One day off schedule, but I did make sure to update the previous chapter to say so. Next week is post half term and should be more free for horror.

Onto Jill Tuck's safe scientific plan for the future.

"What if they escape and cause the apocalypse?" I asked. This was no idle question. Red Markers were apocalypse machines manufactured to twist flesh into monsters to conquer planets. They were built to conquer high tech advanced civilizations, not modern tech ones. We could easily all die from the Red Markers she held in her hands.

Jill Tuck took out a small black plastic box, and pressed a button. I instantly felt relief as the xenomorph stopped eating my insides and the pain died down to a manageable ache.

"I've learned that certain patterns can reliably control horrors and render them docile and easy to handle." Jill walked up to me and put a hand on my cheek. "All my life, I followed a creed. The Hippocratic oath. To do no harm. Because of that oath a druggie killed my child and ended my practice just so he could get a high. I lost hope that day. I withdrew from my wonderful husband. But now, I have a chance to make things right. We can together push humanity to a greater future."

She pulled up her top, revealing her belly. It was covered with runes that twisted with eldritch fire, never healing as the energy from other dimensions pushed into her.

Primordial Runes learned! Rare skill. B̵̹͍̓ẽ̵̛͔f̴̱̪͊͊͐͌o̶̞̦͗r̴̟̲̓ȅ̴͉ ̴͙͖̹͝ŗ̷̬̔e̷͓̮͒̾̈́a̵͇̺͙̋͛̀l̷̢̯̝̗̇i̶͍̞̪̒̀̇͌ť̶̻͈̬̈͜͝y̵̭̏̀̊̚ ̶̩̪̞̅w̷̹͔͊̒̈ȧ̴̟s̴̨͆̾́̈́ ̶̤̹͖̅͝ͅḇ̴͉͓̯̋͘͝͝ö̵̢̜͎̮̑̿̚r̵͔̉́̚̕ṉ̸͆̉̈ ̶͔̦̠̒͋͝t̶̟̥͓̂̄̆h̷̢̦͈̏̄̚ȩ̷̃́͆r̶̛̼͖̯̼̓̓e̷̢͛̈ ̸̫̄̇̕w̸̤̝̥̉̕͠ͅe̷̯̥̭̳͑̇͋r̸̜͇̙͕̽̈͒e̶̱̱̲̽̇̕ ̶̦̍̿̕̚š̷͕͈͎̤̔̊e̸̢͈̱͑͑͒͝v̵̭̩̤͐̍e̵͇͎̹̐͘ṅ̶̟̈.̴̟͘ ̶͙͔̄̆̄͝S̷̢̐p̸̯͗r̵̢̋i̸̙̘̕n̵̯͖̎͑̾g̸̦͒͛͑,̸̰̭̑̌ ̵͔̼͚̈́̏̋S̴̨̎̅̃u̵̞͈̦̔͌ḿ̸͈̲̦̤̍m̶͎͆e̵̢͕̙̻̽́̉̂ř̴̳̩̄͝,̶͚̪͝ ̸̼͚͉̓́͂Ą̷͚̼͐u̷̥̱̹̳̐̂̎͠t̸̨̟͌u̴̖͈͖̘̍̂̑̿m̵̤̈̏͒ń̵̞̈̉̀ ̶̳̊̏̅ạ̸̖͌̉ṇ̶̨͚͚́̓̅͝d̶̘̬͎̚͜ ̴̦̬̇͝W̴̬͕͑̆̃i̵̗̋̿̈͘ṇ̵̱̅̈́͐́t̷̰̂̓̽e̶̊̓̑́ͅŕ̶̹͋,̵̩̪͒̓̑͘ͅ ̸͍͇̚t̸̲͓̺̽̐͌h̴̺̘̲͂̅e̵̢̋ͅ ̸̳̔͂̅E̶̝͚̐q̵͍̻̯̃͋͑̿u̶̗͂̊͠i̸̹̝̮̿̽n̷̲͚̙̠̾͆o̸̹͍̯̓x̸̠̙̞͓́́͂ ̸̙͇͂͘t̵̹͐w̶̓͑̚͜͝i̴̤̠̞̮͌ṋ̵͇̮̀s̷͔̀͌̽͝ͅ,̴̛̫̂̂̄ ą̸̢̬̹̝͔̣̩͎̺͈͚̯̥̥̺̝̰̣̟̖͇̎͊͂͑̓̃̌̈́̚͘͜͜ͅn̸͕̠̱̭͊̐̒̎̚͠d̵̡̢͓̝̺̱̯͖̩͚̺͇̦̳̝̯̮͗̒̂̅͆̎̀ͅ ̵̨͚̦̺̬̳̩͓̥͚̯̖̠̥̰̕͠͝͝ͅą̴̛͍͖̟̤̲͎̫̪̜̖̙̩̹̻̬̥̘͒̂̐̿͋̿͋͒̃͗̈́͛̌̔̃̓͂͗͐͜͝͝l̷̢̞̯̰̥̹̖͖͎̼̥̭̥̹̣̤̬̬̦̼͇̆͒̆̋̾̑̓͂͘͘̚͜͝͝ḻ̴̥̞̳̼̗̲̳̣̜͍̭͚̻͚̖̝̹̬̀̆́͋͌͋́̌̍̆̋̐̅̊̒̕͘͘̚͜͜͝͝͝͠͝ͅ ̷͙͍͈̘̝̖̗͕͕̲̞̣̠͖̩͇̟̼̦͇̰̈́̔̿̽̂̇͆̎̍͒̔͜͝͠t̶͍͑̽̐̔͑̋͗͑̓̈́͌̈ḩ̵̛̖̗̪̱̙̳͕̟͔͈̺͕̑͒̓̔̈́͊͒̆̔̔͐̄̒͛͋̌i̷̢̨̧̭͕͑̏́̒͐͋̓̾͛̾̑n̴̨̡̫̘͈̞͉͕͚̲̫̟͖̯͎̒͐͋͘g̴͓̣͇̎̽̈́͒̆̂̈͊̒́̿͊̓̄̀͆͊̽̒̓͘͠s̴̢̧̛̯̭̣̭̎͐̈́̑ ̶̨̲̮͈̪̭͗w̷̢̢̨̖̙̳̦̰͕̭̜̫̬͇̤̰͑ͅȉ̶̘̪̫̰͈͇̩̳͓̤͉̺̪͖̐͐̌͂͆̈́͛̐̓͂͗͌͊̈̍̌̇͂͊̅̀̾͘͜͝ͅl̷̻̠̯̼͚͓̠̲̰̳̞̞̬̗͕̫̯̺̖̬͉̪̀̾̅̆̏̉͛̂͑͐̍̇͂̊̒͗͜͠ͅl̴̛͈͍ ̵̧̨̩̹͖̹̜̼͎̉̎̓̔̊̌̿͆̏̀̐͋́̈́̑͂͠͠͝ͅȩ̸̥͍͖̘͓̪̥͍̪̬́͗͆̊̊̈́̌͑̈̆̍̊̈́͘̚ņ̷͇̜̗͔̪̖̝̪͕̥͇̝̭͉̲̑̀̆͗̑̄̈̾͊́̀̉̏́̾͂̎̐̒̽̏̕͠͝ḑ̴̨̧̛̺͉̰̲͍͇̮̖̥̣̫̳̙̲͔͐̋́̉͌͐̓̒̀̐̑̒́͛͂̊̎̇̕̚͜͝ ̸̢̢͕̻̻͈̖̲̫̻̱̘̬̟̺̜̫̥̀̏͋̉̐̾̇͊̇̒̽̇̂̍̂͛̍͂͋͆̂͜y̷̨̧̧̯̯̘͎̬͎͍͙̗͔̞͍̞͈̓̕ǫ̷̭͔̥̬̫̞̰͙͕̳̝̳͍̩̙̰̘̺̀̐̇ư̷̜̮̩͍̲̙̜̗̱̭̇̽̌́͛̌̈́̎́̉̒̎̎̍̀̔͒̌͋̂̐̚̕͝ͅ ̶̡̢̡̨̡̩̘͓̖͉̦͓̱̻͔̮͍͇̭̦̱̤̪̦̀̉͑̐͑̓̂̈́̆̏͗͛̒́̓͐̒̇̕͘͘̚͜͠i̶͍͈̱̺̩̔͒͒͊͐͂̒͛́̌̀̌̉̇͆̒͆̓̄̾͜͝͝n̴̨̡̛͕̱̭̯̳͚̹͇̼͚̯͙͇͔̞̦͚̘̩̰̎́̏͆̆̀̈́̊̐̓̿̉̀͒͌̌͊̚͝ḉ̸͈̪͕̥̓̋̈́͗́ļ̸͉͂̋̽̌̃̒̑̏̃͛̐́̎̕͜͠u̴̱̼̙̎d̶̨̡̛͔̬̺͍̘̜̭̂̂͜ͅȩ̵͍̮̝͕͚̰̤͔͂́͊̿̈́̂̓̅͑̎͋̈́̿̌͘d̸̢͔̤̣̺̫͖̑͗̎̌͑͐̀̈́̃͋̾͑͜͝͠ͅͅ!̴̰̃̃̾̆ͅ

