Chương 36: 35-The Deal

Corporal Armstrong looked at Aaron and Blasco as they approached the entrance. Right on time, as always. They had made an art of making carefully rehearsed routines look like the behavior of undisciplined and lazy soldiers. Something was wrong this time, though.

"Where is Nat?" the corporal asked. They had never failed to return as a whole group. Never.

"Mind your own fucking business, soldier," Aaron grunted back. Armstrong almost said that asking these questions was his fucking business, but thought better of it. -It's Me: When the Doppelganger impersonates someone, people who know the victim overlook any faux pas that could reveal the Doppelganger's true identity. This effect is based on charisma. It paid not to antagonize Aaron. The corporal opened the door and let them in.

"See? The secret is walking in like you own the place," Billy/Aaron told Bob, who was wearing Blasco's face.

"Whisper got that right."

"Oh, God, this is so embarrassing," a doll-sized Jenna spoke on the mind link from her secure place inside Billy's front pocket.

"You both get to do all the James Bond act while I look like something you could hang from a keyring."

"Come on, Jenna, you are not missing anything. You have visual feed through the Blood Link," Bob reminded her.

"Okay, Billy, you are the dungeon expert," Jenna said.

"Walk us through it."

"This was originally a convention center, known as the Baird Center. A dungeon manifested inside it during an anime con, shaping the form it took. It has absorbed a lot of Essence and become huge." The Baird Center was a modern building made of glass and steel, but once they crossed the main doors, they might as well have been on another planet. The first level looked like a science-fiction hangar, so huge that words could not adequately describe it.

The metal ceiling appeared to be at least 500 feet above the floor. The hangar seemed endless, so vast that the far end could not be seen. Powerful electric lights hung from the ceiling, giving the impression of a vast multitude of tiny suns hovering over them. It was filled with prefabricated, cheap buildings in a military style. Hundreds of troops exercised in front of them. Columns of men marched in orderly ranks from the buildings, carrying their gear. They were prepared for a long trek.

"These men are going to the front," Jenna said.

"And they are probably among the last ones to do so; most of these buildings are empty," added Bob.

"God, they must have amassed thousands of soldiers out there." They did not cling to their shapes for long. Every fifteen minutes, they looked for a discreet place, safe from unwelcome gazes, and changed their looks to those of other soldiers that had passed them by. The best way to avoid detection when you were a shapeshifter was to shift your looks as frequently as possible. It was almost impossible to tail someone who used that tactic.

A trio of 15-foot-tall suits of armor walked by them, the ground shaking with their footsteps.

"They have bloody mechas," hissed Billy.

"How are they pulling that?"

"It is quite ingenious, really. Each suit of armor contains three Avatars. It takes the combined Competencies of all of them to activate it," explained Jenna, as she studied the mechas with her enhanced senses.

"Are you transmitting all this to Babylon?" asked Bob.

"It seems that their informant was not as forthcoming as she seemed."

"I don't think that is what happened, Bob," answered Jenna.

"Look at the soldiers' reaction. They are as surprised as we are. This was a secret weapon to be revealed only in wartime. I wonder what more surprises Hawking has in store for us."

"Dignity is watching," she finally added.

"We are to get as much intel as possible on this floor before diving into the dungeon." The Losers spent the better part of one hour mingling with the troops. They changed their looks five more times. Once, a soldier seemed to recognize the face Billy was wearing, but his Thousand-Faced Assassin power smoothed the encounter. The entrance to the second floor was fairly accessible, with hardly any guards around.

"What are those guys doing?" asked Billy, pointing at a circle of mages that were pouring power into a giant energy ball at the center. One of them signaled, and the ball sailed away, crashing two miles away.

"They are firing duds, I think," Bob answered.

"Those mages are also working in concert. They are the magical artillery. By pooling their powers together, they can hurl immensely destructive spells a long distance away."

"This is a disaster. We thought they had only advanced magical infantry, but we have seen the equivalents of howitzers and tanks. Babylon is going to get slaughtered."

