They decided to set up camp at the nearest cave, which was suitable enough to accommodate the group, lit a bonfire and huddled around it before collectively taking the pill.
Following which they proceeded to meditate as they had been taught back when forming their cores, feeling the pill release, working its purpose in mysterious ways.
There they then waited — waiting until morning arrives, bringing with it tomorrow and the start of a new adventure.
The group assumed a standard lotus position, directing all their attention towards the flow of energy coursing through their veins, the warm currents smoothly rushing to their center until finally circulating in their cores.
‘Guys…’
The invigorating process repeated itself countless times a second, allowing them to feel the pill gradually breaking down, assimilating in to their bodies.
‘Hey, guys…’
Their closed eyelids quivered at the sensation of the slowly occurring change, though subtle, their heightened senses magnified their perception by almost a thousand times, causing a less than slight discomfort to them, especially considering how they were completely focused on it.
‘Hey!’
If only they weren’t, they could’ve been spared by the distractions from their surroundings, allowing them to dissociate from the process, but everybody who has read the martial arts genre knows they have to meditate in this standard position to avoid qi deviations or something.
‘HEY, GUYS!’ the beckoning voice they had been ignoring, yelled, breaking them from their state of zen.
‘What?!’ asked Seo-Jun in annoyance, glaring at the source.
It was Alice, standing with her arms crossed, head tilted, with a little dragon clinging to her head making a rather amusing and comical picture.
Turned out that while four of them had reached immersion, these two outliers had been staring at them in confusion.
Alice replied to the questioning eyes, staring back with a smirk as she replied, ‘The hell are you guys doing?’
‘Umm, meditating to absorb the pill…what else?’, replied Seo-Jun shrugging his shoulders as if stating the obvious.
Alice moved her eyes towards the rest, raising her eyebrows to ask what’s up?
Jason replied, ‘Uh, I was just following his lead’.
‘Same’, replied Daiki.
‘Yeah, me too’, followed Zhiren.
Seo-Jun looked back at his comrades, not sure whether to be offended or pleased.
Alice shook her head and said, ‘You do remember that we don’t need to do all that, right? The succession, or inheritance or whatever the hell was done to us, altered our bodies to be able to do this stuff all auto’.
‘Oh yeah’, affirmed Seo-Jun recalling everything.
Alice looked at him like he was an idiot.
‘Are you an idiot?’ asked Snow voicing out her thoughts as Alice gave him an approving nod.
Seo-Jun ignored that remark and thought out loud, ‘But why didn’t I think of that? I wouldn’t make a mistake like that… or could it be…the theory about the back in chapter 9, about possibility of us being in the bodies of some character’s from a novel thus unknowingly acting like them be true…?!
He was dreading over this hypothesis while the group stared at him.
Alice sarcastically said, ‘Nah, I just think you were trying to look cool…’.
Seo-Jun gave her a flat expression, deciding to protect his peace rather than refuting her for once because that was definitely, in no way, true.
Alice rolled her eyes, ‘Just sit your ass down by the bonfire’.
He quietly got up, and did as she said.
The rest of the group did the same, embarrassed about thoughtlessly copying Jun.
They felt it was something they had gotten used to following his lead, after unknowingly doing it for a decade. It was indeed a rather dangerous habit which needed breaking.
While it was true that they truly trusted each other, especially Seo-Jun who was someone they would easily trust with their lives, but they shouldn’t act like mindless soldiers, just following orders, regardless of morals.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Both on a micro and a macro level, history has always demonstrated how dangerous this can be.
While the effects of group conformity to an authority can be advantageous when it comes to smooth and stable functioning of our current society but events like the Holocaust and the devastating atrocities of the World Wars should serve as sufficiently significant examples.
Even researches have presented evidence by demonstrating this phenomena like Stanley Milgram’s obedience study or-
[Players: Author…you got off track again. You aren’t writing a report here, you’re writing our story
Author: Oh, right. Sorry]
Ahem, ahem…so where was I? Right they all sat around the bonfire.
The pill was automatically being absorbed like any other OTC med, while they waited for the Sun to rise so tomorrow can finally arrive.
As they sat there in silence, something came over Zhiren as she asked Daiki a question which had been on her mind for a long time.
Previously, they weren’t that close and she felt if she asked this question she might have to talk about her own story…but now, considering everything they’ve been through and how long they’ve actually been together, she felt that it might be okay.
So, she collected her courage and looked to in front of her, as she asked carefully in a gentle manner, “Hey, Daiki…’
Her voice brought up everyone’s attention and they all stared at her.
The spotlight made her nervous and she even felt what she was about to say would be very insensitive. She fought over whether to ask or not, but the element of curiosity won the battle of her internal struggle.
