But, there’s no way forward.
Try again.
Alan pressed his hands forward once more, pushing against the invisible structure before him. This time he heard a whir of gears as a passageway opened. Alan stepped through the entrance, finding himself led through a boxed in, dimly lit metal tunnel. It was comforting to be surrounded by walls and a ceiling again. What was more disturbing was the information Eve had.
The tunnel led into a central hub area, about the size of a movie theatre. It seemed to have been long forgotten, scavenged clean of any furniture, parts or items. There was a large screen on a far wall, but it was broken and looked to be ancient. Alan didn’t notice anything else of import in the room, not even a control panel for the screen. There were several tunnels that led out of the room. Clearly, this wasn’t a simple labyrinth. Perhaps it was some sort of research station or…
A prison.
What?
I… know it’s a prison.
How do you know?
I DON’T KNOW, OKAY? But… I know that this facility is a prison. Or at least, it was.
Alan stood still for a second. For the first time, he could sense a certain degree of distress within Eve. She had, of course, been concerned, stern, and even commanding before, but this was different. She seemed on edge, almost more human than ever before.
Enough. I detected a faint noise from the highlighted corridor. We should proceed down it to find what we can, then quickly die so we can complete our current main objective. We can return when we figure out more or are at a higher level.
Alan nodded, and made his way over to the indicated corridor. After a short straight passageway a spiral staircase soon appeared. Alan began descending the stairs. A few minutes later he was still walking down the stairs.
I wonder if I could get down faster somehow…
Request acknowledged, an unknown voice said in Alan’s head.
Wait, what?
Suddenly, the stairs shifted, forming rectangular panels that connected to each other, transforming the spiral staircase into a slide. A soft blue glow began to emit from the panel directly beneath Alan, somehow negating most of the friction. Alan began to rapidly slide downwards. Still worried about traps, Alan unsuccessfully tried to manage his speed as he wasn’t sure what he would be finding below. The slide showed no signs of slowing down, and the walls provided no grip. Alan began to feel gravity accelerate him faster, and his stomach began to drop.
As Alan slid down he would occasionally hear the sound of gunfire or yelling, but the sounds were intermittent, hollow, like ghosts in a machine. It was, Alan had to admit, sort of fun, as the speed he was sliding down began to approach that of a fast roller coaster. Then the spiral staircase disappeared, and Alan was flung out into pitch darkness, sliding along an unseen path. It reminded him of a rather unforgiving level in a racing game he used to play, but the road was translucent instead of rainbow. The slope gradually began to rise, then it descended once more, and Alan found himself slowing down.
In the distance flashes of light appeared. He quickly activated his armor’s invisibility. As he drew closer, he could make out the forms of a number of players fending off a metal, humanoid monstrosity. The abomination of flesh and metal was nearly ten feet tall, sporting blades grafted onto its two arms, a face half covered by a mask full of tubes and wires. The rest of its body was likewise covered in scars, metal plates, wires, and tubes; the creature had two clawed feet as well. As Alan felt himself slow down, he saw that the remaining half of its face was simply a lump of flesh, devoid of anything resembling an appendage. Yet, the monster leapt about with ease. A name tag appeared above the monstrosity: Experimental Warden.
There were about twenty players grouped together around a mounted turret in the center of a large circular platform, about thirty feet in radius. Surrounding it was nothing but pitch black darkness, but Alan knew there were likely hidden pathways as well. Eve calculated the ending destination of the slide, it was about ten feet above this larger platform all the players stood on. Alan watched as the Experimental Warden leapt forward as fast as a speeding bullet, knocking three players down. It darted its two arms forward, piercing its blades into two of the fallen players, then flung them backwards, into the abyss. Each blade was coated with a writhing, black venom that seemed to emerge from the Experimental Warden’s body.
The two players arced through the air and fell to their deaths, but before the Experimental Warden could retreat it was hit by waves of fire emanating from the mounted turret, decreasing its health by 3% to 45%. It then leapt backwards, into the abyss. To the players standing on the platform below, it would look like it had simply disappeared, but Alan could see that it had landed on a hidden platform below.
“God damn it,” a man swore. He wore a black cloak with a red star on the back of it. “That’s the 100th time it’s done that, didn't anyone see where it went?”
“No, it vanished. Shouldn't we retreat? I’m not sure we can defeat this thing; it wasn’t our intention to fight any boss.”
“Ha! Do you want to be the one to return to Lakshi empty handed? Besides, we just need for it to go for the right target…”
“Are you sure this is going to work? All of our kinetic and biological weapons seem to have had no effect on it. The only thing that gets to it is energy attacks.”
“Shut up idiot. Have any of my plans failed before? And don’t speak so loudly, who knows how intelligent it is.”
Should we help them? Alan asked.
Negative. Continue to observe.
Alan did so, waiting; hoping nobody noticed him, least of all the Experimental Warden. He watched as the experiment leapt onto another invisible platform underneath the large platform, disappearing from Alan’s view as well. Shortly after it reemerged on the other side, and slowly crept back onto the main platform.
Before anyone could react, it leapt forward into the group of players again, and stabbed its two blades forward. This time, a blade pierced a player in a robotic suit. Arcs of electricity burst out of the player, enveloping the Experimental Warden and stunning it momentarily. The player turned out to be a miniaturized mech. Before the Experimental Warden could react, three other mechs jumped forward, shooting out restraining grappling hooks and wires that shot out their own waves of electricity. Meanwhile, the mounted cannon kept unloading wave after wave of fire at the boss, slowly etching away at its health. Alan watched as its health decreased, at the rate of around 3% a second.
Activate hypercognition.
Concentrating, Alan did so half a second later, watching as the world about him slowed down.
All right, here is the plan. We are going to leap down, and using forward momentum attempt to behead the Experimental Warden with our laser knife when it is low enough health, in approximately 12.672 seconds. Quickly grabbing any loot the boss drops, we will proceed to leap off the platform, into the abyss.
Wait, we’re gonna steal the kill, just like that?
Yes.
But—
These players are likely slavers. I am about 97% certain based on their equipment and speech patterns. Did you not notice how they didn’t come here to fight bosses? The Abyss Labyrinth is the perfect place to lay traps, as there is little to no regulation, plenty of unknown entrances and exits, and if the authorities come, you can leap to your death, so they’ll never catch you. This does makes it crucial that you do not get caught though, jump off the edge. Is that understood?