Chapter 25 - Did We Make the Cut?

Chapter 25

Did We Make the Cut?

We emerged back into the main room of Sal’s to see Mary, Matt, and Marv in a group chatting.  Matt looked irritated about something, not that that was anything unusual, while Mary just looked frustrated.  Marv, well, I couldn’t tell Marv’s mood by looking at him, but our bond let me know he was highly amused… I suspected that he was goading Matt about something.

“I’m going to go talk to Aaron and see how he is,” I told Lynn and made my way to the door of the room Aaron had chosen.

I knocked and after a moment, the door opened to an Aaron who was rather more disheveled than he had been earlier, and who reeked of alcohol.

“May I come in?” I asked and he waved me in. 

After stepping into the room, which was significantly smaller than mine and much more barebones, I shut the door.  The few pieces of furniture inside were in disarray as if Billy himself had gone on a rampage in the room.  There was a small table flipped upside down with the remains of a shattered lamp, a small but somewhat comfortable-looking chair that was lying on its back, and the simple cot in the room was on its side with the mattress and sheets strewn about.  There were also broken remnants of what appeared to be whisky bottles…

Damn, Aaron, just how much have you drunk in the last hour or so?

I cleared my throat and walked carefully over to the cot and set the frame back upright, then I retrieved the mattress and put it on the frame.  The entire time, Aaron watched me in silence.  I could tell he wasn’t angry at me, but beyond that, he was hard to read. 

“Sit,” I instructed, pointing to the cot and he shambled over and flopped down onto it, the springs of the frame squealing in protest at the sudden weight shift.

I walked over and picked up the chair and set it beside the cot, then sat down.  I reached a hand out and touched Aaron’s shoulder, which caused him to flinch, but then he relaxed a moment later.

“Hey.  How are you doing, Triple A?”  I asked softly, using his nickname from when we were younger.

He looked at me with bloodshot eyes and shrugged with a grunt.  “Meh.”

“That good, huh?” I said with a nod.  “Is it Jenn, your arm, or just the whole fucked up situation we find ourselves in due to my incompetence?”

That got more of a reaction.

“You aren’t incompetent,” he mumbled, then spoke louder.  “It’s everything.   Jenn, being stuck in this deathtrap, being maimed, almost killing you and Matt, everything.  But I don’t blame you.  I chose to come in here.  Both Jenn and I talked about it on the walk to the entrance and we agreed with you that this was our best chance of survival.  How could we have known how fucked it was in here?”

“I think the initial collection of earth’s resources and how that was done should have been our first clue,” I told him.

“Right?” he replied.  “Anyway, we are here now and… without Jenn and being a cripple, I’m considering just hanging out until the floor collapses.  I’ll only lead to someone else getting hurt because I can’t fight properly with only one arm.”

“Dude.  You are not a burden,” I said.  “We are all part of a team and we have each other’s backs no matter what.  Jenn would have expected you to keep fighting, to live on for her.  And as for your arm…  Simbul might have pointed the way to a solution but you aren’t going to like it.”

He looked at me and wagged his stump in my direction.

“A solution for this?” he asked, then laughed.  “It’s got to be better than what I got in the loot box I got for losing my arm.”

“Oh?”

A prosthetic arm and hand appeared in his remaining hand, and he held it out for me to examine.

It wasn't some glowing, magical artifact or a piece of jagged alien chrome.  It looked like something you’d see in a high-end physical therapy clinic back home.  It was a sleek, matte-black carbon fiber sleeve meant to fit over a stump, tapering down to a mechanical elbow joint and a rubberized, utility-focused hand.  Stamped near the wrist was a small logo: Steeper.

"Is that... a regular prosthetic?" I asked, blinking.  In the middle of a blood-soaked dungeon full of goblins and fireballs, seeing a piece of standard Earth medical tech felt completely surreal.

"Yeah," Aaron muttered, running his thumb over the rubberized knuckles.  "The AI called it a 'consolation prize.'  Probably got it out of a warehouse in Leeds when… it happened.  Here, inspect it."

He tossed the arm into my lap.  As soon as my hands wrapped around the carbon fiber, the UI text flooded my vision.

Steeper Espire ‘Working Man’ Transhumeral Prosthetic

Poor you.  You lost your arm on the very first floor.  Exemplary performance, crawler.  Truly.  Since you humans are so attached to your bilateral symmetry, the system has graciously found you a replacement.  It’s not flashy, it doesn't shoot lasers, and it won't rub your back, but it will help with the most basic of tasks.

Equip effect:  Restores basic arm functionality. (Dexterity capped at your base Earth stat).  +2 Constitution (prosthetic arm only).

CRITICAL SYSTEM WARNING: We see you're wearing the Gauntlet of Emotional Regulation on your other hand, crawler.  Just a heads up: when your little temper tantrum activates, your biological muscles will pump with unnatural strength.  This arm? It isn’t made to withstand that kind of stress.  If you swing it too hard during a berserk state, you risk snapping the internal drive cables or stripping the elbow gears entirely.  Have fun managing your stress levels!

I read through the text twice, my eyes lingering on the warning at the bottom.  That gauntlet that had turned him into an unstoppable, unthinking wrecking ball during the boss fight… the same rage state that had nearly gotten us all killed.

"The warning…" I said quietly, handing the mechanical arm back to him and shaking my head.

Aaron let out a dry, humorless chuckle.  "Yeah. If I go berserk, knowing how things operate in here, the arm might literally explode or tear itself off my shoulder because the plastic gears can't handle the stat boost and the AI will think it’s hilarious.”

“Umm, yeah…”  I said nervously.  “About that other solution… If what Simbul says is right, then we might be able to reattach your old arm, but it will be risky, painful, and very likely traumatizing.”

