Chương 34: Floor is Lava

HUNTING ROUND—ONE Entering Hunting Room: Floor is Lava Ability Activated—From the Fragments to the Aftermath Threat Level 1 Knickknack Savant: Level 1 The hunting room was stadium-sized, as tall as it was wide. Grey stone walls rose to a ceiling cut with large rectangular openings that let in blue sky, breeze, and the distant cry of seabirds. High above him, wide catwalks—broad as roads—hung unsupported in midair, some intersecting, others layered like a tangled grid.

The ground floor was littered with randomly placed pillars and rocks that looked like sharp-edged polygons but were as big as houses. Along the perimeter of the giant room sat squat bunker-like buildings spaced at a regular distance from one another. A doorway was carved into the pillar ahead. Strange writing lined the frame, and a translucent green film shimmered inside.

"Is that what a portal looks like?" George said. >>Guess so. Through the portal, George could see a long hallway dotted with pools of light from torches hung on the wall at regular intervals. It was weird to see a long hallway inside a pillar that was not wide enough to contain the hallway, but George was starting to get used to rapidly adjusting to weird things. >>Let's avoid it in case somebody decides to come through. >>Did you catch the name of this room? I say we take the hint and get off of the ground floor.

George looked more closely at the crisscrossed layers of suspended roads above his head. Some of them intersected one another, and some simply overlapped in stacked layers. >>This death trap helmet has the silver lining of making my doodle powers 100% more awesome. I can doodle straight on the helmet! And you'll see it! As he watched, Nod drew a line in his vision from where he stood to a ramp along the far wall. >>Go. Follow the line. >>This will take you up to the highest road by the most direct path.

George started walking along Nod's line, then thought of some of the creatures in the voting room and broke into a jog. The wide ramp along the wall was about an eighth of a mile away. It sloped upward at a low angle before turning sharply and extending out over open air without structural support. By the first intersection, George was sweating and breathing heavily.

"I thought this nano-body was supposed to be superhuman or something?" George said as he slowed to a walk to gather his breath. >>Look down. I'd say we are about 300 feet off of the ground. You just did better than Old George could have done without stopping. >>But your stats still suck. >>I bet if we checked your endurance stat, we'd see a sign saying, "Gone Fishing." >>Catch your breath and then keep moving. I don't like how open this room is, and the more I think about that high ground, the safer it feels.

"Do you think there is someone else here? I haven't seen or heard anything?" >>I don't know, but I think it would be good to remember that we don't understand our enemies' capabilities. For all we know, some invisible eyeball has been watching us this whole time. Or maybe something is about to come through one of these portals, see us, and fly over to introduce themselves." But I thought we're safe for the first round at least," George said. >>Nah.

>>The moderator said players were prohibited from direct violence against one another in the first round. That's different from being safe. >>If somebody accidentally helped you trip over the side of this road, they'd be in a "direct violence" grey area, but you'd still be just as dead. >>Besides, I don't think that voidling cares much about the rules of the game. >>So get moving. Follow the line and get to high ground. Then, maybe we'll luck out, and no one else will enter this room for the whole round.

George alternated between a jog and a walk and steadily climbed up the network of roads until he reached the top of the room. The roads were paper thin but seemed as strong as steel. As he ran, his footfalls didn't cause the slightest vibration, as though he were running on solid ground. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He froze when he came to the top of the highest road.

There was a head-sized ball shining with iridescent light floating in the middle of the road about twenty feet ahead of him. Identify provided the label. <Conceptual Flare> >>Oohh. Sparkly. I like it.

"What is it?" George whispered. >>Who cares? This has "hidden easter egg" written all over it. Go grab it. Maybe it will give you some sweet upgrades. George walked up to it slowly until the floating sphere was within arm's reach. It had not changed when he approached. George extended his finger and touched the shining sphere and the instant he touched it, it disappeared.

Collected: Conceptual Flare (Rare) Upon activation, the Conceptual Flare targets Concepts within range of the user, forcing interaction and triggering a rare-grade boon. Outcome varies depending on conceptual alignment.

"It's gone," George said. >>You collected it. I can see it in your brand new dimensional storage space.

"Ok," George said.

"At least it didn't hurt us." >>What do you bet this refers to those Concept guys that were with us in the voting room? Let's tuck this away until we find ourselves in a room with one of them and then use it to make them give us goodies. >>In the meantime, this spot seems as good as any to take a breather and do some reconnaissance. They were about 20 feet from the ceiling of the immense room. Light shone above him from the massive, rectangular hole cut out of the roof. He lay flat at the edge.

