A Man Who Lost Function is a Zombie

The admins are the ones who put me here. Are they telling me to take revenge on them? That's my plan after all. After I've read the mechanics and based on my experience, they aren't planning on killing me. Even if I'm on the verge of death, they're still testing me.

They've picked their opponent wrong. I can identify the codes easily for thirty minutes and I can spend my other time investigating the system.

Is there really a satisfaction system that makes our moves enjoyable to the viewers? Or is there a viewer in the first place? If we're being kidnapped and sold to someone else… no… we're already treated as slaves here. I'm the only one who treats this as a kid's playground.

The air conditioner is the first suspicious appliance. It's an inverter-grade air conditioner that is attached above the entrance door of the apartment, but is it? I wonder if that air conditioner is connected through a man-size vent.

Though I can't break the appliances using physical means, I need to gamble on that simple path of escape. Another factor that will greatly affect my chances is Lady Kaguya's expression on what I'm doing in my room.

I intentionally tried to break the appliances for that simple step toward my real plan. If Lady Kaguya didn't ask me about it, then that means there's a blind spot in the room, or maybe there's no camera on it.

My escape plan might take too long, but I will secure its guarantee. The longer I stay here in this tower of games, the longer I will discover new gaps for escape.

But the question remains. How will this end? I can't imagine what the final game will be. Will there be a bloodbath of bodies? If the first game is already this worse, then we might be on our way to hell.

For now, I should check the codes I need to list. I only have three minutes. The keypad doesn't show any numerical limit, so it's possible that the code will be long. This isn't my specialty, but I've known some ciphers on the underground.

I spent my other thirty minutes meditating and thinking about the possible codes. I didn't expect ciphers to come in handy in this situation, but on those basic ones, is there a correct one?

Ceasar, Rotation, Atbash, Affine, Rail-fence, Substitution, I listed all those that I consider the basic ones and wrote the codes with my mind. I didn't consider entering the Vignere cipher because that's one that I consider intermediate.

My mind can hold multiple codes at a time, but at the same time, I can't process my brain to work. It's like I've been brute-forcing a password. My whole processing power isn't active while in that.

That is why I needed to list all the possible codes or else I'll end up being mind-block for an hour if I do so. Hopefully, if I got out, there's no one waiting for me to kill me… If I got out…

There are a total of 25 codes that I've listed, the same as the number of the plans I can store in my mind. My 26th plan is completely my secret, but it is a universal turnover for any situation.

This is how I store my plans. If one fails, it will continue to the next plan, until the whole 26 is consumed. But in my case, I have never reached up to my 4th plan. I just felt that my pride will be ruined if I went above the 3rd plan.

After thirty minutes of thinking, I filled the 26 spots worth of codes in my mind. 'Saori Kitagaya, as a zombie, you will be escaping your coffin and taking revenge for those who put you there.' That's the message I need to decode.

I opened the lighter and lit the rope beside the keypad so it enables. I didn't expect that the keypad will be thermal powered. I end up sleeping my consciousness until I entered the 26 codes as fast as I can.

"Holy shit!" I shouted in shock after a minute and a half as I discovered that there are no codes that were compatible with my list. I just noticed that my voice became slurred after this long time of holding my breath, but that long timer changed into seconds.

I have no oxygen limit now. My heart starts racing again as I gained consciousness after putting the codes. It was hell. I need to formulate another set of codes in 30 seconds, but I won't make it. I need to be specific in the code that I'll use.

As I wander my flashlight around myself, I've seen the set of random numbers again around me. It's the second time that I've seen it, but my memory starts flashing to me now.

It feels like I've encountered that code long enough, and I think it's from my childhood. I somehow used the alphabet in memorizing 600 digits of pi.

I only thought that it was only used for memorization, not expecting that It'll be used as a passcode. It's from Benjamin's book that tackles beginner memorization techniques, and it's called the Phonetic Code of number memorization.

This is just a simple matter that cleared my rushing breath. With my remaining 30 seconds shown in the keypad timer, I rushed to convert the message into its proper number code. The numbers are already written with their equivalent letters, so I ain't afraid of my lost memory. Just remembering it made me feel like I lived in ages.

'04717003959079478221172482784109114'

Like any other codes I've entered, the keypad responded with a red message telling me that the code isn't correct. Oh yes, for sure that there is some shift that I skipped, but it's already reassuring that I entered the right code conversion so that the next codes will only be shifts.

'(Shift-1)*5' though it wouldn't be possible to multiply that number in a computer, I can only rely on the distributive property.

'(Shift-25)' is also '(Shift-5)' in base-10 rotation, so I can subtract each number without worrying about carry-outs.

'59262558404524923776627937239654669'

I relied on this shift because it's the only clue that is left in the coffin, but my eyes widened after seeing the red screen again.

"No way! This should work! Why isn't this working!" I shouted continuously as cold sweat covers my body. It was only twenty seconds left when I started hyperventilating.

Does the negative sign really mean that it is subtraction? Or is it an assignment? But if it is shifted five places above, it will have the same answer.

This is the Phonetic Alphabet. There shouldn't be shifts here, or did I see the equation wrong. Why is there an equation on a shift? This only works with certain codes.

Ten seconds left as I realized the distraction, I quickly shifted the full code by subtracting a number on the whole code. My eyes run quickly on each number from left to right as I automatically convert it.

But when I pressed the submit on the keypad with a second left on the timer, it automatically turned off. A loud shockwave rained clouds of dust inside my box. It shook the whole earth like a high-magnitude quake. From my distance, I can hear the explosion completely without destroying my ears.

And after that, I am left with flooding tears in my eyes.

It looks like my job on this world is done.