Rahu:
A bright light squeezes through between my eyelids, forcing me to awaken.
Huh? What the f**k is this?
I'm in a dreamy white room, surrounded by a thick, viscous mist. A white rectangular box with text appears right in front of me. "Please select your class." it says with an arrow pointing left and the text "Next" beside it. I turn my head to try and look around the room, but the dialog box follows the centre of my vision. Hmmm, I guess I'll play along, and as I think of moving my hand to press next, the button automatically depresses. Oh? I can use my mind to control it? Interesting. The box expands to fill my entire field of vision, and multiple figures begin appearing with text above their names. Woah, are these the classes?
I look slightly to the left, and an extensive list appears with a person representing each class. It seems like almost any class imaginable has made an appearance within the list. I scroll down blindly, taking a look at all the classes listed. It's arranged alphabetically so I begin to wonder how else I can order the classes. I look around all four corners and spot a cog. I imagine pressing it, and a new box appears in my vision. The first option is to filter by main archetypes which are: Warrior, Rogues, Archers, Mages and Healers.
I ruminate for a moment before picking the route I usually take in RPG games; Rogues. The figures behind fade away with others replacing them. Another option window appears which allows me to filter the subcategories. It follows: Assassins, Thieves, Pirates, Masterminds, Tricksters, Traditional Rogues and a bunch of other variants. Without even taking another second, I pick assassins.
Of course.
What's cooler than wiping out the enemy in one blow? Nothing. Actually, there's a lot of things that are cooler but whatever I like assassins and as long as I don't end up as a glass cannon without the cannon, it's all good. Anyway, there's another option to filter the results further, but I press skip, and it closes the box.
The impossibly large list begins to rearrange itself only to show assassin classes. However, despite all the filtering, a considerable list remains. I start to look at all the options, and a couple stands out more than the others. After a period of window shopping, I finally pick the one I want. It is simply titled "Deicidium", and its description matches its definition; The God Slayer. As corny as its description is, who cares as long as it is strong. I click accept without any regard but right after, my brain wakes up, and I realise that I didn't even check its abilities. S**t. Am I retarded? I'm not some f***ing noob playing his first game, how did I forget to check? Before I even have a chance to look for some clues, my head begins to pound and sweat beads form on my forehead.
I yell out loud. "AHHH F**K" and before I know it, I lose consciousness.
SOME TIME LATER
"Human, who exactly are you?" A thundering robotic voice breaks the silence. My eyes shoot open, and I see nothing apart from an empty, endless white.
Huh? I thought I heard someone.
The robotic voice speaks again. "It's extremely rare for someone in a simulaverse to have a real body in this true universe, not to mention there are nine of you this time. So, I shall ask again, who exactly are you, and who placed you in there?".
Where am I? What was that weird dream? I turn around looking in every single possible direction, but there lies nothing but emptiness for as far as my eye can see. Unlike the dream earlier, this place is a pure endless white. Discovering nothing, I reply. "Who are you? Why can't I see you?"
The formless, robotic voice remains silent until an indescribable pressure bears down onto my body.
It's as if gravity and time itself were twisting and warping, expanding in some parts and contracting in others. My creaking bones quickly told me that if the voice willed, it could wipe out my existence instantly. The pressure felt like the weight of an entire planet was crashing down onto me.
I instantly slammed down onto the floor and lay there sprawled and twitching like the final death throes of an insect after being stomped on.
The voice booms again, "Answer". I struggle to move my head to the side as blood drips from my crushed nose. I growl, "I don't know what you're talking about, I was just in with my mother, and suddenly I ended up being here."
Silence.
"I really don't know what you're talking about."
Silence still.
After what seemed like an eternity, I stammer. "P-p-please believe me."
The pressure eases, and the robotic voice finally speaks. "Very well, I have looked through your memories, and it seems like none of you know anything."
"What do you mean, you've looked through my memories?" I question. "How is that possible?"
"You will find out soon once the test begins." The voice replies.
"Test?" I mumble under my breath.
"Yes, the test will start in a moment after all the biostructures have been created." The robotic voice states. After pausing for a moment, it speaks again "I am certain I sensed flux quanta on you for a brief moment, have you been awakened?"
Flux quanta? What the f**k is that? I'm sure that weird voice that was talking after the gong mentioned quanta. I ponder for a moment, is it talking about that dream with me picking my class? Nah, can't be, that makes no sense. What's my dream got to do with the gong.
I ponder for a while longer and its starting seeming more likely that it could be, I should probably tell the voice, but before I get a chance, it speaks again, "Forget it mortal, the test is starting now. I shall monitor you nine and figure it out myself."
DONG
The earthshattering gong sounds again, and I feel my body becoming weightless and ethereal as an electrical sensation travels across my body, and the surrounding space disappears, leaving nothing but a void.
///////////////////////////
Adonai:
"Human, why do you have a real body here?" A robotic voice reverberates in my head. I quickly clamber up to see where I am and what happened to the interrogator.
Nothing.
There's nothing around me, no interrogator, no walls, no sky, no life, just nothing besides the white floor beneath me and an infinite white around me.
Then who was talking?
A rumbling robotic voice descends, "It's extremely rare for someone in a simulaverse to have a real body in this true universe, not to mention there are more than nine of you this time. So, I'll ask again, who exactly are you and who placed you in there?".
