I had experienced a lot of things since becoming an Alternative, some bad, some good. However, this place was just something else entirely. There were things in the arcade that completely broke my understanding of what was possible. There were even things that contradicted their own existence, making it literally impossible for me to physically describe most of them.
For example, there was an object that, when touched, began stretching your body similarly to how a black hole stretches and bends anything that comes close to it. Apparently, the whole point of the game was to see how far it could stretch your body before the matter making up your body literally tore itself apart. How very delightful.
Anyway, I'm getting off track. The thing about it that completely contradicted reality was its overall shape and form. Its bloody shape made literally no sense at all. It was simultaneously a perfectly round sphere while also being a cube, a pyramid, and a hexagon all at the same time. It was also both 3D and 2D as well, which of course shouldn't have been physically possible. Honestly, my mind felt like it was breaking just from looking at the damn thing.
Still, though, despite everything, I was having fun. It was nice to just enjoy my time with people who weren't practically mind-controlled into my service. In fact, despite not being able to play some of the games, since I am definitely not a fifth-dimensional being, there were many that caught my interest.
Honestly, the novelty of playing games from across different dimensions and universes was half the fun already. Actually getting to play them was obviously the other half. Not that I was winning most of the time, thanks to a certain friend of mine, a friend who was most definitely cheating. And I'm not just saying that because I'm butthurt he keeps beating me.
"How the hell does he keep winning?!" I asked as I watched Lucius absolutely destroy Brain in another game.
"I have no idea, but he's definitely cheating somehow," Iris chuckled next to me.
"Maybe a trait or a gift of some kind? There's no way in hell he has played them all before after all." I muttered with narrowed eyes as the game ended with another Lucius victory.
"Brain brain..." ( ≖_≖)
"Sore losers always say that. They can't accept that someone is just better than them," Lucius said smugly, shaking his head at us. "You really hate to see it."
(I one hundred percent call bullshit on that…) I thought, annoyed.
"Hahahaha." Basil laughed with a grin while smacking card boy's back. "I must say, I am very impressed with your skill, my small friend."
"Thanks."
Listening to the two, I could only sigh. (Well, whatever. We're having fun, and that's all that matters, I suppose, even if we have a cheating bastard amongst our ranks.)
"Still getting your asses kicked, I see," came the familiar voice of Decker from behind me.
Rolling my eyes as I turned around to face him, I paused. "What's with the plush toys?" Indeed, walking alongside my mentor were Anna and Sapphire, both of whom held rather cute plushies.
"They're adorable, right?" Anna purred as she carried hers on her back, while Sapphire hugged the one she was holding tightly to her chest.
"So fluffy…"
"We won them in one of the games. Sapphire was surprisingly motivated as well," Anna giggled, causing the fish girl in question to blush shyly.
(Cute.) I thought, and from the looks of some of my companions, they were having similar reactions to Sapphire's embarrassment.
Things continued as normal after that. We kept walking around and playing various games. Several stood out to me in particular, though some of them were quite long, so I couldn't just sit around playing them all day.
First, there was one simply called Paths. How it worked was relatively simple: your mind was transported into a virtual space where you could relive past events in your life and make different choices compared to what you did in reality. In the end, it was rather fascinating, to be honest. Though I had to stop myself from checking out what would have happened if I had done a few things differently, mostly because I knew how dangerous it could be to try and get the "perfect ending," so to speak.
Anyway, on a lighter note, there were several games such as Evolve and Thrive as well as History of Nevoria, games that I greatly enjoyed thanks to their interesting takes on evolution and civilization. There were also more bizarre forms of entertainment, like a game where you literally just stabbed each other with various wacky objects, appropriately named Stab To Win. Very creative, I know.
Of course, there were many, many more, each with genres and mechanics I hadn't even thought of before. In fact, the only reason I knew the titles of most of them was because something about this arcade automatically translated them for me.
Eventually, however, we came to a stop at the side of a nearby balcony overlooking the lower floors of the arcade. "The vast amount of games here are great and all, but the only problem is, I don't know how to play most of them."
"They don't seem all that complicated to me," Lucius said, only half-joking.
"Oh, go fuck yourself, you cheating asshole," I huffed, much to his amusement.
"C'est tellement triste qu'il doive tricher pour gagner," Iris said in French, causing me to smile.
"Je sais, c'est tellement triste," I replied with a grin.
"Brain brain brain, brain~" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
"You scoundrel! Why were you even looking for such forms of entertainment?!" Gringus asked, appalled.
(I don't even want to know…) I thought as the two started bickering.
After a bit, Yennora clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "So then, where to next?"
"I was thinking of checking out more of the VR sections," Lucius said, followed quickly by Sapphire and Gringus.
"More plushies…" Sapphire muttered.
"Honestly, I'm quite fascinated to learn how some of these machines work. They are simply mind-boggling," Gringus added.
(Guess we're going to be splitting up again.) I hummed internally.
"Hey Carmen, want to tag along with me and Basil?" Lucius asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Fine. However, this time I'm gonna kick your ass," I growled.
"Bring it."
"I never expected you to be so competitive, brat," Decker said, causing me to shrug and yell.
"Well, I am!"
I lost every single round. To say I was frustrated would be the world's biggest understatement. Still, I was happy to just take a moment and mess around with my friends. After all, the next world I planned on going to was rather grim, to put things mildly.
Some time later, I ended up sitting off to the side as Iris, Anna, and Lucius started playing another weird game I didn't understand. I was going to wait for them to finish, but something caught my eye, something that seemingly no one else had noticed.
"The hell?" I muttered. There, smeared across the ground, was some kind of green fluid or slime-like substance.
Standing up and walking over to get a closer look, I still couldn't figure out what it was. "What is this stuff?"
(Is it leading somewhere…?)