umm, I can't. I did the job poll, so I have to go to work. LEO says I can't be late…"
Morna looked devastated.
"You took a job…? but Gen… those jobs… they're for…" she leaned in whispering in Gen's ear "normal people…"
Gen looked at her, offended.
"I am a normal person!"
Morna looked at her doubtfully, but shrugged.
"Whatever, the gym will still be there next week. I'm glad you bought the year membership!" Her expression darkened. "Quick question, though, Gen? Why does Hon have a box of pasta and I don't?"
Gen looked away again. "Umm… technically, he only got a single noodle, the box isn't his!" She abruptly focused on the spectral arrow pointing to her job, "I'm going to be late! Gotta go! I promise you can go on the next dungeon run!"
Hurrying away, she felt Morna's eyes boring into her back, and a second later, Morna was running alongside her with a glint in her eyes.
"Gen, you're running really well after yesterdays exercise… It's like you've been healed."
Gen froze. She'd planned to hide her healing pool's ability from Morna, but had forgotten how scarily observant her friend was.
Smiling evilly, Morna continued, "I was going to suggest a healer to help speed up your gains, but didn't want to force you! If you're doing it already, though, there's no reason to hold back on our next gym day!"
Gen grimaced and started running again. Morna cackled, echoed behind her as she finally let her go.
Breathing a temporary sigh of relief, Gen followed the arrow outside and spotted G2n on a ladder painting the building's exterior. He had a determined expression on his face as he painted over the sloppy graffiti, and she gave him a wave before continuing forward.
Once on the open street, she saw dozens of other actors hurrying around. They had focused expressions as they all followed their own job arrows. Gen had no idea how many people did LEO's odd jobs each month, but judging by the crowd, it was a lot.
The arrow led her to a trolley, and she swiped her transit pass before sitting down. She was sure the novelty of work would wear off fast, but at least for the moment, it was refreshing to have something where her life wasn't on the line.
Pulling out her phone, she selected the group chat with Morna, Chuck, and Jacob.
Gen: Who's all doing a LEO job? Morna said she was too cool to participate.
Jacob: I have returned from my family reunion, but alas, my familial obligations have not ceased. I have declined the poll on account of my current role manning the sales floor at my family's establishment.
Gen: Jacob, are you rich? What does your store sell?
Jacob: We are not rich. It is a simple chain of home interior commodities named Cozy Corners.
Chuck: Dude, your family owns CC's? There's at least one or two of those in every city… you're totally rich!
Chuck: Also nice to hear from you, Gen… I'm assuming Jasper no longer has your phone? I didn't understand why you were suddenly encouraging me to recycle my soul because "I was beyond redemption"...
Chuck: And yeah, I took the poll. I'm on street cleaning. LEO's jobs pay like 10-20% more than my serving gig, so I grab them every month.
Gen: Sorry… I meant to message you after the event. Jasper is… well, I think he got it out of his system, so he probably won't harass you anymore as long as you don't call him evil again ??
Chuck: He does realize encouraging someone to kill themselves is evil, right?
Gen: He would probably argue it depends on if the person deserves it…
Chuck: My ability said he was bad news! If he doesn't like that, he should complain to LEO, not me!
Jacob had been writing the whole time, and his message finally came through.
Jacob: Just because there are many locations does not mean we are rich. There are a great deal of operating costs associated with running a business, and it takes a large amount of time. Not only that, but I do not own any locations myself personally, so I wouldn't include those assets when determining if I was "rich".
Chuck: If you have to explain why you're not technically rich, then you're rich, dude, just own it.
Morna: Nah, he's poor, CC's got some ugly stuff I wouldn't be caught dead walking around one of those dumps. Also, Chuck, good luck on street cleaning, I'll litter some extra today just for you <3
Gen stared at her phone, seeing both Chuck and Jacob go back and forth for a bit longer, with Morna launching unprovoked jabs at both of them from the sidelines. It was highly amusing, and Gen hoped it was in good humor, but she couldn't tell if her friends actually just hated each other at some level.
