Chương 59: It is time for the Missing Dolphin Seat to frolic in the fickle waves of fate once again

Challenge Room Special Reward: Grand Achievement Congratulations! You have performed better than 97% of participants in The Way Down Is The Way Up challenge room. Reward: Choice of two ability orbs Reward (Grand Achievement): You have unlocked a hidden legendary reward. Reward Received: Hidden Legendary Reward Complete map of the hunting maze, including portal routes, prestige tokens spawn points, full room descriptions, and hidden bonuses. >>!!!! Quest Update! Description: Map at least 80% of the hunting maze.

Reward: +50 gold (151 total) Reward: +5 skill points (24 Total) Quest Update! Description: Survive a challenge room. Completed: 1/? Reward: 1000 Experience points (XP) (6000 total) (incompatible) Reward: Double native challenge room awards >>Dude! We hit the jackpot. >>You owe me for this one. >>Big time. I want upgrades. >>I want another body part. I want a leg. >>I am dying. George's body hurt everywhere. He remained on the ground in the vehicle garage while the notifications rolled through his vision.

Pal hovered back and forth and said encouraging things. When George didn't respond, he settled on gently patting the toe of one of his boots and humming a song George didn't recognize. >>George. Pay attention. I'm digging through this map and it is a gold mine! It is more than just a map. There was a lot more going on with the hunting maze than we thought. >>Oh, and it hooks up to the mini-map I can display in the helmet. >>George? >>Are you conscious? Grunt once for yes. George grunted. >>Great.

I'll take that grunt as a full endorsement of my power of attorney regarding all decisions for the remainder of your incapacitated state. >>No. >>We have decisions to make. We would have gotten only two new ability orbs, but the Quest power doubled it. Ready to see the options? George grunted. Challenge Room Reward Select four ability orbs from the list below: • Bippity Boppity Boop: Increase your vote by ten. • Dog Years: Activate 1/7 time dilation for one second.

• Buckle Up, Chuckleheads: Deactivate the containment barriers in the voting room for the duration of the voting round. Any act of violence between players will result in the aggressor's expulsion from the game at the Moderator's discretion. • I See What You're Doing and I Don't Like It: Prevent any other ability orbs from being used in this hunting room for the rest of this hunting round.

• Poor, Unfortunate Souls: Display list of which dead players were killed by which remaining players • Lions, Tigers, Chthonic Nightmares, Oh My!: Create a monster summoning circle that will disgorge a large amount of random monsters into the room. Must be used during a hunting round. • If I Can't Have My Druthers, I'll Just Take Yours: Acquire the voting strength of the lowest two players on the leaderboard. Their votes are rendered null and their voting points are added to your vote.

• I Didn't Sign Up For This Isekai: Leave the trial for twenty minutes. • Look At Us Now!: Switch another player's team alignment. • Instant Perception Build: Send out a pulse of perception that reveals hidden players, items, and passages in your current hunting room. • Event Horizon: Activate the Act II protocol in your current hunting room. Must be used during Act I. >>OK. Let's talk it through. We still have our "Get Cassie to brainwash other players into using their ability orbs to get Neco out" plan.

Some of these should help with that. George found thinking his responses easier than actually mustering words. He'd never noticed how much of one's bruised torso was involved in producing speech. Pal's strange humming had now become a gentle coo-ing sound like you might do to soothe a newborn. >>The first part of that plan was to get vote-related ability orbs from other players. So this should check that box. >>We should get the druthers one and the bippity boppity one. >>Agreed.

Ability Orb Received Bippity Boppity Boop: Increase your vote by ten. Ability Orb Received If I Can't Have My Druthers, I'll Just Take Yours: Acquire the voting strength of the lowest two players on the leaderboard. Their votes are rendered null and their voting points are added to your vote. >>Great. We'll get these to Cassie at the start of the next hunting round and then she'll just need to brain-jitsu another unsuspecting player to set up as our fall guy. >>I want Look At Us Now. >>Ok.

We'll put that one on the list for consider— Ability Orb Received Look At Us Now!: Switch another player's team alignment. >>Oookay. I guess we're getting that one. >>If one of my children is in the game, being in a different team from them is not a problem I want to have. We've already got Cassie's team alignment to deal with somehow. >>Alright. I actually think this was a strong pick. >>Let's say we end up with three Blue teamers and little ol' George in the final four.

