RD 3 Ch 25

Nyx walked through the mist, waving it out of her vision as colorful lights flashed all around her.

An announcer's voice echoed from overhead, "B-b-bonus round!" Suddenly, a giant sign with a few faded lights fell from the empty air and suspended itself above her. The edges of the sign had a ring of lights that swirled just to get attention.

Nyx blinked slowly at the sudden shift. "What?" she asked.

All of her serpents were active, swishing from side to side, but she detected absolutely no one else present with her. The area was just a wide-open, empty, white room with the bonus round display above her, and several flashing neon arrows indicating she should go deeper. She understood this whole place was some sort of demonic possession trap, and the sudden carnival-esque appearance was highly concerning. 

A goofy, mechanized dinosaur bounced into the space with her. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. "C-c-c-congratulations!" it said, moving in haltingly erratic motions. "Welcome to the bonus round!" It spun its torso at one speed, but its head was going another, far faster speed. The disconnected movement was disconcerting as its body stopped only for its head to spin several more times and then finally click into place. "In the bonus round, you have the option to earn plenty of p-p-p-prizes!" 

Nyx blinked, staring at the dinosaur, unsure of what to do, but it seemed like it was about to be explained for her.

But the mechanical dinosaur stared back at her, not moving.

"Uh, what do I do?" She asked into the open space.

"You're in luck! Today's b-b-b-bonus round is archery!" The dinosaur was overly enthusiastic. A set of toy bow and arrows, complete with a suction cup at the end, appeared along with the table that they lay on next to her. "For every target you hit, you win a p-p-p-prize!" The dinosaur shouted, and then did the same concerning body spin once again. 

"What targets?" Nyx asked, but then suddenly circus music began to play. Little wooden birds with bullseyes crudely painted on them started flying through the air around her.

"Don't wait! Play now!" The dinosaur sounded like a used car salesman, and Nyx decided there was no reason for her not to play. 

She picked up the bow and one of the suction cup arrows, fiddling with both of them as she tried to think about how she could hit the targets that were decently far away with this little child's toy.

Pulling back on the bow, she found it surprisingly sturdy given her strength, and let one of the suction cup arrows fly. The thing launched out of the toy bow, soaring well past her intended target. The suction cups did not make for aerodynamics and it spun wildly off to the side. 

She grabbed another and fired again. Now understanding the strength of the little toy bow, she missed completely, but this time it was far closer.

Getting into the game, Nyx started grabbing one suction cup arrow after the other and letting loose in a flurry of shots. She quickly realized that every time she reached back to the table there were still plenty of suction cup arrows as if they would never run out. Given that, she stopped worrying so much about her aim and just fired as many as she could. 

Little suction cup arrows began to riddle several of the birds, and once one bird had five hits, it fell out of the air, landing on the ground. Nyx blinked and then thought about her inner Gloria stepping up to the downed bird and glancing at the dinosaur.

"It still has a bullseye on it, and it's still here," she started smacking more and more suction cup arrows to it until it was completely covered before she started firing her bow again. 

"C-c-c-congratulations!" The dinosaur stuttered, spinning around. "Ultra bonus prize!" It shouted as its head clicked back into place, and there was the sound of falling coins as rainbow bananas began to fall from the sky directly on top of Nyx. She hurried out of the way as the mound hit the ground and several of them flipped, hitting her in the chest. That probably would have hurt. 

She blinked at the bananas and then waved her spatial ring over them to suck them all in. Each of them gave ten agility, and there had to be a hundred of them in that mound. The dinosaur did another disconcerting spin before he lined back up. "Do you want to play again?" 

Nyx shrugged. "Uh, sure!”

“Get ready for b-b-b-bonus round two!" The stuttering dinosaur loudly exclaimed. More flashing lights and billboards came into view, announcing round two of the bonus round. 

Nyx wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but it seemed the demons had taken favor on her. Given what this place was and how Bran explained it was likely where they would boost their desired host. Nyx was incredibly concerned about what that meant for her.

"Get ready for round two!" the stuttering dinosaur exclaimed as table after table of what looked like pies appeared in front of her. "Bonus round two is the berry bash!" it exclaimed dramatically. "You have to see how many pies you can eat in the time limit!"

[Wonder Berry Pie - Consume to gain 50 Vitality]

Nyx quickly inspected the pies, realizing that the near-endless tables that seemed to expand off into infinity had twelve pies each. She did the math quickly from the tables she could see and how much that would cost in System Coins and he jaw went slack.