"We are warning them in advance, at least," Jenna answered.

"I am sure Alarel will think of some counters." The second floor was accessed through a giant metal grate, with people constantly entering and leaving, most of them carrying gear to the first floor. It was based on a gigantic Japanese high school, but the Federation had filled it to the brim with assembly lines of enchanters mass-producing the magical items that powered their armies. Infiltration was much easier on this floor, as most of the Feds were focused on their work.

"Most of the dungeons we have seen had some common theme, even when they were divided into levels. This one doesn't. Each level feels like entering a different dungeon," said Bob.

"Only apparently," answered Billy.

"They do share a common theme: Anime. A hangar, a high school…I would be surprised if we do not find a zombie-infested city."

"You had to jinx it, didn't you?" said Jenna. She suddenly stopped as they discovered the entrance to the lower level. It looked like gigantic mechanical stairways, much like those you could find at a metro station. It was heavily guarded, and the soldiers were carefully inspecting anyone entering or leaving. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It seems security ramps up at this level."

"Can you find an alternative route?" Bob asked her.

"I am loath to expand my Spirit—I fear one of the Entropists could sense it, but I detect some air movement into the pipes above us," she said, pointing at the giant pipes hanging hundreds of feet above them.

"I think they also lead into the floor below. If Bob can teleport us there, we could enter the pipes and use them to access the floor." They chose a spot near a ventilation grid Jenna detected with her enhanced eyesight. Half a minute later, they were on top of one of the pipes, large enough for a truck to drive through.

"I am paying my karmic debt for each of those Barbie dolls I beheaded as a kid," Jenna said as she returned to her normal size. She wrenched the grid apart with her enhanced strength—the Losers entered the pipe. They walked for half a mile inside it, using one of Bob's enchanted orbs as their source of light. Suddenly, Billy gasped.

"What is the matter, Billy?" Bob asked.

"Checked my status page. Got a new achievement and a passive," said Billy as he projected the page in mid-air. Achievement Unlocked: Messing with the numbers. Congratulations, you have made an incoherent mess of your system! It currently costs you 100 points for a basic respawn, 40 if you want to spend a whole hour comatose. Sooner or later, you were bound to add a level 1 character to your Akashic Library.

You would, without the shadow of a doubt, mix it with Headless Machetist, getting an instant respawn for a measly 25 points. And now, Bob can take you out of the Blue Room without paying any points whatsoever. So you get this: I am very dumb, and I can't count (passive): You can create a basic respawn in a perfect state of health for one measly achievement point. Hope you die. A lot. It is cheap, now. P. S.: The Blue Room suddenly does not feel so safe, does it? Fuck you.

"That is a very good passive, Billy. Why so gloomy?"

"Do you think our modules may be developing personalities as Essentials do?" said Billy.

"I don't think mine likes me much." The conversation stopped as they reached a point where the pipe changed direction, slanting downwards. Bob transformed into his manta form, Billy and Jenna climbed onto him, and they all flew down the pipe. After an eternity, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. As they exited the pipe, they saw the third floor for the first time: an abandoned modern city, in a ruinous state. Humanoid figures shambled along the sidewalks.

"Zombie city. Told you," said Billy.

"You jinxed it. Told you," grunted Jenna.

"This is significant," Bob said through the mind link as he flew them over the city.

"Those zombies are mobs. They must be part of the retinue of the surviving boss."

"Do you think we will find it here?" asked Billy.

"I would be very surprised if that were so. I imagine they want him watched closely, so that they can easily kill him if they need to use Bilto to rebuild the dungeon." They flew over the city, low enough to avoid easy detection, but not so low as to rile the zombies. A giant metal tube connected the entry to the second floor to the exit on the fourth floor. All Feds used the tube as the sole means of passage, safe from the marauding zombies waiting outside.

"They are only using the first two floors and the last ones. This one is just a buffer, a measure of extra security to avoid easy access to the restricted zones," said Bob.

