"Ugh, it feels like someone hit me with a hammer on the head..." Gomez grumbled with a faint groan as he slowly rubbed his temple. He opened his blurry brown eyes, meeting a pair of clear blue ones curious and cautious.
"Who are you!?" he asked instinctively, narrowing his eyes at the young woman beside him. He sat up straight, entering a cautious stance, and quickly scanned the surroundings.
His eyes widened when he noticed that his surroundings had changed. The last thing he remembered was being in a hotel room in Labzat, resting after finishing his guard shift.
"Who are you and where am I!?" he asked again, staring at the strange environment. His eyes saw that he was in the middle of a white hall from the ceiling to the floor filled with a crowd of people.
He refocused on the young woman, who seemed to be in her early twenties.
She had Russian features, blonde hair, and blue eyes. The woman shrugged her shoulders.
"How would I know!? I woke up in this place suddenly, just like you..."
She crossed her arms in front of her small chest. "Also, it's rude to ask others for their names without introducing yourself first..."
Gomez rubbed his temple again and sighed, smiling lightly. "My apologies, my name is Gail..." Naturally, Gomez didn't give her his real name.
The young woman smiled, revealing her shining white teeth, and extended her hand toward him. "Gail, I'm Lisa..."
He stared at her face for a moment, then took her hand and stood up from the ground.
Pulling his hand away from her soft white one, he asked while adjusting his clothes, "Lisa! , Nice name ... Pleased to meet you. So, do you really have no idea where we are right now?"
"Hmmm, it's not just me. Everyone here seems the same..." Lisa replied while playing with her hair with her finger.
"I see..." Gomez nodded, then turned and walked toward a nearby man, asking politely, "Excuse me, sir!? Can you tell me exactly where we are?"
The man stared at Gomez from head to toe and answered in a heavy tone, as if under the influence of some drug.
"I don't know. I just woke up here a while ago..."
"Same answer..." Gomez muttered with a frown as he moved away from the man.
"I told you! No one knows where this place is..." Lisa said in a sarcastic tone.
He ignored her and scanned the area again.
"No windows, no doors... a strange hall..." he muttered, staring at his reflection on the shiny white floor. He ran his hand through his hair, pushing it back.
"Let's see... I remember waking up because of a knock on the door... that's the last thing before I opened my eyes here!?" He rubbed his hair hard, trying to remember, but it was useless.
It seemed as if he had lost consciousness and woke up here. What he didn't understand was how he lost it he should've remembered something at least. It was as if someone had erased those memories.
Suddenly, a blue light flashed before his eyes.
[ Name: Gomez Helazi ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Points: 33 ]
"Huh!?" He stared at the blue interface displaying his name. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating, but the holographic screen floating in front of his vision didn't disappear.
He turned toward Lisa, intending to ask if she could see the screen too, but found her staring into empty space with curiosity.
He approached her and asked cautiously,
"Lisa, by any chance... are you seeing a transparent screen like in sci-fi movies or anime stories right now!?"
"Um, how did you know!?" she asked in surprise.
"You can see it too!!" Gomez followed the direction she pointed to with her finger, but saw nothing but air.
"Tell me, what's on your screen!?"
"Um, it shows my name, and also my level and points..." Lisa replied honestly.
"You see the same thing..." he thought, then turned and looked around. Indeed, many people were pointing at empty air.
He began checking himself , from his shoes to his clothes, even his skin didn't escape inspection.
"What are you looking for!?" Lisa asked curiously.
"For the device that's making us see these things..." he replied honestly.
"Tch, there's nothing..." he muttered under his breath in frustration and confusion. He stared at Lisa and slowly stepped closer.
"Stay still for a moment..." he ordered calmly, then lifted her hair up, examining the area between the spinal cord and the brain, and also above the ear.
"What are you doing!?" Lisa asked with a frown, but she didn't resist his actions.
"I'm checking the areas where microchips are usually implanted..." Gomez answered.
"Nice tattoo..." he added, staring at the tattoo on the back of her head it was a spider tattoo.
"So, did you find anything!?" she asked coldly, ignoring Gomez's remark.
He let her long blonde hair fall and shrugged. "I didn't find anything..."
He refocused on the holographic screen in front of him, the same kind he had seen many times in anime and manhwas.
[ Please fill in your immunity duration ]
He stared at the new interface that appeared. "Immunity duration? What's that?" he asked curiously, then tried touching the screen, but his hand passed through it uselessly.
"Hmmm, not touch-sensitive... what about thought control..." he immediately thought of filling the immunity duration. As he expected, a new interface appeared.
[ • 10 points = 24 hours
• 1 Level = 5 points ]
[ Please choose a specific value to fill the immunity duration ]
"10 points for 24 hours! That's... interesting..." he muttered under his breath, then turned to Lisa and asked,
"Lisa, did you get new content on your holographic screen!?"
"Um, yes, something about immunity duration..."
"Just as I thought everyone sees the same thing..."
"Hmm... let's do it then. I only have 33 points, so I'd better save some..."
Without hesitation, he used 5 points from his total.
[-5 points]
[+12 hours of immunity]
Two notifications appeared, confirming the successful process. He also noticed a new section added to the main interface.
[ Name: Gomez Helazi ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Points: 28 ]
[ Immunity: 11 hours, 59 minutes... ]
"Have we been kidnapped by some organization trying to test virtual reality..."
Gomez thought, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had read an article about the development of augmented reality technology in recent years, but this level was far beyond either augmented or virtual reality , and the proof was the pain he could feel.
He pushed these thoughts aside and looked at Lisa, who seemed like a child who had just gotten a new toy, busy exploring the holographic screen, or rather, the system interface.
[ Please select one of the following cups before the time runs out ]
[ 4:59... ]
[ 4:58... ]
Immediately after the notification, a three-dimensional image appeared before him, three cups resembling trophies, identical in shape and size but different in color.
"Gold, silver, bronze..." he muttered, looking at the colors.
"Um, Gail! Do you see these cups too...?"
He turned toward Lisa and nodded. "Yeah... it's like a game."
He glanced at the timer ticking down quickly.
[ 4:44... ]
"What will you choose!?" he asked curiously, having failed to understand the purpose of the game, there was no hint or description.
" Huh ! Of course The gold one! It's the most valuable..." Lisa said sarcastically, staring at him as if looking at an idiot.
Gomez chuckled softly and sighed. "A logical view, but what if the most valuable thing isn't exactly what seems most valuable?"
"What!? I don't understand what you're trying to say..."
"Forget it..." he shrugged, not explaining further.
"I'll pick the bronze one..." he said, and without hesitation, thought of selecting it since that was the way to use the system.
The bronze cup remained while the others disappeared.
"Hmm, nothing happened..." he muttered in confusion, then glanced at the timer.
[ 2:56 ]
"I guess the result will show when the time's up..." he guessed, though he had no idea what this game was or what the result would be.
"By the way, did you choose yet!?" he asked Lisa, who nodded with a wide smile showing her clean white teeth.
"Yes..."
Gomez nodded. "Oh, good. I suppose the result will appear when time ends."
"Aren't you curious to know which cup I picked!?" Lisa asked, her face close to his.
He shrugged. "Didn't you say you'd pick the gold one? Besides, if you wanted to tell me, you would have done it without me asking, right?"
"Tch! Boring..." she turned her face away.
Gomez smiled helplessly. She looked like a young woman in her early twenties, yet acted like a child.
He continued watching the others, and soon, the time ended.
[ 00:00 ]
[ -0 points ]