True Self

I think I'm in Hell.

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About 72 hours have passed since my reality changed completely. The last memory that I have is eating a delicious piece of rib eye steak. Then I was here. There was no intermission, no pain, no white flash of light, no angels singing or devils pulling me towards eternal damnation. Nothing. It all happened in the blink of an eye.

You know, I consider myself quite an calm person but even I was beyond terrified at first. Waking up sitting on a crimson throne, looking towards an unfamiliar world with wonders that can barely be described in words was enough to bring my brain to a temporary meltdown. For a few minutes I was unable to react at all.

So there I was, standing completely naked, on a giant throne, surrounded by strange floating dark chains that seems to connect the heaven and the earth together. High above my head an enormous mass of clouds could be seen spiralling endlessly. Countless blood red lightning bolts illuminated the world. To be honest, this kind of spectacle is even more exaggerated than any fantasy movie I've ever seen.

Looking forward, countless stairs can be seen connecting the location where I am to a dark metallic surface that extends towards the horizon. Well, I guess that "countless" might be an exaggeration, but everything here is so exaggerated that I kinda lost myself for a bit. After counting them, it seems that there are no more than 666 stairs which quite an interesting number. Yap… I'm definitely in hell.

Basically, the throne is at the top of a one sided incomplete pyramid, the rest of which is being filled with vertical floating dark chains.

In the distance strange shadows can be seen dancing in the crimson limelight of the apocalyptic storm that covers this strange new world.

It took me about two hours to calm myself properly and another six hours to rise, still completely naked, and start exploring this place.

Strangely enough the metallic floor doesn't feel cold to the touch. In reality, even though I'm naked I don't feel any kind of discomfort. If anything, I actually feel really comfortable, like the atmosphere is not dark and menacing but soothing and tranquil.

In the next three days or so I would have explored basically this whole world. At first it seemed endless, but after a bit of exploration I realised that the ground, the storm and even the lightnings ended at about 10.000 steps in any direction from the centre. Beyond that there is just empty space. I don't know what would happen if I were to fall from the edge but I really don't want to find out.

Away from this discovery there are three others that reinforced my opinion that this is Hell, or, at the very least, a version of Hell created for me. Well, to be honest now there is also a forth thing that makes me wonder if this might just be a strangely realistic dream, but let's go through each of there discoveries systematically and try to formulate a plan for what to do next.

In reality I don't have a compass so, for convenience's sake, I decided to consider the direction in which the throne is situated as the absolute North.

Going in that direction for about 5000 steps, a black tower can be seen piercing the dark clouds above. Now, thinking in retrospective, going inside was a stupid and reckless idea, but, somehow, it worked well for me. After opening the metal decorated double doors that, at first, looked impossible to move, what awaited me inside was just an empty hall with a staircase in the middle.

On the first floor my first encounter with the fantasy occurred. Skeletons. Countless skeletons could be seen roaming the giant floor that seemed to be at least a few tens of kilometres wide. No matter how you look at it, this is strange. No, not the walking skeletons, those are kinda strange as well, but the space inside the tower is even more odd.

From outside it looked like the tower was no more than a few hundred metres in diameter but the insides are far larger than they should ever be. Basically I am dealing with spatial manipulation here. Away from that I observed that there is a translucent barrier separating the staircase from the rest of the floor. Going up, more and more fantasy monsters could be seen. In the end my stamina ended at floor 37 where a complete ecosystem of monsters, beasts, what could be considered as demons from my point of view and all kinds of both familiar and unfamiliar animals filled an nearly endless forest.

My next destination was to the west where I discovered an underground cave. This time there were no stairs but instead a circular platform with a floating red orb in the middle. In reality, it took me quite a while to figure it out as there were no instruction but after tinkering with the orb for a few minutes everything became clear. Basically by pressing the red orb down the platform would descent and rising the red orb above it would rise. Moving the orb to either side would move the platform in that direction. Basically, it was a joystick.

This time there were not god knows how many levels; only 10. The first one was a lake with steam floating above it surrounded by about twice as much ground and a few trees and vegetation. At this point I was kinda confused: "Is this some kind of relaxation resort within this personal Hell of mine?". Going down I started to realise what this is all about. On the second floor there was still a lake and land and even a few trees but the water in the lake was boiling and the trees were withered.

