With every step I take, my head's throbbing weakens a bit. As I walk towards the deepest part of our dungeon – which, by the way, isn't where the dungeon core is, it's just the furthest point from the dungeon portal – my mind clears up and I start recovering from the shock produced by their actions.

I hate having to leave the comfort of the control zone behind, with all the perks that the cameras and traps give, but who knows what would have happened if I hadn't run away. Who knows what that cat-girl would have done to me if I had hesitated even just for a second longer?

Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.

"Well… Now, it's time for me to have some real fun! Hahaha!"

By the time my mind finally calms down completely, I reach the door at the end of the tunnel and open it. On the other side, the majestic sight of my latest creation, filling most of the available space, greets me.

"Here it is! My precious creation, my undefeatable monstrosity!" I approach the majestic creature and start stroking one of its chubby legs. "Are you ready, my dear baby? It's time to show the world why you're the best baby in the whole universe!"

My creature, as if responding to my voice, slowly turns its head my way, and I almost take a step back.

Ugh. It's… It's kind of ugly, isn't it? But in a cute and chubby way. Definitely not like the 'cute' my sister likes to call those outer space aberrations she likes so much.

"Baby, hoist me up. It's time to wreak some havoc!"

Following my order, my monster uses its trunk to grab me and lift me on top of the giant shell covering its torso. Then, with its stout and chubby legs, it starts walking forward.

The tunnels are just large enough for my monster to pass through while I ride it, clearly designed this way on purpose. Since its body practically fully blocks the passage, the only way to avoid its charge is to run away. Once the rampage begins, there's no hiding.

"Hahaha! Yes! Yeeeees! Let the trampling begin!"

I excitedly guide my monster from its back, making sure it follows the path I choose.

You want to know about my monster? Hahaha, I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait. But from the elephant's trunk and legs, the turtle shell, and the extremely fat body, I'm sure you can make a guess, can't you?

From this point on, our secret weapon has been revealed to the world.

But it's fine. It's better this than becoming a wrecked mess, and our viewers believing I have some kind of relation with those freaks obsessed with me and my dungeon.

How many times do I have to say it for the others to believe me? It's not my fault if an ever-growing group of players lost their sanity trying to conquer my dungeon and formed a shady cult to console each other. I have nothing to do with that, it's all their doing! Stop messing with me already!

I'll repeat it just in case: It's, not, my, fault!

…I shake my head to dispel the useless thoughts and return to my monster.

As I said, from now on, everyone will know about our secret weapon, which means I can't call it 'secret' anymore.

The reason is simple: everything a player sees, the audience can see too. Or, if you look at it the other way around, the audience can't see anything we don't, so the only way to hide stuff from the other teams is to not interact with them at all during the matches.

The game staff achieves this by locking the cameras into the player's surroundings, mostly for balance reasons. Otherwise, by using the replays, every team could learn all the secrets without danger, using them to scout the whole dungeon safely.

Furthermore, this approach also helps keep the audience's expectations high, as they don't know everything that can happen…

But let's be real. It's mostly for the first reason.

As a side effect, complex puzzles and riddles aren't worth putting in our dungeons during this tournament because as soon as one team discovers them, even if they can't solve them during the match, the other teams can watch the replays to solve them, giving them an infinite amount of time to solve them – well, obviously not actually infinite, but you know what I mean.

There's just one exception to all that, and that's the dungeon core's placement. After the first match, the location of every team's dungeon core was revealed to the rest. Not the path to them, not their surroundings, nor the conditions for it to show up. Just the location.

The reason? So that a team that lost the first match wasn't at a complete disadvantage in the next matches. Which makes sense… kind of. I'd hate having to fight, not knowing where my goal is, when the opposing team knows everything. At least this rule gives everyone a fair chance.

Alright, enough internal monologue and more crushing my enemies.

"Where are you∼? Didn't you want to find me and show your devotion? If you show up now, I swear I won't crush you into a paste with my giant monste∼r! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

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I'm finally out of everyone's sight. I know the cameras are still filming, but the Mad Cultists won't watch the replays, so I'm safe now that they aren't nearby.

"Haaaa…" I exhale, relieved. "No more faking it…"

This is getting harder and harder… for a moment there, I almost jumped in front of the spike roller trap after seeing Bil's blissful expression.

This isn't me! I'm losing control of myself!

I shouldn't have joined their team for the tournament. Even more so when they aimed to meet Mad Rat himself…

But curiosity got the best of me. I, too, wanted to know what it'd be like to face him in a match instead of just diving into his dungeon. In this regard, I don't regret my decision. As expected, it's different when he himself is running the dungeon and aims to crush us by knowing our strategies. I could avoid his traps by watching Bil's reactions, and I'm sure my skills will continue to improve through this dungeon, but…

The problem is Bil, Ana, and Fer.

