Isolation, ignorance, distraction and sublimation is the way we cope with the cancer that is the awareness of existing.
———
'Agghhh'.
A groan of pain escaped as my eyes fluttered open, the pain accompanied by a ringing headache.
'Unknown ceiling, unknown room'.
The first thing I registered upon waking. Then my body caught up along with my mind.
".. what the?-".
I shot up, still sitting and looking around at my surroundings. A white room, it was clean. Very clean. Almost uncanny.
The headache went away, my senses on full alert now to decide where I was and what was going on.
'A white room?'.
The room was the dictionary image of the word white room. Then came the other observations.
'My clothes.. It's a white Tshirt and white pants?.. I wasn't wearing this yesterday.. Yesterday?.. -'.
'What was I doing yesterday?.. I can't remember.. my name.. its-'.
"Arghh!!!". A scream echoed and I clutched my head, the ringing was back. My head was splitting. I didn't even register that the scream was my own.
*Huff.. Huff.. Huff..". I was down, collapsed on the foot of my bed, one hand holding the side while the other on the ground along with my knees. I was panting like a dog.
2 minutes or so later. I stood, looking around at the room.
Everything was annoyingly white. 4 walls, my bed, the sheets, the pillow, my outfit; everything excluding a small table.
I walked towards it, confusion and fog clouding my mind.
'A bedside table, brown.. wood?.. ya wood.. What is this bullshit'.
The table was like a brown wood beacon in a sea of white. I was next to it, examining the table the moment I saw it.
On it sat a white card.
‹Pretend that you are playing a game with 1000 other people including yourself in the count. You must all pick a number between 0 and 100. The number closest to two thirds of the average of all numbers picked by 1000 players wins. A number key pad with 101 digits (0-100) is under the pillow you woke up on. Upon deciding the number press the digit and wait›.
'A fucking game?.. Wha-'.
My voice came out a bit dry. "Hey!! What the fuck is all this?!!. Get me out of here! Whatever this is, its not fucking funny!".
*Cough.. *Cough *Cough.
My coughing came next, my throat was dry. There was no water. No answers. Just white and silence.
After sitting on my bed, eventually I checked under 'my pillow' and took out the keypad.
It was the size of a phone. Flat, thin, white with 101 black keys labeled from 0 to 100.
'How the hell does this thing work? It is so thin.. no edge line?..'. I started to try and flap it. 'No bending either.. The keys have no space between the holes either.. High tech.. no branding..'.
"Ugh. This is annoying".
I then spent the time looking at edges, looking for any hidden camera, any device, any sounds or out of place spot in this sea of white.
'Nothing on the ceiling. It feels like cold white tile.. hard as hell'. I was standing on my bed to get height, trying to tap the ceiling and getting a feel for it, looking for some hidden cameras.
'That's all the spots.. the walls are clean, the ceiling is clean, all white tiles with no creases or lines to separate it.. couldn't find any cameras.. also this white is getting painful to be in now'.
'I guess the game is the only option to get answers.. so..'.
"A number between 0- 100.. two thirds of the average of numbers from 1000 others playing, including me".
'I guess the other 999 guys have this info too. Well if everyone guesses 60.. the average is 40.. but then it would be 40.. so the average is 23.. so on…'.
".. Well, the logical answer is zero. Troublesome, no one is fully logical".
I took the key pad and entered my number. A loud beep echoed and the white wall in front of me suddenly had a rectangular portion open up.
'A doorway?.. there were no lines or creases.. how?..'.
I walked out, entering a big circular area with the same annoying white encompassed by walls all around the parameter. My door closed as I exited. And I was inside a white cylinder room with the top going as high as I could see. It was like I was in a white void.
*BEEP!.
«You have passed, the average number is '17'. The closest answer '16' was guessed by you. Congratulations»
«Your next challenge is to craft 2 dice. One red and one blue. The red dive can only have 4 dots on one side max. White the blue dice can have 12 on one face. You will have a total of 42 dots. Upon successfully completing this task you will gain one answer to your trouble».
A card sat on the ground. I picked it up and it had the rules with some points on it for 'help'.
1.Your pair should roll the same pair of possibilities as a normal 6 dot die pair.
2.The red die cannot have a face with more than 4 dots.
3. Every face of the die must have a positive whole number.
4. Once a number is set it cannot be changed.
The next second a pair of dice appeared on the floor out of nowhere. Clear six sides, one red one blue with smooth surfaces.
I picked up the blue dice and pressed on its surface. Its surface lit up like a screen touch and numbers between 1 to 12 showed up.
'So the probability should be the same.. while one can have only 4 sides while another can have whatever is left. The lowest is 2 and highest is 12. So one side on both needs to be one and the other side on blue needs to be 12 minus 4 or 8'.
I dialed in 1 in both die, then 4 on red and 8 on blue.
'Next is the rest. A six + six combo.. so one 2, two 3, three 4, four 5, five 6 and six 7'.
'Every number between 2 and 12 should also be present. So the sides are….. Red:1,2,2,3,3,4. This is the six sides'.
'The blue one then will be 1,8,3,4,5,6; that gives every number between 2 and 12'.
I clicked the dice screen and toggled the numbers before pressing and sealing each number.
*Ding.
The dice wrung and a voice echoed.
«Congratulations. You have passed the second test. As per the reward, one question from you shall be answered. Words matter».
'One question?.. well i should ask where i am.. but it could say "here" or something. Maybe.. Why am I here?.. no.. there should be a better way to get the info.. '.
"When I was 12, I had a crush on someone.. what was the name of the said person".
«You had a crush on your math teacher Teg. She was a German lady aged 24»
"You are correct".
'Well that was able to confirm a lot.. ughh, i don't like the hypothesis but i guess i have to accept it'.
Suddenly, I smelled something sweet and then everything faded to black.
———
I opened my eyes only to meet the familiar white ceiling again. The white room, the same bed or so I thought. It was plain and White.
Same coffee table with another white paper on it.
"Hahh..". A long sigh escaped me as I walked and picked up the note.
‹You have two choices.
First:You can get out of this room now, but doing so will result in your death.
Second: You can stay here and survive forever but you cannot ever leave
Should you choose the former; yell the numbers 2.1.0.2.0.0.9.0›.
"I choose option 1, the code is 2.1.0.2.0.0.9.0".
'The answer was instantaneous. After all, what was there to hesitate about?'.
«You are free». The voice came as usual.
The next moment a white silhouette of shifting shapes appeared in front of me.
«Care to guess what I am?» The moving geometry asked. He wasn't speaking, it was more like my mind knew what he was thinking.
"Something more than me.. i don't know anything else".
It looked amused, well it looked like nothing and everything in a technical term but I knew what it was feeling.
«And what do you think of your own circumstances?».
"I think I'm dead, or at least my existence has changed from what is considered living".
«I knew this was the outcome».
A flash of light accompanied his words and the next minute a screen appeared in front of me, blue with white letters bold.
[You have completed the scenario zero- White Room].
[ Personal Scenario- White room complete
Category:None
Difficulty:A
Clear condition:Complete the 3 tests.
Time limit:none
Compensation: Entry to □'s dream.
Penalty:reality].
When my eyes opened. I was at a train station. A train arrived at the station along with an announcement from the station itself in both Korean and English. Both of which I somehow understood.
The train number 3434 to Bulgwang.
The doors opened and I stepped in. Never to look back again.
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Ya that's about it. I will need to do more research. I love ORV a lot. Leave a comment and review. Also stones.