Or not?

I felt a painful sensation in my chest.

John Kramer, Jigsaw, in the flesh. His old wrinkled mug stood above me, looming like the least pleasant guardian angel in the world.

John Kramer/ Jigsaw. Level 10. 1000 HP.

That mother fucker was packing. Was that like movie villain toughness? Was he bullet proof?

I looked down, blinking dry eyes. I was away from the pole, and he was sewing up my chest. My shirt was soaked with blood, and I was in agony, but I was alive.

"Most people are ungrateful to be alive, but not you. Not even before. You surprised me. You knew who I was?"

I nodded weakly. "Yeah, you had a drawing of the reverse bear trap in your hospital bed.

"Ah. Perceptive. I never pegged you as someone who would try this hard. I thought you were lost, drifting through aimlessly."

I shook my head. I needed him to like me.

"I went after rich assholes. I took them down because the rich fuck up America. Like say, a rich guy with too much time on his hands who builds torture dungeons for random photographers."

He smiled, and pushed the next needle in painfully deep. I might have cried out, but I was already in a lot of pain.

"Medical bills ate up most of my fortune. All this-" He gestured around. "Home made. From abandoned houses and scrap yards."

"Some of this stuff-" I tried to lift my arms to gesture at the steel pipe and door, but since my core had literally been torn out, failed.

"Is beyond that. How do you get such quality stuff."

"When you're good at anticipating the human mind, you leave nothing to chance. The mechanical nature of each device matters, I won't say otherwise, but you need to think about why each object is there. What the purpose was, what the previous owner was thinking. You need to research locations. Then you can find the steel needle in the haystack."

You have received tutoring from a grandmaster in scavenging! Scavenging levels up to level 10. Perk option received, Gacha. +1 wisdom from Jigsaw's wise words!

"I'll be in touch, if you managed to make it out. I could use someone with your potential."

I sighed. "You know what the worst thing about this is?" I said.

He frowned at me. "You don't appreciate-"

I cut him off. "No no, I mean after. I am gonna have hellish medical bills to pay. I am ninety percent sure I have every disease known to man, and-" I gestured at my tore up chest. "This needs serious medical attention. I bet you'll count as an act of God and insurance won't pay."

Buttering up the psycho. I knew he was evil. I knew he was crazy. But he had my guts in his hands, and I totally wanted to power level scavenging under a guy who could find working springs and metal and everything in a scrap yard.

I had pain resistance aplenty. My schooling years had not been pleasant, and I could take some of his crazy games. Maybe I could max out that trap people quest as well.

He looked contemplative. "Remember anyone who does that. We can visit them later."

He smiled down at me, a creepy, serial killer smile.

"All done." He patted his hands together. "Make it out on your own and we'll talk."

"Oh did Gordan?" I asked. Then I looked over. Bloody foot. "Oh no, forget I asked. You didn't give him any more help than me, right."

Jigsaw looked back and smiled his creepy grin. "He's a doctor. You're a photographer. Work it out."

And walked off. Mother fucker. I was valuable. I could kill people too. Why do you reject me, serial killer sensei?

Well, my status appeared ok. Whatever Kramer had done, I was stabilized. Now it was just a matter of getting out to the outside.

I reached forward a blood soaked hand and- a foot. A shoe.

Amanda looked down at me.

"I'm gonna help you."

She held up some plastic wrap.

"I'm gonna free you."

"No-" And I was unable to say any more as she thrust the plastic around my head. I struggled and kicked, pushing all my meagre strength into it. There.

I grabbed it with my hand. My hand burnt as I held the shard of glass in it, digging into my flesh. I stabbed it up at her, a power attack.

She staggered back, and I pulled the plastic off my face.

"Jigsaw saved me. He wants me. He wants me as his apprentice!" I cried out.

"I know. I'm his only apprentice." She said, clutching her bloody side. With a kick she knocked the shard of glass out of my hand, and stamped down on my face with her foot.

I felt the world go fuzzy, strange. Then blank, as she stamped down again.

And this time, I died for real.

Really. My physical body was dead. She had, I don't know, stomped out my brains. But it was not the end.

