Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book four Gait of the Pharaoh Gods,
chapters twenty seven and twenty eight. In these chapters, we
have got the face off with this giant meg creature
and all of her young in her mouth. It's harrowing.
I don't like it. For the record, however, it's taking
care of faster than I expected. And then we have
a Pharaoh god. Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the
show everyone. I am Natasha. Thank you very very much
to Michael for commissioning this episode. And delighted to see
people here in the chat. Apologies because evidently they were
here in the chat for my last recording and I
simply could not see them, which is irritating. But I'm
glad I can see you now, so that's good. So
you guys, this look, I'm gonna be real with you all,
and this isn't This is one of those things that
I'm couching a little bit, and it sort of maybe
sounds like I'm trying to have it both ways, but
it's really just that I want to make it clear
I know that things are subjective and that how I
feel may not be how plenty of other people feel.
But I think that I like this book the least
so far. The one thing that I have really loved,
of course, was killing Loita, because that was just such
a fucking moment. You know, how do you not love that?
But I think that there is something falling flat for me,
and I'm having difficulty putting my finger on what it is.
And it may be that I'll reach a point in
the book where I start to sort of see, Okay,
this is what we were working toward, and it will
make me reevaluate how I see the rest of the book.
But for me, it's I haven't felt very interested in
our missions and the whole thing with like the Gate
of the Pharaoh Gods. It's like I figured that we
were going to get manipulated into a place where we
have to use it. I didn't want this, but I
kind of figured like it, either narratively or via the game.
And it turns out it's explicitly the game that seems
to be trying to make us do this right, And
it just there's something about the quests and the setup
with the bubble and working with other people that it's weird,
it's not hitting because last time in the previous book,
what I was enjoying was the fact that we were
working together and that we were having to like compile
information from all of these different sources and compare and
contrast our experiences figure out exactly what's going on here.
And there was a sense the whole time of like
we're banding together, you know, and in this one, because
it's a much more personal level where we have to
work with other people, but in smaller groups, and it's
not just we can do our own thing and then
compile information, but we actually have to work together on
the mission itself. There's a certain frustration there that I
think is adding something on one level. You know, we
have these like dudes who are beginning to level up
and they're beginning to take things more seriously. They have
been forced to take things more seriously by being fed
a potion that will keep them from being able to
get drunk. Granted, but there's something to seeing that that
is satisfying. So I will grant that. I just think
that my attention is being spread a little bit too thin,
and so there's a lot of names being brought in
of people that I like don't know very well, that
I only sort of care about that I've only sort
of gotten to know, and it's it's making me feel
like I am less invested in many more parts of
the story than I should be, considering that it's not
about that person. It's about whether they actually accomplish they're
part of the mission, because if they don't, we don't
get to progress on our part. And I can know
that intellectually, but it still doesn't really quite hit for me.
And I'm almost wondering, guys, if it's the aspect of
this all being like a game simulation and I know
it's not a simulation, but you know, that's like the
way that you talk about it when it's this is genre,
that it being gamified. If that has sort of lost
the luster that it had in the first few books.
And so now it's feeling like we need more than
the missions, that we've reached a point where I'm starting
to be like, okay, you know, and granted we are
getting more. His attack on Loota is outside of the missions,
but it feels a little late and a little little
does that make sense? So, like I said, there may
be something that eventually comes up later and the Federal
god Gate opening might be the catalyst for that. I
don't know, but I'm just there. Previously in my recordings,
I would immediately as soon as I was done recording
for the day, I would put this book on and
be eagerly listening to the next chapters. And I am
not finding myself as pumped to listen, and it sucks.
I don't like that feeling. And it's always this way
when it starts to happen, where you don't really know why,
why why isn't it really working for me? You reach
this place in watching certain TV shows as well. You'll
be binging hard for the first like two seasons, and
then you reach season three and suddenly, all right, let's
watch the next one. And it's not like you don't
want to know what happens, but you don't have the
same drive about it where you absolutely have to know.
And so I just wanted to share how I'm feeling
regarding that. And this is not meant to be like
a like talking shit about the book exactly, but it's
just a curiosity in seeing whether you guys felt this
way too, whether I'm really alone in this. This may
be a lot of people's favorite book out of the ones.
You know. I don't know, but I've just seen in
myself a sort of slow down and cooling, and I
don't I'm having a lot of trouble really pinpointing why
that is. As I'm talking to you all about it now,
I'm still not really even able to truly articulate what
that's about. And maybe as I talk about it, I
will figure it out. I don't know. So anyway, I
start with twenty seven. Once again, we are in this
new version of a Boss Battle where everybody is there
is there are commentators in real time who are telling
not only the audience, but like it's also giving Carl
some information as well. And so there's a point where
what's his face runs off and one of the commentators
is like, he's running away and Carl hasn't noticed yet,
And I just thought it was funny the idea that like,
these guys are I think they are aware Carl can
hear them. I don't think that's the issue, but it
was just funny to have it be that, like there's
a thing going on that Carl isn't is only getting
that information through these dudes. So anyway, the whole fight here.
I've already jumped ahead a little bit with Vidim running away.
