The Mad Rat’s Lab

Marta looks at me stiffly. She didn’t expect to see me, that’s why she turned around like a robot after hearing my voice. But as expected of a pro player, she quickly recovers her composure.

“...how did you find me? I didn’t expect you to find me first.”

I point at the three bodies of the players she just killed. “Following the trail of corpses you’ve left wasn’t difficult. Furthermore, our team got the ‘Defeat a Calamity’ mission. It helped a lot.”

When we found the first group of dead players, I didn’t know it was Marta’s work. But then we found a player who saw everything. He told us how scary the Calamity was, and how she continuously asked about a rat-headed player.

I realized it then. Marta was chasing after Andreu instead of looking for me.

“I’m a little angry, you know? You broke our promise… again.” I pout and say in a sulky voice. “Why does taking him down always take priority over spending time with me?”

“N-no, I wasn’t… I was going to look for you after dealing with him. He must pay for his crimes! He can’t spout whatever he wants and then run away!”

She pretends and puts a strong front as the pro player Anthemia, but her eyes are swimming around. She’s trying her best to hide her blunder while appeasing me.

If I wasn’t so angry, I’m sure I’d think she looks cute. The gap between her haughty persona and her current behavior is too big.

Why is she always like this? Why is it so hard to spend time with her?

“Sigh…” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s fight. I’ll show you how much I’ve improved!” I proclaim, to pump myself up. “Today’s the day the student defeats the master!”

But instead of taking a fighting stance, she simply looks at me.

“...I’m not so sure about the ‘beat the master’ thing.” Marta shrugs. “But are you sure? Didn’t you want to play with him? Now that you’re so close, why don’t you go find him? And what about your teammates? Don’t they want to live longer and accumulate more points?”

Aaagh, how frustrating! It’s like talking to a wall!

“I’ll be generous and let you go instead of chasing after you,” she continues. “I don’t care if someone complains about it being unfair. They can all go eat shit.”

I want to spend time with him because you won’t do it, you blockhead. What I want is to spend time with both of you, at the same time. Like the old times.

“A promise is a promise. We agreed to fight in the Mystery Event and we’ll fight. You aren’t going to break your promise, right? Not again, right?”

She flinches at the mention of the word ‘promise’.

“And don’t worry about them,” I say, pointing behind me. “My teammates all agreed to this. We’ll do our best to defeat the legendary Anthemia in a straight fight. They know the risks. They want to test their strengths against you, show off later, and enjoy the victory in the rare case we win. They only asked me if you could mention their names in your next post or video. You will, right? You don’t want your little sister to feel bad and be accused of being a liar, right?”

I made up the last part. My teammates wouldn’t dare ask for such a thing. But I know how much Marta hates to give credit to players she deems as inferior. This is payback for looking for Andreu instead of me.

My teammates send me astonished and grateful looks, surprised at the unexpected bonus.

Marta frowns. “...fine. I’ll do it. I’ll do it for my little sister.”

Yes! I’ve been looking forward to this. I’ve been waiting for the day I could have a serious fight against Marta, who taught me so many things. And most importantly, to spend time with her.

Before we start, I have to make sure my teammates know what to do.

“Give us some time, we’re going to have a strategy meeting.”

“Sure, do whatever you want.”

We stick our four heads close to each other and start whispering.

“Lemon, this is amazing! We have a chance to fight against one of the most famous players! And you convinced her to recognize us! Am I dreaming?”

“I thought you were joking, but she called you sister too. Is that true? Can you send me her autograph?”

“I don’t know about pro players, so I don’t care about Anthemia. But I’ll fight anyway.”

“Shht, calm down. Now we must focus on the fight. Let’s talk about all that later.” I interrupt their chatter. “Remember what I told you earlier. Against my sister, don’t bother using powerful single-target skills, she’ll just Parry them. Furthermore, it’s almost useless to try to apply status effects on her. Purity, a Divine Blood exclusive skill, will remove them if they even get to work in the first place.”

“Instead, use auto-targeting skills like Magic Missiles or AoE attacks. She may block or avoid them anyway, but at least there’s a chance they’ll be effective. Just don’t hit me with them, as I’ll take the central position.”

General tactics used against monsters controlled by AI aren’t as effective when dealing with players. If you’re fighting one of the top players, they’re completely useless.

“Mani, you don’t mind if I take the lead here, right?” I ask our party leader.

“Sure.” He nods. “It isn’t like I’m confident of how to fight against Anthemia. If you weren’t here, I’d have ordered everyone to run away at top speed.”

I’m not suited to lead a team. I tend to get distracted and focus too much during combat. But I’m confident of being the best one to lead an assault against Marta. I’m the one who knows her fighting style the best!

Only other pro players that fight her constantly and some of her most devout fans would be more suited than me.

“Alright.” I start giving orders. “Everyone must stay far from her. Your job is to annoy her. Look for opportunities to strike and don’t let her get closer. And if you see a glowing orb growing on top of her hand, immediately scatter, look for cover, and get ready to use defensive skills.”

