Step 5: King

Visdre hadn't played chess before reading this technique, so he made sure to pay attention to all the information in this chapter.

He didn't struggle to visualize the board anymore. But he did struggle to visualize the text updating. He figured this was due to his low IQ.

Visdre however was disappointed in this chapter. It wanted him to spend months on a single piece? That was too long...

Visdre only spent a few days meditating on the 'king' before moving on to the next chapter.

Step 6: Queen

Visdre followed the directions and learned the moves for the queen. He learned about breaking the password into chunks. This allowed him to pass the previous limit that was restricting his visualization.

After this chapter. He found that he could easily visualize and update the text.

He only took a day before moving on to the next chapter.

Step 7: Rook/Castle

Visdre mastered the rook and learned how to castle. This chapter was different as he got to visualize the beginning of an opponent.

At first, he struggled to view more then a few pieces at a time on the board while also showing all possible routes.

But with practice. He became more proficient at this.

Step 8: Bishop/Knight/Pawn

Not only did he learn about the rules for the pawn. He also learned about the bishop and knight. More importantly, he learned about:

ECHO

"A spiritual guardian?"

Visdre didn't believe in the supernatural. He hadn't experimented with spirituality at all. This was in part due to his dream being the same.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He had less unreal experiences.

But his experience with this book was already proving to be supernatural. Or at least triggering hallucinations.

He struggled to 'code' ECHO for quite awhile as he had issues memorizing it.

It took him 3 months to be satisfied with this step.

Step 9: Notation

In this step, he learned how to play against ECHO using notation.

Visdre found that keeping track of the log became quite natural and even easier then visualizing the board at all in his sea of consciousness.

Step 10: Operating System

Visdre had successfully created the chess program without any problems. He felt his thinking had never been so clear.

In this step, he worked on ECHO.

'Breathe rapidly for 30 seconds.

Exhale.

Then hold your breathe for 3 minutes.'

He followed the steps and held his breath for over three minutes. For a split second, he lost consciousness. During this gap. He designed the start-up screen.

He started ECHO.

[ECHO]: Initializing...

Visdre created a login screen, a desktop, command prompt, task manager, and trash bin.

As well as a cursor for use in navigating.

He then followed the steps to make a random number generator.

'You don't want to rely on your brain for this system.

You need to develop a independent consciousness later.'

He was curious what exactly an independent consciousness was.

He went to the next chapter.

Step 11: Sleep

It was the end of the week either way. So he had no issues with not sleeping a night. But the book said he should get another person to help him wake up.

This was a problem as he would need to reveal the reason behind doing so. He lived alone and had no friends or family.

"What if I use 'it'?"

Visdre remembered there being some programming to help ECHO visualize the board. What if it was possible to command ECHO to wake him up?

"ECHO? Can you hear me?"

There was no response.

Visdre decided to spend some time learning the basics of programming in addition to building his 'source castle'.

He found this step to be confusing. He didn't dream random situations... so using dreams as a resource to construct his 'source castle' was impossible.

Visdre spent a few days looking up information on programming and learned about intervals. He then visualized and opened up a program with a function that would alert him in his sleep.

But there was more issues.

ECHO was to be shutdown upon going to sleep initially.

Visdre was slightly annoyed at this step.

He needed to find someone to help him.

He put a pause on the technique for now and reinforced what he had learned. He couldn't exactly pay someone to help him as he was barely surviving with his limited expenses. He also had no friends at all.

So what did that leave left? His coworkers?

He tried asking this favor to some of them. But they acted as if he was insane... so that was a no.

"I guess I'll just have to rely on myself..."