Vertical journey

With the end of the prelude stage, I regained control over my body.

This time there was no overwhelming darkness, I was lying on a sofa, covered with a warm blanket, and there was even a soft pillow included. It was quite comfortable, so I didn't bother with removing my head from it and closed eyes to reflect on the things that Votr had said.

His reflection session still hurt, but it was within a tolerable margin. This reduction in damage was achieved thanks to realizing the nature of the problem which was crystallized in 'I'm a cowardly person' manifesto and the fact that I was gradually stopping to lie to myself, though it may be impossible to completely eliminate my inborn tendency for excuses.

Everything connected with Violet wasn't a shocking revelation; I had already asked myself some of those questions without trying to avert my eyes from the ugly truth. My heart's stance was closer to 'if you want to go crazy then let me join you' than 'I will heal your mental scars even if you hate me' solutions. I was scared of being left alone, but that didn't mean that we would go down the forbidden path. Life was rarely all white and black, the grey zone was wide and there might be more than one proper balance hidden in it.

As for the problems with running and keeping my cool, I could only lower my head in shame, especially in Yuni's case.

You're right Votr, I will give my father a call to ask him all about espers and the Sunday's dinner.

The rest could be summarized as:

Good news, I learned why I'm still alive and where Luna may be found.

Neutral news, eavesdropping devices can be useful, but they're also risky. This will require careful planning.

Bad news, I will be dead in three years… I feel like an idiot for failing to notice these flaws, there was a bit too much impulse mixed within the three promises, but I'm Victor. Three years is a lot of time to find someone with a brainwashing ability.

Although for now, I will really have to do something about the poor coding of my fight or run reaction…

… why aren't you making any remarks?

Votr?

I tried to get up and take a look around but, following this attempt to move, the sofa started swinging slightly. Surprised, I looked for the cause of this behavior and noticed that it was hanging on four thick chains connected to the high ceiling. Carefully, I shifted my position from lying to sitting. It felt like being on a big swing.

This place was big, really big, industrial hall kind of big. It was full of all kinds of furniture and items that could be found in one's home. Chaotically placed tables, chairs, sofas, beds, cupboards, sinks, fridges, ovens, washing machines, toilets, desks, armchairs, hangers… there were so many types and shapes and categories that it gave off the feeling of a big junkyard.

The chaos was further enhanced by the differing height all things were placed on. After all, everything in here was hanging above the floor on solid chains extending from the ceiling, in some places there were so many of them that they created a literal iron curtain.

Some of those things were like inaccessible islands with no visible way to reach them. Some were stacked one on the other, in some places creating solid walls and hills, in others neatly joining together to form a flat surface. Some were hanging really close to the ceiling akin to lookout posts with steep paths made out of other furniture allowing a determined person to climb them.

My sofa was swinging about a meter above the ground. I could either jump down, climb up using a line of chairs to the right or move horizontally to the left by jumping on a nearby table.

"Votr?"

That's really strange.

"Votr!"

Where is he?

"Votroadan!"

Did the challenge already start?

"VOTR!"

What should I do?

My voice was the only source of sound in this place, when I stopped calling, even the slowly increasing speed of my heartbeat could be heard.

There were two options to look around, either climb higher or get down. If everything was hanging on those chains, then there should be a nice gap with nothing blocking the view close to the floor.

And it was easier to jump down.

As soon as I landed below the sofa, the previously brightly lit hall got darker as if most of the lights above stopped working, but when I looked up to check, every single one of them was still turned on, just the light they gave was a lot dimmer than before.

I don't like it.

I had to crouch to align my line of sight with the gap. The lower my head went the darker it became. The smell also changed, as if I weren't standing on a hard floor inside a building but in the middle of a black swamp.

It wasn’t silent anymore.

I could hear something moving in the distance.

Drops of cold sweat started making their way down my back.

I changed my mind, I will climb up.

One swift and quick sequence of moves later I was back on the sofa. The light was back, the smell was normal and it became as silent as it could be, however, the state of my mind changed. Not to mention that I was leaving brown, muddy footprints on the blanket.

I looked down and froze. The perfectly normal floor I saw there before was no more, in its place a thin layer of dark fog appeared, blocking the view and slowly rising.

What the hell is going on!

Whatever was happening, I couldn't remain still. The way this place was structured made it clear that I had to climb up.

I moved towards the line of chairs on the right and slowly stepped on the first one, like walking up the stairs, supporting myself by holding one of the chains. There was no problem with it holding my weight, but I had to be careful not to swing too much or it would cause a chain reaction and significantly raise the difficulty.

After moving up twenty chairs I looked back at the sofa, the dark fog was already consuming the pillow that my head was resting on not so long ago.

Is this shit getting faster? Fuck!

Thirty more chairs up I had to make a decision, there were three ways to go. The fastest looking one was on the left, but it required walking on numerous glass tables. On the right was a huge spiral made out of connected fridges, but from this position, I wasn't sure if it wouldn't be a dead end. The last way, the one in front of me, had no inclination upwards and was made out of beds, at its end, there was a guaranteed way up made out of another set of stairy chairs, but I would have to waste a lot of time to jump from one bed to the other as there were nearly two-meter big gaps between them.

