And with the electric burst flooding the laboratory, the flashback explaining how we defeated the Seer and Surestrike opponents ends, and we return to the present.

  Ricard and I walk side by side through the spacious tunnel. Our objective? Of course, it’s the Abohemoth.

  I keep laughing and chuckling, playing the mad-scientist role perfectly, talking to nobody in particular, when I suddenly stop, realising something unusual. I suddenly stop and turn my head towards him, in the most exaggerated way I can think of.

  “...what now?”

  Instead of answering, I scratch my head.

  Now that the match is essentially won, Ricard… Usually, he would have split up with me, annoyed at my antics, wouldn’t he? So… why is he still here with me?

  He would have either gone to find the invader on his own or sat in the command room, watching everything as if it were a film. He doesn’t like to stick with me when there’s no reason to do it.

  Unless… Unless he has a reason to stick with me.

  I slowly scan Ricard from head to toe. Then, I look towards the end of the passage, and back from where we came from. I do it as slowly as possible, making sure he can follow my actions.

  He must have understood what I meant with my look because, by the second time I repeat the same set of actions, he turns his head away, refusing to lock eyes with me.

  “So…” I decide to mess with him. “About the fee for riding my monster… I can give you a friendly discount. I can give you a 25%... no, how about half price? Aren’t I generous?”

  It takes a short time for him to understand what I mean and react.

  “If you want to confuse our opponents with random talk that means nothing, I don’t care. But don’t do it to your teammates.”

  “Oh, well… I see you aren’t interested in riding my monster, then. You can follow behind us.” I dramatically shake my head.

  “Stop spouting bullshit… Let’s go, we can’t waste time here.”

  “Hahaha!”

  I was right! His reaction all but confirms it! The reason Ricard is sticking with me is that he wants to ride the Abohemoth!

  Just look at how angry he got when I said he had to pay to ride it! Hahaha!

  Not that it surprises me, since both Clara and I have had the chance to ride it, but Ricard didn’t until now. Taking into account his geekness and obsession with the game, it isn’t weird that he wants to try it too, especially when he can never create a monster like that one because he’s playing the undead faction.

  And no. While creating a Flesh Monstrosity dungeon to test how it works is something a player willing to spend time and effort can do, there’s absolutely no way Ricard will spend even a single second with another faction that isn’t the Eternals. If he were to do it, he would die and turn into one of his loved undead…

  …which now that I think about it, it’s something he might actually enjoy.

  “Hmm. Should I tell him or not…?”

  “Tell what?”

  “No, nothing, hahaha!”

  “This one, and that one too… Mad Rat, check the emergency ones for me.”

  “Okaay. They’re broken as well!”

  “Tsk, how annoying.”

  You tell me, Ricard. You find it annoying? Then I, who was expecting to have fun trampling over our enemy, has it even worse than you do.

  Damn that prick nicknamed ‘Untouchable-whatever’! Why did he break all our equipment!?

  After finding my monster, we went back to the command room to search for the last remaining invader. I was happily singing the ‘We’ll crush our enemies’ song, and Ricard was smiling foolishly after being allowed to ride the Abohemoth.

  Everything went well until we discovered a broken camera on our way and rushed here to check what happened.

  “Shit! The cameras are broken, the screens are smashed… everything’s broken! Why the fuck did that guy do all this? And how did he know where to find this room? Ugh… It’ll be a pain in the ass to find the invader now…”

  I leave Ricard to his ramblings and start fiddling with the broken equipment. I designed this, so I might be able to make it work somehow…

  “Ah, look here. This one still works. But yeah… all the cameras located in the central zone have been smashed. Only a few in the periphery still work.”

  “It doesn’t matter! It’ll be a waste of time!” Ricard starts smashing the already broken equipment, enraged.

  Well… maybe, if he smashes the broken equipment, it will somehow start working once more? Hahaha!

  Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Things don’t work like that.

  “Stop. You won’t achieve anything by doing that,” I point out. “Let’s go find the intruder instead.”

  “...Let’s go, then.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  We hop on top of the Abohemoth once more and leave the destroyed laboratory behind. Of course, the destruction here is nothing compared to the ‘trap room’ we fought in before, which ended littered by corpses. But unlike what happened in the latter, all the destruction in this one was done by a single player. Oh, and Ricard, when he got angry, so it’s two players…?

  “Stop thinking weird stuff and focus. What should we do now?” Ricard calls out to me.

  “Hmm… It’ll be hard to find him without the cameras.”

  In another match, even without the cameras, it’d be possible to use the sounds of monster cries and traps to track the invaders, or even the trail of corpses left by them as they move. But today, we put everything in the trap room, so that isn’t an option.

  “Splitting up is bad, as it risks an ambush. Didn’t any of your monsters or clones survive? We can use them to scout ahead.”

  Ricard’s question makes my eyes spin. Sweat starts trickling down the back of my head.

  “There are none…”

  “None? But it should have been impossible for all to die at the same time unless you used your Grand Finale.”

  “I… I might… I might have ‘accidentally’ killed every single living being except myself when running wild… I never thought we’d need them after that fight…”

  “You did what!?”

  “Don’t look at me like that! I-it was an accident! I swear upon my name that I didn’t do it on purpose!”

  Mostly. I mean, who can avoid pressing a big red button with a skull drawn on it when you have it in front of you? I had to ‘accidentally’ press it, didn’t I?

