"Ugh..."
Nigel woke up from being unconscious. While slowly remembering the events that have transpired before he passed out, he realized that he was still inside the old elevator. Fear is still lingering inside of him as he quickly reached out for the elevator panel. Upon reaching the panel, he immediately pressed the elevator door button. Seeing that the button worked this time, relief enveloped him as he hastily ran away from the elevator at the hopes of forgetting the terrifying experience that he had.
Finally reaching his hospital room, he quietly opened the door and went up to his bed. Thinking about all the crazy things that happened to him earlier, he was celebrating the fact that he was now completely safe, away from whatever it was that he encountered in the elevator.
However, something was still bothering him. He can vaguely remember hearing a voice just before his consciousness left him. It was crying out for help. He was not clear where the voice came from, however, he was damn sure it wasn't an illusion.
"The arrow led me to the elevator. Was it telling me that the entity inside the elevator is somehow connected to the stone carving in the university?"
With these thoughts in his mind, his was finally discharged from the hospital. After settling the hospital bill, he and his mother went home. It was dusk when they reached their house. He immediately went to his room, and quickly fell asleep.
…
"There are two types of finite state machines: deterministic finite state machines and nondeterministic finite state machines…"
After waking up in the morning, Nigel went to his university without any incident, unlike yesterday. He started his day normally, going to his classes and meeting with his friends. However, there were additional items added to his plan for today.
"That's it for today. I'll be giving a small quiz regarding what I have discussed today, so prepare for it."
After his professor left the room, all of the students left as well including him. While moving among the sea of students, someone suddenly shouted waking him up from his stupor. He was not sure who shouted, but he did notice that all of the students were looking in the same direction. Wondering what the commotion was all about, he also looked at what they were looking at.
"Oh my god, what is that guy doing!?"
"Somebody get him out of there!!"
"Someone! Anyone! Get some teachers, and call the police as well!!"
"Gotta record this in my phone!"
The cause of the commotion was actually a guy standing at the edge, with his back facing the students, of one of the university's buildings. It was a suicide attempt. The university's security personnel were rushing out to the building without wasting any time. Shortly afterward, police cars began to appear in the university grounds.
The guards were finally able to reach the rooftop where the person was currently standing at the edge of. Slowly, the guards began to approach him. Upon seeing the person up close, they were able to note some bizarre details about him.
They guy was currently wearing a black robe, with some white symbols randomly plastered in it. He was also bald, however, there were some tattoos marked on his forehead all the way to his face. His eyes were shut closed, however, his mouths kept on moving. He was muttering something in an unknown language.
Up to his point, it was clear to the guards that this guy was a cult member. The person suddenly opened his eyes and began to shout loudly to the guards, agitated by their presence. The guards were afraid to provoke him further as they might cause an unwarranted accident, so they slowly backed away from him.
"Buddy, I don't know what happened to you but this is not the solution."
"What about your family? Your friends? We can contact them if you like, just calmly and slowly move away from the ledge, okay?"
The guards pleaded with the guy, while at the same time contacting the police telling them to hurry up with the ladder truck and life net if worse comes to worst.
However, the guy seems to be oblivious with what was happening around him. He shut his eyes closed again, and began to continue muttering intangible words. It was a tense moment for the whole university, as most of the students stopped what they were doing and began to gather to watch the spectacle.
A huge crowd began to form in the area where Nigel was also located. While most of the students were there to join the commotion, Nigel was seriously looking at the black-robe guy specifically on one of the white lines inscribe in his robe.
For some unexplainable reason, Nigel was able to understand what it meant. No, he understood what it meant but he was unable to express it in vocal form. It was a symbol that signifies an idea and at the same time an entity. It was also a prophecy, but at the same time, it was also history. It has no solid definition. No, it not having a solid definition is the definition itself. It was a part of a whole, but also the whole itself.
Pangs of pain began to attack his head as the situation has turned for the worst. The man slowly moved backward. The guards sprinted towards him but to no avail. The man's body fell down the building.
In Nigel's perspective, the body was falling slowly. It was not only the body, but his whole world has slowed down. It felt like hours before the body will hit the hard stone floor in his view. While the person was falling down, he can see that the person turned his head towards his direction. He was looking at him eye to eye.
The crowd was astonished on what they have witnessed. The guy's body is mangled up and broken. There was no way for him to have survived the fall. Medics came to collect the body as the police dispersed the onlookers and the news reporters.
Nigel was still looking at the whole scene, lost in thought. He was clearly disturbed about the guy suddenly looking at him. It was as if he knew something about Nigel, which made it worse as Nigel will never know why that guy made an eye contact with him.
However, Nigel does suspect that it might be something related to the events that have happened to him recently. He walked away from the busy scene and decided to investigate the stone carving.
Arriving in front of the statue of Dr. Perchard, he focused his gaze in the stone carving, observing it in great detail. While there was no change in the stone carving, he did uncover an important information.
