I sat down for a few minutes trying to assimilate the fact that instead of being dead, I was in the middle of a place I had no knowledge or understanding of.
Who could survive such a fall and even if anyone did, he would not be whole after all, I fell on my head.
"Master, are you okay?" the cat came to me in its small form and sat down beside my feet where I sat on the rug.
"Where is this place?" that was the wisest question, I could ask at that moment with my head in the chaos it was in.
"You are in the Inferiore Mundo. It is the world. Master, I think you must have lost your memory during the skill acquisition. You need rest. Perhaps after quality rest, you will be able to remember everything about this place," the cat whispered.
I looked down at the cat and sighed. I wondered why its words seemed to be very reasonable and it gave me a sense of relaxation despite all I was going through.
"How do I get out of here?" I asked when I felt my stomach begin aching. I wrapped my hand around my stomach and looked around the room for anything edible.
"The door," the cat replied to me easily which was an answer that even a fool should be aware of after all I was not in an escape room.
I blushed at the sound of my foolish question and the simple answer a cat gave me but I frowned when I realized that I could be in an escape room.
"I . . . I am not . . ." I began but stopped as I looked at the three doors before me.
"You . . . ?" the cat asked giving me what I could only conclude was a questioning look with its eyes wildly staring at me as it waited for me to speak.
"I . . ." I began but I did not want to feel the embarrassment of asking a cat if I was in an escape room it occurred to me that if I could be conversing with a black, purple, and green cat, I could be in anywhere and anything would not be a surprise. So, I asked, "Is this perhaps . . . an escape room?"
The cat opened its mouth like it wanted to yawn but pressed its lips together with a fierce look in the green and pink eyes as they stared at me like they could bore holes into my body.
I frowned as I could not help but feel very embarrassed about the question I asked.
"Master, you seem so different. I could have stopped you from doing it. This is bad. You cannot remember anything," the cat began to lament sadly as tears clouded its eyes and it began to cry.
When I say cry, I don't mean just tears pouring out but this cat was crying like an old man as its body shook.
Its voice as it sobbed was not the soft voice it used to talk to me but a deep sound including painful nasal sounds that I could not believe my ears.
Who would know how to react or what to say at that moment? I was lost for words like I was completely flabbergasted that I could only stiffly watch the cat cry to its heart's content and it stopped.
It used its paws to mop its tear-stained face. He looked up at me with so much determination that I felt a strong urge to run. It gave the feeling a rock will get when a construction company plans to break it down.
What sort of description was I giving? Anyway, when you see something like a crying cat and an irrationally colored cat, you will certainly begin to think that rocks have feelings.
To make it sound better, well, I felt like a tree with a man holding a chainsaw in front of it as he stared with determination to cut it down.
Does that sound better? I doubt! Now I am rethinking my decision to tell the world about my inhuman experience.
Let me go one for now. In a few words, at that point, I felt like the cat was planning how he was going to break me down and mold me to his desired shape and that look should never be given to a human.
I felt the hairs on my body rise. If my father gave me such a look after I offended him, it was more endurable than receiving it from a cat.
"What are you?" I stammered as I could not simply take my eyes away from the cat's eyes.
"Master, like I said earlier, I want you to relax. You must be hungry. I will get something for you to eat," the cat responded as it stood on its fours. It walked away to one of the doors.
It immediately increased its size and pushed open the door. I parted my lips unconsciously and only noticed when I felt wetness begin crawling from my mouth to my lips.
I shook my head as I mopped my lips roughly with the back of my hand and stood up. I went to the opened door only to discover it was a neat kitchen.
There was a fridge, cupboards, dishes, a sink, and a few other things. The cat was serving me rice from a rice cooker.
The whiteness of the rice made me swallow saliva. Gosh! I was so hungry.
It was only when I sat down to eat that the cat settled down and began telling me about the world I was in.
I was in a town in a state and I had to pass through a few other states to get to the capital the capital is my end goal because that is only how I can leave this world.
"Are you sure that there is a way for me to go back to where I belong as soon as I get to the capital?" I asked as I returned my spoon filled with rice back into the bowl.
"No, you heard the rumor only two months ago and you began going for the competition. You won this house in the competition and you have been trying to acquire new abilities with every fight you won."
I felt a strong urge to cry at that moment. What does this cat mean by competition? I felt pressure in my head as I tried to make sense of what the cat said.