I admit I have a hard time distinguishing faces. Everyone looks alike until I focus and register their face. Names are even more difficult for me to remember. It’s not due to any brain damage or disease, I just don’t care enough. Yet his face never registered in my head. I tried my best, yet in that brief moment, when someone passed in front of him, my mind would forget why I was looking, until I found his ominous stare and the ice cream stain I made over his right-side jacket.
He stood still as the crowd of humans glided past him. His eye ever focused on mine. For a split moment, I noticed he was astonished by my stare, maybe a bit offended as well. Once the distance increased, he vanished within the crowd along with my memories of him.
Tetsu kept blabbering about having no talent and how it’s rude to point it out even though it’s true. I didn’t know what he meant until a screen stunned me to a halt.
[Initiation is about to begin.]
A transparent blue screen hovered a few meters away from me. It was a pretty large screen with only one sentence within its confines. With an unconscious mental nod, the screen shifted to its second sentence with a ‘ding’ sound.
[Ding! High levels of luck, will, intellect, perception, and a superficial affinity to light have been deducted.]
[Incubation failed. The target is too strong.]
[Initiation failed. The target is too weak.]
[Level up required… Forced hypnosis is about to activate.]
****
Anchored to me, the screen moved in every direction, along with every step I took.
“Hypnosis? Can I dodge it?” Kile tried moving away from the screen, but it stuck to him.
Kile was flattered by the praise. He puffed his chest, patted himself on the back, and gave his God-complex a huge ego boost. Insults, he ignored, as usual. Praises and insults aside. Above all, he was curious about the tech. Was it stuck inside his head? In his conscious? Is it some kind of mind control or was he in a dream?
Within the cracks of the screen, Kile felt an ethereal chain being flung around. These chains were never-ending strings that dropped from the skies and dug deeper into Earth without leaving a mark. With no ends that can be secured, they swayed around like feathers being tossed around by the wind, passing through every object, never crashing into each other or anything else.
Every inch of the planet was covered with these chains and once they stiffened, the Earth stood still. The airplanes in the sky, displayed on the monitors, people on the street, and the vehicle about to end Kile’s life.
“High perception, yet I stopped right at the center of the busiest street in the world. The irony.” Kile smiled. He was excited about the screen, which assumed it could calculate his worth. Did it take into account his stupidity in stopping at the center of the busiest street in the world? “I don’t think so!”
Kile still only had the ability to move his eyes, while the rest had been frozen shut. He witnessed the World that finally caught a break and stood still. Tetsu was the last person he wanted to be with if the world decided to end at this moment.
“Guess it’s time to tally the score!” Kile smiles. Just one more bet he felt he would win made him. “One more point for me.” Kile winked at Tetsu, looking at that flabbergasted look on his face. “Wish someone clicks a pic.” Kile’s eyes focus on Tetsu. “This image is the best trophy to keep and remind him of my victory.”
..
…
….
[Initiation complete. Welcome to your Eternal Slumber: T. Kilə Onur.]
“Eternal slumber?” Kile’s vision goes blank. “Ooh… Which theory should I test next?”
****
Hours, days, weeks, months, or years? Kile did not know how long, he only knew that it was already too late. After all, slumber has the power to skip time. If one’s perception is zero, one won’t realize when minutes become hours and when hours become days. And all the while, the system made the first test so obvious.
Eternal slumber.
With a singular mind to wake up, Kile pushed himself out of his slumber. Embarrassed to share the fact that a simple bed kept him captive, he decided to delete said memory from his consciousness.
“It’s in the title!” Kile cursed himself for the first extra five minutes he allowed himself. How many more did he take during his slumber? He didn’t remember. “That fucking cozy bed… I want one.” Kile yelled with his inner voice into outer space.
═─┈─{═2═}─┈─═
For the first time, Kile took in the brilliant sight of the galaxy—what he presumed. “Round two?” He acknowledged and adapted to his new circumstances. “Mind control. Got it.” He steps forward, then backward. He takes a half spin to the right, then flips upside down. “No nausea.” He ticked an imaginary checklist inside his mind.
