"Whoa! What is that?" said someone in a disbelieving tone laden with a thick Russian accent. When Midas turned his head to observe what that person was talking about he noticed that that person was looking in the direction of the green life-form, which was now still floating above the statue. It seemed like this person's shout brought great attention as soon enough hundreds of people were looking in the direction of the green life-form.
"Oh my god, is that a lizard? So cute!"
"Wait, I've never seen a lizard with three eyes before, Cool!"
"Is that like a third eye or something? A spiritual lizard haha!"
"And how is It even standing on its hind legs? Is the cutie trying to be like us? Aww..."
"Wait guys, it's clearly floating."
"No way! It's probably some invisible wire or something."
As more and more people noticed the green life-form, they started moving towards it with some hyping up the situation with fervour. This was the most interesting thing that has happened since they got here, of course they had to see if there was anything special or amusing about this situation.
Meanwhile, Midas was steadily trying to move away. That thing felt dangerous. It was at this moment that the green life-form raised one of its arms in an intelligent manner that made everyone subconsciously cease their forward movement. And then it spoke:
"kaoiuowe mxcsij saksjh dal ksjashfkshioja shxcxc mxzcih"
"..."
An incoherent babble came out of its mouth, leaving everyone confused about why they expected much from a lizard. In the moment they had lost themselves in the intelligence of the gesticulation and had high expectations but they were left disappointed. Before any of the now rapidly gathering humans could say anything more, the green life-form continued.
"Ehem. Well, excuse the prior blunder. I was merely acclimating to your baser language. So many letters, characters, and expressions one would think there was some higher purpose, and yet... all is utterly base and meaningless."
The green life-form said this with a natural disposition, almost as if nothing it said was weird at all. Meanwhile, the people around were having a minor existential crisis.
"..."
"Oh my god it can speak?!"
"Holy Shit!! Does anyone have a camera?!"
"Damn, I don't have my Iphone in my pocket anymore!"
"Fuck! Who stole my camera?"
Midas could not move backwards anymore as he had been boxed in by the approaching people. 'Damn it, don't they know how terrifying that thing is?' he thought to himself as he lamented. He should never have come closer to the statue. As he stood there he managed to overhear someone making a complaint saying "We can't leave this place. It's like there's a screen or wall around us that's blocking us from leaving"
"Wait, are you serious?"
"No joke. The crazy thing is this screen is projecting an image almost as if this place is endless"
"We can only walk about 10 kilometers in any direction before we hit the screen. It's actually insane!"
It had been about 2 hours since everyone had awoken and some people had woken up close to the border so they started telling everyone else about the situation.
Midas felt his heart sink when he heard these people speaking of some environmental projections and impenetrable walls. As this information spread, everyone started realising that this situation might be different from anything they had ever encountered in their lives before.
At this moment, the green life-form continued speaking with somewhat of a smile on its scaly green face, saying, "Yes, that is correct. You cannot leave. You are here for a purpose and you will not leave until you fulfill that purpose. My people are the ones who set up this environment to welcome you all. How is it?"
"..."
"What?"
"Wait, you brought us here? Why?"
"Who are you? Come out and speak to us! I mean come on, a talking lizard? Like really?"
"You can't just take people from their homes like this."
Voices filled with anger and frustration filled the plaza with people looking around trying to find the owner or controller of the lizard. It was obviously a puppet or robot or something right? This must be a prank. Right?
Although all these people were directing their hatred at it, the lizard was calm and merely said, "It does not matter what you think. You are here now, and if you want to survive, you will do what I tell you to. Is that clear?"
"No!! Who the fuck are you?"
"We know this is some trick! We just want to go home now."
"Yeah!"
Midas looked around only to see people's faces distort with resentment as veins burst on their foreheads. He could hear those restless voices grow louder and louder and the atmosphere became more and more tense. All the anger and frustration that the people around him were withholding finally found a way out.
The vent was the green-scaled life-form that seemingly calmly stood in front of everyone in the square. Agitated people started crowding menacingly around the life-form, almost as if they would be overcome with violence.
"Wait, Wait, What the fuck are you talking about? We don't know who or what you are, and we don't care!"
"Yeah! We wanna go home!"
"Let us out!"
"Yeah! You better let us leave or else we'll f—"
*BOOM*
Right on sight, the heads of twenty odd people who were moving forward seemingly with the intent of stirring trouble all had their heads simultaneously explode. Jets of red blood squirted up from the exposed necks of those people, while the insides of their heads coloured the outerwear of the bystanders around them.
The steamy red blood immediately created a suffocating atmosphere. Screams and profanities abound as people attempt to move as far away from that green "demon".
Some fell over on top of each other, crushing others in the process, others fell on the floor hyperventilating. A piece of flesh landed on Midas' face, but he hadn't even noticed as he was now trying to calm his heart rate while looking around trying to figure out if there was a way he could get away from this situation.
"STOP!!", yelled the green life-form while exuding a terrifying atmosphere about it, and immediately all in the area lost their ability to move or even speak. Midas had never felt such fear in his entire life. Every molecule of DNA in his body was telling him that at that moment in time, his life wasn't in his hands. All he could do was stay still and watch the green life-form while his ears throbbed with the sound of his own racing heartbeat.
"Now that I have your attention, let me continue with my explanation. I will explain this once and once only and I expect you lower lifeforms to speak only when I give you permission. Understood? … Good. The Stellar Body that you lower beings call 'Earth' has Awakened, and thus it has attained it's right to undergo Stellar Ascension."
The green life-form continued, "You all have been Chosen by your 'planet' and your performance from now on will determine what will happen to your home planet and all its inhabitants. If you succeed a whole new Universe will open up to you. You stand to receive Knowledge, and Wisdom that will teach you Evolution. I am talking about the Power of the Universe right at your fingertips. However, If you fail, your stellar body will have its right of existence revoked... That is … Death."
