[Progress initiating...]
[Error Code 0x0092334dk4 detected...]
?#$:#_& p...mam..@#
[Connection.... rejected!]
[Connection.... rejected!]
[Connection.... rejected!]
[Reattempting] x 200,483
[Connection.... partially acknowledged@$#-]
[Attempts logged: 200,483]
[Phase 2 initialized]
[Antilogic Identified! Violation of universal-Animas Code]
[Termination sequence engaged.....]
[10%... 34%... 55%... 56%... 88%... 93%...]
[Progress stalled: 93%, Queue STRING: $$23@8_23$$]
[99%....]
[Finalizing.....]
[Loading.....]
[ERROR]
[Critical Failure]
[INTERFERENCE REGISTERED]
[IN.... T.. E.... R.. F....]
[99%..... 10%... 0%...]
[0%]
[-10%]
[-100%]
[-777]
[∞]
[;)]
[...]
[..]
[.]
.
"....."
My bod... fee.. l.s ...numb nd col..d.
My....m.....wa.....
It c-cold. R-r-really cold. I feel utterly numb—not in the mundane, physical sense you're used to—but almost like an ancient frost is coiled inside my very being, creeping through my every synapse, every nerve-ending with glacial precision.
Everything is incredibly dark, overwhelming, unrelenting darkness around me.
Am I... really dead? Seriously?
You know, I always mused about what lingered beyond the threshold of life. Maybe paradise? Or eternal damnation?
No matter the scenario I conjured, nothing ever felt conclusive. I wasn't really your typical devout religious guy back on Earth—didn't subscribe to any deity with fervor.
But paradoxically, I wasn't a full-blown atheist either. I hovered between belief and doubt.
So yeah, in summary, I was in neither camp. I didn't deny Gods existence, but didn't believe in him either.
Many may laugh at me, giving me incredulous looks as if I'm a fool or something. How sad... too bad that they were the fools.
Their puny brains aren't able to balance two opposing thoughts, thus they decide to stick to some dumb rule of accepting one thing and leaving the other.
See, take this as a benchmark.
The yin and yang symbolizes the balance of two opposite attractions in life, whether plus and minus, water and fire, or earth and heaven. Most importantly, men or women.
So black and white balance each other, and you believe that this is one concept, correct?
Now, I have quite a bit different case. I believe that the white yin the in and black in the yang as two different concepts, not one concept, yet at the same time, I accept them both stimuously.
Ridiculous, isn't it?
Nope, not at all.
You are the only ridiculous one to think it's not possible.
But yeah, don't mind the informational dumps, will you?
Anyway—enough philosophizing. Going back to topic....
Seriously, where am I? The void? Afterlife?
I doubt Thanatos or Azrael will swing by anytime soon. Grim reapers have better things to do than entertain washed-up, self-proclaimed 'geniuses' like me.
I attempted to survey my surroundings—only to realize I wasn't suspended in emptiness like so many literary novel protagonists before me. No, it felt more like I was adrift in viscous, fluidic air.
This atmosphere... it had a density—otherworldly and alien. Unlike any earthly mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, or noble gases.
Hm... odd.
How odd. I am 10000% confident that all those scientists on Earth would sell their life savings along with their wives to just get a glimpse on how where I am works.
I only accept woman-payment though. So wives and daughters only. No thank you, no guys please.
Wait... on second thought maybe guys could be sold for their organs...?
I needed to know where the f*ck I am.
For 2x, back to topic.
Focus. Reset.
I tried lifting a single digit—but couldn't. Immobility clung to me, draping me in an eerie stillness that permeated deeper than skin.
Is... this death?
H..... e...l. o....o
...?
My voice... it's glitching?
Is that normal?
It feels like I'm in a corridor. A passageway. Not physical, but cerebral.
My heartbeat... is slowing. But that can't be—dead things don't have heartbeats.
So what is this?
My pupils felt weighted. My head swam in vertigo. It was as though my consciousness detached—slipping into something akin to astral projection.
