Zane frowned at this nagging display he found in front of him, holding back his laughter but revealing a smirk instead. He quickly changed his expression to a more neutral stance upon seeing the display turning ever so slightly into his direction. He didn’t know which side of the display was supposed to be its front but he presumed it had been facing away from him for a while.
[What’s so funny Zane? Do I have something weird on my face?]“Well if you had a face, then I’d say it’s… Very magnificent…”, his laughter almost bursting out unwillingly.
He didn’t know what was happening to him, his emotions out of control. Back in his world, he could easily suppress his laughter or other unwanted behaviours. But it was as if he was being forced to laugh, as if some kind of algorithm decided that the humour value of the object in front of him was hilarious and had to be laughed upon.
[Well, since you aren’t answering any of my other questions, and instead of leaving my home, you’re laughing at me and criticizing my face.]“Alright, alright, I get it. You want me to leave your home? Well mister know-it-all, how does one leave this void? The only door I’m seeing is the one to your so-called bathroom.”
[It’s simple, really].“If it’s simple, then please, tell me…”.
The display delayed for a bit, leaving an interval before replying.
[You just have to… Die. Simple isn’t it? A quick death and you’re back on your way home!]A happy emoji appeared behind those menacing letters. The text’s font colour now appeared crimson red and the font changed to what seemed like a generic horror font – the type you’d find in most indie horror games.
“Excuse me? My mind must really be playing tricks on me tonight… Now how do I wake up? Do I scream? Do I slap my face?”
[ALERT: NEW QUEST]“Quest? Hey, what’s the meaning of this? Are you trying to make fun of me? Just kill me already…”
[Command ‘Quest?’ detected, showing further details…] [Quest: ‘Die now please’, issued by Administrator] [Details: ‘Die, Die, Die, Die, Die, …’] [Reward: ‘=)’]“Who uses emotes these days? F*** it, I’m out…”
Zane tried slapping his face countless times, screaming as loud as he could and pinching his cheeks, but to no avail, he kept put in place, on that same cold transparent floor, surrounded by a display showing ‘Die now please’ quest and those same annoying blue binary numbers floating beside it.
*RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE*
A noise could be heard approaching from behind Zane. At first, he thought that the display was emitting the sound since he had turned his back towards the display; but the sound was too powerful and didn’t feel robotic at all. It felt… Organic… As if countless of legs were stamping their way towards him.
“What the f-.!”
The creatures that caused the sound, revealed themselves in a flash of blue light, their horrid forms striking fear into Zane.
Text labels could be seen floating above these insect-like beasts.
[Hiveling Lvl. 1], [Hiveling Lvl. 0], [Hiveling Lvl. 2].Zane could see at least 3 creatures approaching him, each of them in fury as if he had just set their nest on fire and insulted their queen.
“Damn it, that wretched system really wants me dead…”
He looked around, only to find nothing but the void surrounding him.
“If this is a game fever dream, then I must have some kind of inventory right?”
He opened his mouth, preparing to give his command.
“Erhm, open INVENTORY!”
[ERROR: no permission to open menu ‘Inventory’].“WHAT!? NO PERMISSION!?”
[ =) =) =)]“AND WHO WRITES THEIR EMOTES LIKE THAT!?”
Out of thin air, a toilet plunger presented itself in front of Zane. Without hesitation and still confused by the situation he found himself in, he grabbed the plunger as if it were a sword and pointed it at the nearest monster.
Really? Is this my weapon? This display, or should I call it, ‘System’, really likes killing humans… Why do I always end up in dreams like this?
A laughing emoji kept spamming itself on the display’s screen, as if the System was crying of laughter, awaiting Zane’s certain, and definitely painful death.
One of the monsters leapt forward, almost slashing Zane’s throat open.
Damn, I need to focus… Dream or not, I don’t want to risk finding out what’s real after my head has been decapitated by one of these insects. And worst of all, their level is so low… Who would want to die like that…
He outmanoeuvred another slash aimed at him and slid under the insect’s belly, sticking the plunger on the bottom.
What now…
The display, who was already spamming out tons of smiling emotes, was now even more active. And as if it was dying of laughter, it spammed out even more emotes along with emojis.
“You think that’s funny heh? You haven’t seen anything yet; I’ll show you something that’s really funny; hilarious even.”
A surprised emote appeared on the system’s display, followed by a clapping hands emoji.
“Not very talkative anymore? Seems like you’re only able to spam those ugly symbols now…”
The flow of happy, jolly emotes and emojis stopped, presenting Zane with a variety of angry emojis.
“That’s more like it”.
He kept his plunger on the hiveling’s bottom, its legs could not reach Zane so it called for the others.
‘Now what are you gonna do about this, you stupid ant.’, Zane thought as the beast desperately tried to reach him, clawing at its utmost limits.
After a few moments of desperate clawing, it called again, this time, the others listened and directed their attention to the bottom of the hiveling, where Zane was still attached with his faithful plunger.
The beasts started ripping off the legs of the other beast, screams of agony filling the now not-so-empty blue void. The display stopped spamming symbols and ideograms and was completely devoid of text. The screen now only presented its default blue transparent glowing background. It was as if the System had no words for what was unfolding before it.
