PART NINE

Math

When I met 386, he had 704 mana. He'd earned about a hundred, mostly from me hanging out there, and we'd spent about 400. So we still had about 400 sloshing around. I wanted to wait a few days, though. I remembered a business-themed TV show where the host encouraged the contestants to 'smell what sells'. It meant: follow the money. If you were mostly selling cheese sandwiches, stop making broccoli pies.

In other words: should we abandon the adult section? Focus on kids? Or was adults the way to go? Could both exist?

Yes

We pretty much got our answer the next morning. Danny came back and went straight to the Bit Pusher. He didn't put any coins in. He just looked at it, calculating.

That evening, he came back with a friend and a couple of kids. The kids were told to 'go and play' while Danny and his friend got down to the serious business of trying to dislodge a huge tumor of coins that was growing on the bottom-left of the lower shelf.

They put 4 coins in to retrieve 3. They put 5 coins in to retrieve 7. And while they slowly dithered over pennies, the dungeon was awarded 5 mana points! With another from the kids.

It became a habit - Danny and a friend or two would come in the evening and gamble while the kids played skill games. Finally, when the adults said it was time to leave and went outside for a smoke, the kids would retreat to the demolition derby and smash whatever junk they'd brought with them.

The First, Not the Last, Hint of Danger

One Friday, a small group of apprentices came and crowded the Bit Pusher. There were five drops in a row that didn't lead to a payout - the lads started shoving and kicking the game. 386 had designed it very robustly. But when the 6th drop also failed to lead to a payout, one of the men suggested they come back with a big hammer and smash the glass.

Immediately, the shelves stopped moving and the coins vanished.

"Look what you've done now, Martin, you pink."

"It's not my fault, is it? I was only joking."

With that, the coins reappeared exactly as before, and the shelves began moving again. The men looked around at the walls, the ceiling, then at each other. They were clearly nervous, but the coins drew them back in.

Crisis averted, but this wouldn't be the last time our customers openly discussed hostile acts against the dungeon. One of these threats would make little ol' Billy-Bob from Tumbleweed, Nebraska, one of the most famous and despised gamers in the BetterVerse.

More, More, More

We saved up our mana, intending to make a big upgrade for the next Friday. 386 and I spent the week spitballing. When I arrived on Thursday to discuss our final action plan, intending to spend 500 MP on new games and activities, 386 informed me that he'd already allocated 150 MP for various 'essential upgrades'. He wouldn't tell me what he had planned, which led me to assume he'd try to electrocute everyone.

Sighing, I thought about what we could do with the remaining 350. "What about another simple kid's game and a three-shelf Bit Pusher?"

"Agreed," said 386, but I could hear him sort of trying not to cackle.

I mean, if he wasn't on board at this point, there was no hope. So I let him get on with whatever he was up to, and told him my idea for the new game.

Friday Night Delights

I came after the NPC rush on Friday, and didn't see any blood, or corpses, or any signs of a massacre. Lennie had a broom and was sweeping up. He was mostly brushing his feet - he seemed to like the sensation.

"Um..." I said to 386. "How did it go?"

"Come into the core room," said 386. I did, and there was a new room accessible via a narrow corridor. "Please," he said, cajoling me forward.

"You remember you're not allowed to crush me or anything?"

"I remember."

I struggled through and found myself in a 3x2 room with a sofa on the left and a sheer, black wall opposite. I sat down. "Comfy," I said.

"I looked in the codex and there wasn't much information about itchiness, so I raised a ticket with the Engine and she agreed to devote some resources to the question. What is itchy? The answer seems to be microns."

"Microns."

"Yes. This sofa has vanishingly few microns. Now that your skin is safe from the naughty cotton and the horrid wool, feast your eyes on the day's events."

He'd made me a little cinema! I could watch the highlights of the day's action.

"Can you make me a little foot stool to put my feet on?"

"Yes. Tomorrow. I can't do anything when you're inside me."

"Wording," I mumbled, but I was already fascinated by what was on the 'screen'.

Big Brother

"All right, kid, go and do your things."

"You promised me a bit to put in the game."

"Yes, yes. Later." Danny walked into the adult arcade and stopped short. There were now two Bit Pushers. He raced to the new one. It had three levels! He stared at it for some time, hypnotised by its cashly beauty. Eventually he came to his senses and realised that his nephew slash cousin slash who cares? was putting a coin into one of the slots on the older Bit Pusher. "What!" He rushed across and watched in horror as the coin fell, fell, hit the mass of coins on the top level, and decidedly did NOT fall to the lower level. "What in the World? Where did you get that coin?" He patted his own pockets.

"I won it," said the little guy.

"What?"

"In there." The kid pointed. "It's new. Honest! Come and look."

Danny followed him. The youth pointed to all the new things. "The games have names now. This one's called Spider Smash. Makes sense. That one's Ski Ball. I don't get that. Ski Ball's got two new holes, right in the corners there. 100 points each. Spider Smash has two mallets now, so you can play with a friend."

"That looks fun," said Danny. "Do you want to play?"

"You wanted to know about the money," the kid reminded him. "Look here. These boxes. I played a few games and the box suddenly rattled and you see this little gutter? A bit slid out. It paid me!"

"How much did you put in?"

The kid looked confused. "Nothing. There's nowhere to put money. Should I have paid?"

They looked around the games but didn't find any slots. "Huh," said Danny. "Why would it pay you? And what's this thing?" He indicated the magnificent, easy-to-understand new game that I had added.

"I don't know. I don't get it. Normally Jenny goes first."

"She's a smart cookie all right," said Danny. "But I'm sure we can work this out... you go round that side. Pick up the disc. No, the one with the handle, the white one. That's yours. This is mine. Hit the disc. Ah, that's it! You have to try to get the red disc into this hole here on my side." Danny hit the disc and it slid quickly across the slippery surface and into his nephew's goal. The score changed to 1-0. "Ha!" he said. They played a bit more but Danny was far too good.

"It's called Lair Hockey. Weird name."

"Still no money," said Danny.

"Try this one, then," said the kid. He went down the narrow passage to the demolition derby. It had been reworked. There was one glass ball on a plinth. One per new customer! "You throw it and try to hit things. We're not very good at it."

"No," said Danny, rubbing the kid's hair. "You don't have your full Strength or Dexterity yet. So I throw the ball? It'll smash."

"They don't seem to mind."

"They?"

"Whoever makes this place. We think it's this KIND wizard we met. He was acting NORMAL."

Danny shrugged. He examined the targets. There was a standard archery circle in the center, but the rest of the scene looked like the background set of a low-budget play. There was a very unrealistic tree, a smiling sun, a fluffy cloud, a square house. He was lining up a shot at the bullseye when a witch on a broomstick flew past the cloud. "Oh, what was that?"

The kid grinned. "Cool, isn't it? The more you wait, the more things happen. You won't see the witch again, though. You have to throw as soon as -"

Danny hurled, and the glass smashed into a snake that appeared from nowhere and tangled around the tree. It was rated as 150 points. "Yes!" he cried.

"Good shot! Look!"

A box on the wall made a rattling noise, and onto a small metal bowl slid a tiny, brown coin. Danny picked it up, eyes shining. He looked up at the target range, then back at the plinth. "I feel like there should be another glass ball there."

The kid shrugged. "You have to bring your own things."

"It has to be glass to get a coin?"

"I don't know. The coins are new."

Danny scratched his chin. "Let's run home and see what odds and ends are lying around, and we'll get back here before everyone else gets off work. If there's a limit to how many coins are going free, we'll nab them all. Agreed?"

"Agreed!"