I blinked.

Skill lost. Some roads are not for you to travel.

I tried to stay focus and not focus on whatever that was.

"Self experimentation is a vital part of science. Isaac Newton shoved a needle into his eye to learn how light worked. Barry Marshall discovered how heartburn worked by injecting himself with a dead bacterium. Werner Forssmann trapped a nurse and then shoved a tube up his vein to scan his heart, and then freed the nurse to save him and got a noble prize for it, even if he was fired. I will exceed all of them, and bring a new dawn to humanity. Any cost is worth paying to bring humanity into a new better world."

She gestured at the two writing corpses. "The crystals are from an alternate dimension where the universal constants are different and there's more energy available. The runes work likewise by tapping into that higher dimensional energy. In our world, the best way to tap into that is by certain neuroenergies, especially the ones made by fear." She touched my gun, and a rune appeared on her hand, pumping flaming energy into the plasma cutter. It was refilled to full, bleeping as the power restored.

She walked back up to me, and leaned in. I flinched, ready to be sacrificed, then felt warm arms wrapped around me as she hugged me. "Old friend." She said. "You worked with my husband before. I'm glad you're back. I know the alien lifeform hurts, but it will make you stronger, faster, tougher, smarter. And it's completely under our control. It's as much of a tool as the plasma cutter. "

She patted my back and stepped back. "I need you. We need you." She cupped my face. "Go get a bunch of druggies, hookers, medical executives, profiteers, the usual, and trap them. We need that power to save the world."

I smiled back at her. "I've always been a risk taker. I took on criminals and the harder cases because I loved the thrill. Actually abducting people, trapping them, and killing them if they fail to get out and advancing science? What could be more thrilling?"

She laughed, a happy normal laugh. "It is quite a rush, isn't it? Knowing that their lives are in your hands. It basically makes you their god." I kept my snarky side locked down hard.

John Kramer stepped forward. "When you trap them make sure there's a way out. I've seen you, you're good at handwork. You can make some traps. But make sure they have a chance. They deserve a chance to better themselves if they really value life."

Jill nodded back at her husband. "Of course. You need to be a fair and benevolent god." She giggled. "Now go. Get me some druggies. I need to harvest their fear energy."

John Kramer took out a laptop, and hooked it up to a printer. I looked over. That looked useful. If I could get it…

He printed off a page of names and addresses and short descriptions for me. Looking me in the eyes, he said "Make them count. Amanda has the same list. Whoever does best will get more toys."

