Travis Gardin
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Chapter 33: Recovery
🕑 Added 2024-11-15 19:00:05 +0000 UTCI wake up with a start. Biscuits J. Cannonball Jr. is in my lap. My leg is back. Mercy is asleep in a chair next to me. I'm in a bed in the medical bay of one of the Navy vessels. Jose is wearing a Navy uniform. Huh.
“Fuck, I'm seeing you as a ghost. That's not cool, man.”
“Oh, sorry, I'll haunt you quietly though,” is Jose's answer. He's standing, leaning against the far wall over in the shadowed corner of the room.
“Mr. Han?” it's the nasally voice of a doctor. “You're awake. Good. Your cat seems to have taken quite good care of you.”
Biscuits yawns in my lap, then goes back to sleep. I eye Jose's ghost. Asshole, haunting me right away. Can't even wait for the funeral.
The doc and a nurse come over and check vitals, do some tests. It takes a while.
7/10
Inside the USS John Finn medical bay.
1:30 PM (local time)
7:30 PM (central time)
I nudge Mercy awake. “Hey, I'm fine, go get a real bed.”
She wakes up, fluttering her eyes in that cute way. “Hrm. Meanie. Biscuits and I had to keep you from dying.”
“Jose...” I start to say, but can't finish.
“Oh!” she says, almost surprised. Then, moreover subdued, she hangs her head. “Yeah, I'm sorry.”
I run my hand through her dyed white hair. She looks at me with... Wait, my Wisdom is super high now, so... “What's so funny?” I ask. “Jose is dead. Hundreds of people died.”
“Nothing! You're right. It's not funny.” My superior Reflexes catch her doing a micro glance over at the shadowed corner. She can-
“You can fucking see him! He's not a ghost, is he? Hey doc, can you see that guy?”
“Of course, Mr Han. Do you need me to check your vision again?”
Jose cracks and smiles. Asshole. “Asshole!” I yell in the medical room, and then realize that I'm not the only patient in here. “Sorry!” I whisper to a guy in the bed next to mine. He looks like his arm is newly regrown. Aw, did Biscuits heal him? What a good kitty. I scratch her behind the ears.
Jose comes over. “You saved me, Jun.” I must be raising my eyebrows in disbelief because he actually explains. “You gave me Luck, right? That pushed me over 500. In the last second I closed my eyes and saw it. I had an option. Second Chance. A one time revival 5 minutes after you die. Then my Luck dropped back to 10. So that's a bummer. But, you know.”
“You get to go home,” I say to my friend. His calling. His true reason for being.
Tears fall from my eyes. Then Jose wipes something away from his eyes.
Mercy starts sobbing. “Your bromance is so beautiful!” she says between tears.
-----
7/10
In our rooms on the USS George Washington
3:45 PM (local time)
9:45 PM (central time)
I'm maxed out at ten stored level ups. That seems to be standard for everyone who participated in the battle. So that's good. But also hundreds of Navy personnel died. That's bad. Bad, but I'm counting my losses and my victories. Jose is alive. The raid boss is dead. Everything else is not my deal. That sounds callous. Everything else is... Not for me to mourn. There's going to be plenty of that. Those people will be missed dearly. More victims of the Dracosys. More of my brother's victims.
The torpedoes at the end came from Chinese boats. The Americans were, for some reason, unwilling to detonate torpedoes underneath their own ship. The Chinese had no such qualms. So, thanks China! I hope we get along better now, as countries? Maybe? No? Fine.
They're going to have to bring in research subs, those ones with the grabber arms, to get the loot from the boss. Apparently its loot is a glowing gem that's so bright it's actually blinding fishing down there. Plus lots and lots of very damp 20 dollar bills. Nobody is really pushing for those to be rescued. I'm sure some adventurers will clamber for those later.
The bears and birds killed plenty of people, especially on the George Washington. They lost 67 people, with dozens more injured. Our guys who went below decks to fight apparently saved a lot of lives.
Henry Gallup and Ivy Black flew away on the helicopter and were fine. Everyone on my team was fine. We made it. We did it.
I did it. I know that sounds selfish, or egotistical, but hell, I think they'd probably all be dead without me. I'll try not to be too smug about it.
That's not who I am anyways. I don't want to be the biggest badass around. I'm not walking a “path to power” like in a lot of those litRPGs. I'm not looking to ascend to a higher level of humanity or defeat the multiverse. I don't want to rule the world. I want to break the Dracosys so no one can rule the world.
So I don't need a medal, or a title saying I'm a god slayer or some such shit. I don't need anything-
Mercy whispers in my ear. “I know you killed that thing. I'll give you a nice reward when we get home.”
My high Intelligence and Wisdom are immediately flushed down the toilet.
