Second World

Jack looked around. Nothing could be seen in the darkness. He extended his hand outward and used his magic staff to feel for obstacles, like a blind man feeling his way. In a way, he really was blind here. He moved several steps in random directions but his staff didn't bump into anything. It felt like this space was really large.

He was considering going back the way he had come. He didn't know how he could find any clues in such a dark place. Then he realized he didn't know which way the door was. Once the door had shut, it blended into the darkness. He hadn't memorized its direction so he was completely lost now. He berated himself for not preparing something like a flashlight or at least a makeshift torch before he came.  He was not afraid of the dark, but being lost in the dark without knowing what's inside the room and which way to go could be very unsettling.

He was thinking about casting either Mana Bullet or Energy Bolts, as they both emit a brief light that might allow him a glimpse of the room, when he heard a hum. He tensed up. It was like the sound of a machine starting up. He cast Magic Shield and took out his sword, readying for an attack.

A bright light rose abruptly around him, completely illuminating the room. Jack shut his eyes as they could not cope with such drastic change. He opened them slightly to let them gradually adjust to the bright light. When he could finally see things, he realized he was in a large room with an oval shape.

The curved walls were covered with metallic sheeting that reflected light. The source of the bright light itself was from the floor. The entire floor was a series of glazed panes that radiated light from underneath. The ceiling was over ten meters in height with a dark background and small dots of light crowded around on it. It created the feeling of an outdoor setting under a starry night sky. Yet the most astonishing sight was at the center of the room. About a hundred random shaped blocks were floating over a round pedestal. He could feel a strange aura from those floating blocks.

He looked back and saw the door he had entered from. He inspected the surrounding walls and saw that it was the only door. That meant there was nowhere else to go after this. Whatever the Lizardman was guarding, it was in this place. But he could not see anything in here resembling a clue.

'So,' Jack thought, 'I was mistaken, there is no trace in this place as to what caused the changes to the world.'

  He told himself not to be somber.  If this followed game world rules, there should at least be a treasure here; otherwise there was no need for a guard.

The only things odd in the room were the floating blocks, so he approached the pedestal.

The whole setup was rather large once he was near. The pedestal height was halfway up his chest. Its circumference couldn't be covered even if he used two hands to hug it. Each of the blocks floating above was larger than a basketball, and they were irregular boxy shapes. None of the blocks were identical. There was a panel on one side of the pedestal. There was no button to press so he assumed the panel was a touch screen.

He touched it with his finger. No response. Upon closer inspection, he saw a thin slit beside the panel. The width was the size of a card. He took out his card key again.

'Maybe this card can also be used here?'

  He began to slide the card into the slot. When it was halfway in, a force suddenly sucked the card in. It slipped from his fingers and went all the way inside the panel.

"Crap! I can't take it out anymore," he lamented.

An unintelligible voice suddenly sounded out. It was like the sound of a broken computer. The panel lit up.  Then a holographic image appeared in front of the panel. It was an image of multiple blocks. He looked at the floating blocks above and then looked at the image. They were the same. Fascinated, he raised his finger to touch the hologram. He slid his finger to the right. The block image he was touching moved with his finger. He heard a sound and looked up and saw one of the floating blocks moving to the right as well.

'So the hologram from the panel is a control panel to move the floating blocks. But what's the point?' He wondered.

Jack studied the holographic blocks. This was much easier compared to studying the floating blocks above.  They were too big and so it was difficult to see the whole picture. After observing for a while, he thought he might have grasped the secret. The blocks were some sort of puzzle. They looked disconnected from each other, but some pieces, he noticed, had edges that might fit with each other if brought together.

Another hobby Jack had, other than playing VR games, was playing puzzle games. Whether it was computer game puzzles or traditional block or jigsaw puzzles, he played them frequently during his free time.  This block puzzle was right up his alley.

Excited, he started to work on the blocks. He moved the blocks around and tried different combinations. It was not easy, as the blocks were not able to be moved freely. There were some invisible patterns that he needed to follow in order for them to move, which increased the difficulty. But Jack enjoyed the process.

There were more than a hundred blocks in the holographic constellation in front of him, so solving it would take a long time. He started in and, without his realizing it, time flew by. It took him around two hours to connect half of the blocks. There was now a colossal half cube floating above the pedestal, the remaining blocks scattered around it.

It took him another two hours to complete another quarter.

'Strange, I assumed it would get easier as the free blocks became fewer.'

Instead, he used more time to place fewer blocks as the puzzle became more complete. He realized it was due to the invisible links that dictated how the blocks could be moved. At the start, there was more freedom to move the blocks around. As more blocks were moved into place, the links decreased. He could only move blocks in a limited way now, which increased the difficulty.

After becoming aware of this rule, he decided not to rashly connect the blocks anymore. If the final block was left with a link that cannot fit with the rest of the cube, he might end up failing the puzzle. He was not sure if he could restart the puzzle if he failed.

There were around twenty blocks left now. He studied them all and visualized their possible movement patterns, like a chess player figuring out several moves ahead.

It was a good thing he had brought a pen and paper in his inventory. They didn't provide any game effect, but he was used to carrying them around. He used them to write notes and draw maps showing important landmarks when he traveled.

He jotted down the possible movements of the blocks onto the paper, and imagined several simulations. He tried a bunch of configurations on paper to make sure he could complete the entire cube. He met with several dead ends when he got down to the last few pieces and had to redo his simulation again on a new paper.

Jack was glad that he realized this early, or else he would have failed the puzzle. However, as each configuration failed, he worried that maybe he had already made a mistake in the blocks he had joined, so it might no longer be possible to complete the remaining blocks. He drove away these pessimistic thoughts and continued to work on the puzzle. On his forty-sixth try, he finally reached the last piece and got the completed configuration.

"Yes!" He screamed out. Jack always got a deep sense of achievement when he completed a puzzle, that's why he enjoyed them so much.

He went back to the holographic display and followed the sequence recorded on his last paper. He carefully moved the blocks. If he made the wrong move, he knew it would waste all his simulation efforts. When he inserted the last piece into the cube, the hologram vanished!

Jack looked up as the now complete floating cube started to hum and glow. It began to revolve, slowly at first but faster and faster until Jack could no longer see the cube shape: it looked more like a round object now. Electrical discharges began to shoot out from the cube. Jack moved away, afraid that the electrical discharges might cause him damage.

Suddenly there was a bright flash followed by a loud explosion.