I nodded, and I was off.

Kramer. Liked. 6/10

The first target I picked was a drug user named Annabeth. She wasn't in the Saw canon as far as I knew, and was just a random person who had stabbed her partner for their wallet and now lived on the street homeless after selling everything off. She wasn't that hard to capture, and I soon returned with her in the boot, avoiding any cameras or detection. Having the police raid us early would be disastrous for the time stream.

I got back pretty soon after, feeling pretty good about myself.

I saw Amanda get out of her car with two drug users. She laughed when she saw me with just a single drug user. "You don't have a very strong will to live do you."

I grumbled. "It's not a competition."

She smiled, showing off all of her teeth. "The words of a loser. I'll win his favour and get more than you. You're just a grifter. I'm his real disciple" She walked in, dragging the pair of unconscious drug users inside.

I slammed my hands into the wall, hard enough to make them bleed and for the concrete to crack. I needed an edge to beat her. This world and others were on my shoulders. I could take a class, but I was still unsure. If I suddenly leaped up in power, wouldn't they notice? I needed to stay low key. There was another option.

There was a lot of scrap available for traps. Jigsaw had presumably gotten a few truckloads of junk dumped near us. Mostly metal. There were some tools as well. Building a decent trap was gonna take a while, even with Gacha to summon stuff.

So, I didn't. I made a very simple and lazy beartrap trap and recorded a short message for her about how being poor and using drugs was bad. I didn't do my A game. This was my first try, and Kramer could fix it if he wanted. Then, using a lot of stealth and more active ways to deter tracking I went out. I snuck into a room, lit a torch to look around, barred the door, and used my inhuman agility to squeeze through a crack to the outside. Whatever John Kramer was, he wasn't invisible or able to phase or teleport.

I left the meatpacking plant and found another abandoned building nearby. Using my luck I could tell this was a very low key place and there was almost no chance of anyone coming by for a while, including Kramer the mega stealthy. This would be my base. I spent a few hours scavenging parts from nearby, my new master rank Mad Scientist making it easier than ever. Eventually I finished, and dumped 1000 of my 2500 perk points into it.

It was a large ring of twisted metal and bone and flesh, looking like a gaping unhealed wound in the world itself. In the core was a pulsating rip in reality that dripped blood. I stepped through.

An hour later, I stepped back, flipping my lucky defense coin up in my hands. Everyone was fine in the sawverse, and I had all my equipment again.

I spent a little time securing my xenomorph. I wrapped the kill device on it in foil carefully, avoiding hurting my xenobuddy. There was probably some magical way to trigger it, but I didn't want a casual radio signal destroying them. I also tried my Toxic Bowl perk on the acid it made. It ate right through the bowl. It was too high rank for me to contain it even with a specialized perk.

I looked over the magical tools after that. A bag of various magical doodads that I had was in one slot. A possessive photo of Elvis Presley, a typewriter that helped with murder, boxing gloves which lock you in a cursed fight, an evil invisibility ring, an amulet that soul drained you and your pain, evil boots, a love potion, a blindfold that could see magic. Non magical items...

A bag of guns, with a few extra. A bag of computer parts. A bag of medical tools. A bag of robotic parts. A bag of explosives. A bag of armour. A bag of tools. A bag of poison. And the Necronicon.

10 out of 24 inventory slots filled. I had some space. It was time for me to upgrade, and systematically murder people.

I wired up a satellite internet link and hooked up my resident evil tech to it. I sent a few coded messages to Gordon, and then got to work. I downloaded the list, and found the worst of the worst.

Then I took out the typewriter and the necronomicon. My new Necromancy skill allowed me to see the spirits of the dead, and I could see a red skinned man with a golden crown riding a horse around the typewriter. The way it worked presumably involved this malevolent spirit using black magic to curse someone when you wrote a story, making that person be murdered. The spirit then fed off the neuroenergies of the dead, and everyone was happy.

