This is a recap chapter where I reboot the system a bit, and cover some of the previous system elements. The old system was harder to track and write around, the new one is cleaner and simpler. It's still mostly the same. The two people are OCs, and won't be around much after their purpose in life has been achieved.

"And when the government makes a void, the private market needs to fill it. We're just libertarians who help support people in their security needs."

"And that's why you need to beat people who who don't pay your protection dues." I said, clicking a finger at Liam, my new muscular and libertarian cop friend.

"We don't just beat people up. If you don't want our protection, fine. But, we're not gonna shield you from all the more dangerous people if you don't pay us."

"I bet you give them a tip off as well." I saw him smile. "Why aren't actual proper cops stopping what you're up to?"

He shakes his head, and opens his arms wide, gesturing at the insane asylum. "This. We don't live in a safe place. Cops are scared. No one wants a pighead to come abduct for a perfectly reasonable minor bit of corruption. Jigsaw is likely the greatest serial killer in history. People are scared."

Noah hugged in his, slightly electrocuted buddy in. "We got through it together. Nothing is gonna stop us now. Wait. You aren't- we appreciate life. We love life. You don't need to put us through some new game."

I looked over them. "I'm Tapp. I'm not part of his game. I was the one who stopped him first time."

Noah looked over me. "With your magic shit? Never thought I'd see that again."

"You've seen magic before?" I was curious. Maybe I could find the source of the antimagic runes Jigsaw used?

"You see stuff on the street. There was a kid I was helping. They were the black sheep of some rich family. They were always muttering to themselves about someone. Psychotic, I thought. They kept complaining about a bald guy wearing a breathing mask. I'd bring them food and talk about my day, tried to get them into shelters. One day, they were gone. Just like that. And there was a breathing mask left in their place."

"Spooky, but not really my style. I'm an planeswalker. I send my astral form out into the ether, and help those in dangerous situations. I get rewards for solving the problems, which is why we locked everyone up for a bit while we went to free people. With the help of my trusty companion, Cure."

"That sounds like the rambling from one of the crazy people on the street. No offense. You freed us and-"

I clicked my fingers at him. Fire sprung from them. I clicked them again. Water floated around them. I clicked them a third time. Earth spun up around them from the ground. I clicked a fourth time. A burst of air sent Noah's long dirty hair flying back. It was taxing on his stamina, but a manageable drain.

"-Woah. Woah. Woah man. It's fine. You don't need to flex on me. You're the wizard. I've seen enough today. I'm also dehydrated and starving, so I don't have the energy to freak out."

"We'll get you some food. And you some bones."

I petted Cure and he whined up at me.

After we had defeated Steven Sing, Tapp's old partner, I had taken control of this place. This world wasn't built for someone who could ramp up like me. I was on my tour around the facility freeing all the really close to Tapp people Jigsaw had kidnapped to emotionally torture Tapp with whether he would give up his angry attitude or see the light and forgive Jigsaw and be happy and loving.

We headed down the stairs to the first target.

"Your dog is adorable. Are they magical like you?" Asked Noah.

"Yeah, basically. They have a bunch of perks and stuff that make them smarter than some humans, and they have some slightly zombieish buffs. Mostly they have a hacking tool from resident evil. I knew that I could bait Sing into attacking me, so I sent him to sneak behind. He's got stealth buffs like me, and he's a dog so he can sneak pretty well. Most of my most awesome powers are in my inventory, where I have a bunch of stuff from a zombie apocalypse world and a supernatural world which gives me some crazy buffs, but I can only get that if I can go outside."

I summoned a pistol, swirled it, and put it away. "And I got outside. That's how I found out who you two were and bribed you to help me."

We reached the bottom of the stairs. There were a bunch of screens, and sensor that would activate them.

"I don't normally do this because it's depressing listening to the screams of a serial killer. But-" I said, and paused. I stepped over the line. "Listen to it."

The doll on the screen spoke. "Detective, your obsession with me has destroyed your own life and

driven you here, like a rat scurrying out of the heat of the sun."

