"Seeing as this is your first rest area I thought you would not need a large meal… so here is a 'Light' snack" reading the notecard set right next to the box on the table I am at a loss for words.
'No wonder this fucker is in prison, anyways let's see what I will be having for breakfast…' taking the lid off of the box I am met with a glass of water and half a stack of saltine crackers
"Bruh." was my intellectual response to the current situation, picking up the crackers and the glass of water I took my 'breakfast' into the next room of the exam deciding to eat on the way. Though not forgetting to grab the lantern and its fuel canisters before leaving
'I feel like I should conserve the special fuel… that and the last puzzle required me to start the room with the normal light anyways' quickly making the swap marking the end of my morning preparations I walk towards the door leading to the next chamber
*creak* opening the door to the next room I am once again met with darkness, being unable to see anything
"Oh yeah I need to turn on the lantern…" *tick* " anyways why the hell is the door squeaking? This place was just built for the exam, did they run out of budget after the shitty puzzles? No wonder I'm eating fucking saltines right now…" after finishing both venting my frustrations with the current exam and my saltines I entered the next puzzle room to be met with the all to familiar sound of the door closing behind me
'What next? A five-second unskippable cutscene showing me a door has opened?' looking around the chamber of similar construction to the previous with exception of the numerous oddly shaped mirrors hung on two of the four walls of the rectangular room. The mirrors seemed something out of a funhouse, distorting the reflection of those displayed in various odd manners
'Well, I was expecting mirrors, just not in this manner… Not sure if that's a good or bad thing though.' continuing to inspect the various mirrors hung around the room I noted there were 12 mirrors and each one distorted my figure in a different way each time. Other than that there was nothing different about the mirrors, each one is in the same frame and has the same dimensions as all the others.
'Now I feel that it was redundant to switch out fuel canisters… well here goes' deciding that there was nothing new to discover in normal light conditions I made the switch to the luminescent oil again.
*tick* once again the purple flame began to reveal more clues, this time it made one of the surfaces of the mirror glow in a blueish-white color. However, on further inspection, my reflection no longer appeared on the surface of the mirror. Instead, the warped image of a wooden door could be seen on the formerly reflective surface of the mirror.
"Huh, this is most likely the way to the next room… but the actual manner of revealing the door is unknown to me." once again going over any clues given I begin to construct various ideas and possible solutions to solving the puzzle.
'Hmm that could work… right?' after having arrived at the most possible solution I decided to enact my idea
*CRASH!* with a swift kick my foot crashed through the glass surface of the mirror revealing a wooden door that was behind the mirror.
'I wasn't expecting that to work but… I kinda did. I guess this puzzle gauntlet has truly deepened my appreciation of Occams Razor and KISS… These puzzles have all been challenging me because I assumed there were rules, complex solutions, or that they would follow common sense. Assuming that all or any three of these things will be found in this new world I found myself in is just… idiotic.' while contemplating the flaws in my mindset I walked through the wood door to be met with a room with the exact same construction and decoration as the previous one. Except rather than a single mirror glowing like the previous room, all but one were glowing a strange blue-white color.
'Not what I was expecting but here goes' looking at all of the glowing mirrors in detail I could see eleven doors behind each one, deciding to check the twelfth mirror I saw that there was nothing special about it.
*CRASH!* and walked through the mirror frame and opened the door behind it and proceeded to the next room. And in a similar manner began to work my way through the puzzles at a much faster pace than earlier. Having slowly learned the sly thought process that created these puzzles with the sole intent of slowing me down eased the difficulty curve that the rooms offered as I continued to descend the tower.
{Timeskip because I can't be bothered to design another puzzle}
"Why in gods name did they put high-powered lasers in there! 'oH, beCAuse LAseRs aRe on thE elECTROmagnetic sPEctrum' Like hell! What next is the bastard going to lock me in a box with gamma rays until I grow a third eye?" walking out of a stone doorway is Magenta, though looking much more worse for wear. Having lost his coat and scarf along the way and large bags under his eyes, though the most noticeable change would be his now singed hair and the smoke wafting from his head.
{P.o.V Change}
'God my everything hurts… at least I got out of there alive thankfully. Though if I am correct this next room should be a rest area which will be nice as I am starving right now.' entering the room and turning off the flashlight I received as an upgrade to the lantern in room #15 I was met with the identically constructed rest area that I had seen a couple of times before this. Walking over to the table I sat down and leaned back into the backrest as I looked up at the timer located on the wall
"Twenty-three hours left huh, well I guess I will sleep for… six hours? Wow, I can't believe I said that… I'll set the alarm after I finish eating and then hit the hay." following my verbal announcement I treated myself to the luxurious meal of a ham and cheese sandwich with a carton of milk…
'I wonder if it's called Sahertan Cheese instead of American in this world?' with this thought I ended my meal and went to bed.
AN: This might be the only chapter this week but I may write another if I decide to slack off tomorrow. Btw, this Wednesday is the final day of this semester at my college so following that I will have much more time to write for roughly ~20-25 until my summer job starts up again as it's a seasonal place. Besides that, did anyone else notice how done I am with puzzles? I wanted to create puzzles that were not copypasted or overdone but I struggled because of that. Another thing I wanted to do was bring more character development in this chapter because I noticed that this arc hasn't done much for Magenta so far besides giving me a headache as I repeatedly write and delete awful puzzles while procrastinating by reading manga or other fics.