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The temporary palace in Pentos smelled of incense, roasted pheasant, and the faint metallic tang of freshly oiled armor. King Viserys III Targaryen sat upon a makeshift throne of gilded wood and dragon-wing banners, silver hair cascading over his shoulders like molten moonlight. The hall was packed. White-cloaked Kingsguard players stood at rigid attention. Secret Police officers in black leather whispered in corners. Guild leaders—Storm_Dominator, Nebula_Breaker, Pineapple_Pizza_Lover—knelt in the front row, chests puffed with the pride of fresh victories in the Flatlands.
Daenerys sat to his right, three dragon eggs warming in a brazier at her feet. Strong Belwas loomed behind the throne like a mountain of scarred muscle. Brown Ben Plumm tried very hard to look loyal and not like the sellsword who had once considered stabbing the King for sport.
Viserys was in a good mood. The tax farmers had been hanged yesterday. The player legions had returned with cartloads of bandit heads and submission treaties from the Velvet Hills. Kingdom Coins flowed like wine. The little fire creature in his mind purred with satisfaction.
"Rise, my loyal subjects," Viserys said, voice warm. "Today we celebrate—"
A shadow moved.
Player ID: ShadowReaper_420 (real name: Li Wei, former mid-tier Secret Police operative who had grown tired of "red packet" crumbs and dreamed of becoming the new Master of Whisperers… or better yet, King).
He had spent three weeks preparing. Poisoned dagger from the Pyromancers' black market. A stolen Mimicry Mask that copied a White Cloak's face. A one-time "God Mode" scroll bought with every Kingdom Coin he owned. He had even paid Flying_Bat 8,000 RMB offline for the exact patrol schedule of the Kingsguard.
Now he struck.
"FOR THE LOOT AND THE THRONE!"
ShadowReaper_420 lunged from the third row, mask dissolving mid-leap, dagger flashing green with Wildfire essence. The blade was aimed straight at Viserys's heart.
Time slowed.
The little fire creature screamed in Viserys's mind: [ALERT! PLAYER HOSTILITY DETECTED! ACTIVATING NPC PROTECTION SHIELD – TIER MAXIMUM!]
An invisible barrier of shimmering gold exploded outward. The dagger shattered against it like glass on diamond. Wildfire splashed harmlessly across the shield and evaporated into harmless green smoke.
ShadowReaper_420 slammed face-first into the barrier and bounced backward like a ragdoll. Two White Cloaks tackled him before he could hit the floor. Ser Jorah's sword was already at his throat.
The hall erupted.
Daenerys screamed. Belwas roared and stepped forward, fists raised. Guild leaders drew weapons on instinct. Mouse_Is_Duck's Secret Police officers surged forward, crossbows cocked.
Viserys rose slowly. His face was calm, but his violet eyes burned with dragonfire.
"So," he said, voice soft. "One of my own little cabbages wishes to harvest the gardener."
ShadowReaper_420 laughed wildly even as blood trickled from his broken nose. "You're just an NPC! I'm a player! I can log out, respawn, come back stronger! Kill me and I'll—"
Viserys raised a hand. The little fire creature's voice echoed through every player's interface at once:
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE: TRAITOR PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. ALL LOGGED-IN PLAYERS – 3,847 CURRENTLY ONLINE – WILL BE TELEPORTED TO SPECIAL INSTANCE: THE ETERNAL CAVE. LOGGING OUT DISABLED. RESPAWN OUTSIDE INSTANCE DISABLED. DEATH INSIDE INSTANCE = PERMANENT CHARACTER WIPE UNTIL KING'S PARDON. DURATION: INDEFINITE UNTIL LOYALTY IS PROVEN.]
The world inverted.
Every single player in Pentos—guild leaders, Secret Police, Grenadier Corps, Beastmasters, even the new Court Eunuch Nine_Thousand_Years—felt their stomachs lurch as reality folded. White light swallowed them whole.
When the light faded, they were no longer in the sunlit hall.
They were underground.
A single, colossal cave stretched before them, so vast the ceiling disappeared into darkness. Phosphorescent moss cast a sickly green glow. Stalactites the size of warships hung like fangs. A freezing underground river roared through the center. The air smelled of wet stone, bat guano, and distant sulfur.
