Questions Answered
Axel opened his eyes and sat up from the floor. He saw a familiar scene in front of him. He saw the same empty white room from before. A few seconds after he woke up, a white text screen appeared in front of him.
[Tutorial Mission Completed]
Reward: Stats Page and Friends List
Just when he finished reading the screen, another screen appeared in his vision. The first screen containing the mission was directly in front of him. This new screen appeared to the right of the first one.
[Stats]
Physique: 9
Agility: 12
Tenacity: 10
Immediately after the stats page popped up, another screen appeared to the left of the mission screen.
[Friends]
None
Axel read these two new screens and grew more confused. Axel had many questions and nobody who could answer them.
'What do these stats mean?'
After thinking this, something changed on the stats screen that was on the right. A new line of text appeared below his stats.
(Physique is the player's strength, speed and toughness.)
(Agility is the player's reaction time.)
(Tenacity is the player's mental strength.)
(Average is 10.)
Axel read this and now understood what his stats were. Since he was a pro gamer, his reaction time was very fast. His physique was a reflection on his unfit scrawny body. The only thing he didn't fully comprehend was the tenacity stat.
After seeing that he received an answer, Axel mentally asked another question, this time about the room he was in.
'What is this room?'
Axel waited for a few minutes, but he didn't get a reply. He remembered asking where he was when he first appeared in the room and he also did not get a reply. Axel thought about why his first question about the stats was answered but not this one. He came up with a theory and tried proving it with his next question.
'What is the friends list?'
Just as he expected, new text appeared at the bottom of the friends screen.
(Friends can see each others condition, either alive or dead.)
(Friends are both notified if they are in the same game.)
Axel came to the conclusion that questions about the screens are answered. To further prove this, he thought of other questions not related to the screens and they were all not answered. There was only one screen left that he could ask about.
'What is the mission screen?'
New text appeared, but it wasn't what he expected.
(Time until next game: 3 hours 16 minutes 43 seconds.)
'Huh?'
The new text did not include any information about the mission screen. Instead, it showed a timer that was counting down. The timer was for the next game. Axel remembered his experience in the forest and he didn't want to go through that again. Axel could do nothing to stop the countdown and resigned himself to his fate. To prepare himself for the next game, he decided to workout his body.
...
After doing a few push ups, Axel fell asleep from the lack of things to do in the room. There wasn't anything to eat or drink in the room. He was roused from his sleep when he heard a 'ding'. He sat up and opened the screens.
Previously, Axel found a way to close the screens by mentally thinking 'close' with the intention to close the screens. After finding this out, he found the way to open the screens by instead thinking 'open'. After looking through the screens, only the mission screen changed.
[Main Mission]
Objective: Reach the end of the path.
Reward: The Shop and 10 coins
(Time until next game: 48 seconds.)
There no extra context to the mission and Axel only had a less than a minute left. He mentally prepared himself for the next game and stretched his muscles.
(Time until next game: 0 seconds.)
When the timer hit zero seconds, all screens were forcefully closed and he felt a tugging from behind. Axel fell on his back and was pulled through the floor. He fell through the familiar black void and watched as the white cube shrink smaller and smaller in his vision.
'I hope I can return alive.'
The white cube disappeared from his sight as his eyelids grew heavy. He slowly shuts his eyes and the falling sensation stopped soon after.