The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Andreu, Andreu, it’s starting! The countdown is about to finish!”

“I know, calm down… Can you release my arm, please? I can’t feel it.”

Ignoring my complaint, Clara continues to hug my arm with even more force than before. “What do you think? Will we be able to play together? I want to be on the same team as you.” 

“I have no idea. If we can, I don’t mind playing together, but as I said many times, don’t cry if we can’t.”

“Uuuh…”

She finally calms down, continuing to watch the countdown on the screen as she immobilizes my arm.

Shit. At this rate, it’ll fall off…

Meanwhile, Marta observes us without saying anything. Sitting on the other side of the table, she observes us while fiddling with her phone. From the outside, she looks calm and collected, but I know her well enough to see through her facade. Also… didn’t she say she couldn’t play with us today? What is she doing here?

She’s hiding something. Let’s find out what.

“Marta…?” I ask, tentatively.

“What do you want?”

“N-no, nothing.”

Her sharp answer makes me retreat immediately. I’m not that curious as to awaken the slumbering dragon. There’s no need to make her angry, I’d rather stay ignorant.

But this makes me even more curious.

What is she hiding? Why is she staying silent, unlike her normal self? If she were behaving as usual, she would be freely talking with Clara while throwing mud at me. Not that I’m complaining, though, I’m not a masochist. But it makes me curious.

I sneakily send glances her way while waiting for the countdown to finish.

What is that ‘countdown’ we’re talking about? Well, it’s almost time for the DMA staff to reveal all the info about the Mystery Event. When the countdown ends, we’ll receive a message explaining everything we want to know. From that moment, we’ll have an hour to enter the game and prepare what we need before the event officially starts.

This is why we’re waiting together in our living room: we must be close to our VR machines if we want to participate.

Ricard and Laura are waiting in their respective houses too. We’re planning on creating a team if the Mystery Event requires us to form teams. Otherwise, we’ll have to play on our own.

“Three, two, one…!” Clara excitedly counts down. “Aaaand… here it is!”

The screen changes and a bunch of text appears. We start reading.

“Blah, blah, blah. Aha, huh… skip.” I skip the introduction and go directly to the bulk of the matter: this Mystery Event’s description and rules.

The first is the general description of the event. This time, we will participate in teams of four players, but the game will assign the players automatically. We can’t choose who we want on our team.

“Oh, um… Clara, we won’t be able to play together it seems.”

“What? Why!?” She didn’t reach that part yet it seems. Well, not everyone is as fast reading (skipping) as I am, hahaha! “I can’t accept this! This isn’t fair…! Marta, you must use your top-ranking player position to pressure the game’s staff so we can play together!”

I shake my head and continue reading.

The Mystery Event will play in a massive labyrinth. Each team will spawn at a random point and will receive a mission they have to achieve. The less time it takes to complete the mission, the more points the team will receive. Defeating monsters, other teams, surviving traps, and accomplishing ‘other stuff’ – don’t ask me what ‘other stuff’ means, this is what it says – will award bonus points.

If you complete the mission, you’ll be able to continue accumulating points until you die or the event ends. When you die, you’ll be expelled from the game and sent to a place where you can turn your accumulated points into xp, cp, or special resources. The player will choose how they’re transformed.

Aaah, maybe I’ll be able to obtain a nice unit to use in my dungeon! One that’s too annoying to go and capture, or maybe one from the Abyss faction so I don’t have to go inside one of their dungeons.

It says that the missions can range from defeating X monsters of a certain kind, to reaching a certain area of the labyrinth, to ‘defeating a Calamity’.

“But what the hell are the Calamities…?” I raise my head for a moment in thought, just in time to see Marta flinching. Hmm… suspicious.

It doesn’t take long for me to skip to the ‘Calamity’ explanation.

The DMA staff has asked several pro players and top rankers to participate as Calamities. They will roam the labyrinth and hunt any party they find. With their high skill and increased stats – it says they’ll be stronger than any player – they’re going to be extremely dangerous.

If we manage to defeat a Calamity, we’ll receive bonus points, regardless of the mission we get. This means that those players who get the ‘defeat a Calamity’ as a mission will get an instant bonus after completing the main mission.

But I’d rather avoid Calamities. Having to confront one of the strongest players is an easy way to get eliminated. If possible, I’d like to have any other mission that doesn’t require contact with a Calamity.

Imagining having to confront my older sister in combat brings me shivers. I can’t stop reminiscing about her ‘training’.

By the way, talking about high rankers and Calamities…

“You’re participating, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Of course, I am! But I was hoping to play with you…“ I already knew, but I’m not talking to you, Clara.

Marta flinches at my stare.

“...y-yes.”

“I thought so.”

“W-what!? You’re participating, Marta!? But didn’t you say you couldn’t? Did you lie to me because you don’t want to play with me? Buuu, and here I thought you had changed… 

“N-no, it’s… it isn’t like that.” Says Marta. “They asked me to participate as a Calamity.”

“Don’t lie! I’m sure you did it because you didn’t want to– Hmf, mmmgfh!”

