Chương 67: George’s Run (II)

Entering Scenario Room Two Objective: Find the exit token. Focus Stats: Laterality, Canny, Stealth Difficulty: Hard The room was a huge cube. George had appeared on a flat platform attached to a wall. The exit button glowed near his head. The light in the room was low, punctuated by intermittent flashes of lightning. Rain poured down and twenty feet below him, the floor of the room was a roiling sea of foam-capped waves. George braced himself against the wall as a gust of wind pushed him sideways.

On the far side of the room, a wave crashed against the boundary of the room and the water rose up the wall toward the ceiling. >>Identify, where is the exit token? A thin white line appeared in George's vision leading to somewhere in the swirling sea beneath them. The line moved as unseen currents dragged the token through the water.

"Are we supposed to jump in that?" George had to shout over the sound of the waves crashing against the walls of the room, so he switched to thinking at Nod. >>What is our game plan? >>Maybe we'll get lucky and the token will float to the surface or someth—ah! Shit! A wave rose beneath them and broke upward against the platform they were standing on. It surged above George's head and when it fell, the water swept him off of the platform and into the water below.

He screamed and flailed his arms in an attempt to swim upwards, but he could feel the weight of the armor dragging him deeper. The view through his helmet was dark, but there was a sense of swirling motion all around him. Then, something locked around his head and torso and clamped down. George felt his body shaken and only had time to register a crushing pain before his vision went truly black and a notification popped up. He opened his mouth to scream but suddenly couldn't feel his body at all.

He couldn't feel anything. You have died. Continue? Cost: 5 tokens (66 remaining) He thought "yes" and, suddenly, there was a flash of white portal light and he was back in the first scenario room. The long hallway stretched in front of him. The pit was behind him, just like last time. >>OK. >>Whoa. >>That happened fast.

"I just died," George said, his mind still catching up with the experience of being suddenly washed into the dark sea. The pain had been brief but immense. He rubbed his chest where, moments ago, he had felt his ribs cave inward. Now he was whole again, and the pain was gone. >>That was my fault. I should have pulled a code venom and got us out of there. >>[Distinctly NOT saying anything here about that node spider intraskeleton upgrade…] >>We got the shaft drawing the "go fishing in the sea of death" on the second room. This sucks.

"There was something in the water," George said.

"Some monster." >>Ya think? >>I don't need light to see and, let me tell you, we don't want to fall into that water again. There were several big nasties swimming around in there.

"Nothing has changed," George said. >>Yeah. That's why they call it a time loop.

"No. Nothing has changed about our situation," George said.

"We still need to save Cassie and Max, so we need to beat that room. How do we do it?" >>I'll just light grapple us to the ceiling and then we'll use draw to fish the token to the surface. Easy peasy. George thought for a moment and started walking forward. No other ideas came to mind. He nodded.

"Let's give it a try." >>Actually, something did change. We've lost two items on our Quest power's list of bonus items. We can no longer choose the Gremlin Malefactors or the Horn of Eld, whatever that was. >>I guess that is what it meant when it said we got an extra long list this time but that the list would be diminished upon resurrection. Here we are, freshly resurrected… sans two items. >>Good thing we lost that gremlin one. That had "bad idea" written all over it.

They start out all cute and cuddly, then suddenly they get into the fridge after midnight and next thing you know, you've got monster eggs all over your bedroom. Suddenly, your town is being overrun and you're wondering why there is never a flamethrower around when you need one.

"Yeah," George said.

"Whatever, Nod." He deployed the jet ski and accelerated down the long hallway.

"Let's just try not to die again." In a minute, George pulled the jet ski to a stop in front of the door at the end of the room.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Just get us to the ceiling as soon as we appear in the room." >>Copy that. George opened the door, revealing the portal behind it, and stepped through. Entering Scenario Room Two Objective: Find the exit token. Focus Stats: Laterality, Canny, Stealth Difficulty: Hard They appeared back in the water room. Nod raised George's hand and executed the motion that activated the light grapple. The beam of tangible light appeared and they ascended toward the high ceiling as Nod retracted the lightrope.

