Since Kaya let go of any thoughts, just accepting the reality and getting some rest, he had lost the little sense of time he had in this space.

Had it been minutes, days, or even longer? Kaya didn’t know.

He had no sight to gauge the passing of time, and neither did he have his other senses to rely on. He couldn’t discern anything in his state.

One thing he could unconsciously notice changing though.

At some point, Kaya began feeling less tired, mentally. A sensation he hadn’t experienced in what felt like forever. It was like his battery was being recharged. No, he had never felt such energy before. It felt like a new battery was taking its place altogether.

It was weird, Kaya unconsciously felt changes slowly happening, but at the same time, in this contorted space, these changes felt like they had manifested in an instant.

It felt like an invisible weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

All of a sudden, Kaya began feeling strangely at ease. His mind wasn’t a mess like it was before, but neither was it dull.

Before Kaya knew it, he was unconsciously wandering into the depths of his own thoughts. A place which, before, he wouldn’t want to touch the surface of and avoided at all costs as it was the epicenter of his misery.

But now, for some unknown reason, he had a good feeling about it. It didn’t bother him anymore. It was like he was being drawn into it even.

The rough waters that were his mindscape had become completely still. Kaya didn’t know how or why, but he felt at peace as he stepped into these waters, exploring every part of it.

For the first time in his life, Kaya felt at peace in this place, his own mind. At peace with everything that had happened in the past, with his life, and even about the thoughts that were brought up because of the hologram questionnaire.

‘…I’m okay.’

This single thought had surfaced in the emptiness of Kaya’s mind. A seemingly simple thought, but for Kaya, this thought was liberating.

It felt like an invisible shackle had broken, completely shattered. A shackle that had now seemed so frail, but had previously been holding back the weight of his entire existence.

A shackle that had been holding back the very thing that made humans human. Emotions, hope, dreams. A thought that had been suppressed in the depths of Kaya’s mind couldn’t help but come rushing forward.

‘…I don’t want to live an unbothered life anymore, I want to be happy.’

This was the moment when Kaya truly felt like he had woken up from a long nightmare, like he had regained the freedom over himself, over his mind.

After a long time of emptiness, his thoughts returned to him. This time only positive ones.

With this thought awakening, Kaya couldn’t help but feel like he would wake up entirely. Getting his senses back and leaving this empty space.

But nothing more seemed to be happening.

The emptiness felt a little less empty, but it still remained. He was still senseless.

‘At least my thoughts returned to me.’

Kaya couldn’t help but feel positive about this. His thoughts had never felt so productive before. Now that he didn’t have to be careful, traversing his own mindscape, worrying to come across a depressing thought, Kaya felt like he was thinking in an overdrive state.

Kaya’s thoughts bounced around from one place to another. It didn’t take long for Kaya to form a connection between two things. The first one was the fact that his mind had become so clear and the second one was the thing that had brought him into this state, the results from the hologram questionnaire.

[To bring you peace of mind, you will receive a pure mind, unwavering to anything that wants to pollute it.]

It was like the hologram had appeared again, Kaya could perfectly picture it before him.

Concentrating on this thought, Kaya clearly felt like his mind was more clear and purer. Kaya had previously thought that the supposed results and rewards from the hologram questionnaire were nonsense, an impossibility of a situation. But now, Kaya couldn’t deny the possibility of it anymore. It suddenly felt a lot more real.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With this in mind, if this was really the hologram’s doing, Kaya couldn’t deny the possibility that he was currently in this senseless state to receive the rewards that had supposedly been bestowed upon him.

‘I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer then.’

Kaya was okay with that though. He couldn’t help but feel positive about it.

But he couldn’t sit still anymore either. His battery was fully charged, he had more energy than he had ever had before and felt like doing something productive.

He didn’t want just do nothing like before. He didn’t want to live an unbothered life anymore, he wanted to be happy.

But what could he do in this senseless state where only his thoughts accompanied him. That, he didn’t know quite yet.

However, it didn’t take long to think about something as he dove into his younger self’s definition of happiness and what he wanted to do when he grew up. And one thing stood out to him, something he could do even in this senseless state.

‘…I could try to think of something to write a novel about.’

