At a place far outside the dungeon and surrounded by security was an office building. Inside of this office building it was bustling with activity as the government workers rushed to answer the ringing phones, or hand over important paperwork. The room was a mix of celebration and joy for the first time in a long time.
Good news had come with an agent many had known and trusted returning back to their ranks. A person they thought died long ago and was dearly missed unexpectedly was alive and returned to them. She was a woman they all knew from the smallest of police officer to the top highest of officials from her caring and gentle personality.
Outside the office police officers standing guard were being hounded by reporters, as they demanded answers they couldn't answer nor wanted to. Silently the police guards exchanged glances, and they felt the pressure from the press. The masses wanted to know the truth, the truth behind their close college.
Some of the press were more interested in learning more about dungeons, others in the story of such a woman. Many of her friends did as well, but this was still official business so they restrained themselves. Still duty forced them to stand guard, as they diligently awaited for the same news everyone else did.
In the same office building down below in a basement intended to hold prisoners, it was empty of all the usual captives today for this special VIP. Sitting in a chair facing an opaque window in front of her and hands restrained to the desk, she was under tight scrutiny. Her red haired woman had an unconcerned expression to her face, twirling around a small booklet in her hands. Her body was abnormally changed according to their records but they weren't unfitting modifications to her figure, instead they seemed natural on her like they grew instead of some surgery.
A pink frilly robe outside she wore had mud stains on it at spots, and the slippers she wore were kicked off below the table carelessly. A white liquid covering her leg dried up slightly near her crotch, emitting a smell that was sweet to women and poisonous to men. Her iconic smile that all her friends knew was glued to her face as she calmly awaited on the investigation chair.
Outside her box, a group of people were staring at her through the opaque glass. Papers showing her information in hand for some, others merely stared at her like a dead man walking.
She was an abnormality in this already crazy world, an existence expected to be long since dead.
A silence filled the room, as nobody dared speak out in the tense situation. Breaking the silence, a man wearing a formal suit entered the viewing room nodding to the people. He was a person who had no past or emotion towards this woman, a stranger from another branch office. Selected to speak with this woman, he was tasked with gauging the truth of her words in an unbiased fashion.
Continuing to walk, he entered the enclosed chamber holding the unusual woman. The moment he stepped inside the room he froze partially as he felt a cold chill go down his spine. Something was inhuman about her eyes when she looked at him, a part of his soul screamed danger as he got closer to her.
She put her arms underneath her chest pushing it out for him to see with a confidence to it that was unexpected from her profile.. Her lips puckered up slightly and her eyes slid up and down his figure before resting on his crotch with a slight disappointment in her heart from not seeing what she wanted. He involuntarily closed his legs together as he fixed his posture, unsure where this strange feeling was coming from.
"Miss Isabella, or formerly deceased FBI agent Rosy as they called you. What exactly happened to you during the time you were imprisoned in that dungeon?"
"I was never called Rosy, nor was I ever imprisoned."
"No, no you were not called Rosy. But are you really Isabella? Your body has experienced drastic unusual changes, if it wasn't for the biometric test we ran I fear nobody would recognize you."
Testing her, the man continued his planned script. Everything was fine until she appeared, she flipped the whole understanding of dungeons on its head. Dungeons kill, do not go near them, dungeons will actively try to kill you if you enter. Only china has a few abnormal ones that do not kill and if you get stuck in any dungeon it is a death sentence.
There was no food or water to survive upon or shelter in those places. Dungeons were a hellscape made to take lives in nearly every case in the United States. Your pretty much dead was the common theory on them if you entered a dungeon. Only traveling far away to somewhere in China could be declared something safer to explore.
Why they appeared, or what they did made no sense. Still it was fundamentally understood, nobody comes back from a dungeon if they get in. Either you were going in to blow it up, or pulling someone out quickly. She was neither, she was beyond the exception she was impossible.
Everyone wanted to know more, could this be like China? Was this a truly peaceful dungeon that was going to bridge the gap of the bizarre and strange? The world wanted answers and she was their only voice on it.