Clara is too excited today. Before she can say something she’ll regret later, I cover her mouth to force her to stop. “Please, continue reading and you’ll understand.”

Marta sends me a thankful look before continuing.

“You didn’t participate in the other Mystery Events, so I thought you weren’t interested. If I had known you wanted to participate, I would have refused.”

“That’s because we weren’t playing DMA yet!” Uh… When did Clara manage to get rid of my hand covering her mouth?

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know the parties would be assigned randomly, but still, I would have loved to play with you. The next time. The next time we’ll play together. I swear.”

“It’s always the same… It’s always ‘the next time’...”

I resume reading the rules and leave them to solve it between themselves. This is something I shouldn’t intervene in.

It’s hard to read while trying to immobilize my little sister, but I’ll do my best.

After the basic explanation of the event (and more stuff I skip) comes the details of this Mystery Event. I’ll try to explain them while keeping it as short as possible.

All players will have to create a new Champion, which will be at level 10 for the number of skills they’ll get. Then, we’ll have to assign the stats from a pool. So every player will be as strong as all the rest. The Champion will cost nothing but will disappear after the event.

The only exception is the Calamities, who will do the same but with level 20 Champions and higher stats.

Regarding innate skills, every player will be able to choose a single innate skill freely from the units of the faction they’re using. This means the looks won’t be enough to know what to expect from the other player’s skills.

A note here: my faction can choose an innate skill from any faction we can create units from, so no undead or constructs.

It makes sense because the Flesh Monstrosities have exactly zero innate skills of their own. The only unit that doesn’t inherit its innate skills from the units used to create it is the Stitched, and they have no innate skill. This means the players from our faction will still be the most broken, although not as broken as usual because we’re limited to a single innate skill.

We can create a Champion from zero or import the looks of an existing one. I’ll do the latter and use the Mad Rat because I’m lazy.

There won’t be ‘Champion names’. Every player will use their nickname, which means I’ll have to use the Disguised Koala name. This is good because most players don’t know my actual nickname and instead refer to me as Mad Rat or Evil Mastermind.

I’m sure Ricard will be happy about this too. He’s always complaining about how everyone calls him Baldy.

All communication except for the one within the party will be blocked to prevent alliances and cheating. Players won’t be forced to fight other teams, though. We can choose to ignore each other.

We can also team up to fight a Calamity, but only a Calamity. If players team up against another team, they’ll be disqualified and will lose all accumulated points.

As for the Calamities, it seems like they will be able to create and modify the parts of the labyrinth assigned to them. I thought they would limit themselves to chase after us, but it turns out they can also establish their domain and wait for us to come.

If I didn’t forget (or skip) anything, these are the important bits…

Ah, yes! I almost forgot.

During the event, we can’t obtain special resources. Players won’t be able to obtain any resources during the event except for the rewards at the end. This is important because it means I don’t have to worry about bringing skills to incapacitate enemies at all.

“Alright… so this means the only remaining part is my teammates. I really hope there won’t be any Mad Cultists in my group…”

I can’t expect to meet none in the whole event, but I can at least hope I won’t be forced to play with one. I’ll immediately kill myself if it happens. And I mean it literally.

When I finish reading and raise my head, I realize that the fight against my sisters is about to settle.

“Alright, so this is it. Regardless of what happens, you’ll play with me and Andreu in the next Mystery Event.” Clara happily proclaims. “Furthermore, when we’re inside the labyrinth, you’ll search for me and we’ll fight!”

“Y-yes, sure. We’ll look for each other and fight when we meet.” Marta agrees.

Yeah… I’m as lost as you are. I’m not sure how they reached this conclusion but the part that matters is that they’re now happily smiling and nodding at each other.

So it’s my turn to cause some trouble.

“Oho, is that so? And what about me?” I make a sad voice. “You’re leaving me alone and playing with each other…”

“Ah!” Clara quickly turns around and waves her hands around. So cute. “Of course, if we meet, we can fight too…”

“No, I’m not really interested in that… But if you want, we can team up against Marta… Fufufu…” I make an evil smile.

“Yes! Let’s team up, Andreu!”

Marta furrows her brows. “Hey! It isn’t fair! Why must I fight against you two instead of playing together? I want to be on your team too…”

I grin. “Well… Maybe you shouldn’t have chosen to play as the enemy.”

“But I didn’t know this would happen.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Excuses! Also… why are you like that? Are you scared I’ll defeat you?”

“I’m not scared! Why would I ever be scared of you!?”

Yes, that’s more like it. This is more like my older sister’s usual behavior. I was starting to get worried she had been substituted by someone else.

“Well, forget it. I have better stuff to do than arguing against a coward. See you later! I’m looking forward to your defeat.”

“I said I’m not scared!”

“Yeah, yeah… whatever you say,” I say, leaving the living room. I must get ready for the Mystery Event.

Hahaha! This is nice. It feels incredible being the one in the domineering position, even if it’s just banting.

After all, I have no intention of fighting a Calamity. Not at all.

 

“Why!? Just why? Why am I always forced to do things I don’t like?”