Dr. Avaline opened his eyes and smiled.
"It works. There are some problems here and there but I can fix them easily."
Doctor Curio Avaline stood up and walked out of his imaginary mansion
Outside the mansion was the empty white space again. This was the dream world of his. It had no space limit like the real world. He could create as many things and as many places as he wanted. As long as he had enough Aspects.
"I shouldn't create something too big. A few of the first failures I saw are me using too much Truth and Chaos to create the playground. It will run me dry and completely bankrupt me.
Let's set a small stage. A secluded town in a neverending forest…
I can easily duplicate the details in the forest, only slightly changing a few things here and there. This can add a feeling of isolation and completely throws off the sense of direction for the players.
They think they went there already but they didn't. They think they've never reached that area but it was the same. I can also create a special barrier that makes them keep circling around if they reach the edge of the map as well. This can save even more amount of Truth and Chaos."
Dr. Avaline flew quite far away and created a dense pine forest that looked the same everywhere but slightly different. Each area would still look unique if you paid attention but it had lots of similarities.
"A forest around 10 square kilometers should be enough to be lost in."
A circle of forest appeared beneath Dr. Avaline.
"Now there needs to be a town in the middle. A small rural medieval town should be under one square kilometer.
But I'm trying to create as much chaos as possible. So it needs to spread out more. More isolation. More distance between houses. More danger lurking around.
A 2 square kilometers flat area in the middle of the forest should be good."
Dr. Avaline raised his hands and the center of the forest was flattened, leaving only the dirt and a few trees.
"To propose real threats, the player needs to be somewhere completely different from the real world. So no technology. No cars. No phones. No TVs. No radios. It should touch the basic instinct of a living being as well. So the less tools they have to defend themselves the better. So no guns as well.
If that is the case, then the time period of this town should fall in the Middle Age. The only thing they can protect themselves with are bows, knives, swords, the most barbaric weapons there are."
Dr. Avaline closed his eyes as he imagined the town to take shape. He didn't need to design every single piece of structure and furniture. The structural designs and traits of a medieval town happened. It is an undeniable fact so Truth can make them appear in the dream world even without Dr. Avaline's precise control.
When he opened his eyes again, a small rural town of the medieval period had been born.
Small low wooden and mud houses. Shabby doors. Ancient windows. Dirt roads created naturally after years of walking upon the grass. Signs and posts belonged to a time long past.
Everything showed up vividly like they were real.
Dr. Avaline landed in the town and walked around. He inspected everything carefully and made sure the playground fit the 'theme'.
Truth and Chaos was a formidable combination. They couldn't make a mistake. However, they acted upon Dr. Avaline's will so mistakes could present.
He was different from them. He wasn't perfect.
There were a few issues in some places. A house that shouldn't be there. A road that was a bit too unnatural. Truth only replicated the structural design after all, it didn't understand the more human principles hidden behind.
Dr. Avaline spent quite a few days walking around the town, fixing every mistake he could find. He even wasted a piece of Fate strand to verify the future.
Finally, he was satisfied with his creation. But there was something missing in this town.
Dr. Avaline looked up and saw the clear white sky without a single cloud. It was the sky of the white empty space, not the sky of a real world.
Dr. Avaline reached his hand up and wiped. The white sky was replaced with a moody grey sky with layers of thick clouds. A fake sun hidden behind the clouds that were too weak to shy through. A perfect representation for this hopeless town.
"I finished constructing the appearance of the place. But there still needs to be rules for this playground."
The trees weren't trees. Their sprouts weren't drinking water. There was no air as a dreamer needed no breath. There was also no wind. No temperature. No sound. And many many more rules were missing.
These were the most expensive 'truths' that Dr. Avaline needed to apply to this playground.
"However, before adding all of that. I need to add one more thing first. I need to add DEATH."
Death was real. It wasn't just an abstract concept, but an actual rule of the universe. Everything dies. Even reality.
If Dr. Avaline wanted to convince the players that this was more than a dream, he needed to add Death.
And in contrast to Death, Life also needed to be there.
A dreamer needed no death nor life, simply because he was dreaming.
In many iterations of the future that Dr. Avaline saw, this was the reason that led to his downfall the most. He had to spend many times looking at many possibilities before finding the solution.
Dr. Avaline waved his hand.
"In this playground, dreamers can live and die. They need air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. They feel cold, hot, and anything in between. They feel pain, the dread of death and its sweet embrace.
They can be harmed, be killed, and be lost like the physical world.
Dreamers exist in two states here, dead and alive.
When they're alive, they have a physical body and are dictated by it like the waking world.
When they're dead, they will become lost souls that haunt this town like many lost souls before. That is… until the game ends.
With this, I grant this playground Death and Life!"