Richard had slimed over to our operation. His tentacles waved at me, as though asking permission to be put on my shoulders.

  I picked him up, feeling him firmly nestle in.

  “You ready?” I asked my mollusk.

  He licked my ear. The universal sign for “Let’s go!”

  Standing, I gave the door a gentle shove. It swung into the hallway, groaning on old hinges.

  Gelatinous goo oozed from the walls, as though they’d been turned into some sort of self-aware hive.

  I realized as the spike burst into the front of my chest that I’d been relying on Richard’s environmental awareness too much.

  “Tandy, grab him!” As the barbed spike speared my body, Meredeath screamed while it pulled me through the door.

  Richard jumped ship, landing on Tandy’s face.

  I’m sure that’s why she didn’t grab my body. And at this point, it was definitely a body. The spike had gone right through my heart. There wasn’t anything anyone could do.

  [You, Cole Thornfield, are [Dead].]

  [[Cheat Death] has triggered. You will remain incapacitated until the analysis of the situation is complete. Get comfortable; this may take some time.]

  My consciousness hovered above my body as it swung back and forth on the whipping tail. I could see the rest of the creature.

  As monsters go, it wasn’t the wildest thing we’d fought. It looked like a three-tailed scorpion. But instead of a bulbous stinger, these tails were thin and barbed. Instead of incapacitating prey like a scorpion, this creature was content to pierce its prey and drag it off.

  I’d been in this in-between state before, back in the fatberg dungeon of Eddie’s Mill. There was no point in rushing [Cheat Death]. I’d have to trust that the party could figure this out. I would not be off cooldown for a while, and the last thing I needed to do was resurrect only to die again.

  The creature raced down the hallway in the opposite direction of the dining hall. The hallway was gooey and ribbed. Gone were the plaster and glow moss. Instead, the passageway was a pulsing membrane with ridges running perpendicular to the floor . I felt like we were back in the [Trial Dungeon], swallowed by a leviathan.

  My body scraped against the ceiling, removing a layer of skin.

  The damage didn’t thrill me. [Cheat Death] was going to extract a price.

  The creature pulled my body into an enormous cavern covered in slimy cocoons and insectoid monsters. I watched in awe as this three-tailed scorpion shook its tail to deposit my corpse for an ant-like creature with glowing magenta antennae.

  After examining me, the ant seemed to order a long-legged spider to drag me up towards the ceiling of the cavern, where several slick, iridescent beetles clung upside down to threads.

  Their little feet glowed pink as they pattered forward as they magically clung to the ceiling. Mandibles clacked in front of a ridged maw, while two long pointy fangs hung low.

  One held me in place, while the other peered down at my body. Its fangs on either side of my head. Floating my consciousness closer, I realized that a line of thread sat between the needle-like teeth.

  The beetle plunged down, pinning my body in place. As it bounced up and down, wraps of thread began crisscrossing to hold me tight to the ceiling.

  I was being stored as a snack. For whom was still to be determined, but I was definitely being preserved.

  My body clung limply to the roof of the cavern, but my consciousness had a bit more leeway.

  I examined the room from my new vantage point.

  Multiple types of insectile monsters seemed to be working together in a giant colony. This sort of cooperation was unheard of in the world, and the more I watched, the more my incorporeal blood froze. The directors of the colony to a beast, had [Corrupt] infused tentacles or antenna that seemed to grant them [Domination] over their fellow insects.

  The drones, like the beetles that threaded my body in place, used [Corrupt] magic in smaller ways. To cling to the ceiling, to whip their scorpion tails faster, or to receive direction.

  The cavern was tall and wide. I’d been dragged three stories up to be stored. The far wall had unnatural giant ridges. It was empty of cocoons, as though saved for some higher purpose.

  I could spot at least a dozen types of monsters, but ants and worms seemed most prevalent. A worm much like the mworm that’d taken control of our bodies was carefully working its way towards my body.

  It lifted its head, sniffing at the air. Then moved forward on tiny little talons. The creature’s face opened up into a toothless maw as it began feeling at my torso. Maybe I was going to be a snack after all.

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  For a moment, I imagined an undead Cole manipulated by a brain worm. My incorporeal revulsion was enough to send a slight breeze against the creature’s antennae, making it freeze.

  Bringing up my [Party Map] I didn’t know what to think about the dots of my friends heading in my direction. This chamber was a sure death sentence for the group.

  I needed [Cheat Death] to work. To settle on a resolution that allowed me to exit the chamber before my friends became bug food.

  While the [System] was not a big fan of myself or Richard, and it was often cruel, I had to hope it wouldn’t drop me back into the world only to die immediately. It had to give me a fighting chance, or I would have permanently died a dozen times.

  What really puzzled me is finding [Corruption] this far from the Ursine Wall. On the frontier, we dealt with [Corrupt] monsters sneaking through the border occasionally, but nothing to this extent. Nothing of this sort of intelligence.

  It spoke of an enormous breach in the civilized world’s defenses.

  The little dots on my party map grew closer. My nervousness about my fate had waned as my terror for what my friends were about to fall into grew.