Kaya had always wanted to become an author since he was young. Even until now, he had always had a liking for novels, manga, and books. But, he hadn’t taken a step toward it as something was holding him back mentally as being an author wasn’t part of his plans in his view of an unbothered life.

But now, there was no mental shackle anymore, it had long been shattered to pieces. He had decided not to walk that path anymore. So, what was stopping him now? Nothing. This was the perfect time to start.

And that is what Kaya did. Start.

His mind being his only companion, and time not being a problem, Kaya made sure to make use of it. Kaya’s mind instantly got filled with a thousand thoughts. Some emotional thoughts from being excited, proud even. But these thoughts were mostly drowned out by thinking of what concept he wanted to write about.

Kaya had all the time to think about it but was surprisingly decisive. One concept just stood above everything else. The concept Kaya was going to write about was the hologram questionnaire.

When Kaya had decided that, there wasn’t a single second his mind wasn’t focused on anything else but writing this novel.

Kaya’s mind was racing as he was thinking of plots, creating characters, and everything that went into writing novels. One idea after another surging forward.

Kaya hadn’t had fun like that in a long time. He never had fun like that now that he thought about it. He could just let his mind wander. For the first time, he had an outlet for his creativity. He felt free.

Well, maybe not completely free. He did think a little bit about what is popular and added concepts of it to his story. He wanted to be an author after all, so he was going to take it seriously. But that didn’t stop his enjoyment one bit.

Writing wasn’t a problem, well figuratively so. He definitely couldn’t physically write right now, but he had read so many books and novels that he could envision how he wanted to write everything.

With no concept of time, Kaya finished writing the story in his head, he revised it multiple times and almost knew how he wanted to write it word for word. It seemed like not only his mind had become more clear, but his memory also seemed to have become better.

‘Is that also part of the pure mind reward?’

The rewards of the hologram questionnaire seemed more and more like a reality. Writing a fantasy novel might have influenced that thought a bit though.

Now that Kaya was done thinking of his novel, he was already thinking about the next thing he wanted to do. But he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

So, Kaya once again began questioning why he was senseless again, but once again couldn’t find a definite answer to it.

At one point, Kaya let his thoughts die down like he did before. Unlike last time, he felt at peace. So nothing to complain about.

In Kaya’s mind, he just had to wait and eventually, something must happen. Hopefully. That was his positive mind thinking though, his rational mind didn’t know.

Just like that, time passed by. It felt like a long time, but at the same time, it felt like not even a single second had passed.

Suddenly, the emptiness seemed less dark.

Kaya instantly noticed this subtle change, sparking his muscle memory of opening his eyes and seeing a dark pink color.

Then, Kaya noticed that he could feel something sticky, and he could hear something muffled in the distance.

‘Did I get my senses back?’ Kaya thought as he began feeling his heart beating faster and faster.

Getting the feeling of his body back, Kaya intuitively made his way toward the brightest spot, worming his way through some kind of liquid.

Kaya made it to the source of the light shortly after. Moving his hand towards it Kaya felt something hard. Without any hesitation Kaya pulled his hand back and hit it as hard as he can. His fist made it through it with ease, making the entire thing break apart.

Kaya felt a strong pull and got swept off his feet, flushed out of whatever he was in.

Lying on the ground, Kaya took a deep breath in, only then realizing that he was just submerged in some sort of liquid.

Kaya’s eyes widened. ‘How was I breathing before?’

Strangely, Kaya didn’t wander on that thought for long.

His mind had immediately put up its guard as Kaya noticed he wasn’t in the place he lost consciousness,

As Kaya looked around, he saw that he found himself in some sort of small, all-white room, which had now been stained by a pinkish-blue liquid.

A slight frown subconsciously made its way on Kaya’s face. ‘Where am I?’

Kaya had a bad feeling about this. He had no idea where this was and there was nothing to give it away. Things were looking worse by the second.

It was a solid room wherever he looked. There were no windows nor was there a door, much less any sort of furniture or décor. As Kaya looked at the corners of the room, the weird liquid wasn’t even able to flow out of the room. It seemed airtight.

Kaya’s mind began racing, thinking of what place he could be in. The more he thought, the less favorable his situation seemed.

However, any thoughts about trying to find out where he was suddenly vanished as soon as he looked down…