"Identify, show us the exit token," George said. The pale line reappeared, pointing in a different direction than last time. >>Hmm. It is a time loop but that token is not in the same place. >>I don't like that. >>Why? >>Because the point of a time loop is to learn on each loop. If the rooms aren't always the same, that's bad news for us. >>Or maybe good news in this case. That line is moving more than it did last time. The token is nearer the surface. >>Let's go fishing, then. >>No time like the present.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. >>I'm going to code venom this thing so pucker that sphincter. If the beasties get near, I'll pull us back up. Nod cut the lightrope and cast it at a spot ahead of them. As they fell, they swung forward. Nod cast the rope a few more times until the line pointing toward the token was directly below them. >>Moment of truth! Nod quickly dropped them toward the surface of the water just above the token. >>Draw!

The line pointing out the location of the token jumped toward them before the current carried it away from them again. >>Again. George cast draw again and the token moved more this time. >>You're drawing it to the surface. I'm gonna reposi— The water around them erupted as a creature that was mostly mouth and teeth surfaced and rose to swallow them. George drew his legs up reflexively and Nod pulled them up toward the ceiling as the monster closed its mouth on empty air.

Nod stopped them about twenty feet from the top of the room. George hung from the light rope and felt adrenaline rattling through his body. He forced himself to breathe slowly. He realized he had been screaming. >>That was close! >>The good news is that I just saved your life, which means I just scored three familiar upgrades. Cha-CHING!

"Our deal doesn't count in time loops," George said. >>Our verbal contract does not include a time loop clause! You should have had your lawyer look at it. >>I'm TOTALLY going to take over your body when all this is done. Nod lowered them back toward the water and it only took one more draw to make the token come shooting up out of the surface of the water. The moment the token touched George's gauntlet, he was teleported to the next room. Entering Scenario Room Three Objective: Solve for X.

Focus Stats: Intelligence, Facility of Being Difficulty: Hard George scanned the room notification and then glanced around at his new surroundings. The room was another cube. There was a door in the wall on his left. The white exit button was attached to the wall on his right. Ahead of him was a pedestal that held only a small numerical keypad. The wall in front of him was covered in mathematical script from floor to ceiling. There was nothing else in the room. >>Gimme a sec.

George tested the knob on the door and found it locked. >>Yeah, got it. >>George, go type the number three on that keypad and see what happens.

"You solved it?" George said. >>Please… >>Of course I did. >>Math is basically why you humans made computers, and I am a supercomputer. >>Now, enter the answer and let's get out of here. George pressed the number three on the keypad. The portal in the far door activated with a flash. >>Wait. Does this count as me saving your life? Without me, you would have been stuck in this room for hours until you gave up and pressed that white button.

"No, I would have just started guessing numbers starting at one," George said.

"It wouldn't have taken me long to get to three." >>Huh. >>You really know how to suck the air out of a guy's self-congratulation. George opened the door and walked through the portal inside it. The fourth scenario room began. Entering Scenario Room Four Objective: Slide to the exit. Focus Stats: Moxy, Ebullience Difficulty: Easy George appeared at the top of an enclosed slide. He was already seated and when he looked behind him, there was only the concave plastic interior of the top of the slide.

Flashing arrows running down the inside wall of the slide pointed downward until the slide bent around a curve. >>It says the difficulty is easy. All we need to do is slide to the exit. >>Get a move on. George scooted forward until he started to slide down. He started to pick up speed but put his hands and feet against the walls and ceiling to slow himself down. The gauntlets and gloves made a scraping sound and left gouges in the plastic interior of the slide but it slowed him down and he inched around the corner.

The flashing arrows continued until they bent around another corner. George repeated the procedure and slowly descended the tube. >>Assuming this slide doesn't shoot us into a pit of lava or something at the end of it, you are going to have to pick up the pace a bit in future runs.

"You are assuming we are going to die again," George said.

"But I don't plan on letting that happen." >>Look at that! And you don't even have your moxy stat unlocked yet. >>But let's be serious. You are level 22 and got crushed to death within a minute of entering the second room. Who knows how many scenario rooms we're going to run through before we find some way to help Cassie and Max. >>We are for sure going to die. >>Probably a bunch. >>We'll find you a good trauma therapist when we get back to the cradle.