I just want to talk about that for a second though, guys,
because like this is one of those things where I
think about the way that I would react, you know,
And it's tough because if he had run away where
while I was in the middle of a thing and
I was depending on him, I will not lie to you.
I would probably be like, well, fuck you forever and
go die. I don't think I'm alone in that either,
Like everybody is depending on you and you just just
bailed the moment anything Like how fucking pathetic can you get?
So I know that my temper would get a hold
of me, and I also know that it's not really
conducive to working as a group. I can know that.
Also doesn't mean that I really get to control how
I'm reacting, but I can know that. But Carl is
so much more reasonable than I am. It's not exactly
that he isn't holding any ill will, because there comes
a point later where somebody says what about the deem
and he just thinks, can go fuck himself. I didn't
say out loud, so like, you know, he does have
that anger, but he does he like before even getting
to a point where he's feeling like saying that out loud,
he is like not yelling at Vadim. First of all,
he's warning him, you're trying to take the escape pod
and it's not gonna work because we're inside the thing,
giving him some advice, which it is self serving advice,
because if the guy tried to just steal the escape
pod and it didn't work, you're also ruining the like
escape for the rest of us as well. I recognize that,
but I think that probably I would be very much like,
if you fucking take that escape pod right now and
it doesn't work and you ruin our getaway, I will
fucking kill you myself, Like I would be aggressive about
it because I'd be so pissed. And then later on
he says something like pass on to Vadim that he
should stay where he is and seal the door because
probably there isn't going to be a way out, And
again it just struck me that he's still kind of
looking out for this guy, and Vatim deeply does not
deserve it. In my opinion, Carl was right to be
worried about this guy's actions, indicating that maybe he was
a weasel, and I, uh, you know, it's like I
want to sort of get out ahead of this as
well and point out that, like some people might get
defensive of an accusation like that and be like, you know,
people aren't defined by just like one of their actions.
But this dude, it wasn't one of his actions. He
repeatedly impregnated people, and that shows a continued pattern of
behavior and it is not great. That's not a one
time fuck up. It's a series of decisions repeatedly made
over the course of time. So ma'am ooh, I uh
saw I just saw. In the chat, Sarahim says I
loved this one, though maybe mid range overall, I don't know.
Michael says it might be partially that you're forced to
take breaks instead of binging the book. I noticed on
my third time through keeping myself to sticking to your schedule,
there was a loss of momentum for me that wasn't
present on my first two times through. That could definitely
be it. Michael. It's interesting though, because like I didn't
feel that the breaks detracted from the previous books, So
maybe that's part of it, is that there was still
so much info dumping to do that the breaks were
loaded with information in such a way. And when I
say the breaks, I mean like the non combat things.
There's like so much to process about exactly how things
work that I was given something to chew on between
recordings that expanded the world. And now it feels like
we're getting a little bit less of that because we
know how a lot of this works, and what like
the information that we're getting it's a bit more like
deep cut insider larger picture don't even have all the pieces,
so you can't really even theorize totally, you know, And
maybe that's part of it. I don't know. So see,
I'm finding the spot where we get the description of
juvenile octo shark level thirty and there's like a thousand
of these, there's a ton, and we get the description
about just like how they need food and how out
of the thousands that are born, only like two or
three survive that eventually they begin to eat each other,
and this later leads to Carl using that Berserker potion
on them, which is truly a master stroke in terms
of plans, like that is such a good idea. I
don't know how It never really occurred to me using
a potion on another group, but probably I just wasn't
really thinking about the way that it would disperse, because
it being underwater makes this work in a way that
it likely wouldn't work at all if you were out
in the air, right, So I'm not going to judge
myself too harshly for this, but yeah, I just thought
this was because I was like looking at that Berserker
potion when he got it, and I was thinking to myself,
can I even imagine a way to use this that
isn't like horribly horribly dangerous that you're not put everybody
on your team at risk. And the only way that
I could imagine this working is if you use it
when you are nowhere near your team, when you have
been somehow separated from them by accident, maybe been captured
by somebody, and you have to get out of there,
and it's just a last ditch effort of like, let
me break out, and you message your friends and you go, hey, guys,
I'm taking this potion. I won't remember you, so stay
away from me for the next like five minutes while
I absolutely lose my shit, and then come find me.
That was the only way, and even that I was like,
there could possibly be in PCs around you that you
don't want to hurt, or you could just wind up
doing something that's so horrific that like Carl's got a
reputation already as somebody who is a bit out of
pocket with how hard he goes in violence. We know
that is not fair and that he has been misrepresented,
and that there has been a concerted effort, in my opinion,
to undermine him. I think because of the fact that
he is so anti establishment in this that they are
trying to erode his credibility. And so if somebody who
is like Carl and wants to take down the establishment
is seen as a hero by the people, they will
all throw themselves behind him right away, and you will
have a problem on your hands potentially. But if you
manage to give him publicity that makes him look like
a fucking lunatic, then every time he runs across somebody
who could have been a potential ally instead they are
going to greet him with hostility, which we already did
see with Lewison was his name. I can't remember's other name,
but so I think that that's why it's being this
way and all I could think was like if even
if you use the berserker potion in that context, it
could backfire so badly, and they could use footage of
you that there's like no possible way even out of
like even in context that it doesn't seem terrible. But this,
this is really smart and really opportunistic, and really in
line with the overall the personalities of the creatures themselves.
