Chương 24: Chapter 23.1 – Stop whining, ungrateful apprentice

Darkness swallowed everything. I woke up in the pod to the dinging sound of level-up notifications. [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 19] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 20] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 21] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 22] Four levels. Nice. What was less nice was the smell inside the pod. And the heat of the body that lay there with me. Elsha sprawled over me, stretching. Ah, great. She flipped, smirking at me, violet eyes shining with barely contained delight. Her horns almost scraped the pod's ceiling.

"Four more levels," she said, her voice dripping with satisfaction.

"Time to get even more charisma."

"We'll talk later."

"Oh, don't be like that. I've been watching." She traced a finger along my jaw, not quite touching.

"See how good my tutelage is? I told you where to put the points, you did it, and now you're the hero who solo-cleared the floor by himself." Her smile could have powered a small city.

"Thirteen years of whining about me got you nowhere.

"All that bitching about how my spells weren't your style, and how their names were stupid and cringe.

"How you didn't need mass summoning because you had Astarielle. How mass detonate was useless. How you would never use pink shields.

"Look at yourself now. Following my guidance got you everywhere in a few days. Aren't I great?" What made me put points into charisma was the node that demanded it on Soulcarver. And what cleared the floor was the endless horde system passive that she didn't ever mention.

"Dismissed." She pulled back, pouting with theatrical devastation. She vanished. The pod's ceiling greeted me. I blinked twice, pushed myself upright, and got out. The dome was louder than usual. The host stood nearby, but he wasn't looking at me. His attention was fixed on the row of medical stations along the far wall, where four bodies lay in various states of not-great. Technicians moved between them.

Holographic vitals hovered above each station, all of them flashing the kind of colors that meant the opposite of healthy. Yukiko, Henrik, and Liu were all strapped to a bed, with IVs in their arms, each with three monitors by the bed. Sarah was vomiting into a basin, still in the process of getting stabilized. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Getting zeroed out apparently wasn't without consequences.

The projection pods recreated your body perfectly when you went in. When the projection got destroyed inside the tower, the feedback had to go somewhere. If only she had extracted when I told her to. The tribunes were half full, tablets out, murmurs bouncing off the dome's curved walls. Cameras tracked the medical stations. This was great content, apparently. The host found me. His smile was loaded, but not with the usual showman's grin. There was something sharper behind it.

"Damian." He fell into step beside me, microphone already raised.

"You're the only member of your team who has returned conscious. Everyone else got zeroed out. Can you tell us what happened in there?" I straightened my jacket.

"Inside the tower, there is an organization called Paradise. They work against the climbers, manipulating the tower's rules in the process." The name landed differently than I expected. The host's smile didn't falter, but his stride shortened by half a step. In the tribunes, a few tablets lowered. Someone in the front row leaned forward.

"Paradise," the host repeated.

"Can you elaborate on what that means? Who are they, what do they want?"

"We don't know." I slipped away from him, escaping the room. He didn't follow me. I was in the tenth place now, a bunch of people having unlocked floors nineteen to twenty-one. I looked who was on the 18th floor with me. 9 — Mina | Lucielle Legal | Floor 18 10 — Damian O'Connor | Golden Sands | Floor 18 11 — Sarah Langley | Church | Floor 18 Ha, so if a single member of the team cleared the floor, the whole team cleared. Interesting... And how did eight people get ahead of me?

Staying on one floor for two dives really had a roll on rankings. I headed out of the dome. The dome's exit opened to the Pacific wind, salt, and afternoon heat. The construction noise from the eastern expansion carried faintly. I crossed the hub, passed the neutral commercial strip, got into the Golden Sands section, and bought a lamb kebab from the stall that never closed. The kebab was perfect. I ate it while walking. Halfway through the Golden Sands section, footsteps matched my pace.

"Mr. O'Connor." I didn't need to look. I recognized Tariq by the voice and step alone. An annoyed glance confirmed the identification. Tariq Farouk fell into step beside me, tablet under one arm, suit immaculate. He glanced at the kebab with the faintest micro-expression of disapproval.

"Congratulations on clearing the floor."

"Thanks. It was a team effort."

"Indeed. Which brings me to business." He adjusted his grip on the tablet.

"A boss such as that mecha-centaur has surely dropped loot. One that was notably missing from the loot tables." Oh, so the loot got public upon extraction. I should have left one rare item there.

"And you're here to check if I've brought anything worthwhile."

"Obviously."

"Where do I take it?" Tariq paused, a pleased smile playing on his lips.

"Take it to the pod manager, Cassandra. She is there at night. She is the Sands' primary researcher for tower-related materials and artifacts." Of course she was. The universe continued to funnel every aspect of my professional life directly through the one woman who had turned into mist after I kissed her.

"Fine. I'll take it to her tonight."

"That would be acceptable." He studied me for a beat longer than necessary.

"The Paradise mention. That was deliberate."

"Everything I do is deliberate."

"I hope so. Because the word is already circulating among all five organizations. By morning, every syndicate representative will want a full debrief." He gave me the ghost of a nod.

"Ensure the items reach Cassandra before that happens." He peeled away without a farewell, disappearing toward the administrative buildings with the efficiency of a man who had three more obligations to handle before dinner. I finished the kebab, wiped my hands on a napkin, and tossed it into a bin. My building sat where I'd left it, looking marginally less awful than when I'd first moved in. I kicked off my shoes, fell on the bed, and closed my eyes. The world blurred.

My consciousness sank inward, and I arrived at my soul chamber. The old house where I grew up. I crossed the living room. Three doors lined the far wall. I walked to the one with big red NOPE! written across it. I opened the NOPE! door.