"Hahaha…" I chuckle, watching the three knights move through the dungeon.

There's something fascinating, almost hypnotic, when you watch someone else struggle on a trial you've designed. You feel omnipotent, like a god watching the mortals strive for survival.

"As expected, The Black Horde is a hit."

Just watching the painful cry of the knight who released the two flying sword waves was already worth it. And now, I can happily watch them, covered in bugs, continue the invasion while both their HP and MP are constantly drained.

I'm sure they must think this is a good idea. Well… it isn't the worst, but it definitely isn't good.

After all, what are they going to do in the long term? Die when they run out of HP? Or when they run out of MP and can't use skills? How do they intend to fight my monsters when every time they use a skill, they'll inevitably kill the bugs and get cursed in the middle of battle?

This is why I love monsters you can't kill, but also can't ignore. As far as I know, the only effective way to deal with The Black Horde is to run away. To avoid all contact with them from the start.

"Not like I'd allow that to happen. Hahaha!"

After all, there's a reason I'm watching everything through the cameras: so I can manually trigger some traps and steer them in the direction I want them to go.

And talking about that…

I press one of the many buttons in front of me, and a hole suddenly opens below one of the three knights. But, with incredible reflexes, the crowned player grabs his teammate before he can fall into it and pulls him up.

"Tsk. Almost got him. Better luck next time, I guess…" Not everything can work all the time.

The three knights, still covered in bugs, the same as their support mobs, then decide to peer through the recently opened hole in the ground. They excitedly talk among themselves, as if they had just discovered something unexpected. One of the three chuckles and strikes a pose imitating me, acting as if he suddenly turned into an idiot.

That's… kind of offensive.

Anyway. What happens next, I certainly didn't expect at all. The player wearing the crown fiddles with one of the support mobs and takes out the most dreaded, cheat-like item for dungeon exploration.

Yep, he takes out a rope.

He then ties the rope to a nearby rock, and then, he and his teammates, followed by their support mobs, start climbing down, using the hole I just opened for them. Instead of jumping, which would make them take some fall damage, they're negating everything through the clever use of a rope.

"Hey, that's cheating!" I complain, but suddenly freeze. "Wait a moment… wasn't that hole directly communicating the passage with…"

As I raise my head to look above me, I can see several men descending the rope through a hole in the ceiling. They appear right in front of 'me'. Panicked, I start casting Chain Lightning.

They must have realized this place looked similar to the one shown on the screen after looking through the hole… My mistake.

"S-stop right there!" I shout. "This is a private space, you aren't allowed inside! Now, you'll have to pay with your life–"

"Silence!"

Before I can finish my sentence and release the Chain Lightning as planned, the crowned man raises his hand. The lightning disappears from my hands, and I stand still, watching him with my eyes wide open.

Is this Silence!? The actual skill, I mean.

I didn't expect this to happen… It makes sense that a predominantly melee party would have countermeasures against spellcasters, but still… isn't this unfair? They've put me in an awkward situation…

The three knights scan the surroundings. There's a large screen right behind 'me', displaying my actions in real time, a screen identical to the one right in front of the entrance portal.

With emergency lights blaring, the three entrances are shutting down, sealing this place, trapping 'me' with them. Now that the cooldown time has passed, I also press the button to close the hole in the ceiling, fully enclosing the room. There are four Panicky Spitters inside, too, hidden in the corners, out of the camera's range.

"Don't spare anyone," says the crowned man.

To talk, he had to deactivate the Silence skill… but I'm sure they have other ways to counter a spellcaster like me.

The three players rush at 'me' while the other enemies split up to deal with the Panicky Spitters. Several arrows and other projectiles, like spells, are shot at the same time as three blades approach 'me' from the sides and behind.

The only thing 'I' can do is laugh maniacally in defeat. "Fufufu! Haha– ugh…!"

'I' fall to the ground. Simultaneously, I drop to the ground, and the screen shows my 'defeat'. Of course, on the screen there's only me. There's no sign of the three knights that just killed 'me', which should have been shown in camera by now.

The three opponents look at 'my' corpse and then at the screen with incredulous looks.

Let me ask a question. Are you as confused as the invaders, or did you understand what's really going on?