>>I just plan on shutting off my pain receptors next time we get crushed to death. So… at least one of us is going to be OK. The angle of the slide had increased but George was still slowly scraping his way down as the slide dipped into a long straightaway. At the bottom of the straight chute, the slide ramped upward and then ended abruptly. George brought his momentum to a total stop and crawled up to the edge of the ramp and peered over. >>Well, that's it, George.

You have once again proved yourself the No Fun Champion of the World. Beyond the bottom of the slide, the room opened up into a space so vast its boundaries vanished into darkness. There was no floor, ceiling or walls around them, as if everything was floating in the air. Directly ahead and above them was a golden circle with the word Permanent Upgrade (1/3) flashing in the air beside it.

Past the circle, the slide opened up into a wide ramp that descended like a steep road that curved and twisted downward into the distance. Between the edge of the slide where George stood and the next slide, there was a gap of about 15 feet. >>This was supposed to be an awesome luge that shot us up through that upgrade ring up there which would undoubtedly unlock some sweet bonus, but nooooo…

Captain Safety had to be all "I'm not dying again" and scratch his way down the tube like a void metal turd descending a giant colon. >>Oh, well. No worries. We'll hit it next time.

"No, we won't. We're not dying again," George said.

"How are you going to get us out of here?" >>See if you can jump across. If you miss the jump, I'll light grapple us back up. George missed the jump. Just as he started to fall and let out an involuntary scream, Nod shot out the light rope, halted their descent, and slowly raised them to the top of the second slide. When George pulled himself up to the top of the larger section of slide, he flopped his body over the edge and sat up, still holding onto the top edge so that he wouldn't begin to slide down.

A trail of gold coins hovered just above the surface of the slide. It crossed back and forth from edge to edge across this much-wider slide. >>It is going to be hilarious to watch you crawl back and forth across that slide trying to catch that gold. You are going to look very geriatric. Send the nodling down ahead of you so I can get a third-person view. George stretched out his hand and cast draw at the line of coins and the three nearest ones flew into his hand. +3 gold (178 total) >>Oh, yeah.

Briefly forgot about your telekinesis hack.

"Here goes nothing," George said. He let go and started to slide down the slide on his butt. He started to pick up speed and continued to cast draw as he came near more coins. The slide bent to the left and the right, tipping up at the edges as the turns tightened. The line of coins left the surface of the slide and rose into the air. George would have had to jump to grab them, but instead he only cast draw as he slid by. +11 (215 total) George scrambled to try to stay in the center of the slide.

At one point, the line of coins veered off to one side and disappeared over the edge of the slide. It reappeared a few hundred feet down the slide. George was now sliding fast enough to rise high up on the edge of the curved road surface on the turns. He stretched out his arms and slapped the slide to slow himself but it had little effect. When George reached the bottom, the slide flattened out into a long straightaway that terminated in an impossibly high wall with a door at the bottom of it.

In front of the door, George saw another large ring that said Permanent Upgrade (3/3). He touched the last of the floating gold coins. +1 (244 total) >>We missed the second upgrade ring somewhere. George walked through the ring on the way to the door and got a notification. Upgrade failed. Two ring gates missed.

"Let's hope for another easy room," George said.

"With healing potions instead of gold coins this time." George opened the door and entered the next room in a white flash. Entering Scenario Room Five Objective: Overcome your enemy Focus Stats: Strength, Courage, Agility, Stamina Difficulty: Hard His entrance attracted the attention of a reptilian creature that was bent over the carcass of something. It lifted its head and tossed a gobbet of flesh into its mouth as it looked at George. >>Uh oh.

George thought it was some kind of snake as it raised itself up and uncoiled its long, thin body, then it raised its arms and George saw two black wings stretching between the arms and its torso. It opened its mouth to scream at George and a red head crest sprang up around its neck. >>IT'S A DRAGON! >>RUN HIDE FLEE! <Youngling Siddic Wyvern> George looked for something to hide behind but the room was completely empty except for him and his "enemy."

It cocked its head back and shook its mouth at him, only instead of screaming, it shot a gobbet of fire at him in a stringy ball. It splashed against his armor and George was knocked backward by the wave of heat. Smoke started to rise from his armor and then the liquid fire dripped between the armor plates and found his skin and he started to scream. George dropped to the floor just as the dragon lowered its head and lunged at him. You have died. Continue? Cost: 10 tokens (61 remaining)