The Mystery Being Part 1
Day One
Date : 01/01/01
Location: Into the city
Test period: three days (two days remaining)
Objective: Reach The City Gate
Subject Name: Thomas
Subject age: 20
Prvious success rate: 85%
Expected success rate: 35%
Failed subjects: 201
Successful subjects: 3
{Welcome to Ramendal City. You are the first human to ever visit this city. To learn about this great city and it's history please press Continue.}
...Continue.....
...Disregard.....
To begin with, I was overwhelmed with confusion about everything that was happening to me, with no clear answers or any type of a clue, and now this? Do I even have time for this nonsense? My time is running out, and I haven't even found the bloody car. Just like the so called system red my mind, I saw another message.
{You always skip this information and read at a later time}
{A new tab was added to the menu, allowing you to access any information available at that time.}
I remembered the other new option the voice command option and decided to try it out. I said, "Change to voice command and skip this information''. Knowing that the most crucial thing I needed at the moment was information. Still, I couldn't distract myself with other things, especially with time running out. In the previous mission, the penalty for failure was termination. Although nothing was mentioned about this mission, I still couldn't let my guard down.
Momentarily distracted by the messages, I turned my full attention to the scene before me. I found myself staring at a ruined city. I was standing on a wide street that stretched as far as the eye could see. On both sides of the street, the buildings were taller than any skyscrapers I had ever seen, but all were destroyed and reduced to rubble. The skeletal remains of skyscrapers clawed at the perpetually bruised sky, their shattered windows like vacant eyes staring out at a world that had forgotten them. Dust, thick and pervasive, coated everything, a fine, gray shroud over the rubble-strewn streets. Twisted rebar jutted from concrete husks, resembling the bones of some ancient, forgotten beast.
The wind, when it came, carried the scent of decay and the metallic tang of rust, whispering through the hollowed-out buildings like a ghost. Strange-looking cars, once gleaming symbols of progress and civilization far beyond any human era, lay overturned and charred, their tires melted into grotesque puddles.
Nature, in its relentless indifference, had begun to reclaim the city. Weeds pushed through cracked pavement, and tenacious vines snaked up crumbling walls, a testament to a cataclysmic event and a chilling vision of a future that had already passed.
However, I tried to paint the scene in front of me with words, but my limited vocabulary failed to capture it. About one hundred meters ahead was a vehicle that did not match the view I was looking at and the rest of the scene. There were no any other vehicles around, and my car was nowhere to be seen. I approached the vehicle cautiously, and when I was about two meters away, the front door opened horizontally.
The sudden movement scared me a lot and for a moment, I froze in my place, expecting something to jump on me but fortunately nothing of the sort happened. As I took my second step, I heard a sound in my head, as if through headphones. The sound seemed to come directly from my mind; it was like an automated, robotic voice that reminded me of the old science fiction movies. I couldn't tell whether it was a female voice or a male voice an it was saying:
{Congratulations! You have reached your assigned vehicle. You can now rest or explore the city.}
{You have twelve hours until your next mission}{Instructions for your next mission are available in your vehicle.}
So this is my vehicle. Compared to the ones I saw in the parking lot, it resembled a medium-sized truck combined with the sleek shape of a massive sports car—something straight out of a futuristic science fiction movie. When I reached the open door and looked inside, it was spacious, even larger than my apartment bedroom. There was a set of four seats arranged one behind the other, with enough space between each set there is enough space to fit a large sofa, and a single driver's seat at the front. After watching it with admirationI finally sat in the driver's seat, enjoying its comfort. As soon as I reached out with hand to close the door as I usually did, the door automatically shut itself, and the lights turned on. What used to be the dashboard in my normal car now displayed hundreds of different images with symbols unfamiliar to me.
Before I wondered how to drive it or understand all the functions displayed on the dashboard, I remembered the instructions I had been told that I will find it in side the vehicle, and started searching around if there is anything familiar like an envelope or any item that I can find might contain the instructions, forgetting that I was in an unfamiliar place. Up until that moment, I hadn't given much thought to where I was, but based on everything I had seen so far, I believed that I was not on Earth. This realization created anxiety in me, yet I tried to convince myself that it wasn't real—that I was simply in a different country or a secret base of the government.
Although I believed that there is no government on Earth was capable of creating the buildings and vehicles that I saw in the parking lot and the one I was sitting in, but deep down I knew that it is impossible to eart, when I reached that thought and found nothing with instructions inside the car, I sat down in the driver's seat once more and recalled the information about the city, hoping it might shed some light or at least give me a clue about what was going on and where I was.
Since I have some time at moment this was the best time to read and some knowledge about this city, so I said "Open menu" and instantly the screen appeared but this time not the way it used to appear in front of me now it appeared on the windshield glass which was dark not transculant like the cars I used to know, nothing was shocking me at this point of time, there was new tab in fact added to menu that I saw previously.
Name: Thomas
Age: 20
Level: 1
State: Loked {Will unlock upon gaining levels}
Skills: Not Available
Attributes: Not Available
Points: 10
Equipment: Nil