'What's in the box?', played over and over in Troy's head.

It was shocking in the start, seeing such a horrible thing. But now, Troy was chuckling, as if it was some kind of cruel joke.

Inside the cardboard box, was another box. A horrible thing, which Troy had vowed to never touch again. The vileness extruding from it was nauseating. Who would create such a thing? Even the most repulsive of sadists must be deterred from it.

'Will you explain the test now?', Adam asked Troy.

Brief horror, then a quick realisation. They were still talking about this test… the test, where such a horrible thing allowed itself to still exist before Troy.

It didn't matter what Troy thought though. Adam was intrigued, and it was his job to help him find the answers he wanted.

“This, my friend, is what we call a puzzle,” Troy said, slowly opening up the box. He was surprised that the surface didn't burn his fingertips. Inside, a thousand, blue squares sat, each slightly deformed. “Our goal today is to put them all together. As in, you tell me, what to do, and I'll do it. To follow the rules, I will not be helping you in any other way. Do you understand?”

'The message is clear.', Adam answered quickly.

“Good. Shall we begin?”

'Let us proceed with this.'

Troy flipped the box over letting all the individual pieces fall to the ground. It made a massive clutter but helped in letting the spread out. With them all being blue, it would likely be hard to get accurate instructions.

“Ready for orders”, Troy said, getting down to sit on his knees.

'Affirmative. Take the blue piece to your most right.'

Oh, this was gonna be a long day.

“Care to be more specific?” Troy asked, looking to this right. In front of him, the whole floor was covered, by blue, puzzle pieces.

Adam remained silent for a moment.

'You are looking at it. It is located right in front of your left knee.'

Looking down, Troy did see a puzzle piece by his left knee. He saw several in fact.

“Still not accurate enough, I'm afraid”, Troy said.

…

'… We have a problem.'

“First realized that now?” Troy asked, his tone clear with sarcasm.

'Yes. The problem is due to your lack of ability in differentiating the puzzle pieces. Do you have any solutions to this problem?'

Troy thought the problem was Adam's lack of communication, but he didn't comment on that. He was a good person, after all.

“I'm not supposed to help you with that, I'm afraid,” Troy stated, putting on a sorrowful tone. Oh, how dreadful it was.

Adam didn't answer immediately, likely trying to come forth with some loophole to fix it all. Could he find a loophole, though? The rules hadn't been told to them, now that Troy thought about it.

'A solution has been found,' Adam sent.

Oh, that was faster than Troy thought. To be honest, he hadn't been too sure that Adam would even succeed.

“Spill it out, then”, Troy encouraged him. He needed a piece of this.

'If the problem is that you do not understand which piece to take, the sorting system will have to change. Instead of me saying, what piece you take, you instead take any piece of your choosing. Then, I will direct you to do what is needed, with the piece.

Before this new system is implemented, though, I believe I have found some pieces, which you will be able to identify.'

Troy wasn't too sure, he would be able to differentiate any of them.

“Are you sure about that?” Troy asked.

'Eighty percent, at the minimum. This puzzle has sides and corners to it, which are differently shaped than the others. They have either two or three distorted sides, which is different from the usual four.

Will you please find all these pieces?'

“You can just tell to do so, you know?” Troy said.

'Then do so.'

“Roger, roger”

And down on his ass, Troy went. There wasn't any way he was sitting in a Slavic position for the next ten minutes.

The sorting began in relative silence. He was guessing, that Adam was just waíting to be correct Troy in something.

What did Slavic even mean, Troy, wondered? He hadn't been following too much attention to history class, but he did have a vague idea about it. A couple of decades ago, it was seen as a position mostly used by a certain kind of country. Apparently, they had some kind of genetic feature, that let them sit that way comfortably. Before, Troy had thought the whole thing to be sham. A false story, told by the older ones who lived in that period. Then, he saw videos of people even dancing in that position, and never questioned the capabilities of the human body again.

When did those countries even fall? Was it the Strikes, or was it the-

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

'You missed one to your right.', Adam sent, bringing Troy out of the zone. How long did it take? About thirty seconds.