"..."
None of the Chosen could say anything at that moment, but their expressions held visions of disbelief, excitement, confusion and despair. Right then, there was a high pitched sound and almost immediately everyone realised that they could now move again. Many fell on the floor from their muscle strain and tense emotional states but that did not stop the green lifeform from continuing its speech.
"Well, it seems we're all on the same page. Now, let's begin the 7 Trials."
'Awakened? Chosen? Ascension? 7 Trials?' questioned Midas apprehensively in his mind while trying to remember as much as he possibly could from what was just said. What did any of that even mean? Before he could even attempt to wrap his head around it, the green life-form continued.
"The 7 Trials are the Trials set up by the Great One to test whether a Stellar Body's Incarnations are worthy of taking on the task of facilitating a Stellar Body's Ascension. There are Seven Trials that are known as, and this is a rough translation to a semi equivalent in your pathetic native speak you call a language:"
"The Trial of Self," and after he spoke up to here, the statue behind him began to glow resplendently, glowing ever brighter after every utterance of the name of the trial.
"The Trial of Life and Death..."
"The Trial of Vitality..."
"The Trial of Heart..."
"The Trial of Will..."
"The Trial of Mind..."
"and finally, The Trial of Being."
"The 3000 of you must survive through all the Trials to make it back to your 'Earth'. Effectively, if you fail a Trial, you die, thus increasing the chances of your Stellar Body failing to meet the requirements for Ascension."
The green lifeform stopped speaking at this point almost as if to give the Chosen a chance to digest what has been said to them so far. When Midas looked around, his surroundings were coloured by confusion and fear. Some people had already soiled themselves after the display a few seconds ago and surely they weren't even concerned about what was being said right now. Some had excited expressions almost as if they could not wait for the challenges. Some had perverted expressions on their faces as if they were relishing the atmosphere of despair and hopelessness that permeated the place.
Midas was currently running through his memory trying to search for clues on his situation. Panicking at this moment would not help him at all, so he forcefully calmed himself down and thought about all that had been said so far and if it was real and trustworthy.
'It called us lower lifeforms, does that mean there are higher level existences out there? What defines a life-form's level exactly? Is there a way to change it?' thought Midas to himself. There was an almost tangible disdain in the way the green life-form treated them and Midas surmised that this was due to the level of their existence.
Could this also be the cause of this sense of fear and reverence?
'What is Awakening? What is Ascension? I'll have to find out about it later. It said we were chosen by our planet? Who? Why? What criteria did we have?'
As Midas thought this far he began looking around and noticed that most of them were incredibly young, not older than 27 and not younger than 21. Midas himself was 23 years old that year.
When he was eavesdropping and heard the introductions between people he did not think much of it since Human Traffickers would probably like people in a certain age range for their own uses. Now, it seemed like something bigger was at play.
And when it came to the question of whether any of this was real, and whether this could be a scam or an act, that was besides the point. People's heads exploded. Survive today, Learn Tomorrow, Thrive in the Future. That's all he needed to do. The truth of the matter would probably expose itself soon and enough. And almost as if the Universe was listening in, the truth did expose itself in the very next minute.
"I know you lower beings have reservations but you are already in the first Trial, so you cannot go back even if you wanted to. If anyone says they want to go back, I will kill them myself. So… Does anyone want to go back?"
"…"
This is already the First Trial? Since When? 'The first Trial is called the Trial of Self right?' thought Midas to himself.
When he looked around he could see eyes filled with hopelessness at the situation. They have no choice. They must participate in this Trial. If they don't, they will immediately get killed. If they fail the Trial they will get killed. Their only way out is to face this head on. As some realised this, they began to pay close attention to the green life-form, trying to gauge any clue from it as to what's coming next.
"The Trial of Self is a simple Trial. Survive. That is all. You will be rewarded based on how long you are able to survive in this place. You will receive subsequent information of the other Trials and what they require when and if you are capable of receiving it. No matter how long you are able to survive, all participants will be sent to the next Trial after the equivalent of 6 Earth months. This means that the most time you may spend here is 180 Earth days from now onwards. Keep that in mind." said the green life-form in a straightforward way.
The Life-form made the Trial sound easy enough, but when Midas thought about the fact that this was just a Brown Earth field, he started wondering how anyone could survive here for 10 days, let alone 180 days.
Before he could carry on in that direction of thinking, the brown Earth started changing colour. If one looked closely, they would see that green saplings were sprouting from the floor forming a grass field around the plaza. Further out, he could see that the saplings would turn into large tall Oak trees that stood at heights of three to five meters.
'Impossible, this is...'. The brown earth field they previously found themselves had turned into a beautiful green forest environment with large trees that swayed in the wind and ankle high grass whose touch could tickle. This was real.
At this point, the green life-form raised its four arms in a beckoning way and announced "But Fear not, the Great One is magnanimous and he has given all of the incarnations undergoing the Trials 3 Gifts!"
Excitement shone in the eyes of those that were staring at the 1 meter tall being in front of them. Anything that could increase their chance for survival right now was much appreciated.
The Being continued, saying, "These 3 Gifts are: The Index, The Actualisation and The First Holy Book! For now, I will allow you all to speak. Say 'Index'."
"..."
"I-Index... Whoa! What is this?"
"Huh? Index! Damn! It's like a game window!"
"Index! Wow, I can see my name. Are those Stats?!"
With skeptic outlooks the first people started saying the word "Index" and roars of surprise echoed out from them. Midas himself was tempted and immediately steeled his heart.
"Index."