The room felt cloggy. A breath of cold air enveloped the place. It was humid. My movement felt unrestricted. It was like I was inside a cave under a waterfall. I breathed in. The air felt thin to my lungs. I gasped at the cold air. I breathed in more air. The string was in front of me.

The string, should I reconsider, was a representation of a shrunk spaghetti till it had no thickness. The string was about the theory that the universe was constructed from interacting strings. The strings each vibrated at different wavelengths. It was not clear to me what the complete description was. I could use read a bit about the physicist, Michio Kaku, if I wanted to learn more, I figured.

The string representation in question was red in front of my eyes. It emitted heat and was comforting to behold.. That was weird. A blue haze appeared under my feet. It climbed along, making my feet feel numb. My feet felt numb and icy. If I was going to get ice bites in real time, I figured this kind of wind was a precondition. I vaguely thought that the cold air in Omyakon, a place in Russia, might have been similar. In frigid valleys, the cold air tended to accumulate in dents of the ground, particularly when they were surrounded by mountains. It was a fitting coffin for dead people.

The string was not the only things that burned to my eyes. The Newton symbol, ‘N’, the Adinkra symbols, of the black and white overlapping prisms and the supersymmetric symbols – they all burned. It was the same monotonous red color. It was not white or blue. It looked like a lull in time to my eyes. Bosons were light particles and did not collide. Fermions were solid particles and did collide. The only things left to notice were the book and the non-holographic model.

The blue haze rose up my angle. Rain dripped by the windows. I felt sleepy.

System Notification

Your consent to combat has been acknowledged. Please remain aware of your surroundings.

You will have four consecutive monsters to kill in your quest to find the key to your freedom.

Please note that there is a low risk of monster invasions from external sources. However, that is no concern for newbies.

Please proceed with valor.

System Notification

Your only weapon for this trial should be the katana. If not, you will have to start again.

“Oh, great,” I muttered. The first monster that appeared was a kobold. The kobold was a dog-headed humanoid. It was brown in color. The kobold had brown irises, brown padded skin for its palms, and chests, and brown fur. It had a black nose, with black claws. The kobold walked on two legs. In its right hand, it held a club which was the height of about half a meter.

A blue notification appeared in front of me:

Graceful Preview

In Germanic culture, the kobold is known to be a fickle soul, who supplements your household productivity by helping you with chores and by performing other valuable services. That said, the kobold also hides away household tools and presents itself with a superior morality, if you deem to stoop. You may also find a kobold in mining caves. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019) The blue mineral, ‘cobalt’, is named after the kobold. [Greed is the sin of diligence.]

I read the flavor text. I was not sure what was graceful about the information on the kobold. If I remembered correctly, defeating each monster along a certain path, starting from the one in front of me, would provide indications as to where I should search for the key out.

My feet congested with dull pain. It was of the acute, nerve-related kind that happened if you ever punched the ground while falling and your hand went out cold. The glacial wind danced inside my leg’s flesh. My legs were somber in color. They were closer to a dead man’s blue-tinged legs. The wind that permeated the low-pressure room felt cold. If I were to experience a winter wind for a sub-zero temperature, I figured this would be how it felt. The wind flickered, along the bright red symbols that lit up in front of me. My body lost heat, in a vapid way.

The room made me think of a lake. In particular, I thought of Lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world. Lake Baikal was found in Russia. It was Sylvain Tesson, an INTP individual, who who had stayed in the Siberian forests, near Baikal, for six months. (Dwarfi, 2011) I checked my health bar. It said 1100/1100. My regeneration rate likely held out.

The kobold faced me. It smiled, showing its fangs. It was then that I noticed the jaw of the kobold was big. The kobold clacked its teeth together for a few times. Its eyes were avid with bloodthirst. It took a step forward and ran in my direction. I held my katana in front of me. I considered that if my katana clashed against the kobold’s club, the katana’s blade would break into two. If the blade did not break, the katana would either fly out of my hands, or I would be forced to move to the side, so that I may not break my guard.

I moved to the side a few times, before I deflected the club at an angle promoting its trajectory. My body hugged the right side of the kobold. I had switched the katana’s blade to its flat side and supported the blade with my left palm. The club that met my katana was fast, heavy and deadly. I stepped to the left, shifting my blade to become vertically inclined. I swung my right hand and cut through the kobold’s biceps. [-20] A punch came to my ribs. I stumbled backward. I let the katana fly out of my hands. It fell on the ground with a clang. That was one fifth of the kobold’s health.

The blade of the katana shone. The katana’s circular guard was closer to me. I grabbed the katana again. The kobold came crashing with its club, with a sideways swing again. I jumped to the left. The kobold shuffled its feet to face left and took a few steps. I jumped back. The kobold did a downward club bash. The kobold raised its club to its right and charged at me. I raised my body and blocked the left side of my body with my sword raised, and my wrist blocking the flat side of the blade. The kobold attacked again. Its swing did not change direction. I took a large step closer to the left.

The kobold crashed its club against my blade. I recoiled from the impact and took a few steps back. My wrist was not broken, which was good. The kobold changed its direction to match my retreat and charged on. It did an overhead bash. I jumped forward to the right, headlong. I crouched on the floor, gripping my blade. I raised my body and rotated it; my left foot went back, to my right and my right foot came forward to the left. My katana followed the same trajectory. I swung my blade at the kobold’s head.

