The trip back to the village was uneventful. Everyone was sent through the medical facilities as soon as they arrived, but most of them were cleared quickly to make room for those who weren’t. The ops teams arrived last, just as Alex was leaving with Jay and Sarah—their UAVs having travelled a little slower to aggravate the wounded men as little as possible.

  Alex stepped out of the way to make room for the four men as they were wheeled down the centre of the brightly lit hallway. Alex got a look at their faces for the first time as they were pushed past. Just men. They had seemed like something so much more when they appeared out of the forest to save them from the bear.

  Alex took a deep breath and glanced back into the medical facility as the doors opened, catching sight of Marcus along the back wall, now sleeping thanks to whatever they had given him.

  Jay laid a hand gently on his shoulder. “They’ll be alright, you know?”

  Alex couldn’t quite tell if it was a statement or a question so he just smiled back and turned to walk down the hall.

  Before today… before a couple of hours ago… Death was some inevitable thing that happened to other people he didn’t know, or was far enough in the future to be irrelevant. Now, he felt almost embarrassed by how obvious some things should have been over the past few weeks.

  They were literally here to kill things…for ratings. Kill them. Dead.

  The millipedes had been dangerous, and that fight had been a little scary. But it had also been surprisingly manageable. And they had killed some bugs. Big, ugly, alien bugs maybe, but bugs.

  The boars had been easy for them fortunately. But they had watched B Class limp off the field. There had been some concern over injuries the other class may have received, but none of them had been genuinely worried. No different than encountering a hostile animal back home.

  But then there was the bear. A monstrous thing that had ripped through their armour, their ops team and all of Alex’s illusions.

  As the memory resurfaced, Alex’s chest tightened. The sheer scale of it, the way the ground had shaken when it moved, the hot, fetid breath when it roared in their faces, the way its presence had warped the flow of mana around it. He couldn’t shake the memory of that moment when he knew, for certainty, that they were all going to die.

  Not just him. Marcus. Jay. Laina. Sarah… everyone. And he had been ready. Unafraid in that moment. His next thoughts only about saving who he could. Slowing down the enemy.

  And now? Now these memories were gutting and terrifying, and he knew less about how to fight them than he had the bear.

  “Food?” Sarah asked, nodding towards the cafeteria and pulling Alex back to the present.

  “Showers first,” Jay answered.

  “Right, of course,” Sarah said, looking down at her blood spattered pants as if just remembering them.

  Alex didn’t say anything at all. Words were hard right now, and apparently not just for him.

  After cleaning up and grabbing fresh outfits they headed back up to the cafeteria.

  Alex grabbed a coffee and some premade sandwich triangles in a package. He didn’t actually feel like eating but knew that he should try to anyway. The hot coffee was nice.

  They ate in silence and afterwards, they headed back to the trainee hut using the undercity tunnels where they were less likely to run into many people. Alex felt like he should be doing something, but didn’t know what that was supposed to be and really, he just wanted to lie down for a little while before heading back to Earth for the week.

  ***

  Returning to Earth from Earth3 was different from the journey to the new world. First, there was no packing. They weren’t allowed to bring anything back and forth, so all Alex had to do was walk down into the undercity, get changed and grab his stuff from his locker. That made the wait worse though because he had nothing to do now and was stuck with his thoughts for company.

  His HUD had pinged with an invitation to join a few people for a final beer at the Silver Gate, but Alex had declined, not yet ready for any socializing. He had managed to catch a couple of hours of sleep and felt better than he had before resting, but with nothing else to do he ended up just sitting in the bunk room staring out the windows.

  He still had another hour before they were scheduled to head back and was considering heading down to the lounge in the undercity to check his email or something, when there was a knock at the door. He paused for a moment, confused by who it might be before finally just telling whoever it was to come in.

  The door opened and Valentina stepped inside, immaculate as ever, eyes taking in the messy state of the room. Alex wondered if he should feel embarrassed. It wasn’t all his mess of course, but none of them had expected Valentina to walk through their door. She was more of a ‘summons’ type person. Or so he had thought.

  “How is your arm?” she asked, nodding to the linen sling holding his right arm.

  “Oh, it’s good really. They just thought I should try and keep it still for a day or two.” Alex shrugged. “Doesn’t really hurt much already.”

