by drewmcgunn
The System evaluates every eighteen-year-old and hands back three to five class options. Tim Kowalczyk got one. On his birthday, the System weighed eighteen years of Tim and returned a single verdict with the decline button grayed out: Dungeon Bait (Rare). The thing you put on a hook because you're counting on something bigger to take it. Now dungeons spawn wherever he goes. Monsters track him like he's the center of a map only they can read. And the System has already tried seventeen times to scrape Tim out of his own skull and install something more useful. About everything else, it's being very patient. The good news, if you can call it that: the overwrite left something behind. Bob. A dead merchant with fifty-three years in the trade, from a world that finished its Integration long ago, now riding shotgun in Tim's head with no body, no contacts, and exactly one marketable skill. Knowing what everything is worth. Including a walking dungeon factory. The System wants Tim dead. Bob wants to build an empire. Tim just wants to make rent.
| # | Title | Words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter 1 — Birthday | 0 |
| 2 | Chapter 2 — Worth | 0 |
| 3 | Chapter 3 — The Game Store | 0 |
| 4 | Chapter 4 — The Cost | 0 |
| 5 | Chapter 5 — Leaving | 0 |
| 6 |
| Chapter 6 — The Sears |
| 0 |
| 7 | Chapter 7 — The Offer | 0 |
| 8 | Chapter 8 — Orientation | 0 |
| 9 | Chapter 9 — Useful | 0 |
| 10 | Chapter 10 — Patterns | 0 |
| 11 | Chapter 11 — Home | 0 |
| 12 | Chapter 12 — The System Speaks | 0 |
| 13 | Chapter 13 — Alone | 0 |
| 14 | Chapter 14 — Bob's Grief | 0 |
| 15 | Chapter 15 — The Deal | 0 |
| 16 | Chapter 16 — Promotion | 0 |
| 17 | Chapter 17 — Seeds | 0 |
| 18 | Chapter 18 — Tightening | 0 |
| 19 | Chapter 19 — The Crossing | 0 |
| 20 | Chapter 20 — Free Afternoon | — |
| 21 | Chapter 21 — Proof | — |
| 22 | Chapter 22 — Terms | — |
| 23 | Chapter 23 — Nine | — |
| 24 | Chapter 24 — The Hour | — |
| 25 | Chapter 25 — The Weighing | — |
| 26 | Chapter 26 — Ninety-Four | — |
| 27 | Chapter 27 — Two Buyers | — |
| 28 | Chapter 28 — Fair Exchange | — |
| 29 | Chapter 29 — Processing | — |
| 30 | Chapter 30 — Nothing Personal | — |
| 31 | Chapter 31 — Lunch | — |
| 32 | Chapter 32 — Ground Temperature | — |
| 33 | Chapter 33 — One Match | — |
| 34 | Chapter 34 — Normal Monday | — |
| 35 | Chapter 35 — Maybe a Minute | — |
| 36 | Chapter 36 — The Plan | — |
| 37 | Chapter 37 — Access | — |
| 38 | Chapter 38 — Ask Me First | — |
| 39 | Chapter 39 — The Buyer Line | — |
| 40 | Chapter 40 — Three Acres of Brush | — |
| 41 | Chapter 41 — Water Resistant | — |
| 42 | Chapter 42 — Holding the Bag | — |
| 43 | Interlude - long weekend | — |
| 44 | Chapter 43 — Formation | — |
| 45 | Chapter 44 — First Clear | — |