I had pierced a barrier. Crossed a threshold no one could quite name.
So maybe all that metaphysical yapping from TV about consciousness transcendence wasn't complete nonsense.
Maybe just 90%.
Yeah, probably.
I... think.
Still... no point crying over spilt milk.
The helplessness—my inability to move—infuriated me.
I strained against whatever force restrained me, feeling as if my limbs were tethered by invisible anchors forged from unplaceable forces.
Anchored.
The word rang through me like a bell.
But to what?
Chains? Shackles?
I didn't know.
I don't know.
Where am I? What's happening to me?
Why am I blacking ou-
...
..
.
"Uugghh....." I groaned, dizziness flooding my senses.
My eyes cracked open, a searing sting tearing through my corneas as I struggled to make sense of the world before me.
Why was I alive?
No—how?
I blinked again, my eyelids twitching, my pupils constricting as I took in my surroundings.
An ominous weight pressed on my chest.
When had I arrived here?
I tugged at my arms—resistance met me. Strange, multicolored chains clung tightly around my limbs.
I twisted my neck to check the other arm—also bound. My legs—restrained. Waist—chained.
Ripples lapped softly around me—clear water undulating like breath, rhythmic and taunting.
My vision gradually adjusted to the dim surroundings. Immaculate white tiles stretched across every surface—floor, ceiling, walls, even the pool I floated in.
Chill slithered up my spine as wet fabric clung to my skin, the cold water whispering threats against my body.
I pulled my arm, only to find them resistant to me, moving, but weirdly resistant. My gaze drifted towards the source of the resistance, finding an odd multi-colored chain binding it, their faint glow mesmerizing to any passerby.
But I didn't have any time to properly admire them.
I moved my head to my other arm, only to find it bound as well by the same, odd-looking type of chain. My feet were bound, my waist was bound as well, soft ripples of clear water swaying slowly and softly, back and forth.
'Sigh... and of course, whoever the hell tied me made sure I wouldn't be able to move a single inch'
'Really want to know which son of a bitch pulled my down here. I really can't figure out whether I'm dead, in a dream, or if some guy just gave me a goddamn high dose of LSD or something....'
Taking some time, my eyes adjusted to the dark lighting, immediately, looking around me at the unblemished white tiled floorings everywhere, whether on the ceiling, walls, or even the base of the pool of the water.
My eyes scanned the odd environment I had found myself in, the chilling sensation of water rippling through my clothing sending shivers down my spine.
"Calm down you dumbass, calm down... Imagine this is a dream, yes, a dream, this is aaalll a dream, so calm down you f*cker. You're dead anyway, so don't be be like some maiden who's about to lose her friggin virginity to some ugly-ass fucker" I forced myself to breathe in and out, my erratic heartbeat slowly dropping, until it returned to normal.
"Now, now, first things first, where... the f*ck am I...?" I swore, my eyes narrowing down as I tried scrutinizing where I was.
"Hello...?" I called, hesitation evident in my voice, but all I got back were the faint, cold echoes of my voice echoing hundreds of times, and the soft ripples of water.
The echoes echoed—not into the distance—but into my own head, like the room was repeating it inside me. The words came back distorted, cracked, like broken glass grinding against bone.
...ck am I...?
"...o...o...o..."
No reverberation. No feedback. Just… stillness. As if the room had swallowed the sound.
However, I suddenly jolted at a sudden light, my heart rate spiking higher than a bird could hope to reach in the sky.
A pulse of light blinked into existence on the end of the marble tiled walls. Then another.
Then thirteen. Each glowing door, previously hidden, materialized from nothing, etched into the very walls around me like refracted memories surfacing through the veil. The doors had different chapes, some in the shape of rectangles, some semi rectangular with the top being a semicircle, etc.
My breathing became shallow, as I tried to resist the chains binding me, my attempts growing desperate with the fruit of result in sight.