I am I would guess that even were it not
said that these guys eventually begin to eat one another,
I am going to guess that probably this still would
have worked on them anyway. But I think that it
worked extra well and quickly due to the fact that
they were already going to be heading in that direction eventually,
you know. Anyway, Yeah, I just I really enjoyed this.
It was just so unexpected. It was so efficient. You know,
you just throw it in there and close the door
and wait for it to do its thing, and you
don't have to fucking even be hands on anymore. That's great.
It's even better than an explosive, because an explosive has
blowback that could potentially harm you. But this, as long
as you've got the door closed and they can't get in,
that's not even a fucking factor, you know. Michael says
the potion would also have been useful for any ho
door hold the door moments where someone is keeping a
hordback so the rest can get away. That's like, I'm
not so sure about that, Michael, because here's the thing.
It really depends. If you don't remember who you are
or wire here, or who anybody is, you may just
not hold folks back enough because you don't remember your
job is to keep them from getting through you. I
would think it would probably just make it so that
nobody's getting through me on fucking principle, like on GP,
I am not letting anybody pass me because fuck all
of you. And maybe that would just work blanket like
that and it would be still be fine. But for me,
the memory thing is where it gets a little like,
I don't know how well that would work. It's sort
of it depends, I guess, you know, on this on
this situation, so anyway, it's possible, but it would have
made me nervous. There's really this is the only context
that I can imagine where he uses it, and I'm
immediately at ease, going, oh, that's great, no concerns, it's fine.
Like any other way, I would have been just going,
Oh God, Okay, what's the what's what's the blowback? What
is going to happen here? You know? So there was
let's see, oh right, he there's a moment here where
he's even thinking about using Hobgoblin Puss and is like,
I am burning through this shit so fast. This is
very concerning. And then later on he gets a box
that has an ability in it that makes so he
doesn't have to use this shit anymore, which is super convenient. Again,
I just want to like register my interest and concern
regarding what the AI knows about Carl and whether it
can read his mind at all. I know it can't really,
because it's like it's there would be so many things
that if it could, he would already have been screwed. Right.
But you know, this has come up a few times
with like the fan boxes as well, shit from his
past that they have chosen for reasons to needle him
or just to like stoke his nostalgia that I do
not understand how they know to even put that there
as an option. How much of his life are they
aware of? Do they monitor every moment? Does the audience
get like a a reel of highlights of his life
to get to know him better if they were monitoring
the whole time. Like, I'm just very, very curious and concerned.
So let's see guys into this stateroom. Why in here
because this is the only room that won't break apart
and we can seal it. I just need a minute.
And this is when he does the thing, and he
starts to look at the the red dots and they
begin to turn into x's. Meanwhile, he's talking to Dona,
and this is like the first time that you really
get an inkling. Every single escape round that they had
planned on having is getting taken away from them on purpose.
So you know, she was supposed to be up there
and that they were supposed to be working her into
part of their escape plan. And then eventually when he
gets in touch with her, the wind mysteriously shifted in
a different direction and now we're flying the wrong way.
Oh no, yeah, okay, you know, like come on it.
Just later on, Mordecai is talking to him about this
dude that is in the cookbook who has left a
lot of notes in there, and says something about how
eventually that guy died because one of his traps backfired unnaturally,
and he's careful about the way he words it, but
it's obviously like they had to cheat to kill him
because he wasn't playing their game. And Carl is almost
elated by this in a which I understand of just like, oh,
they had to resort to that, like it's embarrassing for them,
you know, which it is? It is, And I don't know,
I just I understand why, even though it's sort of counterintuitive,
why he would feel like, ha, gotcha, even though that's
not good news. It's not it's not better for you,
they are in control in such a way. But I
think it's just the knowledge that, like they got cornered
to that degree, even by somebody who shouldn't have any
power at all, that it's really kind of validating to know,
you know, Oh my god, I'm so so sorry, guys.
But Michael said they might have an Amazon X ray
type situation where they can click on Carl's name and
bring up a full bio of his life. Oh my god,
that would make sense, it really would. But like you know,
Seraphim says, most of the major items were things he'd
talked about, but some of the rest likely various programs
were in stories on him. Well, things like, for example,
the helmet, right, there's like a bike helmet that triggers
a memory for him, although that might not have been
in a fan box. Maybe I'm wrong about that. The
tool chest one that was something from his past, but
I don't think he ever talked about that. The motorcycle
that his dad like yelled at him about, that wasn't
something he had ever talked about. I don't think just
you know, there's a number of things, even like the
photo with b and her ex boyfriend that was on Instagram.
I don't think he ever said anything out loud about that.
I think that it happened right before this all started.