“Of course, of course”, Troy said, making sure to throw a bit too hard, when getting it to the pile of side-pieces.

“Counted how many side-pieces left?” Troy asked. It was getting more than boring doing this sorting.

'You are nearly halfway.'

If God existed, Troy wished for time-travelling powers.

…

Damn you, non-existent being.

----------------------------------------

Troy thought back to his school days.

When getting his worthless excuse of a degree, he had been required to take a foreign language credit. Due to his lack of reason, and general stupidity, Troy had simply picked a random, entry-level language class.

After picking, the screen had asked, if he was sure about his choice. Troy said yes. The screen asked again. Troy said yes again. Then it asked if he was really sure about his choices, and a warning about how the class was required to be completed once accepted.

At that point, Troy should have checked the name of the class. He didn't and simply accepted the class selection a final time.

This was a massive mistake.

Troy, in his stupidity, had chosen to learn beginners Esperanto. This was fine. Esperanto was one of the easiest languages to learn.

It was how he would be learning it, that was the problem.

You see, the teacher would be teaching the class, not vocally, but with the hands. Sign language. Troy had chosen a language class for the deaf.

With the fact that he couldn't regret his choices, Troy was forced to learn sign-language by himself, fluently enough that he could understand complex words, while also learning another, different, language.

It had been gruelling, and Troy had hated every second of it.

But, and this is a big but, if given the chance, he would gladly do it all again, instead of ever even knowing this puzzling test.

The number of times Troy had been told he picked up the wrong, blue square was uncountable. Even thinking about it, caused his eyes to twitch. Of course, Adam had complained about that too, politely asking him to stop it. It was still seen as a miracle that their change in attitude had been able to change that. If they hadn't alternated on who chose the pieces, they would certainly have been stuck at the first few steps for all eternity.

Now, though… they were almost done. Five empty places were left on the board, all different places. Troy would even need to think about it if he wanted to solve it himself.

'Time for the next piece, please,' Adam sent out to him, with his oh, so consistent, monotone voice. After this test was done, he really needed to ask Adam to change that up. Maybe, instead of a constant, emotionless voice, he could do a constant, angry voice. At least, it would get the level of sadism across.

But, was it sadism, if Adam didn't mean to be so? The result was the same, but the function of it all was radically-

'Take another piece from your left, and let me have a look at it.', Adam said.

And there was another thing that Troy regretted doing. Asking Adam to make orders, instead of suggestions. The worst thing about it all was that it worked on Troy, giving Adam even more incentive to do so.

Troy didn't even look to his side, simply moving his hand across the floor, until he felt a bump.

Bringing it to his face, Troy was ever so unpleasantly surprised to find a blue, puzzle piece.

'Top-left opening.', Adam simply said, in response to seeing it.

Troy looked at the board. Two openings matched the description. So he had a choice to make, due to this. Let Adam know that his communication was subpar, or just break the rules a smudge, and place it in the correct spot.

The second option was taken, like many before it. He didn't want Adam to discuss methods of clearing misunderstanding efficiently again. Troy was halfway to the point, where he thought Adam just liked talking.

'Next piece, please.'

And on the clockwork spun. There were now four places left.

He took one up, let Adam study it for a microsecond, then placed it in the correct position. Three left.

Take one up, place one down. Two left.

Generally moving his arm. One left.

A Troy slid his hand across, the clear surface of the floor, a problem quickly arose. Troy felt nothing but the flatness.

For the first time in a good hour, Troy looked at the former pile of pieces. Pure whiteness met his eyes, no blue piece in sight.

“Houston- I mean, Adam- we have a problem,” Troy said. He began looking around.

'I see it.', Adam sent.

“Where?” Troy asked, not seeing the piece.

'I see the problem.', Adam clarified.

“Great. That was helpful of you to point out”, Troy said. Maybe he had sat on it in the beginning? No, it wasn't under him.

His pockets, maybe? Troy checked them all, but nothing came out.

…

Oh, this was not happening.