Everyone nods. We might have known each other for a short time, but everyone is experienced.

Having resolved our course of action, I turn to Marta once again.

“We’re ready.”

There’s no need to say anything more. We’ll talk the rest with our fists! Hehehe!

For the first time since I spotted her figure, Marta unsheathes her sword and takes a serious fighting pose.

“Alright. Bring it on. I won’t hold back. Show me how much you’ve grown.”

She makes a hand signal to get closer. She’s telling us to make the first move.

 

---

 

In a dark passage near the center of the labyrinth, a hooded player is pacing up and down the corridor. A dark indistinct robe covers him from head to toe, and the hood is big enough to hide all his facial features.

“They’re late…” He says.

For the umpteenth time, he takes a look at the game clock.

“They’re more than five minutes late. I’m sure they’re enjoying their time somewhere. I’ll have to punish them later…” The man makes an eerie laugh, which echoes in the empty tunnel. “But I’m sure they’ll enjoy it. Maybe I should ban their entrance? That would surely make them cry.”

A short while later, another hooded player, dressed identically to the first one, comes close to him. It moves silently through the shadows, making sure nobody sees him.

“I’m sorry bro. I almost got caught by a Calamity on my way here.” Before the waiting player can complain, he gives a plausible excuse. “There’s been a lot of movement in my area, the south-east. It was hard slipping by.”

The first man nods in understanding.

“Alright, it’s fine. If you say it, it must be true. Any good news?”

“There’s a lot of players leaving the southeast area. They’re scared of the Calamity running amok there. They said some name starting with ‘a’ I believe, but I can’t remember it…”

“That isn’t important. What’s important is to achieve our goals. Any luck there?”

“Not really. Ah, I lost Bil somewhere.”

The hooded man shakes his head in annoyance. “Nobody cares about him. So don’t worry, Al.”

The second player, Al, shrugs his shoulders as if to say ‘I don’t care either’.

Slowly but surely, more and more hooded figures appear after the two stop talking. Similar to Al, they report their findings to the player who was waiting for them. But the more he hears, the more angry he gets.

“Why didn’t a single one of you find anything about Him!? We’re wasting our time! We came here with a single purpose. Are we going to throw everything away!?”

The hooded players lower their heads in shame.

“We must show Him how devoted we are or else–”

“Heeeey! Leadeeeeeer!”

Someone’s shout interrupts the Leader’s scolding. Unlike the others, he has discarded all stealthiness and instead comes shouting.

“I’m back! I, the greatest First Apostle, Bill the Wereshark, is back! Did you miss me?”

His behavior annoys the Leader. “Shut up, Bil! Can’t you see we’re trying to act without others noticing?”

“Hahaha, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He scratches his head. “I got too excited because of the good news.”

“Good news!?” The Leader jumps at him, grabbing his robe and shaking him. “Come on, spill it out already!”

“Hahaha, sure, sure.”

When they both calm down, Bil, the newcomer, starts sharing information.

“You see… when I lost sight of Al, and I promise it didn’t have anything to do with me finding a dangerous-looking monster that seemed interesting… So, when I lost him, I coincidentally stumbled upon a group of players running away as if possessed. Of course, I went to ask what were they running away from, for… for the mission.”

The Leader glares at him, but he ignores it.

“And then, they told me there was this crazy woman chasing any player she caught sight of. They were running away before she spotted them. I thought about asking them about that player, for… for the mission, of course; and they told me something I never expected! They told me that crazy woman was searching for a player with a rat head, corrupted arms, a big staff and who likes to cast lightning spells! It’s the clue we’ve been looking forward to! The clue to find my teacher!”

The Leader feels a surge of happiness overwhelm him, but at the same time, there’s something he must correct.

“...stop calling him that.”

“No way! He recognized me, so I’ll call him ‘teacher’ for as long as I wish to.”

“...”

He forces his rage inside and focuses on the important matters. He deems it too important to fight over a stupid nickname.

The Leader opens his arms wide. “Everyone. Have you heard this? If this crazy woman is looking for Him, she isn’t any different from us. If she’s so powerful that other players must run away from her, I’m sure she’ll eventually find Him. And when she does, we’ll be there too!”

He makes a dramatic pause before continuing.

“It’s finally time to repay Him for all the effort he has put into illuminating the ignorants. For all the amazing creations he has prepared for all of us to enjoy. Today, we’ll help him achieve as many points as possible, so he can improve the dungeon and show us more. More suffering! More happiness! More despair! For All Shall Despair! Fufufu! Hahaha!”

“All Shall Despair!”

“All Shall Despair!”

“All Shall Despair!”

 

As with other prior events, when the game assigned the players to random groups, the DMA staff took into consideration something other than the team composition: how toxic those players were. Players reported for flaming, players who left the game and abandoned their teammates to their deaths, or players who were specially tagged for other reasons.

In short, players that would likely disrupt the teams they were assigned to.

They assigned those players to special teams, ensuring that regardless of what they decided to do during the Mystery Event, they wouldn’t harm the rest of the players as much as they would if they were assigned to their team.