His body hurt. His body ached. And, worst of all, his body was tired.

If it would make it all so much worse, Troy wouldn't mind going to sleep in the hallway. He would even get a natural wake up alarm out of it.

Other people were designated as natural… right? God, Troy hoped it would be so. Genetically created human-shaped monsters were still right out in the future. At least, the current one's were made by accident, according to his sources.

Anyway, Troy's inner distraction needn't distract him now! He was so close. Soon, his bed could welcome him, and bring him the numbness of a sleeping mind.

Yet, would the bed let his body be in a better state, after the customary eight hours of turning around? Troy decided to be positive in his opinion, and hoping for the best, yet he knew that, what he was currently feeling, was only the beginning. The main course would only come tomorrow. Tonight would only be the customary appetizer.

Taking another turn, Troy saw the holy grenade of bombs, which could have been dropped on him, without him caring a single bit about it. Just ahead of him, not much more than fifty meters, the hallway to the personal rooms resided.

He couldn't have been happier about it. Even his aches disappeared for just a moment as if to appreciate the number of endorphins currently running throughout him. Troy wished they would have stayed away for more, yet it seemed that such happy moments only came once a year. Or, was it even that regular?

It didn't matter. Nothing about that mattered. What mattered was the goal in front of him. In fewer than a hundred steps, Troy would be able to fall directly down and be met by the cushy softness of his bunk. Even the thought of it made his legs flutter in anticipation.

Wait. No. Nevermind. The fluttering was already there, no matter, what he was thinking.

The corner was reached, and right inside the hallway, Troy went. It was only a matter of going inside the right door now.

He counted the ones he went by, just to be sure, how long he had left.

"Nineteen hundred and thirty-five. Nineteen hundred and thirty-seven. Nineteen hundred and thirty-nine," Troy nearly mumbled, his tongue not working at optimal efficiency. It did not impede him too much, though. As long as he himself still understood, what he was saying, everything would work out just fine.

"Nineteen hundred and forty-one. Nineteen hundred and forty-four. Nineteen hundred and forty-six", Troy continued. At this point, he wasn't even looking at the number, instead just taking a quick glance to confirm the existence of a door. With this less movement costly system, Troy may have miscounted a few doors, maybe even count a few doors several times, but it didn't matter too much. By now, it was just a more general view of his progress.

"Nineteen hundred and seventy-four. Nineteen hundred and seventy-six. Nineteen hundred and, no, wait, stop." Something went wrong in Troy's counting right there, but he couldn't think through what it was. Was it the miscounting?

He double-checked the last few numbers.

…

No, the numbers were right. Eerily accurate actually. Troy had not expected something like that of himself. Yet, looking at the numbers just made his brain ring the alarm bells even more?

Why would his brain do such a thing? Didn't it realise how loud those things were?

Troy decided it would just be better to move forward and ignore the growing headache, caused by his concentration deprived mind.

"Nineteen hundred and ninety-one. Nineteen hundred and ninety-three…"

It was at about twenty-two hundred, that Troy realized what his room number even was, and was forced to actually backtrack, much to the incredible discomfort of his body. It had been promised quiet salvation, yet Troy had betrayed it by taking such a long time, and not even being finished. In retaliation, the vibration had begun growing exponentially. Troy did not think it would be too long before he began phasing trough the solid matter around him.

Finally, after too long of a time had passed, Troy finally reached his own, personal door. It didn't stand out physically from the others, but, mentally, to Troy, it was a piece of plastic, which was worthy to be crowned by the royalty. On the other side of that door, the true throne of the man sat, ready to be lied down upon.

Troy didn't want to let it wait too long, forcing his legs to give their very last kick into getting him atop the magnificent piece of engineering.

The legs creaked slightly, as Troy put down his full weight upon it. Yet, he just couldn't care less, as he sighed in relief, the pressure on his legs, near-instantly vanishing, and the pain going away with it. His body was still tired, but, for now, Troy could bear it.

Now, after too long, he could finally just lie down, close his eyes, and get ready for the new day tomorrow, by not thinking about it until the last conceivable moment.

…

Speaking of tomorrow, what had he planned? Too early in the morning, his alarm clock would surely ring its awful tones, alerting him to the soon-to-be breakfast time. He would clean himself up, and get ready to the point, where he wouldn't get put in jail for being too detestable.