"Fufufu! Hahaha!" I start laughing, rolling on the floor. The three invaders' faces are so funny right now! "Did you really expect me to make such a stupid mistake? Fools! You're three fools!"

I stand up, approach the camera, and lower my gaze so that it seems like I'm watching them through the screen. Which of course isn't true. Similar to before, I'm using a hidden camera for this.

"Who you just killed was one of my clones, hahaha!"

One of my Failed Clones, with its behavior changed so that it'd act and say the lines I prepared, creating the illusion it was the real 'me'.

"Now, since you so kindly fell for my trap… why don't we play a game? Hahaha!"

As if on cue, several black pylons appear from the ground, scattered through the room. They're Radiation Pylons, a special trap from my faction. One I've never used before because there was no reason to, but a trap that's perfect for this situation.

Radiation Pylon (Trap) Cost: 150 cp, 100 metal. Activation cost: 10 electricity

All units within 5 meters are inflicted with radiation. Radiation makes affected units take 1 damage per second for 1 minute, and inflict the same damage on units within 1 meter. Radiation stacks up to 10 times.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The trap can be destroyed by hitting it 10 times or dealing more than 100 damage with a single strike.

You see… There's a simple reason why I picked the Radiation Pylons as the go-to traps for this tournament. It's all because of The Black Horde bugs.

You might have figured it out by now, but The Black Horde bugs are a mix of three critter units. Three critters that have very unique and annoying innate skills or characteristics.

The first is the Giant Ant, one of the few critters that can attack (bite) the enemies; the second is the Curse Bug, which inflicts a curse on their killer that reduces all the damage they deal; and the last one is the Abyssling, or however they're called, one of the Abyss critters with a downgraded version of the MP-draining innate skill called Uncanny Presence.

Uncanny Presence (Innate passive skill) Other units that can see this unit lose 1 MP every 5 seconds. This skill doesn't work on allied units, and its effects don't stack.

But this doesn't explain why I'm using the Radiation Pylons, does it?

The reason behind that is a certain triggered skill I gave to every member of The Black Horde. One of the least used skills because it's extremely situational, but that, paired with the bug's innate skills and the Radiation Pylons, makes for one of the nastiest combos I've ever seen in DMA.

It's all thanks to the skill called Trap Safeguard.

Trap Safeguard (Triggered skill) When you take damage from a trap, negate it. For the next 10 seconds, negate all damage from traps. Can only be triggered once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle.

It might sound impossible, but the combo goes like this:

First, the bugs attack the invaders. They, realizing there's no way to defeat them, and that the damage and MP drain aren't too dangerous, decide to ignore the bugs. The invaders end up covered by them, providing mental trauma.

Then, the pylons come into play, infecting the invaders with radiation. The thing is, there's a very special wording on its effects. It says 'and inflict the same damage on nearby units'. Yes, you're right. The one inflicting the damage isn't the trap, but the unit affected by radiation…

In short, The Black Horde is immune to the pylons for the first 10 seconds, but not to the damage the irradiated units do to them.

The invaders take the radiation in, kill the bugs, and have their damage reduced to zero.

After this, they can't destroy the pylons, which continue to apply radiation… Furthermore, it's the perfect time to strike, as they can't fight back!

I don't know if it could be said I'm abusing a bug – haha, pun not intended – in the game, or if this was an intended feature developed by the DMA staff. I don't know, nor do I care. I'm going to abuse it anyway.

I watch in glee as my plan works perfectly. The Black Horde, an unavoidable sacrifice, is killed simultaneously due to the radiation, and all the invaders' faces change to grim ones when they realize what's going on. But by the time they do, it's already too late.

"Hahaha!" I maniacally laugh, watching everything from above. "Now it's time to release the dogs! Die, puny invaders!"

I press another button, and a secret door opens, releasing a pack of dogs. Well, not dogs exactly, they're Fleshlings. To be exact, they're the Rotlings I added not too long ago to the Waste Disposal Unit.

"N-no! Wait! Stop this!" Upon seeing the incoming enemies, the crown-wearing knight panics.

Haha, as if I'm going to listen to the enemy's pleas. "Let the slaughter begin! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

Chaos unfolds.

It's my preferred blend of chaos, where despair floods the scene and slowly destroys the enemies' hopes.