“Which costume? I mean, wait, ahhh”
“You're so cute when you get flustered,” she says, and spins away from me, walking down the ship's hall. I don't mind watching her go. DAT A-
“Jun,” Madeline taps me on the shoulder. Then, to pull me away from admiring my girlfriend's goods, she has to shove me in the shoulder.
“Right. I am an adult who can totally concentrate on things. What's up Madeline?”
“Look, we need to decide on the teams.” She's going back to this topic. We currently have five people per team. I'm personally comfortable with that. She wants one more person per team, like it used to be.
“You know, let's assume that the Adventurer's guild thing happens. What would an Adventurer's guild do?”
“I don't know,” she says. “Because I'm not a nerd like you are.”
“You'd let people form their own teams. We're already halfway there. We can go there even without amendments. You're in charge of your team. Have as many people as you want.” I really want this to be the end of it. “More autonomy, less military structure.”
She just looks at me like I'm coping out somehow. “Fine,” she says with an air of annoyance.
I go find Jose. “Jose, I've been thinking about it, and I want you to do my job.”
He turns to me, putting down his graphic novel. “You want me to avoid responsibility and make hasty decisions at the last minute?”
I roll my eyes. “Hilarious.”
“You want me to be lovesick and mostly forget that other people are around?”
“Dude, harsh.”
“You want me to-”
“No, I want you to run the Pathbreakers. Be the guild chief. Head, uhhh CEO? Whatever my position is.”
He raises an eyebrow at me.
“You can still stay at home without the kids. No more missions. But...”
He says what I can't. “You don't want me to really leave yet.”
I just nod. I feel guilty. “I know I'm actually asking a lot.”
“Yeah, okay.” He just shrugs.
“So is that a yes?”
“To be honest you're kind of shit at running any group outside of battle.”
“Wow. Okay.”
He places a hand on my shoulder. “You're a depressed introvert suddenly forced into leading a mercenary company. It's not your jam. That's okay.”
I am somewhat annoyed at that. “Hey, I'm less depressed nowadays, thank you very much. I have a girlfriend.” The thought of her kept me going when I was being eaten by a kaiju.
“You still probably need meds and therapy, dude. You're way too chill about all this.”
“Am I?” I ask, honestly not knowing the answer.
“Everyone else sees each dungeon as a place they might die. You look forward to them.” He shakes my shoulder to get the point across that it's definitely not normal.
I guess it's not normal. I think that I burned out my fear ducts during cave R-32. Since then I haven't been afraid, not really, of anything. I just look at the Dracosys monsters as something to fight, something to challenge me. But that's probably insane. Maybe I can find a therapist who works with firefighters and cops. Someone who's already used to talking to fearless adrenaline junkies.
He also reminds me of just how lucky we got to both be here right now. “You probably only get one teammate coming back from the dead routines, and it's already spent. You need to think about your team and how they're feeling more.”
I nod. I always forget that others are... Mostly weak. Maybe not weak, but not as ready for anything as I am, or Mercy is. She's pretty capable of tackling any situation by now.
I finally nod to him. “Thanks, man. For that. For taking care of the Pathbreakers. For everything, really.”
He cocks his head with a smirk. “What else is a best friend for?”
----
7/10
In our rooms on the USS George Washington
4:45 PM (local time)
10:45 PM (central time)
I'm in my bunk, playing Link To The Past on my Switch when it happens. I hear the words in my head. Last time they sounded like a flat computer voice. This time they sound like a chipper female Vtuber.
Attention! This is a global system update for the Dracosys! All those with at least one level will receive this message.
Congratulations Leveled!
Yeaaaaaaa! You've successfully cleared the first raid boss and now have finished the tutorial! Next will be the first season, SEASON OF THE SCOURGE. You'll have to find out what that means on your own. I'm betting it won't take long!
But, before we begin the next season, there are a few things we need to take care of.
Firstly is the Seasonal difficulty increase. Based on our numbers the total death rate of humanity is still too low! That's why for the first season all monsters will become Level 10! Each level represents a 10% increase in stats for a monster, so from now on all monsters will have +100% their original stats! This level will increase with each three-month season, but the amount will depend on the number of total fatalities across the planet. So if you'd rather have smaller level increases, remember to kill your neighbors! I mean, what're they good for anyway? I bet they're the ones stealing your packages!
Second is the experience point update! Woo! Now this was always planned so don't get too upset, but the base required experience points per level up is going to be doubled. That's going to halve your leveling speeds! I sure hope your builds were solid before this update, because you'll have fewer and fewer chances to get stronger from now on!
Lastly is the thing some of you have been waiting for, the Amendment Proposals! Since we have 10 total proposals, we'll give each one 10 minutes to be voted on. You'll be able to vote through your menus, so hopefully you're somewhere you can close your eyes!
Let's see what our first Amendment Proposal is!