Gen had a thought and briefly hesitated if it was wise to tell them, and who might intercept the message if Chuck and Jacob's phones weren't secure, and decided she didn't care, as anyone who could intercept it probably was already aware.
Gen: Umm Morna already knows, but heads up, I have a dungeon. If you don't know what that is, it's like a mini scenario? Anyway, right now it's low-level, but if you guys want to join, I've got four runs in it left this week.
Chuck: You have a fucking dungeon?????????
Jacob: Gen, my family would be most interested in deepening our friendship. Would you be interested in marriage by chance?
Morna: ??????
Gen: Not looking for marriage… No. But yeah, things just happened this way. The consortium tried to kill me or steal it, I guess, but now that I claimed it, they've gone quiet. So yeah, I can summon it anywhere, apparently, so we should meet up when I'm done with my job, and you folks can win some noodles.
Chuck: Back the hell up. The consortium attacked you?? What is your life, Gen? I think I just gained a viewer from even having this conversation. And did you say noodles? Aren't dungeons supposed to give powerful artifacts as rewards????
Jacob: If you're uninterested in marriage, would you like an employee discount at Cozy Corners? I am sure I could arrange it for you in light of our deep friendship.
Morna: Yeah, get with the times, Chuck. All this is old news~
Morna: Jacob, my boy, are you seriously trying to bribe a dungeon owner with a discount to your family's shitty store?
Morna: Also, if you're handing out discounts, I'll take one.
Jacob: It is not a bribe! I was going to do this regardless, as Gen is such a wonderful person. Why would you even want a discount if you think the furniture is ugly?
Morna: So that your family's cheap shit's price will match its quality, obviously
Chuck: In case it wasn't clear, I am definitely interested in seeing your dungeon, Gen.
Jacob: Forgive me for being distracted by Morna's… Distracted by the way she is. I would also like to attend this inaugural delve.
Morna: Technically, it's the second run. NOT THAT I WAS INVITED TO THE FIRST!
Morna: Also, Jacob, this is for you ??
Gen laughed and saw the job arrow she was following abruptly rotate as the trolley pulled to a stop. Hurrying off, she sent a final message telling them she was getting close to her job and couldn't message more. Once disembarked, she recognized her surroundings and shivered as it was the same area where she had been chased by the consortium.
Following the arrow, she retraced her route, even ending up in front of the same building as before.
The neon sign was still there, but it wasn't flickering like it was last time. The oyster with a scorpion inside was brightly lit. The damage the building had taken from the consortium's assault looked to be repaired, and it was looking less run-down than before.
Shuddering at the memory of the rotting oyster smell from the alley, she followed the arrow to the front, where an annoyed man was standing tapping his foot.
Alexia - Level 1
"Oi! You the dishwasher!? You're late!"
Taken aback, Gen shook her head, "Umm, no… I'm a messenger."
Alexia groaned and reached into a pocket, drawing a crumpled letter and handing it to her, and then waving her away dismissively.
Confused, she held it and questioned, "Where am I supposed to take it?"
He scowled at her, "What were you generated yesterday? Follow the arrow!"
Grumbling under her breath, she said, "More like last week…"
Sure enough, though, the spectral arrow had shifted and pointed in a new direction. Leaving the grouchy man behind, she thanked her viewers that she hadn't gotten dishwasher. She didn't know if she'd be assigned this particular location, but she never wanted to smell another oyster.
Inspecting the letter she'd been given, she saw the name Irving scrawled across it sloppily with permanent marker. Pausing, she tried to place the name. Somebody from the event? Or one of the memories of her soul fragments? She couldn't really remember, and regardless, it was probably just someone with the same name.
