The System replaced the doors for Floor 2.
There are no doors in the Mucus Swamps. There are reeds. Tall, decorative reeds, planted in neat rows to suggest walls, with a small laminated sign reading PLEASE USE THE PATH. The System thought this was clever. A bear cannot break a door that does not exist.
Mike walked through the reeds. The reeds lay down. The System revised its definition of clever.
System Architectural NoticeREEDS: FLATTENED. PATH: IGNORED. SWAMP STRUCTURAL DAMAGE: 4%. LOBBY STRUCTURAL DAMAGE: 9%, CARRIED FORWARD. THE SYSTEM IS KEEPING A RUNNING TOTAL.
His opponent was Kelsey.
She took his pulse when he arrived. Fifty-two. She wrote it down. She looked at him the way a doctor looks at a patient who is calm for reasons the doctor does not fully trust.
He set his lineup by Thursday. He took the Floor 2 bonus. He is a bear of routine.
And then the routine produced the same number it produced last week.
Last week: 127.0.
This week: 128.3.
130.3 to 195.4, after the bonus. A loss by 65.1, the largest margin of the week. The lowest score on the board.
System NoticeACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GROUNDHOG WEEK. WEEK 2: 127.0. WEEK 3: 128.3. RESULT: LOSS. RESULT: LOSS. THE BEAR WOKE UP, SAW HIS SHADOW, AND WENT BACK TO SLEEP.
The System checked whether the two weeks were quietly the same week. They were not. The System checked again. Still not. It is simply the score Mike’s roster produces right now, steady and stubborn, like a bear sitting on a riverbank waiting for a fish that keeps swimming to his mother’s side of the river.
He is 1-2. Eighth in the Dungeon. One win clear of the two crawlers who have none.
His mother won this week. His brother is 3-0. He knows both of these things. He said nothing about either of them, and then he walked back out through the reeds, which were already lying down from the last time, so there was nothing left to flatten. He seemed disappointed by this.
In his pack, unused, is the Frame-Perfect Input from Week 1. It is +2 points. It is exactly the kind of small, precise advantage he understands better than anyone in this league. He has not touched it.
Use the input, Mike.
He did not answer. Bears rarely do.
Week 4: Kayla. She has found the only dry ground on the floor and placed a couch on it. He will need to decide whether a couch counts as a door.
The System has a strong suspicion.