Blinding light.

  At this point, it was comforting instead of disorienting, like it had been the first time. Penelope Flynn smiled as she felt the weight in her hands. The soda and small bag of peanuts were things that she’d forgotten about years ago. She tucked the peanuts into her pocket and clutched the soda like the prize it was. She’d consumed both very early during her previous runs and she intended to save them for a special occasion this time.

  Her twenty-two-year-old body housed a mind that had lived twice that long, with half her life spent on this planet that wasn’t home. Not that any of the just under 600 Humans around her knew that. They all had been snatched from their lives back on Earth and dropped here on this colony way out on the edge of the universe to stop the portal full of Demons in front of them.

  She sidestepped the large man who backed towards her with practice that she hadn’t used in over two decades. Ren Bigelow was as round as he was tall and the dragon tattoos down his arms gave him an air of intimidation that warded others away from him. Penelope had been afraid of him during her first few loops, but she’d fought him in the Dungeon and knew that she could handle herself if he decided to fight.

  She quickly selected her elemental affinity from the menu. She’d wondered what it would be like to take an element other than light, but now that she knew she could create a prism, she could change the element of her spells into any other element, so there was no reason to experiment.

  Jeru appeared in front of her, the upper half of his body displayed over the wrecked building to the north, in front of everyone. It was the one time that everyone else would be able to see the blue Elf. Because of her status as a looper, the man was like a parasite in her mind, constantly following her around and giving her commentary on how she was doing whether she asked for it or not.

  “You know, I put a lot of effort into that speech; you should at least listen to it.” Jeru appeared in front of her as she wove her way through the crowd.

  I need to get to the front of the crowd so I can get in on the conversation about going down to the first floor. Penelope waved him away as she broke through the line of people gathered at the front. She turned around to look at the crowd. Thankfully, Jeru’s speech about what to expect inside the Dungeon and his delegating the responsibility of clearing all ten floors to those gathered in front of her had been enough to stop the petty squabbles that had erupted at the very beginning of them arriving.

  Now all she had to do was find her friends and convince them to go into the Dungeon with her.

  The blonde in a tennis skirt and polo wasn’t difficult to spot. Frederica Riddle had moved to the front of the crowd to examine the swirling portal in the smoldering remains of the building. Penelope winced as the other woman threw a glare at her. She’d forgotten how far the two of them had come on the second and third floors and just how cold Frederica had been to her on the first one.

  Oakley Dewey and Judah Argento were standing beside her old friend. The former had an athletic body despite his profession as a photographer. His clothes were wrinkled and well worn and there were calluses on his hands, giving a hint of the nature of his other hobbies. The latter was a scrawny brown-haired young man with a set of headphones around his neck and a Superman T-shirt on over loose-fitting jeans.

  With those three spotted, she needed to find the other eight people she planned on bringing down to the first floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a woman in a red hoodie running down the alley to her right. She narrowed her eyes to read the nameplate above the woman’s head.

  Thalia Aldridge

  What’s up with her? Penelope watched the younger woman flee down the alley.

  “Big introvert, like you. Hates crowds, so she always runs to the other end of the campus at the very beginning.” Jeru shrugged. “She was one of the people who died when the bosses made it to the surface, which is why you don’t remember her.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I know maybe a hundred of the six hundred out here. Penelope swallowed as her pulse quickened. Even just saying that in her head was enough to remind her that she was standing in front of a very large crowd of people.

  “Just breathe, you got this.” Jeru floated in front of her. “Don’t focus on the crowd; focus on the job. You need to find the others.” He pointed to her left. “Ula is going to send Nina towards the admin building soon, so you need to get to them before that.”

  Penelope charged back into the crowd, making a beeline for where the Hispanic grandmother was talking to her youngest daughter. Seeing her old friend in front of her warmed Penelope’s heart, but it also reminded her of just how much was at stake.

  “Ula and Nina Ramirez?” Penelope smiled. “I’ve got a note in my menu that says I’m supposed to party up with the two of you.”

  “Clever.” Jeru smirked.

  “Excuse me?” The fifty-five-year-old tanned woman turned to face Penelope. “Do I know you?”

  “No, but I can see your name because of the nameplate over your head.” Penelope shuffled her feet as she looked down. “Like a game.”

  “Speak up, sweetie.” Ula took a step closer. “I can’t hear you if you mumble.”

  “I was looking around in my menu and I found a list of people that would work well together and both of your names are on it.” Penelope tried to keep from talking too fast. She pressed the soda against her body to keep from shaking it. “Since we’re going to have to fight the Demons, I thought it would be best to team up with the people who I’d match up the best with.”

  “What’s going on?” Patrick stomped over to where they were talking.

  Penelope smiled as she looked at the balding man. He was still just as gruff as she remembered, but she knew that there was a heart of gold underneath that prickly exterior.

  “This young lady is trying to talk us into going in there with her.” Ula pointed at the portal far behind Penelope.

  “YOU want to go in there?” Patrick shook his head. “Girlie, you look like you don’t know which side of a hammer to hold. We have no idea what’s on the other side of that thing. Best to let people with experience go in.”

  “You think I’m not experienced enough?” Ula folded her arms in front of her.

  Patrick swallowed. “I wasn’t talking about you, ma’am. I just meant the girls—”

  “We need two teams of six.” Penelope found her voice speeding up as she cut the older man off. “Nobody is going to want to go in there until we figure out what’s on the floors, so I think we need to put together the best teams—”

  “And what makes you think you’re the best?” The nasely voice of the poison Caster sent a chill down her spine.

  Penelope closed her eyes for a moment before she turned to confront Dawson Beamer. The young man had his black hair styled up and his blue eyes bored into her as if he were issuing a challenge.

  Penelope suppressed the urge to blast Dawson in the face. Attacking someone else wouldn’t help her cause and considering he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, hitting him with an overcharged spell might actually kill him.

  “I’ve been looking in the menu and this is very similar to a TTRPG game called Dungeon of Earth’s Exiles that I’ve played a lot.” Penelope glanced at the gathering crowd. “So I think if we assume whatever is in there is similar to the game—”

  “There’s no way that there’s a game that’s the same as real life!” Someone shouted from the crowd.

  “There’ve been movies made like this though!” Someone else argued. “Like The Last Starfighter!”

  “Wasn’t there a cartoon in the 80s about going into video games?” Someone else added.

  “So maybe she’s on to something.” Patrick shrugged. “If it’s 90% similar, that other 10% that’s different can still get us all killed.”

  “Would you rather go in blind?” Penelope challenged him. “At least if we use what I know from back home, we might have an advantage!”

  Murmurs ran through the crowd. A couple people waved her off, moving away, but most stayed.

  “Looks like you’ve got a pretty strong case.” Ula gave Penelope a warm smile. “But I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage because I don’t see anything over anyone’s head.”

  “Oh!” Penelope shifted the soda over to her left hand so she could offer her friend her right. “I’m Penelope Flynn, but my friends call me Pen.”

  “Well, Pen. I’m Ula.” The kind woman smiled. “Tell me more of this plan of yours.”

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