That was when I suddenly stopped, the corner of my eyes catching something black moving. Slightly stiffening, I looked back to the thirteen doors, my eyes wide unable to believe what I was seeing.
Two scribbled black arrows appeared on the marble wall on top of the door in the middle, pointing towards it.
My gaze slowly shifted to the other doors, only to find twelve of the initial thirteen doors bound by chains, their lights now diminishing.
The first shackle popped open.
My vision twisted, momentarily inverting. A rush of images flooded through my head—stars collapsing, civilizations crumbling in reverse, a child laughing in a language I didn't know but deeply remembered.
The second shackle popped open.
The doors pulsed brighter.
The last chain—on my waist—melted off like wax.
I rose, limbs stiff, soaked in cold breath and translucent shadows. I didn't walk. I drifted—like my body was a marionette and something else was pulling the strings.
As if mesmerized, my eyes blank, my footsteps walking to the doors bound by chains other than the door in the middle.
One door has a black question mark, which made my mind spiral into subliminal persuasion, a brain-wracking brain assaulting my brain, yet I didn't stop.
I looked towards the door beside it, only to find an odd phrase written up.
[5+7| I wonder what the back of rooms look like? I think l i m i n a l...
"Back... of rooms?" The name hit my head like a hammer, my eyes narrowing as the words felt too familiar to me.
I took a step towards that particular door, yet froze, as my eyes went down to something that rolled out of the door.
A blue plastic party ball rolled out, a red smiley face drawn on it that sent shivers down my spine. I slowly bent down and reached to it, my heart beating furiously against my ribcage as if protesting.
On the other side of the ball was red writing as well.
[Not Yet]
"W-who's there?!"
I threw the ball in a panic, as my honed senses sensed a presence that was observing me. Looking around me and finding nothing, I decided to walk back, ignoring my paranoia.
I walked towards the last door with written text, its words causing me to frown.
[5+6, You have to Learn Epistemic humility, teacher!]
I ignored the odd text, and looked at the only open door that did not seem to be bound by chains, my eyes locked on it.
There were other doors. The only ones catching my eye holding odd titles like:
[Door of Paradise: Marneaphyglopia]
Thirteen doors. One choice.
But somehow… I knew which one.
Door #7. The one pulsing with violet-gray, as if stained by mourning and memory.
I reached out.
My hand hovered.
Then—I touched it.
The door didn't open.
I did.
Everything shattered.
Not like glass. Like thought.
A billion neurons snapping into alternate timelines, fracturing with every unspeakable realization slamming into me at once:
I saw myself.
Myself in the future.
[Progress loading...]
[REINITIATING: Neural Pattern x7_Δ]
[Error Code 0x00XVoid-reboot-X detected]
[Parsing Identity Core]
[Restoration Status: 2%]
[Injecting Memory Leak Patch...]
I was not a human anymore
Nothing that could even be described.
[Restoring Lost Memories: Corrupted]
[WARNING: Thought-Slip Anomaly Detected!]
I saw myself with half an infinity symbol as a halo on myself, floating on my head as if gravity had collapsed, a black question mark flowing behind me.
Future... me?
[STATUS: TERMINATED ∞ TIMES / STILL AWAKE]
That's when I understood.
No, I was enlightened.
I would never be the most powerful. Nor the weakest.
I wasn't at the beginning or the end. I wasn't nihility—but neither was I completeness.
I was the question that didn't need answering.
I was the pause between destruction and creation.
I was—
The Teacher.
[;(]
The middle door ignited—brilliant, blinding, no longer violet-gray but something... deeper. A spectrum of color that didn't belong in reality.
Light swallowed me whole.
Then—
Oblivion.
I lost consciousness.
+++
{VHS Tape}
[FILE RECOVERED: ██/██/████]
[CAM ID: LVL_∞ - NODE_7]
[BEGIN PLAYBACK – 00:00:01]
[Level: ???]
[Low static. Frame jitters.]
[CAM ERA ERR*//—...]
[Signal Lost.]