I identified the spirit.

Berith. Common demon. A fragment of a greater whole, dedicated to murder and forbidden knowledge.

I flipped through the pages till I found the one I wanted.

Berith. An old Canaanite deity of fertility, the mysteries of the earth, and prophesy. Created by Summer. A deeply beloved idol of the jews once, they could turn all metals into gold, tell of the past present and future, and was often depicted as a red skinned soldier wearing red with a golden crown. They are a notable sadomacochist, and they favoured teaching foolish mortals terrible secrets and forbidden ideals till their communities erupted in violence and civil war, and as such had a tendency to as such reveal far too many secrets of themselves.

They also favoured binding splinters of themselves to objects to spread their way. Here is a list of useful saints and rival gods whose names are effective at binding them.

Skill gained! Demonology. Common skill. You know the basics of how demons work. You have a 1% per level increased chance of binding a common demon.

Unlike Jill Tuck, I had checked with a friendly deity. The book was written by the Great Old Ones, who had a much wider knowledge base than whatever Jill had, and the secrets about demons and spirits in the book were for the most part accurate.

I was reminded of an old experiment. Suppose you have an AI in a box, and you want to get technology and secrets from it. How do you do it?

A very strong AI is going to be a very good reader of humans. They can make extensive models of human behaviour and make solid predictions of how they'll react. If your secret forbidden want is John Kramer Amanda sex stories or catgirls or catboys or whatever they can probably guess and bribe you with perfectly crafted art to let them free and then carry out their evil AI agenda. Even if you refuse to let them free, why trust any technology they give you? They have a much deeper understanding of science than you, and any technology they give you could easily be a weapon to free themselves.

Jill was playing with fire, releasing the monsters in the boxes with a false sense of confidence. I had a detailed guide. I was 80% sure I'd be fine.

I rubbed my head. Reading this book was giving me a headache.

I first checked if any of my new mad scientist perks would help.

Doomsday researcher. You have a detailed knowledge of a field. Gain a scaling bonus to a subject the longer you study it, and an increased rate of epiphanies. Once a day you can make an impossible leap of logic. You gain a scaling resistance to the negative impacts of a subject. 100 points.

Nothing is forbidden. You gain an increased resistance to backlash from forbidden knowledge. Through building an expensive set of gear, you can lower the backlash of forbidden knowledge by one rank. 12 points.

Give your all. You can permanently sacrifice part of your health, stamina, or stats to empower a trap or device with unearthy powers. 12 points.

Doomsday researcher would be great in the next world when I could unslot Omniscient Observer. Nothing is forbidden was clearly a reaction to that funky skill from Summer and I wasn't inclined to let that language in my brain. Give your all could be good. It would suck losing stats forever, but that might vanish when I levelled up, and it was possible I could sacrifice my host's stats rather than mine, or that Gamer's Body or Soul could regenerate lost stuff. If I was gonna bind a demon, having an edge would be good.

I bought Nothing is forbidden and Give your all up to Rank C, the most I could afford with my current stats. Then, using my photographic memory, the internet, and a book of evil magic I started to grind demonology and antimagic resistance.

I learned about numerous monsters and demons. The Necronomicon was a book with endless information. While it looked like just a book with a few hundred pages it actually had countless more. You could easily turn a page and find a page you'd never seen before. There were demons from our world, from many religions and regions, and quite a few hints about the seasonal monsters that were screwing up this world. They'd created quite a few devils and gods.

At the end of the hour, I sat down, tired, my head burning with the lore I'd shoved in it. I felt a resonance. Just as I wanted. Antimagic resistance, computers, and demonology all became advanced apprentice skills, all common. I wonder what it said about the world that magic resistance and demonology were both as common a subject of study as computers. I knew quite a few nerdy people who were super into learning all the tricks to resist curses or learn about demons.