  “Haaa… Fine. Let’s forget about it.” Luckily, Ricard doesn’t push the matter any further. “Let’s think. If I were in his place, I’d wait for a chance to steal the key and rush to the dungeon core before we can stop him. That’s the only way he can still win this. The other option would be to run away and hope to survive until Lily and Lemon die first, but that isn’t the best option.”

  I unconsciously rub the pendant around my neck. “You’re right. As long as I have the key with me, we’re safe.”

  Right after I say it, something moves right next to my head, and I feel a tug at my neck.

  “So this is the key I need? Thank you!”

  Time freezes as Ricard and I simultaneously raise our heads to look above us. Where there should only be the ceiling, a man is hanging like a ninja, or maybe it’s more like a cockroach. He’s hanging upside down using a small crack in the rock ceiling.

  Anyway, what matters is that we’ve found our invader, but that invader has stolen the key.

  “How the fuck!?” A myriad of thoughts and images flood my brain. “No way…!”

  Don’t tell me that, from the moment the Time Lords stepped into this dungeon, they had everything planned up to this point!?

  I recall the indifference with which the ‘Seer’ and ‘Untouchable’ nodded at each other after I triggered the trap. That ‘Surestrike’ lowered his guard and allowed Ricard to pull him in when Seer was next to him. That ‘Seer’ put more resistance than I expected, delaying our plan, and forcing me to activate the last trap that killed everyone but me.

  The smashed cameras and equipment; the Abohemoth, the last monster and our mount; the lack of traps and monsters everywhere else…

  And the most definitive clue: the ‘Untouchable’ hanging on the ceiling right above us. There’s no reason for him to be there unless he knew we were going to pass right through this spot at this exact moment.

  Don’t tell me the ‘Seer’ saw everything ahead of time and orchestrated it like this, to counter our inevitable trap!?

  Fuck, fuck, fuck! This is bad! Very bad!

  With a swift motion, ‘Untouchable’ jumps down from the ceiling, avoiding contact with me. He lands behind the Abohemoth and starts running.

  “Get him! Chase after him!”

  Ricard’s shout makes me snap out of my thoughts.

  I make the Abohemoth stop, but I can’t make it turn around. “The passage is too narrow to make a turn!”

  What was once an advantage turns out to be our biggest obstacle right now. We can’t chase after him if we can’t make the Abohemoth turn.

  “Just jump down!”

  I try to move, but my feet are rooted in place. I look at my feet in a panic and see a shadow growing from the ground, holding them in place. “I can’t! He immobilised me!”

  “Shit! I can’t move over you…!”

  Don’t glare at me like that now, Ricard. It was you who wanted to ride in front. If I’m in the middle, is your fault and not mine.

  “I can’t do anything about it.”

  “Just move aside, and I’ll try to get him!”

  Ricard shoves me to the side to get space to aim at the running player. With my feet immobilised, I can’t move, so my upper body drops while my feet remain in the same place, and I hit the wall with my head.

  Having gained line of sight to ‘Untouchable’, Ricard prepares to use Dark Grab. If he lands the skill, we’ll win. If he misses, ‘Untouchable’ will be able to run away and most likely destroy the dungeon core.

  Due to the dungeon’s limitations, the invaders can constantly see the key’s location displayed in the minimap, but we can’t do the same because we aren’t invaders. If ‘Untouchable’ leaves our sight, we might never find him.

  Go, go! Ricard, go! I cheer him in my mind.

  “I’ll just have one go at this…” Mutters Ricard.

  “Then aim properly.”

  “Thanks for the extra pressure.”

  “You’re welcome, hahaha.”

  But this makes me think. When I instinctively tried to grab him after stealing my pendant (the key), ‘Untouchable’ easily avoided my grasp, true to his nickname. Will Ricard’s skill land?

  Despite running away, ‘Untouchable’ is keeping an eye on us. He must be preparing to evade the skill.

  If Ricard misses, we’ll lose. If we lose here, the tournament is over for us…

  “Don’t aim at him, he’ll avoid it.”

  “Then what!? He’s about to get too far!”

  “Don’t ask, I don’t know! Just… just use it before he runs away!”

  “O-okay, I’m doing it! Dark Grab!” I wait until Ricard takes perfect aim at his target, and right when he activates his skill, I shake his arm. “W-what are you doing!?”

  Ricard’s shout mixes with the skill’s activation effect. At the same time, I see ‘Untouchable’ suddenly twitch his body.

  I close my eyes, praying for success. Well, that, and that I’m not sure I want to see what happens next. If Ricard misses because of me, I don’t want to see it.

  ““Huh?””

  I hear two equally surprised voices right beside me, and an unexpected weight over my tilted body. When I open my eyes, I find ‘Untouchable’ on top of me, Ricard’s hand still grasping his neck. We’re in a tangled mess of bodies, squeezed between Abohemoth’s body, the walls, and the ceiling. Even if he tries to, ‘Untouchable’ will have it hard to run away now.

  “He got me…? How?”

  “I, I did it?”

  Yeah, Ricard. I’m as surprised as you are that it worked…

  But anyway, good job. After Marta’s training, you’ve become a (somewhat) reliable teammate! Your mom’s proud of your growth!

  I mentally start patting Ricard’s head.