Chương 25: Nodlings! Hit that button.

Hit that button.

>>How about that… >>And guess what, George. I think the skills will continue progressing even when the nodlings use them. Your Bind skill just jumped up a tiny amount. We need to assign skills to all these little buggers. Even if we can't make a clicker device for them, they'll still be able to grind the skills while we are gone. >>Thanks to our conveniently timed windfall bonus, we have some points to spend. George assigned the other skills to the remaining four nodlings.

Purchased: Assign Skill to Minion: Draw—2 skill points (18 remaining) Purchased: Assign Skill to Minion: Expand—3 skill points (15 remaining) Purchased: Assign Skill to Minion: Reduce—4 skill points (11 remaining) Purchased: Assign Skill to Minion: Bore—5 skill points (6 remaining) >>Hey nodlings. Mom and Dad just invested in your future. Show us what you got!

The upgrade seemed to come with an intuitive knowledge of the skill they received because each nodling released its grip on the egg beater and began using its skills on nearby objects.

"Which one has which skill? I can't tell them apart." >>Typical. One of the nodlings waved an arm at the gold ring in the pile of amenities, and it shot across the floor toward the spider, clinking against it. The spider raised its arms to catch the ring but was knocked backward on impact.

"Well, there's Draw," George said. The nodling that received Bore touched the frisbee, and a paperclip-sized hole appeared in the thin plastic. >>Hey, Expander. Stop that! The nodling that got the expand skill kept trying to tap on itself to make itself bigger. >>Keep working on that sewing needle, little buddy. That is currently George's best chance at a weapon. >>Reducer, keep making that button smaller.

"You've named them by their skills." >>I'll be Snow White. You're Dopey, obviously.

"We have enough to buy another skill. What do you think?" George asked. >>Spin, for sure. If we assign that to one of the spiders, that might solve a lot of our device problems. After that, I say we save up to upgrade the crafting menu to stage two.

"I like it," George said, imagining a wheel that spun faster than the trike clicker could accomplish without pulling the flight blanket cord. Purchased: Spin - 6 skill points (0 remaining)"What should we do with the nodlings? Clicks or skills?" >>OK, George. It's time for some real talk. The nodlings will be great someday, but they're pretty terrible right now. >>At your current click rate, we'll get a level every two hours. The gaps between the levels are increasing at an accelerating rate.

We have just over five hours before the trial, so I wouldn't anticipate getting more than two more levels. That'll give us six gold in total. >>Since our entire strategy for getting clicks during the trial rests on the nodlings coming through for us, we need to upgrade the spiders. Badly.

"Show me the minion upgrade window in the store." Store ▶ Upgrade Minions • Increase intelligence—5 gold • Increase strength—3 gold • Increase dexterity—1 gold • Increase vitality—1 gold • Select body morph—50 gold • Unlock special abilities—50 gold"We need more gold," George said. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. >>That's about the long and short of it.

"Well… shit," George said. >>Yep. >>The clock is ticking. You aren't going to get another milestone bonus before the trial. That narrows our options down to one. >>Sorry, George.

"Why is pain for gold even an option? What does pain have to do with gold? One does not follow from the other." >>Why does clicking a button get you imaginary gold? How can said imaginary gold allow you to buy a flight blanket? That is a deep rabbit hole, my friend. It is what it is. >>Shall we test it first to see if the button works to shut it off?

"And what if it doesn't?" >>I'm pretty sure it will. The option is there for a reason. If you couldn't shut it off, what would be the point?

"The AI that made this sick game likes to see people hurt themselves." >>It is up to you, George. >>We could always wait until the trial is over and grind clicks like crazy when we get back. >>But I will say this: though the last trial was short, there's no reason the others will be. What happens if we're separated from the button for days? Weeks? George reached over and picked up the button. The spider casting reduce on it clung to the side, but George shook it off and put the button on the floor in front of him.

He sat down next to it and crossed his legs.

"How much do we need?" George asked. He could feel his heart rate rising. >>As much as you can stand. >>But if you got 15 gold, we could get two intelligence upgrades and a few cheap ones to boot.

"Ok. Here's what we do," George said.

