I used my Blink ability to figure out if the teleport trap was still in effect, but since it was pitch black in the death box, I had to use it a few times to figure out of it was really returning me to the center every time or not.

  “Bee, come over here,” I said.

  I heard her footsteps in the darkness as she wandered over.

  “Grab my sleeve,” I told her.

  “Oy!” Brock exclaimed as she yanked on his body.

  “Sorry,” Bee replied.

  The transport cage in my front pocket glowed briefly as Lordie emerged from within and landed on my head.

  “Meow?”

  “Yeah, he’s gone,” I told him.

  “Me-ow?”

  “No, we’re stuck in here. But I know a way out,” I said.

  “Are you gonna use Dungeon-Break?” Bee asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “Teleporting directly to where the dungeon boss is might work,” Panda said.

  “It might also just return us to here. There’s no sense risking it, so I’ll just eject us all,” I replied and activated the ability.

  “That might be a bad idea,” Panda warned.

  ACTIVATING DUNGEON MAP

  Total Player number: 19

  Nearest Player: 8702 meters

  Total Enemy number: 215

  Nearest Enemy: 8642 meters

  Nearest Boss: 8897 meters

  Nearest Exit: 8897 meters

  The map that appeared just showed the box we were inside and nothing else. The main part of the dungeon was clearly super far away inside the space that appeared on the map. It kind of reminded me of how the amphitheater and Riii’s production facility had been way outside the main part of the Weaponlution Event map.

  “Was the map always in meters?” Bee asked.

  I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter,” I replied.

  Then I clicked ‘Eject All Players & Enemies’.

  [Ability Confirmation Required]

  WARNING!

  You are about to utilize your Dungeon-Break Ability to eject all Players and Enemies from the Dungeon, yourself included. All Players, Enemies, and Bosses will be ejected out through the entrance to the Dungeon.

  The moment you accept you will be ejected.

  Are you certain you wish to proceed?

  YES — NO

  I clicked ‘Yes’ and then we fell through the floor.

  ***

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Bee and I landed outside the entrance to Castleburg Prison alongside the people we’d met in the first chamber, minus one janitor, as well as Isabella and seven other guards in riot gear. She looked more or less like I remembered her, although she didn’t have the two-handed sword or spark tube and her level was much lower.

  She had an angular and imposing face, and her black hair was tied in a long ponytail. Like the other guards, she wore a full suit of riot gear, though she didn’t have a helmet like the others had. A shield was strapped to her back and a baton hung from her waist on a loop. All other weapons she might’ve had in the past, like guns, were gone.

  [Appraisal x ]

  Level 6 — ‘Isabella’ — Player

  “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this shit.”

  Class: Guard

  Main Attribute(s): Vitality

  This woman used to work at Castleburg Prison, and for some reason, when the weapons disappeared in the week before the initialization, she made sure all the prisoners remained in their cells and that the prison’s employees didn’t shirk their duties. She’s responsible for so many of the workers and guards still being here.

  When the GREAT GAME began, the prison transformed into a Hybrid Dungeon, where only the inmates became monsters. The guards and other workers remained human, but they were stuck and had to fight their way out. She would have been the person to save them, but then you came along and ejected the entire population of the Dungeon.

  Fun fact, since there were too many entities to eject into the spot right outside the Dungeon entrance, we have scattered them around the area.

  Isabella loves money. You could say it’s her raison d'être, which makes her decision to become a low-paid prison guard quite bizarre, until you factor her bad temper, proclivity towards abuse of power, and desire for violence into the equation.

  The other guards of Castleburg Prison both fear and admire her.

  She is neutral towards you.

  All the level requirements from 1 to 10 were to kill a set amount of enemies, so the fact that she was level 6 meant she had killed quite a lot already, since she hadn’t left the dungeon until now. The other guards with her were all either level 4 and 5, perhaps because of partial credit for many of her kills.

  Isabella immediately singled me out, pushing Waldo aside before he could get in my face about the stuff I’d done in the past. Unlike him, she didn’t seem to recognize me, which was lucky.