I glanced back at the two. "My life is fine. I did work hard to take down the serial killer Jigsaw, and sadly my marriage is shakey, but I don't need a woman to be happy. As long as I have anime and video games, I'll live."

"I think you know someone down here; your old friend from the force, Jennings Foster. You might want to ask him what really happened in that hit and run case you worked on. That is, if he's still alive-"

"I ain't waiting for no dumb puppet. Fuck cutscenes."

I stepped forward, and charged up my rank C break it down.

Break it down- C. You are a font of wall breaking. Once a minute you can with no additional consequences break down a door, charging your kick up with stamina or health for a greater effect.

The door slammed open under my foot. I could feel fractures spread along my bones and my energy drain. This was a tough, reinforced door. I was tougher. I walked on through, my Gamer's Body knitting together my broken flesh. I headed on down the stairs to the cage which all mental asylums no doubt held because they were creepy places.

There was a man there, locked in a necklace. It bleeped faster as I approached, and I quickly drew out the resident evil hacking device, and clicked it off.

"You're welcome." I gave him some directions. "Head there and I'll free you later. I killed the owner of this place.

He looked surprised. "Thank you. Who are you?"

I bowed my head. "Detective Tapp, at your service. Duty calls." I headed onwards.

"Why didn't Sing free these people?" Asked Liam.

I shrugged. "I dunno. Different codes though. Maybe they were special? To freak me out. Onwards."

Originally I'd had powers ranked at apprentice, advanced apprentice, journeman, a bunch of things. My skills and perks were exponentially more powerful at a higher rank. I probably wasn't using exponentially right, but I didn't care, I was walking through an insane asylum on a broken leg. I'd gained a new Random Omnipotent Being to sponsor me, Maturin the Turtle, and gained some more freedom with my gaming interface. I ranked it anime style now. E, D, C, B, A. I had started off with shitty and weak versions of my powers, but now with more freedom thanks to Maturin, I could select more perks and advance them better.

Noah spoke. "The guy is an asshole. He framed a drunk for a crime he did."

"You're watching Jigsaw. I didn't judge you for your protection shit."

"You did judge us, a lot. You repeatedly told us we were criminals."

"Yes, but I didn't report you, and I offered you a load of money to work for me. We're facing a serial killer. Sometimes bad people gotta together to survive."

"I hear you. I think we all need to move past the past and be better together."

We headed onwards, and soon entered a room with Jennings Foster inside. There was a blade swinging back and forth, which looked like it would slowly lower. Presumably, I had to stop it.

"Grab this cabinet." I ordered. The three of us picked up a nearby metal cabinet, and heaved it over to Jennings. We quickly propped it up under the blade as Jigsaw ranted at us on a television screen.

The massive sword of Damocles sought to cut him in half, but it couldn't penetrate steel.

I knelt down by the manacles, fiddling with them.

When you were opening a lock the key was to see how it was meant to open. A key? A magnetic signature? Some mechanical action? Then you completely ignored that and bypassed the simpler stuff behind them.

This looked like a magnetic lock. I could see there were places to put gears on four panels to the side. The presumed way to unlock it was to carefully collect gears, and then some internal mechanism would unlock the handcuffs.

"You have to get me out of here!" Screamed Foster.

"Hold your horses. I need to bypass this."

I triggered clear mind. It was a pretty cheap perk that cost 3 points per level that let me think clear. The rank C version gave me 3 minutes of clear thinking which I could spend how I wanted, or burn faster to clear more distractions.

I stroked my tattoo of Maturin, which was now on my neck. It moved around pretty much wherever I wanted. They'd progressively loosened the limitations on perk use. Before I needed to have absurd levels of int and wisdom and stuff to use these powers.

The cold air, the burning furnace, the annoyed cries of the man, the swing of the sword above. They all faded out as I focused on the mechanism, tapping on my mad scientist skill and my substantially boosted intellect.

I could see under it there was a wire. I poked my fingers through the grate, but I couldn't quite get a grip on it. It was well set up.