She walked forward a few steps and paused again. Then again, LEO seemed the type to contrive interactions together, and she was literally being led by her nose at the moment…
Straining her brain, she tried to remember. G2n had flooded her brain with dossiers and intel during the event, and she couldn't remember names well on a good day. During Victor's life, he had several regulars at the board game shop that he never actually learned the name of, even after years…
Retracing her thoughts mentally, she tried to remember who LEO might try to force her to run into… there was the guy from her first scenario who she'd blown up… several people who drowned in her pool at the start of the zombie event… some allied guards who had coincidentally been killed by spitter zombies… that guy who was riding around on Jasper with her… the other guy who was working with Rosalina… probably there were more, but she couldn't really remember anyone who stood out.
The arrow flashed angrily as she dawdled, and she shrugged. Whoever it was must not been that important. Either way, she spent over half the event as a flamingo, so it's not like anyone would recognize her.
"Stop!"
Blindly following her job arrow, she'd almost walked into a pair wearing black suits and black sunglasses. They looked like some sort of government bodyguards, complete with earpiece radios.
Honako - Level 1
Yaris - Level 1
Hanako was the one in front who'd ordered her, but Gen's eyes focused on Yaris and pointed.
"You!"
Yaris looked nonplussed and replied, "Me."
Gen's mind whirled. Last she'd seen, Yaris Hon had just murdered her with his motorcycle. Beyond that, she just knew that the woman somehow could duplicate herself and was famous, considering she was supposedly only level 1.
Hanako ignored the interaction as she ordered again, "This street is closed for cleaning. Move along!"
Gen spared another glance at Yaris and shook her head. If the woman wasn't going to mention what happened before, she'd just ignore it, too. Looking past Hanako, she didn't see anything remarkable about the empty street behind her.
"Umm, my job arrow thing is saying to go this way. I could like sneak on by real quick while you clean or whatever?"
Gen could see Hanako's expression darken.
"I said move along. Unless your job is a street cleaner, this street is closed."
Gen paused, feeling irritated. Should she lie? Or summon a hundred iguanas as a distraction? Or just punch her in the face? Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. She wasn't in a scenario or an event; normal laws applied, and she couldn't make a scene or blow this out of proportion. Being in back-to-back crazy situations was really messing with her sense of normality. She couldn't let Morna be right. She was a normal person!
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Forcing a fake smile, Gen turned around and walked back the way she came. Her job arrow flashed angrily at her as she walked in the wrong direction. Glaring at it, Gen whispered, "Recalculate a new route or something!"
The arrow, however, did not recalculate and kept just flashing angrily. Sighing, she pulled out her phone and opened the map app. She had no idea where the arrow was taking her, but she could at least try to bypass the street in question, and hopefully, it would figure it out.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, the arrow finally stopped angrily blinking and spinning and settled on a new direction. Nervously following it, she encountered no more roadblocks before once again boarding a trolley. The ride this time was much longer, and she passed dozens of stops and spent over an hour just taking in the sights.
Spotlight City was more varied than she expected. The zombie event had primarily looked like normal suburban neighborhoods and things you'd see in a 21st-century mid-sized city, so she hadn't fully seen what it had to offer. As she rode the trolley, she passed through an industrial-focused area, high-rise skyscrapers, a neon futuristic area, and more.
Her final destination was a large red brick building. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but her gut said factory. Following the arrow to the front, she saw a large decorative sign that read Edison Labs.
A security guard eyed her warily as she approached, and the arrow settled on his head. Thankful she didn't have to go inside or anything, she handed him the crumbled letter.
"Delivery for you. It was crumbled when I got it, I swear."
He stared at the letter for a second before taking it and giving her a nod. Gen jumped as her ears were filled with the sound of confetti party streamers, and LEO's voice spoke to her.
Great job, Gen! I knew you had it in you! It was touch-and-go there for a minute, but you pulled through! I love your can-do attitude! You've earned yourself 1 whole emmy! Don't spend it all in one place!
The guard looked at her strangely, and she smiled weakly as a new job arrow appeared. Sighing, she followed it again to the next delivery site. The next six hours passed without much fanfare other than LEO's occasional sarcastic compliments. She didn't get an emmy for every delivery, and in total, she made three emmys.
