I wanted to check out the Tunnel Lord’s lair right away, but I’d been pushing all day, and my gear wasn’t ready for it, so I couldn’t exactly commit to a tough fight. Besides, I was Level Three. That was a lot for fighting a Rat Man, but if the Redline Wyrm was Level Twenty, the Tunnel Lord could be almost as powerful.

So, once I’d finished shoveling beans into my mouth with my bare hands, I walked out of the storefront and took a long look at the cavern across the tracks. My ten points in Awareness were enough to make out a few figures moving around inside but not enough to tell levels, what kind of monster, or anything else. After a few minutes, Calvin joined me. “You’re really gonna go for it, huh?”

“I don’t want to, but I think I have to. The System didn’t say what’d happen when time ran out, but it’s been, what? Four hours? Five?” As I asked, the System helpfully provided the remaining time.

Time Limit: 66 Hours, Twenty-Two Minutes

Longer than I’d thought. “I need to get this boss out of the way. That way, I can keep looking for Tori if I find her on the other side of the tunnels and we have to fight the Wyrm there.”

Calvin rolled his eyes and reached into his jacket. He pulled out a cigarette and let it hang from his mouth while he flicked his lighter. It lit up anemically. “What you need to do is slow your ass down some. We’ve got three days, and it hasn’t been that long. Come over here.”

He was right. I was freaking out about nothing. We still had well over two days to get this puzzle solved. But even though I knew that, it still felt like a massive hand pushing down on me.

I followed the long-term rider back to the platform. There, in cave art, was a map of the Red Line. “Now, son, I’ve rode this train every Thursday for eight years, and I can tell you right now, it’s never been a loop.”

As I looked at the map, it confirmed what I’d suspected. Not only was the Red Line a rough circle now, but half of it, according to the map, was under Lake Michigan. “So what are you suggesting?”

“You’re a fighter. I’m not. Fighting’s a good way to get killed where I live, and I’ve done enough of it for a lifetime. We’re the only people on our team—maybe the only ones left in this tutorial. That means you’re the boss, as far as I’m concerned.”

I wanted to argue, to tell him he had to fight, but he already knew that. He’d killed something. He just wasn’t going out of his way to power up. And the look on his wrinkled brown face told me arguing wouldn’t help. I waited for him to go on.

“What I’m thinking is, you make a full loop. It’s been a few hours, right? If you clear stations until the timer hits twenty-four hours, I bet you a can of Bush’s Beans you’ll be close to where you started, and two Jolly Green Giants you find your friend. Then, you go after the Tunnel Lord and figure out how to handle the Redline Wyrm. Easy.”

It sounded easy enough, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something would go wrong. After a second, I shook my head. “I want to see the Tunnel Lord first. If I can’t handle it, I’ll try your idea.”

Calvin didn’t look disappointed. He raised an eyebrow, but nodded and puffed on his cigarette. “Thought you’d say that. How about you do me a favor and clear out the other stores before you try the boss?”

“You haven’t checked the other stores?” I asked. I’d assumed the old guy had made sure his corner of the station was safe. If that wasn’t true, I definitely couldn’t sleep things off.

“Nah. The first one I checked had everything I needed except the bag,” Calvin said, patting the backpack over his shoulder. “You covered that. But if you find anything good, I’ll do some more trading with you. Let’s see that arm.”

I stared at him.

“Ex-combat medic, Vietnam. Got the hat to prove it and everything.” He pulled a worn, tattered ball cap with the US Army logo and a division name from his jacket pocket. “Been a long time, but I’ve seen worse, I guarantee it. If not there, then on the streets. Get that armor off, and let’s take a look.”

On the one hand, I still had no idea if I could trust him. On the other, my arm was getting pretty tender, so after a second more to think about it,, I slowly peeled off my armor and rolled up my sleeve.

He whistled. “Yeah, that’s infected. Wish I could say I had something for it. Guess I could try cigarette lighter cauterizing, but that’d be real slow—and real painful.”

“No, I think I’m alright. A few points in Body should take care of it. Did you check the other caves out at all?”

“Nah. I only checked the one I’m in. Could be more good stuff in the others. Just be ready.”

“Watch my stuff. I’ll be back soon,” I said.

“Wait, you’re trusting me with it?” Calvin asked, eyes widening under his shaggy hair.

Truthfully, I could see why he looked shocked. Most people didn’t trust homeless folks, especially the ones on the trains. But so far, he hadn’t done anything to earn suspicion except hide his stats, and could I blame him for that? No. I didn’t want to share mine either; something about it felt weird.

“Why not? We’re on the same team, right?”

He nodded a few times, looking back at his store cave, then at the next one over. “It’s probably more slimes. Fuel ain’t lighting up, though, except in small, slow burns, so good luck with the fire plan.”

I groaned, tightened the laces on my armor, and started toward the nearest storefront.

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Slime: Level Eight Monster

Calvin had warned me about the slime monsters, so I was ready for a level difference, but this one was bigger than I’d expected.