I twist my head and look around in an attempt to locate who was talking, but there's no one around. I'm alone in the endless white. After taking a brief moment to think, I figure it's probably those godd**n militants kidnapping me again. Ignoring the other nonsense, the voice was saying; I yell out "My name is Adonai Deus Hemera, the son of the grea- "
BOOM
The sound of my skull smashing against the ground echoes around my surroundings. An immense pressure weighs on my body, leaving me breathless and unable to move a single muscle.
The voice booms, "Speak with manners puny mortal. In this space, I can crush you with a single thought." It pauses for a moment, "No matter, I've scanned all your memories, and there is nothing of interest so I will spare you for now..." and as the pressure eases allowing me to gasp for air, it continues "but a word of warning. Curb your arrogance; this place is no longer that small little 'Earth' that your family ruled."
I struggle to lift my body up and just as I am about to stand.
DONG
I feel an electrical sensation tingling across my skin, followed by an impression of gravity disappearing. All the hairs on my body stand erect, and in an instant, everything turns to dark.
From the black, a spectrum of shapes and colours shoots by my continually expanding field of view. Trees, houses, towers, monsters, volcanoes, swamps all pass by me; twisted and stretched as I am propelled forward at an unbelievable speed. This stops after what felt like a second but also a lifetime as I arrive in a white room with people all dressed in grey overalls. The overalls all seem brand new with a custom number imprinted on a rectangular white fabric right below the collar bone.
They turn to look at me as I materialise in front of their eyes with little surprise as if they've seen this a million times.
"Good, you've all arrived." I hear a familiar robotic voice from behind me. I turn around and unsurprisingly, there's nothing there. The voice continues, "Welcome, humans of Simulaverse-J79802192. You may refer to me as "System32" for the rest of the time here –"
"What the f**k is this?" a voice yells from one corner of the room. "Return me to my meeting immediate-".
BOOM
The sound of the man's body exploding and his innards splattering the walls stuns the entire room. Before anyone, including myself, gets a chance to scream, an intense pressure like I felt before descends into the room.
"Mortals, control yourselves; otherwise, you will experience a similar death to that little monkey in the corner." As the pressure vacates the room, allowing us to stand and breathe, the voice continues "I'm sure you're all confused, frightened, worried, but I will explain everything."
"You are not on 'Earth', and your previous world is part of a singular simulated universe created amongst trillions. This may come as a shock but get used to it; there's more in store. You are currently in the true universe; its size is incomparable to the one you were in before and in turn, you are even more irrelevant on every single scale. The reason why we have allowed you to materialise into true life forms so early is solely due to the scientists in your world breaking a record that was impossible to break." The voice pauses as if contemplating whether to clue us in on the details.
Luckily for us, it seems to relent as the voice continues "You have succeeded in creating undifferentiated quanta in 13.8 billion years after the conception of your simulaverse. The undifferentiated quanta in question is the output of the "white hole" you created during the "plurality project".
Quiet gasps break the previous silence as the voice continues, "Undifferentiated fluxion quanta is the single most important discovery in the history of everything. As for its uses? Depending on your results, later on, you'll find out. For now, all you need to know is you are being offered an extremely rare opportunity. "
It pauses for a moment, like a teacher waiting for questions. A long time passes without a single voice speaking, and so I pluck up what little courage I have left and ask meekly, "What opportunity?". All heads turn to face me, some gloating, others pitying. Despite my fears, I don't instantly implode. A brief moment passes. Then another. And then another.
After what felt like an eternity, the voice finally responds, "You're going to take a test."
///////////////////////////
Rahu:
"A test?" I question under my breath.
"Not just a single test, it can be considered as six separate tests, but only the first one is required to be passed for your life to continue."
Despite dropping such an overt death threat, not a single person dares even to breathe loudly. What a bunch of f**ing p*ssies I think while a smug "Pfft" unconsciously leaks out of my mouth. Luckily, I seem to get away with it as the voice continues its monologue.
"Now, all 7,631,091,400 of you living on 'earth' have been split into equal groups of a 100 and then placed into separate rooms on the first floor. All beings born in the true universe are naturally compatible with quanta, but you are not. As you are exact replicas of yourselves from the simulaverse, it has yet to be seen if you are capable of surviving in our universe. The reason you are alive currently is solely due to the fact that all forms of quanta have been vacated from the rooms on floor 1. To live, there is only one thing you have to do; you must have some level of compatibility with quanta. For many reasons we cannot modify your bodies to increase your innate compatibility with quanta and the only realistic way to change a lifeforms compatibility is to find a being who has undergone apotheosis and maybe they can help. If that doesn't work out, undergo apotheosis yourself and then you can possibly change someone's constitution. Unfortunately, neither will happen for now so you can only rely on yourself."
After a moment of contemplation, the voice cryptically spits out a phrase, "All can walk up to the threshold of gods, but only a few can cross the inviolable line that divides us." Before continuing in its normal robotic voice, "As for the test, all you need to do to pass is to remain standing and conscious for as long as you can. Now, any questions?"
But before anyone can speak the initial robotic voice uncharacteristically cackles. "Ahh save it. You can ask me on the second floor if you are not dead. Shall we begin?".