You have gained +1 int for solving the puzzle in an intellectual way.

I stepped out of the door, feeling my knowledge grow a bit deeper as the change sank into me. I wasn't quite sure of my build. I was out of, for now, a place where every stat point needed to go to immediate needs. I felt strong.

I twirled my spear as I kept walking through the dank corridors. Bins, paper scraps, glass shards. A wooden corridor. I flicked it open. There was a dirty syringe in there. I wasn't gonna inject that into myself. I got a strong urge to do so, but I resisted.

I really needed to get out more. I was so lonely for drugs I was considering using random drugs I found in a Saw dungeon. Next thing you know, I'd be rooting through garbage to eat some trash food to recover HP.

I did find a lighter though, and pocketed that.

I headed onwards.

Two people behind thick steel wires fought to the death before me. I had no clue why. One ran up to me, slamming against the steel wires. Around his neck was a steel mask with nails banged in. It slammed shut on his face, and blood dripped down his neck. The death mask. I'd escaped one just like it back when I was ghosting the body of Marks.

"Ok dude you clearly have a lot going on. I'm gonna go." I walked on.

It's not like I wasn't aware that people probably had some useful messages. Just, I trusted my senses more. This was all an elaborate trap by Jigsaw. If I listened to all his videos and audiotapes and random news articles I would be getting into the game. I'd follow his carefully laid out path and his manipulation would pay fruit. This is what I did in roleplay games as well. If you never talk to NPCs, they can't social fu you.

I didn't have time for that or really want to follow Kramer's path which no doubt involved digging through trash, shit, or someone's organs for a way out. I was gonna to get out on my own strength.

Along the way I picked up another tv, getting more damage for my taser. It was up to 300 now, as hard hitting as a rifle bullet. I reached a ladder. Someone was climbing up. I saw a flash of a name.

Pighead. One of the apprentices of Jigsaw, their identity is hidden under their heavy red robes. If you learn the secret, you will better understand yourself. 1500 HP.

This was a tough mother fucker.

I listened. My senses had become very keen. Like many a gamer wisdom was a specialty and I sensed a lot. I could smell the damp smell of old buildings. I could taste old blood in the air. I could feel vibrations through my feet from the over pressure pipes in the wall. I could hear him.

His wet breathing, his shaking hands, the pulse of the ladder from his movements. He was waiting on me, standing up there no doubt to kill me as soon as I went up the ladder. I wouldn't disappoint. I had 2000 hp of explosive material. Enough to kill a normal man. I needed most of that for jigsaw. I doubted that this video game boss was a lightning bruiser. Probably slow and tough, from the way he moved.

If I climbed up he could knock me off or shank me but... I made a small grenade, using 100 HP of explosive.

Makeshift grenade. Enhanced using metal flotsam, this explosive will give anyone a bad day. Durability 1/1, damage 150 HP.

Solid result. I'd gotten the extra damage.

It wasn't fancy to look at. Paper wrapped around explosive balls, with a make shift fuse. I tossed it up the shaft.

I started climbing up, just behind it, chakra filled muscles helping me rush up. A small explosion ripped out from above and i heard a grunt, felt some blood splatter out. The ladder shook, but my maths had been tight. No falling.

I emerged on top and saw them limping away. Some of the outfit on their arm had been ripped away, revealing pale burnt skin. I tossed my spear at the exposed flesh, the glass blade lancing out. He dodged aside, escaping around the corner. I didn't chase after him. If I did, he might just hit me in the head when I turned a corner.

Advancing a bit forward, spear retrieved and reglassed, I found a large broken sign, saying Whitehouse asylum. Ah. I was in a crazy house. My sanity had finally broken. Well, better kill Jigsaw soon.

After I emerged into a large surgical room. A quick glance around inside showed a camera, which I ripped out for robot parts. After that I checked out the barrier between me and the person at the center who-

I briefly turned off my music. Amanda! This was my lucky day. My long time nemesis, apprentice of Jigsaw, trapped in a trap and there for the taking. Mine.

Some of the metal wire fencing had been ripped out, and replaced by a wooden barrier. I triggered Break it Down, and kicked it down. A simple kick made the wood rip open, and my foot felt fine after. I could kick doors like this all day. Or at least, once an hour.

I quickly worked my way to the surgical area where Amanda was crying out, my strength easily letting me scamper down past the barriers.

She was in a chair. Nice red shirt. There were needles at the side, metal wrist guards to keep her locked in. There was a second chair, also with syringes There was a machine with- ew. Twisty puzzles. Turn the puzzles to get her out? I got injected as well? That was sick. I wasn't gonna drug myself up to save Amanda.

TV as well, saying some nonsense.

"I can't breathe! Get me out of this thing." Amanda ordered, a look of terror on her face.

I walked over to her, and quickly purchased a perk.

Hungry for flesh. By consuming the flesh of humans or other sentient beings, especially their brains, you can gain some degree of their knowledge and secrets. 6 points.

As the needles at her side snapped forward, I grabbed them, and forced them away with brute strength.

"You're safe now." I told Amanda.

"You're not following his rules!" She said with a frantic look on her face.

I drew out the glass shard, and sliced it across her throat, ripping open her artery.

Level up! You've killed Amanda.

I carefully sliced open her skull with the sharpest of the glass shards and- I got to zombieing.

Jigsaw was gonna die, and she could lead me right to her. It was pretty disgusting, but so was digging through a toilet for a syringe.