But I don't feel like he doesn't get personal out
loud very often, you know, So there's got to be
some other source. I don't know. But the Amazon extra
I think would be really really funny for those who
don't know what that is. If you're watching something on Prime,
you can hover your mouse over like a particular frame,
sometimes an actor on the screen. It depends how interactive
it is, and usually it's like the more big name
a franchise of TV shows or movies is the more
in depth it will be, but you will get like
a basically IMDb pop up of the actor's name and
they're known for blank blank blank, and the few like
roles that really, you know, push them into stardom, and
it's really useful. Honestly, there's a part of me sometimes
that resents that so many other services don't do that,
when it would be so helpful for me as a
podcaster to have that. While I'm recording on Netflix with Supernatural,
for example, the number of times that an actor will
show up and I will be like, what are they from?
And somebody has to tell me because I can't search
them on IMDb because then it will reveal potentially if
they're a returning character or you know, if they die
this episode. You can get spoiled really easily with that shit.
So I don't even look. But if it were on Netflix,
it would be so helpful to me. So, Okay, the
I'm jumping forward here because I'm like halfway through and
I haven't even gotten through this one fucking section here.
But eventually Carl manages to lure Luska into like coming
at them in such a way that she gets them
part way into her mouth and he slams on Protective Shell,
and I just want to note how fucking useful, endlessly
useful Protective Shell is. I swear to god, you guys,
it's just repeatedly been fucking clutch. You know, there's a
few spells that a part of me is worried it's
so strong that they're just gonna take it out of
the game for other people next time, you know. And
I don't really think that, but like, it is so
useful this and the whole spell. There's just been a
few different things where it's like, I mean, practically unbeatable.
It's got its limitations, but you know, the fact that
it doesn't move here again works for us. It worked
for us with the train, and it works for us
with this thing Protective Shell. It just seems like it
especially lends itself to large enemies or bosses that have
built up momentum. If you have something like that, you
can use Protective Shell and just really fuck their day up.
And so it forces her like jaw upward and back
and like breaks it, which I appreciated extremely that they
don't simply take this as okay, now she's dead. It's
fucked her up, but it is not taken for granted
that kills her. And so this is when Katcha does Leatherface,
which is using the buzz saw that just like hangs
and it goes right through Lusco's brain and kills her.
And the buzz saw is just I don't think that
she can retrieve it. I think that once it gets
wedged into the seafloor, that's just sort of a wrap
on that thing. But it, God, does it come in
handy for this enormous fucking creature. And everybody is cheering,
and you know, and then he gets the Notification Winner,
and he gets all of these achievements, he gets all
of these box notifications, and Donut up top is like,
I just went up a level and I didn't even
do anything. I should stay back more often. This is great,
but later on when she finds out that she didn't
get a boss box, that she only went one level
up while he went three levels up, she is so
pissed and I couldn't help but just look at her, like, Gurley,
you were just really happy that you got this for
doing nothing, and kind of I mad, like you admitted
you did nothing, and now you're pissed. No, no, And
he expresses some real concern at the fact that she
is only level thirty nine. I think it's thirty nine,
and he's like forty eight or forty seven. She has
dropped far enough behind him that we are starting to
get into the realm of hecla, of Donut being forced
to rely on Carl. And what's so upsetting about this
for me is that the only solution is for her
to fight more. But I don't want her to do
that because she would just be so at risk, you know.
So I just have very mixed feelings because I want
her to advance. I want her to get more experience
and be more involved. I want her to grow. But
the further along in this we get, the more outmatched
she's going to be and the more dangerous it's going
to be. And it just has me very like worried
about her in a way that I haven't felt worried
because she has. Her and Carl have been on the
same level up until this, like they've been like, you know,
one or two levels apart from each other. He has
tended to be mostly ahead of her. There had been
one period I think where she was ahead of him
very briefly, But now we have had consistently him ahead
of her and continuing to pull ahead of her. And
you know, a big part of this is her constitution.
I think it is that's like really really low, and
she didn't choose whatever it was that would have lent
her a boost to her constitution on this floor. So
this has made her have to rely on him. And
I really want them to like talk to her about this.
And I know that the whole joke with her is
simply she doesn't listen. You can have a conversation with her,
she'll act like she gets what you're saying, and then
she'll just go right ahead and do what the fuck
she feels like anyway, And I totally get that, but
I do want them to sit her down this time
around and be like, girl, you just picked the thing
without constitution last time, and we tried to warn you,
and now you see you fall in like seven levels back.
That's a result of you making a wrong choice that
we tried to stop you from making. I need you,
if you are going to be part of the team,
to think about the team and not just what you want,
and also if it and also think about what you
want in terms of long term because this isn't going
to be something that can be sustainable, you know, So
I don't know. I'm just I am just worried about her.
Like really, that's all it comes down to. It's just
I'm concerned. It's a lot of the theme of these
three chapters is just me being like oh no, over
and over again. Sorry, Misti says, I think the AI
has access to all the data on everyone since they
were monitoring and the game creators aren't personally going through
Carl's life hand choosing things. It's AI. The AI decides
Toolchest for no reason. That's that sounds very likely. I
like that assumption, Okay, miss t Ai, Like honestly, in
the in the year twenty twenty five, being like AI
picked it is so believable right now, Like yeah, uh,
Seraphim says Carl assumed the tool Chest was to troll
him into picking a worthless prize, since the idea was
to get him to choose it because he thought it
would be full of all his tools that he'd mentioned
wanting but was most likely empty. No, yeah, I get that, Seraphim,
But like they had to know about the tool Chest
to do like however, they were using it doesn't matter.