All this went through my brain, like her foot had previously also gone through my brain, as I held the baseball bat tight in my hand, and stared at the closet.

"Amanda, you manipulative bitch!" I called out. I was in a time loop.

I didn't do any better in the fight the second time around. My physical stats were still terrible and my meagre efforts to swing the bat apparently didn't grant me kung fu. I woke up again in the bathtub.

And failed the dex roll again. Collapsing on a tetanus filled pipe was apparently not enough to count as quality rest and sleep and get physical upgrades.

I did a by the motions run through after that, thinking. I worked with Gordon to unlock the clues, thinking.

Something was off. I had been doing really badly before in some ways. Like, I whacked a pipe and got dust poisoning. I got acid spray on my hand. Amanda stepped out from behind the door and hit me with a pipe and I fell straight onto it.

Gordan had fired the gun and done fine. He had sawed happily with no problems. Was it the power attack? Maybe I didn't have the prereqs for it. Maybe he had skills I didn't, or perks?

I remembered he had become Jigsaw's apprentice. Maybe he was super competent somehow.

Maybe it was just movie logic. I wasn't the main character, I got the pain. I wasn't sure. Jigsaw and Amanda felt so. I wasn't a doctor, I was the surplus. I had just been put in here to test Gordon. Jigsaw hated people who did bad things. Adam hadn't done bad things. He didn't even deserve to be here.

But, he got all this.

We got our tapes and were ready to play this. If I followed canon and was smarter, we could be ok. I had carefully swept away the conductive salt and tugged out the conductive wires. I wasn't shockable.

The tapes started playing one by one, in their creepy high pitched tones.

"Dr Gordon, this is your wake up call. Every day of your working life you have given people the news that they are going to die soon. Now you will be the cause of death. Your aim in this game is to kill have until six on the clock to do it. There's a man in the room with you. When there's that much poison in your blood the only thing left to do is shoot yourself. Cough There are ways to win hidden all around you. Just remember, X marks the spot for the treasure. If you do not kill Adam by 6:00 then Alison and Diana will die, Dr Gordon. And I'll leave you in this room to rot. Let the game begin."

"Rise and shine, Adam. You're probably wondering where you are. I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room that you die in. Up until now, you simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look in the mirror? Now I see you as a strange mix of someone angry and yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die today, Adam? Or do something about it?"

Something inside me snapped. I took the hacksaw and went to work on my pipe. With my title, it went quickly. "Why does Gordan get a clear actionable goal- kill me, by 6, and you'll not leave him in the room to rot- while I get nothing. Aren't you supposed to be all about putting people in situations where they might die, unless they learn a lesson? What's my lesson? Do something?" I got free, and went to the wall to get the chest. "And you know, I bet even if I did things- tell Gordon I saw him fucking his mistress"

"I didn't-"

I gestured at him with a hacksaw.

"Shut up. I don't give a crap if you covered yourself in peanut butter and had a fifteen hooker gang bang! This is about Jigsaw."

I continued. "Even if I worked with him to find clues, find the hacksaw, cut the chains, do something sneaky, stay alive till six, you still wouldn't help me. Because I am the fucking surplus. I am here to test a potential recruit, I don't matter."

I spat with disgust, yanking the chest out. The envelope with the key to the bullet in was on the side. I went to pick it up.

"Angry? Apathetic? Pathetic? I have a job. I pay my taxes. I put down rich scum bags and stop criminals. What do you do, Jigsaw? You're a homeless murder hobo. You don't even have a job. You don't even have a philosophy. What lesson was Mark Wilson supposed to learn in the Jelly trap. That he can't count hundreds of numbers quickly? How was I supposed to escape when my key went down the drain? You employ Amanda, and she's a complete psycho who murders people for fun. You're a homeless, handicapped hypocritical hobo."

I forced the revolver out of Jigsaw's hand, and the electrical button, working against his weight.

"You know what you get when you treat everyone who's not important to you like trash, surplus?"

I loaded the revolver with the bullet from the box, and pressed it to Jigsaw's paralyzed head.

"You get what you fucking deserve!"

I pulled the trigger. Quicker than I thought possible he twisted, grabbing my arm. He yanked it away. I yanked back. The bullet thudded into his shoulder, ripping open a bloody hole.

