Chapter 86 (Patreon)

Chapter 86

Beige Line - Station 281 

Time to Level Collapse: 7 days, 12 hours

The moment Dismember died, the Fleshers—now “Bereft Minions”—swarmed. We continued to press the metal up against the door, and they were unable to break through. I could see the X of Dismember’s body for a few moments. It soon disappeared, presumably encompassed by one of his former minions. I didn’t know if the process required a skull to successfully convert the Flesher into a Symbiote, but at least one of the monsters was making the effort. 

Levi screamed for most of the remaining trip. “You did it! By the gods, you killed him! You son of bitches did it!” 

“He shouldn’t get too excited,” Donut muttered. “I can see a dozen other shapes in that third car who might be more war mages.” 

“It’s former crawlers, I think. I think he was building an army. He takes our skin and then uses our bones to become stock for his budding army. It’s probably some bullshit storyline we don’t have time to get involved in,” I said. 

We pulled up to the stop, and I felt the door to car number two slide closed on its own. I picked up the war mage head and tossed it into my inventory. I retrieved the two metal chocks, and we got the hell off the train before the door closed. 

We watched as the train left the station. Levi waved as it disappeared. 

Zev: Hi guys! 

Donut: HI ZEV! DID YOU SEE WHAT WE DID? WE POPPED HIS HEAD OFF! 

Zev: Yeah, that was a good one. The fans liked that line you did at the end, Carl. People want you to say your trademark line more often, though. Not too much, or it gets weird. But it’s been a few days. 

I sighed. 

Carl: What can we do for you, Zev? 

Zev: I wanted to let you know that I booked you two for a show in two days. 

Donut: JUST US TWO? WHAT ABOUT MONGO AND KATIA? 

Zev: Katia stays in the dungeon. Mongo goes in the cage. 

Carl: What sort of show? 

Zev: It’s a little drier than what you’re used to, but I’m confident you two can spice it up. It’s a program called Planet Beautiful. It’s especially popular this season. It’s not so much an interview as a narration. You’ll be going to a sound booth and reading prepared lines. It’s a news program about the current season’s planet. People are obsessed with Earth culture, and you two will be narrating a segment. 

Carl: How can we “spice it up” if we’re reading prepared lines? Also, I’m not going to read some anti-Earth propaganda bullshit. No way.

Donut: WHAT WILL WE BE TALKING ABOUT? 

Zev: Uh, I’m not sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that. 

Carl: Zev. You are a terrible liar. What is the segment going to be? 

Zev: It’s about beauty pageants. And pet shows. 

Donut audibly gasped. 

Donut: WE WILL DO IT. I CAN’T WAIT. 

I was about to object, but then I realized that this would be a goddamned vacation compared to what usually happened when we went on a show. What could possibly go wrong inside of a sound booth? 

Carl: All right. We’ll do it. But I won’t read the lines if they’re bullshit. 

Donut: YAY! 

Zev: Yay! 

~

Station 281 intersected with the Beige line, the Puce line, and of course, the Dismemberment Limited. The plan was to ride the Beige two stops up to 283 where we could catch the Nightmare Express, but we decided we’d wait until my Protective Shell reset before we hit the Nightmare. It was a long, large train, and it would be best to just clear it of mobs using my shell method and not risk whatever was waiting for us. 

We stayed at station 281, so we’d be able to hit the Desperado Club after the recap episode. Then we’d sleep, train, and head back out into the world. 

Since there were no mobs on the trains coming from the Beige or Puce lines, we couldn’t do the stand-on-the-platform-and-train method. Instead I wanted to train a different way. After a quick trip to the restroom, I returned to the saferoom, which was nestled inside of an all-glass storefront called J.CO Donuts and Coffee. The Bopca here was a younger-than-usual guy named Nodd. 

“Hey,” I said to Nodd. “Can I get a black coffee, and I’d like to see the crafting table menu.” 

“Sure,” the Bopca said, pulling it up. 

It was a long list of tables, and most of them seemed useless. Most cost about 25,000 gold each. There was everything from the generic Tinker’s Table to the ultra-specific Beekeeper Beesuit Mending Station. I scrolled until I found what I was looking for. 

I slid my last free table coupon forward. “I’ll take that one.” And then I presented my two upgrade coupons. I hesitated. Was this the right move? “And I’d like to upgrade my Sapper’s table to level three.” 