The second I stepped into the hardware store—which was weird since there hadn’t been one here before—my spear was set, ready to thrust into the thing, which oozed between two stone shelves loaded with hinges and doorknobs about ten feet away. I took two steps forward and stabbed.

I didn’t expect the first attack to be my last.

As I pulled the spear back, the dark purple blob in the middle of the aisle slurped the stone tip right off the wood. The shaft I got back looked corroded, bleached, and fragile, and when I swung it like a club, it fell apart mid-arc.

So, stabbing it wasn’t the solution.

I backpedaled. The ooze didn’t pursue at first. Was it too busy digesting the sharp rock tip? It looked like it; the thing was cracking and crumbling. The store’s cave entrance was right behind me. Lightning covered my fist, and I made a finger gun. A second later, the store lit up through my closed eyelids. The air smelled like baking soda, chlorine, and ozone.

I cracked my eyes open just as the slime pulled itself together around the hole my lightning had blown in its side.

When it was finished, it looked completely intact, and it slid slowly toward the door, forcing me out onto the subway platform—and away from the room full of tools I might be able to use. I took another shot with my lightning, but it did nothing—just filled the air with the stink of burnt baking soda.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I tried to bite down a surge of panic as the ooze pulled itself together again and started moving—this time, toward Calvin’s hide-out!

I couldn’t let it get to him, but I also didn’t see a good way to stop it. Maybe something in the store? I didn’t have time for a real search; even with the ooze’s slow speed, it’d be inside in just a few seconds. I had to have something, though. But what?

Another whiff of baking soda caught my nose, and I had my answer.

I’d never been interested in science fairs as a kid. My interests were less in writing down the results of some experiment and more in tearing apart the remote control car Dad got me for Christmas to see how it worked—then in putting it back together under his supervision when he found out I’d done it. But every year, our class walked the science fair. And every year, someone built a vinegar and baking soda volcano.

If this thing was anything like baking soda, I just needed a strong enough acid to dissolve it. And I did have two batteries I’d looted—nine volts, but they were something. If I could overload them at the right time, surely that’d do it, right?

I got ahead of the slime as it slurped toward Calvin’s hide-out, tossed the first battery on the ground, and waited.

Just before it reached the battery, I took a deep breath and made another finger gun. This time, I didn’t aim at the slime. Instead, I shot the battery. It overloaded with a tiny pop, shattering upward into the monster.

Even from twenty feet away, the effect was shocking.

The slime erupted. It had been large before, but it geysered upward in a fountain of foam that hardened mid-air into a tower, then collapsed under its own weight. This splashed out even more foam, which also went solid before it could hit the ground. It shattered like glass, mixing even more until a quarter of the platform was covered in it. The whole place smelled like the chemicals I’d used to clean up the farm’s processing machines as a kid, and the sound was almost deafening.

Then, suddenly, it was over.

“What the hell?” Calvin asked, peering at the pile of slowly vanishing foam outside his cave. I ignored him. I had other things on my mind.

Level Up! Three to Five.

I had four stat points to spend; the first two went into Awareness, getting it all the way up to twelve. The second two were split between Body and Mana.

I felt satisfied with myself for the first time since I’d been forced into this Tutorial. The fight hadn’t been a fight at all; I’d been approaching it the wrong way. It was just another puzzle. If I could make the other fights something similar, I’d be unstoppable. But if I wanted to treat fighting like solving a grumpy engine, I’d need tools.

Luckily, I’d just cleared out a hardware store.

----------------------------------------

I learned a lot from the store. Most of it was disappointing.

My first target was the power tool section. I needed something better than a stone spear if I wanted to handle the Tunnel Lord, and sure enough, this place had everything: circular saws, pole saws, and even a few gas-fed Stihl chainsaws. But when I fueled them up and started them, I got nothing. Not even an engine turn-over. Just a couple of clicks as I pulled the cord, then silence. Calvin had said fuel wasn’t burning except for his lighter, but I’d been hoping.

Next, I tried the electric tools. Surely, one of those would start. But, once again, I got nothing. It was like every battery had been completely drained in the whole store. The stone shelves and cave art on the walls were evidence that this place had changed during the terraforming part of integration; maybe they’d gotten rid of all the power tools, too.

Electronics—what little they had—was no better off. I’d hoped to find something so I could start rewiring my headphones—not that they’d work without a CD player or a phone, or something to play music on. The damn store didn’t have any other pairs either, or anything I could use to fix my own. My fist tightened as I looked at the empty shelves.

Did that mean the Consortium—whoever they were—had also gotten rid of guns? That’d be a shame, but it made sense. They wouldn’t want people blasting their way through their tutorials. No chainsaws, no guns, no power for trains or cars…the world had changed. For the first time, I thought about the world above us. How had it changed? What would we find if we made it out of here?

And who was to blame? The Consortium, whoever they were. But who were they, anyway? And what did they want?

Too many questions, not enough working—that’s what Dad always said. I wouldn’t find the answers to any of those questions in a hardware store.