At the third level the water was replaced with tar and by the 6'th level lava could be seen pretty much everywhere. The 7'th level was different in the sense that it was basically an erupting volcano. Again, the space inside this place was ridiculously big. The eight level was actually kinda strange. There was no more lava, only strange coloured fire that turned pitch black in the ninth level. As for the 10'th level… Well, I have no idea what is happening there. After 9 levels of ever-increasing temperature based environments, you would expect a true classical Hell to fill the last level. Unexpectedly, what laid before me were actually endless mountains covered in snow. At this point I'm beyond perplexed but I guess I'll just leave it at that for the moment and return to investigate it better in the future.

Considering everything I've seen so far, I was still skeptical if this was truly Hell but all my doubts disappeared after seeing what monstrosity existed in the east. There was a forest. Yap. A forest. Using a similar format with the cave from the west, a platform surrounded by a translucent shield became my means of locomotion.

In the end I was unable to explore the whole forest as, after less than 15 minutes of exploring, I was already way to sickened to continue. That place… That monstrosity of a forest… That is… That…

"Hentai…"

This one word describes perfectly what the Hell was going on in that place. All kind of monsters ranging from green and grey Goblins and Orcs to tentacle monsters and giant slimes filled that place. There were those kind of monsters in the tower as well but in this case they were all "hard". In normal circumstances I would have continued to explore even in this kind of situation but there was a problem. Well, I'm not going to deny that when I saw a certain beautiful cherry tree whose roots were wiggling around I didn't form a picture in my mind where a innocent maiden was enjoying herself while the tentacle-like-roots were exploring every nook and cranny. Unfortunately my mind was violated by the image of a giant male cyclops being entangled by the same cherry tree's tentacle-like-roots…

That one image was enough for me. I don't want to see any more of that. Ever. But, oh well, at the very least I confirmed that this is truly Hell. Only in a twisted and broken place like that could a forest like the one in the east exist.

If what I've discovered so far was enough to make me wonder if this might not just be only a very realistic nightmare, the thing that exists south of the throne was straight out of a fantasy novel. To be honest, it only took me what seemed to be close to 24 hours in order to explore the other three directions but when it came to south, things changed. There were only chains. Vertical floating chains that went from the ground to somewhere beyond the endless stormy clouds above.

At first I tried circling around them but I ended up back at the throne after a few hours of walking. At one point I thought that the endless forest of floating chains might be all that was in the south. Fortunately I decided to try to touch one of the chains. And that was the point where things changed. As my hand drew closer, the chain fled. Taking a few steps ahead, more and more chains started moving away from me. Intrigued by the strange development I started walking directly south from the throne while the iron forest fled in all directions, like it was afraid to touch me.

After walking for a little while, something unexpected occured. And it was a change so big that my soul almost escaped out of my chest. Again. Beyond the forest of wiggling metal, or maybe in it's centre, there was what only can be described as a Paradise.

Yes, I went from hell straight to heaven in one fell swoop. What laid before me was something straight out of xianxia or wuxia novels that I loved to read so much in the past. As far as the eye could see a multicoloured landscape filled with countless flowers surrounded a giant floating palace. No, I think that the word "Palace" might not even make justice to the "thing" that floated gently in the sky. Endless jade columns, giant marble tours with silver roofs, walls so high that you would wonder what kind of monsters used to live there. There it was, in front of me, a wonder that exceeds my wildest imagination, something that my mortal mind can't even start to comprehend, a peerless gem that could make even the Gods in legends kneel in reverence.

"WHAT…"

"THE…"

"FUCK?!?"

Huh?!?… I… Don't understand. What is happening? Why? Where am I? Who am I? What is that? Why is such a thing here? Am I not in in "Hell"? Is this Heaven? Or is it just something to mock me? Something so beautiful, floating high in the sky, always out of reach for a mortal soul like mine?

Stunned by the peerless aura of that piece of architecture that even the heavens would be jealous of, I failed to even notice the floating staircase leading towards the divine entity that floated above my head like an arrogant overlord standing high in his throne, looking towards his subjects. Unfortunately, right now my mind was just to confused to process things straight.

