I guess Gregory was cornered before, but now he’s really cornered. I don’t know how that difference is reflected in scoring…but I didn’t know how the scoring worked to begin with. There can be no doubt, however, that he’s really cornered now, since the corners have physically manifested. Only a great deal of truthfulness could cause a metaphorical corner to manifest physically like that. ._.
But Gregory has still an ace up his sleeve: his flashback to the Training Camp From Hell. If there ever was a crisis that called for employing this ultima ratio, it was this one. As evidenced by the physical corners.
And the flashbacks to the Training Camp from Hell did help the other players. Or at least some of them. Somewhat. But Gregory was tortured much worse than the other team members during the training camp, so he’s got every right to expect a better benefit as well. While the others were subject to pain and/or painful humiliation, Gregory was subjected to something much worse: intellectual strain.
He had, admittedly, subjected himself to the horror of reading a book on philosophy of his own free volition. But that was one book. When he still was a half-zombie. And it still nearly broke him. Now he has to confront the 566 sequels to that one book, each slightly worse than the preceding one. Plus the Appendices. All by the same author, for whom having to write all of this was as hellish as it will be for Gregory to read all of it. And Gregory isn’t even on an existential quest for meaning anymore…becoming full-non-zombie seems to have solved that issue. Or the writers just forgot about it.
In any case, it was hellish. Horrible beyond description. The worst experience of his life, probably covering all potential parallel lives. He certainly deserves a massive boost in morale in exchange for this. Of course, for the time being he’s only received a massive boost in sleepiness – inevitably so, given the subject matter. But I’m sure he’ll be, like, super-motivated and capable once he wakes up, well-rested and relaxed. Right? Right?
More on Thursday.