Chapter Text
My interface was blinking red before my eyes. Everything around me was dark, and my body was hurting. I wondered if I was dying and tried to check my status. It didn't work. I thought that somebody was desperately calling my name, but it was too far away, too distant. Then it began fading away.
A few moments later I managed to come to my senses a little further. I was wrong about it being dark, it was just my eyes closed. Sunlight was seeping through my eyelids, and this time it felt overly intense. There was sand in my mouth, crunching between my teeth. It tasted salty and a little bitter. Somewhere nearby I could hear weaves crushing onto a shore.
I tried to open my eyes, forced to immediately squint. It was incredibly bright, more so than I could remember in a very long while.
“What the...” I tried to speak, spewing the coarse sand, trying to wipe my mouth with my forearm. The skin of it hurt.
You are sunburnt. You're now taking radiation damage. Your regeneration has been negated until the condition is removed.
I was on a beach, I realized. I couldn't tell where exactly, but that was definitely a seashore of some sort. I wasn't particularly surprised by the fact, given the last place I remembered being stuck with Donut was Cuba. But it was different somehow. The wind here felt fresh and the smell of salt coming from the ridiculous blue water was more sharp and perhaps a little less unpleasant.
“Donut!” I tried to call, but to no avail, my words muffled slightly by the wind.
My vision was still flashing red, and I realized my health was continuously going down. It wasn’t in the red, but I was slowly taking damage that wasn’t regenerating. That explained the pain. Desperate to rid myself of it, I looked around, noticing some vegetation about fifty meters away. I tried to move towards it, towards the shade it provided. My limbs were barely listening to me, sinking into the sand which was making it even more difficult. It took me three attempts to get up, but in the end I managed to do it. I reached the shade, dropping myself heavily onto a formation of rocks under the enormous palm tree leaves.
My health immediately stopped going down, but the regeneration hasn’t kicked in either. I looked at my arms, which were not only unnatural shades of red, they were already starting to cover in large blisters. Holy fuck, I’ve been laying there unconscious under the sun for hours for that to happen.
My inventory still worked, I downed a simple healing potion to see if it would do anything, and it worked. My blisters started to seal right before my eyes, and the color of my skin changed to a more familiar tone. As soon as that was done, my regeneration resumed as normal, refilling my health bar completely.
Now I needed to figure out where I was and what exactly happened.
I had vague memories of being on a different beach. Filled with a horde of migrating crabs. We just flagged Raul before retreating to the closest safe room. Donut went to the kitchen for a snack, and I was talking to Mordecai, listening to his explanation of the therapy potion he was making for us. Apparently, the thing was a little personalized to each individual taking it, requiring something that was bringing them joy added into the mix. He was asking me if I was going to be grossed out by having to ingest Donut’s fur. I was replying that I’ve probably eaten so much of it in the few years of living with the cat that a few extra strands weren’t going to be of any consequence.
Ruby was there, too. She was sitting on a stool near Mordecai. He was apparently teaching her the basics of potionmaking, the idea of it seeming endearing to my mind.
Now they were all gone, and I was here, in this unfamiliar place.
Another gust of wind rushed across my skin, stronger this time, and I gasped. It hit me that moment that I was no longer underground, in the dungeon, but on the surface of the planet. The realization of it took me by surprise so much that for a solid minute I could do nothing but gape, looking around myself in absolute awe. My head was spinning, and I began breathing heavily, inhaling the fresh air, overwhelmed with joy from something so simple. Reaching beneath me, I scooped the sand with my hands, allowing the grains to begin slipping between my fingers.
My mind was racing. I was wondering if I was out. If I could escape. My mini-map was covered completely with the fog of war here, and I couldn't tell if I was on an island, or somewhere on a bigger mass of land. It was a tropical place, for sure, perhaps even not too far from Cuba, but I really couldn't tell for sure.
I was still alone, and I doubted starting to shout was going to help me locate anyone. It was obvious Donut wasn’t here, I couldn’t see her on the map. Her icon was still in my party list, but it was grayed out. It freaked me out at first, but when I opened my chat, I could still see all our messages in the usual party tab. She was still alive, just... Just what?
CARL: Donut, where are you?
There was no response, and the small wad of worry I felt from the very beginning grew. I tried messaging Mordecai next and a few other crawlers, but they didn’t reply to me either. I hated not being able to reach anyone like that, but at least it told me that the issue was on my end. Something had happened to me that made me unable to get through to them.