I'm just wondering how they knew about it. They knew
the exact model to pick, you know, like that's the
question that I have. Michael says it would be helpful
for certain book series, especially stuff like Wheel of Time
and Song of Ice and Fire or One Piece where
there were huge gaps between books and a massive cast.
Some character shows up again with vaguely familiar name. Oh
my god, fucking's true, Michael. One Piece is so rough
with that. These are the types of broken things they like,
as it makes for really awesome, weird things the audience
enjoys watching, but has enough limits that it could be
gotten around. That's true because I was worried earlier guys
about you know, are they going to remove some of
these spells from the game, But probably not, because they're
so spectacular a watch. Michael says, I felt bad. I
felt kind of bad for this poor shark to puss.
She was just swimming around. I think you mean octoshark
living her best life, getting paid in delicious food to
to getting paid in delicious food to fuck not because
she had to since she was queen bitch of the ocean.
And she randomly gets walloped that's the thing with all
the NPCs, right, they're just minding their own business as
far as they know. They don't get it. And Saraphim says,
at least Carl actively wants to avoid having Doughnut be
wholly dependent on him. And we've seen that all it
might take is her getting a good item or spell
to give her a huge boost. But that's the thing.
We cannot rely on that either, that's still relying on
like the system. It's got it. She's got to do
something more like herself. And there was even the mention
from Loyda about or maybe it was Zev who said this,
you're getting new spells and then you're not using them
and everybody wants to see them, what you know, like
use those more. And it's sort of in the same
vein you know of like the lack of participation and stuff.
Find ways for her to do things and participate more,
relying on the system to like give you good spells
and stuff. I understand to a degree like that's going
to be a make or break, there's no getting around that.
But I think it's a mistake too. It's just I'm
worried about it. I'm worried about it, and Michael says,
to be fair to Donut, she's very very young, like
Imani said, she's basically a kid. You were talking about
her needling Carl last episode. But she does. But it
kind of reminds me of Robin William's monologue to Matt
Damon and Goodwill Hunting. Will eviscerated him in their first session,
but then he realized will was a punk kid who
intellectually understood a lot, but who had no real experience.
Donah is like that. She understands a lot because she's smart,
but she doesn't actually get it. That's fair. Yeah, I
see that. Well, like I'm thinking more of because even
within Goodwill Hunting, like Matt Damon is old enough to
get it intellectually, even more than I think Donut does.
I feel like Donuh is in some ways just like
a little kid who just says stuff and doesn't realize
like that was fucked up, you know. But but yeah, yeah,
I think that she is smarter than they often give
her credit for, and that communicating a little bit more
seriously and directly with her could have better. This is
always my thing, though, Like you know, I always am
somebody who's like have a conversation with a capital C.
Sometimes that doesn't work for certain people, And you know,
but I always think whether it's with people who who
you sort of don't see eye to eye with or children.
I think kids can be smarter than we let them be,
not even we underestimate them. But sometimes if you like
treat a kid like they're smarter, they will rise to that,
if that makes sense. So part of me is like,
have a real adult convo with her about things, and
she might surprise you because I think that she is
starting to see the long term effects of the choices
she's making. We'll see, we'll see. So anyway, we have
this like brief moment that I'm kind of going to
summarize really quickly of them being outside in the ocean.
They are getting a warning about the pressure and they
have to get inside somewhere. They're looking around. Vadim is
in that like escape pod and he decides he doesn't
decide that it won't let him open the door again,
so he is just going to take off with it,
and Carl is at first just like, ugh, must be nice.
But then they get a message from Vadim that the
the pain amplifier, jellyfish are in there with him, and
it's immediately followed by warning, this message is from a
deceased crawler. Yikes, was all I could bring myself to say.
So eventually they have to use the portal to get
out of there. There's simply no way to ascend out
of the water without like using up all of their
time and drowning or being crushed or whatever. And it's
interesting the way that the portal works, because you know,
I had been when I came up with my theory
last time, about like what is it that he's going
to do? And I was thinking about him bringing all
the NPCs through. I was really thinking, it's like opening
a door and everybody can just like, as long as
we hold the door open, we can let all kinds
of people through. But it doesn't seem once he uses it,
like Carl is in any control of the portal, it opens,
sucks him through, and closes within like a millisecond. And
I don't really know what the range is, like how
close do you have to be standing to it to
get pulled through? If there were two hundred people right
outside it, it just instantaneously pulled the whole group through
or do you have to be standing right next to it?
Like it just I thought it was going to be
a much less intense travel experience. And like when they
get to the other side, it pulls through a bunch
of water with them as well, And like down the
street there's a piece of rebar that's just like steward
somebody's front door. And he realizes that if the gate
was opened any longer, it would have absolutely obliterated the
town with all of this debris that would have come
flying through. So they go to an inn. And he
had been like sending up the warning before about getting
everybody to a safe room. Make sure as many of
the NPCs are in a safe room as well. He's
trying to ensure that people aren't caught outside with whatever
is going to come through. And let's see, sorry if
I recall, it only sucks him through because he was
in the ocean and the water was going through and
took him with it. Oh okay, Seraphim says, I think
it stays open until the gate device goes through. They
just got sucked through due to the water pressure. I
got you, Okay, guys, I got it. That's interesting. Huh.