Staring at her digital wallet on her phone, which now read 968 emmys, she could understand why Morna didn't want to do normal work. Her body hurt, and her brain was tired. The initial letter was the most interesting, and she had hardly any context. The deliveries after that were taking a box up a flight of stairs, taking a garbage bag to a dumpster, and many other inane deliveries.
It was a totally normal job and exactly what she had been promised. The calm was nice, but she had a feeling she'd be sick of it by the end of the week. She looked forward to a bath in her healing pool later, but for now, she was meeting up with her friends.
The meeting place of all places was Cozy Corners. The furniture store, despite Morna's insults, looked totally normal to Gen like a slightly more rustic Ikea.
Chuck was leaning against a wall when she arrived, and she gave him a wave, and he returned the gesture as he walked over.
Shaking his head, he said, "Prepare yourself."
Seeing her confused expression, he nodded to the store. "Jacob has rolled out a welcome wagon for you. I don't know how much you know about dungeons, but they're technically priceless. It looked awkward, so I came out to warn you."
Gen's eyebrows knit together. She hadn't told Jacob not to tell anyone but… sighing, she said, "Well, let's get it over with. Is Morna here?"
Chuck nodded, "She's inside trying to convince Jacob to give her the whole store in exchange for putting a good word in with you. I think he's actually considering it."
Laughing, they headed to the door, but Gen halted Chuck for a moment and said, "Sorry again about Jasper and the viewers thing… I'm not the best socially, but I do want to be friends."
Chuck smiled, looking awkward, "It's okay. Honestly, you get used to it living in a city like this. It would be rough if I was the only one, but most people are just normal people like me, trying to scrape by while hearing the gossip about the fantastical artifacts and abilities other people have. I won't lie that I don't get jealous, but… I honestly prefer being me to someone like Jacob."
They laughed again and entered the store. Gen immediately halted as she saw ten people standing in a line with creepy smiles, all staring at her. Most of them looked vaguely similar, and Gen assumed this was Jacob's family.
Jacob himself ran forward. "Gen! So great to have you! My family was just stopping by, so I wanted to take the time to introduce them to my great friends after bonding so deeply with all of you during our scenario!"
Jacob went down the line quickly introducing his parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles… Gen immediately lost track and nodded dumbly, retaining none of the information.
Morna was seated in a rocking chair with a bemused expression as the events proceeded.
After Gen felt thoroughly exhausted from socializing and had been given a tour of the story, the four of them were finally by themselves, sitting on display furniture around a coffee table.
Jacob was still talking, "If you'd like, I could certainly get you a piece of furniture as a free promotional! I know you're newly generated, so you must be lacking in the necessities. How about a bed? Or a couch?"
Morna spoke from the side, "I'll take a couch."
Jacob scowled at her, and she smirked, "It's for our friendship, right? Because we bonded, right? Not because Gen has a dungeon core riiiight?"
Jacob shook his head, "Gen saved me with her ability in the scenario. I would be on hiatus at the moment otherwise, so of course, she gets preferential treatment. I would extend the same offer to either of you, but doubtlessly, you already have furnishings for your abodes."
Morna smiled evilly, "Can never have enough couches."
Chuck scratched his head, "I don't actually have a couch… I could afford a little square footage, though, if I was getting one for free."
Jacob's face twisted, but he forced a smile and looked at Gen. "So two couches and a bed?"
Feeling helpless, Gen shrugged, "Umm, sure. I would appreciate it. The bed that came with my room is kind of terrible, and there's not a lot of room with the iguanas. I feel weird getting too much for free, though, so anything else I'll buy. I have money from the event, so I can afford it."
They went back and forth a bit from there, but finally settled on her getting a 30% discount on all future purchases. Morna forced Jacob to give the same discount to both her and Chuck, much to his chagrin.
Morna stood excitedly, "Dungeon time!"
Gen stood as well and looked at Jacob, "Where can I make a portal?"
Jacob excitedly gestured around himself, "Anywhere is fine! We temporarily closed the store while hosting you all."
Gen sighed and spotted Jacob's family around the store, secretly watching them all. Pointing in front of her, she casually opened a portal to her dungeon.