"Nobody has ever been pulled out of a dungeon alive after just a day of being stuck in one, even in the Chinese so-called friendly dungeon. How exactly did you survive for thirty days in one?"
"I was on vacation."
"Vacation?"
"Look at this booklet I was given. It should explain the gist of it all, I just want to go back to enjoy a new vacation."
"I see, and who exactly made this booklet?"
"The dungeon creator, a great lady that loves fun and hates bad stuff like men."
"Is that why men cannot enter?"
"Exactly, it is just her personal taste."
Nodding his head, he took the booklet she extended out to him. Opening the booklet, instantly he was glued to the pages. Not even paying attention to her, he read page after page until he reached the end. Looking back up at the girl sitting across from the table, a nervous gulp went down his throat at the new situation before him.
"Did they actually not use any real weapons in the dungeon?"
"Huh, weapons? Umm, yeah they just used a few rubber sticks and other kiddie toys."
"Was there actually soft foam put down to prevent injuries? Is it true you didn't experience any pain or issues during your stay at this place?"
"Yeah? Why would I get in pain when I was on vacation? We played around for a bit then we had fun together after that."
"I see…"
Standing up, he left the room taking the small booklet out with him. It contained things that he felt were hard to believe and almost magical. The entire room tasked with observing her exploded the moment they read its introduction and more of the contents. It wasn't just a lead for them, it was a gold mine of precious information on the dungeons themselves.
How dungeons were run by a person controlling them, exactly how they had total control of it. Each detail explained in depth and the way rules were just made up on the spot which left even the dungeon master lost on what was allowed and not allowed. Dungeons could decide to reward people for entering the place, or not at all for no reason at all. Mixed in constantly was the self praise the book had for its own dungeon.
Zero danger at all, guarantee release if caught depending on your behaviour. One month was for good behaviour, three for not good, bad is an entire year, and extremely bad was set to ten years. Spa treatments that give you points for free if you sign up for a period also available to both visitors and residents alike. There was a concept of using a dungeon as a safe place from the outside world as a bunker with details on how it protected them from any dangers outside.
It read like a cheap brochure for some resort tasked with surviving the apocalypse, a super bunker that could house people in case of emergency. The negatives were all cleverly gone from it and hidden completely. No mention of sex, asking captives to reproduce, or free drugs that made your mind altered.
Instead it was a cheap portrayal of the dungeon as a beautiful clean paradise that only wanted women because they were weak, and should be protected in these dangerous times. It put great emphasis on the fact it had safe housing and places for people to live right away all at the low cost of helping it grow.
Handling such a bombshell was above their pay grade and it reached the top of the branch. In order to handle such a drastic bombshell of information there was an emergency meeting of the north eastern seaboard upper staff. The meeting was being held as the tension was felt in the room, everyone wanted the best outcome but there were too many unknown variables.
Raising a hand up to speak and explain their stance first was an anti terrorist and bomb specialist. He viewed the notebook as a confession of guilt and more so a coward trying to join under the umbrella of America's might.
"We need to give this to the press, we can calm the nation down if we let everyone know what dungeons potentially are like. This will humanise our enemy and let the nation unite seeing this as a terrorist organisation in certain places."
Sitting in opposition was the acting national guard that was tasked with managing order and keeping issues from appearing. Already overworked from riots and flash mobs that were becoming common, the man on their side had an exhausted face as he shot down the bold idea.
"This is dangerous, we are playing into the scheme of whatever abomination created this, we shouldn't let anyone know what we uncovered today. Let my team establish a physical boundary around this issue and we can just seal it."
Two opposing factions emerged fast, those wanting to use the booklet information to calm the panicking people of the nation. Against those cautious of what might truly be plotting behind the curtain. The room was reaching its peak without coming to a conclusion when entirely new information changed everything.
"Urgent report, we have confirmed reports of tourists accidentally entering and leaving a dungeon on a California beach. The California branch has declared them to be safe dungeons."