If the beds start swinging and I make a bad call to jump… should I use Three Answers?

"Votr you fucker! Show yourself!"

There was no response to this attempt at getting his attention.

I could see the ceiling above, yet wasn't able to ascertain the exact distance to it due to all those confusing chains hanging from it. However, I noticed a very promising thing, here and there were visible ladders connecting the ceiling to the summits of those tall furniture stacks. I probably had to reach one of them; the only problem was how to do it safely.

Too much time was already lost by standing in place; I decided to use my power.

What happens when I choose each of these three ways!

One - Action: Choosing to walk on the glass tables to the left.

Reaction: Very High possibility of the first and the second table breaking under the user weight.

Two - Action: Choosing to jump from one bed to the other.

Reaction: High chance of safely executing two consecutive jumps.

Three - Action: Choosing to walk on the fridges to the right.

Reaction: User slips on the first fridge and falls down.

Why this power sometimes gives its answers by measuring them with a low-high ratio of success and sometimes its certain of the reaction?

The glass way was immediately excluded, but there was a problem with the remaining two. I only knew that there was a high chance of completing two successful jumps, yet there was a lot more of them to execute before reaching the chairs.

I seriously doubt I can jump like forty times without making a single mistake; I'm already shaking a little.

The remaining route was slippery, but that could be mitigated by using chains as a way of supporting myself. I looked down and went to the right. Time was running out.

As soon as I made the first step onto the fridge I slipped and nearly fell down.

"Fuck!"

The only thing which stopped me from it was my hand that I made sure to keep on one of the chains, thanks to using Three Answer. After two deep breaths, I resumed climbing. Nevertheless, this didn't help to fight with the feeling as if an endless chasm was surrounding me from all sides and with each conquered fridge the shaking of my legs increased.

To focus solely on moving forward I tried to cut off all the unnecessary thinking.

… one step, two steps, remake my grip on a new chain, one step, two steps, remake my grip on a new chain… I'm too slow.

I looked down despite knowing that I shouldn't do that. Below, instead of a considerable distance to the floor, I could only see dark fog which made it scarier.

If this ends in a dead end, I won't be able to go back to try another route.

Endlessly repeating the 'one step, two steps' mantra I climbed fridge after fridge. My hands got really sweaty and more than once I had to wipe them in the jacket. There were two more situations when I slipped, but both were resolved thanks to holding the chain.

… one step, two steps, remake my grip on a new chain, one step, two steps, remake my grip on a new chain… the end of the spiral!

I could finally see the finish line of this route, the best part was that it wasn't a dead end. There was a simple metal ladder leading all the way to the ceiling. One stability check later I was already making my way up on it. A soon as I had a better view of the surroundings, I noticed that there was a ladder at the end of each of the many different possible ways. In other words, all paths were correct as long as you didn't fell off while climbing them. For a moment I thought that it was against the rules of my Three Choices challenge mode, but after recalling how I dealt with the goblin I changed my mind. It wasn't limited only to using one of the three prepared solution, there might have been an easier way starting somewhere else than the sofa I had been on, though using it would mean activating a hidden penalty.

The dark fog never stopped rising and was already halfway through the fridge spiral, but that wasn’t my concern anymore. I confirmed that there was something like an escape hatch at the end of the ladder and put all my efforts into reducing the shaking of my limps and reaching it.

When I pushed the hatch...

No way… you've got to be fucking kidding me!

… it was locked.

I frantically looked for a hidden key, for some kind of a mechanism to open it, for a nearby lever, for anything – there was nothing.

I pushed it with all my might, tried pulling, hit it with my fist, and banged my head against it – nothing worked.

The dark fog started consuming the ladder. I thought of using the slime rune to melt the hatch, but it was impossible to execute with it directly above my head.

"OPEN! PLEASE OPEN!"

No matter what I tried – there was no reaction.

Only more and more bloodied fist prints on the metal hatch.

When it got too painful to continue I stopped and looked down terrified Whatever was inside that fog, it was coming for me fast. Only now, where all escape routes were cut off, an idea to fight emerged in my mind. With one hand, I tried to reach for the items inside my belt, but there was no belt to be found. However, I grabbed two slime summoning runes from the pocket.

Holding them tightly, I gulped down saliva and waited for the fog to reach me. When it got to the level of my boots, the step of the ladder that should be supporting my weight disappeared - I failed to hold myself with one hand and fell down straight into the darkness below.

So that's how it ends?

Despite my expectations, there was no long fall, no sound of the bones breaking upon hitting the distant ground, just me lying in a layer of mud as if I had tripped and fell into it face first.

"Are you planning on melting yourself with the slimes?"

Said someone with a very familiar voice, forcibly opened my tightly shut hand to release the two already forming bloody balls, grabbed me by the scruff of the jacket and threw a few meters away.

Unwillingly, I ate another mouthful of swamp's mud and had enough.

Both physically and psychically I already had enough, but my gut feeling was telling me that the challenge didn't even start yet.