True Neutral

After killing all the bad people in the name of justice and the good people in the name of mercy, the only one left is you, an abomination of morality, the only one who is truly neutral.

...

I was falling.

It was dark. Dark and cold and… wet.

In the darkness I stood up. The back of my clothing was soaked. A thin layer of water covered the ground in all directions. It must've been only an inch deep.

I waved my arms until I found a wall which seemed to be made of concrete.

'Am I in a sewer?'

A light caught my eye, a dim glow from far away. I trudged closer.

Slowly.

Approaching the object, I discovered a miniature globe, perfectly spherical.

It wasn't like those fake globes that you find in libraries or in stores. This globe had swirling storms on its surface, as if it really was a miniature Earth.

[Congratulations on becoming a participant in the Great Games,] a disembodied voice said. [Please move this way to the next test.]

A doorway appeared behind the globe.

I took a step toward it when the voice unexpectedly came again.

[You have passed the first test. Calculating score.]

I made a confused expression. 'Hmm. That's good… I guess.'

Surprisingly, I had already passed some kind of test and earned a score. All I did was move.

[Participants remaining: 10,385]

'Well that's not unnerving at all…' I thought sarcastically. 'I better not fail any of these tests.'

After walking through the black space and through the door, I found myself in some kind of large reception hall with hundreds of others, each looking as confused as I felt inside.

'These must be the remaining participants,' I realized. 'I wonder how many there were before.'

A young woman wearing the demeanor of a reporter, or a game-show host, stood on a platform. "Welcome to the second test! The first one was a test of obedience and impulsivity, and all of you passed. Now, I know you are confused, but this next test will measure your level of self control. Please remain where you are and stay silent while we prepare the next area. All your questions will be answered in time. Begin"

A few people started to raise questions.

"Where are we?"

"Hey! What is going on?!"

Pop. Pop.

Their heads exploded!

People that were nearby were understandably surprised. They shrieked in response, and their heads exploded too!

When the blood splatter splashed against more people, a few instinctively shied away, causing their heads to explode!

Remembering the reporter-lady's instructions, I watched in perfect stillness, taking in the bizarre situation. A head exploded next to me and I had to blink to keep the brain matter from getting in my eyes.

In less than a minute, ninety percent of the room was dead.

A drop of someone else's blood dripped down my face. It felt gross.

I looked around at the other participants who were left. I wondered what kind of people could make it through such a traumatic experience. Surprisingly, most of them seemed to be about my age, late teens and early twenties.

Concluding my examination, I found there were two types of people who could make it through something like this. Half of them had their eyes closed and tears dripping down their faces, they were the ones frozen from absolute terror, and the other half were smiling creepily.

"Thank you for waiting." The reporter lady continued casually. "Congratulations on passing the second test, please follow the signs to the next testing area."

[Participants remaining: 1,573]

Neon lights lit up across the ceiling of the room, pointing in the direction we were supposed to head. Just like the first test I moved instantly, but then again, so did everyone else.

After walking down a long and wide corridor, an official looking person split up the foot traffic, dividing us so that only twenty went into some designated rooms. A man picked me out of the crowd and sent me into a room.

The room was almost as large as a high school gymnasium. It had a large chain resting on the floor in a circle. A wooden chair and an old television were placed at its center. Around the outside of the setup were people with lab coats, some holding clipboards.

"The third and fourth tests will be held here.

"The third test involves the television in the middle of the room. Simply walk up to it and watch the screen for as long as you possibly can. We will be timing you. If you come out early, you can always go back in and re-try," someone in a lab coat said.

"The fourth test involves my assistants here. They will question you about your personality and what motivates you, after you are done."

I raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

She caught my gaze and smiled. "The thing you see at the center of the chains is not your ordinary TV. It's actually a unique plant known as Hell's Mimic. It's very territorial, dissuading herbivorous demons from eating it by using any means necessary to keep them away. If you enter its range it will do whatever it can to make you leave as soon as possible.

"So who wants to try first?"

A boy stepped forward with a confident look.

He was one of those who were smiling after the bloodbath. But when he stepped inside the chains and got to the television, he didn't even sit down in the chair. His expression changed to pure horror and he immediately turned and ran out of the circle, back to the group. He finally looked like he was having a normal human reaction.

I raised my eyebrow again. The TV had been black the entire time.

"Would you like to try again for a better time?" The woman asked.

The boy shook his head with a pale expression.

"I see. That's too bad. The video it plays is different for every person, changing to show their deepest fears or reveal their deepest, most embarrassing secrets. Like I said, it will try to get you to leave as soon as possible. Anyway, Neil. Time: six seconds. You may move on to the next test," she said to the boy who had just come out.