I almost closed the chat window, when I heard a ping of a new message.
ZEV: Carl, I need your help.
CARL: Sorry, not sure I can do anything at the moment. I think you can see I’m in a bit of a pickle.
ZEV: Yes, I can see that. I’m looking at you right now. I’m about a hundred meters away, in a stream. I tried to call for you, but I’m afraid I’m not loud enough that you could hear.
Surprised, I got up from my spot and looked around. There was indeed a stream nearby, rushing from somewhere deeper inland and into the ocean. Seeing it also made me realize how thirsty I was, and I began making my way towards the water.
The Sunburned debuff was gone now and I was feeling more or less fine. Still, even while missing the real sunlight for so long, I tried to keep myself to the shade, which was thankfully plentiful further from the shoreline. It was rather warm here. Not to the point it was becoming an issue, but it was uncomfortable.
I saw the small kua-tin woman before I even reached the stream. She was almost completely submerged in the water near the bank, with only her head sticking out to look at me. The stream itself was rather deep, more so than I expected, and surprisingly slow moving, allowing her to only need to hold on a branch of a fallen tree with one hand not to be washed into the ocean.
“Carl!” she greeted me, her voice full of apprehension, yet it was impossible to tell if the emotion was directed at me, or towards her own predicament.
I ignored her, falling to my knees before the river instead, scooping the clean water with my palms and bringing it to my mouth. It was probably a bad idea to drink it raw and unfiltered like that, but the only other liquids I had in my inventory were potions. The only way they were able to quench thirst was if I manually consumed them.
Thanks to Mordecai, I was now aware about the ingredients of most of them. I was rather willing to risk drinking the spring water.
“Hi Zev,” I said finally, splashing more of it over my face. It was surprisingly chilly, as if coming from somewhere high in the mountains, and looked clean enough at a glance. “What are you doing here?”
I saw it now, that Zev wasn’t wearing neither her helmeted suit, nor a rebreather. There was still a form-fitting silvery outfit of some kind covering her scaled skin, but it looked almost like pajamas. It was as if she was pulled out of somewhere as unexpectedly as me before being unceremoniously dropped into the closest body of water on the surface. She didn’t have a chance to prepare.
“I...” she began, but then closed her mouth, her already thin lips turning into an ever thinner line, her scared expression hardening. “I was chosen as a volunteer.”
“A volunteer?" I gaped in surprise. I also noted her choice of words which was an oxymoron, but I didn’t comment on that. “For what?”
“For a special episode. There’s going to be an announcement. I wish I was warned about it a little in advance. But,” she chuckled, yet that sounded almost as if she was either about to cry, or scream profanities. Maybe both. “That’s what makes the show more entertaining, isn’t it? I will just need to attempt moving up the streams to travel anywhere. I can only hold my breath for a minute or two out of water...”
“Hold on,” I interrupted her. I had hundreds of questions swarming my head, but Zev seemed to be pulling the short end of a stick after a short end. She looked miserable right now, and despite everything, I’ve never considered her to be an enemy. Maybe even a friend, just a kind I couldn’t really demonstrate any real signs of friendship towards not to get us into trouble. “I think you have your rebreather right here, stuck to your fin,” I said as I stepped into the water.
It was only knee deep where she was, so reaching her was easy. Opening my inventory, I pulled a kua-tin rebreather I looted off of Loita. I stuck my hand under the running water as it appeared in my grip, hoping it made it difficult to tell where exactly it came from. “There,” I finished pulling the thing from behind her back.
Zev stared at it in surprise, her mouth opening wordlessly. Then she finally jerked her head, as if pulling herself out of a stupor. “Oh! There it is!” she gasped, grabbing the offered device. “I can be so inattentive to things around me when focused on my work.” Her words were followed by forced chuckle, but the stare she offered to me was both terrified and murderous.
When that was out of the way, I wanted to start demanding answers, but I wasn’t given a chance, as the familiar voice of Cascadia interrupted me.
Hello crawlers! And hello all of you dear viewers!
I know how many of you were excited for the wonderful race themed floor, and how unfortunately it ended before it was even given a chance to start. But we have some good news today! Because the eighth floor had started so much earlier than we anticipated, we are now ahead of schedule and have time to include one of the fan-favorite filler episodes!