"I would not be surprised if the fourth floor is similar to this one." Fortunately, the same ventilation ducts that allowed entry into the third level could also be used to reach the fourth. It turned out to be a giant desert filled with mutated monsters. In the center, there was a military base that housed the door to the deeper floors. A single armored wagon on tracks provided access from the base to the upper-level entry.

"It is under constant attack by the things inhabiting this level. The base is even more guarded. I can feel entropic pings coming from it. There are at least three Hunter-Killer teams inside that base," said Jenna, as her brows furrowed in concentration.

"This is madness. This is only level four. They are keeping Bilto at the deepest level. There is no way we can reach him," protested Bob. Suddenly, the weird corn-like bush they were hiding behind started to vibrate. The vibrations turned into an inhuman, zooming voice, like one thousand grandparents whispering the same advice simultaneously.

"You could, if you had help," it said, much to the surprise of the Losers, who quickly retreated a few paces back.

"I have seen you since the very first moment you entered my dungeon. I could have turned you in to the Feds hours ago. Who knows? Maybe I still will. If I can't reach an agreement with you, you could serve as a distraction." Jenna went into full Spirit mode.

"Who are you? What is your name?"

"My name? I had a name once. A true name. A name of power. They took from me even that. Call me GM. That is what everyone around here does, anyway."

"What do you want?"

"I want my name back. I want my pride back. I want revenge on all who did this to me. I want my dungeon. The pertinent question now is, what do you want, and what are you willing to pay for it?"

"No, it isn't," answered Jenna.

"The pertinent question is how you can help us, because if you can't, we are wasting time talking with a patch of lice-infested corn. For all we know, you may have already sold us to the Feds and are just stalling until they arrive. You could be a trap."

"I know all the ins and outs of this dungeon. I am one with it. I can show you secret passages to reach any of its locations. I have already freed Bilto from the cell in which he was held, but it will not be long before they notice his absence and capture him again." GM dropped that calmly—they had a time limit.

"I can prevent that by guiding him through the dungeon. I can even guide him outside, if we reach an agreement."

"But I will not turn him over to you. I will not let you treat him as a tool." Jenna considered the possibility of deceiving him for one second, but decided it was the wrong approach. That last bit about leaving Bilto free was filled with meaning: I am a creature of pride and honor. I have a code. I will not break it for you. At the same time, this thing was no saint. It had let Bilto escape his cell, but not the dungeon. It gave only according to what it received.

"We can't give you a permanent dungeon," Billy said, interrupting.

"I can restore your name and your powers to you, but we need the essence burst for a dungeon ourselves—we are saving the Universe."

"Ah, yes," answered the corn, totally unimpressed, "saving the Universe. It must be Tuesday, then. I assume there is no room for compromise, so I will…"

"I can give you a transient dungeon. One that will only last an hour. You will have that hour to settle your scores. Then, the dungeon will implode, and you will die," Billy interrupted him.

"And what will happen to you?" asked the voice in a mocking tone.

"I will be part of you. Your mind is much more powerful than mine. We will become fused during the process, but I will be a tiny voice, whispering in the back of your skull. You will have full command. And there is a very high chance this could destroy my soul, even without you wanting to," Billy answered.

"Billy, no! Are you out of your mind?" Jenna stopped.

"Use Kingmaker. Let him manifest and take his revenge, but do not become part of him!"

"I am sorry, Jenna, but it has to be done this way. Have you already forgotten? I am short of 8000 AP. The only way I can get them is through Heart of Darkness. The Essence he creates inside the dungeon when he fights will come to me as AP. I must become part of him." Jenna was torn. Any viable path required a price. A price paid by Billy.

"Billy, please, no!" Jenna had started to cry openly. Her boyfriend remained silent. He had made up his mind, and he would not turn away from the path he had chosen.

"Your word! Give me your word, you will not harm his mind! Give it or so help me God, I will knock him unconscious and drag him out of the dungeon, and the Universe may burn for all I care."

"You have my word on this. I would never mar such a soul." No mocking tone, this time. Jenna sighed, defeated.

"Okay, then I guess we are in."