“Care to use that amazing memory of yours?” Troy asked.

'To what?', Adam asked.

“You know, pinpoint exactly which piece we're missing, using the forms of every piece we've seen, and then looking back in your perfect memory to that piece's placement throughout this whole ordeal,” Troy said.

'I can also just look at the missing form, and pinpoint it from that.', Adam retorted.

“Great! Do that, then.”

And on Troy sat, silently twiddling his thumbs, while Adam did the heavy lifting. He could help… but, at this point, not doing anything sounded like the better option.

Why was that, Troy pondered. Was it due to the lack of energy needed to so? Or, was it due to the already used mental energy, that made Troy oh so tired?

Calling it a mix of both likely wasn't too wrong.

'Analysis is complete.', Adam stated.

“Great,” Troy said, stretching his arms, enjoying the accompanying popping sounds. “What did you find?”

'Nothing.', Adam helpfully answered.

No, scratch that. Troy didn't even want to sully the meaning with sarcasm. It was not helpful, in any way.

“And what, pray tell, do you mean by that?” Troy asked, with slightly narrowed eyes.

'No piece was ever observed, with the needed description.', Adam explained.

“Did I never lay my eyes on it?” Troy asked rhetorically. He wasn't that great at math, but the chances of that must've been low!

'Yes. But, not for the reasons, you think.'

Troy stopped in his thoughts. This didn't sound good.

“Please, explain”, Troy stated. Calling it ordered, wouldn't be too far off too.

'The last piece was never made.'

He put his fingers to the top of the nasal bridge. Had Troy spent the last two hours, on something impossible to complete?

“Dr Fidelis”, Troy said to the empty air.

*The problem has been seen*, Dr Fidelis notified them.

“And will you be doing something about it?” Troy asked.

*Of course, of course! I couldn't let this test come to failure, due to my own mistakes!*, Dr Fidelis stated, sounding slightly offended.

“How long's it gonna take?” Troy hoped it would be a while. He could even lay down for a moment or two.

*Just a second. Had to design a new piece, its just rendering now… It's done! I'll just update the current model, and....*

Troy spared a look at the long built puzzle, just as it disappeared. To his right, an eerily familiar cardboard box appeared.

Oh, hell no.

“Dr Fidelis”, Troy said, very calmly. “Please don't tell me, you just did, what I think you did.”

*Hey, that's what happens, when you update the model. It resets to factory settings*, Dr Fidelis defended.

“Do you expect us to build it all again?” Troy asked.

*Yes! I even randomised the puzzle a bit, so it's the same level of challenge.*

Troy just couldn't.

“Adam”, Troy said.

'Yes?' Adam sent.

“Have you heard of the term; 'going on strike?'” Troy asked.

*Oh, don't you even think about it*, Dr Fidelis said, but Troy just ignored him.

'No. Neither is it present in my database. What does this term mean?' Adam asked.

*Don't listen to him, Adam!*, Dr Fidelis said.

“It's a fun little thing, for the everyday workers, like us!”, Troy explained, with a jovial tone to it all. “We do it together if the quality of our workplace is low in overall quality. Like this place, for example.”

*Oh, that's fake news. This place is as perfect as can be!*

'Sounds interesting. To acquire new knowledge, can I partake in this activity?'

“I'll be glad, for you to join!”, Troy answered.

*What do you want!*, Dr Fidelis cut in, after hearing Troy speak.

Troy finally decided to answer Dr Fidelis.

“How about you just revert it, to what we made it to before, and give us the last piece, so we can finish for today?” A perfect solution, in Troy's eyes.

*Will you stop trying to create a revolution?*, Dr Fidelis asked.

“Yes.”

*Deal. At least, the modification paperwork will be less tedious than the other stuff.* The last bit was mumbled, but Troy was just able to hear it.

The puzzle appeared, together with the last puzzle piece at the side.

Troy sighed in relief.

'Will we still be doing a strike?', Adam asked innocently.

“Not today, buddy. Maybe next time,” Troy answered, putting the last piece in its rightful place.

'A shame.'