  “Did you do that?” she asked me. Her voice was completely calm, and I noticed that her armor was almost spotless. I wondered how exactly she killed things without getting covered in blood like her friends.

  “Bee, call Greg over here,” Panda said. “Before this gets ugly.”

  She nodded and stepped a bit away from the group of people, most of whom absolutely hated my guts and were on the verge of doing something about it.

  “I did,” I answered, eyeing the prison workers as I spoke. “I need you and your men to help me find Otto.”

  “Otto?” she asked, clearly recognizing the name. “Why are you looking for him?”

  Before I could reply, several of the workers and guards let out shouts of panic.

  “Our ride is here,” I said as Isabella turned to look at Greg who came barreling towards us.

  “What the f—?”

  The Humanbus’ huge mouth immediately swallowed us.

  Being consumed by the transport monster was a bizarre experience. It was kind of like going through a car wash, but where your body was the car and the brushes were all replaced with warm slimy tongues.

  I landed on a seat inside the bus right next to Isabella and Bee.

  “What just happened!?” the prison guard exclaimed, standing up and pulling out her riot shield and baton.

  She blinked.

  “Why did I just get a warning that we’re in a Safe Zone?” she asked, confusion on her face.

  “Bee, tell Greg to take us to the lake,” I said. She got up from her seat and ran to the front of the bus.

  “What is happening?” Isabella asked.

  “Don’t worry about that,” I told her. “But if you want to make a lot of money, you might wanna stick around.”

  That caught her attention, and she panned her gaze across the interior, noticing the MLP Society members, as well as Chris and James, who sat in the back. The bus had stretched even further to accommodate the eighteen new occupants. I knew that on the outside the bus looked the same as before, which raised some weird questions about what would happen if someone were to puncture a hole in the side of Greg.

  “Could lead to pocket realm collapse,” Panda mused in reply to my thoughts.

  Waldo came up to us, but Isabella stopped him with her shield.

  “What is it, Waldo?” she asked, although she had clearly picked up on his disposition towards me.

  “That man right there is Gambit!” he exclaimed, pointing at me. “He’s the reason Carol left me!”

  Isabella looked at me. “I’ve heard a lot of stories about you. I thought they had you locked up in the asylum after you stabbed Noah Sullivan. Waldo aside, a lot of my men want to beat the shit out of you for getting the paintball tournament canceled.”

  “Your men?? Who said you’re in charge!?” Waldo challenged her.

  Isabella gave him a look that made him take a full step back.

  “No violence in the bus,” said one of the MLP members who’d come over to mediate the situation. It was the guy named Cooper, who seemed to be the leader of their group.

  “Stay out of it, fatso,” Waldo hissed at him.

  Cooper ignored the jab. “If you commit violence inside the Safe Zone or piss off Miss Bee, then you will be ejected from the bus, and I don’t think you want to be outside right now.”

  We all looked out of the windows to see the highway absolutely clogged with purple zombies in orange jumpsuits. There were way more than the 200 that’d been listed in the dungeon map when I used my ability.

  Isabella looked at me. “When you pulled us all out of the prison, did you bring the prisoners too?”

  “I didn’t really have a choice,” I replied. “It’s just how my ability works.”

  “We need to find the Warden,” she said. “He’s creating more of those freaks every second. The prison never had more than fifty inmates, but there were hundreds once it turned into a dungeon.”

  [UH OH, THE RIDE IS ABOUT TO GET BUMPY!] Greg exclaimed.

  I wondered what he was talking about, but then I glanced out through the front window where Bee stood next to his brain. The road wasn’t just clogged, it was overflowing. Zombies swarmed towards our bus.

  [MAN THE BATTLE STATIONS, YOU SCALLYWAGS! WE ARE ABOUT TO GET BOARDED!]

  Holes opened up in the walls and flesh pods with bone ballistae formed on the outside of the bus.

  Without waiting for me to ask, Isabella yelled to her men, “Everyone! Pick a turret and get to work! We’ve got a road to clear!”