Chap­ter 2 begins with the pro­tag­o­nist, Mick­ey, reflect­ing on the series of events that led him to choose the dan­ger­ous posi­tion of an Expend­able. Ini­tial­ly, he had been drawn to the idea of becom­ing “Immor­tal,” think­ing that sign­ing up for this role would some­how offer him an escape from the suf­fo­cat­ing con­fines of his life on Midgard. How­ev­er, as he recalls his recruit­ment expe­ri­ence aboard the Drakkar, it becomes clear that he was dri­ven more by a des­per­ate desire for a way out than by any ide­al­is­tic notion of immor­tal­i­ty. He vivid­ly remem­bers meet­ing Gwen Johansen, a no-non­sense recruiter who out­lined the grim real­i­ties of being an Expend­able. The tasks she described were life-threat­en­ing, involv­ing dan­ger­ous work in deep space, expo­sure to hos­tile alien envi­ron­ments, and even med­ical experimentation—all with the expec­ta­tion that these risks could eas­i­ly lead to death. Despite the chill­ing nature of the job, Mick­ey felt cor­nered by the lack of options and saw this as his only chance to escape the monot­o­ny of life on Midgard.

Dur­ing the recruit­ment ses­sion, Gwen went into fur­ther detail about the types of assign­ments an Expend­able would face. These includ­ed high-risk tasks such as con­duct­ing repairs on the ship dur­ing inter­stel­lar trav­el, deal­ing with poten­tial­ly lethal local flo­ra and fau­na, and par­tic­i­pat­ing in dan­ger­ous med­ical tri­als. Mick­ey, whose back­ground did not include tech­ni­cal exper­tise or prac­ti­cal skills, under­stood that he would often find him­self in life-threat­en­ing sit­u­a­tions. Yet, the allure of leav­ing his home plan­et quick­ly over­shad­owed any con­cerns about the risks. To Mick­ey, this job seemed like the only viable way to escape Midgard’s stag­nant soci­ety, where few oppor­tu­ni­ties exist­ed for growth, espe­cial­ly for some­one with his aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground. The thought of explor­ing the unknown, even at great per­son­al cost, was more appeal­ing than remain­ing on a plan­et where he saw no future for him­self.

As the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, Mickey’s mis­con­cep­tions about the role of an Expend­able start to unrav­el. He had ini­tial­ly believed that, should he face death dur­ing one of these haz­ardous assign­ments, a back­up mech­a­nism would allow him to return to life, but Gwen reveals the harsh truth: there is no such mech­a­nism. Most Expend­ables face death with­out the hope of res­ur­rec­tion, a bru­tal real­i­ty that Mick­ey had not con­sid­ered. To his shock, he learns that despite thou­sands of appli­cants for oth­er posi­tions aboard the Drakkar, he is the only one who has applied for the dan­ger­ous role of Expend­able. This rev­e­la­tion hits Mick­ey hard, empha­siz­ing his iso­la­tion in this deci­sion. He is left to grap­ple with the uncom­fort­able truth that he is choos­ing to embrace a life where his very exis­tence will be seen as expend­able, with no promise of escape or renew­al should things go wrong.

Gwen con­tin­ues to chal­lenge Mickey’s moti­va­tions, ask­ing why he believes he is suit­ed for such a dan­ger­ous and dehu­man­iz­ing posi­tion. Giv­en that Mick­ey comes from a soci­ety where knowl­edge is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and his back­ground is in his­to­ry, Gwen ques­tions whether he tru­ly under­stands the weight of his deci­sion. Mick­ey reflects on his life on Midgard and real­izes that, despite his edu­ca­tion, he had been unable to find a mean­ing­ful place in soci­ety. The lack of oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth in Midgard, par­tic­u­lar­ly for those with an aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground, had left him feel­ing frus­trat­ed and adrift. He sees many young peo­ple, like him­self, turn­ing to risky paths sim­ply because there are no oth­er options avail­able. The absence of ful­fill­ing careers in fac­to­ries, mil­i­tary roles, or aca­d­e­m­ic posi­tions pushed him to con­sid­er the Expend­able role as a way to break free from the sti­fling envi­ron­ment of Midgard.

Mickey’s deci­sion to join the Drakkar mis­sion as an Expend­able is thus dri­ven by a mix­ture of frus­tra­tion, des­per­a­tion, and the desire for change. The real­i­ty of the risks he would face begins to set in, but the yearn­ing for escape from his stag­nant life out­weighs his fear of death. The chap­ter con­cludes with Mick­ey reflect­ing on the com­plex mix of emo­tions that led him to this moment. While he is aware that his choice is fraught with dan­ger and exis­ten­tial uncer­tain­ty, it rep­re­sents his best shot at leav­ing Midgard behind. In this bleak envi­ron­ment, Mick­ey under­stands that his sur­vival depends not only on his phys­i­cal abil­i­ties but also on how well he can nav­i­gate the chal­lenges of being seen as expend­able. This chap­ter sets the stage for the pro­tag­o­nist’s jour­ney, explor­ing his inter­nal strug­gles, the soci­etal pres­sures he faces, and the dif­fi­cult choic­es he must make in a world where the stakes of sur­vival are high and per­son­al iden­ti­ty is con­stant­ly at risk.