“Attempt number 23 recorded as a failure. Rerun in 10… 9…”

  I felt numb and tired. Even though my perception of the world was as crystal clear as ever, thanks to the messed-up cyber nature of my avatar, I still felt like I was seeing everything through a long, dark tunnel. My mind was sluggish.

  And if that wasn’t enough, blinking in the lower left corner of my vision was a notification.

  It was a taunt, a hint of hope that I might just be able to get through the entire maze.

  From what I’d overheard, the doctor had wanted me in the B block because he thought I didn’t have access to the Shadow Runner Package. He assumed I was running off normal instinctive abilities.

  An upgrade would put me way beyond that level, right? It would probably be a significant upgrade, just like Clairvoyance had been.

  Speaking of Clairvoyance…

  The improvement was noticeable. Even the passive flashes came a little faster and lasted longer, giving me more time to react.

  It mattered surprisingly little.

  I wasn’t having trouble with my Clairvoyance to begin with. Sure, the improvement was nice, but I’d already been dodging the traps. Even when more active traps began to pop up, like a moving laser grid I needed to practically dance around, Clairvoyance was not an issue.

  The fact that I mistimed my ‘Movement’ on attempt number 16 and got my foot chopped off? That was an issue. The fact that I somehow managed to stumble and get my head chopped off on attempt 21? That was an issue.

  The main issue, though, was cumulative strain. Failing so many times was literally killing me. Not only in all the moments when my avatar actually died, but through fatigue and whatever damage the constant push for more reruns was causing to my actual body.

  And there was damage. I was pretty sure of that.

  At the start of the twenty-second attempt, I found blood staining my fingers when I ran my hand down my face. It was perfectly replicated, right down to the sticky feeling and the vague smell of copper. I’d have stuck some into my mouth to taste-test it, but I was too tired to dredge up the curiosity.

  At the start of my twenty-third attempt, there was a bit of tar mixed in with the blood.

  Now, standing there on shaky legs, facing down attempt number 24? The tar was more heavily mixed into the blood. I watched drops of the mottled liquid fall onto the mirror floor. They would vanish, of course. The hallway would be spotless again when I respawned from my next death.

  And there would be a next death.

  I’d come to terms with that on my sixteenth run, when I started mixing up which paths I’d taken already and which I hadn’t tested yet. The constant left/right choices were too disorienting. And the deeper I got into the maze, the harder it became to keep track.

  The counter hit zero, and I broke into a run again.

  The dodging was automatic, instinctual. I was familiar enough with this first hallway and a few after it that they weren’t even triggering my Clairvoyance anymore. There was no point when I was never in danger of triggering the traps.

  In the meantime, as my digital body did its own thing, my mind struggled to churn.

  Was the next level of Movement worth the risk?

  What would it even do? Before, when I was chasing level-ups, I’d been expecting to trigger this one by doing something impressive. Maybe move through several walls in a row using their coding weak points, or even travel continuously inside a wall rather than slipping past it.

  Instead, I triggered the last experience point simply by pushing the precision of my digital body’s movements ever higher in an attempt to get past the traps.

  Still… there was a chance that the level-up would do something to help me. Maybe I would learn how to hover! This wasn’t the physical world, after all. It was theoretically possible, even if no amount of just wishing it would happen had done the trick so far.

  On the other hand, it was just as possible that the level-up would unlock some ability that I couldn’t hide, or refine my existing movements to a suspicious degree. Then the good doctor would figure out I did, in fact, have access to the full Shadow Runner Package.

  That fear held me back from pressing that ‘yes’ button.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  It also kept me from triggering my Clairvoyance to peek ahead and avoid dead ends. Maybe I could get away with that once or twice. But three times? Four? If I somehow pushed myself to my limit and managed to use Clairvoyance repeatedly to get to the end of the maze? That would definitely merit a deeper inspection from the dear doctor.

  Besides, that was assuming I could do it to begin with. It was perfectly possible that so much Clairvoyance would fry my brain way before I managed to get out of block B, and…

  Wait, am I supposed to turn right or left at this point?

  I chose left, rushed down the forced right turn immediately after, then skidded to a stop at the sight of a dead end. I didn’t even have the energy to curse. I just threw myself into the first available trap and took my punishment.

  Anything was better than a repeat of the electric-style execution. On my… thirteenth? I wanna say thirteenth run, I actually thought I’d been maybe exaggerating the pain and horror of it from that first time, so I just let it have me.

  Nope. I wasn’t misremembering things at all. It had been traps only for me ever since.

  Fuck whoever made that stupid lightning ‘encouragement.’

  Another instance of staggering to my feet in a hurry. Another attempt to get moving before the countdown expired, which failed, as always. My feet simply refused to move until they had to. More blood and tar on my hands, with the tar percentage steadily increasing.

  Then the running.

  If I had real lungs, they’d have given up on me by that point. As it was, the pain and exhaustion I was actually feeling did little to impede my movements. It was only when my attention fully slipped that my body didn’t react the way I wanted it to. To be fair, that was happening more and more, but still…

  Where was I… Ah yes. Movement.

  I had no guarantee the Movement level-up would help me, anyway. What I did have was a guarantee that it would be unpleasant. Unpleasant enough for even my captors to catch onto the fact that something had happened, presumably. I mean, the flood of tar, the convulsions, and the visions I’d experienced last time were not exactly an easy thing to miss.