As radiation accumulates, everyone starts taking damage and inflicting it back on anyone nearby. My Rotlings aren't an exception to this, and clumping up becomes a really dangerous thing, as taking multiple instances of radiation is deadly… both in the game and in real life.

The first to fall are the invaders' archers and spellcasters. Unable to strike back and with less resilience and defensive skills than the rest, they quickly fall.

The next ones are the support Knights and Heavy Warriors. Regardless of how deadly or resilient they are, without a means to strike back, they too soon fall to the Rotling's assault and constant radiation damage.

I watch everything unfold with a smile on my face.

Hahaha… A 5-minute damage-reduction curse might be a bit too much… Especially if it stacks up to the point it reduces all damage dealt by 100%, while also increasing all the damage they take by the same amount…

I chuckle to myself, shrugging my shoulders.

Oh, well. It's the game's developer's fault, not mine. I'm free to abuse anything they create.

With all entrances closed, there's nowhere to run. The three players, alone, each take protection on one of the room's corners, limiting both the angle they can be attacked from and the number of units around them, as well as avoiding most of the Radiation Pylon's effect ranges.

I don't understand. Did they really think I was locking myself up with them on purpose? Why didn't they run away before the doors fully closed? Didn't they find it suspicious…?

Oh, well. There's no need to wonder about a dead person's thoughts…

But the three knights are more skilled than I thought. With skilled parries and dodges, they manage to stay alive until the 5-minute curse effect disappears, at which point they start fighting back.

"Oh? That's unexpected."

With a steady pace, they start to destroy the Radiation Pylons and finish any Rotling that's still alive, emerging victorious from my deadly trap.

"Congratulations!" I start clapping, clearly mocking them. "You just lost all your support monsters and are in shambles, but you're still alive! Hey, that's what matters, isn't it right? Hahaha!"

Soon, the closed doors open, allowing them to leave. The room, once a clean laboratory, is now a mess. There are corpses and fragments of smashed Radiation Pylons everywhere.

You might think we spent a lot of our cp budget in this room, and you'd be right… but only if you don't take into account a simple fact: that the trap's trigger always determines how expensive they are to deploy.

The more complex or difficult the trigger is, the less it takes to deploy the trap. A trap that costs 1.000 cp, can cost down to just 100 cp if the trigger is hard to achieve, or the full 1.000 cp if it's easy to activate.

Usually, the easiest triggers are those that can be activated manually or those that trigger on proximity or presence.

In this particular case, the trigger is 'kill x unit', the 'x' being my clone. Since you'll never know where the invaders will go, nor if they will ever kill that particular unit, especially after they know there's such a trigger; furthermore, the unit's death must happen within the trap's range for it to activate… All of it makes this one of the easiest triggers to avoid, as well as one of the cheapest.

This seemingly expensive room was quite cheap. If the invaders hadn't killed my clone, no Radiation Pillars would have appeared. There was a reason why I 'accidentally' opened a hole that led straight to this place.

Furthermore, the doors would have opened shortly after they came in, which is also part of the trap.

Only if it's part of a trap can you block the enemy's path, and only temporarily. There must be a timer or trigger for the doors to open. Those are part of DMA's basic dungeon rules to avoid stalemates and unfair dungeon designs.

But do you know what the best part of all this is? It's that we can change both the trap's location and the unit that triggers it for our next match! The invaders will never know how to fully avoid it! Hahaha!

From the screen, I point towards one of the exits. "I applaud your efforts, dear invaders. Now you can freely proceed with your dungeon exploration. Let's play another game the next time we see each other! Hahaha, have fun!"

One of the three knights glares at the screen, at me.

"Shut up with your obnoxious comments! We'll pay you back for this humiliation!"

"Fufufu! Hahaha!" I laugh in response to his outburst. "For that, you'll have to find me first!"

Yeah, yeah…! Blame me! Feel that anger boil up until it explodes! Feel the despair gnawing at you from within!

I haven't had so much fun in a while. And to think thousands of viewers are watching my stellar performance in real time… It makes me shiver in excitement!

The shock and disgust at Mad Rat's plan, especially the part of being covered by bugs, made more than one spectator furrow their brows and look away. But for some reason, they couldn't stop watching, their eyes returning to the scene again and again, wanting to know the end of those poor souls' predicament. Something called to them, something that made them want to keep watching until the end...

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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