If I couldn’t rely on power tools, I’d have to improvise something. So the first question was what I did have. And what I did have was batteries. Lots and lots of batteries.

The plan I came up with was pretty simple. I needed a weapon that could easily take out a Rat Man, that was effective against slimes, and that I could rely on to deal with unknown monsters. The spear wasn’t going to cut it—but the batteries and my Lightning Bolt gave me a lot of flexibility, and it looked like the Consortium hadn’t removed all the chemical reactions from Earth. Just gasoline being combustible and electricity being storable.

I spent the next half-hour stripping the rechargeable batteries out of every tool I could find—and with my Awareness at twelve, that was a lot of tools. When I’d finished, I had a good pile of long rechargeables for Makita power drills, clip-on handle batteries for DeWalts, and heavy-duty electric chainsaw batteries—not to mention a hundred double-As that I doubted would do what I needed. Then, I spent five minutes gathering up an unholy-looking mix of hex nuts, washers, and finishing nails.

The theory was simple. If a 9-volt battery had enough pop to throw acid into the baking soda slime monster, these should be a lot bigger—maybe big enough to throw metal all over the place. It’d be like a land mine—except I’d have to trigger it.

It took a good hour to assemble the first bomb. It should have been pretty simple, but I had no idea how much pop a given battery might have, so once I had a single bomb built, I grabbed a shovel and headed down the platform to the next cavern entrance.

Sure enough, inside was another slime. This one was a little more pinkish and only Level Five. I got its attention, put the bomb down, and waited while it oozed its way toward me. When it got close enough, I fired a Lightning Bolt at the battery.

This time, it wasn’t a pop—it was a bang. The cave filled with foam as the battery acid and slime mixed. But even as I pulled back and started running, the cave wall sparked with shrapnel. Between the foam and the dozens of nails, nuts, and washers, the inside of the store had to be shredded. I wouldn’t find anything intact and useful there—but I’d confirmed my theory.

The slime’s orb wasn’t enough for another level, but I could practically see how close I was.

Right now, I had work to do. I stuck my head in Calvin’s lair. “Help me out. I’ve got a way to take down the Tunnel Lord and get to Tori faster all at once.”

----------------------------------------

Tori ran.

She’d never ran this hard, not in any of the pacer tests or mile runs in PE.

Her foot slipped on the Red Line’s smooth metal rail, and she picked herself up and kept running, even though her knee wouldn’t stop screaming in agony with every step. She couldn’t keep from stumbling, and her muscles ached.

But she couldn’t stop, either. The Redline Wyrm was coming.

Behind her, Rat Men she’d aggroed screeched and screamed as the rumbling, shrieking subway snake rocketed down the tracks. She put on a burst of speed as the white light filled the tunnel. The station was right. There. She just had to keep going. A few more feet, that was all.

Her hands grabbed the half-devoured platform’s edge, and she pulled with everything she had left.

It almost wasn’t enough.

The Redline Wyrm’s train-car armor bumped the rubber sole of her Doc Martens, and she screamed.

It roared past, thundering off into the distance. She stared into the semi-dark tunnel, licking her lips greedily at the half-dozen yellow-green Minecraft experience orbs. Then she shook her head. She was too tired to walk back and pick them up; besides, they’d be there later—after she full-cleared this station.

You can’t keep doing this, Tor. It’s too much.

She was right, but it wasn’t like she could stop fighting, either.

She picked herself up, groaning, and thought about summoning up an Inertia Ball. Physics had always been her favorite subject, so when she’d put her first stat points into Mana, Inertia Ball had beaten out Fire Blast and Knit Flesh.

The first few times she’d cast it had been easy: summon a pink ball of energy, throw it at the Rat Men, profit. Simple and effective. But god damn, was phenomenal cosmic power draining?! She had nothing left in the tank.

“Alright, Tor, you’re at…where?” she whispered to herself. “Last time, it was Jackson—but that doesn’t make sense. You should be at the elevated stations by now, not more subways!”

And yet, here it was. A full-on subway station. This was probably Roosevelt or Cermak-Chinatown. But why the fuck was it underground?!

Tori shivered. Then she looked down the tunnel. If she started now, she could get to the next station. Maybe it’d be better than this one; something about it gave her the shivers.

Then something moved overhead.

She broke into a sprint with the last reserves of her energy. She needed somewhere to hide! The women’s bathroom was close; she dashed toward it, ducking as the huge monster flew overhead.

Huntsman Bat: Level Seven Monster

It hit the ground with a thud, four wings the size of Tori’s arms beating on the smooth stone. She slid to a stop. The women’s room wasn’t an option—but the men’s was.

The door was hard to move, but she got the steel barrier closed just as the Huntsman Bat got airborne again. It thumped into it, and Tori burst into tears. She threw her weight against the door, then slid down it until she sat on the cave floor next to the stone sinks. She was so goddamn tired she barely felt it shake as the monster slammed against it. She stared at the stone urinals, trying—and failing—to hold back tears.

I wish Mom was here.