As I finished that thought, I was teleported back to the lobby. The only positive was that my open wound seemed to have healed automatically and was no longer an issue. However, the damage to my vest remained.

  A tutorial message popped up with an explanation:

  | All wounds are healed upon mission completion, failure, or abandonment. However, health points and equipment damage carry over. Deaths count toward “Locked-In” attempts. |

  Now I had to work off my debt here or be stuck here forever. It was a soft-lock all over again, and what made me the angriest was that this one was fully on me.

  I should’ve known better than to be lured in by an “easy” payday. I’d always known nothing worth doing was easy, but nothing in here was worth doing at all… except for escaping. It felt like a catch-22, so I decided to drop that fruitless line of thought.

  Scarface lady folded her hands and offered the look a teacher gives a kindergartener while explaining how punching little Timmy and taking his fire truck wasn’t “kind, caring, and respectful” behavior.

  It had meant nothing to me then, since I had Timmy’s fire engine and he didn’t, just like it meant nothing to me now. And besides, kindergarten teachers didn’t know anything about hostile corporate takeovers. Taking Timmy’s toy fire truck at a young age had prepared me for the lifestyle and career of a ruthless and insanely wealthy tycoon, and I regretted none of it.

  “I’m sorry the procedure didn’t go well,” Scarface said sympathetically. Then her voice took on a more energetic tone. “We’ve identified multiple areas where you can improve your service! Would you like to review?”

  “Not unless you’ll pay me a grand to sit here and listen to you. Skip.”

  “I understand. The observations are available for review in the codex at any time. One quick tip is that you should refrain from bashing the patient in the face with the stock of a gun! Unknown anti-material rifles are not approved dental equipment.”

  I flashed a manic smile. “Maybe they should be. You’d still have the left side of your face.”

  Scarface didn’t reply, but Silas widened his eyes at me. “Salacia’s knickers! What a nasty thing to say.”

  “She’s not real Silas. It doesn’t matter.” I motioned to the NPC, who just blinked at my comment.

  “Every scar tells the story of a healthy animal with a bright smile!” she proclaimed.

  “See? That’s demented. Besides—” When I realized I was justifying myself to an NPC octopus, my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. “Never mind.”

  Good Lord, I’m losing it… I’m actually losing it in here. I rubbed my face with my hands. Wait… how would he know or care?

  Silas angled his head and peered at the receptionist. “If you say so. Indecorous as it was, you made a good point.”

  I massaged my temples. “Okay, here’s the thing: We could take small easy missions and slowly pay off the debt, or we can risk one big one and be outta the hole quickly.”

  My gaming-sage father would have done it the slow and steady way. But although he didn’t consider his time worth much, mine was worth millions.

  I was all about delayed gratification, which is what got me where I am today—or at least, where I was back in the real world.

  That said… sometimes you just gotta risk it.

  Silas rubbed his chin. “Are you asking my opinion or just having a think out loud?”

  I blinked. “I was thinking out loud, but… alright, what would you do?”

  “Hmm, not that you’ll listen, but if I were a gambling Karjok, I’d say we risk it. We know what we’re getting into now. Besides, I did my job. By the time we were done, that mask was on the rabbit… or what was left of him.”

  If I failed again, I’d be $1,648 AllCash in debt, which meant it would take me about fourteen easy jobs to get back into the black.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  I died a little more inside at the thought.

  I checked the doors and found one with the highest challenge and a reward of $1,500 AllCash. “Mmkay. Cluck it. Why not?”

  It would jack my debt even higher if I failed, but I’d made a career of rising to the occasion. Just had to do it again here.

  Silas stretched out his tentacles and bobbed side to side on my shoulder.

  With a deep breath, I entered the glowing doorway and selected the challenge.

  As before, I teleported into the room, but this time there was no floor below my feet, and I fell. Before I could cry out, I splashed into a tank of water, about thirty feet deep and forty-by-forty feet wide. I swam up to the surface, coughing and sputtering once my head broke through.

  “Uh, thanks for the warning?” I hollered at no one in particular.

  All the tools were at the bottom of the tank, with a harness secured to the tile floor. One wall had a large circular grate.

  Silas drifted off my shoulder and swam around the tank. “Ah, now this is more like it.”

  “Can’t help but notice there’s no animal in the…” My words died in my throat as the grate in the opposite wall slid open. Then a cartoonified great white shark drifted in and hovered just above the harness and tools below us.

  It was hard to get a true sense of the thing’s scale, but the great white had to be at least twenty feet long—easily large enough to devour Silas and me. We’d barely amount to an appetizer for something that size.

  “You gotta be Free-Willy kidding me…” I muttered.