~

My book confirmed something that I’d already suspected. While I could use an engineering table to shape just about any type of armor, it didn’t become a true wearable—something that could be “equipped.” I could shape something into a helmet, and I could plop it onto my head, but the system didn’t acknowledge it as a helmet. For most people, that was no big deal. That was different when it came to Katia and her race. If she couldn’t equip it, she couldn’t add it to her mass.  

If I created and shaped an item using the engineering table and then stepped over to my new armorer’s table, however, the item’s description changed. All I had to do was pull up my new Armorer’s Workshop tab, select the item, and then pick its intention from a list. For the sample helmet I made, my only choice on the list was Shitty Helmet. It didn’t look any different. But it was now titled as a helmet, and it re-sized itself—slightly—to fit either my or Katia’s head. But most importantly, she could now equip it, which added to her mass. 

I couldn’t add enchantments or build with most types of metal yet, but that was okay. I could craft simple items from scrap metal and leather that we would be able to sell. 

While reading through my book, a certain passage in the bomb-making chapter caught my eye.

<Note added by Crawler Rosetta. Ninth Edition> 

Comrades, you know the high-level madness satchels, the bronze tier ones with the big yield? They are not as useless as they look. Because they randomly fall into rapid de-stability and explode, they are most dangerous unless they are in your inventory, of course. But with the 15-second waiting period after removing it, it makes them almost impossible to use because they can (and do) explode during those fifteen seconds. I have discovered a solution. If you can find or build an equippable backpack, they will not lose stability as long as they are in the backpack and the backpack is equipped. This also works for other party members if you wish to give them explosives to utilize. Use with caution. 

<Note added by Crawler Allister. 13th Edition> 

There is no longer a 15-second waiting period for removing items from inventory, so this advice is mostly moot. I can confirm that backpacks do still maintain stability. They weigh you down, however, and don’t work as well as inventory.  

<Note added by Crawler Forkith. 20th Edition> 

Backpacks only slow destabilization now, not negate it. Found that out the hard way. Rest well, little sister. I pray those who read this kill an enemy in her honor today. That is all we can do, no? Her name was Barkith, and she was all I had left. I feel lost, but I will persevere.  

All of that was good information, but for now what I mostly took away was that backpacks were a thing. I had an idea. I set out making one. 

While I worked, I thought about Crawler Forkith and his sister. He wrote the 20th edition, and from what I could gather, he made it to at least the 11th floor. He left extensive notes throughout the book, confirming or adding information to multiple passages. He even left instructions on how to append notes to passages, something I couldn’t figure out how to do with the scratchpad system. 

Forkith was originally a race called an Urgyle, which I gathered was a small, winged, demon-like race. He’d kept his race upon selection. His class was Sapper. I hadn’t yet had time to read his notes at the end of the book, but it struck me how someone so different, so alien, could still be so similar to me. Some things were just universal, I guessed. 

The only one who wrote more notes was Drakea from the 22nd edition, the crawler who experienced the final Naga-run season. Drakea was both emotional and verbose throughout the book. Still, despite all of his or her notes, which dripped with absolute hatred for the Naga and the Syndicate, the crawler spoke little of themselves. Their notes section in the back of the book was only a short paragraph. 

Once lit, a fire is easier to stoke than it is to extinguish. Remember that. Fuck the snakes. Fuck the rats. Fuck them all. One day they will all burn, and while I’m certain I will be long dead, I will laugh. I will laugh long and hard, and I will be waiting for them on the other side of the veil where not even the vast expanse of stars or time will withhold my wrath. If you are reading this, friend, I pray you will join me. Side by side we will exact our revenge.  

The words, while borderline unhinged, offered comfort. Comfort I didn’t realize how much I needed. 

~

“What is it?” Katia asked as I placed the large, metal box in the main room. I placed it on the stand I’d especially built for it. 

I pointed to the reinforced, dingo-hide straps. “I was going through the menu of the armorer workshop tab, and I saw backpack listed.” This was true. I’d searched until I found a feasible way to make it look like I’d just stumbled on this information.  

“A backpack? It looks like an oversized laundry hamper,” she said. “Or a giant quiver. It doesn’t seal at the top.” 

“Nope,” I agreed. “Strap yourself in, but don’t remove it from the stand. That will make it so it doesn’t disappear yet into your mass.” 

She examined it and frowned deeper. I couldn’t help but laugh. The system labeled it as Ugly Ass Backpack With a Completely Useless Design that Only an Idiot Would Wear.

