The Mad Rat’s Lab

“According to the map, we’re almost there now. Are you excited, viewers? We’re about to meet the dinosaurs you wanted to see.”

[Oooh, finally]

[Are they any good? So far it was pretty lame]

[Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Let’s chase some dinosaurs!]

“Haha, I have no idea. I know as much as you do. We came because you asked us. There weren’t enough dinosaurs in the other dungeons so you wanted to see the monsters in this dungeon.”

[What’s this? Everything looks weird. Dungeon? Is this a game?]

[Lol, you missed so much]

[Hahaha, too late. You missed the best part]

[What did I miss? Jack, tell us!]

Before the chat explodes, I decide to intervene. “Calm down everyone. For those who connected late, we’re inside a game called Dungeon Master’s Arena, where players create dungeons and invade the other players. As you know from yesterday’s video, a new faction based on dinosaurs was just released and we had to check it out. But since there were so few dinosaurs in the ones we went to, you asked us for more. And here we are now, about to reach the part of this dungeon where monstrous dinosaurs appear. We’ll upload the full video in a few days. You’ll be able to see everything there, including Ben’s death.”

[Ah. I was wondering why Ben wasn’t there]

[Hi Jack, hi Mary. Nice to see you again]

[Lololol. Ben’s death was so epic. He was like ‘Nooo! I don’t want to die!’ when Jack and Mary left him behind]

[Yeah. It was his fault though]

[He went and challenged a monster train head-on. He was asking for death]

“Hahaha… you’re right.” I scratch my head at the comments. “Can you hear me, Ben? Wherever you are, rest in pieces, buddy. Better luck next time, hahaha!”

[RIP]

[Rest In Pieces buddy]

[Hahaha, Jack you’re too brutal]

[But if this is a game, why do you look almost like you do in real life?]

Oh, this one is a good question.

“The game’s customization is excellent. We decided to create Champions as close to our real appearances as possible so that you could identify us easily. Don’t you think so too, Mary?”

Mary, with her identical glasses as the ones she uses in real life, nods. The game isn’t quite the same as reality, but her Champion is so similar that it’s hard for me to tell the difference. In fact, the part where it differs more from reality is the clothes we’re using.

“You’re right…” She turns to the camera and starts talking to the audience. “Ben got what he deserved, you don’t have to feel bad about him. If only he could grow a little…!”

[Hahaha!]

[You’re a kid to me, boy. Hahaha]

[Ben… you failed as a man… again]

[RIP]

[Can somebody explain?]

[Nope]

At the top of the slope, we find a colossal glass greenhouse. There’s a side door close to our current location.

“We’re here, everyone. This is where the dinosaurs should be.” I make a signal with my hand, pointing at the door. “Mary? Do you want to do the honors?”

“Sure.” Mary nods and checks the door. “It’s unlocked. We can go in.”

As expected, it’s unlocked. The map we’ve been following as well as the comments from the viewers told us beforehand.

“Alright. Let’s go.” As we move inside, I talk to the viewers. DMA has a feature to allows us to stream the match in real time. “Everyone, aren’t you happy? You’ll finally get a chance to see dinosaurs other than velociraptors and hatchlings. Well, they won’t be proper dinosaurs, according to what we’ve heard, but I’m sure they won’t be boring.”

You can’t say a dinosaur hybrid is a proper dinosaur, but it’s better than watching the same two types all the time. In the first dungeon, I felt like I was in a dream, surrounded by dinosaurs. I could die happy.

But the glow was lost on the second dungeon, which looked the same as the first. Then the third, and the fourth… That’s why we’re here today.

Maybe it’s too soon for the dinosaur faction. I’m sure it’ll be amazing given enough time. I’m looking forward to the more than ten-meter height dinosaurs! I love the brachiosaurus and their long necks. They’re by far my favorite! They appeared in the trailers, so I’m sure we’ll be able to find them in the future!

…it’s a shame I don’t have enough time to play the game and create a Lost World dungeon of my own.

Regarding DMA, we created our accounts and played the minimum to get used to the mechanics and to get used to it for the dinosaur release. I’m not sure if Mary or Ben will continue playing after this, but I can’t.

I continue my explanation.

“As all of you who have been watching us from the start know, since we’ve come to this dungeon, we’ve faced giant turtles that fired laser beams at us, a few humanoids with two heads, caves filled with dangerous mushrooms, rabbits that turned into monsters… And let’s not forget the monster train that caught Ben. And all of this is by taking the shortest path. So… What do you think we’ll find here? Will it be plant monsters? Animals that turn into humans? Maybe the whole greenhouse is, in fact, a single colossal monster?”

[‘That caught Ben’. Hahaha! As if it wasn’t you who said to leave him behind]

[‘We’ll never forgive his valiant sacrifice!’ Hahaha!]

[RIP]

[RIP]

[Ahahaha! Yeah, we’ll never forget that sight. The sight of Ben acting like a fool and provoking them, I mean]

[RIP Ben]

[Monsters? Do you mean as in a fantasy story? Orcs and the like?]

