Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathetica.

Of the four depictions mapping the universe’s physical principles, only this one remained. The empirical presentation, by the Adinkra symbols, which were prisms, was ripped. The table on supersymmetry, on the fermion (in solids) and the boson (in light) was trampled over.

For the non-holographic solar system model, Mars was pierced.

The Beast of Babel looked at me. Its mechanical texture was a bloody red. Its mouth dripped with golden saliva. It screeched, looking above my head. I had goosebumps. I felt the hair on my neck raise. The screech was less ferocious than before. I doubted the Beast of Babel thought this was enough to intimidate me. My legs did shake from the adrenaline. The haze of a passing breeze came to my ears. It repeated itself. The sound seemed to come from the direction of the beast.

I looked up to find a metal object above my head. I dodged out of the way. The object dropped. I heard cracks as the object broke the concrete underneath. Three more objects fell behind the first culprit. The objects looked massive, with a good thickness. They looked like stone slabs.

Unlike the stone slab that fell over me when I rescued Emma, these were not rectangular in shape. They looked like perfect squares. I took a few steps towards them, eyeing the beast from the corner of my eyes. No. They were not just metal slabs. I walked past the first metal slab. All four slabs had jagged edges, which looked like they were meant to connect with each other. ‘It would be like wheeled mechanisms,’ I thought.

"Honestly, this game character is crap. I raised him to get all those muscles, but now no one is playing the game anymore," I heard someone say.

"You are the dumb one. Just watch some animes. I told you to stop playing games. It ain’t cool among adults anymore," a female voice said.

"You are dumb. I doubt people have stopped playing games. Aren’t we adults too?" replied the first person.

I found a woman and two guys with wings. Their wings were green. These fluttered and ferreted in anticipation. All three had black hair, with varying skin color. One man was obese beyond what could be considered healthy. He probably could not fly. The woman had a decent figure. She wore a white blouse on black pants. The other person was kind of lean and haggard. Golden saliva dripped from their mouth.

System Notification

"Are you here to play or to lose?"

Combat sequence will begin automatically. Any damage before initiation of combat sequence will be nullified.

"Why though?" I said. I pressed my palms together in front of my nose. It was a compulsory cutscene.

Spawn 2 was the obese man. Spawn 3 was the woman with the decent figure. Spawn 4 was the lean and haggard man.

The lean and haggard man spoke. "I guess I don’t feel the slightest bit of pleasure when I complete games. It has to be more flashy and erotic. I don’t feel anything. I think this condition is called anhedonia. This is strange."

"I had such a huge dopamine rush during the first period I posted my illustrations online. I guess people don’t have pity for the average folks. Rather, I had to hunt down people who plagiarized my works. Well, this can’t be helped, since even the elites do the hunting." The person kept gaming on his phone. I peeped over to find connected, circular wheels operating on his screen. It did not match the controls he inputted by touch. He looked and met my eyes. "Don’t look here. I’ll punch you."

A pink-skinned humanoid – the hollow left untouched – laughed at one of his companions. The companion in question, Spawn 2, spat on the ground.

The woman cringed when I came close. "You look boring, you moron," she told me.

I reflected on her words. "I watch anime too. What is your weapon of choice for fighting?"

"You don’t think I would tell you that unless we fight, do you?" the woman said, raising an eyebrow.

"My apologies," I said. "I thought you were looking for a conversation partner."

"You don’t get to have the galls for that, given how you carry yourself. Come back smarter."

"I see," I said.

Spawn 2 sneezed and rubbed his nose. "This is the perfect game. It has all the superhero cutscenes you would want. It has an amazing combat system, for whenever you want to play. I do wish it were a little more difficult. The environment is gorgeous and highly interactive. The story is a masterpiece. I don’t know how to explain it. If there were a hierarchy of the most comprehensive stories, which has captured the best of lores, War Maiden Online would come on top every time. I don’t care who made the game. It’s awesome."

A game that had everything Spawn 2 wanted. Perhaps, this was a good thing by itself.

Spawn 2 salivated over his smartphone. He did not mind my approach. He was entirely absorbed in his gaming. He mumbled to himself. I thought Spawn 2 was pretty quirky. On his screen was a full moon.

It was a yellow moon in a dark red sky. There were no clouds. The moon gave off the visual illusion of being at once near and far. I glanced at my surroundings, to avoid getting caught up in the details. As I watched, the Adinkra symbols retook form.

I looked at Spawn 2 again. Was he simply absorbed in his gaming? Was he thinking? Or was he deliberately framing a tunnel vision? I could not tell. He should probably have noticed my presence by now. Spawn 4 delivered his threat audibly enough.

For my part, I did not mind my surroundings more than my mind’s feedback told me to. I pressed the shining dot in the corner of my eyes, alert to the Beast’s moves. I found out I could not communicate with Nina.

Although different, I believed that the result of any general case study for minding one’s surroundings would be the following: the fundamental instinct of post-industrial people was to not mind their surroundings. Well, many would perhaps preserve the general atmosphere. I gripped my fist and looked sideways.

I remembered that the best form of character assassination was dehumanization. I learned that when a random guy who was not even my friend tried to self-inflate by flashing his hand when passing by me and looked away when I looked at him.

I did not know him personally. He was just a random delinquent who used to take the same bus as me. I merely had strength in deciding what he looked like to me. Certainly, I had not been immune to offhand behavior myself. One such offhand behavior had been a weird side argument about messaging in group chats at some odd hours, followed by the argument catching up with my exam zeal. This particular odd hours criterion later proved to be hypocritical.

There were other people, in high school, specifically, with more optimistic, self-controlling outlooks. Whether it has been a gift to be with them or not, I understood they were not the kind of people who would encourage complete desensitization. They were my frame of reference. It was logical that they would not share energy without nothing in it for them. Regardless, long-term attitude differences and disagreements were bound to the mark.