Then, after a mediocre breakfast portion, of his own choosing, he would go over, with Dr Hale at his side, ready to start the test. Here Dr Fidelis had free rein over the kind of torture, which Troy would get put over for a few hours.

At least, tomorrow would be as bad as today. The skinsuit would be made a little better for tomorrow, and Troy wouldn't get himself in this sorry state again. It was a shame, that the people had to work overnight, just so they could repair that shoddy piece of-

The earpiece!

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Troy bolted upwards, his abs nearly groaning in protest.

He had forgotten about that damn earpiece, which still innocently sat on the table beside his bed. Troy needed to hand it over to Dr FIdelis, as the first thing he did tomorrow. This meant that, as of now, he still had something to do today.

Troy had to make up a convincing lie, which would make Adam help him in his endeavour.

He would have to lie to the entity, which could accurately guess most outright lies. Fun and easy to a masochist, which Troy certainly didn't see himself as.

Reaching over to the earpiece, his shoulders hurt from it. After getting this done, any movement would be illegalized by himself.

Troy took a brief look at the earpiece. His choice of giving it over to somebody, who could repair it, seemed to have been the correct choice after all. The earpiece was by no way unusable, yet it still had suffered a few… damages, over the brief period of intense use. The earlier sheen of light refracting on it had been replaced with a more grey overtone, with the amount of light mirrored on it lessened. Zep's earlier comment on it being dirty certainly wasn't true, but the overall quality of it had sunken down to less than stellar levels.

A sigh of exhaustion came out unwillingly, now that no further delays could be explained away. Troy needed to do this now, or he would never have the time for it again.

The earpiece was put on, and Adam's voice was heard throughout his field of hearing.

'Are we doing another test today?', Adam asked, sounding as if, he hadn't yet cared to overlook Troy's surroundings. Or, maybe he had, and just had some higher expectations of the puzzle room, than Troy himself had about it. He would never know.

"We are doing some kind of a test", Troy amended. "Yet, we are technically not doing it now. This, my friend, is simply a precursor of information, for a test, which we will probably have in the near future."

Nothing was an obvious lie, so he had some amount of trust in himself. Now, it would only take-

'You are lying.', Adam simply stated. Troy's reaction was perfectly natural, with him trying to look mildly confused, yet also not too surprised.

"What am I lying about?" Troy asked. If his prior information about Adam's analysation methods were true, he would be saying…

'I don't know what was a lie, and I don't know why you lied. I simply know, as a near-certain fact, that you lied somewhere in your starting sentences, in this conversation.', Adam said, making Troy truly relieved. He hadn't been too sure, if he was honest, about how good he was at analysing the words individually. If Adam had been able to do so already, Troy would have been truly screwed, when it came to completing his current objective.

Now, he could try to go on the defensive, making a few obscure references to not knowing, where he lied. Yet, Troy wasn't too sure, if Adam would be seeing that, as a sentence certainly containing lies. Currently, he needed to tread the fine line of only just lying somewhere, with words Adam couldn't fully fact-check to a hundred per cent certainty.

"There might have been a lie or two thrown in somewhere, in my words," Troy said, being very careful in how he formulated the sentence. "But, I have more than a few good reasons for this. Reasons I can't explain, without the whole objective, in its entirety, being ruined.

You have to understand; during any tests of any kind, it is impossible for me to tell you everything I know about it, without the results you produce after that, being looked at with uncertain biases. Altogether, this means that to explain the tests to you, without giving any delicate details away, I need to lie. Only in small doses, of course, but it will be white-lies nonetheless."

The last bit about testing was, in pure technicality, true to his own personal beliefs. When compared to the relevance of their current discussion, though, there was no reasonable reason as to, why Troy decided to include that part. He wasn't talking about any testing at all, right now, but… Adam didn't know that.

'Your reasoning is solid. I will try to contextualize any lesser lies, which are detected, with this new information, that you have informed me about. Please continue in your explanations.', Adam sent back. The tone of voice was as monotonic as ever, but the way it was worded, made Troy think of it as apologetic.

"Great to hear, buddy. And, I hadn't even started on explaining, what this whole thing would be about, but, now that you're mentioning it, it wouldn't be too bad of an idea, to do so", Troy said. Damn it, it was hard not using specific words, like tests. If he did, it would trigger as an obvious lie. No matter what, no lying pattern should be emerging, which Adam could figure out through pure logarithms.

