Amarillo is a hell of a town, bigger population than Oklahoma City and more condensed towards the center. Perfect for my plans. First off, I found myself a Holiday Inn in the middle of town to bunk down at. It's still a motor inn. I like parking right in front of my room door with the car pointed outwards. I can keep an eye on Clementine, there's no small talk with the front desk clerk, and I'm ready to leave in a hurry. The room is pretty clean, but I had to pull the comforter off the bed and leave it outside the door. The smell would have kept me up at night. You know they don't wash those after each guest, right? Vile.
Phase one of the Amarillo plan is to update my System. I say "System" and the orange screen appears in front of me.
*
Name: Sam "Deadman" Jones
Race: Human
Body: 4 / Mind: 2 / Spirit: 2
Available Stat Points: 2
Level: 4
Class: Wandering Bard
Class Features: Musical Talent (Mastered: Voice/Guitar/Piano), Free Movement
Professions: Bard, Fisherman, Detective, Soldier, Hunter, Automotive Repair, Gambler
Talents: Hyper-Perception / Beloved by Machines / Spatial Storage
Detriments: Inexorable Truth / Strange Luck
*
I've got some real choices to make here. From a danger perspective, Body and Spirit are the only things I really need to grow. Increasing Spirt will help keep my metaphysical self from tearing to shreds. I'm not exactly sure what that would do, but I bet it would be bad.
Increasing Body makes it less likely that I die to more traditional methods. To be perfectly honest, even if I had kept my Body at 1, I could handle 99% of violence. It's not like I'm in a war zone. In civilization, don't look for trouble, fight dirty, and if you get in a gun fight, stay low and shoot first. It seems like an easy choice to raise Spirit.
On the other hand, I have a bad temper and looking for trouble can be fun. The thing about Body is that I keep getting taller! Taller is more eye catching and catching eyes is dangerous. It makes it harder to be underestimated, and way harder to permanently borrow items I need. The only real solution is to split the difference. Specialization feels like the right instinct, but I'm going to fight it.
"Add one Available Stat Point into Spirit."
I feel my Spirit compressing and expanding. It's getting denser and I feel a swirling kind of energy all through the spiritual shell that is covering me. The rips from my rebirth continues to heal, and it feels good. I'm real tempted to dump the other point in as well, but what if I need to punch someone into the sun someday? A boy can dream.
"Add one Available Stat Point into Body."
I brace myself for the slight discomfort of increasing Body. Sadly, 5 in Body appears to be a type of tier level. A deep wracking pain wells up from every part of me. It feels like I'm boiling. I'm convulsing on the bed in agony and biting my pillow to keep from alarming the neighbors. The system screen appears.
*Congratulations on reaching Body 5. Choose a specialization. Time limit: 30:00 minutes. Please choose from list: Strength, Speed, Durability, or Balance.*
I'm starting to lightly foam at the mouth as I look at the 30:00 minute timer in disbelief. For fucks sake, who made this system? Ok, focus up Sam! Being super strong sounds so fun, but the pain is making me feel very honest with myself. I hate being scared. The only things that makes me physically scared right now are superior numbers of enemies and literally any gun. Any rusty, ill maintained, piece of shit pistol with only one bullet in it can instantly extinguish your life with a lucky shot. It's terrifying and I hate it.
Strength can get fucked. Oh, I've convulsed my way off the bed. I smashed my head on the bedside table and am splashing droplets of blood around as I gyrate on the floor. I'll need to leave the maid a good tip. Balance is also off the table. Lame. Pick a side.
Speed to avoid getting hurt or Durability to tank it. I don't know the extent of the fucking system! I presume it was originally built for a fantasy world. Thus, I deduce that it should be comparable to high level fantasy creatures at some point. Like, dragons or kraken or fucking spider liches or some shit! I bit through the pillow. I just bit a piece of my tongue off.
Ultimately, only one choice could maybe help with my greatest physical fear. Being shot in the head while sleeping. I choose Durability! The seizure continues. Fuck.
"Durbblappee." Nope.
"urpapilllpy!" Not even close.
"apapaptittty!" I bit my lips on that one.
I activate my Bard voice mastery. "Durability!" The convulsing stops and warmth floods my body. It's like soaking in a relaxing hot tub while little bubbles tickle you. I spit out the piece of tongue I bit off and feel the unique sensation of it regrowing in my mouth. A few of my teeth loosen and fall to the floor. "That's not good." A rumble starts in my guts and is quickly building to a roar. "Oh god! Oh no!"
I stumble to my feet and waddle to the tub while pulling off my boxers and holding my midsection. I fall into the tub and activate the shower with my feet before IT happens. I won't describe IT in detail, but I have a new entry in the Top 1 Worst Things I've Ever Felt list. After it's done, I weakly roll my body out of the tub and cut the shower off.
Apparently, my system thought there were parts of my body that didn't meet muster and expelled them through every means available. There's an uncomfortably high percentage of me left in the bottom of the Holiday Inn tub and there is no amount of tip that will make the maid ok with this.
"System"
*
Name: Sam "Deadman" Jones
Race: Human
Body: 5 (Regeneration) / Mind: 2 / Spirit: 3
Available Stat Points: 0
Level: 4
Class: Wandering Bard
Class Features: Musical Talent (Mastered: Voice/Guitar/Piano), Free Movement
Professions: Bard, Fisherman, Detective, Soldier, Hunter, Automotive Repair, Gambler
Talents: Hyper-Perception / Beloved by Machines / Spatial Storage
Detriments: Inexorable Truth / Strange Luck
*
I grab the towels and wipe myself down. I'm not clean, but I don't look like I just Scrooge McDucked my way into a mass grave. I look in the mirror and can't see my eyes. I'm way taller. I pull on some clothes that don't fit me anymore and peek out the door to the parking lot. A maid cart is sitting unattended a few doors down. I quickly grab bleach, way more towels, and plenty of trash bags. Making my way back to the bathroom I begin my grim work.
That night, I'm standing on a bridge over the Canadian river on the outskirts of Amarillo, and I'm feeding bags of myself to the fish in the darkness. I can hear them splashing and fighting over me. I guess it's nice to feel wanted? I can feel a few tears of relief dripping down my cheeks as I finish.
I hug Clementine's hood and imagine she hugs me back. "Girl, I'm going to take a personal day tomorrow. I'm just not feeling it."