18: You Can Call Me "VOLUNTEER"

Episode Description
Or Al, if I can call you Betty.

Content Warnings
This episode contains some descriptions of violence.

Plot
Mike begins the episode talking about how he generalizes what goes on in his brain to be applicable to the human brain in general. He then explains that he has a tendency that, once something is revealed, to believe it to be the truth.

Mike notes that O.V.E.R. lets him take off as much time as he needs to recover from the bear attack. WOE.BEGONE, however, does not. Mike receives a letter titled "WOE.BEGONE: Gamerunner's Guide," where he has the code name VOLUNTEER and is meant to repeat the things that Ryan told him to Hunter.

Mike realizes that this letter means both that Ryan could have been a player like him, and that Hunter has been playing WOE.BEGONE. He tries to text WOE.BEGONE about this, but they tell him to follow orders. Mike also mentions that he hasn't called Hunter's cabin, and that Hunter's prize is some woman he has never met.

Mike goes to Hunter's cabin, and Hunter reveals that he had chosen his mother for his first prize. His mother was going to die regardless due to an illness, so Hunter says he won't have any trouble killing her. Mike is required to have a "proving event," where he uses time travel to prove that he really is a gamerunner. Hunter asks him to come to his cabin the night before the bear attack, warn him of the bear attack, and tell him the number 32179.

Mike texts WOE.BEGONE what he needs to do for the proving event. Disoriented, Mike attempts to walk to Hunter's cabin in the pitch blackness of the night. He runs into a trash can, making a loud noise. As he attempts to put all the trash back inside it, he hears Marissa's voice and a gunshot. He yells "fuck!" as he is grazed in the left shoulder. Mike realizes that he is the bear.

Mike is suddenly teleported back into his cabin, and texts the gamerunners that he failed his proving event. He receives a text back saying that Hunter didn't believe him, that he never would have believed him, but that WOE.BEGONE got what they wanted.

Trivia
Transcript