"First off, this whole thing will not be something, which will focus on, what you're getting from my senses. Instead, it will focus on the connection, which we have between. This isn't meant in some metaphorical way. No, its meaning, in the way, that you need a larger focus on the connection, which this earpiece provides," Troy said, insinuating his words, with a few pokes at the earpiece, the sound coming from it being like a mild, inconsistent bass beat. "Any questions yet?"

Troy hoped for none at all.

'Yes. I have one. When you're talking about this connection, which we have through the medium of the earpiece, in what way are you referring to it? Can you be more specific in, what way that I will have to inspect?', Adam sent.

Not good. Ambiguous answer; Go forth!

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Adam", Troy said, trying to sound professional, in the hopes, that his true intentions would be hidden just a little better. "In any old testing environment, wouldn't me being so specific not damage your focus on other sources? If you only look for one thing, would there not be a chance, that you miss other, just as vital, information?

I am not all-knowing when it comes to tests like that. I may know, what results in there is being looked for, but other results may come forth, which will invalidate anything I thought before. If I tell you, where to look, it will hamper the true intention behind any test; to test, inspect, and learn from it all."

Adam wouldn't like it, at all, but Troy needed to be as unwilling as possible when it came to this point. He hoped his words would be effective, or there would be problems.

'… I understand. Is there any more details about the test, which I need to know?', Adam sent. The affirmation of understanding nearly sounded sad. Not in the tone of voice, but in the way it was spaced out more.

"There are more details than I would ever tell you willingly", Troy amended, the truth of his statement being more true than Adam would ever know.

'If there is no more for me to know, I would like to get back to my own projects.', Adam sent.

Personal projects, eh? How Troy wondered what those little things could be. Maybe, he was trying to stop himself from being bored, by calculating the number of atoms he had seen the last two minutes, using nothing but basic trigonometry. Or, maybe he was trying to figure out a way to translate the data from his eyes, to make him able to see in the night. Or… maybe it was just another weirdly specific thing, which Troy would never understand the need to think about.

"That's fine, non-embodied entity," Troy answered, with a small wave. "Goodnight"

'Goodnight to you too. I hope you become well-rested.'

Troy pulled out the earpiece, a sign emanating from him after the fact. If Adam even believed half of, what he was saying, he would soon find out.

His limbs finally relaxed, and he laid down in his comfortable bed, for what he hoped would be the last time tonight. There weren't any more tasks for him to do before he could finally close his eyes, and breathe calmly for once.

Now, his only thing to do was to blissfully be mindless, in the next few hours.

Being in such a state was oh so peaceful. No matter how long, or how short, Troy would always treasure these moments. Moments, where he was in a fine balance between being awake, and being asleep, not fully knowing whether or not to think anything at all.

It was here, where his mind would flow freely, any logic being removed from the process of it all. Did this mean, that he was actually thinking? Nobody could know, as it would require full thought to think about.

How great the world was when the light was shone upon it. Heck, one could even say that-

A loud knock came from Troy's side, causing his body to sputter around in reflex. In a few moments, where he wasn't yet fully aware of his surroundings. Still thinking he was in dreamland, Troy somehow got himself over to the bedside, and down on the floor.

This caused more than a few angry mutterings, as Troy got himself up and standing. His legs were still not in their perfect state, but they were better than…

How long had gone by? Bending down, he picked up the alarm clock, which had fallen to the ground, in Troy's rather ridiculous flailing around. Luckily, it was unharmed.

On the not so lucky side, the time was five in the morning, more than an hour before Troy should be woken up. … Why did he wake up again?

The loud knocking, from before, repeated themselves, even louder than before.

Damn it. Troy had been hoping, it was just something he had dreamed, and that he could have gone back to sleep immediately.

From the now rather persistent knocking, it seemed as that was just… another dream to be had. God, he needed more sleep.

Moving over to the entrance door, Troy opened it. Outside, he saw an awfully familiar face.

"Dr Hale", Troy muttered, not of his volition. "If disturbing my already strained sleeping patterns is a hobby of yours, please get help."

She did not look amused.

"Get your clothes on. It's time to earn your wage."