  She smiled but even Alex noticed that it was just for show. Everyone was upset about what happened in the forest. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. There were enough injuries today that are serious.” She closed the door behind her and leaned against it instead of taking one of the chairs.

  She didn’t seem surprised that he was here. Alex realized she hadn’t spent any time actually looking for him and instead knew exactly where to come to find him. Maybe someone had told her he was still in the room, but Alex thought it was more likely that the company could track their ANIP locations whenever they wanted. That was certainly handy when they were out in the forest, but he didn’t like the idea that they knew when he was in bed, or in the bathroom.

  “I won’t keep you long,” she said. “You’re heading back to Earth soon right?”

  He just nodded in answer.

  “Good.” She tilted her head. “Then I’ll get to the point.”

  Valentina pushed off the door and walked a slow circle of the room, fingers trailing briefly over the edge of one of the desks. “Thanks to you and your presentation, the show is transitioning fully to guild-based structures with the new cohort,” she said, pausing to look at him. “You already know that of course, but I wanted to let you know that the writing team has been pulling all-nighters ever since your presentation and we’re all super excited for what these changes are going to bring to the show.”

  She paused and looked him over for a moment. Alex had no idea what that look was supposed to mean.

  “Truly Alex. And I cannot understate this. But your ideas are going to change everything.”

  Alex felt something tighten in his chest that had nothing to do with cracked ribs.

  “One of the things I wanted to tell you, was that a lot of the changes—officially—are going to be anchored on you and your team.” She probably saw the look of confusion on his face so she added: “We needed reasons for the sudden and drastic changes and Side Quest Heroes, led by you, is going to be the spearhead of that change.”

  She continued, tone conversational. “You’re now a known quantity on this show. You’re blowing up our socials already and we haven’t even broadcast anything beyond the millipede fight yet.

  “You’re charismatic and calm under pressure. You make good television Alex, without ever even trying to make good television—which is rarer than you might think.” She was watching him closely as she spoke which made him even more uncomfortable than the words themselves. “You are the perfect vehicle to drive this change across the show. And you already have a built-in group!”

  He nodded slowly.

  “The Side Quest Heroes!” She smiled brightly. “A live roleplay group with chemistry, history, and an existing audience. Bringing them in is absolutely the right move. Honestly Alex, if you weren’t so good ON camera, I’d give you a job as one of the head writers or a producer in a heartbeat.”

  Alex didn’t know what to say to that. The fact that anyone thought he was ‘good on camera’ was shocking. Fortunately Valentina continued on, saving him from having to stumble over any kind of thank you.

  “Do you think they will do it? Will they come back over with you?”

  Despite everything that he had gone through in the previous hours, he chuckled at the question. There really wasn’t any question about it. His friends were going to be ecstatic about this opportunity.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell. They’re going to lose their minds when they hear about this place. Well, everything I can talk to them about anyway.”

  Valentina smiled again. “About that. I’ve had the restrictions on your ANIP… loosened for this visit.”

  Alex watched her for a moment, waiting for more. When she didn’t say anything he put words to the question hanging in the air between them, “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that you can tell your friends anything you want about Earth3. Anything you think you need to tell them to convince them,” she paused and held up a warning finger, “and only your friends mind you!”

  Alex didn’t say anything right away and the silence stretched. He stared at the floorboards, at the faint scuff marks from boots dragged in and out over the last month.

  “I almost got people killed today,” he said finally.

  “The bear,” he paused and swallowed. “I know we handled it. I know everyone keeps saying we did great. But…” He swallowed again. “These are my friends. And I got them hurt today. And now you want me to go and bring all the rest of my friends over and throw them into the same danger. And… I just don’t know.”

  Valentina opened her mouth to respond but then closed it again and studied him for a long moment. Eventually she walked over to another chair, grabbed the back, and dragged it so it was facing him. Sitting down slowly she took a moment to smooth out her unruffled clothes and collect her thoughts. When she spoke again, her voice had softened.

  “That bear should never have been there,” she said flatly.

  Alex looked up.

  “That wasn’t ‘danger as designed,’” she continued. “That was a failure in our perimeter modeling and security. We missed something and you paid for it. I won’t dress that up for you. But you have to understand that none of that has any bearing on you. You didn’t get people hurt.”