They understood and they proceeded. I understood, and had my ‘aha’ moment. Managing my body and managing my time – these were the simple proofs asked. Either way, if the default answer was ‘no’, it might partly be my fault for not leaving the awkwardness and the standards of the other person alone.

There was still no running from it. Accepting that was about understanding mob mentality – the same mob mentality that funneled in spontaneous, unplanned violence.

That said, it would be extremely taxing if I used a personal example, going down memory lane, to explain each of my actions.

"Hey man!" I said. Spawn 2 did not budge. I shook his shoulder. Spawn 2 shrugged my hand off. I waited. He did not take notice.

I looked ahead. The Beast of Babel had its eyes closed. Its mouth was not open. Its head was small, and it had two eyes. "What’s the point of all this?" I asked. The creature’s bloody halo appeared before blinking into nonexistence. "You should have made a quick-time event instead. It would have been awesome," I said, looking up. Not that I knew how pushing buttons at crucial moments could be incorporated in VR games without slowing down the game’s time.

It was ridiculous to imagine.

"You are a diehard enthusiast of gaming too, right? That’s probably why you can interact with us. Why don’t you enjoy yourself?" Spawn 2 said. It sounded nonsensical when he said it with Spawn 3 standing beside him with one hand at her hip; she looked sideways.

"I certainly completed Age of Empires 2 and 3. There were Need For Speed Most Wanted, Need for speed Underground, Ghost of Sparta, and The Clockwork Man: Hidden World. I climbed up Tekken 6’s dans (ranks). I managed to play Pokemon Sun and Moon. There were plants vs. zombies 1 & 2, Chicken Invaders 1 to 3, and maybe more."

Spawn 3 looked at me, perplexed. Having not played the Crisis series and the Battlefield series, I knew the list was average for a gamer. That became fine for me. Stories harbored strategies and intrigue. I read and watched too. It was important. I looked up.

"Not that much of a gamer, to be honest," I scratched the back of my head. "I took a lot. I was pretty useless. The knowledge gained constituted of information and reaction to information. It was experience. It helped hone my gaming skills."

“I see.” Spawn 3 said, her hands at her hips. Her eyes blinked exaggeratedly. I could not remember the face Eloise made when I was prompted to restore my trust level with her. I just had my way of doing things. A rigorous flow state was nice, with good challenges. Gamified story or history, which was groundbreaking, was good. It was a hobby, not developer-level competitive in terms of process. Well, maybe some games made you aspire to be developers. I tried cryptozombies once. Rather than a regional or company event, it was an in-game event.

In front of me, I saw a chimera. It had a halo, three tails, a humongous jaw, and talons for feet. The ‘Beast of Babel’ was a chimera, a mystical beast expanding on the mapped out archetypes of other creatures. The Royal Lucretius museum was the optimal place for such a creature to appear.

The museum mapped out some records of Legacy’s history, and extended beyond Legacy’s known map into fantasy as well.

I was myself. Each time, my game character had been the game character, in the game’s map.

That said, it was perhaps the first time that I encountered a character like Spawn 2.

Battle Confirmation

Do you want to fight Spawns 2-4 of the Beast of Babel?

Yes

No

I thought the scene would directly transition to a conflict with the Spawns

Did I want to fight? I was a solo player as much team sports was nice. I was not an absolute alien to these people.

I looked at Spawn 2, Spawn 3, and Spawn 4. I did not even get to know their names. That was normal. Unknown people in unknown nations, unknown cities, and unknown streets.

"No, I do not wish to fight them. They are not my enemy. But they are the exceptions." I gripped my hand in front of my chest.

System Notification

Power Quest failed

You failed to defeat the Beast of Babel. The beast has determined it will search for a more suitable candidate. Accept this token of appreciation in the meantime.

Initial quest details:

Rule 1 of Existence – Destined Darwinism

ʺAll of us are granted a certain reality. We all grow in the shadow. Fighting with open eyes in the dark in the only way forward.ʺ

- Defeat the phantasms of Babel.

This is a power quest. No power quest can ever be declined or accepted. The result is decided based on the situation. This is a branch of the main story mode of Life of No Legacy.

Please exit this area if you don’t feel ready.

* * *

The Beast of Babel turned its head. It disappeared. So did the phantasms and the hollow.

The supersymmetry table reinstated itself. The Adinkra symbols were fully restored. The non-holographic model was back in place, with the Legacy planet in the third row.

‘No consequences,' I thought. I looked at the piece of metal that appeared in front of me. Within its rims, a red lion roared back at me. I grabbed it. It felt cold to the touch. The object had a round hole on top. It looked like it could be made into a keychain. It reminded me of a keychain a friend had gifted me once.

I turned the metal over. There was an indention over the metal surface. [Seek Babel: RiVA78] What was that supposed to mean?

Quest Abandonment penalty

Get yourself out of here

- Find the key that the Beast of Babel left behind.

You have been trapped to this room by the Beast of Babel. You now have to get out. Giving up will result in you losing any chance to meet the Beast of Babel again. The key is hidden deep within the walls of the premises. Defeating each monster on the path will provide indications as to where you should search for the key. Keep in mind that you will pay heftily for any collateral damage you cause, if you do not kill the monsters that will occasionally appear, to find the key.

Accept quest?

Yes

- Continue as instructed

No

- You will not meet the Beast of Babel again (and will still pay for the damage)

"Why?" I sighed. I looked ahead. "Yes, quest accepted." The beast caused all this damage. Why did I have to pay it? I looked at the four squares lodged onto the ground in front of me. They were clearly meant to be round wheels.

"Seriously, what the fuck are these?"

***

Author Note: Chuck Norris killed death.