I glanced to the side, at the large furnace in the corner. Turning off clear mind I went to it, and using a piece of scrap, scoped up some burning coal. It burnt, but I'd heal soon. I ran back and pressed the coal to the wire.

I then put on my title Pipeslayer. It gave me a sense of the weaknesses of pipes at a deep level, from when I had broke pipes to escape as Adam in saw 1. Criss crossing grates were like tiny pipes. I pushed at it, and got a weaker sense of the grate.

Steel grate. 20 HP. 20 armor.

"The damage formula for this world is complex. In an ideal situation you would do one damage per stat above 10. In a less ideal situation, less damage per stat. It depended on armor, on how you hit them, on if you were hitting a weakness. It was a complicated formula. I was all tapped out on strength perks for now, and I had 24 strength. The pipeslayer title is helping but all in all, I don't think I can penetrate 20 armor- I get maybe 6 extra strength damage on this, and I can at most get just a couple of points of damage on my weapon."

"That sounds like really nerdy shit." Said Noah.

"But, with this burning piece of coal-" I pressed the coal in deep.

Steel grate. 15 HP. 15 armor. 25% heat damage debuff.

"Power attack!"

I hit at it hard with my enhanced, buffed power attack, slamming down a spiked stick I'd made.

Power attack. The will to destroy. Focus your will and hate and unleash it against a target in range. Does double damage at the cost of 2 stamina, and causes a critical hit if focused on a weak point. Can chain to an extra target on your foe instantly. 6 points base.

5 damage done! 5 damage done! 5/15 health left.

With the updates from Maturin, my power attack now had a new benefit, chaining a second hit. The wire looked frayed and weak. One final hit would do it in. I slammed the spiked stick. The wire burst. I reached under the magnetic lock, and fiddled with it, cutting off the power supply. The lock didn't disengage. I guess they were a bit smarter, and if you managed to just wreck the stuff, it would stay closed.

I re-attached the power supply and glanced under. It looked like there was a second wire inside, that would carry a signal from- ah yep. There it was. The device meant to say to open it. There were four mechanical arms which led into it, probably from the gearboxes. I grabbed all four arms, and pushed them in.

The handcuffs popped out. Jennings Foster got up.

1 strength awarded for solving a terrible problem with strength! 1

"I still don't forgive you. You're the reason I'm in here!" He said, rubbing his sore looking wrists.

He was a smaller looking black men, who I guessed had been on the beat with Tapp in the past. Tapp had been pretty quiet in my head at the moment, likely because I had gamer's mind C now and had pretty tight control at the moment, but he was pissed off now.

I let him out. Tapp smacked the man in the face. "Shut the fuck up. You sent a man to jail because you weren't willing to be a man."

"He was just a homeless person! No one would miss him." Tapp got more pissed. I took control, and used my poison maniac perk, one of my first aid ones, which let me summon a common poison. Ketamine was apparently common enough in this place for me to summon, which made me sad for the state of mental health care in America.

I jammed it in his neck, and injected it in his neck. He struggled, but soon dropped down.

"We'll tell the police where he is when we're done with him." I said. "Guy pissed me off."

"That safe? I know you didn't want to kill anyone. All the traps you set were non lethal. Which I'm thankful for." Liam said.

Level up! Level up! First aid improved.

"Yeah, I'm a high level medic. I'm pushing for merging a bunch of skills. I get awesome buffs from merged skills. They're more expensive in terms of perks, but I get super powerful perks from them and a load of options. With first aid, I'd started off at first aid level 10, but I'd advanced to level 92 by now. Each advance made treatment a second faster. It might have taken me 2 minutes to bandage someone at the start, and now I could do it in 30 seconds. It turned out that injuring over a hundred people with traps and weapons and then treating them was a really great way of grinding your skill."

Noah looked at me. "This was all planned? That's sadistic."

I shook my head. "I put up signs telling you all to not come. I didn't make Jigsaw and Sing set up a trap for you. Anyway, all that means I can treat them pretty well and ensure they only get good side effects."