"There are five crabs inside. It's pretty basic right now, but watch out as they're strong if they get a grip on you. The safety is on, so you won't really die, but I don't want you guys getting traumatized like Pali."
Morna made a booing noise. "Safety off! Safety off!"
Gen shook her head, "No way, I don't want any accidents…"
Morna scoffed, "Like a crab could kill me! Doesn't it level up faster without the safety?"
Chuck raised his hand and said, "I'd prefer safety on at least until we get a feel for it. You said there are four runs left this week, so if we do well enough, we could always do another run after the first without the safety."
Morna stuck her tongue out at him. "Coward!"
Jacob stepped closer to Gen and smiled, "As it's Gen's dungeon, I think we should do whatever she wants."
Gen rolled her eyes and said, "Safety is on, we can talk about it more later."
Her three friends entered, and she quickly entered observer mode.
The group immediately oriented themselves, and Morna's expression lit up as she ignored the crabs.
"My snacks reset just like a real scenario!"
In her hands, a bag of cheese doodles, a can of pickle soda, and a small container of watermelon gelato all appeared. Without hesitation, she unfurled a picnic blanket on the floor and placed all three items, which doubled to six a second later.
Jacob gave her a look and produced a grenade in his hand, immediately chucking it at the center of the crab-horde. The center crab stared dumbly as the explosive bounced off its shell and immediately exploded. Shrapnel and heat tore through the crab's carapace, instantly killing it and the crabs on either side of it. The remaining two were slightly injured and charged.
Chuck produced a lead pipe and charged one of the crabs. As he ran forward, Gen could see his skin shifting as it turned into treebark. Slamming his pipe into a crab, she saw ice spread from the point of impact, and the crustacean visibly slowed its large claw, failing to hit Chuck as he dodged it easily.
Jacob focused on the remaining crab. With two quick flicks of his wrist, Gen saw a pair of throwing knives sink into the crab's eyes, blinding it.
From there, it was quick work as Jacob blinded the remaining crab and Chuck beat them to death with his freezing attack.
Morna watched the whole thing while snacking. She clearly didn't like the pickle soda and made a face after each sip, but insisted on finishing the whole thing anyway.
As the glowing exit opened, Chuck was breathing hard, and Jacob was giving Morna a side-eye. The three exited with Morna holding her remaining snacks in the bundled picnic blanket, and Gen exited observation mode to see them.
Dungeon Run Completed - 0/3 invaders killed.
- 1 emmy gained
- Minuscule amount of dungeon XP earned - Insufficient XP to level
- LEO's notes: seriously the safety is even on? The crabs don't deserve this!
Treasure chests appeared in front of all three of her friends, and upon opening them, they all had their own boxes of noodles, albeit different types.
Chuck inspected his ziti noodles, looking pleased. Morna held up her bowtie noodles in victory. Jacob had whole-wheat elbow noodles and looked slightly disappointed as he placed the box on the coffee table, clearly having no interest.
Morna offered Gen a cheese doodle as she yelled, "Gen! Your dungeon and my snacks have the ultimate synergy! If we run it three more times, I can get so many!"
Gen nodded as she munched on the chip. She was glad Morna was happy, but she was also confused.
"When we ran before, Pali only got a single noodle, and I assumed it was because he didn't contribute enough, but no offense, Morna, you didn't do anything and still got a box."
Jacob nodded in agreement, clearly also upset.
Morna laughed, "This is why we have the club! To unravel the mysteries of LEO!"
Gen looked at her skeptically. Morna had introduced the club originally as some sort of fan club for LEO, but the more she saw of it, the more it just seemed like a social club, albeit with a disproportionate amount of strange people.
Seeing her doubt, Morna looked offended, "Gen, come on, this is an easy one! LEO gets energy for reality from viewers being entertained! Doing well isn't the important part. It's about being engaging! And obviously, even just snacking, I'm more entertaining than Pali! I could start a mukbang channel and earn millions!"
