I Finally Completed The Game After 45.000 Hours

Zero was woken up by Coal. It had slept well and was happy that the human let it have its rest.

Zero didn't want the dog to become even more of a liability to him, so resting was the best option anyway.

They ate and prepared to go into the third layer. The third layer was an ants nest. It was vast. It didn't have any extension spaces like the first and second layer.

The third layer is mostly just a labyrinth with monster ants appearing from time to time. This was also the place where the player gets strong, because of the vast amount of pedestals with tools and weapons. If you were unlucky and a good weapon doesn't spawn... well let's say that's the end of the run.

Zero came with the scythe so it wasn't an issue for him even if he wouldn't be lucky with other weapons.

He was hoping for some defense artifact to spawn here, so the dog wouldn't die instantly once it was attacked by higher level ants.

They wandered around the third layer but found nothing, quite literally. No monsters, no tools, no weapons, no chests... absoutely nothing.

What the hell is up with this run? Zero started becoming more and more frustrated, this was just stupid at this point.

Should he just take out his pickaxe and dig to the next checkpoint directly? As he was opening his inventory an ant ran past them.

The first monster of the third layer appeared, but it didn't attack them. In fact it didn't pay any attention to them at all.

Zero became even more frustrated and angry, he was about to decimate this whole layer.

He followed the ant to see what could be more urgent than killing a player. They walked quite a bit, but in the end they found where the ant was heading to.

The queens lair. An ant could not disobey the queens order, so it had no choice but to ignore him. The queen noticed the two intruders but paid no attention.

No hostility, just pure ignorance. The hell is wrong with this boss monster?

Coal barked at Zero and pointed its head towards the queens head. Zero didn't notice right away because of the sheer size of the queen ant, but it had a fungi on its head.

So it was just a zombie huh? He couldn't help but notice that the fungi was completely indifferent to them. The one ant on the second layer only tried to spread its spores, not actually attack them.

The queen had gathered all the many ants by her side, and the fungi on its head splurted out a mist of spores that engulfed all the ants it had gathered.

The queen ant nodded slightly, it approved of its work and glanced at Zero. "If you want to clear this place, you can do so. I shall not stop you." The ant could speak? Zero was taken by surprise... wow.

Zero scratched his head, well this ant didn't exactly do anything to anger him, did it? It was minding its own business.

So he should mind his own business too, besides the ant didn't drop anything of value anyway.

Zero decided to leave it alone if it could give him a satisfactory answer to one question..."Do you know where the weapons and tools are that usually spawn on this layer?"

The ant stood still for a second, as if trying to process the meaning of his words. Soon the ant unfroze and answered Zero with indifference "I do not know. We didn't take any items from this place."

So this is just a really shitty run? A run where nothing spawns... how pathetic.

Zero turned around and wanted to leave. He was stopped by the dog that was not moving away from its spot. It was starring at the queen.

"Hm... seems like your dog is infected by my spores." the ant spoke up, informing Zero of the reason behind his dogs strange behavior.

He frowned, so this liability somehow got itself in trouble even after he went out of his way to protect it?

"Can you fix it?" Zero didn't want to leave the dog here by this point, he had grown quite fond of it, to be specific, it's ability to adapt. They were similar in this regard. Basically they complement each other.

The ant stood up. The whole nest trembled simply because of the ant standing up... that's how massive the ant was.

It walked up to the dog and inspected it. The ant shook its head. "The spores are already in its brain. You are too late. I can order it to not interfere in the dogs default behavior, but that will only work as long as I'm alive."

Zero couldn't figure out whether the ant was telling the truth or was just bargaining for its life... he decided to believe the ant. He didn't really have another option right now.

The ant spoke on "The behavior of my kind is non-hostile right now because of my command. Usually animals go berserk when infected with my spores."

The ant was basically saying the life of this dog is at its mercy. But it was true. Was it trying to gain something from him?

"You may leave now." this sudden sentence came out of nowhere... really? It didn't want to extort him for something?

Zero was pleasantly surprised, he didn't understand why the ant would go to such lengths to help his dog.

He did certainly appreciate it nevertheless. The dog jerked out of its tranced state of mind.

The silly dog came back to its senses. Zero was glad.

He had adopted it, and as it's owner he had a certain responsibility for it. It was reminding him of the silly dog he had when he was a child.

He lost his last bit of humanity when his pet passed away, and his care shifted completely to the game.

It was nice to retain at least some of his past self. He had to find a new life goal, he had already finished the game.

So he would need to find something to do in this world. First he would complete any new achievements, if new ones were added of course, and then he would figure out something new to do.

Having a pet isn't all that bad. For the first time in a long while, a warm smile appeared on his face.