…

…

…

You know, based on the outside I don't even want to explain what I expected to encounter inside but, now, after about more than 10 hours of exploring, I must say that I'm kinda disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the inside is as gorgeous as the outside, the walls are tall and beautifully decorated, there are a lot of rooms with giant dark wood double doors complemented by individual bathrooms and there is even a pond somewhere. But… And this is a big "but"… It's empty. There's literary no furniture whatsoever. No beds, no chairs, not even curtains or carpets. Nothing.

Away from that, there are a total of four important areas that are worth being mentioned.

Firstly there are the 5 towers which have only one room each, at the top. Again, they are empty but they definitely seem to be even more luxurious the the rest being decorated with countless carvings that emits a soft white glow.

The second thing is the pond. Yes, there is pond in here. It's about 100 metres in diameter, perfectly spherical, with a statue in the middle. If it was only this much it wouldn't have attracted my attention but the statue is quite a perfect representation of myself. Naked. Yap. There is literary a naked status of myself in this palace. Why? I have no idea but I already started to have an uncomfortable feeling about this.

The third thing that caught my attention are the two platforms at the top of the palace that seem to go nowhere. Although I tried for a few hours to activate them, they seem to be broken. There is no device to control them so I even thought about getting a orb from one of the other platforms that are outside and use that one. I guess that I'm going to ignore them for now and concentrate on more important things.

And lastly there is one more thing that should be mentions: the strange purple crystal "door" situated behind the pond statue. In reality it's not a door but only a door frame. At first I thought it was a stupid decoration but after going through this whole place I realised that that might not be the case. Like I mentioned before, this place is completely empty. Except the walls that contain those strange glowing symbols, there are no other decorations. In these conditions I decided to investigate this thing a little bit more.

….......…..

And here I am now, at the entrance of the palace, looking outside towards the endless wall of dark chains that shelter this place like a cocoon. The main problem is that I don't know what to do now.

At the beginning I thought this might be hell. Now, I have my doubts.

Well, to be honest, I still believe that I'm dead. The reason? It's quite simple actually. Although there is no day / night cycle in this place, I think I've been awake for over five days now. I haven't eaten anything and I didn't drink a drop of water. Furthermore, although my muscles ache after a few hours of walking, ten minutes or so of resting brings me back to my top condition.

Putting everything together, it seems likely that I'm dead.

In order to test this theory I used one of the sharp edges around to cut my left hand. Even though some blood flower at first, after less than 10 minutes, there was no wound visible anymore.

OK… I'm dead. What now?

…...........

"If you have a problem that you can't solve, just smash it. It usually works."

After what seemed to be an eternity of exploration and experimentation with this world I finally achieved a colossal breakthrough. As it seems moving those joystick-like-orbs is impossible as they are attached to their platforms. In these conditions I am still unsure how to operate the two platforms in the palace.

As for the crystal gate-like-thingy… After trying pretty much everything that I could, from gestures and commands to knelling and praying, the solution ended up being smashing it. Or maybe it smashed me? I'm not sure and my head hurts way to much to think about this now. Oh well, the idea remains that after countless frustrating hours I managed to "activate" the crystal gate. And yes, it seems to be a gate.

Unfortunately my head kinda hurts right now, which is pretty normal considering that I tried to smash the gate with my head only to realise that, even though I heal at a visible speed here, heavy injuries take way longer to recover to normal and pain is as real as it can be.

As for what activated it, it seems to be my blood. As a few drops of blood from my head trauma touched the crystal gate, something happened. A buzzing noise and light. And more light. God damn it, what the hell is with all this light?!?

A few minutes latter, the gate was still there but a green translucent membrane formed inside it. Through the membrane a dessert could be seen. That's it. A dessert. Sand and dunes as far as the eye can see. I have a feeling that if I were to pass though I would actually end up in that place but I am slightly scared that the gate might close behind me.

Fortunately, there is something more that seems to have been activated. From the ground a pedestal rose. Close to 1.5 metres in height, the pedestal holds a stone tablet. It seems that the tablet was on the ground from the beginning but I failed to notice it before.