"We test it once to see if the button shuts it off this time. Then, we turn it on again and shoot for 11 gold, enough for two intelligence upgrades. Then we spend the rest of the time before the trial making a spider-sized clicker out of the egg beater and getting two more levels." >>Sounds like a plan. He took a deep, slow breath and made the selection. Purchased: Pain for Gold For ten seconds, all he felt was a slight tingle at the back of his neck where his spine met his skull.

At the twenty-second mark, the tingle crawled upward into his skull as the ghost of a headache. +1 gold George tapped the button, and the tingle instantly vanished. >>OK. Well. That worked, at least. >>Ready to go again?

"Ready," George said. Purchased: Pain for Gold The tingle and the headache resumed. George blew out another slow breath. >>Here we go. Ten more gold. You can do this. The slight headache was slowly flexing tendrils through his brain and beginning to push at the inside of his skull. The dull ache sharpened, and George massaged his forehead with one hand to ease the pain. +1 gold The tendrils of the pain writhing into his head had sprouted thorns. He clutched both sides of his head and breathed harder.

+1 gold George slapped the button, and the pain disappeared again. >>Hmm. That bad, huh?

"I wanted to test something else," George said.

"Maybe it resets every time. If that is the case, I could just keep it at a low level and just get one gold at a time." >>That would be quite a hack. Purchased: Pain for Gold The pain resumed, and, if anything, it was more intense than before George had shut it off. George's hands reflexively went back to the sides of his head. George lowered his head to the ground and moaned. In another fifteen seconds, a gold notification came. +1 gold The pain jumped up again.

Now, the tendrils of pain was working its way down his spine, abrading channels along his nerves. Pain radiated down his back and curled around his chest like claws. +1 gold >>Almost there. Hang in there, George. Something was slowly swallowing his spine with a mouthful of glass. When another gold notification came, the pain bit down hard and chewed. George arced his back and flopped sideways, a scream tearing from his lips. The nodlings stopped and turned toward him.

+1 gold The pain sizzled down through his body from head to toe like lightning. >>A few more seconds, George. Get ready. George vomited a thin stream of yellow bile out of his mouth onto the cradle in front of him. Dark spots swam in his vision. He blew out ragged breaths that were mixed with low moans. He reached for the button, but his body contorted, and he couldn't make his hand move. His arms and legs began to tremble. Then the seizure hit him.

His muscles spasmed uncontrollably, and his head snapped back and forth. +1 gold As he convulsed, he felt vomit rise into his mouth a second time, only to hit the barrier of his clenched teeth. With his next inhalation, he felt it aspirate into his windpipe. He reflexively coughed and felt the hot stomach acid burn into his sinuses. +1 gold George couldn't move his mouth but shouted mentally, " Nod, shut it off. Shut it off! I can't move!"

George tried to suck in more air, but his throat felt like it had constricted to the width of a thin straw. He couldn't get enough breath in. +1 gold >>Nodlings! Hit that button. On the double! The spiders rushed over to the button beside George's body and swarmed over it, tapping it with their legs, but they didn't have enough force to push it. One of them crawled on top of it and tried to jump, but it fell off. +1 gold George's seizure still racked his body.

His legs were tapping an uneven rhythm against the floor of the cradle. >>I can't see! +2 gold New Milestone Achievement: Pain for Gold Threshold One Reached Will Stat Unlocked. +1 Will (1 total). >>Drawer, pick up the button! The rest of you clear out. One of the nodlings wrapped its arms around the button. +2 gold >>Now, cast draw on that eight ball! >>Hurry up, dum dum! That round black thing over there. The nodling raised one tiny arm and pointed it at the ball.

The eight ball tumbled toward the button, and the nodling raised its arms to catch it. The ball plowed into the spider and bowled it backward. As it collided with the nodling, it struck the top of the button, producing one click. And just like that, the seizure stopped. George gasped air into his lungs, coughing. He slowly rolled onto his side. Though the extreme pain had ended, his whole body felt sore. >>There you go, George. >>You did it, pal.

One of the nodlings crawled over to George's whimpering form and tapped at his forehead with one of its arms. Soon, the other spiders joined it, each one tapping on his face, his hair, and his neck. After a moment, they stopped and just tucked themselves between his body and the floor. Then Nod did some of his brain parasite magic, and George fell suddenly asleep.