That’s right! Just a little something to make this even more fun for everyone! This particular episode is called The Treasure Island. We plucked a few popular crawlers out of the main plot and placed them in a new environment created specifically for this purpose. The rest of the crawlers were suspended in time for the next three days or less if the special story quest will be completed earlier. After the three days or at the completion of the side quest, the surviving crawlers will be transported back to the eighth floor and the temporal suspension will be lifted. It will be like no time has passed at all!
But the good news doesn't stop there! To demonstrate Borant Corporation’s benevolence and show how deeply we can sympathies with the participants of the crawl, one of our most valued employees was sent to participate in this special event!
I stared at Zev. She had finished snapping the rebreather over her gills and was now glaring up into the sky with a stone cold expression. Yet, she wasn’t emotionless, her body practically shaking from... something. I had no idea what the fuck was going on between the two of them, and I doubted I was going to be given an answer.
The cheerful voice of Cascadia, meanwhile, continued the announcement.
The setup for this episode is simple. Each of the selected crawlers and our special guest have somebody they truly care about, be it a friend or a lover or a sibling. In other words, their treasure. One of such individuals has been taken from each of you. Now, you have three days to find and save them, or they will perish in a terrible, painful way! Each active in the episode crawler can only save one individual. So it’s best to not waste any time! Go out there, get those most dearest to you back. Best of luck!
The message ended, and I was left there, with my mouth hanging open. I looked at the grayed out picture of Donut in my party menu, and I knew exactly what was going on now. She was out there somewhere, in a peril, waiting for me to get to her. It was like the third floor all over again, when Signet cast her spell on Donut, forcing me to help her in a quest of infiltrating the Grimaldi’s circus.
“God Damnit!” I hissed, kicking a loose rock on a stream’s shore. It fell into the flowing water with a loud plop, close enough to Zev some of the splashes created by it landed onto the side of her face. “Sorry,” I apologized, because not only it wasn’t her fault, I had a sinking suspicion that the entire setup was aimed solemnly to screw her over somehow.
“It’s alright,” she responded, starting to climb out of the stream. I offered her a hand to help, and she accepted it.
“Can you even fight?” I asked, looking her over. I tried to examine her stats and description. It told me nothing else but her position in the corporation and the fact that she was a dungeon administrator.
“I... I will need to get to a safe room and pick a class,” she replied. She was on the land now, but never let go of my hand, clenching into it. Her eyes were glassy, which told me she was looking through her menus. “I was assigned to be level 60, but I will need to assign stat points. I also got a whole load of achievements and loot boxes. I thought perhaps Mordecai could help me.”
“Mordecai?” I surprised. He still hadn’t responded to my message, and it made me frown. Another wave of worry started to tug at the pit of my stomach. "Hasn't he been frozen in time with everyone else?”
Zev finally let go of my hand and shook her head. “No, the personal spaces of the participating crawlers should still be acting as normal and be attached to the safe areas on the island here. Every hireling or manager should still be available.”
The tug of concern in me doubled, and I opened my chat again, switching immediately to Mordecai’s private tab. Yet, before I began typing my next message to him, I got another chat notification.
RUBY: Hi, Mr. Carl! I know we added each-other as contacts here, but Uncle Morty told me not to bother you when you’re out. And I didn’t want to, but he disappeared. He usually tells us if he needs to leave. He didn’t, and we are worried. We are alone here. Pee-tay is crying.
I stared at the message, trying to process it. I wanted to focus on the fact that little Ruby just called him Uncle Morty and that certainly explained the recent naming conventions for items Mordecai had been creating, but I couldn’t. Because the fact he was missing overridden that in my mind. Shit, shit, shit.
CARL: Hey, don’t worry, I’ll be on the way to the safe room soon. We will figure it out.
I sent her a message back, hoping it will calm the changeling children at least till we get there. Then I turned my attention back to Zev, suddenly realizing something very important. “Say, do you have somebody they could've taken to motivate you to finish this quest?”
Zev’s expression darkened even further, and I was clearly able to see pain crossing it despite how difficult it was to read emotions in alien features. “No. I was... relieved of my attachments," she said, her voice surprisingly flat.
Which was a fucked up way of putting that her entire family was killed by her own government in an attempt to punish and control Zev. They didn’t succeed in controlling her, of course, but holy shit.
Now she had very few people that would have considered close to her. “Donut,” I said. “They want you to go save Donut.”
She opened her mouth and gaped at me in surprise. “But Donut is your closest person. And we all are supposed to have a different target. Who are you supposed to go save if that’s true?”
“I...” I began, still trying to wrap my head around it all. “I think I’m supposed to save Mordecai.”