Depression debuff granted! You have given a random adult depression from a ketamine injection.

Hopefully that was enough vengeance for him ruining someone's life. I had to move on.

"So, you can gain skills through common actions? Why don't you have fire resistance?" Asked Liam. He'd always been the smarter of the two.

"Erm, I dunno. Maybe there isn't a fire resistance skill?"

"You should check. You heal fast right?"

I nodded.

"I guess. This will hurt."

I went to the furnace, and stuck my hand in. My hand started to charr and burn.

I pulled it out, and sucked on a finger. "Ouch. No luck."

"Didn't you say luck is a stat?"

I shrugged. I triggered Hint of Fate. It was a weird skill, and I wasn't sure who I was connecting to when I triggered it.

Hint of fate. You are closely connected to the currents of fate. Once a day, you can ask for one common sense fate question to a current situation. The advice will advance your destiny and never lead directly to death. 3 perk points.

"You need a sacrifice. You lost something to the plague. A bit of your sanity. You need to lose something to the fire." Spoke a familiar female voice in my head. It had been doing that. Something to do with the old being that had tossed me into this world? I dunno. Was there a literal fate I was talking to? I didn't know.

But I heard the advice. I took out a knife, and in a single quick motion, sliced off my pinky finger, tossing it into the fire. It burnt.

"What the hell? Are you suicidal?" Said Noah.

"Magic thing."

You have gained a new skill. Fire resistance. Resist the negative effects of heat and fire. Level 1, common.

"I got fire resistance!" I held my hand close to the fire. It wasn't much, but I could get a little closer without feeling pain, and hold my hand in there just a bit longer without being burnt.

I kept practicing for a while. I leveled up twice, my hand pushing closer and close to the furnace till I got a debuff.

You are dehydrated! 10% stat debuff. Gamer's body slowing down and negating debuff.

"We need to move anyway. I can do this later."

I triggered a perk I'd got from my water mastery skill.

A drop to drink. You can summon a water bottle once per day.

I drank half of it, and tossed it to the pair of cops. "Let's head on."

We made our way through the facility, clearing out troubles, bypassing traps, and generally fairly easily solving every problem. Having a lot of advanced technology from outside helped, along with my increasingly powerful skills.

At the end of it, I checked over my gains.

Name: David Tapp

Job: Gamer of Maturin

Level: 15

Titles.

Macgyver. John Kramer and Amanda know you now! You have been dubbed Macgyver, after the mechanical genius who escaped many a trap. Any reputation gains with John or his apprentices are doubled, and you can construct and deconstruct devices 100% faster.

Stats

HP: 240

Stamina: 360

Strength: 29

Constitution: 16

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Luck: 12

Gamer Perks.

Gamer's mind level D, Backup Gamer's mind, Gamer's body level C, Backup chest, Picture perfect C. Packrat C, lockpick, Gacha C, Your true form, Mia morph, Inventory, Shapeshifter, Competent warrior, Doggie pal.

Computer perks. IT specialist, Useful device.

Dueler perks. Power attack (D).

First aid perks. Poison maniac, Poison encyclopedia.

Hunter perks. Poison assassin.

Mad scientist skills. Fugue state.

Stealth Perks. Holdaway compartment. Stealthy Predator.

Constitution perks. Will to live. Desperate struggle.

Wisdom perks. Enlightened mind, Clear thinking, Minimap.

Strength perks. Drug fueled strength, super strength, break it down.

Supernatural Perks. Ninja Body, Earth Mastery D, Air Mastery, Hand of Earth, Metal mastery, Fire Mastery, Water Master, and A drop to drink.

Luck perks. Deadlight Acolyte, Hint of Fate.

Disease control perks. Zombie spit, Plague master

Rest perks. Relive the trauma.