He nodded and moved to the fourth test.

A few people gulped audibly. No one volunteered. The reporter lady sighed and referred to a list, choosing the next tester, a girl.

When the girl got to the center. She managed to sit in the chair and watch the TV for a couple seconds before running away in terror. She also didn't want to 'try again' and moved on to the fourth test.

This went on for the next few minutes, with the participants lasting for different periods of time, some even up to ten whole minutes before they ran out. Yet they all ended the same way. They all watched the screen in horror for the entire time they had to watch, and the all decided to take the fourth test rather than try again. Eventually, the female examiner stopped asking, but she never stopped stressing how important getting a "good time" was.

The ninth participant went up, a determined young lady who apparently decided to stay inside the circle no matter what. She closed her eyes. Yet her expression continued to worsen and worsen. Then she screamed, her body went into a thrashing movement, and she collapsed to the floor, still writhing.

"Miss," I asked the reporter lady, "When is it my turn?"

It was the first time any of the participants had spoken. I flinched, hoping my head wouldn't explode, but nothing happened.

Seeming to already know my name, she looked down a list and said, "Lucas, you are up after twenty more people."

"Is it okay if I skip this wait and go inside earlier? I'm too curious," I admitted honestly.

"Ho-ho. Sure you can."

I stepped over the lines of the chain and the screams of the writhing girl entered my ears. Mysteriously, there was some kind of sound-proof barrier associated with the chains. I was curious, but I had a mission.

I ignored the chains and the screaming girl, and sat in the chair.

I watched the black screen intently.

After a while nothing happened, so I started blinking normally again.

'Looks like I got a better score than that first boy,' I thought while counting the seconds.

The girl was still writhing on the ground. Her voice box had worn out. The only thing to escape her lips was a steady stream of harsh air.

The screen was still black, so I stood up and dragged the girl out of the circle. When we crossed the threshold, she fell unconscious.

"Meriwether. Time: thirteen minutes, thirty two seconds. Notes: incapacitated."

"Lucas. Time: one minute, fifty-"

"Wait, I'm not done!" I said quickly. "I'm going back in to get a better time."

I turned around and walked back to the chair to stare at the black TV.

'That was close.'

The other participants stared at my back in shock. It was the first time someone had no reaction to Hell's Mimic. Even the proctor had a surprised expression.

I sat down in the chair again.

The screen continued to be black. Nothing played even after ten minutes.

'When is it going to show me my worst fear?' I wondered.

I shifted in my seat.

I shifted again.

Finally the stupid wooden chair started to hurt my butt, so I left the circle for a second time.

The other participants gawked at me as I calmly walked out of the circle.

"Would you like to try again?" The woman asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, but do you have any more comfortable chairs on hand?" I said.

The woman scratched her cheek thoughtfully, then nodded.

An assistant ran off and found a slightly more comfortable chair. This one had a cushion.

I placed it next to the wooden one and sat.

The screen continued to be black.

I thought it might be an error in the test, but my last two times had counted just fine for the examiners, so all I had to do was endure the wait and the boredom.

I needed to get a good score.

The minutes ticked until finally, someone seemed to come and get me. Only, it was just another participant.

"They said multiple people can watch at the same time," he explained, then sat down in the regular chair next to me. The boy was skinny, and his eyes radiated the feeling of innocence. He must have been only thirteen or fourteen. "My name is Samir," he said.

He turned his attention to the black screen.

"So, is it working?" I asked him.

The boy didn't respond. His eyes trembled and his mouth was agape.

"Nevermind."

After a couple of seconds, the boy jumped up and ran as fast as he could out of the circle.

When he got out, he was on his knees gasping for breath.

When he was past the strange sound-proofing barrier, I saw him mouth the words, "How?"

Several hours passed by.

People kept coming in and leaving in a similar manner to Samir.

Finally, I came out with a bored expression. I figured I had outlasted even the best by a hundred fold, easily scoring the highest on this test. So I was done.

The reporter lady smiled. "Hell's Mimic will do anything to get you out of its territory as soon as possible. Usually that is through fear, but in some cases… Time! Four hours, thirty-four minutes, two seconds."

I nodded with a satisfied expression.

The assistant running the fourth test approached me eagerly.

"The fourth test isn't exactly a test," he said. "I will just be asking you some questions. First, what is one thing you regret doing, or failing to do in your life?"

"I don't know. I don't have any regrets," I responded.

"Is there someone who would be devastated if you suddenly disappeared?"

"No. I don't have anyone like that."

"Not even your parents or family?"

"Family? No."

"Why do you want to win the Great Games? Money? Fame? To Survive?"