  Silas zipped back to my shoulder. “Mate, have I mentioned Karjok are susceptible to piercing attacks, like teeth?”

  I treaded water, looking down at the soulless black eyes of the enormous shark. “Most things are, Silas.”

  Since pain was real in this world, and possibly death, too, I was having major second thoughts about this.

  “Fortunately, he doesn’t look hungry,” Silas said.

  That filled me with hope. “How can you tell?”

  “I can’t, really. I’m just speaking truth to power, you know?”

  I frowned at him. “I need you with me, understand? This will take both of us.”

  Silas drifted out from behind me. “You’re right, I’m no coward. I’m a Karjok, just like the great Cephalophilus III, and I will not cower. By the way, did I ever tell you that story?”

  “Skiiiip. Just do what I tell you, and we’ll get through this.”

  This was my first time in AllVerse water, and I was unsure how exactly it would work. My Octo-Boxers supposedly gave me a ten-minute water-breathing ability, so I had to try it out.

  I dipped my face into the water and could see clearly, as if I had goggles over my eyes, complete with the magnification of water. When I took my first breath, a timer appeared in my HUD, counting down from ten minutes.

  Though I could breathe like normal, when I tried talking, it worked exactly like you’d expect talking in water would work.

  It didn’t.

  Silas could talk just fine, however.

  I raised my head above the water again, and the countdown timer paused but didn’t reset. I’d already burned fifteen seconds experimenting with the ability, and I figured I’d need every last second I could get for this task.

  “Okay, since I can’t talk underwater, I’ll do all the work with the teeth, but I’ll need you standing by—”

  “Swimming by, you mean.”

  I blinked. “Swimming by with tools, ready in case something goes wrong.”

  Silas raised a tentacle and gave a salute. “Aye-aye, cap’n.”

  I took a deep breath and then plunged, swimming toward the shark, against every natural instinct a human has. The timer started up again, cruising down toward nine and a half minutes.

  I discovered I was neutrally buoyant near the bottom. I had no idea how the AllVerse accurately calculated density and buoyancy, but, well done, technicians. I guess.

  The shark gazed straight ahead, staying eerily still. I noticed a nametag above his head, too: Bernie.

  Since I’d done this once already, and since I had limited breathing time down here, I skipped the tutorial. The objective flashed in my vision:

  | Objective: Scrape the shark’s teeth clean of plankton plaque.

  Help him regain his beautiful smile! |

  This time it would be better to use the sedatives before the animal went full roid-rage. So I grabbed the canister of sedative from among the tools. When I did, it flashed red, and a message appeared:

  | MS-222 may only be used when the patient enters a rage-state. |

  | Note: MS-222 will not affect Dentist Trainees. |

  This is one of those instances where I’d like to be more proactive than reactive. You know, end the problem before it becomes a problem? Whatever.

  I pointed to the large scraper, and Silas handed it to me. He swam around in loops while I prepared to work. He moved through the water with ease, quick and nimble, which I guess made sense.

  Bernie the shark opened his maw for me in a way that suggested more of a challenge than compliance. I knew it well. It was the same way I smiled at people when they disagreed or needed to air their opinions when I’d already made a decision.

  I began working on the shark’s teeth very, very carefully. A stupid not-so-little bunny had nearly wasted us. I’d been breathing underwater for over a minute now and felt fine, so for the second time since I’d received them, I was actually grateful to have the Octo-Boxers.

  Silas remained quiet, as if any extra noise would set the shark off, so that was a plus. I didn’t know if that was a thing or not—sharks reacting negatively to sound. Just like I wasn’t a rabbit expert, I also wasn’t a marine biologist… just an amateur dentist.

  After two extremely tense minutes, I finished and handed Silas the scraper, then I pointed to the enormous toothbrush. Less than seven minutes to go on my water-breathing ability, but we were making good progress so far.

  But as I reached to grab the toothbrush from Silas, my elbow bumped the shark’s nose.

  That’s when the shrimp hit the fan.

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  In the desolate desert of the North American Sector, the government harvests the Soul Energy of siblings Eos and Maxima in secret.

  When their powers attract the attention of a dangerous criminal organization, their routine lives are shattered. Eos and Maxima must search for freedom and the truth about their past as hostile forces close in.

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  Occam's Favor

  A grizzled ex-mech pilot is drawn back into the Everwar, a decades-long conflict raging across Jupiter’s moonscape.

  This time he refuses to fight alone, bringing a crew of misfits and a mech powerful enough to rewrite the war itself.

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  Dungeon Crawler Carl Audio Immersion Tunnel for Soundbooth Theater, and he's the lead writer for the Dungeon Crawler Carl Role Playing Game.