Gen nodded, but was still skeptical. "But before, there was only one box of pasta, and now you guys have got three whole ones. They didn't do as well, but I don't know if you were three times as entertaining."
Morna shrugged, "There are a lot of factors, the other one is audience size. Your dungeon is just a baby, so it doesn't produce much energy, but we all have our own viewers, and that would contribute. In total, we probably just have more viewers than the original group, so the audience is larger."
Gen nodded, Chuck aside, she knew that both Morna and Jacob had around 70 viewers each. She didn't know about G2n, but Hon and Pali almost certainly had less. Thankful for the oddly coherent explanation from Morna, she said, "That makes sense, LEO is still reporting that I only got minuscule experience for the dungeon though."
Chuck scratched his head, "It is a pretty straightforward dungeon, right? I don't know exactly how viewers think, but it doesn't seem that entertaining."
Morna nodded in agreement and shot a look at Jacob. "Especially when somebody just blows up all the crabs right at the start!"
Jacob looked offended as he said, "The point is to win, isn't it? My ability enhances thrown attacks, and so I'm just playing to my strengths."
Gen asked, "Was that grenade from the gnome king?"
Jacob smiled and nodded, "Yes, it was my finalized equipment from that scenario. It gives my kit some much-needed firepower. Other than that, I have a set of auto-returning throwing knives. A speed ring, a short sword of sharpness, a force ward, and a flashlight."
Gen didn't know what a force ward was, but she nodded as she assumed it was some sort of defensive equipment.
Looking at Chuck, Gen asked, "What was the bark and ice? Is your pipe some sort of ice weapon?"
He shook his head, "No, both are abilities. I'm not using my Nothing Personal ability as crabs don't have thumbs, and I figured sensing their vibes was pointless. I've got four ability options total, and I'm using my other two, Bark Skin and Freeze Force."
Morna whistled, "Nice alliteration!"
Chuck smiled and continued, "The pipe is just a normal pipe, aside from having self-repair." He held up a hand showing a ring, "I have a ring of strength as well. It's not the best, but I don't think I could crack the carapace without it." He pulled out a wooden stake. "I have my Sanguine Stake that you saw before, but didn't really have to use it. Other than that, my kit is pretty basic with a force ward and a flashlight."
Morna clapped, "Hell yeah, alliteration!"
Not that anyone asked, Jacob spoke again, "I'm using Good Throw ability, which you've seen before, but not my dying light ability, and instead I'm using Emergency Ejection."
He looked at Morna expectantly, but she stared at him flatly.
Gen coughed and asked, "What does the ejection one do?"
Jacob smiled, "I can activate it to send myself flying in a chosen direction! It prevents any impact damage, but has a five-minute cool-down."
Morna's eyes lit up, "You should've opened with that! You could fly forward and do a super punch!"
Jacob gave her a condescending look, "It's for escape! If I use it to attack and then it's on cooldown, I could die!"
Morna rolled her eyes, "It's wasted on you." Looking back at Gen, she said, "Let's go again! I want more snacks! No safety this time!"
Gen looked at the other two, and they both shrugged. Gen felt nervous, but grudgingly accepted. They'd won easily even without Morna's help, so it should be safe?
"Okay, there are two risky modes. One where if anyone dies, they go on hiatus, and the other, called party-mode, where as long as at least one of you survives, nobody goes on hiatus. I'll set it to party mode in case there are any accidents."
Morna booed, but didn't argue further. The next run went almost the same as the first, with Morna again snacking while the other two fought. Jacob was clearly more stressed than before and missed several knife throws, but his initial grenade throw was still on point, and between him and Chuck, they finished off the two surviving crabs easily.
Dungeon Run Completed - 0/3 invaders killed.
- 1 emmy gained
- Minuscule amount of dungeon XP earned - Insufficient XP to level
- LEO's notes: Safety on/Safety off. Nobody wants to watch a rerun!
Gen frowned and saw her friends had all earned noodles again, but the boxes were half the size of their first set of rewards.
Chuck compared his two boxes of noodles and asked, "You turned off the safety, right? Shouldn't the reward be more, not less?"