"Haaaa. What I should do next is… I'm not sure."

I believe Bil's words were something on the line of: 'Spy, while I distract Him and Fer catches Him off guard, you should swiish and then baang, clank!. Then, Ana will boing boing Him and we'll…'

What the hell do 'swiish' and 'baang, clank!' mean? And 'boing boing'? I do have a suspicion about the last one, though.

It was hard to hide my thoughts as Bil talked with sounds instead of actual words. It was even more surprising that Ana and Fer could understand him.

"This is the last time. After this match, I'll leave. This time, for sure."

Everything has been relatively peaceful since Bil left. I don't know what happened, but Fer must have reached Mad Rat, right? This might be my chance to slip away and pretend I'm doing something useful while avoiding my teammates…

"Hyeaaah!" *Bang!*

A sudden shout, followed by the sound of something big hitting a wall, reaches me. It sounds close.

I can't pretend I didn't hear this, can I?

"...Shit."

Slowly and silently, I approach the origin of the sound. Shouts and laughter mix, with the sound of something heavy moving around, intermittently smashing into the walls.

"Hahaha! Why are you running away? Don't you want to try how it feels to be crushed under my monster's foot?"

"I don't mind rough play, you can step on me anytime! But I don't want to be stepped on by an ugly monster like that oneeee! I refuse to let my first time be like this! You must be my first one! Hyeeahaaah!"

*Bang!*

The dungeon shakes, but it doesn't collapse. The dungeon passages are indestructible, or they would have disintegrated way earlier, under the barrage of traps and Bil's madness.

"That's Ana," I immediately identify her voice. "The other one must be Mad Rat."

The tunnel I'm in splits into two, continuing forward and connecting to another tunnel of similar size to the right. The sounds are getting louder, coming from this other tunnel; they'll be here soon.

"Hyeeeahh!"

The first to appear, making a weird shout, is Ana. From a safe distance, I watch her appear from the other side of the passage. As if reacting by instinct, she suddenly covers herself with a transparent barrier, right before a light beam hits her from behind. I lose my sight for an instant.

But even during all this, the thunderous roar of a large monster's footsteps continues to approach.

The light disappears as quickly as it came, revealing a distressed Ana, still wearing a smile on her face.

Ana turns her head to the left, straight at me. "Ah! Spy!" And with that, she rushes inside this tunnel in my direction, right before a large shadow tramples over her.

*Booom!*

Missing its target, the large monster slams into the wall at the end of the passage.

If this were reality, the wall would have disintegrated by now, or at least it would have created a large dust cloud that would obscure its sight, giving us time to run away. But this is inside a game, and the wall is indestructible, so nothing like that happens.

Shortly after the impact, the monster turns around towards us. This monster is big. At least three or four meters tall, and so fat that it completely blocks the passage. And, on top of it, a familiar player is laughing, pointing one of his fingers straight at me.

"Nice! Found another one! Now there are two test 'voluntary' test subjects! Twice the victim– I mean, twice the people, twice the fun! Hahaha! Goooo, crush them!"

Under his orders, the monster waves his trunk menacingly before charging.

Why is Mad Rat riding an elephant with a turtle shell? And why am I so unlucky as to find him!?

"Didn't you like to feel despair? Then enjoy this! Hahaha!"

Mad Rat laughs maniacally and releases a beam of multiple colors from the finger that was pointing at me.

"N-nooo! That's mineeee!"

But before the light can touch me, Ana jumps in front of me, taking the hit.

"Uh… thanks?"

"I didn't do it for you, just so you know!" Ana rebuffs me. "It has His attack, so it should have been mine all along!"

I ignore Ana and turn around to run. The monster will soon catch up. But Ana grabs my shoulder to stop me.

"What are you doing, Spy? Don't run away, do your thing!"

"...?"

Do my thing? I have no idea what she means. Is she talking about what Bil said during the planning?

There's no time to argue. If we don't run, we'll get crushed… We can't fight that monster when the size of the tunnels is clearly designed for it. We must find an open space first.

Ana looks at me with a mix of disgust and surprise, not understanding why I want to run away. But I know how to convince her. To convince a madman, you must pretend to be one of them and use their logic against them.

"Didn't you say you don't want your first time stolen by that monster? We must run away so you can keep it safe."

"...Ah!" Ana exclaims, opening her eyes wide, and starts running. "You're right! We must run, just in case! What are you doing, Spy? I won't wait for you!"

"..." I roll my eyes before following behind her.

As we run, I can feel the monster's footsteps getting closer. It's clearly faster than us.

"Hahaha! Run! Run! Struggle as much as you can! Resist to the bitter end, so I can enjoy this for a longer time! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

"Denying the truth isn't a way to improve your flaws. You must first acknowledge them, and only then can you start working on getting better at playing this game."

- Tip from a top DMA player.

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