"Hmm. I just want to survive." I thought carefully, hoping my answers weren't too ambiguous. "But money and fame sound pretty good. When will we be told what the Great Games are?"

"After the fifth and final test," the man responded. "Please head back to the reception hall to get ready for that. They should have cleaned everything up by now."

I recalled how many people had died in that room. Surely they hadn't cleaned everything in such a short time?

But I walked back to that room and indeed, all the headless corpses had been removed. Even the blood stains were gone somehow.

'Is this the same room?'

[Participants remaining: 531]

The reporter lady from before stood up on stage and welcomed everyone back. "Please be quiet! The final test is a survival test," she said with a beaming smile. "You will be transported to a playing field and have to kill one person to move on. Afterwards you will be asked about why you did what you did. Please note that this is still just a test and not part of the Great Games."

"Did you hear that," someone said. "She said it would be the final test!"

His head burst like a ripe tomato.

"Thank you," the reporter said honestly. "We had an odd number of participants. Somebody would've had to starve to death to get out. Hahaha. Alright, you may all proceed."

There was a sudden change in scenery, as if I had been teleported from the room.

I suddenly found myself in a large, abandoned city building. The cityscape outside was like that after an apocalypse. The skyscrapers were decrepit, and the stone forest below was already being reclaimed by nature, sprouts of trees and vines were everywhere.

Given the existence of Hell's Mimic, the head exploding, and the globe that was way too realistic, perhaps I really had been teleported. Now, the only question was... magic or science?

I calmly scouted around until I found a bigger boy with a choke hold on a skinnier looking kid. I quickly recognized the skinnier kid. It was Samir!

The older boy holding him smiled sadistically. Samir was thrashing around as if his life depended on it.

I rushed at them and punched the bigger one off. He stumbled and turned to look at me.

Everything about his smile and eyes reeked of "criminal."

Fortunately there was a lot of rubble laying around. I grabbed a rock and banged it into his head before he could retaliate. The boy went down and didn't get back up, but he continued to breathe.

Samir gasped like a fish out of water.

"Thank you," he coughed.

Meanwhile, I made a quick decision and broke all four of the bigger boy's limbs one by one. Each time, he woke up with a scream before fainting again. Samir winced with each limp I snapped.

"Why did you do that to him? Why not kill him and pass the test?"

"I want as many reasonable people to pass this test as possible," I responded. "I don't want to compete against hardened killers in these so-called Great Games. So I'll leave him here for the next person."

"I see," Samir responded. "I can't believe we have to kill someone in order to pass this test. I'm only fourteen years old."

"These tests are a little harsh," I agreed. "So it seems that they want only the harshest people to participate. If you can't survive here and do what needs to be done, you won't survive in the games."

"Then I guess I need to do this," he said while looking at the unconscious man.

I stopped him and shook my head. "You're too weak. And he's too strong."

Samir looked confused.

"So you will help me find someone else?"

"I can tell," I said. "You aren't cut out for this. You're too young, and your body isn't developed yet. You weren't meant to pass this test."

Realization dawned in Samir's eyes, but it was too late. My fingers wrapped around his throat and squeezed the life out of him.

Suddenly I found myself in a hotel room.

I found a fresh set of clothes laid on the bed. I took a shower and put them on afterward.

When I was done, I walked down to the lobby and asked the receptionist where I was supposed to go next. She pointed to the cafeteria. The building really was like a normal hotel.

I found the assistant from the fourth test eating a bagel. I got some food of my own and sat across from him.

"Needless to say, I saw everything. Now I'm here to ask you some questions," He said while grabbing his clipboard. "Why did you cripple that other boy and leave him for someone else?"

"He looked like he was insane." I responded. "I didn't want to play a game with someone like that, not on the same team, not on opposing teams. So I left him to be killed by someone more worthy. Even if the person who found him also turned out to be a bad apple, at least I eliminated one of them early."

"And the young boy? Why did you kill him? Why didn't you let him live? He was so young and could have made a good ally."

"Samir would've died sooner or later. His eyes were too sincere, too naive, too weak. I also recognized him. He stood by my side through one of the tests. His score was below average. So I killed him." I shrugged. "Think of it as mercy."

"Alright. Moral alignment: true neutral." He said while scribbling something on a clipboard. "Your desirability rating is seven out of ten. Please feel free to enjoy yourself while we get your accounts situated."

He got up to leave.

"Wait!" I said. "Aren't you going to explain to me what these Great Games are? What does my moral alignment have to do with anything? More importantly, where am I?"

"Ah yes. You were just so calm, I forgot you are new here." He sat back down. "The thing is… you are already dead. This place is Purgatory. "