“Clay, it can’t be anything worse than the shit we have already seen,” he said with dead eyes.  “Also, we would need to find my old arm.”

“Yeah… I looted it off Billy.  He picked it up during the fight to save for a snack,” I told him and pulled out his arm.  “I have been keeping it in my inventory so it doesn’t decay until we could find a solution… assuming there was one.  And to warn you, the method Simbul mentioned is pretty fucked up.”

Aaron reached out and grabbed his arm with his remaining hand.  The prosthetic, forgotten, clattered to the floor as he examined his old arm.

“Billy’s Crunchy Snacky Yum Yum?” he asked.  “And why does it say epic quality?”

“Because the AI thought it would be funny?” I offered.

“My fucking arm is epic quality because it thought it would be funny?”

“And apparently you're delicious,” I replied.

He stared at me.

“Sorry,” I apologized.  “Bad timing.”

“Anyway…” he said after a moment.  “So, what is this method our cracked-out Game Guide mentioned?”

“Well, as I mentioned, we might, and I’m emphasizing might, because of the source, be able to reattach it,” I said slowly, then hastily added, “but there is a catch.”

He gestured for me to continue.

“Your arm would need to be wounded again… Like, cut off the skin that didn’t used to be there.”

“What?” he stared at me like I was making a bad joke.

“We have to reopen the wound, then put the two halves together and then you would have to heal yourself,” I explained.  “Since your arm hasn’t really had any time to decompose because it was in my inventory, the system should count it as a fresh dismemberment and, assuming the principles work like Simbul suggested, the two ends should bond.  But you will need to be careful with it for a while because it would be more prone to tearing where it reattached.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, giving an equally slow nod.

“And I’m not sure we can do it in a safe room,” I added.  “You are allowed to injure yourself in a safe room so you could do the necessary damage yourself, assuming you think you are able, or we would have to do it outside in the halls where we are at risk of being attacked, but at least out there one of us could… hurt you.”

He didn’t look too pleased with either prospect.

“Or you could just use the limb you got in the loot box,” I concluded.  “Just… think about it and whatever you choose, we will all support you.”

“I will,” he said, rubbing his chin.

I got up and walked to the door, pausing before I opened it.

“Oh, and put that arm in your inventory unless you want it to start rotting,” I told him, then asked, “Are you going to join us for the premiere or do you still need some time?”

“I think I’m going to stay in here,” he said.  “I’m not ready to be around anyone else.”

“Oh, sorry I intruded, then.”

“I let you in,” he said as I opened the door.  “Clay?  Thanks.  For trying.”

I gave him a nod and stepped through, shutting it behind myself.  I stood outside Aaron’s door for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh.

Well, that could have gone worse.

I made my way back to the others in the main room and found Lynn waiting for me, a questioning look on her face.

“How is he?” she asked.

“Not good,” I admitted.  “But I think he’ll be okay.  He just needs some time to himself.”

“And his arm?”

“He needs time to decide,” I said with a grimace.  Seeing the confused looks on Matt and Mary’s faces, I explained, “There is a way to potentially reattach his arm, but it’s… complicated. I explained it to him and told him to think about it.”

Lynn nodded, and thankfully my other friends didn’t press me for details.

Above the bar, a huge screen flickered into existence, and all of our heads turned to look at it.

ATTENTION, CRAWLERS!

The wait is almost over!  In five minutes, the first official episode of this season of Dungeon Crawler World will premiere across the Syndicate!

Will you be featured?  Did you slaughter enough mobs?  Complete enough achievements?  Do something so monumentally stupid that billions of bored assholes scattered across the galaxy might actually remember your name?

There’s only one way to find out!

All Safe Rooms have complimentary access to the premiere episode and later recap episodes, which air every 30 hours, as they tunnel live to the broader galaxy!  So, grab a drink, gather your surviving friends, and enjoy watching the worst moments of your lives repackaged for the entertainment of others!

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

“Well,” Mary finally said.  “That was disturbingly honest.”

I looked around the room, then toward Aaron’s closed door.

Thirty hours.  Thirty hours ago, I had been standing around a campfire dressed like Sailor Moon, as we all stood in shock at our world collapsing around us.  Thirty hours ago, I made the decision to enter the World Dungeon because I didn’t think we had a hope in hell of surviving on the surface afterward.  I’m not so sure I made the right choice then.  Now Kylie, Jenn, and Tommy were dead, Aaron was missing an arm, and over 9 million of us who had entered were dead.

I glanced at the remaining crawler count, not really wanting to see the result, but feeling like I needed to regardless of if I wanted to…

Remaining Crawlers:

4,006,002

And somewhere out there in the universe, people were getting ready to watch the highlights of all this death.

Fuck.

Music thundered from speakers I hadn’t even known existed as a familiar logo appeared against a field of stars.

BORANT CORPORATION PRESENTS…

The image vanished in an explosion of light.

DUNGEON CRAWLER WORLD: EARTH

SEASON PREMIERE

Marv nudged me and I looked over at him.  Through our bond came a wave of anticipation so strong I almost laughed.

“Of course you’re excited,” I muttered.

He snorted and rolled his eyes at me.

The screen went black and a voice began to speak.

“Hello and welcome, one and all.  Our first segment to air tonight will be the traditional recap of the previous season of Dungeon Crawler World, Dungeon Crawler World: Aryl, but to get you hyped for the new season, we have a prepared brief glimpse of the show to come!”

And then, front and center, an image appeared on the screen.  It was me at the height of casting Love Blossoming Spiral as the beam ripped forward.  Then it hard cut to a group of what appeared to be heavily armed soldiers fighting against a house, only it had a giant mouth and tendrils that snatched one of the soldiers up.  After that, the images flew faster and faster across the screen, hundreds of scenes of people killing and people dying.

Oh, fuck me.