System messages flooded every interface:
[You are now inside "The Eternal Cave" – a sealed instance created by royal decree. No exit exists until His Grace Viserys III lifts the confinement. Logging out is disabled. Respawn points are locked to this cave only. All external communication (guild chat, world chat, offline red packets) is blocked. You may only communicate within the cave.]
[Objective: Survive. Prove loyalty. Beg for mercy. Or rot here forever.]
Pandemonium exploded.
Storm_Dominator slammed his unicorn horn against a boulder. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!"
Nebula_Breaker tried to log out. The helmet option was greyed out. "It says 'Instance Lock – King's Will.'"
Pineapple_Pizza_Lover screamed at the ceiling: "VI-BRO! BRO! IT WAS ONE GUY! DON'T PUNISH THE WHOLE SERVER!"
Mouse_Is_Duck's voice cracked over the cave's echoing stone: "Brothers… the Chief is… probably pissed."
Flying_Bat was already crying. "I only skimmed a little money! I didn't try to stab him!"
In a distant corner, ShadowReaper_420 respawned after the White Cloaks had executed him in the hall. He appeared naked, level reset to 1, all gear gone. A single bat immediately dive-bombed his face.
"THIS ISN'T FAIR!" he howled. "I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE NEW KING!"
The cave was not empty. Glowing mushrooms the size of houses released spores that induced hallucinations. Blind cave fish with teeth like needles swarmed the river. Giant albino spiders the size of horses scuttled across the ceiling. And somewhere deeper, something ancient and hungry stirred—system-tagged as "Cave Wyrm – Level ??? (Boss)."
Players tried everything.
They tried suicide to force a respawn outside. The system simply revived them in the same spot, minus 50% of current Kingdom Coins as penalty.
They tried digging upward with pickaxes. After three hours they hit an invisible ceiling that read [Royal Decree: No Escape].
They tried killing each other for loot. Within the first hour, three guilds collapsed into civil war. Storm_Dominator personally beheaded two traitors who tried to loot his unicorn foal.
Viserys's voice suddenly boomed from the ceiling like a god:
"You are my Fourth Scourge. My little cabbages. One of you tried to cut the roots. Now the garden will learn discipline. Survive. Mine the ore veins I have seeded. Slay the beasts I have placed. Build a shrine to House Targaryen. When I deem you sufficiently penitent, I may open the gate. Until then… enjoy your new home."
The voice cut off.
Silence fell for three full seconds.
Then the screaming resumed, louder than before.
---
Day 1 in the Eternal Cave
The players organized by guild out of sheer habit. Storm_Dominator claimed the largest dry plateau and planted the Heroes Guild banner. Nebula_Breaker took the river bend. Pineapple_Pizza_Lover tried to negotiate a "neutral trading zone" and was promptly robbed by his own vice-leader.
Nine_Thousand_Years, still dressed in his eunuch robes (now filthy), tried to sell "insider info" on how to appease Viserys. No one bought it. Someone stole his fake beard.
Mouse_Is_Duck gathered the entire Secret Police Bureau in a side tunnel and gave a rousing speech: "Brothers, this is just like the Black Cells! We've been trained for this! We plant evidence, we interrogate, we survive!"
Flying_Bat immediately suggested they interrogate each other for "hidden traitors." Three fistfights broke out.
Strong Belwas and Brown Ben Plumm had been teleported in too—NPCs were apparently exempt from the "player only" rule. Belwas laughed so hard he cracked a stalactite with his bare fist. "The King is wise! Now the little immortals learn fear!"
Brown Ben just sat in a corner muttering, "I should have stayed a sellsword…"
---
Day 7 – The Great Mushroom Famine
The glowing mushrooms turned out to be mildly hallucinogenic. Half the player base spent three days convinced they were dragons. Storm_Dominator flew around the cave on his unicorn shouting "Dracarys!" until he face-planted into the river.
Food became the new currency. Players who had hoarded Kingdom Coins in the Player Shop now discovered the shop interface was completely disabled inside the cave. "No external economy allowed."
They learned to hunt blind fish with crossbows. They learned to mine glowing ore that the system called "Dragonsteel Ore – Untradeable until pardoned."
Every time someone died to a spider, the system announced it cave-wide:
[Player 'NoobSlayer88' has been eaten by Cave Spider Queen. Loot dropped: 12 Iron Ingots, 1 pair of socks.]
Guild leaders started offering bounties on spider silk for armor.