Combat skills

Duelist, rare advanced apprentice skill. Level 49

Thrown weapons, common apprentice grade skill. Level 68

Shooting. Level 84

Utility skills

Stealth, level 35

Mad scientist, legendary journeyman grade, covers observation, crafting, science and scavenging. Level 56

Poison Resistance. Level 100

Disease control, rare advanced apprentice grade, level 32

Fire resistance level 3

First aid. Level 100

Social skills

Teacher, uncommon advanced apprentice grade, level 9

Hunter, uncommon skill. Level 23

Tech skills

Computers, advanced apprentice level 13

Driving, common apprentice skill, level 1

Magic skills

Earth control, level 67

Air control, level 54

Water control, level 49

Fire control, level 71

2000 perk points available.

I looked at the two cops. I'd checked their reputation meters, and they both liked me, so this should be ok.

"I'm gonna collapse soon."

"You tired?" Asked Noah.

I shook my head. "I've been grinding several skills in here. First aid and disease control. Did you see how I totally just tore Sing's armor off ages ago?"

The two nodded. Liam spoke.

"It was really impressive. You just slammed your hand through a hole and ripped it off in a single action. You didn't even have to do a feel around."

"That was the mad scientist skill I have. It's a bunch of skills merged together, and it's ranked legendary. Legendary perks and skills work a whole lot better than common or uncommon or rare skills, but cost more. Anyway, I've been looking to merge first aid and poison resistance into disease control. I needed to rank them up, I've done so, and I'll slam them all together. It'll knock me out for a bit though. Are we good? I'm paying you 100 big ones a year each, I hope you respect me."

The two looked at each other. Noah spoke.

"You don't seem like the type to work a job. Is this real money or made up money you summon with a power that'll get us in trouble? Because we have jobs, beating up shop keepers for money, as you put it."

"Real money. Have you heard of the P versus NP problem?

"You know we haven't." Liam said, disapprovingly.

"Computer, geeky stuff. Turns out they solved it in Resident Evil land. Sing had a decent amount of money stolen from the people he mugged and Cure got his laptop. His money is your money."

In Saw 2 I'd fed Gordon Lawrence a bunch of future tech from Resident Evil to make money with which I'd hopefully reap in Saw 3, but that was in the future. Timey wimey stuff.

"I'm in. You've done good by us."

I checked the rep counter.

Liam: Trusted 8/10

Noah: Distrust 1/10

I wasn't stupid. These were bad people who I needed to bribe into compliance. It was risky me going out with Noah not trusting me.

I needed to get them all in.

"If you two had a dream, of anything, what would it be?"

The two looked at each other.

Liam spoke first. "I never wanna get in shit like this again. They caught me. I don't want that to happen again."

"I can make that happen. Noah."

Noah stared at me, long and deep, trying to read me. I put on my poker face. He spoke, finally.

"Same as my bro."

I quickly went into my menu, and purchased a Teacher perk.

Hidden pain D. Once per day you can work out a common and uncommon weakness of someone, and an intuitive idea of how to best use this to emotionally harm them. 6 points base.

Cost me 18 points to get it at D rank, but I hoped it would be worth it. I might figure out why he trusted me less. He wasn't giving what he really wanted.

Noah is an alcoholic. His liver is damaged, and he doesn't have a long time to live. His fear of mortality is a great vulnerability.

Noah is Roman Catholic. His mixed feelings over his current pursuits and his his faith will ruin him if you press on his hypocrisy.

A very appropriate perk for a teacher, what with how naughty students were.

Noah could, if he want, kill me while I was out. I needed the upgraded skill for Saw 3, or I wouldn't make it out of the opening cutscene.

"I can offer you immortality. Your pains, your suffering, I can make it all go away."

"That's great. That too."

I can see he didn't trust me. Maybe the religious angle?

"I told you how I went into a supernatural horror universe. My patron-" I held out my hand, where the turtle was tattoo'd. "Is the one good person in that world. The one deity looking for the little people. There are hosts of monsters of immense power hurting people, torturing them, eating them. And you have Maturin. Jigsaw has power. He has magic. That kid you saw hurt and tortured? I'm pretty sure whatever magic exists in this world, he has, and he's using it to hurt people."