"What? Are you being serious? Why were we not informed?"
Several dungeons on the west coast were revealed to be safe ones that didn't kill as well, which made this one all that less important. Tourists with cameras were uploading images inside a dungeon without any issue, which came to a shock the entire meeting. The internet was buzzing with so much going on the west coast, almost all the spotlight shifted focus.
Taking the more bold approach on the western coast of letting public into a dungeon directly shocked the nation guard side of this debate. They wanted to seal in every dungeon with concrete and hearing such a bold move was done on the western coast weakened their entire argument. Turning silent nearly completely, their camp silently gave their tactic approval for the others.
Looking between one another as the meeting continued the more bold and daring people started to come up with audacious ideas. If the western coast was permitting tourist into a dungeon even before declaring them to be friendly, why can't they do something similar in the east?
Unaware of the silent schemes of his colleges, a young man with a tight fitting suit turned his laptop around and continued his report on the western coast. Showing it to the entire meeting, there was several videos and pictures done by non government affiliated groups entering the dungeons. Clicking between images, he showed different scenes of people even eating meals inside the vast open underground structure.
A woman who was watching the clips was quick to notice something wrong with the images. She stopped the images on a 360 camera shot and pointed at something dire in the meeting.
"Wait, they are just inside a vacant dungeon by all accounts. They have yet to interact with any natives inside of this, we cannot call this safe unlike the one we have here. Our dungeon has natives and has no danger, it should be considered even more valuable."
"Nonsense, if it is not creating monsters then it must be even more friendly than ours."
"How do we know that? Has the western coast even stated they reported any sightings of unusual creatures in that dungeon? We have multiple visual reports of creatures in ours that actively seek to help people inside of the location."
"You expect me to believe a report that has just one witness?! So what if they treated our agent nicely, these rogue agents haven't proven themselves to be good actors just yet."
"No, but you shouldn't consider them rogue. We should begin to view this dungeon as potentially an ally in our situation."
Her words put the meeting to a halt as they stopped to consider it. As crazy as it first sounded it wasn't that extreme since they saw reports of what happened in Europe. Although it was never confirmed, there has been a long running theory that they were beginning to utilize these strange dungeons in a war over there.
"Even this booklet confirms a dungeon is controlled by a person, these clearly all appear to be not attacking anyone as well. We should publish this booklet and assist this dungeon."
"Enough about our dungeon, give us more information of the western coast. They clearly know what they are doing."
Focus went into where those other ones come from and less on this dungeon in particular. The young man was shushed by the older members of the table as he worriedly kept giving more details on the report. The only one keeping frustrated was the younger woman who wanted to steer the topic back to the dungeon situation here, but her older more important ranked officials wanted to just discuss the others.
Sensing a moment of opportunity right when they shifted topic again to geopolitics, she knew they all felt the same pressure. Everyone else in the world was moving forwards using unusual powers and strange creatures to gain the edge over one another. Only the united states was lagging behind as they reeled in from one disaster after another. She stood up and held her fist up to her chest with a flame in her eyes as she spoke.
"I believe this goblin dungeon is more important, please let me be in control of it. I will turn this place into a tool for America to weaponize."
"Not going to happen, you're too eager for revenge after what happened to your brother. Stacy, your blood thirst for war is borderline inhumane."
"Sir, with all due respect. I am not seeking to destroy this dungeon, I wish to cooperate with the dungeon master and open dialogue with this individual. I will make them bend the knee to the flag and swear to us their loyalty by any means necessary."
"Are you being serious?"
"I am completely serious sir!"
Taking the room by storm Stacy looked the man straight in the eyes as he smiled back in response. She was a mad dog seeking blood who wasn't going to treat anyone with dignity and he enjoyed the idea. So he nodded and looked around the table seeing the other nod to agree.
"Fine then, Stacy, we will look the other way for a year. So do what you must to make them break before the media learns what you're up to."
"Thank you sir, I will not disappoint you."