Act 1 - 1
[Presenting Act 1, you've been assigned the nickname, "Reader" and a new message in your inbox]
"Message? I can't… Open Stats Window."
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—Star System analysis—
Galaxy: Milky Way Galaxy
Planetary system 10^12 - 22 ⋅ 10^21
Planet Host 1-3
Titles: Earth, Terra.
Status:
Age = 4.543 ⋅ 109
Population= 897 billion
Efficiency = 99.978%
–Current # of Participants: 22000000000000000000000/22000000000000000000000–
– Player list full –
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I can't believe it. It's all real. The anonymous author from the library, 4th-dimensional cymatics, arena closers, the scenarios— , Npcs— It's all real!
I can't believe it, it's real. I was a bit doubtful myself, magic? I've been around the world enough to know that magic doesn't just come to you. The tears in my eyes are too heavy, I can't see what's in front of me…
[Reader tries to wipe his tears off. But it's ineffective… they just keep coming back.]
I guess that means people would be after me, but I can't seem to care less about anything anymore.
[The weight lifts off his shoulders, and his eyes are almost red. He looks up into the sun and the sky, remarking how beautiful it is.]
How did I not see this before? I remember now, that this is the world I wanted to save.
Why did I do this? It's like suicide, but it was the only way to live, How ironic. When I was 22, I worked in libraries most of the time, whether classifying documents or writing them myself;
I was always in a library.
This was during my government job so they would often give me classified documents, most of them just of the espionage work they do. However, that wasn't even the most concerning part of the job. Even though all the doors were closed, and the A/C was on full blast at 72 degrees Fahrenheit, I could still feel the wind, sometimes when the winds were strong I could feel the heat as well. I knew I wasn't crazy because the winds had pushed my papers before.
The library wasn't really a library, but it had shelves, full of books so it basically might as well be one. It was the size of a bedroom, and I had a little study in the front. On my little desk was a bunch of unorganized papers, and a desk lamp I was very fond of, it was shaped like a pink rose and had a gold lining around the petals and stem. I think I loved it so much that I colorized the library gold and green, and styled everything like I was in the Victorian era. I always kept the room dark and left only my lamp on as well, it really added to the atmosphere.
Unfortunately taking care of government documents can be a dangerous job, so when I noticed this strange phenomenon I turned on the lights and asked for guards to be stationed outside my office. I mentioned earlier there were books in the library, these books contained knowledge that wasn't meant to be read by the general public, stuff like secret military tech, or international agreements that the government was violating. Though most of these books were for my personal use anyway, me and a few other people were the only ones allowed in so I figured who the fuck would care anyway?
I noticed three conditions when the winds would blow: One, they were stronger and hotter next to my bookshelves. Two, they always seemed to flow into the bookshelves. Three, they would stay for hours and change the contents of my books. They are no longer obscure books I pick out from a public library, now they were made by one single anonymous author, each one titled Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and so on, although some of them had distinct titles, if not they were just called [Books].
It was so strange, I could clearly see "Written By:" and it was like nothing and something at the same time.
The best I could remember was it looked like ripples through space. I remember clearly, one day I was determined to see what his actual name was, and for a whole 5 hours I looked, partly to make sure I wasn't crazy, finally when the sunset, it revealed the author, and I was absolutely furious,
"Written By __________"
I have to admit whoever did that played me good, I even started crazy laughing for a minute. Determined again, I started shaking the book around for another hour. This time, I could make out the initials, T.L.A. However, it was probably another weird cryptic message meant to throw me off.
Back to the main point, the first book called Act 1, would tell me to go to the Twin Towers and fall on this exact spot, the northwesternmost corner of the towers, and trust the author's winds to let me down. It was strange of course, but it was the only thing the books had told me to do, among millions of words, this was the only thing it wanted me to do. It is so puzzling as to why, but here is what it said:
["Act 1" Urges you to do it yourself]
[There are many ways to survive the Trials, but this has the most promise, the Reader knows this, so he climbs up to the most popular tower in his area and falls into the
northwesternmost corner of this tower.]
And there is one part that missing from the excerpt, It's only one of many hidden things in the book so I guess I'll never know why, apart from the author is on my side.
"'Warm homely winds' my ass."