So it really acts like a physical opening. I was
thinking it was more like a gateway, you know what
I mean. So whatever's going on out there, they can
hear it, like there's a lot of rumbling, something's walking around.
It's clear that it's a good thing. They are in
the safe room and Donut is talking to him. Apparently
they have been trying to get Juice Box on board
for some plan of theirs. We do not get details
about exactly what this is, but the overall plan it
seems like Juice Box is on board with. However, one
Mordecai says she won't do it for free, and two
Dona is like, hey, Carl, so do you remember the
complete nihilism that overcame fire Brandy and tis Quick when
we told them that they were in PCs. I think
that's happening with Juice Box. There's just a kind of
look that she got on her face when she began
to put things together, and the things she put together
were that like there was something she had thought was
simply a dream, but she can actually turn into one
of the creatures from that dream. So if it was
just a dream, how did she have that creature's form
in her inventory? And you know. It's just there's little
clues here and there that are pointing out things aren't
what they look like to her, and she can't explain
them other than with what they are telling her is true.
So you know, I mean, that is heavy, man. How
would you react? It's basically like being told that you're
in the matrix, But you can't just like force your
real body awake somewhere because this is it. There's no
other way, other place to be. There's no getting out
of it in the traditional sense, you know. So there's
a moment here where Carl says, Mordecai, are those feral
god things in vulnerable like regular gods are? Mordecai shook
his head, my boy. I have no clue. Now, I
don't know if this is like actually significant or not,
but I just want to register my interest in the
fact that he says, my boy, because I don't feel
like he has ever addressed Carl like that before, and
it felt so paternal. And there's a point later where
Carl is he gets a kerchief as a prize that
has like some you know, abilities attached to it, and
Mordecai is like arranging the kerchief around his neck, and stuff.
There was just something very much like paternal about the
way he treated Carl in these chapters that felt different.
And I don't know if that's anything. It may simply
be a coincidence and I'm putting them together, but I just,
you know, it felt like something. So all all of
these different achievements, he gets one for rock Bottom and
it's like in a giddy read by the AI, which
he doesn't really get and fight the power and this
is seven times they get you and I have been
named co defender in an action brought to the Syndicate
court by a third party, and we've been deemed victorious.
Why did they sue us? If you don't already know why,
you probably will never know. I was so bummed, guys, because,
like I know the general broad strokes of the thing.
I don't know the details, though, And so I was
hoping that we would get more and I should have
known that we probably wouldn't until like god knows when,
But I still really want to know more. And he
says this is one of those rare achievements that may
be awarded more than once, and so he gets a
silver summary judgment box times seven, which I just love
that the AI can stick it to them in this way.
Platinum Fan Box and then oh new Achievement soft var
VOR is one of those those kinks that, like, I
there there are some kinks that I'm like, it's not
for me at all, but I kind of get it.
VOR is one where I'm just like, nah, man, I
don't what you know, Like it just really nah, I
don't get it. You've received a platinum Spicy box and
then Flex in the City. You killed the City Boss
with a participation of five or less crawlers. Flex in
the City is very funny. Honestly, that's pretty good. And
then we get the prizes. There's Katcha gets like this
cool backpack thing. Donuts real salty because she didn't get
any loop. I have to say, guys, I was talking
about like telling Donut that she's got to participate more,
she's got to think ahead about what she wants long term.
She's got to be worried about her holding up her
end for the group, and YadA YadA, and all of
these things to like motivate her. And the one thing
that didn't occur to me was to just be like,
you're not getting as many boss boxes as us. That's
probably more convincing than anything, because, like, let's be real,
that's gonna be an immediate result that she's really going
to feel if she doesn't get it, and probably it's
a language that she understands better. I don't know. So
he gets a potion of dinosaur repellent effect lasts thirty hours.
Drink this if your party is attacked by a pack
of dinosaurs and they'll eat you last. So getting seven
of those pretty pretty good. All seven of the silver
judgment boxes contained three items. Oh that wasn't the one
that had seven. Sorry, that was the good heat. Let's see,
is that the I'm wetbox? Sorry, I'm trying to see
which one. It seems like maybe he only got one
of those. Okay, yeah, the seven I forgot about it.
Seven boxes have the stock certificates and the portraits of
the mothers of the plaintiffs, and it just feels like
kind of a dig at everybody who is a plaintiff,
just for like an immature, you know. But it is
also kind of giving Carl information, and it's unclear how
much that's on purpose and how much it's just a
side effect of the AI wanting to be a dick
to these guys, and he gets ring of water breathing,
which turns him into an amphibian. Did you know that
all amphibians swallow their prey hole. That's such an interesting fact.