You pop that orb and - boom - the trial is over. Your team wins. >>That leaves one pick. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. >>What does the Event Horizon one mean about activating the Act II protocol in the hunting room? George had managed to pull himself up to a sitting position. He stretched his bruised back and told himself he'd try to stand up in a few minutes.

Hopefully, those nanites were hard at work patching up whatever was causing all that pain in every part of his body. >>That big hunting maze data dump we just got has a lot to say about Act II, actually. Apparently, a lot of the rooms change after the intermission. And by "change," I mean "become even more dangerous than they already are." >>For instance, the Floor Is Lava room generates actual lava during Act II.

Instead of sand snakes in the Step Lively room, there are monster gladiators in there that you have to kill if you want to leave the room. The Hub Room turns into a King of the Hill situation that lets whoever controls it turn portals to other rooms on and off. The woods outside of June and Loveland's cozy winter cabin room is actually full of wolves that become werewolves in Act II. >>Well, I picked the last one so you pick the next one. >>Wow. Really? >>Sure. >>Team Nod and all that.

>>I am going to sit here and try not to vomit. >>Super! Let's go through them. >>Hard pass on Buckle Up, Chuckleheads. I do not ever want to be in the voting room without force fields. I don't think the gnacker and the voidling care about the violence prohibition and if one of those guys jumps on us, we'd be just as dead. >>We don't need the time dilation one. Got that covered. >>I'm leaning on picking the one that summons a bunch of monsters. >>That could be a good "cast and run away" weapon of last resort.

That is basically what we accidentally did to the gnacker when we ran into the sand snake arena. >>Hang on. Go back to the one about removing the force fields in the voting room. >>We could actually use that. >>As long as Cassie was safe. >>That's a dangerous game. >>Think about it. If we use that orb in the voting room, some people are going to start attacking other people. The instant the slime touches someone, it is out of the game. The moment the voidling or the gnacker attack, they're out.

And if someone retaliates, maybe they'd be gone too. >>Ok… >>And what if you trigger a chain reaction that gets really murdery? These people started the game with murder on their agendas and they've only been developing more grudges since then. >>Example: the Sarala—Webb—George revenge triangle. >>I wouldn't want us getting caught in a crossfire. >>Could we make a barrier? Some kind of shield? >>If we could find a way to stay safe, it would be a way to end this game faster.

>>And to eliminate the players who are uncontrollably violent. I'd rather that happen in the voting room while surrounded by other players than meet them one-on-one in the hunting maze like we did with the gnacker. >>OK. I'm listening. >>And I wonder if Cassie's power counts as an attack? >>If not, she could just make people leave us alone. >>Maybe someone would attack Neco and he'd counterattack? Then he would leave the game without dying and we'd accomplish both of our Neco quests.

>>Or maybe the threat level would rise to the point that we'd get Super George back and he could solve all our problems for us with his "epiphanic gestalt shifts." >>I pay money to see that show. >>We would have the element of surprise. We'd just need to make sure we were ready for it and no one else but Cassie was. >>That plan probably beats the "summon a bunch of monsters" plan as far as safety goes anyway.

With that one, there is always the "Pandora's Box" scenario where we use it and then get a whole lot more than we bargained for. >>At least in this case, we'll still have Razza in the room to referee. >>I think it is the best of the options remaining. And just because we choose it, doesn't mean we have to use it. Ability Orb Received Buckle Up, Chuckleheads: Deactivate the containment barriers in the voting room for the duration of the voting round.

Any act of violence between players may result in the aggressor's expulsion from the game at the Moderator's discretion. >>Can you stand up yet? >>I think so. George groaned as he pushed himself up off the floor. He put his hands on his lower back and stretched upright. >>I'm glad Cassie can't see us right now. You're really having an "over the hill" moment. >>At least you didn't get stabbed with a poison finger horn this time.

>>It doesn't count as being over the hill if you've essentially just been in a series of skydiving accidents. >>Fair point, George. >>Now, on to the next item of business. >>Experience points? >>No. I have something else in mind. You got 1000 experience points from your Quest power but I don't know what they are or how they affect you. >>My assumption is that is how other people level up in this game. You know, normal people who don't have to click a button a million times.