From below, only the curve of his helmet would be visible.

"I don't see anything moving," George said as his eyes flickered from one corner of the room to another. Nothing moved. >>Then why are you whispering?

"I don't know," George said.

"It just felt right." >>OK… this feels about as cozy as it gets in a giant room in a game where people are actively trying to kill us. >>Let's take this opportunity to handle a few admin things.

"Such as?" >>Such as an inventory. I think we are going to have to make some quick decisions in the near future, so it might behoove us to take stock of what we have to work with. >>Which means it is… doodle time!

>>Here's what we've got: ▢ One death trap helmet ▢ The nodling with the draw skill, holding on for dear life and cursing the fate that put him in such close proximity to your hips ▢ Crafting skills: draw, bind, bore, expand, reduce ▢ Basic hidden resources detection and basic trap detection ▢ 50 gold burning a hole in your pocket ▢ And, Nod the Fantastic riding shotgun, brazing talon, pokey claws, and enhanced intraskeleton ready for action. >>Also, I have some news about the nodlings.

You are going to be proud of our little guys. >>Those upgrades in strength, dexterity, and intelligence are paying off. They are innovating. >>Our click rate has been climbing in fits and starts. I have been keeping tabs on them through our handy dandy sensory upgrade.

"What are they doing?" George asked. >>I don't want to ruin the surprise, but it is your basic Rube Goldberg-meets-pile-of-junk. God bless 'em. >>OK… I'll ruin the surprise. >>A couple of them have turned the egg beater into a carnival ride and are riding the button around on it like a flywheel. Expander is only using its skill on itself. It is growing fast with no signs of slowing down. Borer has gone rogue and is building some kind of hamster wheel. >> It's… kind of adorable. >>Kids grow up so fast.

>>Also, they are grinding skills pretty hard. Our high hidey-spot is conveniently timed because you are about to get a level up and bind, reduce, expand, and bore should all upgrade within the next hour or so.

"Well… OK," George said.

"Way to go, nodlings." >>So. Let's talk strategy.

"Strategy, as in, how we are going to live through the next few hours of this trial?" George said. >>Strategy, as in, how are we going to outwit, outlast, and outplay these S. O. B. s and find some tricky, underdog way to hack this game and emerge victorious?

"I like the optimism," George said.

"Why don't we start by making sure we know how to play the game? That guy threw a lot of rules at us back there." >>I have an eidetic memory, George. >>So… >>Let's call it what it is.

"Ok… why don't we start by making sure I know how this game works, then," George said.

"There are two rounds, one for hunting and one for voting. After the first hunting round, it is no-holds-barred, and this place will turn into a kill-fest, yeah?" >>Possibly. That depends on many factors, one of which is how large the hunting maze is. If we're talking about a truly massive network of rooms, all the players from the voting room will bump into each other less. If it is a medium-sized maze, we might find ourselves in more of a "kill-fest" scenario.

>>I do not think the maze is small because we've been here for 15 minutes and haven't seen anyone. If there were only a few hunting rooms, surely those portals would have spit someone out by now.

"And there are those swarmers Pine mentioned: the slime, the zombies, and the vordigan," George said. >>My money is on the zombie guy getting voted out sooner rather than later because who wants to die and then come back on that guy's team? >>Answer: nobody.

"So we have to avoid the Saars, find a way to stay on Neco's good side, and live through enough hunting rounds to win or survive by getting voted out," George said.

"Why don't we just hide and wait out the hunting rounds? This seems like a good spot." >>Methinks fate will not give us that luxury. >>Besides, there are a few points of strategy we have yet to discuss. >>First, if we just hunker down, we won't make any new friends. On the one hand, we are going to want to avoid people because lots of them will want to kill us. >>On the other hand, we want to meet the right people. Half this game is politics, so we need allies.

"And there are the prestige tokens," George said. >>Yes. The prestige tokens. There are still some unknowns there. What do they look like? How many exist, and how does finding them correspond to voting strength and placement on the leaderboard? >>And how do we find them?

"Murdo said the helmet interfaced with the upgraded Identify skill. I don't suppose we could just…" George said, then sent a mental command to his identify skill. >>Identify, reveal any prestige tokens in the room. Suddenly, pale lines appeared leading from where George lay to eight of the large building-sized bunkers arrayed along the edge of the room. >>Welp. >>How about that?

"So. Let's go get one," George said, pushing himself to his feet. >>Yes. Let's.