Considering the ancient feeling that all of this gives me, the things that are written on the tablet just destroy all immersion.

Type : Planet

Local Name : Unknown

Civilisation Type : Unknown

Civilisation Level : Unknown

Population : 0

Surface Size : 0.27 Million Km

Danger Level : 1 (You might die…of boredome)

Description : Endless dunes and sand. No living being. Just sand. And dunes. And … Air?

Personal Comments : An ancient planet exploited to the limit by a Technological based Civilisation. Now, nothing more than a wasteland, there is nothing that this planet can be used for.

Last updated : Year 27.906 of the 104'th Epoch, Era of the Seven Evil Immortals

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Yeah.. That…

"What. The. Fuck?!?"

I swear to God that this is not hell but a simulation. I'm in the matrix. There is no other way this is real. That is a game panel. Written on a stone tablet. In front of a crystal portal that can be activated by my blood. In a giant floating palace. Surrounded by black floating chains. God knows where.

I'm going to say it again: "What. The. Fuck?!?"

Ohhh….Fhew… Ohhh….Fhew… Inhale… Exhale…

Calm down. Nothing has changed. The fact that I'm here is still absolute. Even if this is a simulation, or a game, or Hell, or Heaven or even a fucked up dream, it doesn't really matter. What is truly important is to live the moment and try to get through this with the mentality that this is as real as it can be. Basically this is the same as the so called "God's Bet" which was used back on earth.

"If you don't believe in God and He still exists, you just lost your chance to eternal happiness while if you believe, even if He doesn't exist, you still didn't lose anything.

Basically the risk of not believing out-values the little consequences of believing in Him.

A really stupid idea if you ask me. But it this situation I start to understand just how big that stakes can really be.

Oh well… For now let's play this game."

While talking with myself, which has become quite ordinary in the past couple of days as the loneliness started to affect me, my fingers were allready placed on the tablet, hovering above the < Next > button.

With a slight touch, the jade membrane started to distort and in a few second a different image was formed. This time it's far different than before. The gate seems to have been opened in a tall place as there is only a few metres of snow followed by an abrupt end. Beyond that there is only the endless sky.

"It is truly… Breathtaking!"

What lies in front of me are no less than 6 moons covering over half of the starry sky. Back on earth we had only one moon and even that one was quite far away from our planed, but here all six moons are so close that you feel like you could even touch them. Three of them are similar with Earth's moon, mainly white or silver in colour covered in countless craters but the other three are far more special. One is like a ruby, floating in the sky, radiating a bewitching crimson light, covering the world in its grandeur. The other two are almost identical, like twins, covered in a blue halo, slightly further away and smaller that the giant ruby, but still as lofty as they can be.

Type : Hollow Planet

Local Name : Lurin

Civilisation Type : Astral

Civilisation Level : 4 (One Ascended Overseer)

Population : 0

Surface Size : 3.92 Million Km

Danger Level :4 (6) (Ruled by a Ascended tyrant, Lurin is a paradise in disguise where any wrong move can bring certain doom not only to yourself but also to anyone that you've ever met. In special circumstances the Danger Level can increase up to 6.)

Description : Beautiful and dangerous. An Ascended Clan sealed inside a Hollow Planet using a Grand formation supported by 9 moons.

As time passes the moons are slowly drained of life turning them into wastelands. When all are dead, the formation shall collapse and the sealed shall be free again. Estimated time until complete collapse: 2.68 million years.

Personal Comments : Ha ha ha ! That tyrant is really stupid. I mean REALLY STUPID. It took me only 2 months to gain his trust. After that robbing half of his vault was piece of cake. I'll definitely pay him another visit in the future.

Last updated : Year 27.901 of the 104'th Epoch, Era of the Seven Evil Immortals

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Yeah… Of course… That is normal. Ascended… Sealed… Formation… 2.68 MILLION FUCKING YEARS?!? And what the hell is with that personal comment? Everything else was so formal but that comment ruined it.

"What. The. Fuck?!?"

It looks like I keep repeating my self but really now… What. The. Fuck?!?… To many informations at once… We go from "Die of boredome" to "The sealed shall be free again".