>>Charlie James mentioned experience points. >>I don't see what good they are to you, but the Quest power hasn't led us astray yet so maybe we'll find out. >>Actually, the next item on the docket is getting you ambulatory so that we can go explore more of this hunting maze before time runs out. >>What? I thought we were going to do more driving. >>Or, better yet, just sit in this room and wait out the rest of our time in this round. >>We could do that…

>>If you want to continue your long tradition of making mediocre life choices. >>Or we could do a different idea. >>What different idea? >>Well, judging by the fact that the orb you used to get us here is called "The Home Alone Contingency" I think we were supposed to use this extra jagged hour to set traps all over the hunting maze and then wait for the bad guys to blunder in and get concussions from all of our swinging paint cans and stuff.

>>Instead, we took a joy ride and went web slinging for prestige tokens, which I think was a good use of our time so far. >>However, we have at least one more task on our jagged time bucket list before we go see our friends in the voting room again. >>Explain. >>While you've be moaning on the ground and laboriously choosing ability orbs, I've been churning through the map data. Remember that—as we learned that time we got eaten by the space squid—legendary rewards are really good. This map is more than just a map.

It's… everything. It is more like the source code for the entire hunting maze. >>I can see that there are a number of useful ways we could spend our time. >>We could pay a visit to the bomb shop in the Khan room and go blow up some zombies or vordigans. We could get more prestige tokens (because I know where they all are now). We could go blow off steam and climb around the city-sized playground in the A Change Is As Good A Rest room. >>However, there is one thing that we need to do before any of that.

>>I'm all ears. >>Do you remember that Trial Nine room that I said was an actual spaceship? >>It has an armory. >>I can't see the contents of the armory but that's gotta be worth a visit. >>I want a laser gun and a light saber, George. >>I want a sci-fi death drone that shoots magic missiles from its bristling turrets. >>The catch is that we have about 20 jagged minutes left and the spaceship is between one and five portal jumps away, depending on the route. >>How long is 20 jagged minutes in actual time?

>>Don't know. It is erratic. Could be less than 20 minutes. Could be more. >>What rooms do we have to go through to get there? >>The best route goes through the Tower Grove Park room, the Manor House, a room that is just an infinite plane where the portal exits flicker on and off, then the Hub room, then the spaceship room. >>Unless you want to go through the vordigan cathedral. >>That's only one hop. >>No, thank you. >>Good, because the nodling has been stuck in that infinite plane room for a while.

There's nothing for it to draw itself toward and the portals keep disappearing. We can swing by and snag it, and the family will be back together again. >>I don't see how we're going to make it all the way there with only 20-ish minutes. I feel like I can barely walk. >>You're forgetting two things. >>First, a jagged 20 minutes could be five minutes, or it could be two hours. We'll see. >>Secondly, you are not going to be walking. >>I don't think I can run either. >>George. >>Think bigger. Think faster. Think…

sparkly-er. >>Look around you. Then George realized what Nod was suggesting. >>Is that allowed? >>Why not? Pal said we could rent another vehicle for five tokens. That's chump change these days. >>We've still got free run of the hunting maze. >>Mom and Dad left us at home while they went off galavanting in Europe. The bad guys know where we live and they want our stuff.

It is up to us to use our moxy, grit, and the occasional epiphanic gestalt shift to turn this story of acute parental neglect into a heart-warming holiday classic. >>You are still talking about driving one of these vehicles through the hunting maze, right? >>Of course I am, George. Of course I am. >>The only question is… which one? I see only one true option. >>I'm not getting in that hamster ball. My body has been through enough. >>Wouldn't work anyway. Too big to fit through the portals. We need something small.

>>That silver motorcycle? >>I think our ideal choice must be able to hover or fly, given the terrain we're crossing. And, no, I am not talking about that floating saddle or the Mary Poppins umbrella. Too slow. Too cliche. Too spoonful-of-sugar. >>No, our one-of-a-kind adventure calls for a equally unique vehicle. Something our enemies will never forget. Then George's gaze fell on the vehicle that Nod had in mind. >>That's right, my friend.

>>Say goodbye to the last shreds of your dignity and get ready to mount that sparkly stallion of the sea. >>It is time for the Missing Dolphin Seat to frolic in the fickle waves of fate once again. >>Oh, boy.