She cautiously asked, ‘Back in the Forbidden Forest, when we were doing our tasks…you mentioned something about how you didn’t take a break-up very well…’
Everyone stared at her in shock. While this was something they’d all been curious about they didn’t expect her to just straight up ask.
Daiki looked at her wide-eyed at this unexpected question, then raised an eyebrow as he asked with a smirk, ‘Your story sounded more interesting then mine, though’.
Her face flushed in embarrassments upon this expected yet unexpected response.
She replied in panic as her entire being had been thrown in to complete chaos.
‘I guess…but I mean, I did give the important details, and your answer was pretty vague. I mean, well, you see, if-if you don’t want to say it’s okay, I understand…I-I just let my curiosity get the better of me. I-I’m sorry, really. I know I’m an insensitive asshole for even asking! If you want I can tell my story in detail and–‘
Daiki suddenly burst out in laughter, ‘It’s ok, pfft, it’s okay…aha, I-I don’t mind, heh, seriously your face-haha, and don’t worry, your experience seems pretty traumatizing and self-explanatory…you don’t need to say it, pfft…ahem, sorry, haha.’
Zhiren’s face got redder at his every word as she looked down, admiring the sand, pretending she was alone, while backing in to the cave wall, trying to merge with it and disappear.
‘Relax’, reassured Daiki, ‘It’s a pretty normal story, really.’
He said as he explained, ‘I had a crush on a mutual friend and apparently felt the same way. We got together on our graduation as she confessed but turned out she only did it cuz she was leaving for abroad. We started an LDR, and I thought things were going well, but-‘
He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing as he stared in to the crackling flames.
‘It wasn’t actually going well, especially after I started work, we had less time and gradually grew apart. But, but I was really in love with her, I think I still am, and because of that I was in denial and kept trying harder and harder…’
He looked up at her, ‘I slowly fell apart, as I couldn’t bear the crushing weight of everything. And when she texted me…I completely broke down. I-she told me she got engaged to someone as a kid and-and was going to marry him. That she never intended to be with me, even when she confessed.’
He sighed, picking up a stick and poking the flames, as it caught fire. He watched as the stick was burning up,
‘Her presence in my life was the only thing keeping me together but after I lost her, I suddenly didn’t want to hold on any longer and decided to just end everything…that death was my only salvation and once I die, I’ll finally be free. That was the only thing I had on my mind…but fate had different plans and I ended up here…so yeah.’
He finished, spreading his palms. The group sat in silence at his revelation. They wondered, what if this didn’t happen…then he would’ve been gone already. If their lives were normal…he wouldn’t have had one left by now…
Zhiren was especially furious, her face twisting in anger and sadness, ‘Why do you have to end it all because of someone like that?! What was so great about her anyway?! Huh?! Wh-why would you do that? Why were you so in love with her…?’ she asked, holding back a sob, as her eyes had welled up with tears.
Daiki was somewhat surprised at her reaction, but it made him smile.
He looked up and said with a gentle smile, reminiscing, ‘Ah…well, I still remember a sweet voice calling my name as I beheld a mesmerizing sight .She was pointing at something, her bright smile lighting up the room. Sunlight shone, casting a dazzling halo on her figure, her beauty created a truly breathtaking image.
‘And?’ asked Alice.
‘And what?’, he asked in confusion.
‘No way…were you only in love with her looks?’ asked Alice in bewilderment.
‘What? No! Of course not! I loved everything about her!’ he replied defensively.
‘Like what’, asked Seo-Jun, wondering what it could be that made him ready to give his life up after losing her. What was it that he saw in someone like that?
‘What was so amazing that made you fall so hard?’ asked Jason, also joining in.
‘Well, it was-she was-huh? Why was I so in love with her again?’ said Daiki, looking genuinely confused, ‘Was she so beautiful…but what was so beautiful about her? Huh? What did she even look like again? Eh?’
He looked up, chaos brewing inside, ‘I don’t know…or more like I can’t remember.’
They looked taken aback at this response, Zhiren said, ‘Relax, it’s possible you forgot…it’s been over a decade after all’, she assured.
‘No, I remember, what I felt for her…what she was to me, wasn’t something that I would forget anything about her even after a 100 years, much less 10’, he refuted.
‘It could be…that, may be-I mean, there’s a chance it’s a side effect of awakening?’ offered Seo-Jun.
They considered the possibility, as it brought a foreboding, that if it were really true…what more would they forget? Or have already forgotten…?
They spent the remainder of the night in silence, each individually pondering over this devastating possibility until the Sun finally came up.
The light entering the cave broke them out of their chain if thoughts.
They looked out at the Sea, noticing a strange man holding a bottle in one hand and a paper in the other, standing on the shore and staring at them with a wide and welcoming smile.
To be continued…
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Players: Will we really forget everything?
Author: Who knows. You just have to wait and see what happens ╮(╯▽╰)╭
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