Time was the hardest concept to keep track of—being stuck in eternal slumber and all.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t count,” Kile told himself. “Tick-tick one and tick-tick two.” Kile starts a rap. “Give me enough time and I’ll catch you. Run forever, run for your life. Once I catch you, you’re going to be skinned alive.”
“Do not worry. I still have my timer running in my head. It’s been one hour and fifty-five minutes since I entered outer space. Turns out, losing your one sense does boost your other senses.” Kile ticks another experiment as proven. “In my case, I lost every sense, so my brain is super-powered. Until I am here, at least.” Kile spins to take in the brilliant, breathtaking view of the galaxy.
Having figured out how to move in about five minutes, Kile now concentrated on his bearing and memorizing this unfamiliar sensation. Even out of the first round, Kile wanted to have access to his super-brain. Conscious or unconscious did not matter. First few hours he concentrated on his bearing. Which meant he navigated from leaving a spot in outer space and getting back to it with minimal effort.
The part of memorizing the sensation and inner workings of his super-brain took a week. After hitting several non-existing walls, he learned he didn’t get hungry or thirsty. He just missed the urge to eat, drink, and sleep. More like jetlag, he missed the routine and had to overcome a mental barrier in his mind to not overcome such trivial desires.
He kept his mind occupied with two things at once. He tried to overload and let his mind multitask, but after several failed attempts, he threw this training program into stage three. For now, he divided his brain between keeping track of his time and focusing on decoding his super-brain.
The training regimen was simple in theory. He focused on a command he gave, on how it originated within his mind, how it carried out the command, which sections of his brain he activated, and any tiny sensation he could latch onto.
Out of pure curiosity, he did open a bond once, but backed away before he saw the graphical visuals played out. “These are doors for stage three.” He threw the idea of opening any bond before he was ready. A glimpse into the bond wasted half of his day as it took all of his will to suppress his curiosity to open another bond.
Once Kile felt satisfied with his training and couldn’t cook up any other training regimen, he moved to test three—bonds. “Pick four and stop at fourteen. That’s the rule.” Kile told himself.
He knew trying to open all of them might be educational and beneficial to what’s coming. Yet the title of Eternal Slumber kept making him draw the line between his curiosity and the choice he made.
With the system’s help and a strong sense to head deeper toward the silver spectrum of outer space, Kile zaps to his destination. Between millions of crystal bonds of different sizes and shapes, Kile heads deeper to find a pure light orb pulsating with power. Rest of the bonds maintained a safe distance from this bond. They seemed to clear the area, moving farther away with every pulse of light the bond emitted.
“Are the other orbs scared of this one?” Kile presumed but dismissed the assumption as he was drawn closer by its power. Each blast of light graced right through his very being, soothing his soul from within. Ever so soft and ever so warm, he felt like sitting under the hearth on a chilly night with the combined freshness of a clean room, the comfort of a massage chair, the thrill of the last step before skydiving, and the silence found only under the deepest ocean floor.
Kile questions and reads the general description of bonds before he decides to open the white orb. The system responds to his question and opens a screen explaining bonds.
[Bonds are contracts between two entities. They help merge two auras as one or form a completely new entity. One way to power in the multiverse is to choose a strong bond with an existing super-entity. Beware! Every bond is unique. Two individuals set rules for mutual benefit. Set your rules with utmost caution and accept others’ terms with even more so. Breaking a bond will lead to dire consequences that can never be reversed from one’s records. A bond is a path you choose in this new reality. The right one can lead you to immortality, while the wrong choice can spell out your doom.]
“Third stage begins.” Kile smiles, scanning his surroundings. “Fitting name: Eternal Slumber.” Kile chuckles to himself and decides to open his first bond. “Multiverse, check. Magic, check.” He snaps his imaginary fingers, counting down all the theories he can prove. “Wait! Technically, this is my second one. I have 3 more trails and ten more bonds left to see and select from. But I had no way of tracking down an O’rianex—whatever that is—along with the crystal-purple color section of the bond selection. Should I count this as second?”
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