---
Day 21 – The First Shrine
Someone—rumored to be Teflon from the Pyromancers—built the first crude shrine to Viserys out of stalagmites and bat guano. They carved "Long Live the Dragon King" in Common.
The next day, a system message appeared for everyone:
[Shrine Contribution detected. +10 Loyalty Points to all players within 500 meters. Food spawn rate increased by 5%.]
It became religion overnight.
Guilds competed to build bigger shrines. Storm_Dominator's guild erected a thirty-foot dragon statue made of fused ore and unicorn dung. They sang the anthem from Chapter 78 at the top of their lungs every "morning."
ShadowReaper_420 tried to sabotage a shrine. He was caught, stripped, and tied to a stalactite as "example." Players took turns throwing glowing mushrooms at him.
---
Day 45 – The Cave Wyrm Awakens
The boss finally stirred. A 200-meter albino wyrm with crystal scales burst from the deepest chasm. Its roar shook the entire cave.
Players united for the first time since the betrayal. All guilds formed a single raid party. They fought for twelve straight hours. Belwas tanked the wyrm's breath attack and laughed while his skin melted. Storm_Dominator couched his lance on the unicorn and charged straight down the wyrm's throat.
They won.
The system pinged:
[Cave Wyrm defeated by collective effort. +500 Loyalty Points to every surviving player. Special reward: One (1) message slot to King Viserys.]
Every player received a single-use "Beg for Mercy" button.
Most guilds drafted polite, groveling letters. Some sent memes. One player sent a 500-word essay titled "Why I Will Never Betray the Dragon Again (With Citations)."
Viserys did not reply.
---
Day 90 – The Breaking Point
Hunger, darkness, and constant spider ambushes had turned the once-proud Fourth Scourge into hollow-eyed survivors. Guilds had dissolved into tribes. Former guild leaders now guarded mushroom farms with spears made of fish bones.
Nine_Thousand_Years had become the cave's official "Eunuch Herald," announcing system messages in his shrill voice for extra food rations.
Flying_Bat had snapped and started wearing a crown made of bat skulls, declaring himself "King of the Cave." No one had the energy to stop him.
Mouse_Is_Duck sat alone by the river, sharpening a stone knife. "If the Chief doesn't forgive us… we'll just have to conquer the cave and build our own Pentos down here."
---
Day 120 – The Gate Opens
A golden seam of light cracked the far wall. Viserys's voice returned, calm and regal:
"My little cabbages have learned humility. You may return. But remember: the next traitor will not share your cave. He will share the Black Cells with the tax farmers you once hanged."
The light widened into a portal. Players poured through, sobbing, cheering, hugging each other.
They emerged in the same grand hall they had left four real-world months ago. Their levels, gear, and Kingdom Coins were restored—plus massive Loyalty bonuses and new titles like "Cave Veteran" and "Penitent Scourge."
Viserys sat on his throne, smiling faintly.
ShadowReaper_420 was the last to emerge. He was immediately seized by the Secret Police and dragged away. His final scream echoed: "IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE RUN—"
Viserys waved a hand. The cave portal sealed forever.
He looked at the sea of exhausted, loyal players and spoke softly:
"Welcome home. Now… who wants to invade Westeros?"
The roar that answered him shook the palace.
"FOR THE DRAGONS!"
"AND FOR THE LOOT!"
"AND NEVER AGAIN THE CAVE!"
---
Epilogue (Player Chat – Offline, after the omake event ended)
Storm_Dominator: "Never. Again. I still smell bat shit in my dreams."
Nebula_Breaker: "I built three shrines. I have stockholm syndrome for Vi-bro now."
Pineapple_Pizza_Lover: "I sold 'Cave Mushroom Tea' for 500 RMB a cup. Made bank."
Mouse_Is_Duck: "Flying_Bat is still wearing the bat-skull crown in real life. Send help."
Nine_Thousand_Years: "I am now the official Court Eunuch Historian. My memoirs will be titled '120 Days in the Dark: How I Became Legend.'"
Viserys (in his mind, to the little fire creature): "Think they learned their lesson?"
Little fire creature: "Host, they are already planning the next assassination… but this time they want to do it for you. Against Robert."
Viserys laughed out loud in the empty hall.
The Fourth Scourge had been tempered in darkness.
And the Dragon King had never been stronger.
— Omake End —