Gen shrugged, "I think LEO is annoyed that it's too easy for you guys…"
Morna pointed at Jacob accusingly, "It's because he's cheating with a grenade! Next run, Jacob has to go in naked!"
Jacob's mouth hung open before snapping shut and glowering at Morna, "The point is to win, isn't it? If the idea is to be entertaining, then gimping ourselves to inflate the difficulty doesn't make it better."
Morna rolled her eyes, "You being naked was a joke, as obviously no one wants to see you without clothes, but challenge runs are definitely a thing! Plenty of actors purposefully go into scenarios with gimmicks or special rules! Their viewers love it, and LEO rewards them accordingly!"
Jacob looked skeptical, but didn't contradict Morna.
Gen pondered for a moment. She didn't think Morna was wrong, but during Viktor's lifetime, playing board games, she had always preferred difficulty settings that increased the challenge instead of weakening the player.
"Let me update the dungeon for a second."
Not waiting for a reply, Gen entered the dungeon by herself and started designing. The initial setup she had made with G2n while focusing on understanding the rules and mechanics of the dungeon, rather than trying to make it actually difficult or interesting.
Staring at the cluster of crabs, she immediately moved them away from each other. Jacob's grenade was a powerful AOE, so the first step was to prevent the crabs from clustering at the start. With a second of consideration, she altered their placement further so that the crabs would start the dungeon encircling the invaders.
Returning to the overworld, she saw Morna had Jacob in a chokehold and was giving him a nougie. Seeing her return, Morna immediately released him, "That was fast! Snacktime?"
Gen smiled, "Yep, go again. I'll give it some thought while you guys do the improved version to see if I can tweak it further."
As she thought, she observed her friends in the new layout. Immediately upon spawning, Jacob frowned as he eyed the crabs spread equidistant from each other. The crabs didn't wait, though, as they started to scuttle forward.
Sounding panicked, Jacob yelled to Morna, who was already eating her new random snack, "Are you going to help this time!?"
Morna took a bite of her dried eel and shrugged, "I'll take care of them when you die."
Jacob cursed and threw his grenade at the closest crab, blowing it to pieces. Chuck had already formed his bark armor and let out a battle cry as he charged a crab as well. The battle that ensued was many times more intense. Chuck's bark skin was put to the test when he got hit by several glancing claw attacks, cracking the wooden layer. Jacob spent the battle scurrying around, throwing knives, but eventually ran out and had to wait for them to auto-return to him. At one point, he got cornered, and a claw grabbed his arm, with a shattering sound. Gen got to see a force ward in action as a forcefield temporarily intercepted the attack before shattering, knocking the crab's claw away. Jacob took the moment to use his emergency ejection to rocket himself away from the crab and continue his kiting.
At some point, Chuck managed to stab his Sanguine Stake into a crab, and it started spurting blood like a fire-hydrant, but as it was a consumable item, he couldn't reuse it.
Morna was trying to have a picnic once again and looked annoyed when Jacob baited one of the crabs over to her. Groaning, she stood and let out a high-pitched sonic meow that seemed to rattle the crab from the inside out. The crab didn't immediately fall, however, and Morna ducked and wove under its slow movements repeatedly until she finished turning it to jelly from the inside out.
With that, the run was completed, and Gen released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
Dungeon Run Completed - 0/3 invaders killed.
- 1 emmy gained
- Moderate amount of dungeon XP earned - Level up!
- LEO's notes: You know you could've leveled with a single run if you were actually good at this. It was only level 1!
Gen ignored LEO's evaluation as a new poll appeared.
Acknowledging the poll, she turned her attention back to her friends and reentered the overworld. Morna had a large collection of gelatos and seemed to be trying to strong-arm Jacob to let her use the freezer in the employee breakroom. Chuck saw her appear and held up a frozen lasagna that he'd apparently won.
Gen smiled. She was still probably going to try killing LEO for being a total bastard, but his reality wasn't all bad.
Here is the poll!