  “I should have made them run. Run faster at the start, run when the ops team arrived… just, run. I should have warned the ops team about the bear. I should have—”

  Valentina cut him off before he could go any further. “No. None of that. You are too smart to truly think any of this is your fault. You feel bad because your friends got hurt. That is fair. But you get over it by spending time with them, not sulking in your room feeling bad about yourself.”

  That surprised Alex and it must have shown on his face.

  “I don’t abide sulking Alex. What happened in the forest is not your fault. Yes, you could have done more. Every single person there COULD have done more. That is being human. What you did was take charge. When the ops team came in, you pulled out the injured people and got them to safety. You came up with a simple plan that pulled everyone together. You took charge without a thought. And when it came time to face the scariest thing you had ever seen in your life, you stepped in and hit it with everything you had.”

  She paused and watched him. He just stared back, unable to speak.

  Valentina reached over and put one hand on Alex’s uninjured arm. “You overthink things Alex, and sometimes that’s good. But please trust me when I say that you didn’t get anyone hurt today. In fact Alex, the second ops team was over five minutes away, so your quick thinking was probably what saved everyone. And that is your take away. That is what you think about when you look in the mirror in the morning and when you stare into the darkness before sleep.”

  Alex let out a slow breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

  Valentina leaned back and reached over the side of the chair, swinging around several tote bags that Alex hadn’t even noticed before. She placed most of them on the floor between the chairs but handed one to Alex.

  “What’s this?”

  “A little something for you and your friends,” she said. “Hats. Shirts. A few limited-run items we haven’t released yet. Call it a little signing bonus to help convince your friends.”

  He peeked into one despite himself. He saw everything she said and more, buttons, enamel pins, bookmarks... All with the Dungeon Inc. logo prominently displayed. Stuff his friends would definitely wear or use, ironically at first and then unironically forever.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  Valentina smiled at that and then pulled a stack of thick envelopes out of another tote she had kept beside her chair. She slipped one into each bag and handed one to Alex.

  “Don’t lose those.”

  Alex blinked. “What is it?”

  “Cash.”

  He stared at her.

  “The real signing bonus,” she clarified. “So everyone takes the meeting seriously. We would like you to be successful in this Alex.”

  He looked down at the envelope in his hand and then back up to Valentina.

  “Oh, let’s call yours a signing bonus too. For signing all your friends up to our little show.”

  Little show. Right.

  “That’s—” He stopped, unsure what words even fit next. “That’s a lot of trust.”

  Valentina smiled, sharp and satisfied. “It’s an investment.”

  “And I can really tell them anything?” She nodded. “I didn’t think anyone was allowed to discuss Earth3 back home.”

  “Well, usually. Things are changing though Alex. We have a foothold here now. Corporate infrastructure. I don’t know how much you know about Earth politics, but all that means there are certain ownership rights and we don’t need to be quite as secretive as we once were. Not that we’re planning on pulling back the curtain quite yet mind you.

  And there have always been exceptions. My husband for instance,” she said.

  Alex had always assumed Valentina spent all her time in the SCRY offices steering the ship, so to speak, and was surprised to hear she was married.

  She must have noticed his look and smiled as she continued, “Oh, he’s been here a few times, but has an important job that he loves back in New York. So we live there and I go home most nights.” She paused and watched him for a few moments.

  “Anyway, this,” she said as she reached over and tapped the envelope in his hands, “comes down to trust. And we trust you Alex. I trust you.”

  Alex nodded. “Thank you.” He stared down at the envelope in his hand. It really was thick.

  Valentina rose from her chair and walked back across the room, pausing with one hand on the handle.

  “One more thing,” she said, only half turning around. “You don’t owe the show your friends Alex. This was your idea and we support you in it. But if anyone says no, for any reason, we just adjust the plan. Nobody has to do anything they don’t want to.”

  She looked back at him then. “But if they say yes, know that it’ll be because they trust you. And based on what I saw in that forest, that trust won’t be misplaced.”

  She opened the door but paused one last time to turn back and look at him. “Last thing,” she said with her biggest smile yet. “When you get back next weekend the Side Quest Heroes Guild hall will be well under construction, if not almost complete. The construction teams were out dismantling the south palisade wall at daybreak this morning so we can put in a new street for all the guildhalls, but yours will be the grandest. Have a good week Alex.”

