The Gamer Guilds’ Dungeon (Entrance): A Deal With Decker

--- Maya ---

“Yeah, we know each other.” She sighed in resignation equal only to the attendant.

Said attendant gave her a look even as Decker laughed, “You sure?”

“Yes…” She nodded.

“See I told you I knew her.” Decker grinned. “Meaning…”

“Meaning you can DM her dungeon.” The attendant reluctantly conceded, before giving Decker a look. “But don’t change anything too drastic. The system is still wonky after that mess last week.”

“I’ll only use my own Madness.” The gang lieutenant promised, hand in the air and smile as innocent as a thief in the night.

The attendant shook his head before giving her a look as he passed. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, kid.”

(Well, that bodes well…) Her inner reason commented dryly.

“Gamer girl, long time no see!” Decker greeted once they were alone. “Was hoping I’d have heard something about you by now, but I guess you M.A.D.s always were big on your ‘build and prep’ stuff.”

“What is it you wanted from me, pendejo?” She asked, already regretting this.

(Warned you.)

(Hey, hey. Let’s let this ride for now.)

“Ah, don’t be like that.” Decker pouted, hand to his chest.

She merely gave him a dry look.

The gang lieutenant rolled his eyes, losing most of his playfulness. “Fine. So long story short, about a week ago some shit happened and the dungeon got messed up. Normally not a big deal, power interactions happen and the GM built the system to fix itself. Only she’s been acting funny this last week and this took a lot longer to fix than any of us are comfortable with, especially since my little sister was involved in this mess.”

(Sense of danger rising.)

(Sense of fun rising.)

She pinched the bridge of her nose before giving Decker a look. “And what exactly does this have to do with me?”

“Honestly? Nothing.” The gang lieutenant admitted. “Or at least nothing until the GM decided to not let anyone check the dungeon’s code. At which point I needed an excuse to have DM privileges for the dungeon.” Decker pointed two fingers at her. “Enter you.”

There was a fair bit in all of that for her to dissect, but the thing that stood out to her reality hacking self, was “The dungeon has code?”

Decker made a so-so gesture. “It’s not like computer code, so much as it is how the Madness flows and interacts with things. If you work with Madness enough you can learn to read it, even if we can’t read it as well as the GM who has a sort of instinctive understanding of it all.”

“Shame…” (Might’ve been something we could learn in there.)

“Yeah, it is what it is.” Decker shrugged, clearly misunderstanding her. “Anyway, normally the GM doesn’t mind if someone wants to give her a break and DM a few runs, but she’s hiding something and we’re worried about what that could be.”

“Is it safe for the dungeon to be open if something like that is going on?” She frowned, thinking this entire thing sounded kind of sketchy.

“It’s not that kind of problem, the system itself is designed with so many safety contingencies and limiters that people going through it are perfectly safe.” The gang lieutenant assured her. “Unfortunately, none of those apply to the GM’s side of the connection.”

(That doesn’t really reassure me.) She thought dryly before sighing. “What exactly do you need me to do?”

“Not much, at least since you were going into the dungeon anyway.” Decker answered. “Since we actually know each other, I can use a bit of wiggle room in the GM’s orders and my rank privileges to DM your run, but only your run. If you were an actual member of the guild your run would register on our scoreboards, but due to not being part of the guild I can cover this whole thing up while I’m DMing.”

“Okay, you still haven’t told me what you need me to do.” She pointed out.

“Right. I just need you to last as long as possible in the dungeon, while actually running through it so as to prevent flagging anything odd with her powers.” Decker explained. “The longer you last the longer I can go through the code to see if the GM is hiding anything from us that we should know about.”

“That sounds easy enough.” She admitted with just a touch of skepticism.

“Wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t.” Decker told her. “So what do you say? I’ll owe you a solid if you help me out here.”

Normally she’d probably back out at this point, or at least give the decision a little more thought, but at the same time she also knew there were a lot of things going on that she could use some help with. (Be it Elizabeth’s situation, Tommy’s, or even just those Bloodhounds at the hospital. A favor from a lieutenant in one of the largest gangs in the city could be a big deal if I use it right…)

(Yet again, this seems like a bad idea.) Her inner logic told her once more.

(To me this seems like a side-quest.) Her inner madness argued.

“Alright, I’ll help you out.” She nodded.

“Yes.” Decker fistpumped, before pointing at her. “Thank you.”

“So what first?” She asked, not actually sure how this whole thing worked.

“Well, since I’m covering this up, we won’t be recording any of this so the paperwork is unnecessary. And you’ve got a mask already from the looks of it, so we don’t need to get you one of those either.” Decker listed off one by one. “Meaning all you really have to do is enter the dungeon and take your power up.”

She glared at the gang lieutenant. “You didn’t mention anything about taking a power-up.”

“Right, this thing.” Decker sighed, running a hand down his face. “The power-ups aren’t addictive, beyond the concept of giving power to the powerless. They’re made from Madness, which has a lot of power interactions which is probably what threw you off at my show a couple months ago. Being an M.A.D. I’d guess it’d inspire a few new inventions when you get out of here. What’s more you don’t actually have to take the power-up if you don’t want it, plenty of people run the dungeon without them. Fair?”

She continued to glare at him for another minute before nodding. “Fair.”

“Alright, then the entrance to the dungeon is through there.” Decker told her gesturing to the tent exit.

She gave the gang lieutenant and arguably her first supervillain another look before stepping out of the tent and finding herself in front of hill with a stone archway built into it surrounded by a number of trees.

(Really, leaning into that fantasy dungeon thing.)

(Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!) Her inner madness squealed as she walked under the archway and started making her way down a series of stone steps with the occasional torch burning on the cave walls.

Eventually she came to a large stone door with a number of images carved into it.

Pushing open the doors she heard a faint build up of music around her before a burst of wind pushed past slamming the doors open and sending her stumbling into the center of a circle of pedestals. Each with a beam of light shining down through the ceiling above.

(You do realize that it is physically impossible for light to come down this far and be this bright right?) Her inner logic commented.

(Shut up, you’re ruining the magic!) Her inner child hissed.

Glancing around she took in each of the pedestals containing a number of hovering objects and weapons, and all the while a voice whispered from the world around her. “Choose your path young adventurer, or carve out your own, but know that only you may choose the path you walk. So choose wisely and walk it to its end.”