Hungry for flesh let me choose what information to focus on. I could absorb a decent fraction of her skills if I was so inclined, but it would take time and I was worried about doing an iZombie and getting some permanent crazy personality shift. I had stunned Pighead, and rushed here, but Amanda was Jigsaw's. I had no false belief that I would be safe if I stayed here long.

I focused on knowledge of paths through the asylum and where she had recently seen Jigsaw. I quickly assimilated the knowledge, and soon had a good idea of where to go.

I had it- and then I heard a door open. I glanced back and saw Pighead come in the door. Thirty meters maybe.

I was about to leave, when I got a flash of new info I could use. Summer.

I couldn't just rip out the body. Too much damage might lose me them, and fleeing while carrying a corpse was dangerous. I needed to get the knowledge now, or I might lose grasp of it and have to spend an age finding it again.

I needed this taser to stop Jigsaw. I could use that to stun him. But I needed the explosives as well. I didn't have any other weapons with enough damage to stun someone with over a thousand health.

I glanced at the tv. This would be tight.

Craft taser. Time. 45 seconds.

Retrieve memory. Time. 60 seconds.

I triggered clear thinking and enlightenment, my sensations boosted as I saw all, my mind accelerated. I rammed my 3 stat points into int, getting it up to 10 where I could buy a special perk to boost my int by 10 again and another to help me with crafting.

Genius. Your mind is faster, and you can maintain multiple parallel tracks of thought, or focus your entire mind on one obsession. Once a day, gain +10 int for a single act of genius.

Rushed job. Focusing your obsession, you can complete a single manufacturing job in half the time once a day.

I triggered it, and my mind burnt. I triggered desperate struggle, to relieve the pain, pulled on my gamer's mind to shield me. I had felt this before, when doing radical changes. Perks, stats, they changed you. Physically, mentally. It was quite a trial. Your body metamorphosing into something better.

This burnt, worse than any time before. My head was on fire. Everything went fuzzy.

I had calculated the odds, but damn, I was bad at maths. My hands started to shake, and I couldn't hold the memories.

Then I felt my shoulder burn. Maturin's power filled me. It didn't stop the pain, but it buffered it enough that I could retain my focus.

Filling my hands with Chakra, I was ready.

I leaned over, grabbed the TV, and began ripping it apart for parts.

I had done this three times before. I knew this TV, I knew how the taser worked. I probably had ten seconds or less, but I could do it. I could feel every part of this, my senses burning, and my mind had this all.

Meanwhile, my mind rushed faster and faster through Amanda's memories as I sought out that hidden secret.

Craft taser. Time. 13 seconds

Retrieve memory. Time. 20 seconds.

I'd gotten -5 from the perks, -10 from the buffs, -4 from int and half from each of the 3 point perks.

I sliced the TV open, ripping out capacitors and parts. Faster than any time before I pulled together my makeshift taser, ripping part from part as fast as I could. I glanced over, my mouth splattered with blood, and saw Pighead roaring, charging me. I didn't have long.

I wasn't gonna make it. I could abandon my task, use my scarce taser. Scavenge for more parts for a new taser.

But all that took time, it would be obvious who I was. I'd probably lose this start and a lot of perk points and my shot at killing Jigsaw. I had to choose between my life and knowledge. I refused to take that choice. I needed to know. I pushed myself to my limit, twisting wires and parts into place, the electricity under my hand enough to kill me if I moved a finger wrong, even as I sought the secrets of who my patron was.

I felt another mind touch mine. Something much greater. Something magical, related to my new power. I felt fire, hotter than any sun. I heard four words, in a feminine voice. "Your body will burn, but I'll remember your name." and a burst of knowledge filled me.

There was a quicker way I could do this! If I wired it that way…

Taser completed! Durability 1/1, 200 damage. Grandmaster quality taser, improvised from a TV, with a powerful voltage, and wires to dig it deep.

I twisted around, and as Pighead approached, I rammed the taser into him. Electricity pulsed through his body, and he stepped back, his muscles shaking, the electricity from the tv enough to stagger even someone with his strength and toughness.

I dug deep into Amanda's brains, and found the memory.

Amanda and Jigsaw were working together on pieces of clockwork together. A clockwork gun, like in Saw 2. Why did they need that?

"I'm glad we got to do this. It feels good working together after..." Amanda frowned, and looked at her hand, and her prosthetic foot.

"It does. There's nothing purer than working out something by hand. We might even meet him again."

"Who's Summer?" She asked.

He paused, and looked at her. "Watch Wickerman. It explains everything."

And I flashed back to the present. Amanda dead, her brain in my mouth, and Pighead shaking off the effect of a taser.

Well, fuck. That wasn't good. Wickerman.

The hidden secret is revealed, and is only of use to people who are real horror movie buffs and British, as it should be.

Obsessed. Manhunt sounds fun. This quest may get manhunty in time anyway.

Frescko. He would probably be very unhappy going there, but it sounds fun. Lots of psychological horror. Hunger games is also an option for later, and 40k is quite broad.

Mistersnx. Thing is certainly an option.

Webzayne. I am generally not a serious person, and the protag is an SI. My natural impulse in times of pain and sorrow, of which I have had a number, is to crack jokes. It makes funerals and such difficult, since I need to shut down that side of myself, but here when people die no one can tell him he's a bad person for doing one liners and jokes. And yeah, robots are super useful and fun to make.

Next time, the fight between John Kramer and Macgyver begins.