He discovered that he was now able to understand the symbols written in the stone carvings. There were not a lot of symbols in it, only four. These symbols, unlike the previous one stitched in the robe of the guy who fell from the building, can be read and translated easily to verbal language.
"First, Dual, Dream, Truth… huh? What could these all mean?"
Even though he was able to read and understand the words, he was not sure as to what they all meant. 'Could they be describing something?', he thought. Stuck with these four symbols, he has no more lead to pursue.
"Should I try reading through Dr. Perchard's notes and research? But there are too many materials to read through if I go to that route. Should I try using one?"
Not wanting to spend and waste that much time on reading through Dr. Perchard's legacy, he decided to gamble on the effects of the hint system. Focusing his will inside his mind, he conjured the hint interface.
'Total hint points: 2. Use one now?'
Answering 'yes' inside his mind, the total hint points was decreased by one point. He felt the sensation of something leaving from his body again. Then another hovering arrow began to fade into existence.
He followed the arrow, guiding him through many of the university's classrooms and buildings. Finally, the arrow seems to have found its target as it vanished as fast as it appeared. The arrow vanished in front of the university's main library. According to the university's handbook, this library was the very first building ever created in the university. This was because the library was created with the purposed of storing Dr. Perchard's book collections, research materials, and field notes.
Nigel was glad that the arrow did not lead him to somewhere weird this time, unlike the previous incident with the creepy elevator. He went inside the library, seeing only a few people inside.
Wondering why the system led him here, he walked around the library for clues until he stumbled upon an object surrounded by light. Walking closely towards it, he discovered it was actually a thick book. Pulling it out from the bookshelf, he discovered it was actually a book written by Dr. Perchard regarding the stone carving.
'I was thinking about reading his materials earlier regarding the stone carving, and then the hint system led me to this book. Was it all a coincidence or can the hint system's target be influenced? I guess I might need to test this hypothesis for confirmation'
Thinking about the hint system's targeting behavior, he opened the book and began skimming its content. After a while, he stopped skimming. With his face suddenly frowning, he quickly went to the librarian's table while carrying the book in his hand.
"Hello, I'd like to borrow this book for a week. Also, are there similar books to this?"
"Hi, let me see the book first. I see, so Its Dr. Perchard's 'On Origin of the Universe according to Ancient Charakmanata'. Yeah, I can recommend two more books on 'Ancient Charakmanata' still written by Dr. Perchard. Would you like to borrow those too?"
"Yes, I'd love to please. Thank you very much."
The librarian swiftly left her chair while Nigel waited still distracted by the things that he has read from the book.
'According to the book, the Charakmanata believe in four gods in which the 'First One' is a part of. The stone carving did have the 'First' symbol in it. Does each symbol correspond to a god? In addition, the book also mentioned that the Charakmanata regularly practiced human sacrifices for these gods.'
"Um… excuse me; here are the books that you borrowed. Please return them on or before the due date."
"Ah, thanks. I'll do so."
The librarian suddenly interrupted his thoughts. After showing his library card for confirmation, he left the library. Feeling hungry, he headed towards the university's cafeteria. Unexpectedly, he encountered Ian there who was busy staring at the girls passing by. The girls obviously noticed the creepy gaze that Ian was giving to them, making them passed the long way around rather than passing in front of Ian.
"What kind of creepy-ass stuff are you doing now?"
"Oh hey, Nigel, buddy. Are you all right now? Collapsing from an intense nosebleed, what dirty thought were you having at that time? Kindly share it with a friend so I too can revel in it."
"Piss off! If there were any one of us who is having those thoughts, it's you!"
"Buddy, no need to deny. We men were born to conquer the beauties of the land!"
"Yeah, whatever you say Johnny Sins. Let's go get something to eat, I'm starving."
…
After taking his fill and separating with Ian, he was currently going home. Passing by the convenience store where he had his first experience with the paranormal, he decided to check it out and at the same time buy something nice from there. Upon going inside though, things were clearly out of the ordinary.
First, the store was completely empty again. This time, however, he noticed that there seem to be people in the back room. He can somehow hear some people muttering from there, which made him curious. His curiosity got the better of him, as he went slowly towards the backroom's door.
He slowly opened the door not wanting to for it to make any sound. He had previously visited the backroom in the past, so he knew that boxes were stack piled on the side of the door. Opening the door, just enough for him to pass through, he sneakily crouches behind the boxes as he saw a scene that he will probably never forget in his entire lifetime.
He saw a couple of black-robed man forming a circle surrounding a stone statue. All of them were wearing the same robes that the person who fell from the university's building wore. Astonished, he knew that it was a bad idea for him to be there. He slowly went back from the door.
As he was about to go out from the room, he suddenly stepped on to a can of paint causing it to stumble down and produce a noise loud enough to interrupt the black-robed men from their mutterings.