Chapter 8 - Mindspace

Groaning, #42 slowly got up. His muscles randomly spasmed as the residual electricity worked its way through his body. Finally gaining control over his body, #42 stood up and smoothed out his smoking electrified hair.

Below him the experiment continued flopping around and gasping for breath. #42 looked down satisfied that his rousal method succeeded yet again. It was much better than #41’s method of just slapping them silly. He reached down and yanked the feeding tube out of its throat unleashing incoherent ramblings.

“Shit game. The controller is not working… do you have batteries? WHAT BATTERIES!!”

Pulling out a translation stone from inside his coat, #42 was amazed at what it displayed. It shattered after stating that Ɇ₦₲Ⱡł₴Ⱨ is not recognized as a coherent language by the universe. The scientist couldn’t help but sigh “another failure”. Grabbing the failure by its leg, the scientist dragged it across the room. After some time and much cussing, due to repeatedly dropping the failure from the slick liquid covering it, the scientist reached the garbage chute. Opening the hatch, #42 shoved him down the chute. A more physically demanding task than he would have liked, due to him having to stomp the failure down through the opening.

Turning around he walked back to his clipboard to document the failure.

……...

(Ɔ ˘⌣˘)♥ Ｃｏｎｇｒａｔｕｌａｔｉｏｎｓ ♥(˘⌣˘ C)

Main Plot Quest Completed

Reward: Return to Home World!

“Wake me back up in 30 minutes”

“I’m up, I'm up. Wait… Ark?”

“Fallen? What the fuck are you doing in my ….! Where the hell are we?”

Looking around they were surrounded by nothing but a white plane for as far as the eye could see. The only features of this plane were the two fuzzy outlines of Ark and Fallen. Even staring into the distance, they were unable to tell where this plane ended. Finally, they looked at the screen with barely enough time to read it before it updated

Please wait while your departure ticket is processed

Thank you for participating in this Beta.

(つ✧ω✧)つ Hope you enjoyed your stay! ⊂(✧ω✧⊂)

“... so are we done?”

“We completed the plot mission. Maybe it's isekai-ing us back to earth.”

Remaining Interdimensional Travel Tickets: 0/2

Can not return hosts to original world

Error

Error

...

The system continued to give so many errors that the prompt filled the horizon.

“Ah, fuck.” - in sync

System reformat initiating...

Enjoy your time in the Mind Space while system reformats

ETA: 5 days

“This may not be so bad.”

“Dude no this is bad.”

“How?”

“Windows always fucks up the ETA...”

System reformat initiating...

Enjoy your time in the Mind Space while system reformats

ETA: 500 days

“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING!”

The two blurry figures charged at one another. After an exciting start, the fuzzy bout devolved into a shonen battle reenactment. Their fight, while grand and legendary to themselves, was no epic tale.

...

“System can we see what the ETA is currently at?”

ETA: 3000 years

“Well shit.” - in sync

…

“Don't tell me it's going to be a NG+.”

“Oh! Maybe a dormant scenario. Like possibly...”

…

One of the outlines pacing around by itself quietly mumbled.

“Since this is an independent realm from our real bodies, do we have control over it? Like, can we do anything or are there rules to ‘imagination land’?”

Suddenly interrupting his train of thought, the other outline excitedly ran up to him and shouted.

“Dude look at what I just made! It's a piece of paper!”

…

It turned out that they had absolute control over the mind space they shared. And with a near infinite amount of time to explore their new found powers, their white empty plane was transformed.

They now sat on a large futon.

“You know this mindspace looks pretty good now. It's funny how time flies when you're working on decor. We even figured out how to make a sky!”

“I’m in the mood for some gaming.” Snap

With the crack of his fingers, a television screen and a pair of controllers fell out of the sky. But before they could start gaming, the notification they had been waiting for finally arrived.

System Update has completed

Total Elapsed Time: 2999 years, 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds

“Time to kick ass and chew bubble gum.”

Putting on a pair of black sunglasses Ark said

“And I am all out of bubble gum.”

Around them a sitcom laugh track rang out.

Agents have been tasked with a new Main Plot Quest

Agents ArkAngel and FallenOne have been assigned to the same body

Past cultivation progress has been reset

Time till integration with body: 2 years

In the vast white space the only things that could be seen were the two crying blurry figures falling to their knees, and a comfortable-looking foldable couch.

…

“So... how’s this body sharing thing gonna work?”

“I think I have an idea.”

…

“Alright, the code has been written. Here's the controller.”

“Thank you… you think controlling our body through game mechanics is a little too on the nose?”

“How so?”

“Well, we got isekai-ed right?

“Yup.”

“So it's similar to getting placed into a game and playing the game with real world mechanics.”

“Correct.”

“Then why are we going full circle back to game controls?”

“I mean we can keep fighting over how this works, if you want. But at the end of the day this is a simple solution that makes sense.”

“Does it really make sense though? Doesn't it go against the control that the greater narrative has over us.”

“I think the fact that we can do this at all means that the Authors’ greater narrative power approves of the method. Or at least tolerates it.”

“Why overly complicate things for ourselves?” Shrug

“Exactly.”

...

Ping, ping, ping, ping.

Time till integration with body: 3 seconds...

2 seconds...

1 second…

...

You’re finally awake

“Haha, very original RPG meme.”

Ping, ping, ping, ping.

“How creative of you.”

Ping...

Despite the system prompt’s lackluster joke, their excitement could not be dampened. The two ran over from their table tennis match leaving the plastic ball suspended mid-flight. Or in their words, they paused their game now that the body’s integration with their souls was done.

Welcome back to Gaia

“Let's get ready to rumble!”

Changing the TV channel to 3, they could finally see the start menu of the game. Clicking the continue game button, the two blurry figures saw their character in third-person fall out of a tube and onto the floor like a limp shrimp.

Ark expertly knew the solution… button smashing.

“Shit game.”

“The controller is not working… do you have batteries?”

“WHAT BATTERIES! It's a metaphorical representation of our control. Why would you also need to imagine that it would need batteries?”

Ark pulled out a set of double AA batteries in response.

“But a controller needs batteries...”

Restart required to implement update

“Not you too System! You are a representation of power for the gods! Why do you need a restart?! Where is your little red button?! Do I unplug you?!”

On the screen, they saw a laboratory scientist looking man take out a cattle shock prod and poke at their lifeless body. Bzzt bzzt

Restarting…

“Goddamn it... I don’t care anymore.”

Fallen cried out into his hands.

“Dude, technology is finicky, it sometimes needs a slap or two.”

Ark lectured as he walked up to the television and smacked it. After a short flicker the TV returned to their game in a first-person point of view.

“There we go.”

“… Told you we didn't need the batteries.”