In a moment of des­per­a­tion, the nar­ra­tor con­tem­plates his regrets while fac­ing a dis­as­sem­bler field inter­face that threat­ens to reduce him to slur­ry for Nifl­heim’s colonists. Despite this har­row­ing sit­u­a­tion, he rec­on­ciles with his past deci­sion involv­ing Gwen Johansen, which led to his cur­rent predica­ment. Strand­ed in Kiruna and on Dar­ius Blank’s bad side, he reflects on his friend­ship with Berto. They had become close dur­ing school, shar­ing a pas­sion for flight sim­u­la­tors, while Berto excelled in every­thing. Berto’s tal­ent led to a suc­cess­ful career in pog-ball, but years lat­er, as Berto pre­pared for a come­back, he unknow­ing­ly put the nar­ra­tor in a dire finan­cial sit­u­a­tion.

Despite warn­ing Berto of his chances, the nar­ra­tor placed a bet on Berto’s even­tu­al fail­ure, lead­ing to over­whelm­ing debt that left him vul­ner­a­ble to Blank’s threats. Berto, feel­ing guilty, sug­gest­ed the nar­ra­tor join him aboard the *Drakkar*, but the odds were against him con­sid­er­ing his lack of qual­i­fi­ca­tions. After receiv­ing an imme­di­ate rejec­tion from a Secu­ri­ty posi­tion, the nar­ra­tor tried to down­play his debts, think­ing Blank wouldn’t kill him sim­ply because he owed mon­ey. Yet, he soon learned the harsh truth when con­front­ed by a thug who tor­tured him using a neur­al induc­er.

Sur­viv­ing that encounter unset­tled him, but he sought an escape route through a posi­tion on the *Drakkar*. When he dis­cov­ered only an “Expend­able” slot was avail­able, Berto voiced his con­cerns but ulti­mate­ly left the deci­sion to the nar­ra­tor, who was deter­mined to escape his cur­rent cir­cum­stances. As he pre­pared for the inter­view, the nar­ra­tor felt a sense of res­ig­na­tion towards the poten­tial dan­gers that await­ed him, reflect­ing that the fear of death had already man­i­fest­ed in his ear­li­er trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence. Thus begins his jour­ney towards the unknown aboard the *Drakkar*, a path paved with risks and a flick­er of hope for a bet­ter future .