I definitely wasn't sure. But when my life and many others could be saved by superstition, I was willing to pretend.

He looked down, and paced back and forth. "Do you think that's how he caught us? With some magic of his. I'd prepared so well. I felt safe, I had my eyes open. He just caught us. Did he curse us?"

I nodded. "Quite possibly." Probably not. They just seemed mega competent. "I have good magic. I can keep you safe from their evil magic."

I took both of their fairly large hands in mine. "Accept my blessing."

I pushed to both of them a bunch of perks. Mark of Maturin, Gamer's body, and Death's Calling C. 139 points for each. It was expensive but that was fine. I needed something more than cool new powers. I need allies who could act whilst I was in my rest dimension. And I needed that flow of perk points I got when they completed quests.

"Death's calling is pretty cool. You get all cold and spooky music plays whenever you're in danger. The mark will somewhat shield you from hostile magic."

Their bodies rippled as the powerful perks changed then from the inside out. Their blonde and brown hair stood on end, and they shook, like they were having a fit. I wait them out, and checked their rep counters.

Liam: Fanatical 2/10

Noah: Trust 1/10

Good enough. I waited for them to recover, and initiated my own upgrade.

I was thrust into my mental image of my powers. Each looked like massive machines to me. First aid was a simple machine, a hungry maw that would take a person in and find how to help or hurt them. Poison resistance was likewise fairly simple, a massive needle ready to inject poisons into whatever. Disease control was more complex, a massive library of countless plagues and variants I could fill, covered with vicious spikes.

They were the same size now, if a different rarity, and I pushed them together, seeking to merge all three.

It would have been harder before I got all my int and wisdom perks, and gamer's mind C. It was still agonizing, ripping apart parts of my knowledge and melding them together into one greater form.

I felt I could go for a fairly safe evolution, or a dangerous evolution, with greater potential. I was feeling lucky, and I had +10 luck from scaring all of the people and my deadlight perk, so I went for the second.

I almost lost it. But all my skill managed to push it into an almost complete version.

Plague doctor. Legendary skill, advanced apprentice, level 0. You are a master of poisons, plagues, and life and death, dealing each in turn. This skill is damaged, and will need substantial work to get all three elements functional.

I had one last thing to do in this world.

I could now make building projects. I had a bunch of possibilities.

Portal. Rip a permanent hole between worlds. Will slowly refill any lost equipment, and allow people to cross over. Further upgrades may allow greater functions. 1000 perk points.

Static booster. Draw in supernatural power from other worlds to empower your abilities and stats. 1000 perk points.

Telecommunication. Allow for communication between worlds, and allow people to turn in quests and send messages. 200 perk points.

Resonant stabilizer. Stabilize an area of one mile against dimensional incursion or hostile magic. 500 perk points.

Drop pods. Teleport in a companion of choice. 100 perk points per companion. Greater costs may occur for greater allies.

Magical laboratory. Create a stabilized region with a greater ability to research new rituals and spells. 500 perk points.

Portable antimagic ward. 1000 perk points. Create a rift to allow your power to flow in more strongly and overcome antimagical wards.

But what should I choose? Should I empower myself more, empower people, or build items to empower myself in other ways.

I was about to enter Saw 3, the most unfair trap place in the series yet, and I tended to get the shitty roles. Which would help me survive?

Options options, deep and expansive, including the option to, one day, at great cost, summon Master Chief or such in a drop pod.

Notably, the magic in sawverse will remain very light. I have a clear backstory behind it, and Jigsaw does not have much. Most of Peter's magic is a replacement for having a toolkit, so he can stay grounded in a world of horrible monsters.

Poundweed. My schedule is free, the story is re-edited, and the system notes are way clearer. I should be able to write much more easily now.

Foxyshooter63, Dragonbornthesam, And Righello Di'Tutti, mistersnx gllabrador thanks, I am back.

Fayehallow. I too live mixing horror universes together. I often think how one horror monster would feel meeting another.

Next time, into Saw 3.