I didn’t care as long as the word “Backpack” was in there. Katia hesitantly backed into it, sticking one arm through a strap. There was an additional set of waist straps. She tied those together and then pulled her arm through the other strap. 

“This is really cumbersome,” she said. 

“I can make it bigger, a lot bigger, but we don’t know what sort of environment we’ll be fighting in. This is about as wide as I can make it and still be able to equip it in the tight aisle of a train car,” I said. “If we ever get to a wide open area, like the streets of the last floor, I have an idea for something a lot bigger.” I pulled the long, reed-like metal pole from my inventory. This one was about six feet long, but I’d made dozens of these in multiple sizes. I dropped it into the basket. 

I talked while I loaded the backpack. “So, a while ago I found a filing cabinet in a boss room filled with stuff. I learned something interesting about the way inventory worked.” The metal poles clanked loudly as I added them to the backpack. “If you put something into a container, and then add that container into your inventory, you can pull the container out of your inventory with or without the original contents. You can even pick and choose.” 

“Carl…” Katia began as I continued to put the heavy, metal poles into the backpack. I worriedly eyed the stand, but it held. The straps would never hold even a fourth of the weight, but if this worked as intended, that wouldn’t matter. They were only there so the system called it a backpack. Still, I was worried about them and Katia’s ability to not collapse once I removed the stand. She’d been placing most of her points into Strength on Mordecai’s advice, and she was now at 49 after all her enhancements. Mordecai’s plan for her was to build up her strength as quickly as possible, and once it hit 50, put the rest into Constitution until her non-enhanced base was over 100. I noted with a small amount of dismay that she’d also been tossing points into Charisma. That was likely a result of Donut and Zev telling her she needed to be more interesting. I’d need to talk to her about that, but not right now.

I took an armful of shorter reeds and stuffed them in. And then I poured a bunch of round balls, tiny versions of the ones I’d been making for my xistera, into the free space of the Ugly-Ass Backpack. When I was done, I stepped back to view my work. Katia stared at me helplessly. She stood there with the basket-shaped backpack over her shoulders, a dozen metal poles of various lengths sticking out of it like she was an overloaded donkey. 

“If you remove that thing holding the backpack, I’m going to tumble and fall,” she said. “I’m strong now, but I’m not that strong. And if I equip it, it’s just going to give me the mass of the backpack, not the stuff in it.”

“Are you certain about that?” I said. “Because I’m pretty sure you’re wrong there.” It’d taken some experimenting, but I’d finally managed to make an open-top backpack that listed the items as “contents” when I pulled it into my own inventory. I had to give the backpack a slight lip and something like 3/5’s of the mass had to be within the pack and not sticking out. 

Her eyes went wide. “Okay, but I can’t equip it until you move that stand. When you do, it’s going to break the straps or break my shoulders.”  

“You’re stronger than you think. And we’re not going to rest the weight on the straps. This is how we’re going to do it. Keeping the backpack on, reform yourself so you have four legs, and build a shelf on your lower back, pushing the holder thing rearward, easing it away,” I said. I held up a crude drawing I’d made on the back of a gym membership form. 

Katia went pale, but she started the transformation without another word. 

Donut entered the room. She’d been in the training room practicing riding Mongo. She stopped dead at the sight of us.

“Carl, what are you doing to Katia?” 

“The stand is too tall now,” Katia grunted as her backside grew. She shortened as she grew two extra legs. 

I nodded. “I’ll fix it. Keep going. Keep your back flat. Think of it as a shelf. It doesn’t need to be that long. Push your hind legs further back and make sure they’re made of metal. Yeah like that.”

“Oh god,” she said. I watched as her body transformed. Her arms disappeared, and a third pair of legs appeared, giving her six. Her clothes melted into her mass as her back grew in thickness, creating a shelf for the backpack. The straps strained against her shoulders as the stand pushed away. 

“Legs aren’t going to work,” she grunted. The six legs melded together, lowering her body further. She was starting to look like a slug with an armless human torso. I pulled my tape measure and noted the height from her shelf to the floor. 

“It’s not as much weight as it looks,” I lied. “As soon as that table pushes away, it should automatically equip itself to you.” 

The stand clattered backward. I cringed as the heavy backpack tumbled down, landing on her shelf. Katia cried out in pain. And then the backpack disappeared, turning the same color as her flesh. The whole, dense blob formed into a rounded shell-like shape. Holy shit it worked. She yelped as she tumbled over onto her back, like an overturned turtle. She started to cry out. 