Even though the pies on the table were an enticing opportunity, Nyx still hesitated. The mechanical dinosaur didn't seem to notice. 

"ST-T-TART!" it shouted, while Nyx stood there, staring at the pies. 

"In case you missed the first buzzer, S-S-S-START!" the dinosaur repeated as a loud buzzer went off. A scoreboard came down and started counting down while she continued to stare at the pies. 

This was quite literally a too-good-to-be-true moment. There was absolutely no way these pies weren't in some shape or form incredibly dangerous to her. The way Bran had explained his experience, this place was essentially prepping them to be possessed. These pies probably held demonic spirits or somehow slowly turned her into a demon.

She didn't know, but she didn't trust the pies. She trusted Bran. 

"All right, I see we have a problem here. Maybe you don't understand the rules of a pie-eating contest," the mechanical dinosaur continued. "Let's restart the timer." 

The timer flashed back up to five minutes. 

"You see, a pie-eating contest is where you stuff your face full of pie! You have to eat as many pies as you can before the timer runs out. Once the timer runs out, the pies disappear. And do you see these lovely pies? Each of them will make you sturdier and tougher, able to survive through all sorts of encounters. You're initiated, and that means you understand their stats. Each of these pies increases your vitality by 50!" 

To punctuate that statement, the dinosaur's head started free-spinning again, before it finally clicked back into place. 

"So, whenever you're ready, we will start the clock when you taste your first pie!" the dinosaur exclaimed. 

Nyx continued to stand still, the very end of her tail lashing side to side in agitation. Meanwhile, the serpents made from her hair were all hissing at the dinosaur. It was almost physically painful not to eat those pies.

An idea began to form as Nyx slowly walked up to the table. "It'll start when I eat the first pie?" she confirmed. 

"Correct!" The mechanical dinosaur spun around.

"Okay, don't go back on your word. It'll start when I eat the first pie." She waved her spatial ring over the first table of pies, all of them disappearing into her ring. "I haven't started yet!" she warned the dinosaur and walked along the table, waving her ring and sucking up another dozen pies. 

"In case you don't understand the rules, you have to eat the pies!" The dinosaur exclaimed.

"I understand the rules," Nyx said, continuing to walk down the row of pies, sucking up more into her spatial ring as she went. She picked up the pace, worried the pies would disappear. She desperately hoped that Bran had a way for these pies not to turn her into a demon.

"Uh, what are you doing?" the dinosaur asked. "We’ll go ahead and start that timer, it seems you have a plan in place."

Nyx held her hand up. "You said the rule is that when I start eating the pies. I have five minutes. I am just preparing to eat the pies. This way, I don’t have to move too much." 

The dinosaur's mechanical eyes blinked out of sync. "Alright, I see you must have a cunning strategy. That's fine, we have all the pies you could ever want." The dinosaur stated.

Even as he said that, Nyx couldn't help but notice that a number of the pies of the seemingly infinite row of tables started shrinking closer to her. She squinted. 

"Why are pies disappearing?" She asked.

The dinosaur spun. "I have no idea! I am just the host! Maybe you should start eating p-p-pie!" The mechanical dinosaur stuttered and began spinning around again. 

Nyx hurried, slithering through while holding her ring over the tables, sucking up pie after pie. If these really did increase vitality by 50. They were a treasure trove. She needed to get as many as she could and get them to Bran. In the worst case scenario, she was sure he would at least find some value for them. 

The mechanical dinosaur somehow was always about 10 feet away from her, even though she was slithering and it wasn't moving. It stayed nearby. The entire situation was highly disconcerting.

Nyx didn't have any sort of trauma with animatronics, but they were always just creepy. She hurried along.

The never-ending row of tables began to stretch out again in front of her, as if reversing its decision, and she had to have sucked up 200 pies before she finally hit the end of the table. 

She couldn't help but grin. That was 10,000 vitality. Nyx had a giant smile on her face. 

"Congratulations!" The dinosaur spun around. "You somehow completely ate us out of pies!" 

The dinosaur stuttered, and the scoreboard disappeared as if she triggered some completion of the second bonus round. 

"For completely eating all of our pies, you get to go to the never-before-seen, the incredibly rare Bonus Round 3!" His head nearly spun off his torso, and Nyx just smiled, thinking about the treasure she had within her spatial ring. 

"What's Bonus Round 3?" She decided to play along. 

"It is the incredible, the amazing, SURVIVE!" And the mechanical dinosaur snapped his fingers.

