Chapter 4: Museum of the End (3)

"And... Yup... 3519." Kyle exclaimed happily as he saw the green lights beep. After the green lights flashed for a moment, a door opened right next to panel and a dark room had appeared. Kyle entered the room and he found a painting that was being illuminated by the other room's light and after lifting it and taking out of the dark room, he saw the content of the painting, only to feel unnerved by the image of a burnt landscape.

"It definitely lives up to the name of " Museum of the End". Obviously their exhibitions would show the end of the world." Kyle couldn't help but comment as he was taking out the painting out of the room and after he stepped out of the room, the door suddenly closed.

"Huh!? Why did it close? Wouldn't there be anything else in there to take out?" Kyle asked with a surprised expression before trying to check on the location of the door. After finding nothing, he tried putting the code again, but there was no reaction from the number panel.

"Huh!? Why isn't it working now? Let's they something else. 3591" After Kyle put those numbers, the lights lit with a blue light, instead of a green one, and then the door opened again, but there was only a blank page inside it and nothing else.

'That wasn't there before.' Kyle thought to himself before picking up the page and leaving the room once again, the same thing happened as before.

"Why did it show blue lights, instead of green lights? Let's try 3159."

After inputting the numbers, the blue light appeared once again and the room opened with another blank page inside. Next number he tried was 3195 and it lit with a green light, revealing another painting of a destroyed land.

From then onwards, Kyle then put every number combination he could think of and before long, he had reached the 24th and last 4-digit number combination of one, three, five and nine and it lit with a green light, showing another painting of a ruined landscape.

"Whew. That should be the last number I could think of and that makes twelve of these paintings. Hopefully, this should be more than enough." Kyle spoke with a tired expression as he took out last painting out of the room. With a pile of paintings and another small pile of sheets of paper sitting right in front of him, Kyle let's out a sigh of relief as he decides to check the time on the panel.

[YOU ARE CURRENTLY LOCATED IN THE MUSEUM OF THE END AND YOUR MISSION IS TO FIND THE STOLEN EXHIBITS WITHIN THE ALLOCATED TIME.

PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH

EXHIBITS OBTAINED: 12/13

TIME REMAINING: 0:12:41]

"What? There's another painting in there? But how? I have already checked every 4-digit combination for the door and if I attempt to put any of the passwords that I've already, it won't accept it. Uhhh... How am I going to find it now?" Kyle asked with a depressed expression as he was looking at the mission gauge being so close to completion.

"Urghhh... At least it counts taking the painting in here, instead of putting it on the wall. But where would that last painting be? And what's up with these stupid contraptions? Why would these things be here?" He asked to himself as he was examining the curved walls with the rectangular empty space on it. As he was looking at it, he decided to try something a bit crazy in a last ditch effort to find some clue to the last painting's location, so put one of the sheets of paper in the corner of the indentation.

To his surprise, the sheet shone with a blue light momentarily before it dissipated and once he touched it, it felt like it had transformed into some sort of hard material, similar to steel, but it still had its paper-like appearance. After putting another sheet of paper right next to it, it transformed into the same metal-like paper as the first one. The moment he put 6 of them in the indentation, the sheets started to grow brightly and then transformed into a painting, as that fell from there. As for the painting itself, it had the same theme as the other twelve paintings, a burnt landscape, so it gave a feeling of relief for Kyle, since he was sure that this was the thirteenth painting he needed, but he still checked to check the mission panel, just in case.

[YOU ARE CURRENTLY LOCATED IN THE MUSEUM OF THE END AND YOUR MISSION IS TO FIND THE STOLEN EXHIBITS WITHIN THE ALLOCATED TIME.

PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH

EXHIBITS OBTAINED: 13/13

TIME REMAINING: 0:04:20]

"That's mission complete, if I have to say so." Kyle commented happily, as he was seeing the completed mission gauge. After that, he sat down and let himself completely relax, since he was sure that the mission was going to be complete either way.

As he was taking his break happily, he saw that there were still 6 sheets of paper, as well as another wall with a similar indentation, so he decided to put those 6 sheets of paper, the same as before with the other ones that made that painting. But contrary to his expectations, the sheets suddenly burst into flames and then turned into glowing blue letters that were floating in the middle of the indentation.

"Noli oblivisci quis, es memento qui eras. What does this mean? Was this part of this stupid mission?" Kyle asked to himself as he was scratching his head in confusion.

*beep* *beep* *beep*

An alarm suddenly blared out and then the panel appeared right in front of Kyle:

[YOU ARE CURRENTLY LOCATED IN THE MUSEUM OF THE END AND YOUR MISSION IS TO FIND THE STOLEN EXHIBITS WITHIN THE ALLOCATED TIME.

PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH

EXHIBITS OBTAINED: 13/13

TIME REMAINING: 0:00:00]

[ASSESSING RESULTS...

ASSESSING RESULTS...

ASSESSING RESULTS...

MISSION GRADING:

PAINTINGS RETRIEVED: 13/13

MYSTERIOUS NOTE: UNLOCKED

GRADING: PERFECT]

"... I'm not dreaming right now, am I? I survived, right?" Kyle was reading his results with a happy expression as he was fighting the urge to cry uncontrollably.

"Congratulations on solving the problem of "The Museum of the End". Due to your perfect performance, you are given to choose any of the 4 base and variant elements as your staring magic. Please choose your staring magic." The mysterious voice spoke with a monotonous tone, as Kyle was looking at the perfect grading on the panel.

"Huh? Wait, what? Magic? What are you talking about?" Kyle asked with a confused expression as he was looking around to locate the owner of the voice.

"Due to your perfect performance, you are given to choose any of the 4 base and variant elements as your staring magic. Please choose your staring magic." The voice answered monotonously once again.

"No, what I mean is this: Why do I have to choose for something that doesn't exist? Magic is just stuff of the stories and games. How can there be magic in real life?" Kyle asked as he was feeling suspicious of this whole situation.

"Because magic is a natural phenomenon that normally exists and is widely used used by all kinds of races in the world of Kartora." The voice answered monotonously once again, but Kyle's brain had stopped working completely as he asked with a shocked expression:

"What?"