  And with that, the door clicked shut behind her.

  Alex sat there for a long moment, staring at the merch bags, the impossible envelopes hidden inside them, and the possible future they represented.

  The money was as incredible as it was unnecessary. He knew his friends were going to jump at the opportunity to follow him to Earth3.

  He just wasn’t sure if he could handle the responsibility of bringing them into this anymore.

  Cassandra Lin raised one hand, smiled—the same calm, camera-perfect smile that never changed no matter what footage rolled beside it—and said, “It always seems to be the same pattern with this group of actors. They rarely chase fame and the ones who really break out seem to almost shun it.”

  Brock ‘Rockslide’ Maddox, ex-wrestler turned commentator, frowned. “That’s not true. Plenty of these actors cash in. Ads. Interviews. Panels. And don’t forget the brand deals. I see Rowan Wylder on my box of wheaties every morning!”

  “Sure,” Cassandra said smoothly, waving a hand as if brushing the cereal aisle aside. “Some of them are visible. But not the way you’d expect. Usually, when a production hits like this, everyone does the circuit. Morning shows. Podcasts. Red carpets. But we’ve barely been able to get any of them here, into this studio, for a show about the show.”

  Jax nodded, already leaning forward. “That’s because they just don’t need to?” he said. “Most actors grind for years to build a following. These kids just skip that part.” He made a small, dismissive circle in the air. “They go straight to myth.”

  Brock raised an eyebrow. “Myth?”

  “Yeah,” Jax said. “Fan edits. Conspiracy threads. Half the internet is convinced they’re held hostage somewhere while they are acting, or method actors who never break character or, and this is my personal favorite, highly-trained assassins who don’t care about the fame.”

  Cassandra laughed lightly. “That one does come up a lot.”

  Jax continued, warming to it. “Here’s the part that bugs me. Where are the blurry phone photos? Where’s the leaked footage of them buying energy drinks at midnight in sweatpants? Why can nobody find them most of the time? I mean, the paparazzi are literally everywhere!”

  Brock threw up his hands and said, “They’re even in my dressing room!”

  Jax rolled his eyes “You wish old man.”

  Brock just laughed and added, “Maybe they’ve just got good agents.”

  “Or good discipline,” Cassandra offered.

  “Or something else,” Jax said, not looking at either of them. “Because people this visible don’t stay invisible by accident.”

  Brock shifted in his chair and looked thoughtful. “I will say that, back in my day, you spent years building a brand, and once you had it, you squeezed every drop out of it. Endorsements, appearances, comeback tours—”

  Jax snorted. “That explains why you’re here then...”

  Brock shot him a look. “Watch it.”

  Jax grinned, unapologetic, then waved a hand and refocused. “My point is, these actors are different. This show is different. And I want to know why.”

  Cassandra’s smile didn’t falter, but something thoughtful passed behind it. “Maybe it’s part of their contract. There is so much mystery around this production already. Maybe the producers are leaning into that and have a strong gag order over the actors?”

  There was a brief pause as they all considered this.

  Eventually, Jax cleared his throat. “You would think more people would screw that up eventually and let something slip…”

  “You would think.” Cassandra replied gently.

  Jax leaned back, folding his arms. “Well, whatever the reason,” he said, “it’s turning out actors who act like the spotlight isn’t the real prize.”

  Brock leaned forward on the desk, making it creak under his bulk. “One thing's for sure then—it’s a mystery.”

  Cassandra tilted her head slightly toward the camera, nodding. “Which,” she said, “might be exactly why the audience can’t stop watching this show.”

  Excerpt from Dungeon Desk, Episode 422

  Originally aired during Week 94 of Dungeon Inc.

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  MESSIAH OF STEEL

  When faith meets firepower… sparks will fly.

  Derek Steele was once a man of science, a brilliant engineer who built his own power armor from scavenged alien tech. He believed in data, not destiny. Then a relic from a forgotten civilization ripped him from Earth… and dropped him into a realm where magic spheres grant power, and gods rule through their chosen champions.

  Messiah of Steel.

  “Iron Man crashes into epic fantasy and nothing will be the same.”

  New chapters every week ? Progression Fantasy ? LitRPG