Even atheists. I knew one lady, a lesbian who was pretty politically active in the LGBT scene and really into guns who absolutely despised religion and saw herself as the height of rationality, and also was really into spells and summoning demons and being a wicca. She had multiple times described to me her elaborate fantasies about how her demons would trouble the hearts and minds of the church leaders and politicians and annoying people at school she didn't like.

I guess since magic was real she was the really wise one. I could be like her.

Computers, Antimagic Resistance and Demonology merge into Cybertroll, an epic skill. You are a monstrous terror online and off, immune to the barbs and spells of your enemies and a terror to them with your monstrous lore. In addition to the basic bonuses of each of the three merged skills, you gain-

I could do better. My mind was monstrously strong, and I wasn't going to stop at a mere epic skill.

Electricity was the closest thing to eldritch magic most humans had. Electricity was the spark that made the human soul, you put it into a rock with the right symbol and the rock came alive. Handle it wrong and it was deadly. It was the backbone of modern society. All those arcane symbols to bind demons were little different from circuit diagrams to bind demons, or salt circles to bind magical monsters. It was all about using patterns to control electricity.

I'd been a teacher, so long ago. Teacher was at level 95, but I trimmed and pushed it in. All of these disciplines were bound by one thing. The electrical spark of human creativity mastering the world. I added in all of the remaining fear energy I had left from Freddy Krueger.

Cybertroll upgraded to Cyberpunk Terrorist. Flesh is weakness and steel is strength. You merge science and magic to lead others to cause terror and pain to all your enemies of flesh and steel, your own will unbreakable in your desire to cause terror. You can use any connection, online or off, as an arcane connection, and using one magic point can invade a computer with one follower per fifty levels above advanced apprentice.

Perfection. Time to capture more victims. Using my advanced hacking I could find people, using the portal I could refill my magic, and I could teleport straight to them with the aid of Cyberpunk terrorist. Using the bound typewriter I could write out a murder plot that would automatically succeed, and I had a 100% chance to bind a common demon now my skill had surpassed apprentice. I could get victims for John faster than any normal person. Time to hunt.

Amanda breathed hard, dragging two large men into the Meatpacking plant. They were the worst of the worst, drug dealers who had once wronged her. She was gonna trap them in a trap where they'd have to kill each other, and two more scum would be removed from the Earth.

John Kramer, the most beautiful man in body and mind around was waiting for her. He smiled as she dragged them in.

"Very impress-"

Art Blank drove in in his fancy stolen car. He stepped out and grinned a smarmy grin. Amanda tensed her fists. He probably just had another hooker somewhere or something. Nothing special.

He pulled out three bodies, two men, two women in very expensive looking suits. "Three medical executives guilty of lying to their customers to deny them medical coverage. The worst of the worst. Hundreds, thousands of people died to them. They're worse killers than you, Johnny boy." He finger gunned John Kramer. "I've got the perfect trap for them as well, based on what they did. It cost a lot of money to get it anonymously, but I'm a lawyer, I'm rich. Anything for the cause."

Amanda squeezed the bones of the drug dealer hard enough to crack them.

Slice of life, with Amanda mad that someone else is competing.

Basic plan is next chapter things are gonna go very wrong, chapter after that will be handling the consequences, and the third chapter should be the apocalypse, so the week after on Monday we can speedrun horrorverses. The Maturin scene was setup for the Saw universe being vitally important to horror universes in general and so an apocalypse in Saw is grounds for other universes needing a helping hand. So, keep the horror ideas coming. Nothing long term though.

Hyperionthetitans. The Blob, The Fly, Eighte Legs Freak, and Quiet Place all sound manageable. Tomorrow War sounds harder, since it's a big movie with a war ongoing.

Thanks , Sweetiejack I value your support.

Dice-King. A good guess, and yeah. Generally skills have an advantage in a defensive fight, so while the red markers are several ranks above his skills, like with Freddy he can resist them.

Next chapter. Rewards from being an apprentice and Amanda's calm and reasonable response. See you Monday.