Night
Nobody is here.
I feel like I’ve been stuck in this bizarre place for about a week now. Well, if one day is defined as the time between going to sleep, waking up, and going back to sleep. Though it’s been that long, this is the first time I've opened my room’s door and entered the tent without seeing members.
"Ragatha? Jax? Hey, where are you? Zooble?"
I call out the names of three people who can have a calm conversation…Ah, I can't say they're calm for sure. I know she suddenly talks too fast, and he tries to make me fall, and their comments are covered in beeping noises…Anyway, I call out the names of three people. Well, no reply at all.
"Kinger? Gangle? Isn't there anyone else?"
The only answer is my footsteps. Did everyone become a glitch and end up in the basement while I was asleep?
…I can’t bring myself to believe such a horrible notion. Not laugh at all. Oh, in the first place, ever since I arrived here there have been very few things to make me laugh.
"Caine? Perhaps this is today's adventure? Caine, Bubble...?"
Wandering alone in this vast, high-ceilinged circus tent is an unsettling experience. It's akin to becoming small and walking through a dollhouse that's inescapable. Moreover, I’m apprehensive about when and where glitches will appear.
Wait, could this be my chance?
Since coming to this digital space, I have seen the “Emergency exit" door several times. I haven't tried it since I had a bad experience on the first day, but now that no one is watching, I might as well look for it.
I think, most of the time, Caine's words are wrong. Indeed, beyond that exit... uh... what did he call it? Um, beyond that exit, I ended up in THAT empty space. That’s true. But if I hadn't been taken back to the tent, maybe I could have seen beyond the empty space, don't you think? Or maybe I just took the wrong way.
In this way, it's too easy to lump all these things together as “dangerous'' and treat them as taboo.
All right, let's go.
I stopped calling out everyone's names and started walking around. I looked around the tent and couldn't find anything, so I went outside. I walk toward a place where I've seen a door on the first day, but since I can't see it from the sky like I did that time, it’s not very easy.
"...Anyway, there's really no one here."
Even though I muttered to myself, no one responded. It feels really weird. I was finally starting to cope with the strange “usual'' here, but now a new unusual has arrived, so I don't know what I should do.
“Oh,"
When I turned the corner, I saw a red door. I looked left and right, and then I quietly touched the doorknob.
“Ah, you were here, Pomni!”
I heard an incredibly bright voice right above me, and I instinctively pulled my hand back.
"Because I completed the end phase, I couldn't update your location information properly, so I had a hard time searching for you."
"H-hi, Caine."
"But great! You were here, so I wouldn't have to bring you here! Now, let's open this door and go home, Pomni."
“Wh-?"
What did he just say?
Open this door?
Go home?
GO HOME?!
Caine, who landed next to me, is knocking on the door and speaking as excitedly as ever. But it wasn't a knock to check on the person inside, it was a knock to show me, “Look, this is that door.''
“Wait, wait, hold on! Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what you were saying until yesterday?”
"So I told you, I completed the end phase! And now that I'm speaking directly to you, it's inevitable that programs until yesterday and responses will fluctuate. Especially since Cain is just a meta-AI.”
"What were you talking about?! Anyway, does that mean I can open this door and go back to reality?"
"Ah, yes! That's right! Just don't rush, let's go slowly as you don't get too stressed. That is why there are many doors. You can't run through them like you did the first day."
Thinking about the first day, I still remember running and opening the door, getting irritated by the office space that appeared each time.
"Okay, I get it. Don’t rush. I understand."
“Yeap. You don't want to get sick again, do you?"
Stop, I'm about to throw up the black stuff again. I glared at Caine without saying anything. I even remembered how the Bubble would happily fly out every time I held my mouth this past week.
Slowly open the door and step into that space. Caine also arrived as if it were natural.
"Now then, Pomni, do you remember anything when you look at this place?"
"Remember? In this office?"
"Yes! It's an office. Why do you think this is an office?"
"Well...somehow."
“Have you ever come?”
"I don't know. Maybe I just saw it in a video. A drama or something?"
"I see. Okay, next door!"
Open the EXIT sign and walk though the office. The scenery gradually changes.
“Do you remember anything?”
“Oh, maybe I worked here?”
"Excellent!"
"I kind of remembered it. It's a game company. I'm, uh, an engineer? I’m not sure. Anyway, I was working on a computer."
That's the reason for the discomfort. From what I know of the scenery here, there should be many more computers lined up, but there are only desks here.
“Yeah, yeah, keep going?”
"Ah, I see. This is the next area. My desk is not in this room. Over there!"
I pointed to the next door and walked towards it. Caine also arrives.
Next room. At first glance, it doesn't look much different, but the arrangement of the desks is slightly different. Also, the location of the copy machine.
"Here, my de-sk..."
It's a computer. A stubby monitor that hasn't gotten any lighter even after centuries. There should have been many more on other desks, but they were only placed on my desk.
“Did I see this on the first day? My memory is vague from this point on.”
"It wasn't time to go back then! Also you run here, so I guess it wasn't integrated well. Now, sit here."
"Why don't we enter next door?"
"Let's remember everything before opening the next door."
A faint memory tells me that there is no harm in listening to what Caine says. Yes, he is weird, but his passion for Character-Creation is genuine.
…Wait, what is Character-Creation?
"Pomni? Are you okay? Shall we take a little break?"
"Ah, no, it's okay, Gus."
"Oops! I’m still Caine."
“What?"
“If you haven’t noticed, then it’s okay!”
I obediently sat down on the chair Caine pointed to and stared at the monitor. Is this...a circus tent? Viewed from above.
"What do you think? Do you recognize this?"
“Recognize? This is the place I was before."
"Let's change the way I ask. Does this 'screen' look familiar to you?"
"Huh?"
Screen? Is this bland picture that looks like surveillance camera footage important?
I clicked on the menu bar in the upper right corner, and the menu expanded. Icons for more than ten character names. There is no name for "Pomni" here. It's obvious, yes, it's obvious.
"...The Amazing Digital Circus."
I muttered that, not as the name of the place.
…Yes, as the name of the game in development.
"It's a Character-Creation monitoring screen. Judging from the size of the training field, it's version 5, the latest version."
"That's right! What do you think? Do you remember?"
"...Okay, I see. Ah, it's finally been twelve days."
"Yes. Thank you for your hard work, Pomni."
“Isn’t the logout data not used for Pomni training, is it?”
"Well, well, that's until you walk through the door."
"I don't care though."
There's no reason to stay here any longer. I stood up and stretched. Stretching in a digital space won't change the muscles that get tight in the real world. But remembering that I was strapped to a bed made me feel stiff everywhere.
"Let's go."
Caine opens the final door. It wasn't an empty space, just a black screen.
"All CLEAR"