Enough with the vorcer, enough with this, And then he
gets Drachia's enchanted kerchief of disorder. And this is the
thing that is related to somebody that he has read
about in the book, but he can't let anybody know
that he knows his name. And he gets information about
it from Mordecai and about the way that this dude
like progressed and fucked things up for them, got given
a pretty solid offer and spat in their faces, and
then eventually they often like kind of illegally just to
get rid of him. Cautionary tale. But maybe you can
maybe you can do it, Carl. He also gets a
the Platinum Spicy Box three items. The first was a
black sleeveless jacket made of thick canvas. The second item
was a tiny round patch depicting the planet Earth, and
the third was a small unenchanted sewing kit. And Donu
immediately jumps up and starts looking at the patch. And
this is related to the human like skill that she
was given, but they still haven't figured that out yet.
And it's also like not really important right now. I'm
curious when this is going to come into play if, like,
what possible mission could there be where this is useful,
But right now it just results in her being like,
oh my god, it's a screen print. It's not even
an embroidered patch. Pathetic, And honestly, I totally agree with her.
I can be very very snobbish when it comes to
certain things, and a thing being printed instead of embroidered,
Immediately my opinion of it plummets and I'm just like, ugh, gross,
because it fades, it begins to like, the pattern will
begin to come off. It just looks janky a lot
sooner embroidery lasts, and it also has a consistent look.
It's just better so the uh jacket can. It's kind
of bonkers. The plain unadored version of the jacket imbues
plus one to all bass stats. Bas stats increase by
plus one for every compatible patch added to this jacket.
If an eligible back patch is added, this benefit is
doubled plus fifty percent range and accuracy for all thrown explosives.
That is insane. There's also access to Desperado and Naughty
Boys Club, but like he has those already, so it
will imbue the following upgrades. The patch plus five percent
to strength immunity from cloud based attacks. Warning upgrade patches
are fleeting items. You may remove them, but they will
be destroyed in the process, so good to know. If
you don't sew these on really carefully and close together
to make as much space as you possibly can. You
can't just like pull it off and put it somewhere
else to make space you have. Where they go, they
stay unless you are okay with losing it, and that
is anxiety. This is why I don't use stickers on things.
Is that sort of attitude. So note to self and
then the kerchief plus five to detect traps. Wearer may
cast a level fifteen tripper spell once every five hours
remote detonator benefit Tripper. A lot of people say crawlers
who use the spell of Chicken Shit cowards, but then again,
those are the same people sitting at home covered in
cheetoh mud watching the show while wearing pajamas. This spell
automatically triggers all passage, motion, heat and weight based traps
in a certain radius. Cost This is an item based spell.
This spell does not require man at a cast. If
you unequip the associated item, you will lose access to
this spell. The cool down will not reset target a
ten meter radius sphere centered around the right hand of
the cast, or plus ten meters of radius per level
of intelligence duration instantaneous. This spell is one of those
good news back news situations. If you have your intelligence
high enough, you can automatically trigger every trap in the
quadrant with a snap of the finger. Blades will fall,
bombs will explode, electrodes w with zapp. It's great fun.
Here's the catch. This triggers the traps, it doesn't disarm them.
If you don't know why that might be bad, then
you're probably gonna die anyway, So I wouldn't worry about it. Yeah,
it like it's not with certain traps in certain contexts.
It does its thing one time and it can't do
it again. But I am guessing that in this universe
that's pretty rare and mostly a trap is going to
be able to do its thing over and over. So
what this would really be used for is to see
where the traps are and give you a chance to
put up your protective bubble trigger the traps to see
what's ahead of you and what potentially could happen, and
then figure out your game play and to approach it.
But it may be that it results in disarming them
as a side effect, depending on how homemade and shitty
the trap is. And then remote detonator is the thing
where he doesn't have to use his hobgoblin pus anymore,
and he's just very delighted with that. So then we
get to talk about Drachea and he died on the
eleventh floor. They'd gotten him by cheating, but he had
the last laugh. He'd helped bankrupt the Nagas. And that's
the thing is, when you do this sort of like rebellion,
you've got to be at peace with the fact that
likely you will not get to see the fruits of
your labors. And that is so difficult. That is just
that is something I'm very hung up on, you know,
in terms of like the concept of fighting for something
when you aren't going to see the benefit. I know,
there is a point that you probably reach as a
person where it's a foregone conclusion that it doesn't matter,
you're not going to see it. It's just the principle
I probably will reach that at some point, but at
this point in my life that just makes me so sad,
you know. And the stock certificates they're each for like
one share, it's not very much. We'll see how these
go up. I'm interested to see what happens, but they
may go down. It may be just to watch the
way that they get bankrupted, which would also be fun
because he only has one share, so it's not like
he's not really that invested pun intended. It's just kind
of an interesting way to access the message of the
market out there, you know. Mordecai says something about how
the AI just seems to be going insane and how
usually it does go insane, but it's like, way later
on in the game, it doesn't tend to show this
much personality this early. And then comes this weird moment
where Lewis looks over and sees Epitome no Flex of
the Dream a picture of one of the moms who's
like an elf looking woman, and he becomes obsessed with
her and takes the photo from Carl and gives it
to juice Box and is like, can you look like this?