“Carl!” Donut yelled. “You hurt Katia!” 

I ignored her. “You have a lot of mass now. Take a deep breath and reshape yourself. Use the new metal to keep yourself balanced.”

Katia stopped struggling and closed her eyes. She slowly regrew the six-legs as her torso and head melted into the mass. The torso returned, growing up out of the center of what had been her underside. Her top half retained its normal shape, but her arms were twice as long as normal. The elephant-like legs reshaped into wide spikes. The entire form rose off the ground, turning her into a horrific, bug-like monstrosity. 

“I’m going to throw up,” Katia said. “It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.” 

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re carrying around more than a ton of extra armor now.”

“A ton?” she said, lifting her arm. “A literal ton? 1,000 kilos?” 

I grinned. “Closer to a ton and a quarter. Give or take. That metal from the dwarf robots is a lot heavier than normal iron. How do you feel? Can you move okay?” 

She reformed, turning back to the Hekla shape she’d made earlier, but now she was about 11 feet tall. She stood to her full height, towering over us. She swung her arm. She formed a fist and punched at the air. I could feel the rush of wind by.

Mongo cried out in fear and rushed to hide behind Donut.  

“It says I have a strength bonus when I carry this much mass,” Katia said. Her voice was deeper. “It also says my dexterity goes down, but I don’t feel much slower. If I keep a normal body’s density, I can probably make myself twenty feet tall. Do you think they’re going to let me keep this? Isn’t this some sort of exploit?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I think this is what you’re supposed to be doing with this class.”       

“This is ridiculous,” Donut said. “She’s not going to fit into a train at this size.” 

“No, she’s not,” I agreed. My mind was already working on ways to make her even bigger. That dexterity debuff was going to be a problem. Maybe if I build a foundation for her. Something with wheels she can slide into. “But that’s why the backpack method works. Unequipping is easy. She can just mentally pull the backpack into her inventory, and she’ll shrink back down. She’ll keep the backpack in her inventory, and she can now choose how much of that metal is in there when she puts it on, which will make her mass variable. We’ll need to work on getting her able to equip it fast. And we need to upgrade her changing table so she can store more shapes. I’ll work on the stand to make equipping faster. Also, I need to be on the lookout for denser metal. Maybe we can fashion something that isn’t so cumbersome. Those metal poles might be a problem if the ceiling is low.” 

Katia shrunk further down, her face taking many forms. She stopped at about seven feet, but her torso was three times thicker than it should be. Her arms reached to the ground, making her look like a gorilla. 

I reached up and banged on her arm. It clanged like metal. Good. “Make sure you keep your flesh core deep on the inside.”  

“I’ll have to work on it,” she said, flexing her arm. “I can’t replace my eyes and mouth with metal parts. I’ll have to build a cage around my head.” 

“Good, good,” I said. “I want to try with different materials in your backpack. And you need to practice with choosing the amount of metal that remains in the bag.” 

“Can you put weapons and other enchanted items in the backpack?” Donut asked. Mongo tentatively approached and started sniffing at her.  

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Weapons don’t become a part of her mass, and magic items like rings and stuff don’t impart their enchantments unless they’re equipped as intended. I can’t make shoulder pads out of two enchanted helmets and expect it to work. I asked Mordecai that a while ago.”  

Katia continued to experiment. Her hand turned into a curved, metal shield the size of the gangway chock. She pulled her rarely-used axe and extended her arm. I noted she was getting a lot better at changing her form quickly. I knew it still hurt her. “When the daughters hear about this, they’re going to flip out. If only Fannar could see me. I’d like to see him call me useless now.”       

“I wish Mordecai was here,” said Donut. “I bet he’d have something to say about this.” 

“I bet he would,” I agreed. 

~

The first part of the recap episode was a montage of people getting killed on the trains. I watched as a group entered what appeared to be a modern diesel train, one of the named lines, and were almost immediately overrun by little crab-like monsters that had drills instead of claws. In the midst of the battle, I spied a form standing at the back of the train car, watching and laughing. A war mage. This one looked like an orc, but he had the same, long silver hair as Dismember. 