200 damage done! Bleeding condition inflicted (1 damage per second).

I lunged forward, aiming to stab the barrel into his eye. He tried to block me with the arm I had shot, failed, and took a blow to the head.

10 damage done! Minor concussion inflicted. 10% debuff.

He rolled away, getting up quickly. He was down to 13 hp out of 225 now. I just had to survive a bit longer now. I don't know how his horror villain ass was able to ignore muscle relaxants, but he couldn't ignore bleeding out. I backed away quickly. Time was on my side. I yanked out the bin by Gordon, and held it up in time to block a thrown knife. Thank you 18 dex. Where the hell was he storing those? They weren't on him when I looted his wrinkly ass.

10 HP.

He was pressing a hand to his shoulder, slowing the bleeding and called out to Gordon.

"Kill him, and I'll let you and your family free."

I looked at Gordon, then back at Jigsaw, keeping an eye on the knives.

"I know him, we can get you home safe. I'm with the police."

Time ticked down. Jigsaw's health, more slowly, dripped down. His hand was increasing the ticks per damage Gordon made a choice. "I'd hope you die of brain cancer, but I think you'll be dying a bit faster."

5HP.

From some I assumed magical hammer dimension Jigsaw pulled another knife, and charged.

"Grab him!"

I ordered Gordon, moving in to hit his knife hand with the bin.

Jigsaw clearly wasn't in top shape. I managed to knock aside his hand, and Gordon tackled him. Then I pressed the electrical button. A powerful current ran through the pair of them. They both spasmed, shook, and fell to the floor, blood leaking freely out of Jigsaw's shoulder as his health ticked down to 0. It was over. 1000 perk points, here I come. Dignity restored. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Desire for life perk activated. For seeing a grand master grade perk, gain +1 constitution (suspended until you get food and quality rest).

"You cheating bastard!" I shouted.

Jigsaw's health suddenly ticked up 50 points. His eyes flashed open. He grabbed the knife, and in a single fluid, accurate, not quite as floppy as before throw, he tossed the knife to my neck. As I died again, my throat a bloody red mess, my head swimming, I remembered that you should always double tap.

After the ceremonial pig choking, I woke up again. And I felt sore. It was so sore. My neck hurt. Congratulations! For dying twice in a row in short succession you have unlocked a new feature! Every time you die you'll inherit some degree of your injuries from the previous life. Survive long enough and the damage will be healed. Good luck!

Blood loss. 25% physical debuff.

This game was the worst.

The next chapter will be the finale. With his physical stats degraded, degrading further with each further death, can he escape the unescapable dungeon? And will Amanda fuck him over? Find over soon. After that, off to another fictional universe, then Saw 2. Fantasy and sci fi and weird horror films are fine.

ArchieElite. With each death he grows stronger, smarter, and better. He will be screwed over much, but he grows from his pain. Pain is weakness leaving the body.

Dragonbornthesame. He does get a lot of tetanus here. Perk added to the list.

Adrian King 1. I had intended for him to just die, but your idea is better. He gets to live! For a bit. And yep, he's on a clock now. He needs to escape soon or he'll grow too weak to do anything and be trapped in an endless loop of agony and pain.

IncognitoMinerals. Yeah, Jigsaw is a really salty shit. He's very erratic with his traps, and wants them solved in his way.

Gatling2745. All of those perks have been added to the list, and in some form or another will be available.

Williams1996. I like easy to write stories. Combining a bunch is work, but running the SI through a universe, realistic, sci fi, fantasy, whatever is all good.

Guest. Amanda came from behind the door. She was lurking around listening in, to see if she had to intervene because she's obsessed with Jigsaw. Adam talked very loudly, he meant to whisper but he was suffering from brain damage. He agrees the pipe piercing him was a cop out, although the way it worked, he slid open the door, she stepped in and whacked him with a pipe to the head, and he fell down and slid on the pipe, around where Gordon was sitting. If I could add images, I would add my floorplan. The physics directions work out at least.

Any suggestions for his next world/ worlds or new perks, or ideas on how to escape, in reviews? Would love to hear any thoughts.