  [[Cheat Death] has completed. Because of key targeting of your organs, neither [Gelatinous] nor [Gelatinous Regeneration] stopped the attack you endured. Therefore, you now have [Distributed Systems] because the key bodily functions are now distributed in your humanoid infrastructure. Critical hit chance is significantly mitigated.]

  Unfortunately, I came to almost immediately as my body shifted. It felt like I was being split apart from the inside.

  Maybe I was.

  Cole, can you hear me? We’re coming for you.

  I didn’t bother trying to respond, I was too busy trying not to scream. It felt like my brain was getting pulled through a straw. My heart split, and my lungs stretched like carded wool.

  The excruciating pain lasted for seconds, minutes, hours. I wasn’t sure, except that suddenly it ended.

  I was me.

  Breathing felt different. And I wasn’t about to analyze where my thoughts were coming from.

  I struggled in the gooey cocoon, breaking an arm free easily. Apparently, they hadn’t expected a corpse to put up a struggle.

  The mworm that’d been uninterestingly moving towards me lifted its head again. Its antennae waving in the air in excitement, as though it sensed that I was no longer dead. I guess live food tasted better?

  Shit.

  “This half alive, half dead thing is bullshit,” I muttered. “Do better [System]!” My voice painfully echoed in my head as though my brain hadn’t come to grips with its new distributed reality

  My torso was still glued to the wall, but I’d freed my appendages. I hung a good twenty feet off the ground and wasn’t in a hurry to dump myself headfirst from this height.

  The mworm moved at speed towards me now. Its maw drooling as its little feet surged forward.

  I braced, realizing I’d only get one chance before it dived into my brain. Even now, I could feel a wave of telepathic sleepiness.

  I realized the only reason I wasn’t completely comatose was my [Distributed Systems]. The creature was focusing its power on my head! But with my higher brain functions dispersed, it had almost no effect.

  Which may have led to the absolute shock it experienced as I batted it off the webbing. The mworm spun end over end, its milky eyes bulging as it splattered on the floor below us. I imagine a brain worm didn’t get surprised too often.

  Score one for the [System] I guess.

  Checking my map, I could see that the team had slowed down significantly. They didn’t seem to fight anything, but were certainly conscious of the direness of the situation. I was going to have to get down out of this insect baby bj?rn.

  A thread wrapped right under my right armpit, restricting movement severely. So, I pried at it with my left hand. If I could just remove the strap, I might reach into my pocket that contained the multi-tool from my toolkit.

  My fingernails tore into the threads. I almost wished I had Meredeath’s claws, my meager fingernails were not doing the job cleanly. Several of the thin, long-legged spiders stretched their bodies up as though to get a better view of what I was doing.

  However, I got the distinct impression that they equipped themselves solely to deal with the storage of the dead and did not want to come after struggling, potentially dangerous prey. Several of the nearby spiders took a couple of steps back on spindly legs as though I were a threat.

  A rip of tissue announced my success, and I dipped my right hand into my pocket, greasy hands clasping over the cool handle of the tool. With a deft and long practiced, flick of my hand, I flipped out the saw-toothed blade. It was time to get to work.

  We’re here. Richard’s proclamation was timely, as I was ripping through the last vestige of the webbing holding me in place.

  The plan was to hold on to a loop of fibrous tendon I’d found, and swing as low as possible before releasing. I glanced down, seeing my friends at the mouth of the cave. None of the insects had approached me. The magenta antennaed ant looked up, as though evaluating the situation.

  The cavern rumbled. Walls shaking violently, I accidentally stabbed myself with the saw. It slid into the flesh of my torso, right into my left lung where the scar from Tandy’s healing magic still puckered my chest. The knife withdrew in a smooth motion, and I expected the gurgling suction of a punctured lung.

  Instead, it sealed up, [Gelatinous Regeneration] taking over as though it’d just been a normal wound. More points to the [System] for thinking ahead. At this rate, I would be indestructible in a fight.

  Another violent rumble shook the cavern. My body, no longer fastened to the ceiling, swung wildly. The multi-tool flew out of my hands.

  The last strand holding me in place gave a dramatic riiip. I went flying headfirst towards the ant directing traffic on the ground floor.

  In my imagination, I did an elegant swan dive and tumbled to a landing. In reality, I landed like a melon thrown out a third-story window. My head cracked as it bounced on the rock, splitting open in a dozen spots, the gelatinous membrane holding my body together working overtime to keep everything on the inside.

  “Did he just kill himself?” Ash asked in disbelief.

  An hour ago, that would have been an immediate death notification. Now, however, I just felt like I’d suffered a concussion. My head was a little fuzzy as I sat up. Blood dribbled down my face. I had a weirdly decentralized headache that ran down my spine.

  Tandy turned green as I looked at her.

  “I didn’t get a death notification.” Ash’s brows were knitted together as he used some sort of [Analyze] skill on me. “It doesn’t say he’s [Undead].”

  “ ’m fahn,” I said, the words slurring between my teeth. I was fine, it was just going to take a minute for [Gelatinous Regeneration] to knit me back together. My health had only dipped by 25%, which, considering I hit headfirst, was nothing short of a miracle.

  That remains to be determined. Richard’s tentacles waved behind me.

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