The blade got stuck.

Brain Damage

You have critically hit the kobold monster. [-50] damage has been inflicted.

The kobold rotated and did an overhead bash. I kept my grip on the katana and moved to my right. I placed a foot on the kobold’s back and sliced out the katana. So far, the katana’s blade had not broken up into two. I gripped the katana forward with my left hand as well, my left shoulder shielding my hands. I charged the kobold. I stabbed him. [-35 damage points] I felt the kobold’s gasp as it died. The kobold slumped forward onto the blade. I put a hand against the kobold and retrieved the blade. I let the creature fall onto the ground.

Bloodstained footprints appeared beside the kobold’s body. The footprints colored the right wall of the [Einstein Zone]. The blue haze at my feet subsided to back from inches below my knee to the lower part of my shin. My legs felt hot.

***

“Let’s be honest. This guy looks like he missed the train. Going to a science museum in a virtual world. You could not ask for a more stupid choice. Spines knows nothing about how deadly ‘Life of No Legacy’ can be.”

“Take a chill pill, bro. Stop the gossip.”

“It’s not gossip. It’s call social evaluation,” Raymond replied.”

“If someone wants it, it exists.” Nina shrugged her shoulders. She turned to go away.

“By the way, Darius, what’s wrong with the Covenant of the Holy Mother?” Raymond said, addressing Darius. Darius had his gray hat off, in the [Kitchen/Breakout Area].

“I don’t know,” Darius crossed his arms. “So far as I can tell, they’ve been pulling out some fireworks.”

Nina stopped and walked towards the table. “We can’t leave things like this. We have to investigate.”

Raymond whistled. “That would be a convenient thing to do.”

Nina tended to her hair. She brought her hands together, without clapping. “Of course.”

***

I looked at the fingerprints on the wall. The blood dripped down the surface, still fresh. Above it was a question:

Blood-Red Wall Inscription

What fantastic creature breathes fire and is a reptile?

“A dragon,” I said. I wondered if I should write it out on the wall. The question seemed to fade. In three seconds, it was gone. A new question appeared.

Blood-Red Wall Inscription

What jumps like a string and metamorphoses to gain the power of flight?

“A larva,” I said. Was this game about a big boat in the middle of the sea, with an old man asking questions or something? I believed the description that I had in mind was about a show called Fort Boyard. It was a French show. I heard something tap the floor behind me. It was an orange larva.

The larva had a body segmented into three. Its height was about twenty centimeters. It did not have any eye or any antenna. I walked to the creature. It jumped forward. I watched the larva collide against the wall and fall down. It creeped about. I heard the sound of a rug being pulled as the creature dragged about its body. I approached the creature and poked it in the middle segment. The larva’s flesh gave way. [-4 damage points]

‘Are you serious?’ I thought. The creature grew in size. I poked the creature on the right segment. [-3 damage points (dp)]. The larva grew to the height of my knees. I poked the larva on the left segment. [-2.5 dp] . The larva jumped on my ribs. I felt like I had been hit by a mattress. My skin burned. I incurred [-50] damage. It was not a lot. The larva grew in size. I poked the middle segment again. [-2 dp] The larva jumped at me. I incurred [-100] damage. I was left with 950/1100 health points. The larva jumped up till it hit the ceiling. Like a ball, it flung about the room. I watched the larva move about in zigzags.

The larva came to a stop, stuck between two of the metal slabs. I poked the larva’s third segment from front, and poked its first segment. [-2 + -2] The larva’s health points were down by about one fifth of its value. The larva grew, then went down in size. I repeated the maneuver. [-2.5 + -2] The larva grew slightly, then went down in size again. I attacked the orange creature in the same pattern a third time. [-4 + -3] The larva compressed itself and shedded its skin. I found a wingless lizard inside. It was the size of a baby crocodile. It was still orange in color. I stepped back.

The lizard did have eyes. Not sure about the lizard’s attack value, and worried about a jump, I walked forward, my katana barring my chest. The lizard walked away. I ran forward and stomped it. [-15 dp] I stabbed the lizard. It disappeared. Upon this act, the floor subsided under my feet. It reached down by three quarters of a meter before stopping. The floor segment in front of it subsided. It stopped after it had sank by about one and a half meter. Another floor segment sank to two and a quarter meters, revealing a passageway.

I entered the passageway. Its walls were lit by blue and golden rainbows. I walked for ten seconds, before a jester appeared in front of me. He had cloth patterned in green and yellow. Seeing that he was defenseless, I slashed the guy. I hit nothing. It was a hologram. It spoke, “You have entered the tomb of the Resplendent One. In appreciation of your visit, the Resplendent One has spawned above his tomb to entertain you with a duel. For your visit, you are required to die.”

The jester grabbed the tip of the cape behind him with his left hand. He dragged it to his left with a swift movement. I heard the swooping sound of the cape. The jester bowed, moving his right fist to his heart. He blinked out of the scene. Brilliant dust particles remained airborne where he had stood.