Kaya’s mind was full of thoughts, thinking about what had just happened at the interrogation. Not only thoughts about the outcome of the interrogation, but Kaya was also still thinking about the girl who supposedly had the ability to make people tell the truth.
For some reason, which Kaya could take a good guess as to why, his mind was very clear and he could quickly gather his thoughts about the situation.
Having come to a few conclusions, and answering some unanswered questions that were on his mind, the situation Kaya found himself in seemed to have become more positive than he thought just a few hours before.
‘I now almost certainly know the purpose of this facility, which is observing or researching the hologram rewards.’ Kaya thought, his smile widening as he came to his next conclusion.
‘I got through the most critical interrogation without revealing any secrets I didn’t want to be spilled. AND, if that girl’s ability was really what I think it was, which I am almost certain of, I think they won’t be interrogating me anymore. They probably will still keep observing me through the cameras.’
Kaya didn’t really mind that though. It was not really convenient while showering, but that was about it. It didn’t hinder anything else.
‘I might be allowed out of here now that they think they got all the information from me… Who am I kidding? Seeing as that girl was wearing the same uniform as me, I don’t think they will just let me leave that easily.’ Kaya thought as a devious smile subconsciously started to form on his face as he was already thinking of a way to get out of here.
All in all, Kaya was in a better position than he had even hoped for.
About an hour later, Kaya pretended to wake up as the girl had instructed. Not even having stepped foot out of bed, Kaya was immediately called for, which surprised him.
“Nora, you’ll be relocated, please follow me.” A man said from outside his room.
As he heard the man, he didn’t quite know if he was pleasantly surprised or not though.
‘Well, that must mean that they think they have gotten all the information out of me. How could they not think that when they literally had someone with them who could make someone tell the truth?’ Kaya thought smiling, but that was where his positivity ended.
‘…That also means I am not getting out of here anytime soon.’ Kaya thought a little dejectedly, but soon after his lips curved upwards again into his previous little devious smile.
A few minutes later, Kaya was following some guards to a different part of the facility. Up until now, Kaya had only walked through a small part of the facility, but now it seemed like he was being moved to a different area entirely.
After a bit of walking, they approached a door where two people stood guard in front of. As they saw Kaya and the three guards coming towards them, they quickly typed in a code to which the thick steel door slid open, revealing a hallway that must have been over a hundred meters long.
Kaya was slightly surprised to see such a long hallway behind a thick, guarded door. It wasn’t particularly comforting to see.
Walking through the long hallway, it was lit up by bright industrial white lights, the same kind as everywhere else in the facility, which just made the facility give off even more of a vibe of a scientific lab or a mental hospital.
Without any natural light in sight even here, Kaya had begun thinking more and more about the possibility of this entire facility being underground. He had never seen a window nor a spec of sunlight since waking up here.
Approaching the end of the long hallway, the guards had to put in a code once again for another thick metal door to slide open.
Unlike before, Kaya was now smiling after what he saw behind that door. There were people, dozens of people, wearing the same outfits as him.
‘Fellow lab rats.’ Kaya thought with a delighted expression on his face.
No, he wasn’t happy about them being in the same situation as them, he was just glad that they were in this situation together. After not having a normal conversation in a few days, Kaya was craving some casual human interaction.
‘Why?’ Kaya thought confused a second later. ‘Why am I craving human interaction?’
“Keep up Nora.” A man called out to Kaya who had fallen behind, deep in thought.
That was a thought for later apparently. Quickly catching up to the guards, Kaya was looking around to see people staring at them. Kaya was happy to see them, so he smiled at every single person he made eye contact with.
Immediately, Kaya couldn’t help but notice that almost everyone here was surprisingly good-looking, noticeably so. But what caught his eyes more was that this place looked and felt different than the part of the facility he had been staying in, positively so.
Kaya didn’t see one person depressed, upset, or even unhappy and he quickly thought to have found out the reason as to why. This place didn’t look anything like the facility at all.
First of all, the lighting was a warm yellow instead of a cold white immediately giving off a different vibe, and, second of all, unlike the cramped lab feeling, this part of the facility just felt open but comfortable, it being a big open space with tall ceilings and all sorts of different rooms. Almost giving off the vibe of something like a school, or a dormitory.
‘Yes, that’s it! This feels like a dormitory!’ Kaya thought excitedly.
There was a big cafeteria, a living area with comfortable-looking couches and televisions, a library with plenty of books, a game room with computers, and so many more rooms!
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Looking his eyes out as he followed the guards, Kaya had reached the other side of the facility. Walking through another door, this one just a normal door for a positive change, Kaya saw a long hallway again. Only this time did the hallway span from left to right and had doors every few meters.
Guided to one of these doors, Kaya got a few glances into the doors and saw that they were just normal-looking rooms, much like a hotel room.
Arriving at a specific door, the guards handed Kaya a nametag.
“Put this on your chest.” The guard plainly said.
Kaya was surprised to see that his nametag read ‘001’, but he didn’t think much of it and just put it on his chest. As soon as the guards saw this, they just walked away without saying or explaining anything else.
Ignoring this weird behavior, Kaya just went into his room to check it out. It was much like his last room, only having a bed, a desk, and a bathroom. The only difference was that it was more spacious.
‘Well, let’s go introduce myself then.’ Kaya thought as he walked out of his room on his way to the communal area. He wasn’t instructed anything, so he presumed he was free to do what he wanted.
Not even having walked a few paces, Kaya halted as a previous thought ran through his mind.
‘Why do I want social interaction?’