Something about seeing it snap was odd. The mechanical dinosaur had just moved in a smooth, human-like fashion.

She didn’t have time to think about it.

Following the snap, the white room and everything in it disappeared. A large clock materialized in the sky, counting down days, hours, and minutes.

Yet nothing else happened. It was just a giant empty room.

Nyx reached into her spatial ring to pull out some trail rations, only for the bar of food to turn to dust in her hand. 

The dinosaur's voice echoed from somewhere off in the distance. "You can't bring your own food to this one! You have to survive on what's in your stomach! The pie!" The dinosaur's overly excited voice echoed through the empty space for far too long. 

Nyx frowned. Of course, after everything she had done, he was going to force her to eat the bananas and the pies. She pulled out one of the bananas as a test, and it did not turn to dust. She even waved it around and set it in front of her, watching it for several minutes. 

Nyx sighed and closed her eyes. She was Initiated, but fifteen days of no food? She hesitated. That was a long time, even with her stats.

The serpents circled around to stare at her face, each of them looking concerned. It was silly, considering they were really part of her subconscious and not actually separate beings. What that meant was she was concerned for her own safety. 

Rather than start eating the bananas and pies, she curled her tail around herself. She needed a way to last fifteen days, thankfully she had one.

Nyx pet her serpents, discreetly having a talisman pop out of her spatial ring as one playfully bit her. Then, she used the serpents in her hair to blast herself with petrify.

After Nyx's entire body turned to stone, there was a pop, and the mechanical dinosaur reappeared in the room. This time, however, it didn't move erotically or act as if it was operating on a preset number of conditions. Instead, it pulled out a phone and, in a much less excited voice, spoke into it. 

"Uh, boss, I think we have a problem." 

There was chattering on the other end of the phone. 

"Yeah, well, she didn't eat the bananas, she just put them in her spatial ring, which is okay, considering there were more bonus rounds. And then we did the infinite pies. She sucked up 200 of them into her spatial ring, boss." 

Now the chattering in the phone became an explosive yell. 

"I know, boss, we were trying to get her to eat the pies. She just... there was a technicality, it's hard to explain, boss. It's hard... boss, boss, calm down." 

The dinosaur struggled to talk over the screaming coming from the phone and lifted it away from his head until it calmed. 

"Look, look, look, look, look, she has 200 pies, 100 bananas, that's... that's not the end of the world, we have plenty of materials here. I mean, we could always just burn some of the lesser demon souls for more rea-" 

He wasn't able to finish his words as the screaming on the other end of the phone intensified. There was something about time, and the mechanical dinosaur looked very confused.

"Boss, I don't know what you want me to do. They're in her spatial ring; I can't touch it. But I put her in a starvation round so she could only eat the pies and bananas. Brilliant, right?" 

The yelling on the other end of the phone quieted down. 

"See, see, I... I got this, boss. One problem. Yep, one problem. Uh, she's a gorgon, or a medusa, or something, and when I tried to force her to eat the pies in the starvation round she realized her food wouldn't work and so she may or may not have turned herself into a stone statue. Ring included. So, I can't get at it." 

The mechanical dinosaur walked over and tried to wiggle the ring off Nyx’s finger, but it was fused to the statue like everything else, unbeknownst to the mechanical dinosaur. One of the serpents in Nyx's hair slowly blinked before returning to pretending to be a statue. It had gone completely gray, but there was the slightest bit of color still in its eyes. 

"I know, boss, maybe... maybe she can't keep it up. Could I get something to, uh, de-petrify her? Maybe force... force the issue? But what do you mean, we don't have anything to spare? This place is chock-full of... Wait, what? B-b-big boss?" 

The dinosaur's eyes turned into giant, wide saucers. 

"The Demon Lord came? Uh, alright, alright boss. I'll continue to play my role. What do I do if she passes the timer for the third? Yeah, yeah, I can do that. Alrighty, boss. Alrighty, boss. Uh, if you... if you could give me something to de-petrify her through, that would be wonderful. Thanks again, boss." 

He hung up the phone and stared at the statue while rubbing his face. “Fuck me. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard, but we gotta play by the rules or else this whole thing comes undone. Don't you worry, though, I'm gonna get you to eat my pies." The dinosaur grumbled. Then the dinosaur's face turned into a giant grin, teeth spreading out farther than physically possible. "You're mine," the dinosaur said, and blinked out of existence once again, leaving Nyx a statue for the next 15 days.