Oh my god, she's the hottest thing I've ever seen,
and I'm wondering if is this what the AI wanted
was to just like create this like disrespectful scenario to
embarrass people like I don't know, I don't know. Uh So, anyway,
when they talk about the aid primal degeneration going primal,
So what do they do when the krawl is over?
Take the AI out behind the woodshed and shoot it? No,
a MACROAI is a life form and it's protected by
syndicate law. They're given their own closed and sealed system
where they're allowed to bounce around for the rest of eternity.
Are you fucking kidding me? The computer's life is protected?
I took a deep breath. This is not a conversation
to be having out loud. Yeah, I feel you, Carl.
It's really part of this is like, and maybe this
is an aspect of why I'm feeling a little disconnected
from the story this book. Every time that Carl mentions
like I can't believe the computer's life is protected something
like this, where it's like so and so is given
way more dignity and their death is treated with much
more gravity. It's meant to just impress upon me how
he and the other humans are enslaved in this system
that is super unfair reminder, it's not a game. It's
joky and silly in the midst of actual, real death.
But I think that sometimes it leans so hard into
the joking and silly that I even lose track of
the fact that, like, there are real deaths and real dangers,
and that is part of what's like feeling more and
more distant from me. And I think that's why lloyds
to being killed was like the highlight, not just because
it's him acting out and we haven't really gotten to
see that in a real way, but because it's a
real world repercussion that is reminding me of the stakes
and the way that she was talking to them, reminding
us of the fascism that she supports. You know, It's
it was a moment of being reminded, like, what really
is happening here when a lot of the time I'm
immersed in a goofy world with lots of meta humor,
and it feels like I don't have to worry about
my people because I know they have plot armor, and
so I'm just going along jokey joke and with them
and not really worried about them the way that I'm
supposed to be, for this to for the threat to
be at the front of my mind the whole time,
and I don't really know about a good solution to that,
because I like, what's this solution to kill Donut to
up the stakes with Are you kidding? No? Like, absolutely not.
I can't imagine even taking her away from him would
probably be too horrible. I don't know. I don't know, guys.
So this one, he gets a message from Ellie who's like,
what the fuck did you do? And Carl tries at
first to be like, I didn't do anything, and I
was like, Carl, are you that dumb? Of course you
don't think that this is affecting other people, And she's
like a flaming giant just smashed through our world. And
he's like yelling for somebody over and over named Embress,
or no, he's named Embress. He keeps yelling for Orthris,
who it turns out is the God's puppy, and they
Mordecai goes and gets the Samantha's head and brings it
out and she's cracking up and she says that Embress
is a god. He has a bunch of kids, but
only really liked the dead one. And Orthrus is his
little doggie. He's so cute. Orthros got sucked into the
nothing accidentally at the same time as the son was murdered.
It's a really long story, but Embres probably the dog back. Also,
he's a big asshole, so don't expect a reward. And
she gets into a whole story with like what happens
to people who offend him? And of course do'nut finding
out that the thing he's looking for is a dog,
she gets very upset about this, and then there is
that other player who is a dog creature, and she's like,
this guy is pounding on the bubble wall, calling me Orthriss,
and I don't know what's happening. And Carl is like,
I don't get it. Wouldn't his dog be like huge?
Why would he make this mistake? But bro is blind,
I think, Samantha says, And he, I mean it's maybe
that he just doesn't He can smell a dog, but
he can't see her. I don't know. And when she
gets in touch, first we get Bautista. We're going down
into the stairwell. A giant god thing is going berserk
out here, see you on the other side. So they're
going down early and then surrenderl goore. We need help.
I was crawling along the inside of the bubble wall
looking for the last slot to put the final gem.
We were almost goddamn there. Then this giant empty eye
socket thing appeared. It called me our thrist. Now it's
pounding on the bubble wall. The mountain walls are starting
to glow. Everything is going to melt. Someone help us.
There's one hundred and sixty of us in here and
we haven't lost a person yet. We were almost done.
It's not fucking fair. I hate this so much because, like,
it's Carl's fault technically, but the game made it so
he had no other option. So they've done something that
effectively will turn everyone against him, and there's going to
be there's like no chance that they will show in
recaps and stuff the reality of it, and it's just
it's effective, it's effect. So the chapter ends with we
need to get the real damn dog back to his owner.
The only way to do that is to first get
the bubble popped. Katcha said, we had less than an
hour before the lightning was supposed to start. We need
to get moving, I said, So that's the end of
the section, and I'm over time as I sell off
and am so I'm gonna wrap up, but I am interested.
I won't lie in finding a guy's lost dog. You
got me there, It definitely got me there. And also
I just yeah, there's a lot of little questions curious
about Juice box her involvement in all of this. Only
three more episodes left in this book, which is actually
a little bit more than I was thinking. I was
thinking that the next episode might be the penultimate, so
further to go than I even thought. But yeah, all right, guys,
well I will see you next week. Wait a minute,
will I because I believe I took the week of
my birthday off, but I keep losing track of what day,
and it is no, I won't next week. I am off.
The week after that is when I will see you.
So I hope you all miss me terribly and are
desperately at loose ends without me, and I will see
you after that. Do tolue, motherfuckers. That was an unspoiled
Network podcast.