Kaya found it a little strange. If it was the him before, he would have found it a bother and tried to avoid it as much as possible. So why not now?
Deep in thought, Kaya subconsciously began thinking back to his past, to the time he was a child. A bitter-sweet smile formed on his face when he thought back to that. Those were the most carefree times of his life, just playing outside with friends.
‘Yeah, back then I really was a social butterfly.’ Kaya thought.
It had been so long ago that Kaya thought that he had just always been the same as he was just a year ago, always disliking social interactions or anything that could ‘drain’ his battery. But that was anything but the truth.
At his core, Kaya was truly a social butterfly.
It was just that the burden of his thoughts buried his core, his very nature, and made him dislike interacting with people. But that burden was nowhere to be seen now, making the Kaya at his core surface once again, back to his true nature before he had become corrupted and fake.
Taking a deep breath in, having long set these thoughts at ease, Kaya continued walking with the biggest smile on his face, feeling even more free and unrestrained than before. Opening the door into the communal area, Kaya could immediately feel a lot of eyes on him.
These eyes on him didn’t feel negative, however, which Kaya was glad about. Making eye contact with a small group of people closest to him, Kaya decided to walk up to them, not failing to hold his smile. Or better said, his happiness in the moment didn’t let him drop his smile.
“Hello, I am Ka- I mean Nora. Nice to meet you.” Kaya said, almost saying his real name instead of the one he had given to the facility people.
“…Oh, hello. How are you doing..” A woman from their group responded after a brief pause.
Kaya was a little surprised that they looked a little nervous, wary even. However, that didn’t seem to affect Kaya’s positive mood one bit as he was still smiling as wide as ever.
“I’m doing good, how are you doing?” Kaya responded.
This time the woman didn’t hesitate to respond. However, instead of answering Kaya’s question, she asked a question of her own.
“Do you have a strong mind ability?”
Kaya’s smile dropped slightly as he was caught off guard by this question, expecting to just have a casual conversation.
“The reward I got from the hologram was that my mind got a little more clear. I don’t know if you could consider it strong.” Kaya said, without hesitation.
Hearing that seemed to immediately brighten up the expressions of the people he was talking to.
The woman let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good. I assumed that you had some scary mind ability seeing the number on your nametag.”
Kaya looked at the nametag of the people he was talking to and saw that they all numbered above 100. Kaya thought about what these numbers meant, but this time he didn’t have to uselessly wonder about it in his mind. He had people he could ask now.
“What do these numbers mean anyway?” Kaya asked with genuine curiosity.
“Oh yeah, my name is Hannah by the way.” The woman said politely, before answering Kaya’s question. “Well, what we know is that the lower a person’s number is, the stronger or more unique their rewards were.”
This sounded pretty logical to Kaya. Even though the facility people did not know anything about Kaya’s actual rewards, the fact that he came out of an egg still remained. That is pretty ‘unique’ and probably deserving of the 001 nametag.
Hannah shortly after added: “Seeing that you don’t have a strong mind ability, but still got 001 as a nametag, you must have gotten very good cosmetic rewards. You are the best-looking person I have ever seen after all.”
“Thank you, but I didn’t get any cosmetic rewards.” Kaya said, feeling a little warm inside his chest from the compliment, but also feeling a little bad about having to lie to them. “You look very pretty as well. That goes for everyone of course.” Kaya said, looking everyone in the little group in their eyes.
Hannah smiled. “Yeah, everyone in this part of the facility is good-looking, more so than the average. That is because this part of the facility is for people who had gotten cosmetic rewards, with a few exceptions for people who had gotten mind rewards.”
Kaya nodded. ‘That makes sense.’ But then his mind snapped onto the phrasing Hannah used: “this part of the facility” and “people with cosmetic rewards”.
“Does that mean there is another part of the facility with people who have different types of rewards?” Kaya asked out loud as soon as this thought popped up.
This time, someone else than Hannah decided to speak, her voice timid. “Well, we don’t know for certain, but rumor is that there is another part of the facility where there are people who had gotten something akin to actual powers as their reward.”
Kaya didn’t quite understand and decided to ask further. “How do you know that, and what do you mean with actual powers?”
“One day when I was brought in for an interrogation, I saw someone being escorted by the guards and for a split second I saw electricity coming out of his hands before the guards swiftly subdued him.” The timid girl explained.
The girl also quickly added: “Our second reasoning is that there are a lot of low numbers that are not accounted for here in this part of the facility, so they must be somewhere else. These missing numbers are mostly pretty low, meaning stronger or more unique. And those powers are strong and unique, hence our suspicions.”
A lot of new information was suddenly brought up, some pretty unbelievable information as well, so Kaya took a second to let this information sink in.
For some reason, this information set Kaya’s mind at ease. It was like he found the missing puzzle piece to his wandering thoughts. He could now understand the way he was being treated somewhat.
Kaya had long surmised that this facility’s purpose was to get more information on the hologram rewards, but he never knew the purpose behind it. Why the government would do something so extreme.
But now, hearing that there were people with actual powers, he could kind of understand why the government would do this. There could be people with bad intentions who got those powers.
Kaya could now also kind of understand why they immediately put that collar on him immediately, a person who came out of a weird egg.
Snapping out of it, Kaya found himself thinking too positively about the facility. A shudder went through his body as he caught himself thinking positively about the facility and the people who had literally kidnapped him, put a collar on him, monitored him in a tiny room, forcefully tried to get information out of him, and then tried to erase his memories.
This was the first time Kaya thought negatively about the pure mind reward, at least as negatively as his pure mind would allow.
‘That was dangerous…’