You search around for a few minutes, but to no avail. It’s empty.
What do you want to do now?
[Search more] [Go back on your steps] x [Lie down and cry] [Start filling the page with writing about a Dino witnessing the fight of monsters]
Lie down and cry
The stone feels very cold on your naked skin. As tears start to fall down on the ground, a little plant begins to germinate in between the stone pavement.
It seems like they feed on your depressed feelings to bloom.
What do you want to do now?
[Cry more] X [Go back on your steps] [Start writing] [Ponder about how the heck these freaking plants started to grow there]
Go back on your steps
You stand up. No matter how weird these plants are, it’s not going to get you anywhere. You sigh and gather a little bit of courage. Maybe what happened in the previous space changed?
You go through the imaginary door and you find yourself back in the clearing, by the river once tainted with blood. In front of you stands a massive feathered dinosaur, too big to be one of the kinds you're familiar with on Earth.
It is facing off against a very angry-looking Spinosaurus.
Weirdly enough, time seems to have stopped, freezing the belligerent creatures in place, waiting for words to make them move again.
What do you want to do now?
[Draw on their faces] [Write the next chapter] [Go back into the Gloom Bloom chamber] X [Wonder about the possibility that you’re plugged into a supercomputer IA that is harvesting humans to maintain its own existence]
Wonder about the possibility that you’re plugged into a supercomputer IA that is harvesting humans to maintain its own existence
You stop dead in your tracks… A thought just appeared in your mind.
“Wait… What if this isn’t actually real, but simply a simulation that a supercomputer IA put me into because it wants to harvest the energy produced by my body ?…”
You frown. What even *is* a supercomputer IA? Does it matter? Will it write your chapters for you?
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
What do you want to do now?
[Write the next chapter] [Write the next chapter] [Write the next chapter] X [Wonder about what the hell is a supercomputer IA]
Wonder about what the hell is a supercomputer IA
Writing chapters is fun and all, but supercomputer IA? It’s clearly WAY MORE interesting! You sit down, back against the feather-covered leg of the big dinosaur, and put your index finger on your oversized chin.
“So if it’s harvesting energy produced by humans as its main goal, does that mean it is actually a computer, or is it simply an IA trying to pass as a supercomputer ?”
This obviously very important question was bugging you. What even defined a supercomputer? Was it a simple computer with blond hair and an aura of power glowing around its main body?
Your [Philosoraptor] Trait has leveled up. It is now level 2.
As you unlocked some part of your brain that you never used before, you felt something weird in the air. It wasn’t tangible, more like a feeling. It was like a pressure pushing down on your skin, driving you to go back to your initial place and start writing down your chapter.
What do you want to do now?
[Write the next chapter] X [Write the next chapter] [Write the next chapter] [Watch religiously the classic hot movie Matrix in your mind, probably for the hundredth time]
Write the next chapter
You close your eyes.
Writing a chapter isn’t *that* difficult, right? Brandon Sanderson manages to publish two freaking 500 pages long books every year, so making a thousand-word chapter each day is more than manageable.
You couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Behind your closed eyelids, the vague form of a computer screen was glowing faintly. You didn’t recognize anything, either because you couldn’t distinguish properly what was around you or because you simply didn’t know where you were. It seemed familiar though, like the egg you hatched from. Could it be that this weird place was related to your birth?
Pushing the thoughts away from your mind, you concentrated back on your computer screen. You moved your hand on the keyboard and realized that it wasn’t your actual hands. Where were the scales and the claws? Instead of your usual digital apparel, you had in place four fleshy fingers with dirty chewed nails and one weird opposable thumb.
It hit you.
“I *AM* inside a simulation made by a supercomputer IA to harvest my energy! THIS is the supercomputer!”
Without even thinking twice about it, you smashed your weird fleshy appendage against the (super)computer (IA) screen, breaking it and the game at the same time.
ERROR#420: GAME WENT TOO META
UNABLE TO CONTINUE!
RESTART PROGRAM!
----------------------------------------
I was crying, exhausted. Plants began to bloom around me as I lay there, depressed.
What? Why are these plants growing?
I activated Observe.
Gloom Bloom
The Gloom Bloom grows where gloom shows. If you cry, the plant will arise. It’s a strong antidepressant, so harvesting it will grant you with an uplifted spirit. Beware, however, the Gloom Bloom is a natural counter to the effects of the Ghaka plant, and will totally harsh your mellow, bro.
Seems legit.
I ate the purply-black plants.
An explosion of happiness welled within me, and I felt confident once more!
Time to rock this joint!
I rolled some of the plant’s petals together, crushing some of the THC-containing bits and rolling them in the blunt. Using a match I found in a convenient pocket of flesh on my side, I lit the blunt, smoking it.
Yeah dude, blaze it. Radical.