Katia had returned to her normal size. She’d spent the last hour working with her new form, practicing with different sizes. She could remove the backpack using her inventory system, which was a bit inelegant, causing her body to fall and splotch onto the floor in a round, quivering, unshaped mass. It turned out if she suddenly unequipped more than 50% of her mass all at once, her body reset itself. That was okay, though it was a little gross. She only remained in the blob form for a couple of seconds before she reverted to her regular, human form. To equip the extra mass, she first had to pull the newly redesigned stand, set it up, and then pull the backpack so it was set perfectly on the stand. She’d then back into it, set the straps, and then transform to her slug shape. From there she could form whatever she wanted based on the amount of “transformation mass” she kept in the backpack. Putting it on took her about thirty seconds, which was still too long. We were working on it. 

I pointed out the creature on the screen. “I think all the named trains will have war mages on them.” 

“If so, each one attacks in a different away,” Katia said. On the screen, yet another war mage was ripping apart another pair of crawlers. I couldn’t tell what the attack was, but the crawlers were choking as if they couldn’t breathe. 

The show moved to feature several crawlers it didn’t normally show, including Quan Ch, the one crawler who’d received a Celestial Quest box at the end of the last floor. Donut grumbled as she watched him fly down a train tunnel on his ethereal wings, shooting blue lightning out of his left hand. He blasted the front of a train, which crumpled and stopped dead on the track. A ManTauR corpse fell out the front of the destroyed cockpit.

“That jacket he got lets him fly and shoot lightning,” I said. “That’s pretty cool. But if he’s flying around blasting trains, that’s going to cause all sorts of problems. I wonder what line that is.” 

“I don’t know, but that’s our jacket,” said Donut. “He didn’t even do anything to get it. It’s not fair!” 

“Nothing is fair,” I said. 

We watched Elle pick up a Clurichaun, freeze his head, rip it off, and throw it to another party member. This guy, some sort of muscle man class, twisted in the air and hurled the ice ball at a giant goat boss. It slammed into the goat’s head, staggering it. A menagerie of other creatures, the former residents of Meadow Lark, rushed the goat monster and tore it apart. 

They showed a short clip of us using the Hole spell to decapitate the war mage. They spliced in a shot of me laughing, a scene from some other time, before showing me picking up the mage’s head and sticking it in my bag. Those assholes. They’re making me look crazy. 

“Why did you take the head, Carl? That’s gross,” Donut said. 

“We loot everything, Donut. You never know what might be useful.” 

We’d received a silver quest box for that fight, but it had been nothing but healing scrolls and trap kits. I’d received another two of those alarm traps along with some random trap supplies. 

The show ended with Lucia Mar fighting a group of zombie-like creatures in a large room. The monsters just kept coming and coming, and she eventually fell back. The room, I realized, held a set of five stairwells all situated in a circle. 

How the hell did that little shit find the stairwells so quickly? 

The show ended, and before the nightly message could come, two things happened. The leaderboard changed, and I received a notification.  

You have received a Bronze Benefactor Box from the Valtay Corporation. 

I paused, waiting to see if either Donut or Katia received anything. Neither said anything, and I assumed that meant they hadn’t. I knew this season, the more they paid for us, the cheaper the benefactor boxes were to the sponsors. But Mordecai had said even Bronze boxes would be prohibitively expensive. He’d also said the contents of a Bronze Benefactor box were generally better than even regular platinum boxes. 

Donut was gazing up at the leaderboard. The top hadn’t changed. Elle had moved up to spot eight, and Li Jun the street monk had fallen off, replaced by Quan Ch, who was a level 31 half-elf Imperial Security Trooper. I wasn’t surprised. With that magic jacket of his, he was likely going to rocket his way up the list. 

“He’s a cheating poser,” Donut grumbled. 

Good Evening, Crawlers. 

I wanted to remind you of our earlier announcement, that for this floor only, the stairwells will remain closed until six hours prior to collapse. A handful of you have managed to find your way to stairwell locations. Good job, but we are still several days out before you’ll be able to do anything with them. 

Due to some unforeseen technical difficulties with our Hobgoblin Mechanic Interdiction teams, trains that are breaking down on the tracks are taking much longer than anticipated to be cleared and put back into service. This is resulting in some premature chaos along several routes. We’re sure you can handle it.  

And finally, you should all have your sponsors now. Every single crawler in the dungeon has received a sponsor, a first for Dungeon Crawler World. We are currently processing benefactor box requests, and there will be a slight delay in loot box fulfillment. We are distributing them as quickly as we can. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience. We are giving priority to emergency boxes where the benefactor has paid the emergency delivery fee.  

