The mush of incomprehensible images and sounds slowly retreated, blessing Sultan with awareness once again.
… Or perhaps it was more accurate to say cursing him with awareness, considering his current circumstances.
After taking a few minutes to pull himself together, Sultan fully recalled everything that had happened. It wasn't exactly easy to forget. Afterall, this craziness was far too memorable.
"Hey, Citizen," Sultan called out loud, wondering if the psycho is paying attention.
Actually, now that he thought about it, how come the Citizen was always there? Didn't they have other things to attend to , or did they spend all their time monitoring him?
"Good morning!" came the expectedly quick reply, accompanied by a sleepy-head emoji.
'so, they can hear me. Good to know.'
"Don't know about you, but here, morning doesn't exist," Sultan retorted.
"Another reason for you to get the hell out of there." (Followed by a hand-counting-on-fingers emoji.)
"Well, I'm trying, aren't I?"
"How long have I slept?" Sultan asked.
"For more than half a day," the Citizen replied.
"Dammit, that's way too much."
If that was accurate, it meant he'd been stuck here for over two days now.
"Now, enough with the chitchat," the Citizen began.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Why do you drool like a simpleton every time you kill one of those monsters?"
"Don't tell me your little heart pities them?"
"Hold your horses and give me space to explain," Sultan interrupted the… scolding.
Yes, scolding. By the names of the god, it had come to this, rebuked by that lunatic.
"pity who? Those little devils? Me? If I had the last flame in the world, I'd use it up to turn those little bastards to ash and doom the world into eternal darkness in the process."
"Goooood. I feared you were a softy," the Psycho replied, sounding as happy as a little kid at the end of the school year. "But what's the reason for your odd behavior?"
"I wish I had a believable answer," Sultan muttered.
"You might not believe it. And you might make fun of me, but…"
"As soon as I killed those insects, I felt an intoxicating sensation. It reached deep into my heart, and all I wanted to do in those moments was just to stay like that forever."
"what do you mean to stay like that forever?" (tilting-head emoji)
"I don't know. I just wanted to cling to that sensation and live in it for eternity," Sultan replied, starting to feel irritated.
Sultan waited for the Citizen to respond instantly, as was their habit. But strangely enough, this time, they took much longer to reply.
And that worried him the most.
The Psycho had not seemed fazed by the monstrous insects before. in fact, they had even cracked a few jokes about them. Yet now, they were actually taken aback by Sultan's condition.
If that didn't feel ominous, Sultan couldn't imagine what would.
As the silence grew unbearable, he finally had to break it.
"Could this be because of how you brought me here?" Sultan asked, tailing the message with a glaring-face emoji, borrowing a page from the Psycho's book.
Nothing. The chat remained unchanged. If you dropped a metaphorical needle, you'd hear a very loud , metaphorical ding.
Just as Sultan entertained the idea of sending another message, or maybe spamming the chat with a multitude of them, just like the Psycho would do when ignored, an alarming reply arrived.
"Can you recall what happened between the time you were in your house and arriving here?"
Sultan swore under his breath.
Those degenerate pieces of rubbish.
The Citizen hadn't dismissed the possibility that their transportation method might be the cause. Worse still, this last question heavily implied that it very well could be.
"There's nothing to recall. One moment I was happily chopping vegetables and listening to music; the next, I'm here in this dark nightmare."
"Nothing at all in between?" the Citizen pressed.
"Well… I did have this strange dream," Sultan admitted, hesitating before sending the message.
"Dream? Tell me more," they demanded.
"Um, it was a very lucid kind of dream," Sultan began. "I was in this super weird place, surrounded by these abnormal points of light."
"Oh, and there was this regal, almost heavenly speaker too. They talked about challenges and traits."
"Now I get it," the Citizen replied, the confidence returning to their messages.
"Dear Sultan, congratulations!"
"I'm happy to inform you that you've already had your debut." [Cheering emoji and fireworks emoji.]
"My what?" Sultan asked, baffled.
"You'll understand soon."
"Now, I want you to do something very simple. Say 'my status' in your head," the Citizen instructed.
Doubting the citizen's sanity, and his very own for considering it, Sultan complied.
'Status,' he tried.
'Status.'
'Status, status, status, status, status.'
Just as he began to feel ridiculous, a change transpired.
The air itself shimmered, and symbols of unknown origin etched themselves before Sultan's eyes.