  Then again, I was already leaking tar on the regular, wasn’t I? Maybe…

  My distraction cost me. When my foresight warned me about the trap ahead, it took me just a bit too long to drag myself into the present. The laser trap ignited with the hum of displaced air. I ran face-first into it.

  The sensation of lasers melting a path through my brain was highly unpleasant.

  “Attempt number 25 recorded as a failure. Rerun in 10… 9…”

  I knew she was on my side. Kind of. At least Miss Assistant hated the doctor with a passion, though whether that passion matched my own at that point, I couldn’t tell. Still, after how many times she’d announced my death and forced me into a repeat of the test, I was starting to resent her just a little.

  Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d at least varied the message a teensy bit, but no. The only bloody thing to change was the stupid attempt number. Even the countdown happened with mechanical precision. I didn’t know if she’d just counted down from ten enough times to perfect the process, or if it was a pre-recorded voice pack doing the talking.

  I was hoping for the latter, because I couldn’t imagine the number of times she’d have been to count down from ten to get that good at it.

  I giggled a little, staring blankly down the hallway as I waited for the start of my run. The mirrors were simply fascinating. All those layers of reflections, melting into each other and the ever-increasing distance…

  The hum of the lightning spark snapped me out of my daze and got my feet moving again. I hadn’t even wiped all the blood and tar off my face.

  Thankfully, all my leaking wasn’t actually affecting my vision. If I died from something as stupid as being unable to see ahead of me properly, I was going to commit another suicide just for the fuck of it.

  Maybe if I get stuck enough times by that very first spike trap, my brain will finally give up and leak out my ears. That’s preferable to this, right?

  I spent that particular run in a daze of motion and depression. It wasn’t like one singular attempt would do much for me overall.

  As expected, I ran, I chose wrong, I died, and I was back at the start.

  I laughed at my own predictability, a smile that some idiots might refer to as ‘slightly unhinged’ overtaking my features. It persisted throughout the next few runs while I wondered about the whole ‘Movement level-up’ question.

  I mean, if it makes me run faster, it might be enough to let me double back and explore a different passage, right? Unless they’re both dead ends, I’d be able to avoid getting zapped. Right? Maybe I should —

  My contemplation was cut off by virtue of a spike shutting down my brain. Then I was on the ground, vomiting tar and leaking both it and blood from my eyes.

  Unpleasant, that.

  “Attempt number 34 recorded as a failure. Rerun in 10… 9…”

  34? When did I get all the way up to 34? Huh…

  Some part of me, a distant, almost atrophied part, was telling me that my condition was not good. Not good at all. And that maybe I should be a lot more worried than I was.

  Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find it in me to care anymore.

  I stood up, then turned around and looked at the forming spark of electricity.

  It was just run, run, run! I was so tired. And it was so boring.

  I watched and did nothing as the electricity ball drifted closer to me, its flailing blue-white limbs phasing into and through my flesh.

  Zip zap, pop crackle!

  Choked, intermittent laughter tore its way out of my throat as my limbs did the fandango with the awesome power of lightning.

  “Attempt number 35 recorded as a failure. Rerun in 10… 9…”

  Did her voice sound a little worried, or was it just me? I grinned even wider. Don’t worry, Miss Assistant, don’t you know? We can’t die here! I would have shouted the words, but my jaw was feeling oddly twitchy and noncompliant.

  That time, I didn’t even get up. I just lay there and let the electricity have me.

  “Subject 46, this is your one and only warning. Unless you comply with testing, you will be marked for immediate disposal. Attempt number 36 recorded as a failure. Rerun in 10… 9…”

  I dragged myself up. The whole ‘immediate disposal’ thing sounded bad, so off to the races we went. Again.

  I was doing pretty well this time. I couldn’t really be sure, but I sure as hell thought I’d been running for longer than ever before. And at a pretty good clip, too! Of course, then I turned another corner, and there was my old friend the dead end.

  I giggled before shooting him a pout. That stupid meanie! And oh look, the zippy zap again!

  I danced for a bit. Then my chest went boom.

  And then I hit that ‘yes’ button.

  I wasn’t me anymore. I wasn’t even a human. I was a thought, an idea, a hungry impulse seeking to invade and dig deeper into a whole new realm for me to explore. I slithered, I crawled, I ran and slipped through the obstacles.

  I was free.

  And then I slammed back into my convulsing digital body in the middle of a veritable puddle of tar and blood, just in time to catch the last few digits of the countdown being proclaimed by a rather concerned-sounding voice.

  My mind was… clearer, than it had been in a while. The risks, the fear, what exactly was on the line, it all crashed back into me. The count hit zero, the hallway lit up, and I broke into a run from the awkward crouch I had managed to get myself into.

  Everything was sharper. Easier. I was even moving faster than before. I knew I could significantly improve that speed, yet I held back, also knowing it would do me no good.

  I felt a certain pull, too. Something between instinct and a desire to reach my destination, both pointing in the same direction.

  I could do nothing else but follow it.

  I still fucked up and got caught by a laser trap when I hesitated too long, stuck trying to moderate the speed of my dodge. That happened twice more, once to a saw trap and once to a pit trap I wasn’t sure I was supposed to be able to jump over.

  Finally, though, I ran out of distance to run. I stumbled to a stop and collapsed onto a glowing blue circle on the floor.

  There was a brief pause.

  And then…

  “Subject 46 has completed the maze level. Disconnecting from block B in 5… 4…”

  I just closed my eyes. I barely even noticed when my ability to see, feel, or tap into any of my senses vanished entirely, leaving me in a void of pure nothingness.