Now get out there and kill, kill, kill! 

“They’re holding onto our boxes, Carl!” Donut said. “I just know Princess D’nadia got me something good.” 

“Actually,” I said. “I just got a bronze benefactor box. Hopefully you guys will get yours soon.” 

“And you haven’t opened it yet? Open it! Open it now! And make sure you send a note that says thank you.”

“Oh, all right,” I said, pulling the box. I wondered if they had paid the “emergency delivery fee” for this. 

The box appeared, a glowing, bronze-colored box. Sparks flew off it as it magically opened. A symbol I’d never seen before decorated the top. It was a circle with squiggle through it. Words in Syndicate Standard were etched underneath the circle. It read The Valtay Corporation, Keeping the Best of You Alive. 

I shivered, remembering the brain parasites these guys really were.   

The box contained a pill. It was a regular-sized, blue and yellow capsule. 

For a terrifying moment, I thought maybe this was an actual brain worm. I remembered seeing a video once about how people used to give themselves tapeworms to lose weight, and they came in the form of capsules like this. They want to take over my body. I shivered again. The idea was absolutely terrifying. I read the description, which was in a slightly different voice and font than usual.  

Valtay Corporation Neural Enhancer #544. Variant 32.c

This item is compatible with your Morphology and Interface. 

Warning: This pill will cause a permanent change to your brain. This item cannot be unequipped or undone once installed. 

Warning: You do not have a Valtay Corporation Neural Interface installed. While your current wetware system is compatible with this Neural Enhancer, it is recommended you visit a Valtay Corporate Outreach Center to discuss upgrade options. Payment and Legacy plans available. Keeping the Best of You alive. 

Current wetware: Syndicate Crawl Version 47.002.Human. 

Taking this pill will install the following upgrade to your interface: 

Identify and Analyze Subspace Portals. 

“What the hell,” I muttered, turning the pill over in my hand. Why had they given this to me? What was a subspace portal? And if they had paid the extra fee to get it to me more quickly, was it just because they were rich assholes who could afford it, or was there urgency? 

Also, since the description was in a different format than regular items, did that mean I could actually trust what it said?

Just to be double sure, I put the item in my inventory and noted both its rarity and value. Its value was just below the Kimaris figure. Its rarity, however, was listed as common. I pulled it back out of my inventory, now reasonably certain it didn’t contain any sort of hidden parasite. If it had, it wouldn’t have let me stick it in there. 

“Whatever,” I said. I popped the pill into my mouth and drank it down using my cold cup of coffee. 

A moment passed before anything happened.

A new tab is available in your interface. 

The tab was labeled Third-Party Upgrades. I clicked on it. 

Warning: All communication-based upgrades will be disabled while you are within the dungeon. Any attempts to circumvent dungeon security will result in immediate disqualification. 

The neural enhancer was the only item listed. I clicked on it, and a note popped up. This upgrade is working properly. There was no other information or menus. 

I popped up the Sponsorship tab and found the notes section. I could send them messages, but they couldn’t send them to me. I knew Donut had been composing and sending thank you notes to Princess D’nadia all day. 

Thank you for the upgrade. I don’t know what it’s for or what it does, but I appreciate the support. 

I felt nothing but revulsion for anything and anybody who had anything to do with this shitshow, but if they were going to be sending me beneficial items, I had to appear grateful. 

“So what was that thing?” Katia asked. She’d bulked up and was on her way to the training room, where she was going to work on her Catcher skill. I was going to follow her and work on my Powerful Strike. I was going to work on it every day until it hit 15.

“I’m not sure,” I said, trailing off. My eyes caught the doorway to the exit out into the coffee shop. It now glowed purple. A tooltip popped up over the doorway.

Standard Subspace Portal.  

Analyze? Yes/No. 

I clicked on Yes, and a series of numbers appeared. I had no idea what I was looking at. However, at the bottom of the list was a few lines that seemed important.

Type: Two way portal. Gated to user. 

Can you pass this portal? Yes.   

Environment on other side of portal: Compatible. 

Visual Analysis? Yes/No. 

I clicked Yes, and a still photo of the coffee shop popped up. It was empty of customers, but Nodd the Bopca stood behind the counter, cleaning it. 

I can see through doorways now.  

“Oh hell yeah,” I said.

***

Thanks for reading! I was hoping to get the next chapter (87) up tonight as well since it has more action, but it's not in the cards. We'll have it in a few days.