[Nah, something way worse]

[How worse?]

[You have to see it to understand]

As usual, the chat is flooded with comments about both related and unrelated stuff.

On the other side of the door, we find a forest. No, there are too many kinds of plants clumped together to resemble a forest.

Pines next to cacti. A sequoia surrounded by mangroves. At least twenty types of flowers grow in the same square meter. There’s also moss growing on giant tree leaves!

It’s a mess. An absolute, although unexpectedly captivating, mess.

“Oh, look at that joshua tree! It reminds me of the one near my house when I was a child…”

[Here we go again]

[Jack: I miss my home so much!]

[Not this again, please]

[Mary, save us from this! You’re our only hope!]

“Shut up! I won’t talk about it now, ok? So stop complaining.” Why are they always like this? I can’t make a single comment about my past.

[Hahaha… missed the bullet... For now]

[For now lol]

I ignore the messages and clear my throat. “Khm! So… as you can see, this is a surreal place where all kinds of plants grow together. Nothing unexpected here. From what we’ve seen from this dungeon until now, there wasn’t a single normal place. What do you say, Mary?”

Not hearing a response, I turn my head in her direction. She’s smelling a big white lilly, so I come closer and touch her shoulder.

“Ah!” Mary jumps, startled. “Uh… umm… I was checking the smell. It is faint, but they smell like the ones in real life. It’s amazing how good this game is.”

“Let me see… Wow, it’s true! Viewers, you must play this game at least once if possible. I swear, you won’t regret it.”

[Free sponsorship? No way. Our Jack never does anything for free]

[How much did they pay you, Jack?]

[But Mary never lies…]

[You’re right…]

[Maybe it’s true, then]

What a bunch of jerks.

As we delve further into the forest, the number of plants keeps growing and the trees grow taller. The only guidance we have is the tiny trail, almost completely overgrown by the plants.

Suddenly, Mary raises her arm to block the way. “We’re surrounded.”

“...Huh? But I don’t see anything… Wait, I saw something moving…? No, was it my imagination?”

I thought I saw movement, but when I pay attention, there’s nothing there. But Mary has a skill to detect danger, so she must be right.

“Shht!” Mary signals me to shut up.

[Yeah, shut up Jack]

[Follow Mary’s advice or I’ll punch you. Remember we know where you used to live, as you remind us every week]

[Don’t be like Jack, be like Mary]

[Our beautiful and serious Mary is always right]

Jerks. Why are they so against me all the time? What wrong did I do to them for them to act like this?

We wait, standing still in the middle of the path. If there are monsters close by, I’m sure they must have detected us by now. But for now, I’ll do as Mary says.

It doesn’t take long for the monsters to show themselves up. Revealing themselves from all around us, purple-skinned velociraptors jump at us at the same time.

I know I should try to run away, or at least try to fight them off, but I can’t. I can’t because they’re dinosaurs!

“It’s dinosaurs!” I shout. “Look at this, viewers! This is what we were looking for! It’s the mutated velociraptors!” I excitedly grab the closest one and start inspecting its body. Meanwhile, they keep attacking me from all sides, but I don’t care. “Ahaha! This is amazing. The tentacles blend with the velociraptor’s body so perfectly, that you’d say they were originally like this. And those fluid movements! Wow, it was worth the effort to come here! Hahaha!”

“Jack… are you sure you’re fine?”

Mary looks at me with a surprised face. Seems like the tentacled velociraptors are leaving her alone for now and are focussing on me exclusively.

I caress the velociraptor’s skin, feeling every bump and crevice. I check the hardness of the tentacles, the texture of the scales, and even put my hands in its mouth to open it and see how it looks inside.

“Yeah.” I nod. “I couldn’t feel better.”

[*punch punch* Don’t worry, I’m fine *punch punch punch*]

[This is Jack trying his best to impress Mary]

[‘I, ugh, I don’t feel, ugh, the pain…’ By Jack]

“Well, as you can all see, I don’t think I’ll last for long. And there are way too many dinosaurs for us to kill. So… Here’s all for today, dear viewers, this is the end of DMA’s special featuring life-like dinosaurs! I hope you enjoyed today’s stream. See you next week in the next episode of Chasing Dinosaurs, where we comment and analyze everything related to dinosaurs. In the future, we’ll make another DMA special, but we’ll wait until we find a decent dungeon first. See you! Hahaha!”

[RIP Jack]

[RIP]

[He and Ben will soon have a party]

“Jack? What am I supposed to do now?” Mary raises her sight from the notepad she was writing on until now and observes as my HP reaches critical levels.

“I don’t know. You can continue the dungeon invasion or go back. I’ll keep the stream on until you leave, though.”

“Ugh… okay?”

 

“The visual realism of DMA was so spectacular that, more than once, people unrelated to the videogame industry used it as a stage for their projects. It wasn’t weird for fantasy or mythological fans to play and record everything they saw, either.”